thu 18/09/2025

New releases on CD & DVD

Album: The Divine Comedy - Rainy Sunday Afternoon

Guy Oddy

Neil Hannon has been recording and touring as the Divine Comedy since 1989 and has tried a fair few flavours along the way, from chamber pop to Britpop, while sounding fundamentally himself throughout. Rainy Sunday Afternoon, however, sounds like a stocktaking, a deep breath and a meditation on late middle age.

Blu-ray: The Sons of Great Bear

Graham Rickson

Westerns had long been popular with German cinema audiences, some of the most successful being early 1960s West German adaptations of novels by Karl May, a slippery late-19th writer whose books were hugely admired by Hitler. East Germany’s state-run studio DEFA responded by producing The Sons of Great Bear (Die Söhne der großen Bärin) in 1966, the first of East Germany’s "Indianerfilme".

Album: Twenty One Pilots - Breach

Tom Carr

For the past decade, the Ohio alternative superstars Twenty One Pilots have cultivated a deep lore starting with 2015’s Blurryface, and continued...

Album: Ed Sheeran - Play

Thomas H Green

“It’s a long way up from rock bottom/There’s been times I felt I could fall further.” So runs the opening line of Ed Sheeran’s eighth studio album....

Album: Motion City Soundtrack - The Same Old...

Ellie Roberts

Everyone’s favourite angsty pop-punk nerds are back, balancing new with nostalgia and synths with guitars, this is exactly what fans have been...

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Album: Baxter Dury - Allbarone

Kathryn Reilly

The don diversifies into disco

Album: Yasmine Hamdan - I Remember I Forget بنسى وبتذكر

Kieron Tyler

Paris-based Lebanese electronica stylist reacts to current-day world affairs

Blu-ray: The Sweeney - Series One

Graham Rickson

Influential and entertaining 1970s police drama, handsomely restored

Album: Josh Ritter - I Believe in You, My Honeydew

Thomas H Green

The alt-country singer's latest isn't consistent but does hit highs

Album: David Byrne - Who is the Sky?

Mark Kidel

Born to be weird

Album: Faithless - Champion Sound

Thomas H Green

Three decades into their career the perennial dance duo nail a lengthy but likeable set

Album: Saint Etienne - International

Kieron Tyler

British pop institution’s final communiqué is an unalloyed winner

Blu-ray: The Graduate

John Carvill

Post #MeToo, can Mike Nichols' second feature still lay claim to Classic Film status?

Album: Brad Mehldau - Ride into the Sun

Sebastian Scotney

A sincere tribute to Elliott Smith

Album: Sabrina Carpenter - Man's Best Friend

Ellie Roberts

Short but not so sweet

Album: CMAT - EURO-COUNTRY

Kathryn Reilly

The flame-headed chanteuse with the comic touch hits pop perfection

Album: The Hives - The Hives Forever, Forever The Hives

Guy Oddy

No power ballads, no acoustic interludes - just speedy rock’n’roll all the way

Album: Benedicte Maurseth - Mirra

Kieron Tyler

Haunting, intense evocation of Norway’s uplands and its wildlife

Blu-ray: Finis Terrae

Graham Rickson

Bleak but compelling semi-documentary, filmed on location in Brittany

Album: Nova Twins - Parasites & Butterflies

Tom Carr

Exciting London duo turn inward and more introspective with their third album while retaining their trademark hybrid sound

Album: Blood Orange - Essex Honey

Joe Muggs

A triumph for the artist who doesn't clamour for attention but just keeps growing

Album: Wolf Alice - Clearing

Joe Muggs

Ten years from their debut, Wolf Alice once again make magic from the familiar

Album: Deftones - Private Music

Ibi Keita

Deftones give us a glimmer of hope, but that's all...

Album: Eve Adams - American Dust

Kieron Tyler

Taking inspiration from the Californian desert

Blu-ray: Who Wants to Kill Jessie?

Graham Rickson

Fast-paced and visually inventive Czech comedy

Album: Adrian Sherwood - The Collapse of Everything

Guy Oddy

The dub maestro stretches out and chills

Album: Dinosaur Pile-Up - I've Felt Better

Thomas H Green

Heavy rock power pop trio return after an unwanted lengthy break

Album: Tom Grennan - Everywhere I Went Led Me To Where I Didn't Want To Be

Thomas H Green

British pop star's fourth exhibits ultra-pop oomph with mixed results

Album: Emma Smith - Bitter Orange

Tim Cumming

The award-winning jazz singer brings new life to some classic standards

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Blu-ray: The Sons of Great Bear

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