journal.nonesuch.com

WSJ: "The Wire" Is "Storytelling at Its Most Stunning"

In advance of next Sunday's premiere of the final season of The Wire, the Wall Street Journal's Lauren Mechling examines the series playwright Tony Kushner calls his "favorite TV show." And, he admits, "I watch TV a lot."

The article asserts that Kushner's appreciation of the show—he also calls it "smart" and "unflinching"—is typical of the "manic devotion" of its wide-ranging fans. "A favorite among the hip-hop world and the intelligentsia," Mechling writes, "The Wire doesn't have casual fans—those who watch, watch obsessively."

Mechling herself says The Wire is "storytelling at its most stunning." She writes: "Heartbreaking, wry and novelistically complex, The Wire has run roughshod over practically every television convention."

To read the article, visit online.wsj.com.

Happy Holidays from Nonesuch Records

Happy holidays from everyone at Nonesuch Records. As we look forward to another incredible year of music in 2008, starting with the first-ever soundtrack from the HBO series The Wire on January 8, we thought we'd celebrate the close of 2007 with a look back at all the great music that came from Nonesuch artists this year.

Here they are, the 2007 Nonesuch Records releases, from the most recent, two highly acclaimed soundtracks from what many critics are calling the year's best films, Sweeney Todd and There Will Be Blood (both albums now available in the new Nonesuch Store), to the record that kicked the year off with a rocking good start, Caetano Veloso's Cê.

Click on the album cover for more information and to listen to songs from each:

Nonesuch Store Opens, Among New Features on Nonesuch.com

Regular visitors to Nonesuch.com may notice some changes we've made to the site. In addition to a new look we've given to the home page, we've added a few new features that will hopefully make your experience here a richer and more interesting one. Here are some of the things you'll find at Nonesuch.com:

• There's now a live feed of the latest stories from the Nonesuch Journal to the home page, so you can read highlights of the most up-to-date articles and information about Nonesuch artists right up front, then click through to the Journal to read the full story.

• For those of you who've used our longstanding interactive map to locate our world-class roster of artists around the globe, we've now streamlined things a bit, so that with one click on the Artists map, you'll find a complete alphabetical listing of all the Nonesuch artists. As always, you can also use the search function in the menu bar, which is now at the right of the page.

• Music is what we do, so we know it's important for you to hear the music our artists have made. That's why we've put Nonesuch Radio front and center on the home page. Just click on the Radio icon to listen to streaming audio of songs available on Nonesuch as well as songs from upcoming releases.

• And finally, the new feature we're most excited about is the new Nonesuch Store. You have many different options when it comes to buying music these days. We recognize the convenience and the portability downloading music allows, but we also believe that the physical CD still offers a more complete listening experience, with the best in sound quality and the complement of art, lyrics, essays, and bonus features that are part of the artist's vision of the album.

That's why we've created a store that will give you the best of both worlds: here you can buy CDs of the latest Nonesuch releases at a discount (with free standard shipping for orders over $20 and a low rate of $2 for smaller orders), and as soon as your order is complete, you'll be able to download, at no extra cost, the complete album as DRM-free MP3 files to enjoy right away. As an added feature, you can decide whether you'd like to receive files at the standard size and audio quality of 128 kbps or as larger, audiophile-quality files at 320 kbps, which may take several minutes to download but provide near-CD quality sound-again, at no extra cost. (If you have any questions about the download process, you can click on the FAQ link in the store.)

You'll also find on select albums exclusive bonus tracks available only at the Nonesuch Store, like the three additional pieces on Jonny Greenwood's score to There Will Be Blood, which are part of the download package you'll receive with that CD. And in the coming months, we'll be adding more and more albums from the Nonesuch catalog along with special offers only available here.

We hope you like the changes we've made to the Nonesuch site and will continue to make in the year ahead. We look forward to receiving your feedback at info@nonesuch.com and your suggestions for making the site a better place to visit.

