The most elevating new music this week? It's right here:

Colin Meloy: Colin Meloy Sings Live!
The Decemberists' bookish frontman ditches the baroque backing on this solo acoustic recording which features several simple reinterpretations of his band's songs (like the one in the video above) alongside a handful of rarities, including "Dracula's Daughter," which he claims is "the worst song I ever wrote."
Free Download: "We Both Go Down Together"

The Breeders: Mountain Battles
With the Pixies reunion finally out of the way, Kim Deal can now safely return to giving us sleepy bass lines and slow motion surrealism on the Breeders' first new album in six years.
Free Download: "Bang On"

Foals: Antidotes
With cryptic lyrics, angular guitars and a singer named Yannis Philippakis, you just know this Oxford quintet is destined to get tons of blog love. The weird part? The tightly wound music, produced by TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek, actually deserves it.
Free Download: "Balloons"

Also out: Boredoms: Super Roots, Vol. 9, Clinic: Do It!, Cut Copy: In Ghost Colors, The Duke Spirit: Neptune, Eric Avery: Help Wanted, Hayes Carll: Trouble in Mind, Jonathan Richman: Because Her Beauty Is Raw & Wild, Leona Lewis: Spirit, The Long Blondes: Couples, Marie Digby: Unfold, Neva Dinova: You May Already Be Dreaming, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Dig, Lazarus, Dig!, Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts I - IV, Peter Moren: The Last Tycoon, P.O.D.: When Angels and Serpents Dance, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin: Pershing, Tapes 'n Tapes: Walk It Off, Tina Dico: Count to Ten, Various Artists: Punk Goes Crunk, Was (Not Was): Boo!, Wye Oak: If Children

Want to relax and watch something soothing? Not a good time for that, actually.

There Will Be Blood
For all the kudos directed at Daniel Day-Lewis’s Oscar-winning performance as oilman Daniel Plainview, Paul Thomas Anderson’s gorgeous film divides a lot of critics. Some see a slow-moving, strangely undramatic slab of art direction. Others see a uniquely told story that seems to climb right out of the ground to preen and rage before getting in a little bowling. To be honest, we’re not sure either of these is entirely wrong. We are convinced, however, that the performance by Dillon Freasier as Plainview’s son, H.W., was too often overlooked.

Also Bloody Good:

Sweeney Todd
Johnny Depp’s cuts a dark figure, and a few throats, in Tim Burton's enjoyable (even for the nonmusical lover, that is) adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical about revenge and meat pies.

Bonnie & Clyde: Ultimate Collector’s Edition
Iconic lovers on a crime spree, these beautiful baddies, played by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, meet a famously bullet-riddled end, though at least they get the deluxe treatment in this new set.

We have a confession to make.

Generally, we prefer our priests to be kind and avuncular, like Bing Crosby in Going My Way, or scrappy and political, like Karl Malden in On the Waterfront.

But Father Anderton, the priest in Andrew O’Hagan’s terrific novel Be Near Me, newly released in paperback, is nothing like those more-familiar types. We could say more about him, but learning what makes the man tick is part of what makes this novel so rich and unusual.

Seen as a posh English twit by many in his tough Scottish parish, Anderton comes to find a purpose of sorts in his friendship with a pair of misbegotten teens. The question of who holds the more powerful influence in the trio, however, is debatable.

It’s a gripping, thoughtful story, and one you won’t forget soon.

The best new music this week? It's right here:

R.E.M.: Accelerate
Don't believe the hype. This isn't a return of the R.E.M. of olden days, but that said, the raging guitars and brighter melodies do mark a significant improvement over anything the band has put out in the last 10 years. So we'll take it.
Stream: "Supernatural Superserious"

Moby: Last Night
The Play boy returns with his most exciting album since, well, ever. An uptempo dance-floor romp, Last Night matches the massive ambition of Play with the blissful house roots of the New Yorker's early years.
Stream: Last Night

Sun Kil Moon: April
Former Red House Painters frontman Mark Kozelek still sounds like the gloomiest man on earth, but with Sun Kil Moon's third album, he's actually sounding more comfortable in his skin than ever, whether burning through Neil Young style rockers or contemplating the moonlight in plaintive ballads.
Stream: "Lost Verses"

Also Out:  Black Keys, Attack & Release; David Ford, Songs for the Road; Diamanda Galás, Guilty Guilty Guilty; Fall Out Boy, Live in Phoenix; Los Campesinos, Hold on Now, Youngster; Lili Haydn, Place Between Places; Kylie Minogue, X; Muse, Haarp; Paddy Casey, Addicted to Company; Proclaimers, Life with You; Robyn Hitchcock, Shadow Cat; Rolling Stones, Shine a Light, Original Soundtrack; Sandrine, Dark Fades into the Light; Van Morrison, Keep It Simple; Various Artists, In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2; Various Artists, My Blueberry Nights; Willie Nelson, One Hell of a Ride; Yelle, Pop-Up

Mark Evanier's Kirby: King of Comics is big—as in, nine inches wide and, when stood on its spine, more than a foot tall. The size suits its subject matter well. Artist-creator-innovator Jack Kirby didn't do small. He did the Hulk. And the Thing. And many, many, many more.

