"Love for Sale" by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga (2021)

Remember all those wonderful 1950s albums where Ella Fitzgerald or Anita O'Day or Jeri Southern were recording tribute to Cole Porter? Those were actually not the originals. They were a second life for the material mostly written for 1930s Broadway shows and the rise of LP format made them popular again. Decades later, there was another Porter renaissance with charity album "Red, Hot & Blue" where than-current artists like Neneh Cherry, The Pogues and U2 re-shaped these songs in a pop idiom. Now, with this album we come full circle back to the originals, where modern day polished production meets the spirit of old 1950s LP albums. And we have an actual singer who was there in the 1950s.

Contrary to my expectations and despite my reservations, I was instantly won over with the music. I knew the material - heard it in hundreds of versions - and its quite impossible to resist such a feel-good, foot-tapping swing and naturally classy lyrics. It felt so cheerful and somehow Christmasy that I have listened it several times in a row. Thankfully, there were no attempts to modernise old school music, it was done exactly as we know it. If it true that this is last studio album by Tony Bennett, well he is leaving on a uplifting, optimistic note. As for much-hyped Lady Gaga, I must admit that she actually shoulders majority of the project here and for her obviously this is a labour of love: for that reason I can't criticise her because her heart is in the right place. Initially I wanted to write something about her seeking respectability and validation with this kind of music, but hey, she is in pop music arena and its just a matter of time before she will be forced to return to pop ("return to form" they would say) because this genre is simply not so commercially visible as what she is usually doing. Remember Natalie Cole? She made a sudden excursion into American Songbook and couldn't get out if it anymore, it became artistic cul-de-sac of sorts, because the industry always bets on proven cards, while paradoxically actually needs something new and fresh. I must be honest and compliment her version of "Do I Love You" which is genuinely beautiful. I enjoy this very much. 

"The French Dispatch" by Wes Anderson (2021)

The best thing about this movie was my excitement before I saw it. Walked to a cinema twice (first time all the tickets were sold out) on the strength of "The Grand Budapest Hotel"  and that summer when I binged on all movies by Wes Anderson with the greatest pleasure. Now I don't know what happened, did I changed or he changed or he is simply too much Wes Anderson but I know in the first 10 minutes this movie is a big mistake. The guy was always peculiar and to be honest, not even so original - I have seen all of  this in "Amélie" (2001) which was truly unique and ground-breaking as sort of mother of all cartoonish movies that came afterwards. But in this particular movie, its like Anderson thought "Hm, how can I possible squeeze all my favourite actors and their families and neighbours in one movie? Ah yes, I will create a omnibus and create space for 6 499 characters! How clever of me!" 

Dear reader, I hated it. In fact, I hated it so much that I even considered leaving the cinema and the only reason why I did not (several people from the audience were not as polite as me) was because I somehow got it wrong that there will be a Dalida song in the soundtrack - I mixed it up with James Bond (her song was in that movie). I knew immediately that this will not be for me because there was too much introduction talk and voiceovers with such a manic tempo that I found it annoying and difficult to follow. Three unrelated stories are here just to show off dazzlingly glowing list of Hollywood celebrities who each have exactly one minute before somebody else elbows them aside. Kind of modern-day Robert Altman but in a very, very fast pace that gives audience no space to breath or understand what is going on. Like extremely caffeinated Wes Anderson. I even thought that maybe this is a kind of movie to be enjoyed with help of some substances, maybe than everything would finally make sense? This is so far the most self-indulgent Anderson movie I have seen - it is everything we know from him but blown out of proportions, in some grotesque, Gargantuan way - almost like he parodied himself.

Which brings us to the question: for whom was this LSD fantasy actually made? For his cult followers? They would watch it anyway. But the new audiences - and even some older, like me - will be put off with such extreme, almost nauseating opulence of details. Where previously a viewer might have delighted in some clever detail or ornamentation, now the screen is so cluttered with them that its actually hard to focus on a story and I actually doubt is there a story at all. All this characters are just cartoons and at the end movie actually genuinely becomes a cartoon - seriously, this all brought me to such a bad mood - I could have stayed at home and spared myself a tedious afternoon - it put me off going to cinema at all, since there is so much to enjoy online. 

