I recently finished watching season two of Russian Doll. Enjoyed it overall, largely on the strength of the idiosyncratic performance of fellow member of the tribe Natasha Lyonne. Though if I’m being honest, I’m not sure what mental state one needs to be in to properly enjoy the mindfuckery of this most unusual show. Shout out to the YouTube recappers for helping my linear mind make sense of it all.
But that’s not why we’re here. The Russian Doll music department was clearly given carte blanche to license whatever songs they wanted to use. And perhaps the greatest placement this season is “The Thin Ice” by Pink Floyd. The audacity to use a song from The Wall – an album that has sold nearly 20 million copies, and already has a distinct cinematic association to it. In a million years I would never consider “The Thin Ice” would be an effective song to use in a TV show. Yet here it is, and yeah it fucking was. They didn’t stop there, using “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” a few episodes later. It was as if after killing Sollozzo and McClusky at Louis, Michael Corleone went back a week later for some veal parm.
I tend to play The Wall from start to finish once a year or so. The first copy I owned was bought used at Moby Disc in Sherman Oaks back in the day. It had some weed residue on its gatefold; clearly this was the joint rolling platform for its original owner during the 80s. Picked up a weedless reissue recently @Freakbeat Records, not far from Moby’s old spot. The album never fails to deliver. 🤘
