CDs/DVDs
CD: Rumer - Boys Don't CryWednesday, 23 May 2012
Boys Don’t Cry is a collection of flawless reinterpretations of songs originally performed by men by the honey-voiced singer known as Rumer, whose million-selling debut Seasons of My Soul chalked up high-profile admirers and a clutch of award... Read more... |
DVD: The Black PantherTuesday, 22 May 2012
The bad taste left by The Black Panther lingers like a mouthful of cinders long after it’s been expelled from the DVD player. This latest entry in the BFI's Flipside series of rescued British film obscurities is the shocking adaptation of the story... Read more... |
CD: Sigur Rós - ValtariMonday, 21 May 2012
The use of Sigur Rós’s aural drama for the soundtracks of Life on Earth, Vanilla Sky and its subsequent sound bed ubiquity has meant their music has become divorced from who they are. The enthralling Valtari emphasises that these four Icelanders are... Read more... |
CD: The Cult - Choice of WeaponSunday, 20 May 2012
The end had long been nigh for The Cult, when it first came in 1995. It wasn’t just the booze and the arrival of grunge. It was as much that smart-arse Brit Pop was never going to have much truck with a man who called himself Wolf Child and wrote... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Paul and Linda McCartney, Willy DeVille, Eric PrydzSunday, 20 May 2012
Paul and Linda McCartney: Ram (Deluxe Edition)Jasper ReesThe project to reissue the big moments in Paul McCartney’s solo career continues. McCartney and Band on the Run have already had the deluxe treatment. Now it’s the turn of 1971's Ram, the one... Read more... |
CD: Guillemots - Hello Land!Saturday, 19 May 2012
It's hard to remember sometimes, as you hum along to the singalong refrains and soaring choruses of their relative hits such as "Trains to Brazil" or "Get Over It", that Guillemots have never been a pop band. Rather, the four-piece have always... Read more... |
DVD: ShameFriday, 18 May 2012
Chocolat, a film about chocolate addiction, was extremely sweet. Trainspotting, a film about drug addiction, was wired and hip. Shame, a film about sex addiction, assaults you with wave upon wave of tristesse.When Sarah Kent reviewed the theatrical... Read more... |
CD: Paul Buchanan - Mid AirThursday, 17 May 2012
In the eight years since the fourth – and very possibly last - Blue Nile album, High, Paul Buchanan has seen his band disintegrate and a close friend die. Little wonder, then, that his solo debut is a reflective record. The most cinematic of bands,... Read more... |
CD: Squarepusher - UfabulumTuesday, 15 May 2012
In an on-point attempt to shake things up a bit, Artsdesk writer Joe Muggs suggested the new Squarepusher album should be reviewed by someone other than an old raver. There were, unfortunately, no takers so you’re stuck with me… an old raver. Then... Read more... |
DVD: HaywireTuesday, 15 May 2012
In one of the DVD featurettes included here, Ewan McGregor puts his finger on what gives this movie its curious air of detachment. Director Steven Soderbergh, says McGregor, is "meticulous" and "like a surgeon", master of every detail from script to... Read more... |
CD: Saint Etienne – Words and Music by Saint EtienneMonday, 14 May 2012
If you are old enough to recall the heady excitement of running out of breath as you hurtled to the record store to buy a single on the day of release Words and Music by Saint Etienne will strike an instant chord. This deliciously melancholic... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: My Bloody Valentine, Loose Tubes, Fela KutiSunday, 13 May 2012
My Bloody Valentine: Isn’t Anything, Loveless, EPs 1988-1991Kieron TylerEach of these three CDs is essential. My Bloody Valentine’s 1988 Isn’t Anything and 1991’s Loveless were era-defining albums that time has done nothing to tarnish. The EPs they... Read more... |
