The second season of the CG-animated TV hit kicks off with a one-hour, two-episode story at 8 p.m. Friday. Anakin, Obi-Wan and R2-D2 return, but it’s all about the bounty hunters (including a cowboy hat-wearing blue dude named Cad Bane) this season. Can we request a Boba Fett appearance sometime in the near future, please?
MUSIC
The Feelies reissues
(Bar/None)
These New Jersey rockers are a critical link between the Velvet Underground and R.E.M. Their 1980 debut, Crazy Rhythms, is the undisputed classic, but the follow-up – 1986’s The Good Earth – deserves to be re-evaluated. These expanded reissues tag on demos and live songs, including Beatles and Neil Young covers.
VIDEOGAME
Metroid Prime: Trilogy
(Nintendo)
All three Metroid Prime games are collected in this cool package, which tweaks the games for the Wii. Basic gameplay remains mostly the same (it’s a first-person shooter with lots of shit to destroy, after all). But the games have never been more fun to play, especially since point-and-shoot action is super-smooth now.
VIDEO
Requiem for a Dream
(Lionsgate)
One of the best movies of the decade finally comes to Blu-ray with deleted scenes, a making-of doc and commentary by director Darren Aronofsky (who helmed the equally excellent The Wrestler last year). The HD makes the story – about four people battling different forms of addiction -- all the more harrowing.
VIDEOGAME
Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny
(Namco Bandai)
After last year’s Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 outing featuring Star Wars characters, this great fighter gets back to its roots on this PSP game -- the series’ first appearance on a handheld platform. The action is still pretty intense, especially in the Gauntlet tutorial – one of the best we’ve seen. Plus, look for God of War’s Kratos, a major ass-kicker in any arena. --Michael Gallucci
These New Jersey rockers are a critical link between the Velvet Underground and R.E.M. Their 1980 debut, Crazy Rhythms, is the undisputed classic, loading up on strum-and-jangle indie-rock that pretty much paved the way for every Amerindie band that made their bones during college rock’s ’80s heyday. The follow-up – 1986’s The Good Earth – deserves to be re-evaluated. The album is more song-oriented than its predecessor, layering actual melodies on top of all the moody textures. These expanded reissues tag on demos and live songs, including Beatles and Neil Young covers. --Michael Gallucci
Don’t look for any self-examination on Whitney Houston’s first album in seven years -- a period in which the big-voiced singer went through a long bout of personal chaos, including a divorce from Bobby Brown and some unfortunate “crack is wack” and doodie bubble incidents. I Look to You pretty much picks up where Just Whitney … left off, with 11 love songs showcasing Houston’s prime asset. Her pipes aren’t what they used to be, but time has added a deep, smoky hue to her tone. And the best songs on I Look to You wrap themselves around Houston, coaxing her to come out and play. And play she does: Most of these songs are up-tempo R&B produced by old pros (David Foster) and flashy new kids (Tricky Stewart). Tops is “Million Dollar Bill,” a club jam co-produced by Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys that’s all about starting over with someone new. Appropriately, Houston sounds like she’s ready for a fresh beginning too. --Michael Gallucci
We’re heading into the homestretch of music-release season. The next couple months will unleash a flurry of big-name albums as record companies prepare their holiday gold. The year’s third-quarter releases were typically marked by word-of-mouth freshmen and career artists settling into their territories. Here are five of the best.
Arctic Monkeys
Humbug
WHAT’S THE BUZZ? The third album from these Buzz Hall of Fame Brits leaves the clubs and heads home for some domestic bliss and turmoil. They’re still not all grown up, but they’re getting there.
BELIEVE THE HYPE? Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme dragged the pasty English boys to the dessert to make Humbug, so the album packs a sonic sting that wasn’t there before.
CHANCES IT’LL MAKE IT ON YEAR-END TOP 10 LISTS? 45 percent. These guys still monkey around with old themes: going out, fucking around, getting drunk. They just don’t pass out in the street anymore.