"A Natural Woman: A Memoir" by Carole King (2012)

A few years ago I have read "Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon - and the Journey of a Generation" by Sheila Weller - it sounded promising, as a portrait of three most famous singer-songwriters of their era, but unfortunately it quickly deteriorated into gossipy list of boyfriends and relationships - somehow it wasn't about their music at all but about tabloid material and it makes point that one of the reason female artists are not taken seriously is the way we perceive them as entertainment - as long as we focus on secondary subjects like personal lives, looks and gossip, the music is overlooked. This is why I was curious to read a first-hand memoirs by great lady herself and how was it for her.

Although she was born in Manhattan, King has a certain naiveté about her and this is a huge part of her charm: there is a simplicity and modesty about her (she never aspired to become a superstar and become one when industry basically pushed her into spotlight) which makes the title of this book simply perfect. Even if you are not aware of her incredible back catalogue of the 1960s when she was part of songwriting duo Goffin &  King, you probably must have heard of "Tapestry" - a quintessential early 1970s album that broke all the records and stayed in hit charts for six years - one of the best selling albums of all time and one that created singer-songwriter genre. Here, for the first time King recollects how was it for her to enter the music business as a teenager, the buzz and excitement of creating all these early hits after hits - "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "The Loco-Motion", "Up on the Roof", "One Fine Day", "Oh No Not My Baby", "Goin' Back" - and what was going on in the background, where she as twenty-three old had to sign papers to allow shock treatment for her schizophrenic husband who (like many others) burned his brain with LSD.  

King herself might have stayed in the background permanently, if it wasn't for smart music industry agents and producers who realised this little housewife might be a talent worth nurturing - they carefully guided her into spotlight and eventually she blossomed as a reluctant pop superstar whose simplicity appealed to millions around the world. "Tapestry" came as a balm, as a medicine after a decade full of excess - it still has a healing power, all those years later. That is why it comes as a surprise to find out that right after that phenomenal success, King disappeared into a life on a farm - to my knowledge the only superstar who did so - and came back from time to time just to record new album as she was contractually obliged - where she lived without electricity, milked the goat, washed her clothes at the spring and basically lived what we would call today off-the-grid. There are recollections about failed relationships (not surprisingly, since she must have been attractive catch), songwriting, people who for various reasons impressed her and (the elephant in the room)  long-winded, detailed description of legal fight with her neighbours to stop them driving trough her property - it is such a petty detail blown out of proportions that it makes you wonder how on earth this gets more space in her memoirs than any far more important music collaboration or creation. I mean, she didn't mention Dusty Springfield once but she gets on and on how she fought in the court for years to prevent people from driving on the road. 

"The Rose Tattoo" by Daniel Mann (1955)

A friend's casual remark suddenly reminded me that I have never seen a movie with Anna Magnani. Now, I know who she was, but besides my friend (whose mother was a fan) I guarantee that none of my other friends, colleagues, acquaintances or proverbial man on the street would know her name. In her time, Magnani was one of the biggest international movie stars in the world and in fact the very first Italian actress to win Academy Award (I think she was the first Italian person, period) - but the dust of time has fallen over her work and she seems quite forgotten nowadays. What strikes me immediately is that in the post-WW2 Europe she was so highly respected for her talent and spirit, but everyone understood she was never a great beauty - that was not the point in actress of her calibre - and decades later, the industry has completely focused on a cellophane so now it is looks, diet, fitness and fashion that what we judge in actresses today - someone like Anna Magnani might not even get a chance today. Perhaps she lived in the time that was perfect for her, perhaps we all do. 

"The Rose Tattoo" was a theatre play by Tennessee Williams and as expected, it happens in Mississippi, so the humidity and heat reflect the passions of the characters. Its a story about a jealous and passionate Italo-American housewife who becomes grieving widow and builds a shrine to her grief, in fact she wallows so much in her grief that it suffocates her young daughter and all the neighbourhood. Until young Sicilian truck driver comes her way and suddenly she wakes up from her slumber and becomes flirty indeed. Williams wrote the script himself and insisted Magnani should be casted as Serafina Delle Rose because in his opinion, she would be perfect. I didn't know what to expect at first and was watching Magnani being all theatrical and hysterical and her sexual obsession with her husband (that later grew into another kind of obsession as a widow) was almost like caffeinated Judy Garland - I even wondered, is this was audiences liked in the 1950s? Over the top women who were throwing themselves on the floor and tearing heir hair? Than suddenly, like clicking the fingers, drama becomes a comedy - at one point, when daughter's boyfriend came to visit, Magnani somehow switches from grieving widow into a earthy, sassy Italian mamma and from that moment the movie is all about her being sharp as a nail, while the world turns around her. I don't care about anybody else in the movie, specially not about Burt Lancaster as a feather-brained, lusty young Sicilian truck driver (he gives it his best, but I still think he was all wrong for the role) but my oh my, was she funny! 

