CDs/DVDs
CD: Cat Power - SunWednesday, 29 August 2012
You’ll know by now, perhaps, that Sun is supposed to represent a “rebirth” for Chan Marshall, the famously intense singer-songwriter who performs as Cat Power. Since the release of 2006’s The Greatest Marshall has shunned her own material, instead... Read more... |
DVD: MarleyTuesday, 28 August 2012
It’s remarkable how many of the 20th century's most culturally significant popular musicians – from Louis Armstrong to John Lennon – emerged from a childhood defined by lack or absence. As Kevin MacDonald’s epic and enlightening documentary about... Read more... |
CD: Tender Trap - Ten Songs About GirlsMonday, 27 August 2012
Before acid house came along and saved our souls, there was no nation-embracing socio-musical phenomenon to latch onto. Outside of mainstream pop and niche heavy metal, there was hip hop, but that was adamantly American at the time, there was retro... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Green Day, The Ramones, Solomon Burke, Anthony MooreSunday, 26 August 2012
Green Day: The Studio Albums 1990-2009Thomas H GreenPrior to a trilogy of new albums, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré!, all to be released by the end of the year, a box set arrives containing the eight albums that brought Californian trio Green Day to this... Read more... |
CD: Alanis Morissette - Havoc and Bright LightsSunday, 26 August 2012
It’s been 17 years since Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill gave “complaint rock” a feminine make-over. With a captivating combination of therapy-angst and offbeat melodies, it didn’t matter that Alanis didn’t understand the word ironic, the... Read more... |
CD: Dan Deacon – AmericaSaturday, 25 August 2012
America comes with an artist statement where Deacon says “I never felt American until I left the United States”. His third album digs into his “frustration, fear and anger towards the county and world I live in and am a part of”.The album ends with... Read more... |
DVD: Ghost Stories: Classic Adaptations From the BBCFriday, 24 August 2012
In 1979, my father stayed in a railway hotel in a Wiltshire town on the eve of a family fiftieth wedding anniversary party. During the middle of the night, the heavy bedside table in his locked room apparently threw itself five or six feet from the... Read more... |
CD: Noisettes - ContactThursday, 23 August 2012
They’re best known for soundtracking a car advert with “Don’t Upset The Rhythm” - a song so preposterously catchy it’ll be stuck in your head by the end of this sentence - so you could be forgiven for trying to write the Noisettes off as a one-hit... Read more... |
CD: Paul Van Dyk - EvolutionWednesday, 22 August 2012
Berlin’s Paul Van Dyk has remained in or around the top ten of DJ Magazine’s defining annual poll of the top 100 DJs in the world for at least a decade, occasionally making the number one spot. Unlike all others in the current top 20, however, he’s... Read more... |
DVD: North Sea TexasTuesday, 21 August 2012
Bavo Defurne’s North Sea Texas is a more than distinguished addition to the coming-of-age film genre, catching the painful moments of approaching maturity. Set in a Sixties provincial seaside town in Belgium, the poignancy of 16-year-old hero Pim... Read more... |
CD: The Orb feat. Lee "Scratch" Perry - The Orbserver in the Star HouseMonday, 20 August 2012
The available evidence suggested both these artists were well past their sell-by date. The Orb were early Nineties titans of mischievous narco-ambience but haven’t made a decent album in years, even when they worked with Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour... Read more... |
CD: Bloc Party – FourSunday, 19 August 2012
Bloc Party's fourth album comes after a lengthy break during which various members did various things with varying degrees of success. Most notably vocalist Kele Okereke pursued a more synth-based, dance-flavoured direction with mixed results. There... Read more... |
