Los Angeles
CD: Britney Spears - Britney JeanSaturday, 30 November 2013
Britney has become an icon. Partly this is down to her shiny, unreadable Hollywood exterior, partly down to her classic child star downfall, partly her relentless campness, partly the way she’s become unstoppable, but most of all because her career... Read more... |
Lindsey Buckingham Talks Music, Sky Arts OneMonday, 11 November 2013
Sometimes TV doesn’t need to be “challenging” or “groundbreaking” to be thoroughly worthwhile. The first episode of Sky Arts' new “…talks music” series saw the familar format of a live, seated interview applied to one of pop music’s highest... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Brenda Holloway, Era Records Northern Soul, DamonSunday, 10 November 2013
Brenda Holloway: The Artistry of Brenda Holloway / Various Artists: ERA Records Northern SoulAs the home of the Motown empire, Detroit dominated American soul music in the Sixties. Yet the label’s boss Berry Gordy bowed to the inevitable and opened... Read more... |
Deap Vally, Concorde 2, BrightonSaturday, 02 November 2013
It’s a condition of certain music journalists – myself very much included – that we can be blindsided by originality to the detriment of much else. Thus I might rate a chunk of electronic weirdness that blows my mind on the first couple of listens... Read more... |
LFF 2013: Enough SaidThursday, 17 October 2013
James Gandolfini stars as an overweight charmer in the best romantic comedy of the year, written and directed by Nicole Holofcener (Friends With Money). As Albert, Gandolfini – it's one of his last roles, in a film dedicated to “Jim” – brings all... Read more... |
CD: Samiyam - Wish You Were HereSaturday, 12 October 2013
The hip hop music of California has always been deeply stoned, and the wave of instrumental beats that have emerged from LA in recent years have taken this to quite some extreme. The scene around the Brainfeeder collective and Low End Theory club... Read more... |
Grand Theft Auto VThursday, 19 September 2013
If you think games are for kids, or not art, or beneath you – read on. Grand Theft Auto V, while flawed in many ways, proves you wrong. The latest in the controversial and 18-rated series has already broken first-day sales records for just about... Read more... |
In A World ...Friday, 13 September 2013
If you're going to make a film whose title mocks a particular tone of voice, it helps to have a voice of your own. And that turns out to be one of the many hugely beguiling aspects of In A World ... , the actress Lake Bell's first film trebling as... Read more... |
CD: Julia Holter - Loud City SongSaturday, 24 August 2013
This is an incredibly hard album to work out. One major clue comes, though, with its second track, “Maxim's 1”, the backing for which is a dead ringer for a lost track from Cocteau Twins's 1990 Heaven or Las Vegas album. Not that any of the rest of... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Harry NilssonSunday, 04 August 2013
Nilsson: The RCA Albums CollectionThe irony with Harry Nilsson is that despite being one of pop’s most distinctive and lauded songwriters, his two best-known singles were cover versions. In 1969 he hit the American and British charts with “... Read more... |
CD: Soft Metals - LensesMonday, 29 July 2013
A disembodied, wispy female voice declares “this is not true”, the only emotion left a resignation so acute she may as well be contemplating her imminent demise. On Soft Metals’ “Tell me”, her deliberation is accompanied by electronic music drawing... Read more... |
Imagine... Rod Stewart: Can't Stop Me Now, BBC OneWednesday, 10 July 2013
Rod Stewart isn't cool and he doesn't care. He made a complete pillock of himself with the likes of "Hot Legs" and "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?", but they were some of his biggest-ever hits. He plunged gleefully into the WAGS-and-riches fantasyland of Los... Read more... |