This was the very first time that I was watching Magnani so I still have to wrap my head around her art - she was not a great beauty, in fact she was not beauty at all - we could perhaps compare her somehow to great Bette Davis in a sense that both had charisma that rules the screen, but where Davis could have been dolled up to be a lady if necessary, Magnani was kind of tired, everyday face that we see behind the counters of the bakery or the supermarket's cash registers. Because she light up so much during her comedy scenes, I have impression she might have been great comedienne who was pigeonholed as dramatic actress too long? I know for sure that women loved her, probably because there was something really earthy, motherly and honest about her face - she was never a treat to other women, but probably represented one of them. Very interesting, because I can't think of any other actress whose looks was so defiantly unglamorous. We are now conditioned to associate term actress with beauty and looks, but Magnani is a completely different species - a serious actress. And a brilliant one. Must find more of her work. 

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"Voyage" by ABBA (2001)

Abba has returned to say goodbye. Return of the Swedish superstars was probably the one good thing about 2001 and no doubt after so much sadness, suffering and hurt, it appeared as a God-sent gift to the world. In reality, this album has quietly been prepared for some time already and could have been released years ago - its just accidental that it came out now and is perceived as a perfect timing. It is also a testament to their musicianship that time has absolutely nothing with their music - it is still fresh, magical and thrilling like when it was recorded in 2016. or for that matter as anything they have recorded 40 years ago. As we all know now, they have worked on some Avatar performances when they decided to add two completely new songs and satisfied with the results, completed the whole new album. Simultaneous introduction of these two new songs - poignant "I Still Have Faith In You" and "Don't Shut Me Down" exploded around the world like a hit of a comet and even I must admit that I cried my eyes out from sheer joy and recognition of hearing two familiar voices together. Apparently I was not the only one, since millions around the world are still bawling on youtube and there is a huge, across-the-generation affection for now elderly Swedes. 

The first thing that strikes me, is how unique they still sound. Abba always had their original sound that came not just from combination of ladies voices but layers of harmonies swirling around - it is still here, instantly recognisable as ever. On the press conference, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus explained they had no interest in updating their sound, since they don't understand current pop music - they simply worked in their own Abba bubble, creating music as they know it and it shows. Bare in mind that last time we heard Abba, it was in 1981 (exactly 40 years ago!) and it sounds exactly as it could have been sequel to that album. Not old-fashioned or dated, just a magical sound preserved like ancient mosquito in a piece of Amber. Another thing to consider is that back in 1981 they were two divorced couples whose private dramas reflected in their melancholic music - well, now they are in their seventies but this time there is noticeable excitement about working together again, just don't expect any of the giddiness of early pop singles. To understand this album, you must go back and hear what did it preceded it - "Super Trouper" and "The Visitors" - it is a sound of grown up, mature Abba, not a young band who pranced around singing "Waterloo" or "Mamma Mia".

Here perhaps lies the reason why reactions are so confused and divided about this long awaited return. We simply have nobody comparable who had re-grouped 40 years later and kept their integrity intact - Abba recorded again on their own terms and insist "we are older now, we have no interest in pretending otherwise" - so there are people who just don't get it that these are not same people known for their classic, exuberant sound. Critics, as always, were brutal and virulent, but than again, they always were - you would think that after 40 years they would learn to appreciate Abba's gifts but there is still an enormous resentment of omnipotent Swedes - while audience welcomed "Voyage" with open arms, critics are still finger wagging over everything that makes Abba in the first place. I have been listening it for days now, sure it can't have resonance of past hits but new music is still enormously satisfying and it has a great emotional impact. Since previously they never officially said goodbye, this is a classy way to sign off and leave. And no one has done it before like this.