thu 08/05/2025

New releases on CD & DVD

Album: Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke - Tall Tales

Joe Muggs

I’ve got an admission: I never really got Radiohead, in no small part because of Thom Yorke’s singing. I appreciate his technical abilities and songwriting, and that a lot of people find his anguish cathartic, but the more he goes for it the more I switch off.

Album: PinkPantheress - Fancy That

Thomas H Green

There’s plenty of noise out there about 24-year-old Kentish musician Victoria Walker, AKA PinkPantheress. Since being acclaimed BBC Sound of 2022, the spotlight has been on her. She supported Halsey and Olivia Rodrigo on tour, worked with Beabadoobee, Skrillex, and K-Pop sensations Le SSerafim, and had a song on the Barbie soundtrack. It’s a lot. Perhaps, judging from this mixtape – a 20-minute filler release we might once have called an EP – she’s spreading herself too thin.

Blu-ray: Laurel & Hardy - The Silent Years (...

Graham Rickson

Eureka’s second volume of Laurel and Hardy shorts catches the pair in 1928 on the cusp of their successful transition to the sound era, two of the 10...

Album: Arcade Fire - Pink Elephant

Thomas H Green

20 years on from their first appearance on record, the seventh long-player from Canadian indie-art-rock behemoths Arcade Fire comes off the back of...

Album: PUP - Who Will Look After The Dogs?

Ellie Roberts

PUP’s Who Will Look After The Dogs? is a raw and emotionally charged album that captures the band’s chaotic spirit while showing clear growth in both...

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Album: Suzanne Vega - Flying With Angels

Liz Thomson

A diverse album that's still uniquely Vega

Album: Lael Neale - Altogether Stranger

Kieron Tyler

Arresting art pop with a touch of creepiness

Album: Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars

Mark Kidel

A rock opera too scholarly?

Album: Dr Robert & Matt Deighton - The Instant Garden

Thomas H Green

A couple of old mods waft into delightfully Seventies hippy territory

Album: Self Esteem - A Complicated Woman

Kathryn Reilly

Dissecting the utter tripe 21st-century western women navigate every day. In song!

Album: Billy Idol - Dream Into It

Joe Muggs

Immense charm and uniqueness shine through, but too much leaning into the generic

Album: Viagra Boys - Viagr Aboys

Ibi Keita

Louder, weirder and all the way in

Album: Maria Somerville - Luster

Kieron Tyler

Irish musical impressionist embraces shoegazing

Album: Ronny Graupe's Szelest - Newfoundland Tristesse

Sebastian Scotney

A deep, subtle and constantly engaging album

Album: Gigspanner Big Band - Turnstone

Tim Cumming

Third album from British folk’s biggest big band

Album: Mark Morton - Without the Pain

Thomas H Green

Second solo album from Lamb of God guitarist lays down hefty southern boogie

DVD/Blu-ray: In a Year of 13 Moons

Nick Hasted

UK disc debut for Fassbinder's neglected, tragic, tender trans tale

Album: Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson - What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow

Liz Thomson

Finger-picking good

Album: Joe Lovano - Homage

Sebastian Scotney

Free-flowing spontaneity

Album: Bon Iver - SABLE ƒABLE

Mark Kidel

An album of exquisite wonder

Album: Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong

Ibi Keita

A left turn that trades chaos for charm, with mixed results

Album: Sofia Härdig - Lighthouse of Glass

Kieron Tyler

Swedish singer-songwriter takes control of her music

Blu-ray: Yojimbo / Sanjuro

Graham Rickson

A pair of Kurosawa classics, beautifully restored

Album: The Waterboys - Life, Death and Dennis Hopper

Thomas H Green

An alternately involving then naff tribute to a countercultural film figurehead

Album: Miki Berenyi Trio - Tripla

Tim Cumming

Debut set from Lush singer-songwriter’s new trio

Album: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious

Guy Oddy

Geordie rockers’ pulverising psych metal is guaranteed to rattle windows

Album: Elton John and Brandi Carlile - Who Believes in Angels?

Liz Thomson

Elton John & Brandi Carlile step out in style

DVD/Blu-ray: The Substance

Markie Robson-Scott

French director Coralie Fargeat on the making of her award-winning body-horror movie

Album: Erlend Apneseth - Song Over Støv

Kieron Tyler

Norwegian musical impressionist’s journey into the centre of a vortex

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