New releases on CD & DVD
DVD/Blu-ray: Parallel Mothers
Sunday, 22 May 2022
Parallel Mothers unfolds at a daringly slow pace, and there are moments in the first half of Pedro Almodóvar’s 2021 drama when you wish that things would speed up.
Album: Harry Styles - Harry's House
Saturday, 21 May 2022
Harry Styles’ previous two albums sounded like someone rifling pleasantly through the history of pop and rock, but always genially and politely. More entertaining than his scalpels-ready critics wished when One Direction paused in 2016, those albums still didn’t fully hold together as bodies of work. Harry’s House does.
Album: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Dirt Does Dylan
Friday, 20 May 2022
I have to confess, it’s a long time since I’ve thought about the Nitty Gritty Dirty Band and a new album serves as a reminder of how good they were,...
Blu-ray: I Am a Camera
Thursday, 19 May 2022
The first film rendering of Christopher Isherwood’s experiences in early 1930s Berlin, I Am a Camera has been restored and released on Blu-ray to...
Album: Lykke Li - EYEYE
Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Swedish singer Lykke Li has called her new album Eyeye “her most intimate work to date”. In regard to Lykke Li’s music, this feels almost impossible...
Album: Everything Everything - Raw Data Feel
Manchester indie art-rockers experiment successfully with musical AI |
Album: Mavis Staples and Levon Helm - Carry Me Home
Good enough gospel but a little too bland |
Blu-ray: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Viscerally uncomfortable genre landmark shows a mundane murderer's daily rounds |
Album: Kendrick Lamar - Mr Morale & the Big Steppers
The philosopher-king of hip hop culture ventures ever inwards: but will he become too dour? |
Album: Dubstar - Two
1990s pop duo return with a lush exercise in likeable, wistful melancholy |
Album: Van Morrison - What's It Gonna Take?
Pernicious lockdown conspiracies, leavened by depressed confessions |
Album: Florence + the Machine - Dance Fever
Lockdown brings out the pop-progger in Florence Welch |
Blu-ray: Round Midnight
The greatest movie about jazz ever? Bertrand Tavernier's collaboration with Dexter Gordon makes its case |
Album: The Waterboys - All Souls Hill
Mike Scott's ever-evolving troubadours attempt modernisation with mixed success |
Album: Emeli Sandé - Let's Say For Instance
The popular singer moves further into commonplace mainstream fare |
Album: Congotronics International - Where’s The One?
Cultural sharing of the most life-affirming and necessary kind |
Album: Arcade Fire -WE
Canadian indie rock giant's lockdown album is heartfelt and imaginative |
Album: Kate Rusby - 30: Happy Returns
A bloodless album but it will appeal to the fans |
Blu-ray: Escape from LA
John Carpenter's overblown sequel to his cult classic gets a sparkling re-release |
Album: Soft Cell - Happiness Not Included
Soft Cell have clearly been having as rubbish a time as the rest of us |
Album: Warpaint - Radiate Like This
The LA four-piece return with a carefully crafted and beautifully considered collection |
Album: Willie Nelson - A Beautiful Time
A birthday offering from the old outlaw |
Album: Ches Smith - Interpret It Well
Fine musicians who can make free improv sound as natural as breathing |
Blu-ray: Jules et Jim
Jeanne Moreau at her most sublime in Truffaut's 1962 masterpiece |
Album: Trombone Shorty – Lifted
Relentlessly upbeat first album in five years from US sideman |
Album: Fontaines DC – Skinty Fia
Don't look for catharsis in the Irish band's tormented third album |
Album: Jono McCleery - Moonlit Parade
Warm, intimate songs that pull you close from the young English singer-songwriter |
Album: Linnéa Talp - Arch of Motion
Swedish minimalist induces introspection |
Album: Bonnie Raitt - Just Like That...
Top Raitt - after six years, a new album from the first lady of the blues |
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DVD/Blu-ray: Parallel Mothers
Parallel Mothers unfolds at a daringly slow pace, and there are moments in the first half of...
The Deathless Woman review - the overlooked persecution of t...
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My Fair Lady, London Coliseum review - tasteful revival powe...
First staged in 2018, Bartlett Sher’s Lincoln Center Theater production of My Fair Lady is London’s latest import from...
Benediction review - the world's worst wounds
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Album: Harry Styles - Harry's House
Harry Styles’ previous two albums sounded like someone rifling pleasantly through the history of...
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“I live to survive another heartache/I live to survive another mistake,” roars a sold-out Heaven. It’s a new song but everyone seems to know it....
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It has been a difficult couple of years for us in the world of opera, losing several of our most respected and admired colleagues who have...
Top Gun: Maverick review - Tom Cruise defies age and gravity
Only 36 years later, Tom Cruise is back with his eagerly-awaited Top Gun sequel (it was delayed a couple of years by Covid), and there...