CDs/DVDs
CD: Django Bates - Saluting Sgt. PepperWednesday, 21 June 2017
Sgt. Pepper is a popular choice for a tribute but also a dangerous one. How to say anything meaningful about a work widely agreed to be the most influential in rock history? How to approach a work that is already a multi-layered pastiche, in places... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: The Bird With the Crystal PlumageTuesday, 20 June 2017
A well-known internet sales site currently offers seven previous home cinema editions of The Bird With the Crystal Plumage. Some are DVD or Blu-ray only, others are on both formats – increasing the amount of packages on offer. Only a brave company... Read more... |
CD: Steve Earle & The Dukes - So You Wanna Be An OutlawMonday, 19 June 2017
“So you wanna be an outlaw, better take it from me/ Living on the highway, ain't everything it's supposed to be” sings Steve Earle on the opening track of his latest album, with a little help from Willie Nelson. Recorded in Texas, where Earle did... Read more... |
CD: Steve Earle & The Dukes - So You Wanna Be An OutlawMonday, 19 June 2017
“So you wanna be an outlaw, better take it from me/ Living on the highway, ain't everything it's supposed to be” sings Steve Earle, a man with no shortage of outlawish credentials, on the opening track of his latest album, with a little help from... Read more... |
CD: Lorde - MelodramaSunday, 18 June 2017
The follow-up to Lorde's multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated album Pure Heroine has been a long time coming after the 16-year-old singer/songwriter withdrew from the limelight and beat a hasty retreat back to her home country of New Zealand.Four years... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: Rita, Sue and Bob TooFriday, 16 June 2017
Memory plays funny tricks; Alan Clarke’s Rita, Sue and Bob Too is fondly remembered as a cheeky 80s sex comedy. It’s not. There’s a fair bit of sex, and the laughs do come thick and fast, but the film leaves the bitterest of aftertastes. And, viewed... Read more... |
CD: Justin Adams featuring Anneli Drecker - RibbonsThursday, 15 June 2017
Rarely has an album’s artwork better reflected its content: blackness, or the void from which light occasionally emanates. This is a collection of instrumentals enhanced by vocals, rather than what might be called songs. The opening minimalist piece... Read more... |
CD: Katy Perry - WitnessWednesday, 14 June 2017
After the persuasive opening singles “Chained to the Rhythm”, “Bon Appétit” and “Swish Swish”, as well as all Katy Perry’s pre-release talk about “purposeful pop”, there was a feeling that Witness might push the boat out, taking Perry’s music into... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: One-Eyed JacksTuesday, 13 June 2017
One-Eyed Jacks, the only film Marlon Brando ever directed, is a masterpiece by any reckoning, a classic western about love and treachery, as well as a startling and boundary-breaking re-invention of the genre.The tragedy unfolds, through many twists... Read more... |
CD: Taj Mahal and Keb' Mo' - TajMoMonday, 12 June 2017
Fellow defenders of the Delta tradition Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ have never recorded together before. Billed as a “historic collaboration”, this album features appearances from starry performers including Bonnie Raitt, and excellent young jazz singer... Read more... |
CD: Goldie - The Journey ManSunday, 11 June 2017
Clifford Price – Goldie – has long cut an imposing, and complicated, figure in the music industry. Part larger-than-life entertainer, part monster (as satirised in music industry grotesque Kill Your Friends), part irrepressible raver, part grandiose... Read more... |
CD: Ride - Weather DiariesSaturday, 10 June 2017
In 1990, Ride were in the first wave of the Shoegazing scene to get out of the blocks and into the studio to record their iconic debut EP. Four albums and a sack load of EPs and singles later, however, they called it a day and the four lads from... Read more... |
