CDs/DVDs
Album: Fantastic Negrito - Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?Monday, 03 August 2020
Like Fantastic Negrito’s previous, Grammy-winning albums, Last Days of Oakland and Please Don’t be Dead, Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? holds up a critical mirror to life in the USA in the same way that What’s Goin’ On, Sign of the Times and There’s a... Read more... |
Album: Zapatilla - ZapatillaSaturday, 01 August 2020
A couple of years ago a vinyl white label appeared of a track called “Crumbling Down”. It was a breath of fresh air. Warmly crafted Afro-centric percussion, pared back but persuasive, it dragged the ears in, emanating a heads-down beachside vibe.... Read more... |
Album: Alanis Morissette - Such Pretty Forks in the RoadFriday, 31 July 2020
Alanis Morissette was relieved when fame’s comet swiftly fell to more manageable levels, having crashed into her full-force 25 years ago, when she was just 21. Selling 33 million copies of Jagged Little Pill means, though, that she remains on many... Read more... |
Album: Fontaines DC – A Hero's DeathThursday, 30 July 2020
Be careful what you wish for. Turns out the dream that most bands yearn for isn't all it's cracked up to be. Fontaines DC's debut album, Dogrel went large (and won a Mercury Prize nomination and BBC 6 Music's Album of the Year). They toured like... Read more... |
Blu-ray/DVD: Dance, Girl, DanceWednesday, 29 July 2020
RKO’s Dance, Girl, Dance was remarkable as a vehicle for two emerging stars, Maureen O’Hara and Lucille Ball, that stealthily radicalised its backstage setting and tried to slap moviegoers out of their comfort zone – probably the reason it... Read more... |
Album: The Psychedelic Furs - Made of RainTuesday, 28 July 2020
Made of Rain is the Psychedelic Furs’ seventh album since their 1980, self-titled debut and, while the band has shed a few original members since then, brothers Richard and Tim Butler are still front and centre of this post-punk colossus. After a... Read more... |
Album: Max Richter - VoicesMonday, 27 July 2020
Max Richter is the million-selling star of post-Minimalism, the composer of moody symphonies of a stillness that suggests otherworldly bliss and inner peace. The boundary between Richter and New Age isn’t always clear, not least in the work he makes... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Story of a Love AffairSunday, 26 July 2020
The tortuous drama of James M Cain’s 1940’s thriller The Postman Always Rings Twice has inspired many films: the slow-burning mix of erotic desire, temptation, murder and guilt was ideally suited to American film noir, so it’s in some ways... Read more... |
Album: Taylor Swift - folkloreSaturday, 25 July 2020
When she announced her “surprise” 8th album on social media this week, Taylor Swift described its subject matter as a combination of “fantasy, history and memory” told with “love, wonder and whimsy”. For the listener, this hits home around track... Read more... |
Album: Courtney Marie Andrews - Old FlowersThursday, 23 July 2020
There are moments of this album that hint at Emmylou Harris, whose voice – even as it ages – has always been the sound of heartbreak. Moments too of Rosanne Cash, perhaps Mary Chapin Carpenter. This is singer-songwriter Courtney Marie Andrews’ fifth... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: A Rainy Day in New YorkTuesday, 21 July 2020
“Know thyself” is the theme of A Rainy Day in New York. Woody Allen’s 48th film as writer-director, is – despite what you may have heard – at once his funniest and most reflective movie in years. Either wilfully archaic or stubbornly nostalgic... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Scorsese ShortsMonday, 20 July 2020
At this year’s Oscars Bong Joon Ho brought the audience to its feet in honour of the director whose words had struck a chord with him as a film student. The comment, simple but difficult to adhere to in the cut-throat, risk-averse movie business,... Read more... |
