New releases on CD & DVD
Album: Bab L'Bluz - Swaken
Wednesday, 08 May 2024
Bab L’Bluz are a French-Moroccan four-piece that play a tasty blend of fiery psychedelic rock backed up with hypnotic North African gnawa rhythms. Featuring electric awisha lute, guembri, percussion and castanet-like qraqeb rather than more mainstream instruments, they tackle subjects like gender inequality and call for unity and tolerance – while getting hips swinging and feet stomping in a frenzied groove.
Album: Pokey LaFarge - Rhumba Country
Tuesday, 07 May 2024
Pokey LaFarge has always defied categorisation. He likened his 2020 album Rock Bottom Rhapsody to a mix tape, with elements of bluegrass, barrelhouse, doo-wop, jazz, rockabilly, country blues, the great American songbook and even hints of movie music. In the Blossom of Their Shade, his lockdown album, was an exhilarating ride in the ghostly company of the likes of Hank Williams, Fats Domino, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers.
Album: Josienne Clarke - Parenthesis, I
Monday, 06 May 2024
Parentheses, I is an album title – (I) – that’s a hieroglyph of the self, the brackets like shields facing opposite ways; and as an artist...
Album: Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism
Friday, 03 May 2024
This album has a lot to live up to. Its predecessor Future Nostalgia came along just as the Covid crisis was properly kicking into gear,...
Album: Sia - Reasonable Woman
Thursday, 02 May 2024
Sia has well and truly stepped into her power. Gone are the days of releasing songs that were pitched to megastars but turned down (“This Is Acting...
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Album: EYE - Dark Light
New band from MWWB singer Jessica Ball prove worthy of what came before |
Blu-ray: The Dreamers
Bertolucci revisits May '68 via intoxicated, transgressive sex, lit up by the debuting Eva Green |
Album: The Lemon Twigs - A Dream Is All We Know
When self-assurance trumps unashamedly showcasing influences |
Album: Justice - Hyperdrama
French electronic dance stalwarts return from eight-year break in fine fettle |
Album: St Vincent - All Born Screaming
Annie Clark transcends indie’s average leanings |
Album: Pet Shop Boys - Nonetheless
Longing, love and longevity as the duo resolutely refuse retirement |
Album: Mdou Moctar - Funeral for Justice
Tuareg rockers are on fiery form |
DVD/Blu-Ray: Priscilla
The disc extras smartly contextualise Sofia Coppola's eighth feature |
Album: Fred Hersch - Silent, Listening
A 'nocturnal' album - or is it just plain dark? |
Album: Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology
Taylor Swift bares her soul with a 31-track double album |
Album: Jonny Drop • Andrew Ashong - The Puzzle Dust
Bottled sunshine from a Brit soul-jazz team-up |
Album: Pearl Jam - Dark Matter
Enduring grunge icons return full of energy, arguably their most empowered yet |
Album: Paraorchestra with Brett Anderson and Charles Hazlewood - Death Songbook
An uneven voyage into darkness |
Album: EMEL - MRA
Tunisian-American singer's latest is fired with feminism and global electro-pop maximalism |
Album: A Certain Ratio - It All Comes Down to This
Veteran Mancunians undergo a further re-assessment and reinvention |
Album: Maggie Rogers - Don't Forget Me
Rogers continues her knack for capturing natural moments, embracing a more live sound |
Album: Lizz Wright - Shadow
Brilliant album from superlative vocalist |
Album: Shabaka - Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace
A quiet and reflective breakthrough |
Blu-ray: Happy End (Šťastný konec)
Technically brilliant black comedy hasn't aged well |
Album: Nia Archives - Silence is Loud
Sweeping up generations' worth of influences into a giddy pop rush |
Album: Fabiana Palladino - Fabiana Palladino
A remarkably sleek and sophisticated debut |
Album: Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties - In Lieu of Flowers
Aaron West’s carefully crafted next chapter is storytelling at its finest |
Album: Khruangbin - A LA SALA
Same old same old, and all the better for it |
Album: The Black Keys - Ohio Players
A safe, contained album from a band that made its mark with searing blues rock |
latest in today
Brancusi, Pompidou Centre, Paris review - founding father of...
One hundred and twenty sculptures, and so much more: the current Brancusi blockbuster at the Centre Pompidou, the first large Paris show of the...
Album: Bab L'Bluz - Swaken
Bab L’Bluz are a French-Moroccan four-piece that play a tasty blend of fiery psychedelic rock backed up with hypnotic North African gnawa rhythms...
Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, Disney+ review - h...
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Album: Pokey LaFarge - Rhumba Country
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L'Olimpiade, Irish National Opera review - Vivaldi...
In Vivaldi’s more extravagant operas, some of the arias can seem like a competition for the gold medal. L’Olimpiade is relatively modest...
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Album: Josienne Clarke - Parenthesis, I
Parentheses, I is an album title – (I) – that’s a hieroglyph of the self, the brackets like...
Music Reissues Weekly: West Coast Consortium - All The Love...
West Coast Consortium’s first single was July 1967’s “Some Other Someday,” a delightful slice of Mellotron-infused harmony pop which wasn’t too...
Love Lies Bleeding review - a pumped-up neo-noir
Somewhere along a desert highway in the American Southwest, where there's not much to do besides get drunk, shoot guns, and pump iron, a stranger...
Remembering conductor Andrew Davis (1944-2024)
As a human being of immense warmth, humour and erudition, Andrew Davis made it all too easy to forget what towering, incandescent performances he...