TIME: "There Will Be Blood" Among "Most Wholly Original" Films Ever

There Will Be Blood is "one of the most wholly original American movies ever made," writes TIME magazine's Richard Schickel in his review of the film. He calls Daniel Day-Lewis's performance "genius (and I use that word advisedly)," and points in particular to the film's "astonishing" last scene as an example of the actor's unparalleled performance. The film's ending, Schickel writes, "contains what I—resistant as I am to superlatives—consider to be the most explosive and unforgettable 10 or 15 minutes of screen acting I have ever witnessed."

To read the full review, visit time.com.

CNN: "There Will Be Blood" Is a "Flat-Out Masterpiece"

"American cinema produced one flat-out masterpiece this year—Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood," says CNN's Tom Charity, who also calls the film "extraordinary" in his review of the year on screen. The writer was less charitable with some of the year's other artistic efforts, though he does compliment The Wire, proposing that most of the attempts at high-art movies in 2007 "don't measure up to the best TV series: The Wire, Deadwood, and The Sopranos, for example."

To read Charity's year-end report,visit CNN.com.

Boston Herald: "There Will Be Blood" Has Year's Best Movie Music

The Boston Herald's James Verniere writes that the year's best movie music was Jonny Greenwood's "entire, diabolically mesmerizing score for There Will Be Blood." In a separate article, he names the "insanely brilliant" film among the year's best as well.

To read Verniere's year-end wrap-up, click here. For his list of the best in film, click here.

Star-Ledger: Kronos' Gorecki Recording Is Best of 2007

Kronos Quartet's recording of Henryk Górecki's String Quartet No. 3 (" ... songs are sung") tops New Jersey Star-Ledger staff writer Bradley Bambarger's list of the best classical recordings of 2007. Bambarger calls the piece "an intense, 50-minute match for the Polish composer's global '90s hit 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs,' [Symphony No. 3]," which was recorded by Dawn Upshaw and the London Sinfonietta.

For the complete list of the Star-Ledger's Top Ten of 2007, visit nj.com.

NY Times: "There Will Be Blood" Is a "Work of Art"

In her review of There Will Be Blood, New York Times film critic Monohla Dargis calls the new Paul Thomas Anderson film a "breakthrough" for its director and "above all a consummate work of art." Furthermore, she writes, "its pleasures are unapologetically aesthetic. It reveals, excites, disturbs, provokes, but the window it opens is to human consciousness itself."

Daniel Day-Lewis, as the rapacious early 20th-century oilman Daniel Plainview, gives "a thrilling performance, among the greatest I’ve seen," writes Dargis, "purposefully alienating and brilliantly located at the juncture between cinematic realism and theatrical spectacle."

To read the full review, visit nytimes.com. The film opens in New York and Los Angeles today. Its soundtrack, featuring music by Jonny Greenwood, is available now at the new Nonesuch Store.

Village Voice: Greenwood's "Excellent" "There Will Be Blood" Score Complements Film

Of all the efforts at big-scale movie storytelling over the past several months, writes J. Hoberman in the Village Voice, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood is "the one that packs the strongest movie-movie wallop." He continues:

This is truly a work of symphonic aspirations and masterful execution. Anderson's superb filmmaking is complemented throughout by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood's excellent score—at once modernist and rhapsodic, full of discordant excitements, outer-space siren trills, and the rumble of distant thunder ... There's hardly a dull moment.

To read the complete review, visit villagevoice.com.

LA Times Looks Forward to New Magnetic Fields Release

With 2008 just about to get under way, and a whole new year in music still waiting to unfold, The Magnetic Fields' upcoming release, Distortion, tops Los Angeles Times staff writer Todd Martens' list of what to look forward to straightaway. The album is set for release on Nonesuch January 15.

You can read what Martens has to say in his Times blog, Extended Play, at latimesblogs.latimes.com.

