CDs/DVDs
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... |
CD: Nicky Haslam – Midnight MatineeMonday, 24 June 2013
Nicky Haslam is best known as an interior designer. His clients include Rupert Everett, Bryan Ferry and Mick Jagger. His first book was called Sheer Opulence. He has also written, bred horses and performed in cabaret. Accompanying him on his album... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Scared to Get HappySunday, 23 June 2013
Various Artists: Scared to Get Happy – A Story of Indie-pop 1980-1989It’s a good thing this box set has the hedge-betting sub-title A Story of Indie-pop. Making the definitive statement on a whole decade of pop’s undergrowth is probably... Read more... |
CD: Deap Vally - SistronixSunday, 23 June 2013
It is unfortunate that those who hate Deap Vally find it way easier to articulate why than those who love them. There’s little new in the bluesy, garage-rock riffs that pose and swagger their way through debut album Sistronix, and it’s not as if -... Read more... |
CD: Tom Odell - Long Way DownSaturday, 22 June 2013
Long before the release of Tom Odell’s debut, certain critics’ knives were drawn ready to give this middle-class lad a good stabbing. The recent stories about his dad ringing up the NME to complain about his no star review, and the contents of that... Read more... |
DVD: LincolnFriday, 21 June 2013
Lincoln was intended by Daniel Day-Lewis to reincarnate the face on Mount Rushmore: to give him sinew, sound and breath. This DVD’s extras show the film-makers’ efforts to help that process: real 19th-century clothing, accurate White House wallpaper... Read more... |
CD: Omar - The ManThursday, 20 June 2013
The easy thing would have been for Omar to come back trading on nostalgia, made his seventh album a nice smooth jazz-funk set and reminded everyone what made them fall for his biggest hit, "There's Nothing Like This" from 1991. Indeed you might even... Read more... |
CD: Lloyd Cole - StandardsWednesday, 19 June 2013
It’s the cross Lloyd Cole has to bear more than any songwriter of his vintage. His first album landed squarely in the record collections of sensitive young brainiacs in the Eighties and, at least to that constituency, nothing has ever quite matched... Read more... |
DVD: To The WonderTuesday, 18 June 2013
All this beauty in continuum is almost an overdose. Terrence Malick’s remarkable The Tree of Life brought this controversial American filmmaker’s skills to the forefront so much so that he didn’t follow his past form and wait five or six years to... Read more... |
CD: Middle Class Rut - Pick Up Your HeadMonday, 17 June 2013
For starters, Middle Class Rut is a great name for a band. It sounds irritated, punky, full of fighting spirit. Happily the duo from Sacramento California, live up to it. Their second album is an impassioned roar, occasionally a howl of disgust,... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Dr. Feelgood, The Three O’Clock, Ane Brun, Ruthann FriedmanSunday, 16 June 2013
Dr. Feelgood: Taking No Prisoners (with Gypie 1977-1981)The departure of Wilko Johnson in April 1977 ought to have finished Dr. Feelgood. More than their guitarist and songwriter, he was vital to their stage persona and as much frontman as... Read more... |