Japandroids
Post-Nothing
WHAT’S THE BUZZ? These Canadian noise-rockers make quite a racket on their debut, coming off like No Age with a sense of melody. Plus, they keep things thankfully brief.
BELIEVE THE HYPE? You’d think the whole guitar-drums duo thing would be played out by now, but these scruffy hipsters manage to wring a lot of sounds from their instruments.
CHANCES IT’LL MAKE IT ON YEAR-END TOP 10 LISTS? 75 percent. Japandroids aren’t overly artsy, which makes them a tad more accessible than their peers. And they don’t sound Canadian – another bonus.
Pearl Jam
Backspacer
WHAT’S THE BUZZ? It’s the band’s best album since 1994’s Vitalogy. Producer Brendan O’Brien returns, slapping a heavy dose of classic-rock polish on top of the band’s fiercest batch of songs in years.
BELIEVE THE HYPE? Without any of the plodding, moody ruminations and self-serious space fillers that have weighed down Pearl Jam records for a decade, Backspacer plows through its 11 songs in 36 raging minutes.
CHANCES IT’LL MAKE IT ON YEAR-END TOP 10 LISTS? 35 percent. Even though they haven’t made an album this consistent since grunge was still in fashion, Pearl Jam are so ’90s.
Wilco
Wilco (The Album)
WHAT’S THE BUZZ? Wilco’s seventh album sounds a lot like their past few. But they’ve lightened up a little, poking fun at themselves in both the album title and opening cut, “Wilco (The Song).”
BELIEVE THE HYPE? There are enough new sounds to keep Wilco (The Album) from being Sky Blue Sky II or A Ghost Is Born III. And, just like fans will tell you, the band really has become a solid music machine.
CHANCES IT’LL MAKE IT ON YEAR-END TOP 10 LISTS? 85 percent. You’ve heard most of this before, but it doesn’t matter -- critics love Wilco, even when they’re going through the motions.
Yim Yames
Tribute To
WHAT’S THE BUZZ? My Morning Jacket’s Jim James recorded this six-song collection of George Harrison tunes days after the Beatle died in 2001. The closing “AllThingsMustPass” is totally moving.
BELIEVE THE HYPE? Most of the songs come from Harrison’s 1970 album All Things Must Pass. But opener “Long, Long, Long” is on the White Album and is one Harrison’s all-time best. James nails it.
CHANCES IT’LL MAKE IT ON YEAR-END TOP 10 LISTS? 20 percent. It’s an EP, which pretty much cuts its chances from any year-end laurels. Plus, James soaks it in the murky reverb MMJ dug back in the day. --Michael Gallucci
The Beaches of Agnès opens with a shot of 80-year-old French filmmaker Agnès Varda on the shore, talking to the camera: “I am playing the role of a little old lady, pleasantly plump and talkative, telling her life story. But it’s others I’m interested in, others I like to film.”
And so begins the wonderful and captivating journey of Varda, a member of the French New Wave who made the 1962 classic Cléo From 5 to 7 and auteur of one of the finest autobiographies ever put on film.
Varda recreates scenes from her entire life using props, actors (including Serge Gainsbourg muse Jane Birkin) and the actual home she grew up in. She traces her family tree with trips across Europe using, depending on the situation, a handheld camera or an entire crew. She revisits the location of her first film, La Pointe-Courte, catching up with the grown-ups who played kids onscreen in 1954. You even see Varda and her team setting up lights and tracks on the beach, preparing for shots.
Despite its personal theme, The Beaches of Agnès is never self-absorbed. Varda is a gracious host, narrating throughout. And she’s still a feisty filmmaker, taking control of this self-analyzing documentary. She’s a sharp and funny storyteller, talking about losing her virginity and hanging out with burly fishermen, and tearing up when reminiscing about her late husband, director Jacques Demy.
