CDs/DVDs
CD: Pet Shop Boys – ElectricSaturday, 06 July 2013
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe's twelfth studio album sounds strangely familiar. I thought for a moment they had already released an album with the same title and then I realised that I was thinking of the Tennant/Johnny Marr/Bernard Sumner... Read more... |
DVD: ShellFriday, 05 July 2013
There is a burgeoning of Scottish films that refuse to romanticise the Highlands and islands. Writer-director Scott Graham’s feature debut Shell does not satirize the capitalistic exploitation of the nation's heritage culture as do several of... Read more... |
CD: Darren Hayman & the Short Parliament – BugbearsThursday, 04 July 2013
Darren Hayman isn’t a chap who stands still. The former Herfner frontman’s last-but-one album, Lido, was a series of mood-music compositions inspired by open-air swimming pools. In 2011 came The Ship’s Piano, a collection of piano pieces. Rather... Read more... |
CD: Emily Barker & the Red Clay Halo - Dear RiverWednesday, 03 July 2013
Every so often, an album comes along that reminds you why you love the medium: not because it’s a simple collection of individual songs, no matter how good they are, but because it’s a carefully curated statement of artistic intent. Taken... Read more... |
DVD: Kiki's Delivery Service and Grave of the FirefliesTuesday, 02 July 2013
For the child who wants to see everything, Japanese anime Studio Ghibli’s Blu-ray double bill of 1989’s Kiki’s Delivery Service and 1988’s Grave of the Fireflies – called one of the saddest movies ever made – brings a fresh truckload of emotion.... Read more... |
CD: Maya Jane Coles - ComfortMonday, 01 July 2013
The part-Japanese Brit Maya Jane Coles displays elaborate asymmetric hair, interesting piercings and enormous tattoos in her moody photoshoots, makes sounds that are uniformly smooth and high-gloss, and has a sonic palette that takes in populist... Read more... |
CD: Harry Connick Jr - Every Man Should KnowSunday, 30 June 2013
What’s the point of Harry Connick Jr in a world where Michael Bublé exists? Twenty years ago Harry Connick Jr was the Bublé of the day. He was among the first to run a comprehensive and commercially successful update of swingin’ Sinatra schtick,... Read more... |
CD: Mavis Staples - One True VineSaturday, 29 June 2013
Mavis Staples keeps on comin': with a contralto voice soaked in gospel and soul, she delivers consistently heart-warming music.This is her second collaboration with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, a rocker with enough knowledge and taste to create a... Read more... |
DVD: Underground (1928)Friday, 28 June 2013
The youngest of the seven children officially fathered by 1908-16's liberal Prime Minister, the writer-director Anthony Asquith was a socialist who wore a blue boiler suit on the sets of his films. If that was a gesture of solidarity with his crew’s... Read more... |
CD: Editors - The Weight of Your LoveThursday, 27 June 2013
Being assigned to review Editors on the Other Stage at Glastonbury 2007, when Shirley Bassey was on the main Pyramid, was not a good way to consolidate my already fragile critical relationship with the Brummie quartet. Their music pushed my mind to... Read more... |
CD: Waxahatchee - Cerulean SaltWednesday, 26 June 2013
It could be Katie Crutchfield's voice: in the moment, its ragged timbre packs the punch of a cross-my-heart whispered secret. It could be the songwriting itself: stories half-told in two minute bursts, frank and funny and even contradictory the more... Read more... |
DVD: TabuTuesday, 25 June 2013
With its story of youthful love entrapped by fate, Tabu relishes the glorious primal energy of the South Seas, which was where German director FW Murnau, best known now for his expressionist Nosferatu, but then recently established in Hollywood and... Read more... |
