New releases on CD & DVD
Album: Lael Neale - Altogether Stranger
Wednesday, 30 April 2025
Over its crisp 32 minutes and nine songs, Altogether Stranger embraces electropop, lo-fi terrain and gothic solo contemplation. By deconstructing modern R&B, the upbeat “Come on” is as close as it gets to pop’s mainstream. The unifying factors are Lael Neale’s way with a tune – she writes a memorable song – and her penetrating yet translucent voice.
Album: Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars
Monday, 28 April 2025
Following a tradition that reaches back to the The Who’s Tommy, bands and musicians with serious artistic ambition have created rock operas, reaching beyond the thematic explorations pioneered in concept albums a form that transcends the limits of the three minute popular song. Singer and guitarist Will Toledo, the leader of Car Seat Headrest, is the latest to throw himself into the drama and story-telling that an opera requires.
Album: Dr Robert & Matt Deighton - The...
Saturday, 26 April 2025
There’s this mod milieu, harking back to the Eighties. Weller at the forefront; Dr Robert and his Blow Monkeys; all righteously hate Thatcher; then...
Album: Self Esteem - A Complicated Woman
Friday, 25 April 2025
Given that Prioritise Pleasure was Rebecca Lucy Taylor’s (RLT) Back to Black, and that there’s been a lengthy wait for this new...
Album: Billy Idol - Dream Into It
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
There’s always been a goofy charm about Billy Idol. As an implausibly chiselled Adonis shining out from the deliberate ugliness of the original...
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Album: Viagra Boys - Viagr Aboys
Louder, weirder and all the way in |
Album: Maria Somerville - Luster
Irish musical impressionist embraces shoegazing |
Album: Ronny Graupe's Szelest - Newfoundland Tristesse
A deep, subtle and constantly engaging album |
Album: Gigspanner Big Band - Turnstone
Third album from British folk’s biggest big band |
Album: Mark Morton - Without the Pain
Second solo album from Lamb of God guitarist lays down hefty southern boogie |
DVD/Blu-ray: In a Year of 13 Moons
UK disc debut for Fassbinder's neglected, tragic, tender trans tale |
Album: Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson - What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow
Finger-picking good |
Album: Joe Lovano - Homage
Free-flowing spontaneity |
Album: Bon Iver - SABLE ƒABLE
An album of exquisite wonder |
Album: Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong
A left turn that trades chaos for charm, with mixed results |
Album: Sofia Härdig - Lighthouse of Glass
Swedish singer-songwriter takes control of her music |
Blu-ray: Yojimbo / Sanjuro
A pair of Kurosawa classics, beautifully restored |
Album: The Waterboys - Life, Death and Dennis Hopper
An alternately involving then naff tribute to a countercultural film figurehead |
Album: Miki Berenyi Trio - Tripla
Debut set from Lush singer-songwriter’s new trio |
Album: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious
Geordie rockers’ pulverising psych metal is guaranteed to rattle windows |
Album: Elton John and Brandi Carlile - Who Believes in Angels?
Elton John & Brandi Carlile step out in style |
DVD/Blu-ray: The Substance
French director Coralie Fargeat on the making of her award-winning body-horror movie |
Album: Erlend Apneseth - Song Over Støv
Norwegian musical impressionist’s journey into the centre of a vortex |
Album: Bryan Ferry and Amelia Barratt - Loose Talk
A match made in urban nightlife and the mysteries of everyday living |
Album: Will Smith - Based on a True Story
Big Willie’s back - but maybe he should’ve stayed home |
Album: Perfume Genius - Glory
Album seven from an artist carving out his own space in the most modernist of ways |
Album: Alison Krauss & Union Station - Arcadia
Their first album in 14 years looks hard at the past, and its role in the present |
Blu-ray: Lifeforce
Tobe Hooper's frenzied, far out space sex vampire epic |
Album: Toria Wooff - Toria Wooff
Assured but too measured debut album from Americana-inclined singer-songwriter |
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