CDs/DVDs
Lisa-Marie Ferla
Nobody ever accused, say, Dylan of having a voice that didn't mature with his songwriting. It’s something that springs to mind every time I try to put my finger on exactly why I’ve never warmed to the country-folk sounds of Conor Oberst’s latter work. Stylistically, the music is beautiful and while the lyrics may not be steeped in the same visceral poetry of Oberst’s Bright Eyes days they’re still a cut above most contemporary songwriting. But the quivering timbre of the voice that gave that band its visceral, emotional core or that wrung itself raw fronting early 00s emo act Desaparecidos is Read more ...
Nick Hasted
The literal miracle in this earthily comic 1956 romance happens at the end. The deeper magic for producer-screenwriter Emeric Pressburger was the “small daily miracles” he found in its “extraordinary” Soho setting. He wrote the script in 1934, at the start of life in England as a Hungarian Jewish refugee, via France, from Germany’s newly Nazi film industry. In the two decades it took to make it, Pressburger wrote, produced and edited one of the greatest sequences in British cinema with director Michael Powell - A Matter of Life and Death, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes, Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Various Artists: Philadelphia International Records – The CollectionThe O’Jays’ “Love Train”, The Jacksons’ “Show You the Way to Go” and McFadden & Whitehead’s “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” share an undeniable power. All make the body move and have a potency which could be devotional. Each is also about going forward and could slot into a church service. Despite being products of a musical production line, these were more than simple pop records.All three were issued by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff’s Philadelphia International Records and are heard on Philadelphia International Records Read more ...
Mark Kidel
They say the devil has all the best tunes, but melancholia is another source of musical inspiration. Coldplay’s new album is the product of a period of emotional turmoil in lead vocalist Chris Martin’s life – the much–publicized ‘uncoupling’ from his wife the actress Gwynneth Paltrow.The album was made before the announcement of their separation but it expresses a painful inner journey in anticipation of break-up, the realization of loss, and the mortality of relationships, all of which are the stuff of melancholy moods.There is no trace of anger or vituperation here, no sign of blood on the Read more ...
Tom Birchenough
Andrzej Wajda’s Man of Marble may well be the film that foretold the end of Communism in Poland. Its script gestation period lasted almost 14 years, starting from 1962, and though its official release in 1977 was kept to a minimal level by the authorities, even in that form it’s believed that almost a fifth of the nation’s population saw the work.Aleksander Scibor-Rylski’s script plays loosely with the Citizen Kane narrative device of hunting down the personal truth behind a past legend. In this case it’s a socialist hero bricklayer, Mateusz Birkut (played by Jerzy Radziwilowicz, centre, main Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
A little early, this review, as the album’s not out until Monday 2nd June, but if you take a look, everyone from 50 Cent to Clean Bandit has something out that week, so let’s have a listen now or it may fall by the wayside. Jah Wobble, after all, is one of those sturdy but essential periphery figures whose nearly three decades of music, often with a who’s who of alt-pop talent, is almost always worth a look (ie, with John Lydon, Adrian Sherwood, Screamadelica-era Primal Scream, the astounding Sinead O’Connor collaboration “Visions of You, his wife Liao Zilan’s Chinese Dub project, and so on). Read more ...
peter.quinn
Materializing out of London's thriving traditional Irish music scene, this debut recording from new five-piece CrossHarbour presents an 11-track collection whose appeal should go way beyond traditional Irish music initiates. Featuring a judicious mix of tunes and songs, the quintet's musicianship is fabulously impressive.In flute player Órlaith McAuliffe the band has a once-in-a-generation talent, a brilliant, preposterously accomplished musician who has bagged so many All-Ireland titles that her mantelpiece must be groaning under the weight. The band's other melody player, fiddler Sam Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Many films fuse humour with horror and many of those fail to be accomplished in either genre. Bringing fun to the scary often results in a clunkiness which neither raises laughs or goosebumps. The worst example might be the utterly awful Bloodbath at the House of Death, a 1984 film which teamed all-round showbiz eccentric Kenny Everett with veteran actor Vincent Price. What Price thought as he navigated his way through this stinker is not a matter of record, but he may have ruefully cast his mind back a decade to the contrastingly wonderful Theatre of Blood. Released in 1973, it is one of the Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Ah, Jeff Buckley - so much to answer for. Damien Rice, Bon Iver, William Fitzsimmons, James Morrison, David Gray, James Vincent McMorrow, Chet Faker, Joshua Radin and on and on and on, endless waves of male singer-songwriters – usually bearded - who signify emotion through falsetto voice-breaking, the most tired, tedious technique in modern pop and rock. There have been valiant attempts to send things in new directions but no one bought them (eg Jack Peñate’s “Tonight’s Today” single). It would be a welcome wonder, then, if the sterling debut solo album from Nick Mulvey, once of crossover Read more ...
Lisa-Marie Ferla
“If 50 is the new black, hooray, this could be your lucky day,” Tori Amos sings on “16 Shades of Blue”, the track from new album Unrepentant Geraldines most obviously touched by the big birthday that the singer, who has been releasing music since her early 20s, just passed. With its woozy beats, odd sound effects and references to the paintings of Paul Cézanne it’s a curious song, likely to throw those more fond of Amos’ recent forays into classical and orchestral music. Still it’s the one whose lyrics - a meandering stream-of-consciousness on femininity and ageing - that have struck me the Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Josef K: The Only Fun in TownJosef K seem like one that got away. Their fellow Postcard Records’ bands Aztec Camera and Orange Juice had high-profile afterlives with, respectively, the careers of their songwriters and front men Roddy Frame and Edwin Collins. After his band split, Josef K’s Paul Haig went on to have a string of fantastic, accessible releases – including collaborations with New Order – but none clicked with the mainstream. His old outfit’s legacy is though heard less directly through Franz Ferdinand, whose agitated forward-thrust derives directly from Josek K. It’s also Read more ...
joe.muggs
Little Dragon are all about the slow burn. The Swedish band had been going for 10 years before they released their first single in 2006, and in the time since then they've built their profile steadily through hard gigging and interesting collaborations, rather than any massive smashes. Their music reflects this too, tending to the insidious rather than the immediate, and that seems to be the case more than ever on their fourth album.They have a lot going for them, but above all else their strengths are in Yukimi Nagano's voice, and in their production. Both of these have all the control, Read more ...