fri 29/03/2024

CDs/DVDs

Album: The Dandy Warhols - Rockmaker

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 Leonard Cohen’s Ten New Songs being obvious cases in point.To the list of uninspired album titles which...

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Album: Sarah Jane Morris - The Sisterhood

Released yesterday to coincide with International Women’s Day, The Sisterhood will surely prove to be one of the brightest jewels in Sarah Jane Morris’s varicoloured discography.A labour of love which Morris has been contemplating for two decades,...

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Album: Ariana Grande - Eternal Sunshine

Ariana Grande is the seventh most-followed Instagram account in the world (nearly 400 million). She has worked in promotion and/or “brand ambassador” positions with Reebok, Givenchy, Apple and many others. She is a successful film/TV star (about to...

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Album: Bolis Pupul - Letter to Yu

This album starts on an extremely literal note. The whole record is themed around Belgian born-and-raised Bolis Pupul’s explorations of the Chinese side of his heritage after his mother’s death in 2008, and his regrets at not having done so when she...

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Album: Norah Jones - Visions

Here’s a question: do singer-songwriters produce their strongest songs in times of upheaval, as they seek to express a feeling of “this stuff is hard”? Or do more powerful creations emerge once the anguish has been overcome?Norah Jones’s Pick Me Up...

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Album: Loreena McKennitt - The Road Back Home

It was one of those truly memorable evenings – a Royal Albert Hall concert by a someone with a long career (and record sales of 14 million), a woman I’d been introduced to only a few months earlier when a music-loving friend gifted me a CD....

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Album: Squarepusher - Dostrotime

Tom “Squarepusher” Jenkinson has covered a lot of ground over three decades, from dank cellar ambience to refined baroque composition, and from chirpy funk to monstrous noise. But his default mode is instantly recognisable: 170+ beats per minute...

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Album: Kaiser Chiefs - Kaiser Chiefs’ Easy Eighth Album

Kaiser Chiefs’ appropriately named Kaiser Chiefs’ Easy Eighth Album is a collection of ten easy listening, but not particularly imaginative, tracks. That said, with nine Top 40 singles and a comfortable legacy under their belt, perhaps imaginative...

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Album: Liam Gallagher John Squire - Liam Gallagher John Squire

Those who were around to witness the release of the Stone Roses’ Second Coming album will no doubt remember how a record-buying public were generally left shaking their heads in disbelief when, instead of a raft of tunes echoing the magnificent “...

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Album: Yard Act - Where's My Utopia?

The best popular music tunes into the zeitgeist. It can reflect cultural currents, encourage them, or enable the public to turn away and just party. At a time when the future of humanity feels more uncertain than at any time since the height of the...

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Album: The Bevis Frond - Focus on Nature

Musically, the assured Focus on Nature knows exactly what it is. Fuzzy, psychedelic-leaning, folk-aware pop-rock with an emphasis on guitars about captures it. And what tunes – this 75-minute double album’s 19 songs are immediate, instantly...

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Album: Everything Everything - Mountainhead

There are few bands who can claim to operate in a similar visionary style as Everything Everything. Since their 2010 debut Man Alive, the Manchester group have played in a space all their own, dissecting the structures of human relationships from...

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