CDs/DVDs
Album: Martial Solal - Coming YesterdayFriday, 30 April 2021
“Thank you. I think I’ve told you everything. I do have a couple more tunes, but I’ll hold them back for next time – I don’t want to bore you, it’s better that you leave here serene. A nice chord like this. (plays F major first inversion). A... Read more... |
Album: Marianne Faithfull & Warren Ellis - She Walks in BeautyWednesday, 28 April 2021
Let’s get this clear from the off, Marianne Faithfull and Warren Ellis’s new album is not an artistic statement on a par with her classic 1979 album Broken English. Nor I suspect, was that ever the aim. Instead, it’s a vanity project that consists... Read more... |
Blu-ray: To Sir, with LoveTuesday, 27 April 2021
To Sir, With Love is a very loose adaptation of ER Braithwaite’s autobiographical novel. Reflecting on his experiences as a teacher in London’s East End in the late 1940s, Braithwaite’s commentary (one of two provided here) advises us that “as you... Read more... |
Album: Teenage Fanclub - Endless ArcadeMonday, 26 April 2021
A few hurdles need jumping before grappling with the essence of Teenage Fanclub’s 11th album. Endless Arcade is their first without bassist and founder member Gerard Love. He, alongside Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley, was one of the band’s... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: County LinesSunday, 25 April 2021
The website of the National Crime Agency offers the following definition of County Lines: “[it is] where illegal drugs are transported from one area to another, often across police and local authority boundaries (although not exclusively), usually... Read more... |
Album: The Coral - Coral IslandSaturday, 24 April 2021
Merseyside rock’s taste for glowing lysergic locales defines The Coral’s tenth LP, Coral Island, a double concept album which makes them the house band in a seedy fairground full of sepia memories and sawdust spirits. Put this Island on the map with... Read more... |
Album: Gojira - FortitudeFriday, 23 April 2021
Chances are many will not have heard of Gojira. At best, as a music lover, theirs may be a name seen among the line-up of metal festivals. As ever with metal, perceived as niche but with a vast audience, this is misleading. Gojira are globally... Read more... |
Album: Tom Jones - Surrounded by TimeThursday, 22 April 2021
“I'm growing old,” laments Tom Jones as his 40th studio album draws to a close. Sir Tom is “growing dimmer in the eyes” and “drowsy in my chair”. These blunt observations are not sugared with the mordant humour that, say, Randy Newman or the late... Read more... |
Album: Dinosaur Jr - Sweep It Into SpaceWednesday, 21 April 2021
When Laurence Binyon wrote: “Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn…” he was, of course, talking about the fallen soldiers of World War One, not Amherst’s premier hardcore grunge punks. However, on hearing Sweep It... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Straight Shooting / Hell BentTuesday, 20 April 2021
There are moments in Straight Shooting (1917), the first feature directed by John (then "Jack") Ford, when its star Harry Carey (1878-1947) exudes a naturalism that the famous Western actors who followed him, most notably John Wayne, strove to... Read more... |
Album: Field Music - Flat White MoonMonday, 19 April 2021
Although it is not solipsistic, Flat White Moon is Field Music’s most personal, most revealing, warmest-sounding album so far. David and Peter Brewis have opened up. Their ninth studio album together opens with a seeming declaration. “Orion from the... Read more... |
Album: Toumani Diabate and the London Symphony Orchestra - KôrôlénSaturday, 17 April 2021
Toumani Diabate, master of the 21-string kora, along with some other Malian musicians, collaborated on a symphonic concert at London's Barbican Centre in 2008. The orchestra in question were the London Symphony, who have often been open to working... Read more... |
