New releases on CD & DVD
Album: Van Morrison - Latest Record Project Volume 1
Wednesday, 05 May 2021
If you want to understand the psychic harm that prolonged lockdown can do to a man, then take a listen to Van Morrison's new 28-song set. Actually, you don't need to listen, the song titles say enough: “Where Have All the Rebels Gone?”; “Stop Bitching, Do Something”; “Deadbeat Saturday Night”; “They Own the Media”; “Why Are You on Facebook?”
Blu-ray: Raw
Tuesday, 04 May 2021
Raw opens with a bang, a distant figure on a remote country road stepping out in front of a car, causing it to crash into a tree. What’s really happened isn’t made clear until we’re well into French director Julia Ducournau’s 2016 feature.
Album: Ziúr - Antifate
Monday, 03 May 2021
It’s funny how the most high tech music can sound very traditional. In the case of producer / instrumentalist / occasional singer Ziúr, it’s the...
Blu-ray: The Chalk Garden
Sunday, 02 May 2021
Enid Bagnold’s 1955 English play The Chalk Garden, a Broadway hit before it opened in the West End, is usually described as a comedy because of...
Album: Sufjan Stevens - Convocations
Saturday, 01 May 2021
Sufjan Stevens is not only prolific, multi-talented and wide-ranging in his experimentation, but he never fails to make interesting work. He’s...
Album: Martial Solal - Coming Yesterday
The great French jazz pianist's last concert |
Album: Marianne Faithfull & Warren Ellis - She Walks in Beauty
Everyone’s favourite Nan crashes the goth poetry club |
Blu-ray: To Sir, with Love
Rose-tinted but affecting look at life in a late 1960s secondary modern |
Album: Teenage Fanclub - Endless Arcade
Line-up changes are no obstacle to sustained excellence |
DVD/Blu-ray: County Lines
An insider's angle on the impact of Britain's biggest drugs problem |
Album: The Coral - Coral Island
Merseyside veterans' faded fairground concept is steeped in pop craft |
Album: Gojira - Fortitude
French metallers deliver a sonically crafted pummelling their fans should enjoy |
Album: Tom Jones - Surrounded by Time
The man with the big voice looks age in the eye |
Album: Dinosaur Jr - Sweep It Into Space
Amherst's favourite grunge sons serve up another near flawless album |
Blu-ray: Straight Shooting / Hell Bent
Two John Ford Westerns starring Harry Carey, progenitor of true grit |
Album: Field Music - Flat White Moon
David and Peter Brewis draw inspiration from their own lives |
Album: Toumani Diabate and the London Symphony Orchestra - Kôrôlén
West Africa at the Symphony |
Album: AJ Tracey - Flu Game
West London's superstar rapper tries to find his mature style with mixed success |
Blu-ray: I Was at Home, But...
Cold comfort in this story of family grief from Berlin director Angela Schanelec |
Album: Imelda May - 11 Past the Hour
Irish star makes a rare musical blunder into whiffy 'classic rock' and balladry on her latest |
Album: Lady Dan - I Am the Prophet
Breaking free of patriarchy on Austin country-folk debut |
DVD/Blu-ray: Catch Us If You Can
John Boorman's debut skewered the capitalist exploitation of youth culture |
Album: Alan Vega - Mutator
Ex-Suicide frontman’s posthumous solo album is a sublime blast |
Album: Cheap Trick - In Another World
A rambunctious new offering from the age-defying rock veterans |
Album: Raf Rundell - O.M. Days
Deeper, stranger and more personal visions from the alt-pop journeyman |
Album: Peggy Seeger - First Farewell
Carrying the torch - at 85, she still can't keep from singing |
Blu-ray: Beginning
A masterpiece of 'slow cinema' from a hugely promising new festival talent |
Album: Ballaké Sissoko - Djourou
Scintillating collaborations from a master of the kora |
Blu-ray: I Start Counting
Arresting late '60s thriller, superbly acted and directed |
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