CD review: Carrie Underwood, “Play On”
A version of this review appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Carrie Underwood “Play On” (19 Recordings Limited/Arista Nashville)
Contemporary country star Carrie Underwood stretches her strong soprano, her songwriting skills and musical boundaries on her third album, “Play On.”
The Checotah native co-wrote seven of the 13 songs, ranging from “What Can I Say,” a twangy heartbreaker with country brother act Sons of Sylvia, to the anthemic title track, which could well be next season’s “American Idol” farewell theme. The album’s sonic diversity reveals the 2005 “American Idol” winner’s willingness to grow and experiment.
The record opens with her latest hit, “Cowboy Casanova,” a feisty country-rocker about a “snake with blue eyes” lothario. She co-wrote the cautionary tale with successful country songsmith and fellow Okie Brett James (who also co-wrote her Grammy-winning hit “Jesus, Take the Wheel”) and hip-hop writer/producer Mike Elizondo, who has worked with Dr. Dre, Eminem and 50 Cent.
She keeps rocking with “Undo It,” a catchy kiss-off with a stuttering chorus and strutting groove that she penned with “Idol” judge Kara DioGuardi and hard-rock producer Marti Frederiksen. Her woman-wronged sass takes a more distinctly country turn on “Songs Like This.”
Underwood, 26, gets sentimental with songs like the spiritual weeper “Temporary Home,” which she co-wrote with Zac Maloy, former frontman for Oklahoma City band The Nixons, and the earnest ballad “Mama’s Song,” her other DioGuardi/ Frederiksen collaboration. And if “Change” comes across as a too syrupy bit of idealism, her youth and philanthropy (including a recent donation of musical instruments to Checotah schools) can probably earn her a pass.
The crossover hitmaker often takes her lumps from the Nashville establishment for her pop-flavored music, but she spotlights her country side on the beautifully sad “Someday When I Stop Loving You” and the slow-dancer “Look at Me,” featuring Oklahoma star Vince Gill on vocals.
- BAM
DVD review: “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure” Blu-Ray+DVD pack
Disney returns to Pixie Hollow for the charming “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure,” the second direct-to-DVD computer-animated movie in its popular fairies franchise.
As the fairies are busily working to bring in fall, Tinker Bell (voice of Mae Whitman) gets an important assignment from Queen Clarion (Anjelica Huston): to craft the Autumn Scepter for the Autumn Revelry. This year, the fall celebration will feature a rare Blue Moon, so Tink will top the staff with an invaluable moonstone. When the light of the Blue Moon shines through the ancient gem, it will create special blue pixie dust to enliven the Pixie Dust Tree.
Tink taps her best friend Terence (Jesse McCartney), a dust-keeper fairy who knows all about pixie dust, to help her. But as Terence hovers over her shoulder and the Autumn Revelry nears, Tink starts feeling the pressure.
When an accident breaks the scepter, she blows up at her pal and tosses him out. She then throws a tantrum, accidentally shattering the moonstone.
Desperate to save the Autumn Revelry, Tink makes the dangerous journey north of Neverland in search of the wrecked pirate ship that holds the mystical wish-granting Mirror of Incanta.
While last year’s “Tinker Bell” focused on setting the scene and introducing characters, “The Lost Treasure” wings straight into the new adventure. The movie doesn’t spend much screen time with favorite fairies Rosetta (Oklahoma native Kristin Chenoweth), Silvermist (Lucy Liu), Iridessa (Raven-Symoné) and Fawn (Angela Bartys), but it features truly enchanting visuals, from the richly colored fall landscapes to Tink’s fantastic flying machine.
Perhaps the best endorsement of the film: Even my almost-3-year-old son watched it spellbound.
DVD features: The movie comes in one of Disney’s clever Blu-Ray/DVD packs and features a bonus short, Demi Lovato music video, deleted scenes and funny outtakes.
