CDs/DVDs
Blu-ray: The Hop-PickersTuesday, 07 January 2025
Czech theatre theorist Ivo Osolsobě’s tick-list for what constitutes an "authentic" musical is quoted in this release’s booklet. Namely that the songs should advance the narrative and express characters’ feelings, that singing, dancing and acting... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2024: Chihei Hatakeyama & Shun Ishiwaka - Magnificent Little Dudes Vol. 1Monday, 06 January 2025
A gem for me this year has been the collaborative project between the veteran minimalist composer Chihei Hatakeyama and jazz drummer Shun Ishiwaka, Magnificent Little Dudes Vol. 1. It’s an album I stumbled upon, not being familiar with either... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2024: Mk.gee - Two Star and the Dream PoliceThursday, 02 January 2025
Mk.gee has been an unexpected thread in a year of music that’s pulled me in many different directions, punctuating the need for unique, sonically interesting music alongside the huge pop and rock albums that we’ve also been treated to in 2024.Music... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2024: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Wild GodTuesday, 31 December 2024
Young eldritch junkie Nick Cave would have struggled to predict his maturity as a font of wry and sacred wisdom, or the fathomless loss he reckoned with en route.Wild God followed the harrowed Skeleton Tree and grief-illumined Ghosteen, necessary... Read more... |
Albums of the Year: Beth Gibbons - Lives OutgrownSaturday, 28 December 2024
Beth Gibbons’s latest album touched me more deeply than most of what I heard in 2024. She’s true to herself and honest in a way that’s extraordinarily disarming. Her vulnerability matches, in a microcosmic and yet authentic way, the unutterable pain... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2024: Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department: The AnthologyFriday, 27 December 2024
From the iconic Pop anthems that dominated this Summer, to the Pop Punk resurgence that is still going strong, it’s been an exciting twelve months of new music. I haven’t struggled to choose an album of the year, but I acknowledge that my choice is... Read more... |
Best of 2024: Blu-rayThursday, 26 December 2024
Someone told me recently that Netflix subscribers can view just 22 films made before 1980. I've no idea if this is true (please correct me if not), but it’s certainly a reason to continue watching and collecting films on physical discs. Plus, there’... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2024: Katherine Priddy - The Pendulum SwingThursday, 26 December 2024
Back in November Katherine Priddy released a winter single with the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, “Close Season”, wrapping the spirit of winter and snowfall into the uncertainty and possession of attraction, possession, desire – warm things that... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2024: Everything Everything - MountainheadMonday, 23 December 2024
There are some years where my pick for album of the year is obvious; something stands out so clearly amongst the crowd, something that takes a hold and doesn’t relent for a sustained length throughout the year. For me, 2024 was not one of those... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Hitchcock - The BeginningSunday, 22 December 2024
There's a tension in Alfred Hitchcock’s early films between misogyny and condemnation of the patriarchal suppression of women. The suppression was inherent in the original sources from which The Pleasure Garden (1926), Easy Virtue (1927), Champagne... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2024: Samara Joy - PortraitSaturday, 21 December 2024
From placing first in the Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Jazz Competition in 2019 to being a triple Grammy winner, Samara Joy’s rise has been nothing short of meteoric. Joy’s third album, Portrait – an astonishingly good collection which saw the... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2024: Mercury Rev - Born HorsesFriday, 20 December 2024
Born Horses remains as inscrutable as it was when it was issued in the summer. While it is about the search for enlightenment through journeying into inner space, much of what’s described – the album’s words are largely spoken – is allegorical,... Read more... |
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