Varda skips around eras and memories, occasionally making the timeline hard to follow (did she meet a young Harrison Ford before or after she paled around with Jim Morrison?). But the poetic Beaches of Agnès is like a living scrapbook, as images from Varda’s long, prolific life parade, sometimes haphazardly, across the screen. It’s a wonderful tribute to her artistic vision. One couldn’t ask for a better family album. --Michael Gallucci
A lot has happened in the world in the three years since glammy punks AFI last released an album: ongoing war, economic meltdown, new leaders. But you’d never know it by listening to the Bay Area drama queens’ eighth album, Crash Love, where it’s all AFI, all the time. Frontman Davey Havok takes the breakups he sings about here (the album’s dozen songs are all about relationship hell) and blows them up into life-threatening circumstances. The music buzzes and swirls around Havok, swathing him like a comforting blanket. But there’s no consoling the tumultuous couple at the center of Crash Love. “When I blinked, you turned away to kiss the hand of filth,” Havok sings on the charging “Cold Hands.” On “Okay, I Feel Better Now,” he gravely intones, “Show your wounds/I’m bored with mine.”“Darling, I Want to Destroy You” speaks for itself. Still, there are plenty of musical sparks flashing from all this misery. Good thing -- you need them to see through the darkness. --Michael Gallucci
It’s funny that one of the first lines on Alice in Chains’ first album in 14 years claims, “There’s no going back to the place we started from.” Because for the next 54 minutes, that’s precisely what these ’90s Seattle rockers attempt to do on Black Gives Way to Blue. The point is clear: After singer Layne Staley died of a drug overdose in 2002, the band was inactive until recruiting Staley sound-alike William DuVall to help pick up the pieces. And with guitarist, singer and songwriter Jerry Cantrell stepping up, Black Gives Way to Blue sounds like vintage Alice in Chains, right down to the druggy murk that coats the album. In other words, they’re going back exactly to the place they started from. Which is a cool thing for fans of the band’s thick sludge of grunge-metal guitar riffage and droning lyrics about death, drugs and hell. Everyone else will have to sift through a set of tuneless songs to get to the good stuff: Cantrell’s awesomely warped guitar on “Check My Brain” and the title tune, a tribute to Staley featuring Elton John on piano. --Michael Gallucci
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of everybody’s favorite porous pineapple dweller, this massive box loads 14 DVDs with the series’ first 100 episodes. There are some bonuses (commentary, a documentary, a few featurettes), but the real reason to add this to your collection is SpongeBob – the best cartoon character since the golden age of animation.
VIDEOGAME
Guitar Hero 5
(Activision)
The classics are here: Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, the Stones. But it’s new kids like the Killers, Kings of Leon and Vampire Weekend that make this one of the best outings in the series. Best of all, if you buy the game (for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii) sometime this month, you’ll get a free copy of Guitar Hero Van Halen, a real workout.
DVD
Primeval: Volume Two
(BBC)
This show is kinda like Jurassic Park mixed with Doctor Who. At times, it’s better than both of them, especially when big and bad-ass dinosaurs stomp onscreen. This three-disc set includes all 10 episodes from the series’ third season, plus some behind-the-scenes extras. Catching up can be confusing, but the cool monsters make up for it.
VIDEOGAME
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
(Nintendo)
The sequel to one of the all-time best DS games is even better than the original. This time, the prof and his apprentice investigate a pal’s death, which might be tied to a mysterious box. More than 150 brain-burning puzzles guide the way. Best of all: You can download new puzzles every week. One of the top games of the year.