— BAM
Concert review: AC/DC shakes Oklahoma City’s Ford Center all Wednesday night long
AC/DC singer Brian Johnson performs at a recent stop of the “Black Ice Tour.” (Associated Press photos)
AC/DC guitarist Angus Young wails away during a recent show.
AC/DC’s “Black Ice Tour” skidded into the Ford Center Wednesday night with the unrelenting force and can’t-take-your-eyes-off-it spectacle of a massive train wreck.
And that’s exactly how the Australian rock gods started the show. The giant screens came to life with a bawdy animated video of a devilish Angus Young, distracted by naughty groupies, driving a runaway engine. The large-scale cartoon culminated in pyrotechnics flaring, a huge locomotive bursting through the back of the stage and the energetic rockers thundering out their latest hit “Rock N Roll Train.”
Though the venerable band surely needed no such gaudy introduction, singer Brian Johnson, guitarist Angus Young, his rhythm guitarist brother Malcolm Young, bassist Cliff Williams and drummer Phil Rudd proved from the outset their unadulterated commitment to rocking the Ford Center.
AC/DC specializes in mammoth, primal hard rock, with plenty of suggestive lyrics, intimations of violence and a wicked sense of fun. Often criticized for steadfastly adhering to its formula of huge riffs and pounding rhythms, the band’s stick-with-what-works approach was nearly impossible to argue with during Wednesday’s wildly entertaining show. Even seeing Johnson wearing his usual slouchy hat and sleeveless shirt and Angus Young in his trademark schoolboy outfit was a thrill.
The estimated 12,000 fans — there were a surprising number of empty seats for a tour that has notched numerous sell-outs — were clearly onboard. The crowd, which ranged from hollering graybeards to air-guitar-playing children, leapt to its feet as the houselights went down and stayed standing throughout the band’s two-hour set.
Like Johnson and Angus, the throng was in perpetual motion, constantly waving arms, pumping fists and banging heads. The gravel-voiced Johnson grinned maniacally as the fans took over chorus after chorus, na-nah-ing through “Thunderstruck” and shouting along to “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.”
The band drew heavily on its arsenal of colossal hits, invoking screams of delight as it hammered through favorites like “Back in Black,” “TNT” and “You Shook Me All Night Long.”
The rockers maintained their titanic intensity on new songs like “Big Jack,” “War Machine” and “Black Ice,” the title track from their successful 2008 album. Unfortunately, many fans used those less-familiar songs for bathroom breaks or beer runs, but there are no ballads at an AC/DC show, after all.
The band also tapped its 36-year-old catalog for a few deeper cuts such as “Shot Down in Flames” and “Dog Eat Dog.” The bluesy groove of “The Jack” set the mood for Angus to perform his signature strip tease, dispensing with his jacket, tie and shirt and finally flashing AC/DC boxers at the elated audience.
“The boy’s got a devil in his fingers and the blues in his soul,” Johnson quipped as Angus scorched through the song’s fiery solo.
And both have the heart of showmen and the stamina of men half their age. While the rest of the band rocked steadily in the background, Johnson and Angus made frequent trips down the catwalk jutting out from the enormous black stage. The singer strutted and incited the crowd, while the guitar slinger charmed the fans with his duck walk.
Of course, a flair for theatrics never hurt a rock band, either, and the concert was packed with extravagant and engaging set pieces (which undoubtedly played into the $100 ticket price). Johnson took a running leap and swung from the big bell suspended above the stage to open “Hells Bells.” A towering, buxom blowup doll straddled the locomotive and swayed to the beat of “Whole Lotta Rosie.”
AC/DC ended its set with “Let There Be Rock” featuring an outrageous extended solo from Angus, who wailed away like a man possessed as the platform at the end of the catwalk lifted him high above the horde. As he fell to the ground, still playing as he spun in circles, confetti exploded into the air.
As the rockers returned for their encore, the guitarist suddenly emerged from beneath the stage in plumes of red-tinged smoke for “Highway to Hell.” And when they finally closed the concert with “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You),” blasts from six canons punctuated the anthem.
