New releases on CD & DVD
Album: Barry Adamson - Cut to Black
Saturday, 18 May 2024
Always looking dapper and always sounding cool, Barry Adamson is a man who nevertheless seems to be perpetually of another time. Giving off the vibes of a one-man Rat Pack with a dash of the legendary Lee Hazelwood, his music certainly doesn’t have much in common with mainstream tastes.
Album: Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft
Friday, 17 May 2024
So Billie Eilish’s new album has had its worldwide midnight release, dropping at midnight wherever you are kiddos, and taken as a whole it’s like some dark, heavy, low-hanging semi-forbidden, semi-erect fruit that you want to bite into, chew and swallow.
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...
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...
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...
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Album: Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
Intimate songs of unavoidable sorrow |
Album: Ani DiFranco - Unprecedented Sh!t
Tough, uncompromising, unflinching |
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 |
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