mon 05/05/2025

New releases on CD & DVD

Album: Arcade Fire - Pink Elephant

Thomas H Green

20 years on from their first appearance on record, the seventh long-player from Canadian indie-art-rock behemoths Arcade Fire comes off the back of four consecutive UK album chart-toppers.

Album: PUP - Who Will Look After The Dogs?

Ellie Roberts

PUP’s Who Will Look After The Dogs? is a raw and emotionally charged album that captures the band’s chaotic spirit while showing clear growth in both sound and subject matter. Across 12 tracks, the Toronto group delivers a mixture of driving punk energy, wry humour and moments of vulnerability. It is a loud and heartfelt record that might not hit the heights of their best work, but still leaves a strong and lasting impression.

Album: Suzanne Vega - Flying With Angels

Liz Thomson

Wow, can it really be 40 years since Solitude Standing, the second studio album by Suzanne Vega who put the 1980s folk revival on the map. “Fast folk...

Album: Lael Neale - Altogether Stranger

Kieron Tyler

Over its crisp 32 minutes and nine songs, Altogether Stranger embraces electropop, lo-fi terrain and gothic solo contemplation. By deconstructing...

Album: Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars

Mark Kidel

Following a tradition that reaches back to the The Who’s Tommy, bands and musicians with serious artistic ambition have created rock operas, reaching...

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Album: Dr Robert & Matt Deighton - The Instant Garden

Thomas H Green

A couple of old mods waft into delightfully Seventies hippy territory

Album: Self Esteem - A Complicated Woman

Kathryn Reilly

Dissecting the utter tripe 21st-century western women navigate every day. In song!

Album: Billy Idol - Dream Into It

Joe Muggs

Immense charm and uniqueness shine through, but too much leaning into the generic

Album: Viagra Boys - Viagr Aboys

Ibi Keita

Louder, weirder and all the way in

Album: Maria Somerville - Luster

Kieron Tyler

Irish musical impressionist embraces shoegazing

Album: Ronny Graupe's Szelest - Newfoundland Tristesse

Sebastian Scotney

A deep, subtle and constantly engaging album

Album: Gigspanner Big Band - Turnstone

Tim Cumming

Third album from British folk’s biggest big band

Album: Mark Morton - Without the Pain

Thomas H Green

Second solo album from Lamb of God guitarist lays down hefty southern boogie

DVD/Blu-ray: In a Year of 13 Moons

Nick Hasted

UK disc debut for Fassbinder's neglected, tragic, tender trans tale

Album: Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson - What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow

Liz Thomson

Finger-picking good

Album: Joe Lovano - Homage

Sebastian Scotney

Free-flowing spontaneity

Album: Bon Iver - SABLE ƒABLE

Mark Kidel

An album of exquisite wonder

Album: Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong

Ibi Keita

A left turn that trades chaos for charm, with mixed results

Album: Sofia Härdig - Lighthouse of Glass

Kieron Tyler

Swedish singer-songwriter takes control of her music

Blu-ray: Yojimbo / Sanjuro

Graham Rickson

A pair of Kurosawa classics, beautifully restored

Album: The Waterboys - Life, Death and Dennis Hopper

Thomas H Green

An alternately involving then naff tribute to a countercultural film figurehead

Album: Miki Berenyi Trio - Tripla

Tim Cumming

Debut set from Lush singer-songwriter’s new trio

Album: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious

Guy Oddy

Geordie rockers’ pulverising psych metal is guaranteed to rattle windows

Album: Elton John and Brandi Carlile - Who Believes in Angels?

Liz Thomson

Elton John & Brandi Carlile step out in style

DVD/Blu-ray: The Substance

Markie Robson-Scott

French director Coralie Fargeat on the making of her award-winning body-horror movie

Album: Erlend Apneseth - Song Over Støv

Kieron Tyler

Norwegian musical impressionist’s journey into the centre of a vortex

Album: Bryan Ferry and Amelia Barratt - Loose Talk

Graham Fuller

A match made in urban nightlife and the mysteries of everyday living

Album: Will Smith - Based on a True Story

Ibi Keita

Big Willie’s back - but maybe he should’ve stayed home

Album: Perfume Genius - Glory

Joe Muggs

Album seven from an artist carving out his own space in the most modernist of ways

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