mon 11/12/2023

New releases on CD & DVD

Album: Kate Rusby - Light Years

Guy Oddy

The regular appearance of Kate Rusby’s folkie Christmas albums have almost become a Yuletide tradition in themselves at this time of the year. 2023’s Light Years being, somewhat incredibly, the seventh in the series.

Album: Samara Joy - A Joyful Holiday

Sebastian Scotney

This six-track EP on Verve/UMG brings the breakthrough year of 2023 for Samara Joy to a neat close. In February she won two Grammys, as Best New Artist and Best Jazz Vocal Album for “Linger Awhile”. In July she was Downbeat’s Critics’ Poll’s Rising Star Female Vocalist of the Year and Rising Star Artist of the Year. And just a couple of weeks ago she passed the mighty age of… 24.

Album: Cher - Christmas

Katie Colombus

I honestly never thought I'd add a Cher song to my painstakingly curated Christmas Spotify playlist. But after listening to the ultimate diva's new...

Album: Gregory Porter - Christmas Wish

Tim Cumming

The cat in the hat with the mellifluous voice delivers his Christmas Wish for the festive season, his first Christmas album, and it sounds more or...

Blu-ray: Blackhat

Nick Hasted

The Boxing Day release of Michael Mann’s first feature in eight years, Ferrari, finally follows up Blackhat, a Chris Hemsworth-starring cyber-...

Album: Neil Young - Before and After

Liz Thomson

Another one for Young completists

Album: Shirley Hurt - Shirley Hurt

Kieron Tyler

Canadian singer-songwriter’s enigmatic debut

Album: Ghost Woman - Hindsight Is 50/50

Guy Oddy

Psychedelicists add a bit of va-va-voom to their sound

Album: Trevor Horn - Echoes: Ancient & Modern

Thomas H Green

Downtempo cover versions run the gamut from the bland to the excruciating

Album: Peter Gabriel - I/O

Graham Fuller

Nearly three decades of reflection have produced a likely classic

Blu-ray: King and Country

Graham Fuller

The class war rears its ugly head on the Western Front in Joseph Losey's bleak classic

Album: Harp - Albion

Kieron Tyler

The exquisite comeback of former Midlake mainstay Tim Smith

Album: Catrin Finch & Aoife Ni Bhriain - Double You

Tim Cumming

Divine harp-and-violin duets focused on the folklore of bees

Album: Take That - This Life

Thomas H Green

The national treasure trio don't have enough tunes to counteract the bland production

Album: Joe Jackson - Joe Jackson Presents Max Champion in What a Racket!

Graham Fuller

A note perfect music hall pastiche with a potent whiff of modernity

Album: Abigail Lapell - Lullabies

Thomas H Green

Canadian singer takes a short, sweet, somnambulant sojourn

Blu-ray: Pearls of the Deep

Graham Rickson

Poetic, witty anthology film, a 'manifesto for the Czech New Wave'

Album: Kurt Vile - Back to Moon Beach

Ellie Roberts

Recycled riffs and covers are an enjoyable listen

Album: Matt Berry - Simplicity

Kathryn Reilly

Berry writes for TV - but not in the way you'd think

Album: Rockstar - Dolly Parton

Liz Thomson

An indulgence, but who would begrudge her?

Album: Lucidvox - That's What Remained

Kieron Tyler

Russian quartet’s instantly captivating second album

Album: Madness - Theatre of the Absurd presents C'Est la Vie

Thomas H Green

A tuneful, witty, melancholy and dynamic state-of-the-nation address

DVD/Blu-ray: 23 Seconds to Eternity

Thomas H Green

Collection capturing the berserk, exhilarating vision of music-art mavericks The KLF

Album: Smoke Fairies - Carried in Sound

Guy Oddy

Intimate tunes from alt-folkie duo bring some gentle magic

Album: PinkPantheress - Heaven Knows

Harry Thorfinn-George

TikTok phenomenon levels up on confident debut album

Album: Bad Boy Chiller Crew - Influential

Thomas H Green

Self-made Bradford bassline house mavericks come unstuck

Album: Bas Jan - Back to the Swamp

Kieron Tyler

Bankers, road signs and a witch inspire arty and idiosyncratic band’s fourth album

Album: Cat Power Sings Dylan - The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert

Katie Colombus

An alluring version of the infamous gig that pays homage to a musical hero

Album: TONN3RR3 x BIKAY3 - It's a Bomb

Mark Kidel

Hear the forest spirits speak, filtered through electronica

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