new releases on cd & dvd
Liz Thomson |

Mavis Staples, the woman to whom a young Bob Dylan proposed marriage when they met at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival and whose voice he has described as his “favourite voice”. Mavis Staples, who announced her retirement in 2023 and then realised she still had “work” to do, even after more than 75 years on the road.

joe.muggs |

It’s weird, right? We’ve somehow stumbled into a world where, for all we’re told that algorithms homogenise music, actually more people than ever are exposed to very, very odd and abstract soundmaking.

Kieron Tyler
“Climb upon a bridge to far, go anywhere your heart desires.” The key phrase from the title track of Midlake’s sixth studio album conveys the…
Thomas H. Green
Three of last year’s finest singles were by Luvcat, a classy-but-naughty Eartha Kitt-style bad girl steeped in burlesque-rock’n’roll spirit. In fact…
Tom Carr
If you were looking for the most perfectly brooding autumnal album this year, Florence Welch and her Machine may have been one of the least likely…

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joe.muggs
A charming and distinctive voice stifled by generic production
Tim Cumming
Eight CDs encompass Dylan’s earliest recordings up to his first major-league concert
Kieron Tyler
The former bassist of the grunge-leaning trio JJ72 embraces the spectral
Thomas H. Green
Singer's return after seven years away from music is autofiction in the brutally raw
graham.rickson
Down-and-out in rural Oregon: Kelly Reichardt's third feature packs a huge punch
Thomas H. Green
Second album from heavy-riffing quartet expands sonically on their debut
Thomas H. Green
US pop icon's latest is full of unpretentious pop-club bangers
joe.muggs
Intimacy and rich poetry on UK soul star's second LP
Miriam Figueras
Love twinkles in the gloom of Marcel Carné’s fogbound French poetic realist classic
Guy Oddy
Evan Dando finally gets back in the saddle with an album of new tunes
Tom Carr
Fifth album from Australian project grooves but falls flat
joe.muggs
The great Pretender at her most romantic and on the form of her life
Thomas H. Green
Musically sophisticated five-piece ramp up the excesses but remain contagiously pop
Tim Cumming
Trance and tradition meet Afrofuturism in Manhattan
graham.rickson
Ealing Studios' prescient black comedy, as sharp as ever
Guy Oddy
Belgian dancefloor veterans return to the fray with a dark, pop-orientated sound
Ibi Keita
A solid tribute to a legendary history
mark.kidel
Smooth and soulful standards from an old pro
joe.muggs
A set of live improvisations that drift in and out of real beauty
Thomas H. Green
Tropical-tinted downtempo pop that's likeable if uneventful
Thomas H. Green
Despite unlovely production, the Eighties/Nineties unit retain rowdy ebullience
joe.muggs
A record this weird should be more interesting, surely
Tim Cumming
The first of a trove of posthumous recordings from the 1970s and early 1980s
Kieron Tyler
Unconventional folk-based music which sounds like nothing else

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