sat 02/08/2025

New releases on CD & DVD

Album: Mansur Brown - Rihla

Joe Muggs

I like to think I’m open to most things, but even so I never thought that I’d be getting an education in prog metal in the summer of 2025. Let alone that it would be from groovy young Brit jazz players. But so it goes. Last week I interviewed the Wakefield-via-London trumpeter / singer / composer Emma-Jean Thackray and she revealed a youthful penchant for Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, King Crimson and even Marillion.

Album: Reneé Rapp - Bite Me

Thomas H Green

The stage musical update of Mean Girls, and the film adaptation, pushed Reneé Rapp into the public eye. She played queen bitch Regina George. She’s become well-known for her forthright public persona, especially since coming out as a lesbian last year.

Album: Cian Ducrot - Little Dreaming

James Mellen

Cian Ducrot cut his teeth on a blend of intimate singer-songwriter balladry and lowkey alt-pop, most of his debut album Victory sounding like a...

Album: Bonniesongs - Strangest Feeling

Kieron Tyler

It’s not foregrounded, but as Strangest Feeling beds in after repeated listens it becomes clear that one of its core traits is The Pixies-originated...

Album: Debby Friday - The Starrr of the Queen of...

Thomas H Green

Debby Friday is a Nigerian-Canadian singer-producer who found some success a couple of years ago with her debut album Good Luck. It won the Best...

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Album: Indigo de Souza - Precipice

Thomas H Green

US singer's fourth ups the pop ante but doesn't sacrifice lyrical substance

Album: Mádé Kuti - Chapter 1: Where Does Happiness Come From?

Thomas H Green

Lively new album from the third generation of Nigeria's first musical family

Album: Alice Cooper - The Revenge of Alice Cooper

Guy Oddy

The original Alice Cooper band are back to fly the flag for all the weirdos

Album: Paul Weller - Find El Dorado

Joe Muggs

Inspiring curation of some pretty great covers, and hints of majesty

Blu-ray: The Rebel / The Punch and Judy Man

Graham Rickson

Tony Hancock's two film outings, newly remastered

Album: Spafford Campbell - Tomorrow Held

Tim Cumming

The young duo extend folk’s boundaries into an expansive contemporary chamber music

Album: Bonnie Dobson & The Hanging Stars - Dreams

Liz Thomson

A remarkable collaboration across the ages

Album: Alex Warren - You'll Be Alright, Kid

Thomas H Green

Plastic-bombastic TikTok pop euphoria for the emotionally incontinent

Album: Slikback - Attrition

Joe Muggs

Decades-deep electronic darkness from Kenyan sculptor of dystopias

Album: The Near Jazz Experience - Tritone

Guy Oddy

Veteran heads lay down a hypnotic gumbo of cool funkiness

Blu-ray: Heart of Stone

Graham Rickson

Deliciously dark fairy tale from post-war Eastern Europe

Album: Kokoroko - Tuff Times Never Last

Peter Quinn

Sophomore album embraces horn-driven grooves and genre-blending experimentation

Album: Wet Leg - moisturizer

Kathryn Reilly

A perfectly formed classic that will definitely be on those album of the year lists

Album: Tami Neilson - Neon Cowgirl

Thomas H Green

New Zealand country queen's latest chimes with America's heartland bars and highways

Album: Mark Stewart - The Fateful Symmetry

Joe Muggs

The Bristol agit-prop hero on philosophical form on his final album

Album: Gwenno - Utopia

Kieron Tyler

The Welsh musical explorer surveys her life

Blu-ray: A Hard Day's Night

John Carvill

The 'Citizen Kane' of jukebox musicals? Richard Lester's film captures Beatlemania in full flight

Album: Olafur Arnalds and Talos - A Dawning

Tim Cumming

Shimmery, shiny Icelandic-Irish ambience steeped in beauty

Album: Barry Can't Swim - Loner

Kathryn Reilly

Dive in to some sizzling summer dance music

Album: Kesha - .

Thomas H Green

After a decade of tribulation, a new beginning matches stadium heft to club-pop bounce

Album: Claudia Brücken - Night Mirror

Thomas H Green

The Propaganda singer returns with an album of elegant, varied grown-up pop

Album: Mocky - Music Will Explain (Choir Music Vol. 1)

Joe Muggs

Is the Canadian polymath hiding behind his exquisite production and arrangement skill?

Album: Brìghde Chaimbeul - Sunwise

Kieron Tyler

A singular sonic auteur reshapes traditional Celtic music

Album: JF Robitaille & Lail Arad - Wild Moves

Thomas H Green

A set of graceful, wry melancholy from an Anglo-Canadian singer-songwriter duo

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