MTV: Jonny Greenwood's "There Will Be Blood" Score Is "Wonderful"

MTV's Kurt Loder says that Jonny Greenwood's score for There Will Be Blood is among the "wonderful" parts of Paul Thomas Anderson's new film. Loder calls Anderson's decision to hire Greenwood an "audacious" one, and one that paid off, with the end result an outstanding work independent of the film for which it was written:

The music is an orchestral wash of beautifully harmonized melodies spiked with thoroughly modern dissonance, and while it's a jarring accompaniment for some of the imagery, it stands on its own as a series of superbly astringent compositions.

For Loder's complete review, visit mtv.com.

"There Will Be Blood" Tops Best-of Lists from NY Times Critics

New York Times film critics Manohla Dargis and Stephen Holden both rate Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood at the top of their lists of favorite films of the year. Dargis writes that it was one of the two films of 2007 that "matter most to me, that dug in the deepest and rearranged my own givens ... that shook up my world in the best possible way." And Holden compares There Will Be Blood to three classic American films, while recognizing that the director has created something entirely new as well. Anderson's film, Holden writes, "suggests a fusion of East of Eden, Giant, and Citizen Kane with the Hollywood finery ripped to shreds."

To read Dargis's year-end report, click here; for Holden's best-of list, click here.

CBS Sunday Morning: "Spellbinding" "Sweeney Todd" Sees Sondheim "Deliciously Served"

"Spellbinding" says CBS Sunday Morning's film critic David Edelstein of Tim Burton's film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. "Sondheim, our greatest living theatrical composer and lyricist," Edelstein says, "has never been so deliciously served."

To read Edelstein's review, visit cbsnews.com.

NY Times: Joshua Redman's "Back East" Best of 2007

Joshua Redman's Back East is number one on New York Times music critic Ben Ratliff's list of the best CDs of 2007. Summing up the record, Ratliff writes: "Here Mr. Redman compresses his goals, leaves distractions behind and makes the most agile and personal record of his career."

Back East makes fellow Times critic Nate Chinen's best-of list as well. Redman, Chinen writes, "has never sounded more at ease than he does here," and the performance by Joshua's father, late saxophonist Dewey Redman, in his last studio recording, "raises stakes as well as hairs."

To read Ratliff's Top Ten, click here; for Chinen's list, click here.

NY Times: "Sweeney Todd" Is a "Work of Genius"

New York Times film critic A. O. Scott, in his review of the Tim Burton–directed Sweeney Todd, calls the film "something close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme—I am tempted to say evil—genius."

For Scott, Johnny Depp, in the title role, "brings the unpolished urgency of rock ’n’ roll to an idiom accustomed to more refinement, and in doing so awakens the violence of Mr. Sondheim’s lyrics and melodies." And while the filmmakers found it necessary to remove a few of the more famous numbers, with the composer's approval, its "absence only contributes to the diabolical coherence of the film," Scott says.

What is on display in the film is "some of the finest stage music of the past 40 years," which, in all its gory vividness, might be seen as "infernal," writes Scott, "except that you might just as well call it heavenly."

To read the full review, visit nytimes.com. To listen to some of that infernal, heavenly music, visit the Nonesuch Store.

WSJ: "Sweeney Todd" "Grabs You and Won't Let Go"

The Wall Street Journal calls Tim Burton's film version of Sweeney Todd a "brilliant, blood-soaked" adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim original. The filmmaker and his creative team, writes Joe Morgenstern,

have turned the darkly comical Broadway musical into an elegant horror film, starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, that takes pleasure in its own theatricality, gives pleasure with caustic wit, trusts the power of Stephen Sondheim's score and exults in flights of fancy that only a movie can provide.

As for the demon barber himself, Morgenstern says:

Johnny Depp's performance defines the title role for a new generation. Is there another contemporary actor who could have summoned up so much malevolence in such blithely minimalist style? ... [H]e succeeds at the improbable but essential task of making his tortured slaughterer sympathetic.

