CDs/DVDs
CD: LeAnn Rimes - RemnantsMonday, 24 October 2016
According to convention, a country gal like LeAnn Rimes should garner her lyrical inspiration from hard liquor and hard knocks. To see her then, the other week, on ITV's Loose Women discussing how it was actually the experience of being a stepmum... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The UndertonesSunday, 23 October 2016
Although the reformed Undertones, with Paul McLoone replacing original singer Feargal Sharkey, have been a popular live draw since 1999, John Peel’s anointing of “Teenage Kicks” from their debut EP as his favourite recording suggests this is what... Read more... |
CD: TOY - Clear ShotSunday, 23 October 2016
There's an eeriness about this record that comes of it being so very perfectly anachronistic. TOY have formerly mined various parts of experimental rock history, notably Krautrock, and on their collaboration with Natasha “Bat For Lashes” Khan, some... Read more... |
CD: Lady Gaga - JoanneSaturday, 22 October 2016
Where’s the beef? In exchanging the raw meat couture Lady Gaga wore to the 2010 MTV Awards for the leathery country sounds of her latest, fifth album, fans will be wondering if she’s lost her cutting edge. For a New Yorker of Italian descent, a... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Pool of LondonThursday, 20 October 2016
True to its title, Pool of London is one of the great London films. More than this, it included British cinema’s first – albeit chaste – interracial romance and convinces as film noir. Filmed in 1950 and released in February 1951, it was passed by... Read more... |
CD: Bon Jovi - This House Is Not for SaleWednesday, 19 October 2016
Jon Bon Jovi may be many things – a rock star, heartthrob and possessor of a fine haircut, to name but a few. The jury's still out, however, on whether he's actually a great singer. The consensus is more that Bon Jovi's voice is a character... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Tim BuckleySunday, 16 October 2016
The period between the October 1966 release of his eponymous debut album and its follow-up, August 1967’s baroque masterpiece Goodbye and Hello, saw Tim Buckley and his label Elektra reconsider how best to help him generate an impact. No matter how... Read more... |
CD: Status Quo – Aquostic II - That's a FactSunday, 16 October 2016
After the success of 2014’s Aquostic, which saw the band shift nearly half a million albums, Status Quo are back with more of the same to see whether they can repeat the trick.The big lie about the Quo is that their entire career has been based on... Read more... |
CD: The Pretenders - AloneSaturday, 15 October 2016
A legacy can be a hell of a thing. When someone has a recorded archive of stone cold classics, it must be very tough indeed to present their new works, knowing they'll be compared to their best. This goes double with a voice as distinctive as... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: Dekalog and Other TV WorksFriday, 14 October 2016
“Existential realism” is a term, contradictory though it might sound, that comes to mind when describing the work of the great Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski. The films he made in the last five years of his life – The Double Life of Veronique... Read more... |
CD: David Crosby - LighthouseThursday, 13 October 2016
While there were 20 years between the 74-year-old David Crosby’s last solo album, 2014’s Croz, and its predecessor It's All Coming Back To Me Now..., Lighthouse arrives with what must be seen as exceptional speed. It’s also, despite being recorded... Read more... |
CD: Moby & the Void Pacific Choir - These Systems Are FailingWednesday, 12 October 2016
Moby’s last proper album, not including the ambient affair he released via a free download from his LA restaurant earlier this year, was Innocents in 2013. It was a rich yet melancholic affair, the culmination of some years when a sober Moby, no... Read more... |
