tue 10/12/2024

New releases on CD & DVD

Album: The Unthanks - In Winter

Guy Oddy

By and large, most Christmas albums seem to fall into one of two camps. There’s either the lively poptastic soundtracks favoured at family or work celebrations, which generally feature plenty of sleighbells and a cover of something by either Slade or Wizzard, or the choral and rather more religious affairs of Aled Jones and his ilk.

Album: Duster - In Dreams

Joe Muggs

There’s a lot of anger at algorithm-driven music discovery around – a lot of it justified, as the big platforms push the already-big acts and lowest common demoninator slop is aided in rising to the top. But we can’t talk about the topic without also acknowledging that it has provided some surprising opportunities for unorthodox music.

Album: Lauren Mayberry - Vicious Creature

Thomas H Green

Amid the electro-rock crunch of “Sorry, Etc”, Lauren Mayberry spits out, “I killed myself to be one of the boys/I lost my head to be one of the boys/...

Album: White Denim - 12

Kieron Tyler

White Denim’s literally titled 12th album opens with the fidgety “Light on.” Drawing a line between electronica and Tropicália, it exudes sunniness...

Blu-ray: Juggernaut

Graham Rickson

That Juggernaut is as good as it is seems in hindsight to have been a happy accident. Inspired by a bomb hoax on the QE2 in 1972, the producers fired...

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Album: Panelia - Nothing and All At Once

Guy Oddy

New Delhi producer’s debut revisits the 90s

Blu-ray: Black Tuesday

Graham Fuller

Edward G. Robinson excels as a psychopathic gang boss who escapes Death Row

Album: Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles from Abbey Road

Liz Thomson

The hits keep on coming from Lu's Jukebox

Album: Three Cane Whale - Hibernacula

Tim Cumming

Delicate musical miniatures spun from the English landscape

Album: The Innocence Mission - Midwinter Swimmers

Kieron Tyler

Allusive reflections prompted by experience and the commonplace

Album: Alice Ivy - Do What Makes You Happy

Thomas H Green

Aussie producer's third is half gems and half pap

Album: Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More

Joe Muggs

Gems in the rough on the Pixie / Breeder's long-awaited solo debut

Album: Joan Armatrading - How Did This Happen and What Does It Now Mean

Liz Thomson

Held in love and affection

Album: FaithNYC - Love is a Wish Away

Mark Kidel

Wonderfully produced off-piste music

Album: Father John Misty - Mahashmashana

Kieron Tyler

The flawless union of style and substance

Blu-ray: Pharaoh

Graham Rickson

Dazzling historical epic from the Polish New Wave

Album: Body Count - Merciless

Guy Oddy

Ice goes on autopilot

Album: Linkin Park - From Zero

Tom Carr

California metal icons mark new era with captivating eighth album

Album: Jon Batiste - Beethoven Blues

Sebastian Scotney

Beethoven's hits reimagined by the American musical celebrity

Album: Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens - American Railroad

Liz Thomson

American railroad history retold in a song cycle

Album: Dolly Parton & Family - Smoky Mountain DNA - Family, Faith & Fables

Joe Muggs

Forlorn hope, and a beautiful expression of family, from the American heartland

Blu-ray: The Oblong Box

Nick Hasted

Vincent Price and Christopher Lee in 'Witchfinder General''s phantom follow-up

Album: Tomorrow X Together - The Star Chapter: Sanctuary

Peter Quinn

From heavenly pop to reggaeton heat, TXT's musical universe knows no bounds

Album: Garfunkel & Garfunkel: Father and Son

Liz Thomson

Art for Art's sake

Album: Primal Scream - Come Ahead

Guy Oddy

The Scream finally knock out the album we’ve been hoping for

Album: Alley Cat - The Widow Project

Joe Muggs

Enter a haunted factory and quiver in the shadows with a dubstep auteur

Album: Møster! - Springs

Kieron Tyler

Norwegian supergroup merges jazz with rock’s outer edges

Album: Chuck Prophet - Wake the Dead

Nick Hasted

Rock'n'roll master dances past the graveyard with cumbia rhythms and quizzically cocked eyebrow

Album: Willie Nelson - Last Leaf on the Tree

Tim Cumming

The 91-year-old’s 153rd album is more than a farewell to arms – it’s a late-career classic

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