CDs/DVDs
Albums of the Year 2019: Claire Martin - Believin’ ItMonday, 30 December 2019
A trio of standout US vocal jazz releases included one of the year’s most hotly anticipated albums, Jazzmeia Horn’s Love and Liberation, which showcased the Dallas-born vocalist’s ever-deepening artistry and songwriter’s ear for detail. Horn’s eight... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Seratones - PowerSaturday, 28 December 2019
Up until a couple of weeks ago, I had every intention of making Songs Of Our Native Daughters featuring Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell and Amythyst Kiah my Album of the year. It’s a solid work of great beauty, elegance and... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Nick Cave - GhosteenFriday, 27 December 2019
The highs in a year of music come at the most unexpected moments: I was sitting at a beach restaurant in Spain, earlier this month, sharing a seabass with PP Arnold, former Ikette and soul star of the sixties who’s re-invented herself decade after... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Mark Turner Meets Gary FosterThursday, 26 December 2019
As the attention-jostling hype becomes ever more unashamed, we get further from the music. The myths and the 'message' get louder, to the point where the question of whether the music itself might actually be worth hearing can become secondary. I've... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: BuddiesTuesday, 24 December 2019
The acclaim of being the first to represent the mid-1980s AIDS pandemic in cultural form was a plaudit that none of those concerned would ever have wished for. With New York as its epicentre, and almost nothing known about the disease that was... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Josienne Clarke – In All WeatherMonday, 23 December 2019
As one half of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award-winning duo with Ben Walker, Josienne Clarke released four superb albums, including 2014’s Nothing Can Bring Back The Hour and their finale, 2018’s Seedlings All. There’s an absolute clarity to her voice, as... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Slipknot - We Are Not Your KindSunday, 22 December 2019
It is late December and, as the year draws to a close, it seems that the global political scene is defined by radical divisions, out-of-control climate, growing anxieties, and simmering conflict. Metal legends’ Slipknot’s We Are Not Your Kind... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Mega Bog - DolphineSaturday, 21 December 2019
The lyrical and musical languages spoken by Dolphine are not immediate yet since its release earlier this year the album has repeatedly fascinated. Take “I Hear You Listening (to the Bug on My Wall)”, where Erin Birgy sings “Crazy Kermin in the hall... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Sault - 7Friday, 20 December 2019
Music has never felt more important. While politicians debated our future, badly and in heated, farce-to-farce debates, the electorate went to war with each other – on social media mainly. The atmosphere is toxic and we’re surrounded by the bodies... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Terror Danjah - InvasionThursday, 19 December 2019
This is a bittersweet recommendation to make. On the one hand, it is simply one of the mightiest electronic albums of the year, an exemplar of how grime continues to be a vital part of the British sound palette long after it was pushed aside as the... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: The Chemical Brothers - No GeographyWednesday, 18 December 2019
It was hard avoid bleak in 2019. Then the election hit and everything went off a cliff. Watching the world turn to a shit-bowl of ignorance and greed, the raging nihilism of the year’s key film, Joker, suddenly seemed appealing. The 2020s will be... Read more... |
CD: Harry Styles - Fine LineTuesday, 17 December 2019
Not all One Direction solo albums are created equally, and after Liam Payne's public ostracization for LP1, all eyes are on Harry Styles. His self-titled debut earned some baffling comparisons to David Bowie, so what to expect next?Fine Line is akin... Read more... |
