That absolutely blistering electric violin solo that kicks off The United States of America's "Hard Coming Love". Thanks to how it was processed, it actually comes pretty close to an electric guitar, but there's something really ragged and chaotic-sounding about it that sets it apart.

Tangentially related question: what's the opinion of AVC commenters on the Beach Boys' follow-up, Smiley Smile? It hasn't got anywhere near the beauty or emotional resonance of Pet Sounds, obviously, but there's always been something about its unabashed bugfuck weirdness that's endeared it to me.

Digging into some of Todd Rundgren's back catalogue after realizing I didn't really know much from him beyond "International Feel". A Wizard, a True Star is just killer, the first half especially; in a weird way, all those song fragments segueing together reminds me of the way Wire's Pink Flag chugs along. His…

Only if you promise me Anthony Quinn's disembodied, floating head will make an appearance.

Hey, me too! What are your thoughts on "Revelation"? I know a lot of people write off Side B completely, but I think there's a certain charm in just how aggressive and bellowing Arthur Lee's vocals get on it near the end.

For me, after "A Bigger Paper Bag", it just starts to lose me. I can't tell if it's something about the songwriting, the compositions or what, but none of the songs after that point, except maybe for "The Memo", really stick in my mind. It's honestly kind of disconcerting.

I would bet novelty played a pretty big factor too. There were dozens of people in indie rock doing things similar to what J. Tillman was (if less well) but I can't really think of any people in popular music right now as unabashedly pretentious and solipsistic as FJM. Regardless of whether or not you think the…

Yeah, considering the A.V. Club's own review of the album called it "too long and stubbornly low energy", I'm not quite sure when or why they came back around on it.

Finally caught What We Do in the Shadows after meaning to during its initial run and then forgetting about it. A lot of pretty hilarious performances here—I know Jemaine Clement's was the one getting the most press at the time, but Taika Waititi is just wonderful as this extremely agreeable, naive vampire dandy. For…

Sun Kil Moon, mostly. The release of Common as Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood (and yes, I do intend to type out that full title every time) reminded me to go back and revisit Benji, and you know what? It isn't nearly as dreary or gut-wrenching as I remembered. Songs like "Carissa" and "Jim Wise" are just as…

I generally prefer Serge's post-1969 material to his earlier songs, but that one's the big exception; the looped(?) string part is just unreal, and I think it's got a legitimate claim to being the best song he ever wrote.

Lucio Battisti's Amore e non amore (1971). I've seen this guy referred to as the Italian Serge Gainsbourg (and in fact, as a massive Gainsbourg fan, that was what first inspired me to look into Battisti's work) but they're actually very distinct persona-wise. Amore is much wilder than anything Serge ever…

I finally got around to watching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I definitely prefer it to the original episode it derives its villain from, and it's pretty fascinating to watch Montalbán and Shatner each try to out-monologue the other. It's also nice that the movie doesn't shy away from some of the more genuinely…

Honestly, pretty much all of The Future seems applicable right now.

Absolutely; for most of the Republicans fervently backing Netanyahu right now, it's really more about sticking it to Palestine than anything else.

Seconded. I get how full-blown ambient was a pretty natural next step coming off of albums like Another Green World, but that doesn't keep me from wishing we'd gotten a few more albums out of his art rock phase, before he left pop music behind entirely.

Throbbing Gristle and Soft Cell. I'm actually finding 20 Jazz Funk Greats to be a surprisingly fitting winter album—all that sharp percussion and droning synthesizers, I guess. Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is fantastic as well—it's still kind of amazing to me that a song like "Sex Dwarf" was actually made back in 1981.

I feel weirdly alone in actually liking False Alarm quite a bit; there's this off-kilter sense of desperation to it that's kind of fascinating to me. Not sure if it was deliberate, or just the Weeknd trying to put on a style that doesn't really work for him, but it's definitely one of the more interesting tracks on…

To be fair, I think Shaking the Habitual has just as much (if not more) great material than Silent Shout; you've just got to wade through more filler to get to it.

I went into this review hoping it might help me figure out what about this movie could have possibly inspired Julia Holter to soundtrack it.