DVD
TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection
(Warner/Turner Classic Movies)
The latest batch of movies in this cool series spotlights three genre faves. Each two-disc set contains four old-school classics. The “Murder Mysteries” is the best, with The Big Sleep, Dial M for Murder and The Maltese Falcon. But “Horror” (with Freaks and The Haunting) and “Sci-Fi” (Forbidden Planet, 2001: A Space Odyssey) are great too. --Michael Gallucci
Like mentor Kanye West, Kid Cudi specializes in weirdness. You won’t find any rhymes about what a badass Cudi is on his debut album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day. This glasses-wearing rapper from Cleveland is all about kicking back, toking up and flipping through his existential angst. West produces a couple cuts (including the all-star single “Make Her Say”), but contributions by hipster faves Ratatat and MGMT reveal Cudi’s real alliance. Taking Lupe Fiasco’s nerd-rap into darker, more spacey territory (he talks about self-esteem issues), Cudi comes off like a zit-speckled teen simultaneously bemoaning and celebrating his underdog status in his bedroom. The best cuts here – the spare, spooky “Solo Dolo,” “Day N Nite”’s haunted-house stroll -- musically match Cudi’s laments. Split into five acts, Man on the Moon rides a vague central theme about anxiety and isolation for nearly an hour. It’s quite a trip -- into new-wave hip-hop and into Kid Cudi’s tormented mind. --Michael Gallucci
One reason Pearl Jam’s ninth album is their best since 1994’s Vitalogy? It flies by. Without any of the plodding, moody ruminations and self-serious space fillers that have weighed down the band’s records for the past decade, Backspacer -- clocking in at a breezy 36 minutes – hits the ground running and plows through its 11 songs with a raging spirit that hasn’t been heard since the band got all serious a decade or so ago. Plus, producer Brendan O’Brien – who worked on four Pearl Jam albums in the ’90s, including their best, Vs. – is back, slapping a heavy dose of classic-rock polish on top of the band’s fiercest batch of songs in years. On opener “Gonna See My Friend,” Eddie Vedder returns to the vocal-cord shredding that he had pretty much abandoned in favor of a solemn low growl (which makes a couple of appearances on Backspacer), and he keeps tearing deep into the album. There’s also a sense of joy here: rolling drums, chunky guitar riffing and songs with kick-out-the-power-chords titles like “Supersonic” and “Speed of Sound.” And check out the bouncy piano that rolls beneath “The Fixer.” Backspacer has its share of clunkers: “Johnny Guitar” sounds more like Pearl Jam’s recent attempts at rocking rather than the real thing, and “Amongst the Waves” is as wobbly as its title. But they haven’t made an album this consistent since grunge was still in fashion, and this time they sound like they really mean it. --Michael Gallucci
The good news is that Larry is as cranky as ever on the seventh-season premiere (which airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO). The better news is the Seinfeld reunion that’s part of Curb’s storyline this year. But first you’ll have to watch Larry squirm his way through a new relationship now that he’s single.
CD
Chris Bell: I Am the Cosmos—Deluxe Edition
(Rhino Handmade)
Bell was a founding member of Big Star who left the power-poppers in 1972. He died in a car accident six years later. In between, he recorded a bunch of songs that were eventually released in 1992. This expanded reissue adds a disc of alternate versions and a few unreleased songs. A must-hear for Big Star fans.
DVD
Doctor Who: The Next Doctor
(BBC)
This special outing of the cult sci-fi show was originally broadcast overseas on Christmas Day. Appropriately, the hour-long episode takes place during the holiday, when the doc is transported back to 1851 and bumps into a man who may or may not be a future version of himself. Extras include a concert of Doctor Who music from the Royal Albert Hall.
CD
Smokey Robinson: Time Flies When You’re Having Fun
(ROBSO)
Robinson celebrates his 50th anniversary of making music with his most solid album in years. India.Arie, Carlos Santana and Joss Stone all show up to help out, but it’s Robinson’s quiet-storm love songs and still-sweet voice that fuel these baby-making tunes. The bonus cover of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” is a poignant tribute to a fellow Motown star.
