CDs/DVDs
Blu-ray: Two Way Stretch / Heavens Above!Tuesday, 05 August 2025
The years between 1955’s The Ladykillers and 1964’s Dr Strangelove were the years of what Sanjeev Bhaskar recently described as "peak Sellers", a period when the great comic actor rarely seemed to put a foot wrong. Two Way Stretch and Heavens Above... Read more... |
Album: Molly Tuttle - So Long Little Miss SunshineMonday, 04 August 2025
Molly Tuttle is a star of the US bluegrass scene whose last couple of albums have broadened her appeal. On them she wandered into country, folk, and rock. She featured the likes of Gillian Welch, Dave Matthews and Old Crow Medicine Show, intimating... Read more... |
Album: Mansur Brown - RihlaSaturday, 02 August 2025
I like to think I’m open to most things, but even so I never thought that I’d be getting an education in prog metal in the summer of 2025. Let alone that it would be from groovy young Brit jazz players. But so it goes. Last week I interviewed the... Read more... |
Album: Reneé Rapp - Bite MeFriday, 01 August 2025
The stage musical update of Mean Girls, and the film adaptation, pushed Reneé Rapp into the public eye. She played queen bitch Regina George. She’s become well-known for her forthright public persona, especially since coming out as a lesbian last... Read more... |
Album: Cian Ducrot - Little DreamingThursday, 31 July 2025
Cian Ducrot cut his teeth on a blend of intimate singer-songwriter balladry and lowkey alt-pop, most of his debut album Victory sounding like a less personable Lewis Capaldi. There’s a modernity to Ducrot’s sound, though. The palette is... Read more... |
Album: Bonniesongs - Strangest FeelingWednesday, 30 July 2025
It’s not foregrounded, but as Strangest Feeling beds in after repeated listens it becomes clear that one of its core traits is The Pixies-originated quiet-loud, soft-hard dynamic which oozed into grunge. The second LP from the Irish-born, Sydney... Read more... |
Album: Debby Friday - The Starrr of the Queen of LifeMonday, 28 July 2025
Debby Friday is a Nigerian-Canadian singer-producer who found some success a couple of years ago with her debut album Good Luck. It won the Best Electronic Album 2023 Polaris Prize, the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy or Brit. That album had a moody... Read more... |
Album: Indigo de Souza - PrecipiceSaturday, 26 July 2025
Indigo de Souza, a singer from North Carolina, has established some reputation, mostly in the States, for combining indie, pop and emotionally open lyrical heft. This is her fourth album, but her first on a larger label, Loma Vista (she was... Read more... |
Album: Mádé Kuti - Chapter 1: Where Does Happiness Come From?Friday, 25 July 2025
There can be few musicians on the planet from a more storied musical dynasty than Mádé Kuti. He is the son of Femi, the grandson of Fela. He grew up in and around Femi’s New Afrika Shrine in Lagos, international hub of all things Afrobeat. A multi-... Read more... |
Album: Alice Cooper - The Revenge of Alice CooperThursday, 24 July 2025
Great (and not so great) bands reforming, either in the studio or in the live arena, is something of a trend at the moment. However, who would have thought that the original Alice Cooper band would not only be part of this trend but the creators of... Read more... |
Album: Paul Weller - Find El DoradoWednesday, 23 July 2025
Paul Weller occupies a strange place in the cultural sphere. Especially since he was adopted as an elder statesman of Britpop in the mid 1990s, he’s been particularly beloved of a core audience whose tastes are extremely conservative. So much so, in... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The Rebel / The Punch and Judy ManTuesday, 22 July 2025
Comedian Tony Hancock’s vertiginous rise and fall is neatly traced in the two films he completed in the early 1960s. The warning signs were already present when 1961’s The Rebel (★★★★) was released. Hancock’s BBC career had been enormously... Read more... |
