CDs/DVDs
Kieron Tyler
A lot is going on during Yasmine Hamdan’s third solo album. Despite all ten songs of I Remember I Forget بنسى وبتذكر drawing from the lyrics and music of Palestinian folklore, what is heard is avowedly non-traditional. Hamdan is sticking with the electronica she has been associated with since the late 1990s.The title track exhibits an acid house pulse. “Seven vows سبع صنايع” begins as a smoky ballad but quickly incorporates ominous washes of sound and echoing, gun-shot percussion. “Shadia شادية”, the most linear track, has a Seventies film-theme vibe. “Mor مرّ التجنّي” evokes a desiccated, Read more ...
graham.rickson
You’ll have absorbed key strands of The Sweeney‘s DNA even if you’ve never watched an episode, ITV’s groundbreaking police drama having had an impact and influence far bigger than its creators could ever have imagined. Writer Ian Kennedy Martin had met the young John Thaw in the 1960s and was keen to work with him again, penning a 90-minute script about a maverick detective inspector for Thames Television’s Armchair Cinema slot in 1974.Production company Euston Films saw the idea’s potential, and production on a 13-part Sweeney series began before Regan was even broadcast. That 90-minute Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Americana rocker Josh Ritter can write a beautiful song. He’s one of America’s premier wordsmiths of the form. He’s also written two novels, which is no surprise; many of his best songs have narrative edge. He’s equally capable at the music, which he calls “cosmic country”. At his best, it has qualities that elevate the human spirit.On his latest, his 13th album in a quarter-century career, the music is variable, but the lyricism seldom flags. The album is titled for his muse, which he calls “my honeydew” (yes, overly cutesy), and the songs are in honour of that. Be that as it may, the 10 Read more ...
Mark Kidel
From his early days with Talking Heads, David Byrne has ploughed a highly individual furrow, and exploited a persona that combines naivety with knowingness, fun pop with serious intent. He's perhaps, without appearing to be, one of the most spiritually orientated artists working in popular music today. He's always been true to form, whether wearing outsize suits or doing almost robotic dances. His latest album is in many ways no surprise, as although he’s decades older than when he sang “psycho-killer, qu’est ce que c’est” or recreated sound poems by Dadaist poet Kurt Schwitters, his Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Although they haven’t had a hit single in almost 20 years, Faithless remain a potent commercial force, continuing to rack up festival headline sets and big-selling albums. Longterm member Maxi Jazz left the band in 2016 but Champion Sound is the first album by remaining duo Rollo and Sister Bliss since his death in 2022. It is overlong at more than 75 minutes, but its four distinct sections pass in a warm MDMA throb.The quartet of song-suites are each themed. The first, entitled Forever Free, is introduced by Jazz prior to three tracks of pulsing head-nod. “In Your Own Groove”, with its Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
International is Saint Etienne’s 13th album. It is their last. According to the promotional material, it was written while recording their last album, 2021’s I’ve Been Trying To Tell You. The trio – Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs – must have known back then they were planning to bow out.Where I’ve Been Trying To Tell You was blurred, gauzy, low to mid-tempo and impressionistic, its counterpart is often up-tempo and avowedly poppy. Both albums, though, are shot-through with reflectiveness and melancholy. Underlining this, Cracknell ambivalently declares “looking back I could be worse Read more ...
John Carvill
Can a film’s classic status expire, or be rescinded? If it can, I’d say The Graduate is a potential candidate.Yes, it was formally groundbreaking (within the context of American cinema), and is often read as a metaphor for the clash of generations, the burgeoning freedoms and battles for equality being waged as the 60s reacted against the grey flannel stultification of the 50s. But try watching it back to back with, say, Bonnie and Clyde, and some aspects come across today as surprisingly staid, almost atavistic. Roger Ebert labelled Dustin Hoffman’s Ben Braddock an “insufferable creep Read more ...
Sebastian Scotney
Brad Mehldau’s three trio concerts in the UK in June showed what it is he does so brilliantly. The group (with bassist Felix Moseholm and drummer Jorge Rossy) played with a freedom and a sense of flow in their musical conversation, a sense of collective listening which were astonishing. And there is another remarkable thing. Mehldau wants to cast his musical net wide; the three played a completely different setlist for each of their concerts.Mehldau also likes to focus on his particular fascinations, and has several good reasons to make Ride into the Sun (Nonesuch), an album in tribute to Read more ...
Ellie Roberts
Following the success of 2024’s flirtatious Short n’ Sweet, Sabrina Carpenter has fully committed to her pin-up popstar status with Man’s Best Friend, perhaps to its detriment. It was clear from the release of the album artwork and recent press that the dominant theme would be sex, but the question over whether it was satirical or not genuinely remains unanswered because of its general lack of creativity. It’s more explicit than we have previously heard her, and it is humorous at times, but its entire identity does seem to be based around the fact she likes sex. Had this been a later album Read more ...
Kathryn Reilly
Queen of the earworm Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson has had quite the summer, capturing imaginations and sparking indignation. The brazen hussy has the audacity to wear what the hell she likes while belting out her stream of catchy country-pop, life-affirming hits. She’s in your face, unapologetic and going absolutely nowhere.Little surprise, then, that in doing so she has incurred the wrath of a multitude keyboard warriors. The BBC has had to turn off live commenting during some of her festival performances. The woman has had the temerity to not follow the narrative, and not to shape herself to Read more ...
Guy Oddy
The Hives must be one of the most self-assured bands around – but not without good reason. Ever exuberant, all their tunes are short and sweet, speedy and sharp – just the way that rock’n’roll is meant to be.These Swedish garage punks first came to public attention in the early 2000s and were soon lumped in with the garage rock revival of the time. Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist and his energetic gang of Vikings, however, have far outlived any of the competition by continuing to plough their particular furrow and steadfastly refusing to experiment or tinker with their sound. Mind you, it worked for Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
During the opening seconds of Mirra, an unusual sound leaps out – a grunting. It’s integral to a shifting aural pallete which also features a bowed violin and chiming percussion along with a recurring grind like that of a rotating waterwheel. The mood is chilly, suggesting an environment where unalloyed nature has the upper hand, a place where the seasons define what comes to pass.It turns out the grunting is a recording of a wild reindeer. Norwegian hardanger fiddle (the hardingfele) player Benedicte Maurseth’s thematically related follow-up to 2022’s Hárr interweaves recordings of the Read more ...