CDs/DVDs
Album: The Selecter - Human AlgebraSaturday, 15 April 2023
To music-lovers of the era, The Selecter are known as part of the 2-Tone ska explosion which blew up as the 1970s turned into the 1980s. The Selecter were right in the middle of that, their eponymous song on the B-side of The Specials’ debut single... Read more... |
Album: Dave Okumu and the Seven Generations - I Came from LoveFriday, 14 April 2023
It’s hard to think of an album that’s simultaneously as dramatic and as restrained as this. But then Dave Okumu has always put his music and ideas out into the world in the subtlest of ways.As a guitarist he’s been omnipresent for many years,... Read more... |
Album: Metallica - 72 SeasonsThursday, 13 April 2023
This year marks 40 years since the release of Metallica’s debut Kill ‘Em All and their heralding of a new era in metal. With countless worldwide, headlining tours, hundreds of millions albums sold – it’s understandable if some may wonder... Read more... |
Album: Josienne Clarke - OnlinessWednesday, 12 April 2023
If you key in "Josienne Clarke" on Google, you’ll hit on the "About" section of her website, and the following declaration sets up her stall: "No label, no musical partner, no producer. Clarke is in complete control of her songwriting, arranging,... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The Bullet TrainTuesday, 11 April 2023
Last year’s Brad Pitt vehicle Bullet Train was an affable action comedy except in those parts – including the dreadful coda – when it was an insufferably smirky one. Freighted with more thrills, intelligence, gravitas, and social commentary, 1975’s... Read more... |
Album: GoGo Penguin - Everything is Going to be OKMonday, 10 April 2023
GoGo Penguin’s new album, Everything is Going to be OK, is so named, not because the band are in possession of an hopeful crystal ball which predicts an imminent end to the UK’s present social and economic problems or of Vladimir Putin’s genocidal... Read more... |
Album: Feist - MultitudesSaturday, 08 April 2023
This is technically Leslie Feist’s first release since 2018’s Pleasure. But that doesn't mean the Canadian songwriter has been resting on her laurels.In the five-year period, she’s stepped into the role of solo parenthood by adopting her daughter... Read more... |
Album: Ellie Goulding - Higher Than HeavenFriday, 07 April 2023
I admit I’ve never really seen the point of Ellie Goulding as a pop star. What is it that identifies her? What aspect defines her music? What sets her apart from the pack? Since I believe femme-led pop music is the defining pop of this century so... Read more... |
Album: Thomas Bangalter - MythologiesThursday, 06 April 2023
Popular musicians “going classical” can work well. Look at Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, at Richard Reed Parry and Colin Stetson from Arcade Fire, or at the late Jóhann Jóhannsson who had a successful career as indie and electronic musician in... Read more... |
Album: Reg Meuross - Stolen from GodWednesday, 05 April 2023
Anyone who’s heard even a smidgin of Reg Meuross’s music will know what a wonderful writer he is, homing in on often painful aspects of our shared history and retelling it in powerful and poignant songs that make any half-sentient listener want to... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: Dance CrazeTuesday, 04 April 2023
"We’re not just a dance band, we’ve got things to say.” Pauline Black, lead singer with The Selecter, succinctly pins down what made the era of 2-Tone Records so important to the British music scene at the end of the 1970s.A consortium of bands... Read more... |
Album: Josephine Foster - Domestic SphereMonday, 03 April 2023
On Domestic Sphere, Josephine Foster’s guitar and voice are joined by clacking crickets, a flock of sheep and wailing cats recorded in La Janda in southern Spain. There are also Colorado and Tennessee's birds and frogs. Foster’s great-... Read more... |
