New releases on CD & DVD
Album: Mdou Moctar - Funeral for Justice
Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Despite its title, Mdou Moctar’s new album is no slow-paced mournful dirge. In fact, it is louder, faster and more overtly political than any of his band’s previous discs – not so much desert blues as desert punk.
DVD/Blu-Ray: Priscilla
Tuesday, 23 April 2024
There’s a scene in Priscilla where Elvis stands above his wife, who is scrambling to put her clothes in a suitcase. Priscilla has just confronted him about a letter she found from the actress Ann-Margret, confirming her suspicion that the King of Rock'n'Roll has been unfaithful. Elvis's legs in their white trousers tower before her like the pillars of Graceland.
Album: Fred Hersch - Silent, Listening
Monday, 22 April 2024
The previous solo piano solo album from Fred Hersch, one of the world’s great jazz pianists, was called Songs from Home, released on the New York...
Album: Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets...
Saturday, 20 April 2024
Taylor Swift’s unfathomable ability to articulate human emotion shines as brightly as ever in her latest double album The Tortured Poets Department:...
Album: Jonny Drop • Andrew Ashong - The Puzzle...
Friday, 19 April 2024
As I sat down to write this review, the sun came out. It was a salutory reminder of the importance of context: where I’d previously thought “mmm,...
Album: Pearl Jam - Dark Matter
Enduring grunge icons return full of energy, arguably their most empowered yet |
Album: Paraorchestra with Brett Anderson and Charles Hazlewood - Death Songbook
An uneven voyage into darkness |
Album: EMEL - MRA
Tunisian-American singer's latest is fired with feminism and global electro-pop maximalism |
Album: A Certain Ratio - It All Comes Down to This
Veteran Mancunians undergo a further re-assessment and reinvention |
Album: Maggie Rogers - Don't Forget Me
Rogers continues her knack for capturing natural moments, embracing a more live sound |
Album: Lizz Wright - Shadow
Brilliant album from superlative vocalist |
Album: Shabaka - Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace
A quiet and reflective breakthrough |
Blu-ray: Happy End (Šťastný konec)
Technically brilliant black comedy hasn't aged well |
Album: Nia Archives - Silence is Loud
Sweeping up generations' worth of influences into a giddy pop rush |
Album: Fabiana Palladino - Fabiana Palladino
A remarkably sleek and sophisticated debut |
Album: Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties - In Lieu of Flowers
Aaron West’s carefully crafted next chapter is storytelling at its finest |
Album: Khruangbin - A LA SALA
Same old same old, and all the better for it |
Album: The Black Keys - Ohio Players
A safe, contained album from a band that made its mark with searing blues rock |
Album: The Libertines - All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade
The riotous spirits of the Noughties mellow into a surprising maturity |
Album: Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter
So much more than an Country album |
Album: Anoushka Shankar - Chapter II: How Dark It Is Before Dawn
A sonic journey through space and time |
Album: Jane Weaver - Love In Constant Spectacle
The most welcoming album to date from Greater Manchester’s musical individualist |
Album: Ride - Interplay
Oxford indie kings not only on form, but breaking new ground |
Album: Sum 41 - Heaven :x: Hell
A bittersweet goodbye album from the Pop Punk legends |
DVD/Blu-ray: Padre Pio
Shia LaBeouf stars in Abel Ferrara's latest grungy spiritual quest, earthed by landscape and politics |
Album: Sheryl Crow - Evolution
The song remains pretty much the same for US soft rocker |
Album: High Llamas - Hey Panda
Former Microdisney mainstay Sean O’Hagan reshapes his music |
Album: Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood
Soaked in Southern spirit, the Alabama-born songwriter embraces her country era |
Album: The Jesus and Mary Chain - Glasgow Eyes
A remarkable Indian summer for East Kilbride's finest |
latest in today
Stephen review - a breathtakingly good first feature by a mu...
Stephen is the first feature film by multi-media artist Melanie Manchot and it’s the best debut film I’ve seen since Steve McQueen’s ...
Album: Mdou Moctar - Funeral for Justice
Despite its title, Mdou Moctar’s new album is no slow-paced mournful dirge. In fact, it is louder, faster and more overtly political than any of...
Blue Lights Series 2, BBC One review - still our best cop sh...
The first season of Blue Nights was so close to ...
Sabine Devieilhe, Mathieu Pordoy, Wigmore Hall review - ench...
Sabine Devieilhe, as with many other great sopranos, elicits much fan worship, with no less than three encores at her recent Wigmore Hall recital...
Jonn Elledge: A History of the World in 47 Borders review -...
In A History of the World in 47 Borders, Jonn Elledge takes an ostensibly dry subject – how maps and boundaries have shaped our world –...
DVD/Blu-Ray: Priscilla
There’s a scene in Priscilla where Elvis stands above his wife, who is scrambling to put her clothes in a suitcase. Priscilla has just...
Špaček, BBC Philharmonic, Bihlmaier, Bridgewater Hall, Manch...
Billed as a “Viennese Whirl”, this programme showed that there are different kinds of music that may be known to the orchestral canon as coming...
Banging Denmark, Finborough Theatre review - lively but conf...
What would happen if a notorious misogynist actually fell in love? With a glacial Danish librarian? And decided his best means of...
Album: Fred Hersch - Silent, Listening
The previous solo piano solo album from Fred Hersch, one of the world’s great...
Music Reissues Weekly: Linda Smith - I So Liked Spring, Noth...
Three years ago, the release of Till Another Time 1988-1996 generated a thumbs up. A compilation of recordings by the Baltimore and/or...