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." 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."

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 conversation here.

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.

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.

The Star-News out of North Carolina says Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd  "deserves a wide audience." The Star-News review praises Burton for making "easily the best movie musical of 2007" and creating for it a concept that "works brilliantly." In the end, 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.

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.

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."

In an in-depth article for Wired magazine, David Byrne examines the history of music, recorded and performed, and looks ahead, offering six possibilities for what the future might hold for creators, distributors, and consumers of music in its many forms. Included with the article are a number of audio clips from his conversations on the subject with Brian Eno, label execs, and artist managers. In a separate article, Byrne and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke chat about the interplay of business and art in music.

Alex Ross, the New Yorker's classical music critic, has posted on his blog, The Rest Is Noise, his Apex 07 list—some of the best performances and recordings he's heard this year. Among the best on CD: Wilco's "On and On and On," from Sky Blue Sky. And among his favorite performances of 2007 are the Disney Hall performance of John Adams's Naive and Sentimental Music by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the LA Philharmonic, and Audra McDonald in a Valentine's Day performance of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at LA Opera.

The LAist calls Tim Burton's film version of Sweeney Todd a "wonderful, hilarious, inspired" work. "[L]et there be no doubt that Tim Burton has crafted a true piece of musical cinema from Stephen Sondheim's bloody masterpiece." In the title role, Johnny Depp is "magnificent," his performance "so powerful as Todd that you eventually begin to relish his countless murders." Ultimately, "Sweeney Todd joins Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands as Burton's finest work."

In his review of There Will Be Blood for Reuters news service, John DeFore writes that Jonny Greenwood's "captivating" score is an important player in the film, "greatly contributing to the sense that tectonic forces lie beneath the drama." 

The San Diego Film Critics Society has named There Will Be Blood the winner of four awards, including Best Score for Jonny Greenwood. Awards for the film also went to Paul Thomas Anderson for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (based on Upton Sinclair's novel Oil!) and Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor. The San Diegan critics also recognized Sweeney Todd's Dante Ferretti for Best Production Design.