DVD
Unwigged & Unplugged
(Courgette)
This souvenir from Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer’s recent tour includes live versions of songs heard in This Is SpinalTap and A Mighty Wind. There’s also plenty of storytelling and joke-telling onstage. Best of all, Spinal Tap’s debut (from director Rob Reiner’s 1979 TV show) is one of the extras. --Michael Gallucci
Based on a 30-year-old children’s book about a town where food falls out of the sky, this zippy CGI adaptation beefs up the slight story by giving more time to bullied inventor Flick Lockwood (voiced by Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader) and spunky, nerdy weathergirl Sam Sparks (The House Bunny’s Anna Faris). As cool as the concept sounds (I’d love to find Little Debbie Zebra Cakes on my lawn), the whole raining-hamburgers thing -- in 3D, no less! -- turns out to be a problem when a greedy mayor tampers with Flick’s weather machine and oversized food begins to flood the town. Despite its thin premise, there’s a lot going on in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs: daddy issues, self-esteem issues, a guy walking around with a giant macaroni on his head. It’s pretty funny too, aiming its (thankfully pop culture-free) jokes and visual gags at both kids and grown-ups. Even that trusty comedy backup – a mischievous monkey – gets some big laughs here. Plus, Hader and Faris give their most winning performances. Meatballs is full of little surprises. But the biggest surprise is that it’s way better than a movie featuring a spaghetti twister should be. --Michael Gallucci
On previous CDs, Mason Jennings fit label boss Jack Johnson’s stereotype of the unplugged folkie, playing meditative songs about faith and love. But on his eighth album, Jennings plugs in, sings a bunch of songs about doubt and fear, and makes his most electric record. “Lights go down,” he sings on the opening “City of Ghosts,” “and there ain’t nobody there to love me.” With echo, reverb and amplified instruments (all played by Jennings) pulling him along, the 34-year-old singer-songwriter examines the corners on Blood of Man, trying to uncover the mysteries of life and death. He even gets a bit metaphysical on the stripped-down “Tourist”: “Is who you are now who you wanna be now?/Or are you someone you don’t wanna be?/Is what you wanted really wanted you wanted?/Or is it nothing, like you dreamed?” Still, Jennings hasn’t totally abandoned the slice-of-life storytelling that drives his best work. “Pittsburgh” follows a teen from all-night parties to a hospital suicide wing. And the revenge tale “Black Wind Blowing” starts with two dead bodies before taking an even more menacing turn. There are some mighty demons haunting Jennings on Blood of Man. Rocking out is one way to exorcise them. --Michael Gallucci
These power-pop legends released only two albums during their lifetime (a long-lost third record and a reunion album came out later). Yet this massive box manages to fill four CDs with plenty of previously unreleased tunes. Most of them are demos and alternate takes, but like most everything else Big Star did, they’re kinda great.
DVD
Important Things With Demetri Martin: Season One
(Comedy Central)
Deleted scenes and commentary beef up the first seven episodes of comedian Martin’s bizarre sketch and variety program. Each show explores a single theme – like power or brains – with cartoons, prop comedy and music. Pals like David Cross drop by, but it’s Martin’s weird takes on life that bring the funny.
VIDEO
The Office: Season Five
(Universal)
We still wish they’d drop the whole Jim/Pam romance (the British one worked because they didn’t get together until after the show ended), but the show’s cast became one of television’s tightest during its fifth season – even with boss Michael at a rival paper company. Blu-ray bonuses include more than three hours of deleted scenes and four hilarious webisodes.
CD
Os Mutantes: Haih or Amortecedor
(Anti-)
These Brazilian rockers haven’t made a record in 35 years, and there’s only one original member left. But time has been kind to Sergio Dias, who leads this new group of Mutantes through a set of jangly pop, traditional Tropicália and mind-blowing psych workouts. Here’s your chance to hear some new music by an old hipster favorite.
