New releases on CD & DVD
CD: PJ Harvey - All About Eve (Original Music)
Saturday, 19 October 2019
PJ Harvey is not just a consummate rock musician but a multi-talented artist, who has re-invented herself throughout her career. She paints and makes sculpture, has participated with Artangel in an ambitious art installation, and written and performed theatre and film music.
CD: Allah-Las - LAHS
Friday, 18 October 2019
It’s unfortunate that LAHS’s opening track is titled “Holding Pattern” as the album only achieves lift off with its ninth cut “Light Yearly”, a chugging workout with spiralling guitar and echoes of Sixties folk rock if it were refracted through an opaque crystal.
CD: Foals - Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost...
Tuesday, 15 October 2019
Foals, the band with a trademark sound characterised by the African-style intricate interplay of rhythm rather than lead guitars, returns with what...
CD: James Arthur - You
Monday, 14 October 2019
It’s an easy joke to suggest that James Arthur needs an editor. By this point, the 31-year-old singer is almost as famous for his lyrical mis-steps...
CD: Mark Lanegan Band - Somebody's Knocking
Saturday, 12 October 2019
Spaghetti Western guitar, rumbling bass, a rattling keyboard pulse and an unyielding forward thrust combine to delineate Somebody's Knocking’s...
CD: Jacques Greene - Dawn Chorus
Housey electronic suite from Toronto producer is gently alluring |
CD: Elbow - Giants of All Sizes
Brutal times put Guy Garvey at bay |
CD: Lightning Bolt - Sonic Citadel
Adrenalin-soaked wild abandon from the bass and drum duo |
DVD: Do Not Adjust Your Set / At Last The 1948 Show
What the Pythons did first: the remnants of two iconic 1960s shows, restored with respect |
CD: Babymetal - Metal Galaxy
Heavy metal meets cutesy Kawaii in an incongruous and deeply baffling blend |
CD: 808 State - Transmission Suite
First album in 17 years from Mancunian electronic innovators is an engaging retro-futurist ear-journey |
CD: Mika - My Name is Michael Holbrook
The arch ostentatiousness and grandiosity of Mika's pop are all still intact |
CD: Wilco - Ode to Joy
Love in the time of Trump |
CD: The Menzingers - Hello Exile
Pennsylvania punks channel ageing disgracefully into grown-up punk rock |
CD: Tonbruket - Masters of Fog
Swedish quartet celebrates 10 years with fifth jazz-rock fusion album |
CD: The Darkness – Easter is Cancelled
The comedy metallers are back with a smirk |
CD: Tegan & Sara - Hey I'm Just Like You
The twins revisit high school |
CD: Trentemøller - Obverse
Danish noir star reassesses his methods |
CD: 65daysofstatic - replicr, 2019
Hiding the flame of passion under the bushel of math |
Blu-ray: High Noon
Fred Zinnemann's searing allegorical masterpiece about the McCarthy witch-hunts |
CD: The New Pornographers – In the Morse Code of Brake Lights
Neko Case substantially contributes to more allusive art-pop |
CD: Rachid Taha - Je suis africain
The casbah rocks - from the grave |
CD: Keane - Cause And Effect
Tim Rice-Oxley's break-up reunites his band with songcraft and synth-pop |
CD: Liam Gallagher - Why Me? Why Not.
The songs may remain the same, but the delivery has a little more charm |
CD: Renée Zellweger - Judy
The film star does a fine job interpreting a host of Garland classics |
CD: Tove Lo - Sunshine Kitty
Forthright relationship-centred lyricism combined with elegant electronic pop to winning effect |
CD: Mudhoney - Morning in America
A fearsome State of the Nation address by Mark Arm’s grunge veterans |
CD: Charli XCX - Charli
Futuristic pop pioneer bares her soul, with a little help from her friends |
CD: Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love
Genre-busting Norwegian co-opts trance music to examine the impacts of ageing |
latest in today
CD: PJ Harvey - All About Eve (Original Music)
PJ Harvey is not just a consummate rock musician but a multi-...
The deathless Alicia Alonso, in person
The magnificent, controversial Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso, who asserted that she would live to 200, died yesterday in Havana, aged nearly 99....
Giri/Haji, BBC Two review - inspired Anglo-Japanese thriller...
Well here’s an interesting one. We’ve been up to our eyebrows in Eurocops for the past few years, but this Anglo-Japanese fusion from...
[Blank], Donmar Warehouse review - strong but dispiriting
Clean Break, the theatre company that specialises in working with women in the criminal justice system, is doing a lot of celebrating. It's the...
Non-Fiction - adultery spices up digitisation drama
It isn’t provable whether adultery is more accepted in French ...
Ehnes, Hallé, Gabel, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - h...
Changes from the artists originally advertised can bring some happy discoveries....
CD: Allah-Las - LAHS
It’s unfortunate that LAHS’s opening track is titled “Holding Pattern” as the album only achieves lift off with its ninth cut “Light...
Zombieland: Double Tap review - dead dull redo
Another unnecessary sequel: we’re used to this sort of thing. The film knows it, too, as lead dork Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) meekly thanks the...
