Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi’s Movie-less Soundtrack ‘Rome’ Still Resonates 10 Years Later
Rome a movie soundtrack without a movie is an homage to Spaghetti Westerns that still echoes a decade after its release.
Rome
Parlophone / EMI / Lex / Third Man
16 May 2011
Around 1995, my dad brought home his first work computer. It was a green-screen laptop with huge, chunky keyboard buttons, a trackball in place of the now-ubiquitous mousepads, and exactly one feature that was of interest to me and my brother (one year my senior): a DOS program called “Ugly”. As a five-year-old, I had very little use for a laptop, let alone one with such rudimentary features as this. Yet, “Ugly” offered endless entertainment because it played a chiptune version of Ennio Morricone’s theme from Clint Eastwood’s
The 75 Best Songs of 2011
Nostalgia Alert! Jump back a decade and enjoy the best songs of 2011. They are headlined by a synthpop classic, a massive hit from a hot diva, pristine harmonies of a young band headed for greatness.
75. They Might Be Giants – “Can’t Keep Johnny Down”
They Might Be Giants aficionados might have guessed that co-leader John Linnell had a fondness for the Smiths when the band released their rarity “Save Your Life”, which sounds suspiciously like a Smiths style parody. “Can’t Keep Johnny Down” isn’t quite as literal a Smiths tribute Linnell sings in his own voice, not a fake English accent, and the bouncing keyboard melody is more TMBG than Morrissey but the song’s malcontent narrator, singing about imagined triumphs over imagined slights, hits a similarly sweet-and-sour tone. Then again, marrying catchy melodies to dark lyrics has always been their specialty; this instant classic proves it’s a talent undiminished by time.