New releases on CD & DVD
Blu-ray: Michael Powell - Early Works
Tuesday, 22 October 2024
The missing element is magic, the swooning sense of the romantic, spiritual and supernal which Michael Powell’s partnership with Emeric Pressburger found in the British and especially English soul, sharpened by Hungarian Pressburger’s fascinated love for his exile’s home.
Album: Tess Parks - Pomegranate
Monday, 21 October 2024
Tess Parks’ fourth solo album is suffused with otherness. When lyrics are direct, they are destabilised by the etiolated, freeze-dried voice delivering them. “Sometimes it feels like everyone should be dancing, maybe I should be dancing,” she sings during “Koalas.” It does not sound as if Parks has the energy to dance.
Album: Laura Marling - Patterns in Repeat
Saturday, 19 October 2024
If there’s a rough-hewn tinge to Laura Marling’s eighth album, then there’s a wildly valid reason for it. It was written shortly after the folk...
Album: Kylie Minogue - Tension II
Friday, 18 October 2024
There’s a real bind for Kylie Minogue. Her core audience want disco pop, people like me slag her off if she branches out from disco pop and goes...
Album: Elephant9 with Terje Rypdal - Catching Fire
Thursday, 17 October 2024
Just before the five-minute point, a Mellotron’s distinctive string sound is heard. Three minutes earlier, a guitar evokes Robert Fripp’s...
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Album: Mystery Tiime - Maudlin Tales of Grief and Love
Cold, crisp, bleak reality in a sad set of post-punk sketches |
Blu-ray: The Valley of the Bees
František Vláčil’s taut, intense medieval thriller is a classic of Czech cinema |
Album: MC5 - Heavy Lifting
Partial final reformation by proto-punk greats is a mixed bag |
Album: Justin Adams & Mauro Durante - Sweet Release
The duo’s second set cooks on a recipe of Italian Pizzica, rock, blues and Fairuz |
Album: Immanuel Wilkins - Blues Blood
When adventurous programming goes wrong |
Album: The Offspring - Supercharged
Another successful Pop Punk celebration |
Album: Ded Hyatt - Glossy
A genuinely boggling record mangles a world's worth of pop and avant-garde influences into... something |
Album: Permafrost - The Light Coming Through
A chill wind blows in from Norway |
Album: Goat - Goat
Mysterious Scandinavians put on their dancing shoes |
Album: Coldplay - Moon Music
Pop-rock mainstays 10th album is nauseatingly upbeat |
Album: Caribou - Honey
Almost a quarter century in, the psychedelic indie-dance individualist still setting off fireworks |
Album: The Smile - Cutouts
The trio's third album lacks the verve and intensity of 'Wall of Eyes' |
Album: Lady Gaga - Harlequin
Surprise companion album to her new film is lively, enjoyable and in great voice |
Album: Ezra Collective - Dance, No One’s Watching
A joyous celebration of dance |
Album: Jaz Karis - Safe Flight
UK soul debut whose smooth surface conceals depth and complexity |
Album: Van Morrison - New Arrangements and Duets
Van the Man starts to open up the vaults |
Blu-ray: Ikiru
Kurosawa's profound, touching meditation on mortality and memory |
Album: Alan Sparhawk - White Roses, My God
After the death of Mimi Parker, Low’s other half comes out into the open |
Blu-ray: Crumb
Terry Zwigoff's landmark, cracked family portrait of misanthropic comix genius R Crumb |
Album: Katy Perry - 143
Return of US superstar is a damp squib |
Album: Miranda Lambert - Postcards From Texas
On her ninth solo album, the US country star is still on peak songwriting form |
Album: Jamie xx - In Waves
Get right on one, matey, with a glorious capturing of dancefloor dissolution of self |
Here comes the flood: Bob Dylan's 1974 Live Recordings
Night after night: Sony's latest gargantuan release from the vaults |
Album: The Waeve - City Lights
Second album from Blur-affiliated couple contains luscious moments |
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