MARK HUGHES COBB: Mumford and Lasso connect the sounds and scenes - Tuscaloosa News

As if you needed more reasons to love "Ted Lasso," music utilized so far on season two includes: "Wise Up" by Aimee Mann; "Tear it Up," Queen; "Christmas in Hollis," Run-DMC; "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," Ella Fitzgerald; "Santa Baby," Eartha Kitt; "Fairytale of New York," the Pogues; "LOVE," Nat King Cole; "She's a Rainbow," Rolling Stones; "Dancing Shoes," Arctic Monkeys; "By Your Side," Sade; "I Feel Free," Cream; "Down by the Riverside," Mahalia Jackson;  "Blue Moon," the Marcels; "Beware of Darkness," George Harrison; "Nightclub Jitters," the Replacements; "A Girl Like You," Edwin Collins; and pieces of Dvorak's Ninth Symphony, and Debussy's "Claire de Lune."

That's a mix disc I'd spin. Season one's accompaniment wasn't shabby either, with Sam Cooke, Dusty Springfield, the Yardbirds, Lady Gaga, David Bowie and a plethora more. There may be a bit much Mumford and Sons for some palates, but as Marcus Mumford's the show's music co-coordinator – and writer/performer of its rousing, catchy theme song – that's a gimme.

As the finest meldings of music and film do, both can be forever changed via vivid visual association. Mann's "Wise Up" had already cemented its cinematic star, as her music inspired writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 "Magnolia," still his finest, if not most purely entertaining (that could be the 1997 "Boogie Nights") feature film.

"Magnolia" is also my played-ace whenever someone trots out the tired "Tom Cruise (insert handsome/beautiful/bizarre star of your choice) can't act" line. Of course he/she/they can, given a proper script and director. See also his work with Steven Spielberg on the 2002 "Minority Report," with Cameron Crowe, 2001's "Vanilla Sky," with Oliver Stone, 1989's "Born on the Fourth of July," and with Martin Scorcese, 1986's "The Color of Money."

Those aren't hacks, kids, no matter what you think of real-life Cruise, who might indeed be just a wee bit unhinged, even mildly terrifying, with those 10-foot Cruise-a-tron gleaming teeth, and that non-aging face. Dude just turned 60, and yes, meme-makers, that is nine years older than Wilford Brimley was when he shot "Cocoon," but is it really news that some look different from others, age differently, act differently?

Welcome to Earth!

Pre-"Magnolia," Mann had already burst through as bass player/singer for 'Til Tuesday, her startlingly wide-open eyes and thoroughly '80s popping blonde 'do onscreen seemingly 24-7 in the band's video for 1985 hit "Voices Carry." Critical love carried to her solo debut album, 1993's "Whatever," praised in print by everyone from Elvis Costello to novelist/music nerd Nick Hornby. Anderson was listening to Mann, including work from her 1993 disc "I'm With Stupid" – in the film, a character snorts coke off that CD – while writing the "Magnolia" script.

Mann composed a couple of new ones for "Magnolia," including "You Do," and "Save Me," the latter Oscar-nominated, though it lost to Phil Collins' forgettable "You'll Be In My Heart" from Disney's "Tarzan." In concert – she's played the Bama Theatre a couple of times – Mann introduces "Save Me" as the one ".... that lost an Oscar to Phil Collins and his cartoon monkey love song."

Anderson assembled a massive ensemble, including Jason Robards (sterling, in what would be his last film), Melora Walters, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Philip Baker Hall, Thomas Jane, Melinda Dillon, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Alfred Molina, Felicity Huffman, Luis Guzmán, Henry Gibson, Clark Gregg, Ricky Jay and dozens of others, including in small, essentially cameo bits, Mann and Anderson themselves.

All the major stories dovetail toward a quiet, despairing moment – Hoffman and Robards will tear out your heart – when a sole, reverbing piano quietly rings out, and Mann starts, gently, "It's not/what you thought/when you first began it." Then, in a you'll love it or you'll hate it moment, the characters haltingly begin to sing along, crescendo-ing to the refrain "It's not going to stop/'til you wise up."

Even though her mournful ballad originally appeared in Crowe's 1996 "Jerry Maguire," which could be an argument either way for Cruise's ability, and has since been used in numerous shows including "Community," "Crossing Jordan," "Cold Case," "Supergirl" and now "Ted Lasso," "Wise Up" belongs to "Magnolia."

But give the "Ted Lasso" song-wranglers credit, it's a perfect choice after Roy-expletive-Kent (Brett Goldstein) lays out keep-it-real advice to Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) – "Don't you dare settle for 'fine' " – not just because Mann's counsel is also spot-on, but because earlier, Ted (Jason Sudeikis) had rambled on about, well, a spoiler moment: "You suffered an unlikely and tragic coincidence, not too dissimilar from those seen throughout Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 opus 'Magnolia.' "

Yeah, the show's writers know what they're doing.

That tone registers down to Mumford again, whose penchant for melancholic lyrics punctuated by powered-up choruses has lead Mumford and Sons to folk-pop hits such as "Little Lion Man," "The Cave," and the No. 1 "I Will Wait."

I'm pre-disposed to like 'em, what with their frequent Shakespeare allusions: When I last directed "Much Ado About Nothing," in 2013, at my dramaturg Natalie's urging we used their "Sigh No More" to bookend. It begins quoting the Bard, specifically wayward Benedick: "Serve God, love me, and mend," and "Live unbruised; we are friends," but drags down with "My heart was never pure/and you know me." Yikes. So we dumb-showed an opening with Claudio spying Hero, Benedick wooing Beatrice, and then the whole pack of 'em leaving love behind for war, as their hearts were never pure.

But then, all-Mumford-y, the song soars upward, toward "Love it will not betray you/dismay or enslave you/it can set you free./Be more like the man you were made to be." Well admonished, Marcus. So at show's conclusion, when Beatrice – I rewrote a few lines, like you do, to give her more to say after the kiss – says "Strike up pipers!," the cast launched into that happy ending, leading to bows.

And now I can't hear or picture that song any other way.

Some are upset with the Emmys – Imagine, an artificial and entirely subjective set of judgments, played out by folks you don't know, turning against your will! – in part because "Ted Lasso" swept up, with four top gold: Sudeikis, Waddingham and Goldstein all won, fittingly, and the show came out on top for outstanding comedy series. Somehow, in a ceremony that offers winners and losers, they don't use "best," but "outstanding." Lazy writing. Doesn't the fact of being nominated suggest they're already outstanding? So out-outstanding? Upper-outstanding? Variably lofty-standing?

Complaints are valid, as all rankings are just arguments in numerical form, but also because there's been hot competition: "The Expanse" soared higher than ever. Marvel scored again, with "WandaVision," "Loki," and even, yes, the less-loved "What If?" and "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier." HBO continued its run of smashing series, but little love was shown for spectacular "Lovecraft Country," even less to "His Dark Materials," or "The Nevers." Instead, voters fell in line for drab, disappointing "Mare of Easttown," and for yet another celebration of the inbred unemployed, aka "The Crown."

But if you haven't stayed with "Ted Lasso," haven't gotten past the fact that, as a different sort of show, it's still often as tragic as comedic, you're missing out. The nature's clued in right from Mumford's start, which, sonically, rings out like early, joyous Beatles, but sings: "Yeah, it might be all that you get/Yeah, I guess this might well be it."

That, folks. That's the hook. And if you don't get that, well, you're missing the music.

Take us out, Marcus: "Heaven knows I've tried."

Reach Tusk Editor Mark Hughes Cobb at mark.cobb@tuscaloosanews.com, or call 205-722-0201.