New releases on CD & DVD
Blu-ray: The Irishman
Sunday, 06 December 2020
The big talking points of Martin Scorsese’s lauded return to the gangster genre, 2019’s The Irishman, were his reunion after 25 years with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, and the state-of the-art “de-aging” process that enabled that pair and Al Pacino to play their characters over a period of 30 years.
Album: The Avalanches - We Will Always Love You
Saturday, 05 December 2020
After a 16-year wait for the second album from Australian sample-stitchers The Avalanches, their third, a mere four years later, feels like a rush release by comparison. We Will Always Love You has been preceded by no fewer than four singles which, while welcome, are in danger of distorting the overall picture slightly.
Album: Yungblud - Weird!
Friday, 04 December 2020
Doncaster musician Dominic Harrison – Yungblud – appeared a couple of years ago, a self-proclaimed punk, alive with vim and righteousness, touting...
Album: High Contrast - Notes From the Underground
Thursday, 03 December 2020
Dance music has a notably different relationship to its past than other kinds of music. This has a real, material basis: because its core experience...
Album: Nick Cave & Nicholas Lens - L.I.T.A.N....
Wednesday, 02 December 2020
The Covid pandemic has meant, with both performance and recording opportunities at a minimum, that many musicians have had to apply a bit of lateral...
Blu-ray: Goodbye, Dragon Inn
A poetic tribute to cinema-going itself from Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang |
Album: Sigur Rós - Odin's Raven Magic
Music for Norse myths |
Blu-Ray: La Haine
Handsome restoration for Matthieu Kassowitz's take on the French dispossessed |
Album: Tankus the Henge - Luna Park!
Festival favourites' third album delivers an exuberant selection of stompers |
Album: Miley Cyrus - Plastic Hearts
Miley's ever-shifting sound alights on a Big Eighties aesthetic |
Album: Gary Barlow - Music Played By Humans
The Take That frontman's latest is a tiresome cue-call for spontaneous fun |
Album: Billie Joe Armstrong - No Fun Mondays
The Green Day singer offers up his collection of lockdown cover versions |
Blu-ray: Waxworks (1924)
The sum is more than the parts of Paul Leni's German Expressionist horror comedy |
Album: BTS - Be
K-pop perfection from the South Korean septet |
Blu-ray: Girlfriends
A pioneering comedy-drama about two young women trying to make it in 1970s New York |
Album: Kitchman/Schmidt - As Long As Songbirds Sing
Talented musicians, but trying too hard |
Album: Smashing Pumpkins – Cyr
Grunge veterans pump out a joyless dirge |
Album: Kali Uchis - Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios) ∞
Rising Colombian-American star takes a likeable turn into beats-laden easy listening |
Album: Charles Webster - Decision Time
An extraordinary comeback - and hopefully overdue recognition - for a British underground music legend |
Blu-ray: The Painted Bird
Harrowing tale of wartime life on the margins |
Album: Cabaret Voltaire - Shadow of Fear
Dark and disorientating electronica at its best |
Album: AC/DC - Power Up
Veteran Aussie rockers rise, phoenix-like, to banish the 2020 blues |
Album: Paloma Faith - Infinite Things
A re-versioning of the self into more serious, sombre realms |
Album: Kruder & Dorfmeister - 1995
Horizontal herbal music from 1990s trip hop pairing is pleasantly zonked |
DVD/Blu-ray: Breathless
Avant-garde with a sense of history |
Album: Little Mix - Confetti
Sixth album from all-girl pop juggernaut breaks no new ground but has its moments |
DVD/Blu-ray: The Ladykillers
The last great Ealing Comedy, in a pristine restored print |
Album: Balothizer - Cretan Smash
Between rock and a roots place |
Album: Kylie - DISCO
Much-needed escapism from Australia's finest export |
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