New releases on CD & DVD
Album: Pokey LaFarge, Rock Bottom Rhapsody - a gourmet gumbo
Saturday, 04 April 2020
Talk about a great big melting pot! The eighth studio album by the man born 36 ago as Andrew Heissler in Bloomington, Indiana, and known to the world as Pokey LaFarge digs deep into the bubbling cauldron of Americana, in its very broadest sense.
Album: Ren Harvieu - Revel In The Drama
Friday, 03 April 2020
Filmic. Lushness balanced with intimacy. Ren Harvieu’s follow-up to 2012’s Top Five Through The Night is crammed with wide-screen aural dramas. Take “Cruel Disguise”. It begins with a slinky Sixties spy thriller vibe along the Shirley Bassey lines and after a brief moment of contemplation evolves into a swirling drama evoking Dusty Springfield’s “You Don’t Have to Say You Love me”.
Album: Purity Ring - Womb
Thursday, 02 April 2020
Purity Ring, the Canadian duo, are purveyors of simple yet sophisticated dream pop. Corin Roddick makes synth tracks at one end of the country, while...
Album: Thundercat - It Is What It Is
Wednesday, 01 April 2020
Alongside the man he calls “the other half of my brain”, Flying Lotus, Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner sits near the heart of Los Angeles’ fertile, genre...
DVD: The Street
Tuesday, 31 March 2020
Zed Nelson brings enormous humanity to this portrait of the changing identity of Hackney’s Hoxton Street as gentrification impinges on its long-...
DVD: Children's Film Foundation Bumper Box Vol 2
More buried treasure from the CFF archive: a treat for young and old alike |
Album: Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
Lipa frees her inner disco diva, and the world is a better place for it |
Album: Pearl Jam - Gigaton
Rock veterans face troubled times with embattled optimism |
Album: Sufjan Stevens &. Lowell Brams - Aporia
Magical story-telling in sound |
Album: Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud
A journey of sobriety and self-acceptance, by way of Memphis and New York |
Blu-ray: Kansas City
Robert Altman's jazz-stoked 1930's homage to his hometown bares its violent underbelly |
Album: Basia Bulat - Are You In Love?
Uneven fifth studio set from the Canadian singer-songwriter |
Blu-ray: Chained for Life
A welcome though never preachy satire for the age of narcissism |
Album: Little Dragon - New Me, Same Us
Electro-R&B veterans are set adrift on memory bliss |
Album: The Weeknd - After Hours
Fourth album from R&B superstar impresses after a slow start |
Album: Morrissey - I Am Not a Dog on a Chain
Bigmouth alternates between petty indignation and true artistry |
Album: Roger and Brian Eno - Mixing Colours
Absolute ambience from the pioneers of the form |
DVD/Blu-ray: Beat the Devil
John Huston's indulgent curio returns, replete with starry cast |
Album: The Chats - High Risk Behaviour
The Australian pop-punk trio's debut is short, sharp and shockingly good |
Album: Shabaka & the Ancestors - We are Sent Here by History
Spiritual and political struggle and aspiration from the Londoner's South African ensemble |
Album: Deap Lips - Deap Lips
Psychedelic electro-pop collaboration fails to really hit the spot |
DVD/Blu-ray: Last Holiday
Alec Guinness shines in underappreciated black comedy |
Album: Maria McKee - La Vita Nuova
The corrupted country-punk behind 'Show Me Heaven' is radically reborn |
Album: The Boomtown Rats - Citizens of Boomtown
Bob Geldof's gang reconvene for a wildly unlikely and mostly enjoyable ride |
Album: Baxter Dury - The Night Chancers
The singer turns storyteller with a collection of skilfully drawn vignettes |
Album: Moby - All Visible Objects
US electronic dance perennial takes a rare stumble with his bombastic latest |
DVD/Blu-ray: Raining in the Mountain
Leaping warriors fly through monastery |
Album: Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott - Manchester Calling
Heaton scabrously mourns the greed-mutilated North, but finds pride in disappointment |
Blu-ray: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
Blood-drenched Czech fairytale, still startling 50 years on |
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