CDs/DVDs
Album: EYE - Dark LightWednesday, 01 May 2024
Skirting along the peripheries of doom metal, unbeknownst to almost everyone, there existed a band called Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard. Hailing from Wrexham, Wales, they created four albums that stand alone in their originality, combining massively... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The DreamersTuesday, 30 April 2024
Isabelle (Eva Green) leans over, her long hair catches fire from a candle, and Matthew (Michael Pitt) devotedly snuffs it out. She doesn’t miss a beat at this real-life accident, consumed already by The Dreamers’ closed world of a Left Bank... Read more... |
Album: The Lemon Twigs - A Dream Is All We KnowMonday, 29 April 2024
The Lemon Twigs aren’t shy about telegraphing their inspirations. A Dream is all we Know, their swift follow-up to last May’s Everything Harmony, is stuffed with references. “Sweet Vibration” is rooted in The Left Banke’s “She May Call You up... Read more... |
Album: Justice - HyperdramaSaturday, 27 April 2024
Justice are a couple of super-suave rock star analogues. Leathers and aviators, yes, but with a very Parisian insouciance. Their music is the same. It has a rocker-friendly je-ne-sais-quoi, but air-brushed with the glitzy sci-fi futurism one might... Read more... |
Album: St Vincent - All Born ScreamingFriday, 26 April 2024
The thing with Annie Clark, better known as the triple-Grammy-winning iconoclast St Vincent, is that much like an actual saint the multi-instrumentalist and producer is always being praised for her last great feat. A notorious shapeshifter, Clark’s... Read more... |
Album: Pet Shop Boys - NonethelessThursday, 25 April 2024
This album came with an absolutely enormous promo campaign. As well as actual advertising there were “Audience With…” events, and specials on BBC radio and TV – the latter an Imagine special with Alan Yentob really going in with... Read more... |
Album: Mdou Moctar - Funeral for JusticeWednesday, 24 April 2024
Despite its title, Mdou Moctar’s new album is no slow-paced mournful dirge. In fact, it is louder, faster and more overtly political than any of his band’s previous discs – not so much desert blues as desert punk.Taking up the twin causes of the... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-Ray: PriscillaTuesday, 23 April 2024
There’s a scene in Priscilla where Elvis stands above his wife, who is scrambling to put her clothes in a suitcase. Priscilla has just confronted him about a letter she found from the actress Ann-Margret, confirming her suspicion that the King of... Read more... |
Album: Fred Hersch - Silent, ListeningMonday, 22 April 2024
The previous solo piano solo album from Fred Hersch, one of the world’s great jazz pianists, was called Songs from Home, released on the New York indie jazz label Palmetto Records towards the end of 2020. Silent, Listening, released this month on... Read more... |
Album: Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department: The AnthologySaturday, 20 April 2024
Taylor Swift’s unfathomable ability to articulate human emotion shines as brightly as ever in her latest double album The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology. The 31 track collection combines the gentle melodies of previous albums folklore and... Read more... |
Album: Jonny Drop • Andrew Ashong - The Puzzle DustFriday, 19 April 2024
As I sat down to write this review, the sun came out. It was a salutory reminder of the importance of context: where I’d previously thought “mmm, that’s pretty nice”, now it was more “mmmmmmm, that’s pretty niiiiiice!” That’s not just a suble... Read more... |
Album: Pearl Jam - Dark MatterThursday, 18 April 2024
Thirty years, and over 75 million copies sold. It’s been a long journey from Nineties Seattle for Pearl Jam, the grunge era icons fronted by Eddie Vedder's commanding vocals.Pearl Jam have since carved out a legacy as one of the most... Read more... |
