CDs/DVDs
CD: Neko Case - The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love YouMonday, 26 August 2013
I have little patience with those that link mental anguish with creativity, glamorising the former as if the latter were any consolation. That said, there is comfort to be drawn from songs that spin the blankness of depression into something... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Sly StoneSunday, 25 August 2013
Sly & the Family Stone: Higher!Sly & the Family Stone’s hits “Dance to the Music”, “I Want to Take You Higher” and “Stand!” delivered a sharp wake-up call to the American charts in a period when psychedelia meant new styles of pop were... Read more... |
CD: Julia Holter - Loud City SongSaturday, 24 August 2013
This is an incredibly hard album to work out. One major clue comes, though, with its second track, “Maxim's 1”, the backing for which is a dead ringer for a lost track from Cocteau Twins's 1990 Heaven or Las Vegas album. Not that any of the rest of... Read more... |
CD: Franz Ferdinand - Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right ActionSaturday, 24 August 2013
When the best thing you can say about a band’s comeback album is that it sounds vaguely like their era-defining punk funk debut, you can either wonder why they bothered or admire their dogged devotion to a single sound. The music world has moved on... Read more... |
DVD: Something in the AirFriday, 23 August 2013
It’s always irritating being told “you had to be there”. Even more irksome is when some author, film director or nostalgic creative decides to record – naturally, they “fictionalise” it – their contribution to some golden era or significant event... Read more... |
CD: Marnie - Crystal WorldThursday, 22 August 2013
There have been those who have uncharitably suggested that Crystal World is in fact a sixth Ladytron album rather than the solo debut of the band’s frontwoman, Helen Marnie. It’s an easy, if lazy, conclusion to jump to when said album flirts with... Read more... |
CD: Avenged Sevenfold - Hail to the KingWednesday, 21 August 2013
There is no guarantee of success in any area of rock and pop but those who wish to succeed through sheer graft might look to metal as their main chance. While multiple bands in other genres have fleeting, unpredictable moments in the sun, a decent... Read more... |
DVD: The Adventures of Prince AchmedTuesday, 20 August 2013
Cinema's unrivalled silhouette animator Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981) was influenced by Arthur Rackham's illustrations and by Chinese and Indonesian puppet theatre. Like her fellow German filmmaker Fritz Lang, she must have appreciated the intricacy... Read more... |
CD: Disappears - EraMonday, 19 August 2013
Chicago’s Disappears aren’t playing it easy with their fourth album Era. Their name doesn’t appear on the front cover. Nor does the title. The song titles are only on the disc and can’t be referred to while the album is playing. No internet... Read more... |
CD: Travis - Where You StandSunday, 18 August 2013
It's a lottery. There are writers who’d see something in the return, after five years away, of this multi-million-selling Scottish four-piece. These writers, however, didn’t step in so Travis have been thrown to the dogs, a non-starter for both of... Read more... |
DVD: Spring BreakersSaturday, 17 August 2013
Wilfully perverse avant-hipster darling Harmony Korine has always teetered on the paper-thin border between vanguard edginess and trendy, emperor’s-new-clothes vapidity. His previous work, from the opening salvo of Kids, with Larry Clark, through... Read more... |
CD: Drenge - DrengeFriday, 16 August 2013
Tom Watson, the Labour MP who played such an enjoyable role in stuffing Rupert Murdoch during the News of the World phone-hacking debacle, resigned last month as overseer of his party’s next election campaign. His parting letter to Ed Miliband ended... Read more... |