And Depp isn't the only one in fine form. "The rest of the cast is no less expert, or enjoyable," Morgenstern reports.

"But then," he says, "this film is of an artistic piece ... Like Sweeney with his razor, Tim Burton's movie grabs you and won't let go."

To read the full review, visit online.wsj.com.

TIME: "Sweeney Todd" Is "Bloody Great"

"They've done it," says TIME magazine's Richard Corliss. They, that is, the entire creative team behind the new film version of Sweeney Todd, have made a "bloody great" film adaptation of the original play that is at once "both faithful and liberating."

Corliss finds that Johnny Depp, "a magnificent star at the apogee of his powers," excels in the title role as "a true singing actor, making every note as persuasive as his words and gestures." And of the director, it feels to Corliss as though "Sweeney Todd might have been written for Burton."

To read the full review, visit time.com.

Washington Post: "Sweeney Todd" Brings Sondheim "Cinematic Immortality"

Tim Burton, in adapting Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd for the big screen, has done so "with a bravura visual style thrillingly in touch with the timelessly depraved delights of Grand Guignol," writes Washington Post staff writer Peter Marks in his review of the film.

What has often been often the most difficult aspect of transferring musical theatre to film—integrating music with dialog—has, in Sweeney, "been carried out with remarkable suppleness," says Marks, "so that the numbers seem, to a degree rarely experienced, an extension of character and plot."

Also separating Sweeney Todd from other musicals that have made their way to the big screen is its rather gruesome story. While this might have complicated the adaptation in less capable hands, thanks to Burton and his creative team, the audience is put "not in the province of chain-saw massacres, but of art ... It takes an actor of Depp's suaveness—and yes, musical grace—to fully pull this off."

Ultimately, Marks believes that Burton's adaptation of Sweeney Todd will prove to be "the brilliant singing splatterfest that finally gives [Sondheim] a stab at cinematic immortality."

To read the complete review, visit washingtonpost.com.

PopMatters: "Sweeney Todd" Is an "Outright Masterpiece"

Adapting for the screen a piece of musical theatre as revered as Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd could seem a daunting task, and one ripe for a mis-step in the wrong hands. "Luckily," writes Bill Gibron in his perfect-ten review of the film in PopMatters, "the right auteur came along, a director so perfectly in tune with the composer’s layered conceits that one imagines it was written specifically for him."

The joining of director Tim Burton with Sondheim's songs and lyrics, it seems, is "the perfect marriage of maker and material," Gibron says. They have come together to create "the best film of 2007. It is an outright masterpiece, a work of bravura craftsmanship by a man whose been preparing for this creative moment all his directorial life."

The PopMatters review compliments the film's star, Johnny Depp, as well, for his "remarkable acting turn," calling him "absolutely brilliant" as the demon barber. For Gibron, the match between the actor and the role are another perfect pairing: "his performance of the musical material is heartbreaking. He syncs up flawlessly with Sondheim’s sentiments, resulting in the most menacing, mercurial Todd ever." An as for the film's co-stars, the review finds Depp "matched equally well by Helena Bonham Carter" and  the rest of the cast "just outstanding."

Even so, Gibron reserves his highest praise for the man behind the camera. "It’s Burton," he says, "who ends up the true hero, his eye for the unusual and the downtrodden in full, flowering effect."

The combined forces of all of these talents culminate in an unforgettable experience for die-hard fans of Sondheim's work and for those coming to it for the first time:

The result is the year’s finest cinematic experience ... Like all great artists, the talent involved here didn’t dishonor Sondheim, but instead, they make the material their own. That’s the true test of any adaptation. ... [The film] is proof that, when left to their own devices, the gifted will give over to something quite special. The undeniable greatness exhibited here certainly supports such a conclusion.

To read the complete review, visit popmaters.com.

