New releases on CD & DVD
CD: PJ Harvey - All About Eve (Original Music)
Saturday, 19 October 2019
PJ Harvey is not just a consummate rock musician but a multi-talented artist, who has re-invented herself throughout her career. She paints and makes sculpture, has participated with Artangel in an ambitious art installation, and written and performed theatre and film music.
CD: Allah-Las - LAHS
Friday, 18 October 2019
It’s unfortunate that LAHS’s opening track is titled “Holding Pattern” as the album only achieves lift off with its ninth cut “Light Yearly”, a chugging workout with spiralling guitar and echoes of Sixties folk rock if it were refracted through an opaque crystal.
CD: Foals - Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost...
Tuesday, 15 October 2019
Foals, the band with a trademark sound characterised by the African-style intricate interplay of rhythm rather than lead guitars, returns with what...
CD: James Arthur - You
Monday, 14 October 2019
It’s an easy joke to suggest that James Arthur needs an editor. By this point, the 31-year-old singer is almost as famous for his lyrical mis-steps...
CD: Mark Lanegan Band - Somebody's Knocking
Saturday, 12 October 2019
Spaghetti Western guitar, rumbling bass, a rattling keyboard pulse and an unyielding forward thrust combine to delineate Somebody's Knocking’s...
CD: Jacques Greene - Dawn Chorus
Housey electronic suite from Toronto producer is gently alluring |
CD: Elbow - Giants of All Sizes
Brutal times put Guy Garvey at bay |
CD: Lightning Bolt - Sonic Citadel
Adrenalin-soaked wild abandon from the bass and drum duo |
DVD: Do Not Adjust Your Set / At Last The 1948 Show
What the Pythons did first: the remnants of two iconic 1960s shows, restored with respect |
CD: Babymetal - Metal Galaxy
Heavy metal meets cutesy Kawaii in an incongruous and deeply baffling blend |
CD: 808 State - Transmission Suite
First album in 17 years from Mancunian electronic innovators is an engaging retro-futurist ear-journey |
CD: Mika - My Name is Michael Holbrook
The arch ostentatiousness and grandiosity of Mika's pop are all still intact |
CD: Wilco - Ode to Joy
Love in the time of Trump |
CD: The Menzingers - Hello Exile
Pennsylvania punks channel ageing disgracefully into grown-up punk rock |
CD: Tonbruket - Masters of Fog
Swedish quartet celebrates 10 years with fifth jazz-rock fusion album |
CD: The Darkness – Easter is Cancelled
The comedy metallers are back with a smirk |
CD: Tegan & Sara - Hey I'm Just Like You
The twins revisit high school |
CD: Trentemøller - Obverse
Danish noir star reassesses his methods |
CD: 65daysofstatic - replicr, 2019
Hiding the flame of passion under the bushel of math |
Blu-ray: High Noon
Fred Zinnemann's searing allegorical masterpiece about the McCarthy witch-hunts |
CD: The New Pornographers – In the Morse Code of Brake Lights
Neko Case substantially contributes to more allusive art-pop |
CD: Rachid Taha - Je suis africain
The casbah rocks - from the grave |
CD: Keane - Cause And Effect
Tim Rice-Oxley's break-up reunites his band with songcraft and synth-pop |
CD: Liam Gallagher - Why Me? Why Not.
The songs may remain the same, but the delivery has a little more charm |
CD: Renée Zellweger - Judy
The film star does a fine job interpreting a host of Garland classics |
CD: Tove Lo - Sunshine Kitty
Forthright relationship-centred lyricism combined with elegant electronic pop to winning effect |
CD: Mudhoney - Morning in America
A fearsome State of the Nation address by Mark Arm’s grunge veterans |
CD: Charli XCX - Charli
Futuristic pop pioneer bares her soul, with a little help from her friends |
CD: Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love
Genre-busting Norwegian co-opts trance music to examine the impacts of ageing |
latest in today
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Kinks - Arthur or the Decline and Fa...
Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire hasn’t had the stratospheric levels of praise as the preceding...
10 Questions for musician Craig Finn
As frontman and lyricist of US rockers The Hold Steady, Craig Finn...
Spiral, Series 7, BBC Four review - hard-hitting return of o...
And welcome back to our favourite French cop show – perhaps our favourite...
The Mask of Orpheus, English National Opera review - amorpho...
Advance publicity overstated the case for The Mask of Orpheus. "Iconic"? Only to academics and acolytes, for British audiences haven't...
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil review - fantasy follow-up fall...
Angelina Jolie is back again with those cut-glass cheekbones and...
Don Pasquale, Royal Opera review - fun and frolics in stylis...
Venetian director Damiano Michieletto’s new...
Glennie, Lubbe, Ticciati, O/Modernt, Kings Place review - a...
Some of the greatest pieces of the string orchestra repertoire are based on pre-existing pieces: the fantasias by Tippett and Vaughan Williams, on...
CD: PJ Harvey - All About Eve (Original Music)
PJ Harvey is not just a consummate rock musician but a multi-...
The deathless Alicia Alonso, in person
The magnificent, controversial Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso, who asserted that she would live to 200, died yesterday in Havana, aged nearly 99....