New releases on CD & DVD
Album: Róisín Murphy - Róisín Machine
Friday, 25 September 2020
This is a musical homecoming for Róisín Murphy, both geographically and figuratively. She may have been raised in Dublin and spent her gig-going adolescence in Manchester, but Sheffield is where she began her life as a clubber and performer – and it’s with Sheffield scene mainstay of almost four decades, and Murphy’s friend of quarter of a century, Richard “Parrot” Barratt that she’s collaborated here.
Album: Corey Taylor - CMFT
Thursday, 24 September 2020
The graveyard of tedious musical vanity projects – and the bargain bins of many record shops – is filled with solo albums by the lead vocalists of many fine rock bands. They may sell well initially, due to the power of well-financed record company marketing teams, but they are soon forgotten and adding to landfill sites around the country.
DVD/Blu-ray: Mademoiselle
Tuesday, 22 September 2020
Mademoiselle is Jeanne Moreau, in smouldering femme fatale mode: a school-teacher and town hall secretary in a small French village, she wreaks havoc...
Album: Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension
Monday, 21 September 2020
Sufjan Stevens is an artist of remarkable ambition. His 80-minute long new album, with 15 beautiful and poetic songs, belongs to a long line of pop...
Blu-ray: This Gun for Hire
Sunday, 20 September 2020
The 1942 thriller This Gun for Hire, which opened five months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was closely adapted from Graham...
Album: This Dream of You – Diana Krall
An unsatisfactory postscript to the Krall/LiPuma years |
Album: Alicia Keys - Alicia
A confident return from the megastar polymath, but does it hint at something more? |
Album: Fish - Weltschmerz
Derek W Dick's last hurrah is a mix of successes and excesses |
DVD/Blu-ray: Where Does a Body End?
Post-punk giants Swans’ documentary is a fascinating trawl through the band’s first 35 years |
Album: Marilyn Manson - WE ARE CHAOS
The Antichrist Superstar softens up |
Blu-ray: Beanpole
Bleakness of story mediated by fragile visual beauty in outstanding Russian arthouse period offering |
Album: Toots & the Maytals - Got to be Tough
Toots back on fine form in what has become his final album |
Album: Ammar 808 - Global Control/ Invisible Invasion
Fusion between the Maghreb and South India that's so good it explodes |
Album: Doves - The Universal Want
The Manchester three-piece end a decade-long hiatus in style |
Album: Allison Neale - Quietly There
A completely delightful album |
Blu-ray: Walkabout
Fifty years on from its original release, Nicolas Roeg's solo debut gets a stunning restoration |
Album: Suzanne Vega - An Evening of New York Songs and Stories
Tom's Diner by way of Cafe Carlyle |
Album: Rui Ho - Lov3 & L1ght
Dayglo experimental pop from Chinese artist in Berlin |
The Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup 2020 - old-time decadence revisited
A tasty 1970s Rolling Stones classic is revived with added ingredients |
Album: Declan McKenna - Zeros
Second album from young prodigy contains some solid songs but suffers from crassly overboard production |
Album: Tricky - Fall to Pieces
Moody vignettes transform pain into beauty |
Blu-ray: Show Boat (1936)
Paul Robeson's few scenes dominate James Whale's great backstage musical |
Album: Throwing Muses - Sun Racket
An earthy and disorientating return for the Boston trio |
Blu-ray: Safety Last!
Terrifying and exhilarating - one of the greatest silent comedies returns |
CD: Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith - Peradam
The third in a beguiling trilogy of immersive albums |
Album: Katy Perry - Smile
Is it possible to grow up in public when you're at the top of the celebrity tree? |
Album: Disclosure - ENERGY
Great selection of guests add up to a decent, if sometimes predictable, album from the house revivalists |
Album: Gregory Porter - All Rise
Porter and team on strong form |
DVD: Fanny Lye Deliver'd
Civil War Western with feminist overtones falls a little flat |
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