New releases on CD & DVD
Album: Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension
Monday, 21 September 2020
Sufjan Stevens is an artist of remarkable ambition. His 80-minute long new album, with 15 beautiful and poetic songs, belongs to a long line of pop experimentation that runs through from The Beatles and George Martin’s Stg Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to Björk’s own highly literate and endlessly inventive mix of dance music and daredevil sonic exploration. He's as much at home baring his soul as he is evoking the turmoil of our times.
Blu-ray: This Gun for Hire
Sunday, 20 September 2020
The 1942 thriller This Gun for Hire, which opened five months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was closely adapted from Graham Greene’s 1936 novel A Gun for Sale by Albert Maltz and W.R. Burnett and directed for Paramount by the veteran William Tuttle. Though no masterpiece, it's a film noir landmark – an essential watch.
Album: This Dream of You – Diana Krall
Saturday, 19 September 2020
“Produced by Tommy LiPuma.” That phrase has appeared on just about every Diana Krall album since the summer of 1995, when the Cleveland-born mogul...
Album: Alicia Keys - Alicia
Friday, 18 September 2020
Alicia Keys is a puzzling mixture. On the one hand she’s the hyper-achieving, multi-platinum, 752-Grammy-winning America’s sweetheart, all dimply...
Album: Fish - Weltschmerz
Wednesday, 16 September 2020
"This party's over" snarls Fish on Weltschmerz, and, this time, it seems the big man really means it. After threatening retirement for...
DVD/Blu-ray: Where Does a Body End?
Post-punk giants Swans’ documentary is a fascinating trawl through the band’s first 35 years |
Album: Marilyn Manson - WE ARE CHAOS
The Antichrist Superstar softens up |
Blu-ray: Beanpole
Bleakness of story mediated by fragile visual beauty in outstanding Russian arthouse period offering |
Album: Toots & the Maytals - Got to be Tough
Toots back on fine form in what has become his final album |
Album: Ammar 808 - Global Control/ Invisible Invasion
Fusion between the Maghreb and South India that's so good it explodes |
Album: Doves - The Universal Want
The Manchester three-piece end a decade-long hiatus in style |
Album: Allison Neale - Quietly There
A completely delightful album |
Blu-ray: Walkabout
Fifty years on from its original release, Nicolas Roeg's solo debut gets a stunning restoration |
Album: Suzanne Vega - An Evening of New York Songs and Stories
Tom's Diner by way of Cafe Carlyle |
Album: Rui Ho - Lov3 & L1ght
Dayglo experimental pop from Chinese artist in Berlin |
The Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup 2020 - old-time decadence revisited
A tasty 1970s Rolling Stones classic is revived with added ingredients |
Album: Declan McKenna - Zeros
Second album from young prodigy contains some solid songs but suffers from crassly overboard production |
Album: Tricky - Fall to Pieces
Moody vignettes transform pain into beauty |
Blu-ray: Show Boat (1936)
Paul Robeson's few scenes dominate James Whale's great backstage musical |
Album: Throwing Muses - Sun Racket
An earthy and disorientating return for the Boston trio |
Blu-ray: Safety Last!
Terrifying and exhilarating - one of the greatest silent comedies returns |
CD: Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith - Peradam
The third in a beguiling trilogy of immersive albums |
Album: Katy Perry - Smile
Is it possible to grow up in public when you're at the top of the celebrity tree? |
Album: Disclosure - ENERGY
Great selection of guests add up to a decent, if sometimes predictable, album from the house revivalists |
Album: Gregory Porter - All Rise
Porter and team on strong form |
DVD: Fanny Lye Deliver'd
Civil War Western with feminist overtones falls a little flat |
Album: AK/DK - Shared Particles
Brighton’s synths and drums duo lay down a lo-fi dancefloor monster |
Album: Yello - Point
The venerable Swiss duo still ploughing the same furrow decades on |
Album: Bebel Gilberto - Agora
Brazilian singer brings the bossa nova on first album in six years |
latest in today
Album: Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension
Sufjan Stevens is an artist of remarkable ambition. His 80-minute long new album, with 15 beautiful and poetic songs, belongs to a long line of...
Reissue CDs Weekly: John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Giant Steps doesn’t suffer from a lack of availability. A couple of weeks ago, two editions of...
Blu-ray: This Gun for Hire
The 1942 thriller This Gun for Hire, which opened five months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was closely adapted...
Bill & Ted Face the Music review - modestly delightful
Beavis and Butthead’s vicious grunge-era gormlessness remains interred, Wayne and Garth (and their...
Fidelio, Garsington Opera review - heart of darkness, light-...
It may be only six and a half months since many of us saw a production of...
Picnic at the Castle review - entertaining mixed bill
Of all the outdoor spaces being utilised to keep live performance going in this maddest of years, Warwick Castle is surely among the most striking...
Hendrix and the Spook review - a search for clarity in murky...
September 18th is the 50th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s death, an appropriate moment to release Hendrix and the Spook, a...
Album: This Dream of You – Diana Krall
“Produced by Tommy LiPuma.” That phrase has appeared on just about every Diana Krall album since the summer of 1995, when the Cleveland-born mogul...
Nocturnal review - an impossible love
The most painterly and ominous sequence in Nocturnal naturally occurs at night. Until recently strangers, 33-year-old Pete (Cosmo Jarvis...