tue 19/03/2024

New releases on CD & DVD

Blu-ray: Beautiful Thing

Graham Rickson

Beautiful Thing’s opening scene plays out like a sweary take on Bill Forsyth’s Gregory’s Girl, Meera Syal’s potty-mouthed PE teacher lambasting her Year 11 pupils with language that would now have her hauled up in front of a professional conduct panel.

Album: Elbow - Audio Vertigo

Kathryn Reilly

On this, their 10th album, the melodious Mancunians started at the drum kit and built from there. This is no bad thing.

Album: Julia Holter - Something in the Room She...

Mark Kidel

Julia Holter has created a long line of albums that trade on sophisticated poetry, both lyrical and musical, and her latest, perhaps the most...

Album: Kim Gordon - The Collective

Thomas H Green

Some icons sit back and bask. Kim Gordon does not. She has occasionally intimated that her New York cool and relentless work rate may be down to a...

Album: The Dandy Warhols - Rockmaker

Guy Oddy

Just as it’s not the best idea to judge a book by its cover, it’s also not advisable to judge an album by its insipid title. Led Zeppelin IV and...

Album: Sarah Jane Morris - The Sisterhood

Peter Quinn

A brilliant ode to female torchbearers

Album: Ariana Grande - Eternal Sunshine

Thomas H Green

Efficiently calibrated pop from the global megastar brand

Album: Bolis Pupul - Letter to Yu

Joe Muggs

A deep, strange, lovely electropop exploration of intersecting cultures

Album: Norah Jones - Visions

Sebastian Scotney

The 'musical signature' is there, but the songs are insubstantial

Album: Loreena McKennitt - The Road Back Home

Liz Thomson

The craic is good in Ontario

Album: Squarepusher - Dostrotime

Joe Muggs

Chelmsfordian prog-jazz-acid-rave mania showing no signs of dimming

Album: Kaiser Chiefs - Kaiser Chiefs’ Easy Eighth Album

Ellie Roberts

The slump continues for Ricky Wilson’s gang

Album: Liam Gallagher John Squire - Liam Gallagher John Squire

Guy Oddy

Uninspiring Dad Rock that sounds pretty much as expected

Album: Yard Act - Where's My Utopia?

Mark Kidel

An ironic take on our brave new world

Album: The Bevis Frond - Focus on Nature

Kieron Tyler

Further confirmation that Nick Saloman is one of the UK’s great musical stylists

Album: Everything Everything - Mountainhead

Tom Carr

The visionary art-rock group return with dystopian, yet creative and well-earned follow-up

Album: Aziza Brahim - Mawja

Tim Cumming

Afro-Iberian blues and grooves from the activist Sahrawi songwriter

Album: Laetitia Sadier - Rooting for Love

Joe Muggs

Strange and beautiful dream transmissions from the weird world of Stereolab

Blu-ray: Jerzy Skolimowski - Walkower, Bariera, Dialóg 20-40-60

Graham Rickson

Visually striking early works from an iconoclastic Polish director

Album: MGMT - Loss of Life

Kieron Tyler

US art-rock duo see the lighter side of pessimism

Album: Paloma Faith - The Glorification of Sadness

Joe Muggs

Big emotions, big tunes with firehose intensity, but who is the person behind them?

Album: Jennifer Lopez - This is Me... Now

Thomas H Green

Mega-star ode to being loved-up doesn't achieve lift-off

Album: Chromeo - Adult Contemporary

Thomas H Green

Dave-1 and P-Thugg's sixth album maintains their post-modern smooth-funkin'

Blu-ray: Werner Herzog - Radical Dreamer

Nick Hasted

Conventional doc brings Herzog back home to his roots, hinting at myth and magic

Album: Les Amazones d'Afrique - Musow Danse

Guy Oddy

West African feminist collective blend sweet harmonies with gritty electronic sounds

Album: The Dead South - Chains & Stakes

Katie Colombus

Catchy countrytown with twisty quirks

Album: Katherine Priddy - The Pendulum Swing

Tim Cumming

The spirits of home and away haunt the acclaimed songwriter’s sophomore album

Album: Helado Negro - PHASOR

Joe Muggs

Pastoral dreaminess from the alt-pop journeyman

Album: Brittany Howard - What Now

Cheri Amour

The Nashville musician continues her epic odyssey of sound in sophomore solo record

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