New releases on CD & DVD
Album: Ammar 808 - Club Tounsi
Friday, 23 May 2025
Ammar 808 is the high octane vehicle for the Tunisian-born producer Sofyann Ben Youssef, now based in Denmark. His first album Maghreb United (2018)struck hard and fast in a field already well-populated by the fusion of traditional Arab sounds and modern electronics. It was a marriage made in heaven.
Album: Sports Team - Boys These Days
Thursday, 22 May 2025
How do you solve a problem like Sports Team? Taking them at face value, they’re a living metaphor for the slow music biz relegation of the working class in favour of the privileged, a bunch of snarky ex-Cambridge University students who make smug guitar pop, a Brideshead Revisited version of The Kooks.
Album: Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Wednesday, 21 May 2025
Stereolab always walked a knife edge between deadly serious and dead silly. Their sound was constructed around the sort of reference points – French...
Album: Robert Forster - Strawberries
Monday, 19 May 2025
“Tell me what you see” invites Robert Forster during Strawberries' “Tell it Back to me.” The album’s eight songs do not, however, necessarily...
Album: Rico Nasty - LETHAL
Friday, 16 May 2025
Rico Nasty’s new album LETHAL signals a shift in direction, but whether it is a bold evolution or a step towards something less distinct is up for...
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Album: Billy Nomates - Metalhorse
East Midlands post-punker tries on some yacht rock |
Album: MØ - Plæygirl
Scandinavian singer injects a dash of outsider melancholy into her fizzing electro-pop |
DVD/Blu-ray: Slade in Flame
One of the great rock movies gets a 50th anniversary revival |
Album: Peter Doherty - Felt Better Alive
Doherty returns with his first solo album in almost a decade |
Album: Sleep Token - Even In Arcadia
The anonymous UK metallers' fourth album is breathlessly inventive and emotive |
Album: Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke - Tall Tales
A toning-down leads to an opening up of new possibilities in a fertile collaboration |
Album: PinkPantheress - Fancy That
Hot rising pop star's new mixtape lacks tunes and dynamism |
Blu-ray: Laurel & Hardy - The Silent Years (1928)
Ten more early shorts, handsomely restored and annotated |
Album: Arcade Fire - Pink Elephant
Seventh from Canadian stadium-slayers contains enough juice to convince |
Album: PUP - Who Will Look After The Dogs?
A compelling balance between absurdity and sincerity |
Album: Suzanne Vega - Flying With Angels
A diverse album that's still uniquely Vega |
Album: Lael Neale - Altogether Stranger
Arresting art pop with a touch of creepiness |
Album: Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars
A rock opera too scholarly? |
Album: Dr Robert & Matt Deighton - The Instant Garden
A couple of old mods waft into delightfully Seventies hippy territory |
Album: Self Esteem - A Complicated Woman
Dissecting the utter tripe 21st-century western women navigate every day. In song! |
Album: Billy Idol - Dream Into It
Immense charm and uniqueness shine through, but too much leaning into the generic |
Album: Viagra Boys - Viagr Aboys
Louder, weirder and all the way in |
Album: Maria Somerville - Luster
Irish musical impressionist embraces shoegazing |
Album: Ronny Graupe's Szelest - Newfoundland Tristesse
A deep, subtle and constantly engaging album |
Album: Gigspanner Big Band - Turnstone
Third album from British folk’s biggest big band |
Album: Mark Morton - Without the Pain
Second solo album from Lamb of God guitarist lays down hefty southern boogie |
DVD/Blu-ray: In a Year of 13 Moons
UK disc debut for Fassbinder's neglected, tragic, tender trans tale |
Album: Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson - What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow
Finger-picking good |
Album: Joe Lovano - Homage
Free-flowing spontaneity |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
The Phoenician Scheme review - further adventures in the idi...
It’s not what he says, it’s the way he says it. Few filmmakers have bent the term “auteur” to their own ends more boldly than...
Album: Ammar 808 - Club Tounsi
Ammar 808 is the high octane vehicle for the Tunisian-born producer Sofyann Ben Youssef, now based in Denmark. His first album Maghreb United...
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning review - can this...
Whether it is or isn’t the final Mission: Impossible film, there’s a distinct fin-de-siècle feel about this eighth instalment, and not...
Code of Silence, ITVX review - inventively presented reality...
In the guided tour of Britain’s cathedral cities that is the primetime TV...
The Crucible, Shakespeare's Globe review - stirring acc...
A society ruled by hysteria. Lurid lies that carry more currency than reality. There’s no shortage of reasons that...
Pixies, O2 Academy, Birmingham review - indie veterans pack...
Pixies might just be the ultimate Radio 6 Dad band. They’ve been around (on-and-off) for around 40 years; they’ve got a fine back catalogue of...
Album: Sports Team - Boys These Days
How do you solve a problem like Sports Team? Taking them at face value, they’re a living metaphor for the slow music biz relegation of the working...
Pygmalion, Early Opera Company, Curnyn, Middle Temple Hall r...
With French baroque opera all but banished from the UK’s major...
Album: Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Stereolab always walked a knife edge between deadly serious and dead silly. Their sound was constructed around the sort of reference points –...