Kronos Quartet Named Ensemble of the Year by Gramophone China

Kronos Quartet has been named Ensemble of the Year by Gramophone China magazine, based on a concert with pipa virtuoso Wu Man this past March at the Shanghai Concert Hall. The program included performances of Tan Dun's Ghost Opera and sections from Terry Riley's The Cusp of Magic. Nonesuch released the studio recording of Kronos and Wu Man performing the former piece in 1997 and will release their recording of the latter piece early next year.

For more information on the winning program, visit kronosquartet.org.

Wilco's "Sky Blue Sky" Nominated for Shorlist Prize

Wilco's Sky Blue Sky, it's just been announced, is among the nominees for the 2007 Shortlist Music Prize, which recognizes the most creative and adventurous albums of the year. The winner will be announced early next year. Wilco was previously nominated for the Shortlist Prize in 2004 for their last album, A Ghost Is Born.

For the complete list of nominees and to hear songs from the nominated albums, visit shortlistofmusic.com.

"There Will Be Blood," "Sweeney Todd" Among Allmusic Favorites

Jonny Greenwood’s score for There Will Be Blood and the Sweeney Todd film soundtrack have both made the list of the Allmusic staff’s favorite soundtracks from 2007.

Allmusic finds Greenwood’s score “extraordinary” and “no less indelible” in the film than Daniel Day-Lewis’s “astonishing” performance:

Greenwood’s tense, coiled score mirrors the eerie emotional undercurrent to the film, pulling suppressed feelings to the surface, often with an almost operatic sense of drama … This is magnificently unsettling music, whether it's used within the film or heard on its own terms—either way, it's impossible to forget after it's been heard.

To see the complete list, visit allmusic.com.

Boston Herald: Wilco May Be "Band of the Decade"

Wilco's Sky Blue Sky is on the Boston Herald's music critics' list for Best of 2007. The Herald writes that "Jeff Tweedy finds a foil and ace guitarist in Nels Cline and proves what music geeks have said for years: Wilco may be the American band of the decade."

For the complete list, visit news.bostonherald.com.

NPR's "Morning Edition" Explores the Making of "Sweeney Todd"

On today's Morning Edition on NPR, Jeff Lunden spoke with the creators of the film Sweeney Todd—composer Stephen Sondheim, director Tim Burton, producer/screenwriter John Logan, and producer Richard D. Zanuck—just how they turned the macabre musical into a winning film. No small feat when you're talking about the piece considered to be the masterwork of the "the reigning master of the Broadway stage," as the piece states. Find out how it was done by listening to the segment at npr.org.

Baltimore Sun: Depp and Bonham Carter Bring "Superhuman Intensity" to "Sweeney" Roles

The Baltimore Sun calls Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd "ineluctably involving," pointing to the lead actors, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, for their ability to "bring superhuman intensity to the fallible creatures in a gory fable."

Sun movie critic Michael Sragow gives the film an A- and credits Depp for filling Sweeney with "a spectral intensity from the outset. And when he clicks with Bonham Carter's Mrs. Lovett as a potential mate ... an aberrant electricity leaps out between them."

You can read the full review at baltimoresun.com.

Newsday: Greenwood's "Stunning" Score Adds to "Exhilarating" "There Will Be Blood"

The "exhilarating" and "intoxicating epic" There Will Be Blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Daniel Day-Lewis is "the watershed achievement" of both their careers, writes Newsday's Jan Stuart in a four-star review of the film. Its central conflict, between the "electrifying adversaries" of Day-Lewis's rapacious oilman, Daniel Plainview, and co-star Paul Dano's single-minded preacher, Eli Sunday, is "magnificently heightened" by Jonny Greenwood's "stunning" score, writes Stuart. And of the actors performances:

Nothing Day-Lewis has done in the past fully prepares us for the vertiginous risks he takes as Plainview ... One could say the same for Dano, who makes a revelatory leap from the silent rebel of Little Miss Sunshine to a chillingly manipulative man of the cloth.

Read the full review at newsday.com. You can find Greenwood's score at the Nonesuch Store.

