New releases on CD & DVD
Album: Sally Shapiro - Ready to Live a Lie
Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Ready to Live a Lie is so sonically vaporous it almost isn’t there. While the album’s 11 tracks draw from continental European musical archetypes – specifically Italian disco and Eurovision-styled balladry – there is little solidity which can be grasped. The wispy clouds in the album’s cover image are emblematic.
Blu-ray: Strange New Worlds - Science Fiction at DEFA
Tuesday, 27 May 2025
DEFA was East Germany’s state film studio, operating between 1946 and 1992. Among its vast output were four lavish science fiction adventures, released between 1960 and 1976 and shown here in gleaming new transfers. Each one, to varying degrees, depicts the future through a rose-coloured lens, the world evolving into a utopian socialist paradise where disputes are settled peacefully.
Album: Anna Lapwood - Firedove
Monday, 26 May 2025
This album Firedove (Sony Classical), surely, has to be seen as part of a bigger story: that of organist, choir director and broadcaster Anna...
Album: Morcheeba - Escape the Chaos
Saturday, 24 May 2025
Morcheeba reach their 30th anniversary this year. The 1990s band, a unit once synonymous with phrases such as “trip hop” and “chill-out”, are up to...
Album: Ammar 808 - Club Tounsi
Friday, 23 May 2025
Ammar 808 is the high octane vehicle for the Tunisian-born producer Sofyann Ben Youssef, now based in Denmark. His first album Maghreb United (2018)...
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Album: Sports Team - Boys These Days
Genial guitar pop that leans into poshness, boasts smart lyrics, but lacks musical bite |
Album: Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Picking up their never-ending, archly peculiar groove, after 15 years |
Album: Robert Forster - Strawberries
The former Go-Betweens linchpin celebrates life’s quirks and temptations |
Album: Rico Nasty - LETHAL
From chaos to control, Rico Nasty trades bite for balance |
Album: Billy Nomates - Metalhorse
East Midlands post-punker tries on some yacht rock |
Album: MØ - Plæygirl
Scandinavian singer injects a dash of outsider melancholy into her fizzing electro-pop |
DVD/Blu-ray: Slade in Flame
One of the great rock movies gets a 50th anniversary revival |
Album: Peter Doherty - Felt Better Alive
Doherty returns with his first solo album in almost a decade |
Album: Sleep Token - Even In Arcadia
The anonymous UK metallers' fourth album is breathlessly inventive and emotive |
Album: Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke - Tall Tales
A toning-down leads to an opening up of new possibilities in a fertile collaboration |
Album: PinkPantheress - Fancy That
Hot rising pop star's new mixtape lacks tunes and dynamism |
Blu-ray: Laurel & Hardy - The Silent Years (1928)
Ten more early shorts, handsomely restored and annotated |
Album: Arcade Fire - Pink Elephant
Seventh from Canadian stadium-slayers contains enough juice to convince |
Album: PUP - Who Will Look After The Dogs?
A compelling balance between absurdity and sincerity |
Album: Suzanne Vega - Flying With Angels
A diverse album that's still uniquely Vega |
Album: Lael Neale - Altogether Stranger
Arresting art pop with a touch of creepiness |
Album: Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars
A rock opera too scholarly? |
Album: Dr Robert & Matt Deighton - The Instant Garden
A couple of old mods waft into delightfully Seventies hippy territory |
Album: Self Esteem - A Complicated Woman
Dissecting the utter tripe 21st-century western women navigate every day. In song! |
Album: Billy Idol - Dream Into It
Immense charm and uniqueness shine through, but too much leaning into the generic |
Album: Viagra Boys - Viagr Aboys
Louder, weirder and all the way in |
Album: Maria Somerville - Luster
Irish musical impressionist embraces shoegazing |
Album: Ronny Graupe's Szelest - Newfoundland Tristesse
A deep, subtle and constantly engaging album |
Album: Gigspanner Big Band - Turnstone
Third album from British folk’s biggest big band |
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