New releases on CD & DVD
Album: Jack Savoretti - Miss Italia
Thursday, 16 May 2024
It’s a long way to the middle. Jack Savoretti has worked hard to get there. He’s grafted. His first album, 2007’s Between the Minds, hinted that his musical DNA bestrode early-Seventies Los Angeles, those Topanga Canyon strummers and such, but melded to something much more BBC Radio 2. It took a while for his core audience, the Dermot O’Leary mum-core massive, to find him. A nice fella and a looker, by about five years ago, they had. His last two albums were chart-toppers.
Blu-ray: Chocolat
Wednesday, 15 May 2024
Claire Denis’ 1988 debut is a sensual madeleine to her Cameroonian childhood, with its taste of termites on butter, sound of birdsong and insect chitter, and the camera’s slow turn and rise into vast vistas. It’s also a colonial reckoning, setting out themes of violent incomprehension and fractured souls. Like the gaze of France (Cécile Ducasse), her child surrogate in this 1957 tale, Denis’ initial African vision is enigmatic and unblinking.
DVD/Blu-ray: The Holdovers
Tuesday, 14 May 2024
Glance at The Holdovers’ synopsis and you might suspect that Alexander Payne’s latest effort is a slice of lightweight seasonal schmaltz. Yes, it is...
Album: Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
Monday, 13 May 2024
It’s been a long while since Beth Gibbons released an album. Portishead’s Third was out in 2008. She has lived through so many changes since,...
Album: Ani DiFranco - Unprecedented Sh!t
Saturday, 11 May 2024
Having moved out of her mother’s apartment aged 15 to become “an emancipated minor” and set up her own record label, Righteous Babe, just four years...
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Album: Abigail Lapell - Anniversary
An engaging - if doleful - set from the Canadian folk-Americana singer |
Album: Kings Of Leon - Can We Please Have Fun
The good ole boys of stadium indie go back to basics: will it work? |
Album: Bab L'Bluz - Swaken
Fiery psychedelia to lift your soul coming straight out of the Maghreb |
Album: Pokey LaFarge - Rhumba Country
A pig in a pokey, as the singer farms in Maine and reads the Bible, with technicolor results |
Album: Josienne Clarke - Parenthesis, I
Redefining the self, from the most absorbing of British singer-songwriters |
Album: Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism
An admirable attempt to catch the magical groove that helped us through lockdown |
Album: Sia - Reasonable Woman
An awesome singer-songwriter comes into her own |
Album: EYE - Dark Light
New band from MWWB singer Jessica Ball prove worthy of what came before |
Blu-ray: The Dreamers
Bertolucci revisits May '68 via intoxicated, transgressive sex, lit up by the debuting Eva Green |
Album: The Lemon Twigs - A Dream Is All We Know
When self-assurance trumps unashamedly showcasing influences |
Album: Justice - Hyperdrama
French electronic dance stalwarts return from eight-year break in fine fettle |
Album: St Vincent - All Born Screaming
Annie Clark transcends indie’s average leanings |
Album: Pet Shop Boys - Nonetheless
Longing, love and longevity as the duo resolutely refuse retirement |
Album: Mdou Moctar - Funeral for Justice
Tuareg rockers are on fiery form |
DVD/Blu-Ray: Priscilla
The disc extras smartly contextualise Sofia Coppola's eighth feature |
Album: Fred Hersch - Silent, Listening
A 'nocturnal' album - or is it just plain dark? |
Album: Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology
Taylor Swift bares her soul with a 31-track double album |
Album: Jonny Drop • Andrew Ashong - The Puzzle Dust
Bottled sunshine from a Brit soul-jazz team-up |
Album: Pearl Jam - Dark Matter
Enduring grunge icons return full of energy, arguably their most empowered yet |
Album: Paraorchestra with Brett Anderson and Charles Hazlewood - Death Songbook
An uneven voyage into darkness |
Album: EMEL - MRA
Tunisian-American singer's latest is fired with feminism and global electro-pop maximalism |
Album: A Certain Ratio - It All Comes Down to This
Veteran Mancunians undergo a further re-assessment and reinvention |
Album: Maggie Rogers - Don't Forget Me
Rogers continues her knack for capturing natural moments, embracing a more live sound |
Album: Lizz Wright - Shadow
Brilliant album from superlative vocalist |
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