CDs/DVDs
Album: Khruangbin - MordechaiWednesday, 24 June 2020
There’s a moment halfway through Khruangbin’s latest album that succinctly sums up the melting-pot model this band have made their own. It’s “Pelota”, a Spanish-influenced song, based on a Japanese film, played by a Texan three-piece with a Thai... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: Portrait of a Lady on FireTuesday, 23 June 2020
Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a story of impossible love between two young women, takes place in the 18th century, on a wind-swept, wave-battered island off the coast of Brittany. The writer and director Céline Sciamma, who established herself as a... Read more... |
Album: Dream Wife - So When You Gonna…Monday, 22 June 2020
Dream Wife started life as an art school project, and while their self-titled debut album was an exhilarating ride that resurrected the ghosts of The Slits, X-Ray Spex and a host of lively riot grrrls, So When You Gonna… is a bit of a disappointment... Read more... |
Blu-Ray: A Foreign AffairSunday, 21 June 2020
In the year when we should be reflecting on seventy years of peace in Europe but are too occupied with present day viruses, Brexit, and racism to remember our past, it’s timely that a film about the Allied victors occupying Berlin in 1947 should be... Read more... |
Album: John Legend - Bigger LoveFriday, 19 June 2020
Personal grace and crafted precision underpin John Legend’s neo-soul style, leaving pushing boundaries to others, to stake out the romantic ground we still share. Like Smokey Robinson, he has tireless interest and infinite metaphors for love. “Wild... Read more... |
Album: [MONRHEA] - her[ART]Thursday, 18 June 2020
The debut album from one woman outfit [MONRHEA] shows off the seriously impolite electronica that’s blossoming in East Africa. Electronic sounds from Africa are over-represented in Europe by jolly pop and elegantly faceless house music, but there’s... Read more... |
Album: Neil Young - HomegrownWednesday, 17 June 2020
In the series one finale of metal-detecting sitcom Detectorists, Lance fills in a hole he’s dug after unearthing nothing more than a rusted ring-pull. As the camera pans downwards, we see the riches that were hiding beneath. He was looking in the... Read more... |
Album: Michael Franti & Spearhead - Work Hard & Be NiceTuesday, 16 June 2020
It’s over 30 years since Michael Franti entered the public arena, howling “Television – drug of the nation” backed by harsh, industrial sounds and explosive beats, as frontman for the Beatnigs. He then produced the Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales... Read more... |
Album: Phoebe Bridgers - PunisherMonday, 15 June 2020
Girl-wonder Phoebe Bridgers is one of the brightest stars to come out of the ever-renewing pool of creative talent that bubbles away in Southern California. Her new album, following the release last year of the brillant Better Oblivion Community... Read more... |
CD: Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy WaysSaturday, 13 June 2020
When “Murder Most Foul” was dropped into an unsuspecting world under lockdown, the surprise was palpable, given that eight years had passed since Tempest, filled by Sinatra covers and seasonal tours. That it was a 16-minute epic that took Dylan’s... Read more... |
Album: Norah Jones – Pick Me Up Off the FloorFriday, 12 June 2020
Norah Jones is writing good songs. The 11 of them which appear on Pick Me Up Off the Floor, the seventh solo studio album by the nine-time Grammy-winner, form a very strong album with a convincing and satisfying shape, a journey from hurt and doubt... Read more... |
Album: Larkin Poe - Self Made ManThursday, 11 June 2020
Larkin Poe are an American blues-rock band fronted by the Lovell sisters, Rebecca and Megan, both mainstays of the US Americana scene since their teens, at the start of this century. Best known in Europe for their fired-up gigs and festival... Read more... |
