CDs/DVDs
CD: The Civil Wars - The Civil WarsSaturday, 03 August 2013
No-one does slick, commercial folk music quite like the Americans. And there are few better examples than Barton Hollow, the Grammy-winning debut from Nashville's The Civil Wars: a record that most felt was pretty and smooth, if occasionally bland.... Read more... |
The Complete Humphrey Jennings, Volume Three: A Diary for TimothyFriday, 02 August 2013
In her recent book The Love-charm of Bombs, Lara Feigel explains how World War Two, and the Blitz in particular, elicited from Elizabeth Bowen, Henry Green, Grahame Greene, Rose Macaulay, and Austrian émigré Hilde Spiel their fiercest passions and... Read more... |
CD: Booker T - Sound the AlarmThursday, 01 August 2013
It’s been a few years and a handful of albums since Booker T Jones did the well-played heritage artist comeback thing, which has to be the only reason that Sound the Alarm has not been greeted with the hype you would expect. It’s his first on Stax... Read more... |
CD: Buddy Guy - Rhythm & BluesWednesday, 31 July 2013
The latest album from blues veteran Buddy Guy is a must for air guitarists. At 77 years of age he fires out a double CD set, one’s Rhythm, the other Blues. Both sound similar in that the main feature is Guy’s extended solos and background fret-... Read more... |
DVD: Runaway TrainTuesday, 30 July 2013
Influencing Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, director Andrei Konchalovsky’s underrated marvel Runaway Train is finally available on crisp Blu-ray: think masculine philosophy meets Alaskan wilderness in an existential thriller as exciting today as it was in... Read more... |
CD: Soft Metals - LensesMonday, 29 July 2013
A disembodied, wispy female voice declares “this is not true”, the only emotion left a resignation so acute she may as well be contemplating her imminent demise. On Soft Metals’ “Tell me”, her deliberation is accompanied by electronic music drawing... Read more... |
CD: Martin Simpson - Vagrant StanzasSunday, 28 July 2013
Martin Simpson comes heavily laden with the ghosts of redundant iron miners from Minnesota, the betrayed lovers of centuries old and the child victims of the Aberfan disaster. His voice is, not surprisingly, shot through with a melancholy that can... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Saint Etienne, Honey Ltd., Chas & Dave, ZTTSunday, 28 July 2013
Various Artists: Saint Etienne Present Songs for a Central Park PicnicThis is the perfect compilation for days when heat brings an enervation so overwhelming it’s possible only to bask like a seal flopped on a rock. Compiled by Saint Etienne, Songs... Read more... |
CD: Johnny Borrell - Borrell 1Saturday, 27 July 2013
Is the former Razorlight singer Johnny Borrell really the arse that many music fans seem to think? After his debut solo album was announced, the hubris of titles like “Pan-European Supermodel Song (Oh! Gina)” prompted a fresh round of ridicule. JB... Read more... |
DVD: Beware of Mr. BakerFriday, 26 July 2013
Few real-life subjects of a film would allow themselves to be seen in the way Ginger Baker is in Beware of Mr. Baker. He’s violent, bullying, self obsessed, a control freak, irresponsible, sexist, foul-mouthed and harbours decades-long grudges.... Read more... |
CD: AlunaGeorge - Body MusicThursday, 25 July 2013
AlunaGeorge deserve to be lauded as one of this year’s great singles bands solely on the strength of “Attracting Flies” and “White Noise”, their collaboration with electro outfit Disclosure. The London duo - featuring the purring vocals of Aluna... Read more... |
CD: Bin Weevils - Bin TunesWednesday, 24 July 2013
It’s rather gratifying that, in an area dominated by Americans (with the exception of the Moshi Monsters phenomenon) Bin Weevils is a very British success story. The pop-eyed cartoon insects first came into existence a decade ago as animations for... Read more... |