MSNBC: "There Will Be Blood" Triumphs

"It’s hard to capture the greatness of There Will Be Blood by merely recounting the plot," writes MSNBC film critic Alonso Duralde, "and it would do the film a disservice to give away its delicious twists and surprises. Suffice it to say, then, that the film triumphs ...”

Duralde finds the film "exhilarating" and lauds its star, Daniel Day-Lewis, for creating "a feral, fearsome creation" in the lead character, Daniel Plainview. The review also applauds co-star Paul Dano for matching Day-Lewis's intensity. "The interplay between the two makes for some of this year’s most gripping cinema."

In the end, the true power of a film is often in its ability to resonate well beyond the immediate viewing experience, and There Will Be Blood, says Duralde, "stays with you long after you’ve seen it ... [I]t’s a movie that people who love movies will discuss, argue over, and rewatch for years to come."

To read the full review, visit msnbc.msn.com.

E! Gives "There Will Be Blood" an A

There Will Be Blood receives an A review from E!'s Chris Farnsworth, who cites the film's "compelling" story and a "fascinating performance" by Daniel Day-Lewis in the lead role. Read the full review at eonline.com.

BroadwayWorld: "Sweeney Todd" Soundtrack Is a "Must-Have"

The new soundtrack to the film Sweeney Todd earns five out of five on BroadwayWorld.com's holiday roundup list of the year's best CDs. "This recording is a 'must-have!'" raves the review. It "is just glorious," writes Naomi Plume. "The performances grab you in a whole different way than you would expect," she says. "I am also happy to report that [orchestrator] Jonathan Tunick and [conductor] Paul Gemignani deliver up their usual 'magic'!"

To read the full review, visit broadwayworld.com. To purchase the soundtrack, visit the Nonesuch Store.

"There Will Be Blood," "Sweeney Todd" Earn Las Vegas Critics Awards

There Will Be Blood has earned three Sierra Awards from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society (LVFCS): Best Score for Jonny Greenwood, Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, and Best Cinematography for Robert Elswit.

Sweeney Todd has made the Vegas critics' Top Ten list of the year's best films and received a Sierra Award for Best Costume Design, by Colleen Atwood.

For the complete list of winners, visit lvfcs.org.

"The Wire" Recommended by NY Times, Christian Science Monitor

The Christian Science Monitor recommends HBO's The Wire as a Pick of the Week, calling the show "a profoundly thoughtful meditation on the modern American city, its institutions, and the underclass." The New York Times concurs, calling it a "sublime epic of urban realism." Season Five doesn't get underway for another couple weeks, so in the mean time, both papers suggest catching up with Season Four, out now on DVD.

For all of this week's Monitor Picks, visit csmonitor.com. For the Times TV-on-DVD recommendations, visit nytimes.com.

"There Will Be Blood" Tops Poll of 100 Critics

There Will Be Blood tops the list of the indieWIRE poll of more than 100 critics looking at the year's best in cinema. The film earned the critics' votes for Best Picture, Best Director and Screenplay for Paul Thomas Anderson, Best Performance for Daniel Day-Lewis, and Best Cinematography for Robert Elswit. Paul Dano also garnered the number four slot for Best Supporting Performance.

For the complete list of the year's best and the details of how the scores were determined, visit indiewire.com.

Wilco's "Sky Blue Sky" on Acoustic Café Best of 2007 Program

The popular syndicated radio show Acoustic Café has named Wilco's Sky Blue Sky among the year's best albums. You can hear the title track off the album on this week's program, streaming online at mlive.com/cafe.

Wilco's "Sky Blue Sky" Among Year's Best on NPR Listeners' List for 2007

NPR listeners have had their say: Wilco's Sky Blue Sky is one of the year's best CDs. The album, released in May, is still holding sway with listeners, whose votes placed the record in the top five, in the company of Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Feist, and the White Stripes.

