CDs/DVDs
CD: Jessie J - This Christmas DayMonday, 10 December 2018
What makes a great Christmas song? There’s an alchemy to finding the winning combination of whimsy and humour, juxtaposed with a healthy slice of Christmas angst. This formula has led us to spin the same handful of pop bangers that endure down the... Read more... |
Eric Clapton - Happy XmasSaturday, 08 December 2018
Christmas is traditionally that time of the year when cool rock-dudes like to come over all silly and tinselly. Not Eric Clapton. On this, his first Christmas LP, the veteran axe-man spurns the usual seasonal schmaltz, in favour of some... Read more... |
DVD: The WorkshopFriday, 07 December 2018
Laurent Cantet’s The Workshop (L’Atelier) is something of a puzzle. There’s a fair deal that recalls his marvellous 2009 Palme d’Or winner The Class, including a young, unprofessional cast playing with considerable accomplishment, but the magic isn’... Read more... |
DVD: The HeiressesThursday, 06 December 2018
This first feature from Paraguayan director Marcelo Martinessi is a delicate study in confinement, and of how the chance of freedom can bring an equal sense of exhilaration and apprehension. The two heroines of The Heiresses, Chela (Ana Brun) and... Read more... |
CD: The Albion Christmas Band - Under the Christmas TreeWednesday, 05 December 2018
The Albion Christmas Band is as much of a fixture as Yuletide itself and their tour runs right through till Christmas – and of course there’s an album, Under the Christmas Tree. Specially formed for the festive period and featuring Simon Nicol (... Read more... |
CD: The Monkees - Christmas PartyTuesday, 04 December 2018
It’s astounding to think that given the commercial basis for their whole existence, The Monkees have never released a Christmas album before now. However, it’s a shame that they have waited until the death of one of their number to put out Christmas... Read more... |
CD: The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry into Online RelationshipsMonday, 03 December 2018
As befits an album preceded by lofty claims and vaulting ambition, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships is long. Very, very long. Last year, Matt Healy stated that the next album The 1975 produced had to be an OK Computer or The Queen Is Dead... Read more... |
CD: My Baby - MOUNAIKI: By The Bright of the NightSunday, 02 December 2018
My Baby are one of the most exciting live acts currently in existence. They’re a three-piece consisting of Dutch frontwoman guitarist/bassist Cato van Dijk, her brother, drummer Joost, and New Zealand blues rock guitar virtuoso Daniel Johnston.... Read more... |
CD: Majken - Young BelieverSaturday, 01 December 2018
Although both are Swedish, this particular Majken has nothing to do with the pop-reggae-ska band Majken Tajken which has issued a couple of albums. The singular Majken – Anna Majken to her family – is from Malmö and Young Believer is her debut album... Read more... |
CD: Bill Ryder-Jones - YawnWednesday, 28 November 2018
Take a deep breath and surround yourself with some comfortable furnishings before hitting play on this one. Yawn, recorded by Bill at his West Kirby studio of the same name, is just beautiful: a word that’s overused, but feels totally apt in this... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: ColumbusTuesday, 27 November 2018
The director of this deeply charming debut feature is the Korean-American film critic who writes under the pseudonym Kogonada; one of his principle interests over the years has been the great Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu, and there’s something of... Read more... |
CD: Kim Myhr - Pressing Clouds Passing CrowdsMonday, 26 November 2018
If a new soundtrack for L'Année dernière à Marienbad was needed, Pressing Clouds Passing Crowds is it. Thematically, the collaboration between Norwegian guitarist Kim Myhr, French-Norwegian poet Caroline Bergvall, the Québécois string quartet... Read more... |