The sheer spectacle and raw might of AC/DC’s show contrasted with the low-tech opening set by Northern Irish rockers The Answer. Unknown to most of the crowd, the band earned a warm but not sizzling welcome with its solid string of blues-rock songs.
— BAM
CD review: Joe Nichols, “Old Things New”
A version of this review appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Joe Nichols “Old Things New” (Universal Records South)
Country singer Joe Nichols uses his wonderfully rich baritone to craft “Old Things New,” another solid neotraditionalist effort from the Arkansas native.
The Grammy-nominated crooner specializes in country music that is traditional in both sound and sentiment. Mandolins, fiddles and steel guitars drench sorrowful ballads, funny drinking songs and tributes to Merle Haggard and strawberry pie.
But Nichols succeeds in what the album title suggests: For all their customary trappings, the songs feel relevant and contemporary. He tells the tale of a busy working couple reconnecting in “This Bed’s Too Big,” then drawls a humorous suggestion for coping with modern-day hardship in “Cheaper Than a Shrink.”
Nichols notched a big hit in 2003 with the tearjerking “The Impossible,” and he offers another sweeping anthem with “Believers,” a different take on dealing with tough times.
But the album’s highlight is “An Old Friend of Mine,” a poignant tale of newfound sobriety that Nichols, who went through rehab two years ago, delivers with heartfelt emotion.
He closes the record with a distinctly nontraditional spin on an old song: A rap-country remix of his hilarious hit “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” by Fat Shan and Colt Ford.
Nichols will perform in concert Wednesday at the Wormy Dog Saloon, 311 E Sheridan. For more information, go to www.wormydog.com.
— BAM
Movie review: “Amelia”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. 2 1/2 of 4 stars.
”Amelia” biopic never really takes flight
While “Amelia” doesn’t crash and burn, the new biopic of Amelia Earhart fails to soar as high as it should, given its fascinating subject.
Director Mira Nair’s (“The Namesake”) film plots the kind of course the pioneering aviatrix shunned: the safe one. Though Earhart is an intriguing historical figure who was ahead of her time, “Amelia” is an exceedingly old-fashioned and conventional biopic.
Though Ronald Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan’s script unfortunately stays earthbound, two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank (“Million Dollar Baby”) elevates the film with her solid portrayal of the spunky, strong-headed Earhart.
Adapted from the biographies “East to the Dawn” by Susan Butler and “The Sound of Wings” by Mary Lovell, “Amelia” focuses on the last decade of Earhart’s life, from her rapid rise to global fame in 1928 to her stunning disappearance during an around-the-world flight attempt in 1937.
Using dissolves into fluffy clouds and gently wafting curtains, the movie cuts between milestones along her ill-fated final flight and flashbacks to other major moments in her life: her first meeting with early public relations expert and future husband George Putnam (Richard Gere), her sudden celebrity as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as a passenger and the lectures and endorsements that fueled her fame and her future flights.
She makes history by flying across the Atlantic solo, has an affair with charming aviator Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor) and develops a motherly relationship with his son, future author Gore (William Cuddy). She also butts heads with Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston), the brilliant but alcoholic navigator for her last voyage.
Thankfully, the film doesn’t weigh down with some of the cockamamie conspiracy theories about Earhart’s disappearance. Nair skillfully injects real suspense into the final tragic moments of the flier’s life.
“Amelia” ascends to its loftiest heights when Earhart is flying or landing. The richly hued scenes of her gliding over African savannahs in her Lockheed Electra or touching down in her red Vega next to a baffled shepherd in Ireland, instead of Paris, give the film needed lift and humor.
But the film eschews every risk and never veers from its by-the-book storytelling structure, so “Amelia” doesn’t get too far off the ground.
