SONG TIP

No Small Thing

Tears For Fears

I know what you're thinking: "Didn't Koster just review a Tears For Fears song a few weeks ago?" Why, yes! But this is how musical artists hype upcoming albums these days, if they bother to do albums at all. They share a single or two or three sporadically online before the big release date. "No Small Thing" is interesting because it starts out with a single acoustic guitar and vocal in the spirit of something Gordon Lightfoot might do. Gradually, layers of instrumentation are added, along with the TFF textbook harmonies and melodies. By the end, it's a full-blown production and a pretty damned good song. So far, with "No Small Thing" and the earlier release of the title track from the upcoming "The Tipping Point" album, due in February, old fans have every reason to be giddy.

— Rick Koster 

MOVIE TIP

House of Gucci

How you feel about “House of Gucci” might depend on how you feel about slightly campy melodramas. I love them, and so I had a blast watching “Gucci.” Lady Gaga gives a grounded but absolutely entertaining performance as a striving woman named Patrizia who marries into the famed fashion family of Gucci. What follows is backstabbing and power-grabbing, albeit much more discrete and less hateful than on “Succession.” Lady Gaga’s character becomes Lady Macbeth to Patrizia’s husband, played by Adam Driver. After he is banished from the business for marrying her, she convinces him to work to rejoin the family empire and grasp for control. If you’re familiar with the real history, you know this doesn’t end well for either of them. As for the “House of Gucci” camp: Director Ridley Scott leans into the comically flamboyant. Al Pacino serves up the ham as Gucci elder Aldo, and Jared Leto makes Pacino look understated in his tomfoolery-filled performance as Aldo's son. “Italian” accents rarely sound Italian. The choice of songs on the soundtrack made me giggle for the way they underline, or humorously contradict, a scene. And I mean absolutely all of that as a compliment.

— Kristina Dorsey 

MAGAZINE TIP

Southern Music Issue, Vol. 23

Oxford American

This very fine literary quarterly, headquartered in Little Rock and embracing the culture and arts of the Deep South, always has an annual music issue — and it's always great. Thoughtful essays, profiles and clever features abound, and there's an accompanying CD with a cross-section of tracks from the artists featured in the magazine. Every piece is interesting and readable, but I was particularly transfixed by contributor Terence Blanchard (the world class New Orleans trumpet wizard) on producer Quincy Jones. Also, writer Elizabeth Nelson captures the many facets of Little Feat founding guitarist Lowell George in a reduction/analysis of eight and a half of his songs. And don't miss the thematically connected poetry, reviews, crossword puzzle, art work and more.

— Rick Koster