For the Top 25 listeners' picks and to hear "Hate It Hear" off Sky Blue Sky, visit npr.org.

Time Out Chicago: "There Will Be Blood" Among Year's Best

Time Out Chicago's film staff lists There Will Be Blood among the year's best. Hank Sartin, the magazine's film editor, places the "sprawling yet intense epic" on the top of his list, and the film writer Ben Keningsberg says Daniel Day-Lewis "gives the performance of the year."

For the Top Ten films from Sartin and Keningsberg, visit timeout.com.

Wilco, Laura Veirs Faves in Humboldt County

North Coast Journal out of Humboldt County, California, asked some of the area's music mavens for their picks of the year's best. Gini Noggle, owner of the local record shop Metro, says Wilco's Sky Blue Sky is her favorite. "I fell in love with this CD," she says. "I have played it every day at work since it came out this summer (I’m not kidding) and it still sounds fresh every time. Jeff Tweedy could sing the phone book and I’d be riveted, his voice is that good."

And Mike Dronkers, program/music director of area radio station KHUM, lists Laura Veirs's Saltbreakers among his favorites for 2007.

To read what some of the other local luminaries have to say, visit northcoastjournal.com.

NPR's "Morning Edition" to Feature "Sweeney Todd" on Friday

Tune in to Morning Edition on NPR this Friday, December 21, for a feature on Tim Burton’s film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. The piece will include interviews with the director and the composer as well as with producer/screenwriter John Logan and producer Richard D. Zanuck. 

Visit npr.org for local stations and air times or to listen online Friday morning.

NPR Film Critic Recommends "Splendid" "Sweeney Todd"

In his recommendation of Sweeney Todd, NPR film critic Bob Mondello says that director Tim Burton has created a "splendid adaption" of the Stephen Sondheim original.

On the acting front, Johnny Depp's "snarling, vengeance-crazed Sweeney Todd is a wonder." As expected, Mondello reports, both Depp and his co-star, Helena Bonham Carter "nail the roles emotionally" and, perhaps less expectedly, can sing.

All in all, Mondello says, Sweeney Todd is "spectacularly stylized ...  persuasively sung, and imaginatively adapted for the screen."

To read the full review, visit npr.org.

Daniel Day-Lewis Earns SAG Award Nomination for "There Will Be Blood"

Daniel Day-Lewis has been nominated by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) as Best Actor for his performance in There Will Be Blood. The 14th Annual SAG Awards will be handed out in a ceremony broadcast live on TNT and TBS on January 27.

For the complete list of nominees, visit sagawards.org.

NPR: "Sweeney Todd" the Film to See This Holiday

David Edelstein, the film critic for NPR's Fresh Air and New York magazine, has placed Sweeney Todd and There WIll Be Blood on his list of the year's best films.

Talking with Terry Gross about the films on Fresh Air, he compliments director Tim Burton for creating a "very intimate" version of what Gross refers to as the "absolutely brilliant, truly wonderful Stephen Sondheim musical." After a thorough discussion of the year in cinema, she asks Edelstein for his recommendation of the one movie audiences should see this holiday season. His answer: Sweeney Todd—"Great music, great photography, great performances, amazing arterial spray."

You can hear the entire segment at npr.org. Soundtracks to both films can be found at the Nonesuch Store.

"Sweeney Todd" à Paris

Devoured by Love ... Drunk with Vengeance

"The Wire" Series Recap Airs Tonight on HBO

The fifth and final season of The Wire debuts January 6 on HBO, with the series' first-ever soundtracks due out on Nonesuch two days later, so now is the perfect time to tune in to The Wire Odyssey, tonight on HBO, and catch up on the previous four seasons of the Peabody Award–winning show. The half-hour retrospective takes a look back at the show Slate magazine has said is "surely the best TV show ever broadcast in America."

For the broadcast schedule of The Wire Odyssey, visit hbo.com. For more on the upcoming soundtracks, click here.

