CDs/DVDs
CD: The Saturdays - Living for the WeekendSaturday, 19 October 2013![]() It’s official. The Saturdays are the nation’s number one girl group. Well, these days they’re more of a yummy mummy collective, with two of their members having recently popped out sprogs. Since Girls Aloud bowed out last year amid the usual round... Read more... |
DVD: Dead of NightFriday, 18 October 2013![]() In the age of big data where nothing escapes retrieval and the afterlife is a matter of cloud storage, the whole idea of "lost BBC tapes" seems about as inconceivable as a hunter-gatherer climbing out of an Iceland freezer cabinet. Dead of Night was... Read more... |
CD: Pearl Jam - Lightning BoltThursday, 17 October 2013![]() This is studio album number 10 for the seasoned Seattle-ites, and on a first listening you might feel inclined to flip it into the bin marked "solid but unexciting". Give it a bit of time to breathe though and it starts to reveal its strengths.Among... Read more... |
CD: Motorhead - AftershockWednesday, 16 October 2013![]() There has been conjecture that Motörhead’s latest album is titled in honour of frontman Lemmy Kilmister’s recent health problems, notably the insertion of an ICD (Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator) in his chest after he suffered cardiac... Read more... |
DVD: More Than HoneyTuesday, 15 October 2013![]() Bees, whenever called upon, have always been ready for their close-up. They had a sizeable cameo in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh, played the lead villain opposite Michael Caine in The Swarm and got to be heroes in Bee Movie. Most recently there was The... Read more... |
CD: Lissie - Back to ForeverMonday, 14 October 2013![]() Open letters are so passe. There’s a track on Back to Forever, the second album from folk-pop crossover star-in-the-making Lissie, that addresses the recent shenanigans of Miley Cyrus and her ilk as well as the singer’s own place in the music... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Kinks, Hapshash and the Coloured CoatSunday, 13 October 2013![]() The Kinks: Muswell HillbilliesRock’s rich tapestry currently has it that 1968’s The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society is their best album. This deluxe edition, 2CD reissue of 1971’s Muswell Hillbillies isn’t going to alter that, but... Read more... |
CD: Gary Numan - Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind)Sunday, 13 October 2013![]() Over the decade and a half that I’ve been writing about music, it has been my goal to distinguish between music that I just don’t like and music that is, in a more objective sense, terrible. Sometimes the line is a fine one, and - as many a Leona... Read more... |
CD: Samiyam - Wish You Were HereSaturday, 12 October 2013![]() The hip hop music of California has always been deeply stoned, and the wave of instrumental beats that have emerged from LA in recent years have taken this to quite some extreme. The scene around the Brainfeeder collective and Low End Theory club... Read more... |
DVD: Behind the CandelabraThursday, 10 October 2013![]() When piano-playing Vegas sensation and all round American entertainer Liberace (Michael Douglas) finds that his new live-in lover, Scott Thorson (Matt Damon), is bisexual, he responds by saying, “Good for you – I wish I could be that flexible.” For... Read more... |
CD: Morcheeba - Head Up HighThursday, 10 October 2013![]() Morcheeba are sometimes dismissed as makers of dinner party music, of being the trio who drove the triphop juggernaut started by Massive Attack down an easy-listening dead end. Such a view, however, ignores the quality of their songwriting,... Read more... |
CD: Jonathan Wilson - FanfareWednesday, 09 October 2013![]() If there’s a problem with Jonathan Wilson’s astonishing second album, it’s the potentially distracting presence of the stunningly heavy list of contributors. Those mucking in to help out include Jackson Browne, David Crosby and Graham Nash who... Read more... |