If you browse through a copy at a bookstore, as we did, and think you can save yourself time by getting your Kirby fix in a few minutes, as we did, then you are wrong, as we were.

Kirby: King of Comics isn't just about looking at the large pretty pictures. It's about eyeballing the art as carefully as Kirby spent creating it at his battered, old drawing table. It's about discovering the nifty little asides—like the one about how Kirby, when asked what kind of artistic greeting he would extend to space travelers, offered a drawing of two strapping, Kirby-esque superheroes in the hope that the depictions would give pause to conquest-minded ETs. It's about finding the sweet love story of Jack and Roz Kirby amid the screaming panels of "WOK!," "BTAM!" and "RURRF!"

It's about getting to know a man whom Evanier, the prolific writer and blogger, was fortunate to know. And it's about standing in awe of a legend.

Actually, better make that sitting in awe of a legend. Like we said, the book is big.

The best new music this week? It's right here: 

Gnarls Barkley: The Odd Couple
Nobody will forget "Crazy" anytime soon, but the second full-length outing from producer Danger Mouse and singer Cee-Lo Green aims to prove they're not one-hit wonders. Judging from the evidence, they've got at least two or three more.
Stream:  The Odd Couple

Panic at the Disco:  Pretty. Odd.
The Las Vegas band trades in histrionic emo for high camp on its self-explanatory second album, which shamelessly pilfers all its ideas from the Beatles' back catalog, with particular attention given to Sgt. Pepper. Hey, it worked for Oasis.
Stream:  Pretty. Odd.

The B-52s:  Funplex
We didn't realize how much we missed the B-52s until we once again had the rare thrill of hearing Fred Schneider's mad bark bounce off Cindy Wilson's butter-smooth vocals. New Order producer Steve Osbourne makes sure the Georgia group's first new release in 16 years doesn’t sound as musty as the old beehive wigs.
Stream:  Funplex

Also Out:  Borko, Celebrating Life; Brad Mehldau Trio, Live; Counting Crows, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings; De Novo Dahl, Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound; Elf Power, In a Cave; Excepter, Debt Dept; Ghostface Killah, The Wallabee Champ; Morrissey, Greatest Hits; Pennywise, Reason to Believe; The Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely; The Waybacks, Loaded

How should a gamer stay plugged in while awaiting Grand Theft Auto next month?

The answer: Downloadable content (or DLC). Many of our favorite games have extra content that can be downloaded via your console’s network (Xbox LIVE, Playstation Network), either for free or a few bucks.

Here’s a rundown of some of the best stuff:

Bring Down the Sky for Mass Effect (Xbox LIVE)
For five bucks, you’ll race to stop a hurling asteroid from obliterating a planet. Who would do such a thing? The nefarious antihuman Batarians, that’s who. Like the original, BDtS is filled with top notch voice-overs, has a good story and is action-packed for the nearly two hours it’ll take for you to finish.

Anthony Minghella didn't cheat you.

On that, we, who, like Seinfeld's Elaine, just didn't get The English Patient, and Sydney Pollack, who proudly produced films with the Oscar-winner, agree.

"He was interested in the poetry, lavishing the viewer with story, scope and richness," Pollack told the New York Times in the wake of Minghella's sudden death at age 54. "Look at what you got for your $12 ticket with Anthony."

Nowhere did we get more bang for the buck than in Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley.

If the 1999 Matt Damon film had simply been one of the best Hitchcockian thrillers since Alfred Hitchcock made the real thing, then that would have been an accomplishment enough. But coming just before Moulin Rouge!, Chicago and the revival of the big-screen song-and-dance show, it was also one of the best musicals since Bob Fosse commanded a set.

The Talented Mr. Ripley a musical?

Yes:

And, okay, no.

Certainly, Ripley isn't a bust-out-a-move-on-the-street ballet, à la West Side Story. But it is musical. It does burst out into song (albeit, in a nightclub setting). And it does feature Damon's eerie-touching Chet Baker-style serenade (see above).

Ripley didn't win Minghella his Oscar. But in our book, and with apologies to Truly Madly Deeply, it was his most winning film.

Look at what we got for our ticket price, indeed.

OK, we're beside oursides at discovering a TV series on YouTube devoted to sustainablilty in the era of "peak oil."

Each 30-minute installment of the Peak Moment series addresses a different aspect of eco-friendliness and advises on practices that avoid dependence on foreign oil. Not dissimilar to your local PBS station's magazine shows, an earnest host interviews her way around a worm farm, a green building project and a carpool group, as well as hosting roundtable discussions about energy vulnerability, forest management and compost. Low-budget but well produced, directed and edited, the Peak Moment series features fascinating subject matter and shines a spotlight on significant small-scale efforts to make the world a better place.

Hosted on a community-driven site like YouTube, one finds oneself with the oh-so-encouraging feeling that we're all in this together and actually happy to be sharing the ark. We have seen the future, and it is us!