— BAM
DVD review: “Where the Wild Things Are … and 5 More Stories by Maurice Sendak”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“Where the Wild Things Are … and 5 More Stories by Maurice Sendak”
In conjunction with last week’s long-awaited release of Spike Jonze’s big-screen adaptation of “Where the Wild Things Are,” Scholastic Storybook Treasures has repackaged and re-released the company’s faithful animated versions of six Maurice Sendak stories.
The short films follow the acclaimed author-illustrator’s picture books practically line by line. Parents and children can watch the tales unfold in read-along mode or view them without the words.
Though the story is brief and familiar, Sendak’s Caldecott Medal-winning “Where the Wild Things Are” loses none of its thrall in cartoon form. Composer Peter Schickele (AKA P.D.Q. Bach) not only provides the fittingly creepy and lovely score, he also narrates the yarn.
Schickele also gives music and voice to Sendak’s 1970 book “In the Night Kitchen,” an even weirder tale about a dreaming lad who is nearly cooked into a cake by three bakers who look like Oliver Hardy. Again, the cartoon precisely follows the book, which remains controversial because of the boy’s nudity.
The other four stories make up Sendak’s “Nutshell Library” and teach overt lessons. Legendary singer/songwriter/pianist Carole King performs the tales: the morality fable “Pierre,” the alphabet book “Alligators All Around,” counting exercise “One Was Johnny” and “Chicken Soup with Rice,” a charming accounting of the months and seasons.
For children too young for Jonze’s dark film, the Scholastic DVD offers a satisfactory way for them to watch Sendak’s visions come to life.
DVD features: Spanish and French versions of “Where the Wild Things Are,” brief Sendak interview and stickers.
— BAM
CD review: Brandon Jenkins, “Brothers of the Dirt”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Brandon Jenkins “Brothers of the Dirt” (Red Dirt Music Company)
Austin, Texas-based singer/songwriter/guitarist Brandon Jenkins orchestrates a tuneful communion of top red dirt/Texas music talents with his new album “Brothers of the Dirt.”
Cody Canada, Randy Rogers and Stoney LaRue are among the musical brethren who partner with Jenkins on the record. Not only did he write or co-write all 12 tracks, from vivid character-driven stories to politically charged anthems, Jenkins shows a knack for matching the right collaborator with the right song.
But he opens with a solo effort, the scathing “Blood for Oil,” which excoriates politicians on both side of the aisle for exploiting the poor for the benefit of the rich.
Born and raised in Tulsa, Jenkins injects his brand of red dirt with a hefty dose of the blues. Jenkins and Canada, frontman for Cross Canadian Ragweed, croon a beautifully bluesy 9/11 tribute with “Out of Babylon,” one of the record’s best tracks.
Rogers and LaRue both contribute to the solemn “Innocent Man,” based on John Grisham’s true-crime novel about the late Ron Williamson of Ada, who was wrongfully convicted of murder.
LaRue also helps tell the tale of a homeless woman in “Streets of North Hollywood,” the sad story punctuated with Jared Tyler’s scorching lap steel guitar. Since no red dirt album would be complete without a road song, Jenkins and LaRue groove on the “White Van Blues.”
Jenkins channels old-school country with the mournful ballad “Hearts Don’t Break Even,” and then tries out an old-world sound on the gentle love song “We Could Go to Paris.”
— BAM
Concert review: “Star Wars: In Concert” brings The Force to the Ford Center
From the familiar opening fanfare to the thunderous “Imperial March,” “Star Wars: In Concert” packed in enough memorable, goosebump-inducing moments to fill a Super Star Destroyer.
An odd but entertaining mix of orchestral performance, laser light show and motion picture montage, the concert Wednesday night thrilled fans of George Lucas’ iconic films and proved just how hollow and unremarkable those movies would be without John Williams’ indelible scores.
The show brought an estimated 8,000 followers of the space saga to the Ford Center, leaving a surprising number of empty seats in the arena. The multigenerational crowd ranged from middle-aged concert-goers dressed for a night at the symphony to children and young adults disguised as Darth Vader, Princess Leia or Stormtroopers.