CD
Loudon Wainwright III: High Wide & Handsome
(2ndStorySound)
Wainwright’s two-disc project is more than a mere album; it’s a biography of Charlie Poole, a country-music pioneer who drank himself to death at age 39 in 1931. The essays, lyrics and guests (like Wainwright’s famous kids Rufus and Martha) put Poole in perspective. The songs – some traditional, some newly penned by Wainwright – give it heart. --Michael Gallucci
Sandoval was the sleepy voice behind Mazzy Star in the ’90s. On her second album with the Warm Inventions, she’s still a calming presence, floating through 11 songs about flowers, birds and other serene subjects. Not that it matters much; she could be singing about sautéing an ex-boyfriend and it would still sound like a lullaby leaving her lips. And that’s part of Through the Devil Softly’s problem: Every song plays out with the same crawling rhythm, the same hushed tone, the same soothing unspooling. Sandoval never breaks out of her comforting little bubble, caressing the corners of songs like “Blanchard” and “Sets the Blaze” as the band tags along with brushed cymbals, acoustic guitars and the occasional harmonica. It’s all very atmospheric and peaceful, just the way Sandoval likes it. But it’s so flimsy, it comes dangerously close to drifting into the ether -- far, far away from any sort of grounding. --Michael Gallucci
Little surprise that Tim Burton is one of the producers of this CG-animated story about a group of tiny creatures (they look like grown-up versions of Little Big Planet’s Sackboy) trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The film’s bleak look and tone resemble the dark gothic mood of Burton’s best work. But director Shane Acker’s movie (originally a short that was nominated for an Oscar) isn’t nearly as playful as The Nightmare Before Christmas. In fact, it’s downright depressing at times (hint: don’t get too attached to the little fellas). In an alternate world where machines declared war on man and wiped out everyone, all that remains is a small tribe of stitched-together individuals with electronic innards that bring them life. The last in line – who’s named 9 and voiced by Elijah Wood – accidentally rouses a towering metal monster, which creates an army of walking, flying and stalking machines to hunt down the nine sackpeople. 9 is visually striking, with its backdrop of hissing factories and washed-out landscapes. But itfeels kinda slight, clocking in at about 75 minutes. (And did we mention it’s kinda depressing? Don’t bring the little ones.) Still, sci-fi and animation fans will relish the film’s apocalyptic splendor. --Michael Gallucci
These Utah post-hardcore rockers have put their bruised-and-scarred image to good use over the past seven years. The opening song on their fourth album is called “Blood on My Hands,” and throughout Artwork frontman Bert McCracken leads the Used through a bunch of songs about drugs, death and misery. They know the subject well: McCracken’s pregnant girlfriend died of a drug overdose (which inspired their 2004 album, In Love and Death), and the singer himself has battled addiction. On Artwork, McCracken screams about living with demons and soaking in pain over thundering rhythms and piercing riffs. The Used manage to inject a few songs with a hook (“Born to Quit”) or mood (“Sold My Soul”). But too much of Artwork sounds calculated (the piano ballad “Kissing You Goodbye”) or instantly forgettable (“Men Are All the Same”). Plus, all that downer talk gets downright depressing after awhile. --Michael Gallucci
The 12th season’s best outings – “HOMR,” “The Worst Episode Ever,” “Trilogy of Error” – focus on the series’ enduring strengths: pop-culture jabs, smart historical skewering and Homer. This four-DVD box includes all 21 episodes, plus deleted scenes, featurettes, commentary and some Easter eggs. D’oh!
CD
Woody Guthrie: My Dusty Road
(Rounder)
This four-disc box gathers more than 50 songs from Guthrie’s peak years. The spare intimate tunes – American folk classics like “This Land Is Your Land,” “Hard Travelin’” and “Pretty Boy Floyd” – have influenced everyone from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen to Conor Oberst. And the remastered 60-year-old recordings have never sounded better.
CD
Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live at Woburn
(Dagger)
The sound on this “official bootleg” is kinda crappy. And some songs aren’t complete. But this 1968 concert – from one of the U.K.’s first music fests – includes some fierce performances, especially an 11-minute “Red House.” Too bad “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” isn’t all there, but the first-ever live “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” makes up for it.
VIDEO
Heroes: Season 3
(Universal)
This geek-approved sci-fi series settled into a for-the-fans rhythm during its third season. The 25 episodes are divided into “Villains” and “Fugitives” volumes, boosting the comic-book tone. This six-disc set includes deleted scenes, alternate stories, commentary and more. Be sure to pick up the Blu-ray version for the total HD geek experience.
VIDEO
State of Play
(Universal)
Russell Crowe rarely lets us down, and he’s explosive here as a Washington, D.C., reporter investigating a pair of deaths that may or may not be related to a congressman. You can tell he does things his own way because he has Eddie Vedder hair. He’s also pretty sure there’s a conspiracy going on. The Blu-ray includes deleted scenes and interactive features. --Michael Gallucci
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