Canada
CD: Martha Wainwright - Come Home to MamaSunday, 07 October 2012
Motherhood doesn’t always bring out the best in singer-songwriters. On the album Aerial Kate Bush, for instance, sings “luverly luverly luverly Bertie…you give me so much joy/ and then you give me more joy”. Yeuch. So when I heard that recent mum... Read more... |
The Guid Sisters, Royal Lyceum, EdinburghWednesday, 26 September 2012
The 1989 production at the Tron in Glasgow of Bill Findlay and Martin Bowman’s translation of Les Belles-Soeurs, the 1965 play by Québécois writer Michel Tremblay, has become a landmark event in Scottish theatre. This new co-production between the... 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... |
Take This WaltzWednesday, 15 August 2012
The great Leonard Cohen has brought his trademark poetry and pain to a whole host of film and TV soundtracks: the cynical “Everybody Knows” accompanied the bump and grind of Atom Egoyan’s Exotica; the raggedly beautiful “Hallelujah” brought soul to... Read more... |
The Arts Desk Radio Show 6Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Welcome to another show, in which Joe guides us around some of the weirder, smokier corners of the broad church of hip hop, and discussion returns to how far genre can stretch and where originality can reside in a multi-channel, everything-available... Read more... |
Grimes, XOYOThursday, 10 May 2012
Grimes’ new album, Visions, her third, is an invigorating piece of work, a very 2012 meltdown of twitchy tuneful electronica and sweet indie-ethereal singing. It’s an album that cannot decide whether to put on its dancing shoes or sit back and smoke... Read more... |
Dan Mangan, Stereo, GlasgowMonday, 30 April 2012
Dan Mangan’s gravelly, expressive voice and the wisdom that infuses his lyrics do not speak to a songwriter still in his twenties. There’s this song on Nice, Nice, Very Nice, his first album for the Arts & Crafts indie powerhouse back in 2009,... Read more... |
CD: Patrick Watson - Adventures in Your Own BackyardMonday, 23 April 2012
The title isn’t far from literal. Adventures in Your Own Backyard was recorded in Patrick Watson’s Montréal apartment. Thankfully for his neighbours, despite a song called “Noisy Sunday”, it’s a restrained album where even the percussion crescendos... Read more... |
CD: Rufus Wainwright - Out of the GameSunday, 22 April 2012
Before we begin, a confession: despite my overwhelming fondness for sensitive male singer-songwriter types, Rufus Wainwright and I have never gotten on. I recognise that famous rich, luscious voice as an exquisite instrument in its own right yet... Read more... |
CD: Grimes - VisionsSunday, 18 March 2012
The word “grimes” conjures up images of a Dickensian London underworld, or of tough modern urban music, but Grimes is far, far from these reference points. For starters, she’s from Canada. She also makes music that defies easy categorisation.... Read more... |
Kathleen Edwards, Oran Mor, GlasgowSunday, 26 February 2012
Accompanying herself with the violin she hung from the mic stand, the Canadian songwriter Kathleen Edwards performed “Goodnight, California” - the last track from her 2008 album Asking For Flowers - in the sensual rasp of the late night gin-drunk.... Read more... |
CD: Leonard Cohen - Old IdeasSaturday, 28 January 2012
Elegantly riding an upswing that began with his return to touring in 2008, Leonard Cohen's first album in eight years finds him deep into his seventies and more than ever with mortality on his mind. Which makes it all the more delicious that the... Read more... |