Fans who got there early were able to tour a special exhibit featuring pages of Williams’ hand-written sheet music, conceptual renderings and full costumes for Chewbacca, C-3PO, Darth Vader and more.
The multimedia event was clearly aimed at true-blue fans of the sci-fi saga, offering a new way to enjoy the resonant tale of good and evil, Jedi and droids, light sabers and Death Stars.
The show opened in grand fashion, with a white sheet still concealing the massive stage as the lights dimmed suddenly and the orchestra launched into the “Twentieth Century Fox Fanfare.” The shadowy players were revealed when the curtain dramatically dropped away and the symphony stormed into the magnificent “Star Wars Theme.”
Scenes and characters from all six films — “Episode I — The Phantom Menace” (1999), “Episode II — Attack of the Clones” (2002), “Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” (2005), “Episode IV — A New Hope” (1977), “Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) and “Episode VI — Return of the Jedi” (1983) — intermingled on the three-story-tall LED screen.
Darth Vader’s well-known rasp of breath preceded James Earl Jones’ pre-recorded introduction of the show’s narrator, Anthony Daniels, who played prim protocol droid C-3PO in all six movies.
Decked out in a dashing black suit rather than his robotic alter ego’s golden armor, the British actor proved a warm and welcoming host and engaging storyteller.
The spectacle, which ran two hours with a 20-minute intermission, paid tribute to the beloved characters and told the heroic tale in roughly chronological order. The performance was divided into segments with titles like “Dark Forces Conspire,” “A Hero Rises” and “A Bond Unbroken,” and Daniels suavely set the stage for each one.
But he also showed off a sharp sense of humor: Before the orchestra played the drolly atmospheric “The Desert/The Robot Auction,” he effusively praised C-3PO’s sensitivity, intelligence and engineering until conductor Mark Watters silenced him with a pointed look and an eye roll. And the actor introduced “The Asteroid Field” by flashing his golden vest, slipping into 3PO’s high-pitched voice and declaring “The possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1.”
“Of course, some people never want you to tell them odds,” he quipped, quoting from “Empire Strikes Back.”
While light saber clashes, space battles and galactic romances from the films played out in high-definition, the orchestra stayed in sync with the onscreen action and did justice to the bold percussion, striking horns and scintillating strings of Williams’ scores.
Watters, along with many in the audience, couldn’t help bopping along as the musicians blasted out the jazzy “Cantina Band,” the signature song of the Mos Eisley Spaceport house band. While movie clips and conceptual art of the cantina’s bizarre alien clientele filled the screen, the playful music transported young and old alike back to the first time they visited the saga’s “wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
The instrumentalists then wrung raw emotion from the solemn ode “The Death of Yoda,” while the choir’s voices soared with eerie splendor on “Duel of the Fates.”
The music was effectively augmented with a variety of visual effects. The second half of the show opened with a dazzling array of green lasers. Plumes of flame burst up from the stage as “Battle of the Heroes” took the fight between former allies Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi to the volcanic planet of Mustafar. Columns of steam accompanied the villain’s mechanical breathing on “The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)”
When the crowd heralded the end of the show with a standing ovation and raucous cheers, the orchestra, in Daniels’ words, returned the audience to the Dark Side, performing the dramatic march one more time.
The concert occasionally used too much film dialogue, and sometimes the words were drowned out by the loud music. Sound effects such as swooping light sabers and tromping Stormtroopers could have added more excitement to the sci-fi adventure.
But “Star Wars: In Concert” emerged as strong in The Force, presenting a story that has already been related in six films, an animated series and countless toys in a wonderfully fresh way.
-BAM
Movie review: “The Boys Are Back”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. 3 of 4 stars
A father and his two sons cope with two devastating family events — death and divorce — in the absorbing and authentic drama “The Boys Are Back.”