Paul Thomas Anderson Talks with NPR's "Fresh Air" About "There Will Be Blood"

There Will Be Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson spoke with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air yesterday about the making of his latest film, from the joys of working with Daniel Day Lewis to the dangers of recreating an out-of-control oil-derrick fire to the film's haunting score by Jonny Greenwood. When Gross asks why the music works so well, Anderson answers: "All the credit goes to Jonny."

You can hear the entire segment on npr.org. You can listen to the score here.

N'Dour, Veloso, Ferrer Albums Among Years Best, Says KEXP

KEXP, 90.3, Seattle, has posted the Top Ten lists from its Specialty Shows DJs. Youssou N'Dour's Rokku Mi Rokka (Give and Take) was among the year's favorites of Jon Kertzer, the station's expert on African and Afro-Caribbean music. Caetano Veloso's Cê and Ibrahim Ferrer's Mi Sueño are on the list from Darek Mazzone, whose show covers Modern Global Music.

For all the Best of 2007 lists from the KEXP Specialty Shows DJs, visit kexp.org.

Youssou N'Dour on Best of 2007 List from WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter

Youssou N'Dour's Rokku Mi Rokka (Give and Take) has made the Best of 2007 list from Siddhartha Mitter, a Boston Globe contributor and a reporter for WNYC, New York Public Radio.

For Siddhartha's complete list of favorites, visit wnyc.org.

Wilco Helps Inaugurate BluesfestNZ in March 2008

Wilco will be on hand when Australia's award-winning Byron Bay Blues Festival makes its way across the Tasman Sea to launch a New Zealand offshoot in 2008 called BluesfestNZ (aka the Coromandel Peninsula Blues and Roots Music Festival 2008). The band will be joining the line-up for the inaugural event as part of its March 2008 tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Learn more about BluesfestNZ at bluesfest.co.nz. For information on Wilco's tour of the Southern Hemisphere and the States, click here.

"Sweeney Todd" Is a "Cause for Celebration"

The Tim Burton–directed film adaptation of Sweeney Todd is "cause for celebration" among both film and musical theatre buffs, says the Phoenix New Times (AZ). And if there was any doubt about whether the classic Stephen Sondheim musical could flourish on screen, reports reviewer Scott Foundas, "Tim Burton pulled it off." He writes:

Nearing the end of an uncommonly strong year for American movies, he's taken a hallowed classic of the modern musical theater ... and somehow managed to produce something magical ... as fully satisfying a screen version of [Sweeney] as I can imagine. And of all the new-millennium Hollywood musicals ... it's the only one that succeeds both musically and cinematically. It breathes new life into the genre ...

To read the full review, visit phoenixnewtimes.com.

"Sweeney Todd" Is Cut Out for a Wide Audience

The Star-News out of North Carolina says Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd shouldn't be seen as too "New York" for the rest of the country, and the Tim Burton–directed film version "deserves a wide audience." In his Star-News review, writer Ben Steelman praises Burton for making "easily the best movie musical of 2007" and creating for it a concept that "works brilliantly." He also compliments Johnny Depp—"spot on target," vocals and all—and the rest of the "exceedingly well chosen" cast.

In the end, Steelman says, it's Sondheim's score that proves to be "the real hero of the show." In the film, "the music is powerful ... but what strikes you is how lyrical it is" and "far more complex and interesting" than your standard musical-theatre fare.

"In all," writes Steelman, "this is a peculiar Christmas present indeed, but believe me, it works."

To read the complete review, visit starnewsonline.com.

Wilco's "Sky Blue Sky" Makes WFUV Best of 2007 List

Wilco's Sky Blue Sky has made the Best of 2007 list from WFUV, 90.9 FM, in New York. "Another great album from Wilco," writes WFUV's music director, Rita Houston, "Sky Blue Sky doesn't hit a wrong note."

For more from Rita and to listen to "Impossible Germany" off the album, visit npr.org.