Even if it weren’t billed as inspired by a true story, Oscar-nominated director Scott Hicks’ (“Shine,” “Hearts in Atlantis”) film would still ring with emotional truth. Screenwriter Allan Cubitt cannily adapts Simon Carr’s memoir and avoids most of the pitfalls of such tearjerkers.
Clive Owen stars as Joe Warr, a British sportswriter who lives in Australia but travels often for work. When his wife Katy (Laura Fraser) dies of cancer, Joe finds himself the single dad of their rambunctious 6-year-old son Artie (bright newcomer Nicholas McAnulty), who doesn’t quite comprehend his mother’s death.
Joe, who has always taken an affectionate but distant approach to parenting, suddenly has to shoulder all the responsibilities of raising a boy he realizes he doesn’t know as well as a dad should.
As Joe and Artie come to grips with their grief, the family’s dynamics shift again when Harry (George MacKay), Joe’s teenage son from his first marriage, comes for an extended visit. Since Joe has always visited Harry in England, his two sons have never even met.
In his struggles to adapt to single fatherhood, Joe develops a revolutionary parenting approach: “Just say yes.” If the boys want to ride their bikes in the house, get dressed outside or do cannonballs in a hotel bathtub, he’s fine with that. And if Artie wants to sit on the hood of their SUV while Dad drives down the beach, Joe is happy to oblige in one of film’s indelible moments.
While Joe’s loose style brings a sort of Peter Pan joy, it also means pizza boxes and crusty plates pile up since neither he nor his sons feel compelled to take on any household duties.
Joe gets both assistance and criticism from his disapproving mother-in-law Barbara (Julia Blake) and sympathetic Laura (Emma Booth), the single mom of one of Artie’s classmates.
Having risen to fame with macho roles in “The Bourne Identity,” “Sin City” and “Shoot ‘Em Up,” Owen gives one his best performances here, his usual toughness contrasting effectively with his flaws and grief. MacKay and McAnulty put in wonderfully natural performances. And Hicks casts Australia’s grassy hills, sparkling seaside and golden light in a key role, giving the film added beauty and resonance.
“The Boys Are Back” occasionally edges too close to maudlin and sappy territory, but it never crosses those borders.
— BAM
DVD review: “Monsters vs. Aliens”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“Monsters vs. Aliens Ginormous Double DVD Pack”
The spring blockbuster “Monsters vs. Aliens” truly is a rare creature: a family-friendly animated film that should appeal to children as well as cinephiles.
The good-natured escapade packs in plenty of agreeably silly gags for the youngsters while paying clever homage to 1950s monster movies like “The Fly,” “The Blob” and the Godzilla films.
Susan Murphy (voice of Reese Witherspoon) is a perky if unambitious California girl living her dream: to marry local TV weatherman Derek (Paul Rudd), a dim but driven talking head with hopes of network stardom. But the wedding is literally crashed when a strange meteor smashes into Susan and turns her into a towering giant a la “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.”
The military immediately captures her, dubs her Ginormica and imprisons her in a secret facility under the oversight of loud-mouthed Gen. W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland). Susan reluctantly bonds with her fellow prisoners: insectile mad scientist Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie in full British accent), brainless gelatinous blob B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), the half-ape/half-fish Missing Link (Will Arnett) and immense monster amalgamation Insectosaurus, who speaks in shrieks.
When the megalomaniacal alien Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) targets Earth, the government gives the monsters a chance to win their freedom by defeating the encroacher.
While the film offers playful entertainment, the special features focus on the 3-D technology used to make the movie — as it was seen in theaters. For people watching it on DVD, the 3-D option isn’t available, no matter how great it sounds in the featurettes.
The Ginormous DVD Pack includes a second disc with the 3-D short film “B.O.B.’s Big Break,” but the new adventure is in the old headache-inducing red-green 3-D, not the advanced version now used in cinemas. The short actually is more fun to watch with the standard 2-D option, which also includes a comical karaoke music party feature.
Other DVD features: Commentary, deleted scenes and sneak peeks of other DreamWorks projects.
— BAM
