CDs/DVDs
Katie Colombus
2017 has been a time of change if not turmoil, on both personal and political stratospheres. So the music of two sisters whose jam is made up primarily of protest and healing songs, is the perfect antidote.When chaos abounds, the relentless positivism of this music from the new age RISE collective, soothes like prozac for the soul. Based between Southern Appalachia and New Orleans, Leah and Chloe Smith are independently produced multi-instrumentalists who take inspiration from their home and history as well as their travels. The result is a mesmirising mash-up of free folk, acoustic dance Read more ...
howard.male
I’ve long thought there should be an arts website called ‘On Second Thoughts’ where critics post their reconsidered opinions of albums, books, films or whatever, once they’ve been properly digested. After all, it’s often the case that either first-love euphoria turns to over-exposure ennui or vague curiosity grows into lasting admiration. But as things stand, the only opportunity one gets to write a postscript to an initial response is in these end-of-year round ups. Having said that, my enthusiasm for Arcade Fire’s Everything Now has neither dimmed nor brightened since the album’s Read more ...
Liz Thomson
A regular reviewing gig inevitably opens the ears to lots of “stuff”, what with the CDs (and downloads, so irritating to review from) dispatched by hopeful PRs and Spotify (great for browsing, crap for artists) offering the opportunity to dip in and out of music you might otherwise miss (and much you could live without). 2017 was not without its ear-catching moments.Ned Roberts was a happy find: Outside My Mind, his debut album on the Aveline label (owned by Camden’s award-winning Green Note club) revealing a thoughtful singer-songwriter who turned out to be just as good live. Let’s hope he Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
In the seven years since N.E.R.D last had an album out, Pharrell Williams’ profile, which was already massive, has achieved some sort of pop supernova. “Happy”, “Get Lucky” and the less loveable “Blurred Lines” have made him a megastar. He now returns with Chad Hugo, his childhood pal and production partner in one of hip hop’s defining production units, The Neptunes, and their reclusive associate Shay Haley. N.E.R.D’s original remit, when they began a decade-and-a-half ago, was to make their own R&B-marinated version of rock, but their fifth album sees raw electronic funk to the foreA Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
For the past few years my Album of the Year has leapt out at me, craved attention, stood out from the competition. With no disrespect to Nick Mulvey’s fine second album, that wasn’t the case in 2017. Many albums this year had vital, enjoyable music, but marred by much lesser songs. Especially notable in this vein were Katy Perry and Kesha, the best of whose albums, Witness and Rainbow, was rarely far from my car stereo, perfect 21st century girl-pop and sassy eclectic comeback material, respectively. However, neither boasted the consistency of, say, Beyoncé’s Lemonade of last year.There were Read more ...
Javi Fedrick
In March, Bristol’s Idles drove up and down the country, leaving painfully small quantities of their debut album Brutalism in each independent record shop they went into. The lucky among us who managed to get a first-pressing copy of the beautifully packaged LP felt a part of something small and exciting, something important on the verge of blowing up. Now, lauded by the music press and owners of their own Wikipedia page, it’s fair to say that Idles have well and truly conquered 2017.Fundamentally, they are a punk band, and Brutalism is a punk album, dripping with distortion, speed, and anger Read more ...
mark.kidel
Bertrand Tavernier’s trip through French cinema is shot through with the love of someone who has grown up with cinema and knows how to communicate his passion in a way that is totally engaging. The three hours-plus that he delivers make you want to plunge back into the classics, as well as start discovering many underrated or forgotten directors, actors, DoP’s or film score composers.What makes the documentary so good is his 100% personal approach – although he is touchingly modest and includes contributions from many of his professional colleagues. It is not a completist’s bible or an Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
French stylist Gaspard Royant has recorded at London’s garage-rock-central studio Toe Rag and been produced by Edwyn Collins. Both fit a worldview which encompasses collaborating with Eli Paperboy Reed, who crops up here on “Christmas Time Again”, a cover of Reuben Anderson’s wonderful, soulful 1966 ska single. Drawing a line between garage rock, Sixties urban R&B and soul with dashes of blues and nods to Lee Hazlewood, Royant is a Gallic cousin to Richard Hawley. Unsurprisingly, his first Christmas album is a knowing affair.Scooping up tracks from Royant’s seasonal singles and marrying Read more ...
Guy Oddy
It’s been a busy year for veteran power poppers Cheap Trick. Christmas Christmas is their second album in six months, after June’s We’re All Alright, and their nineteenth since the heady days of 1977. The sound of Christmas for Cheap Trick, however, will be forever anchored in the early 70s with Slade and Roy Wood’s Wizzard on heavy rotation. And this is precisely what they have set out to recreate.Somewhat inevitably we get faithfully anthemic renditions of both “I wish it could be Christmas everyday” and “Merry Xmas Everybody” but they’re done with enough gusto to carry the listener along, Read more ...
Barney Harsent
It’s easy to be cynical about Christmas pop albums. This is, of course, because so many of them are awful, hastily cobbled together collections of nothing, and about as much fun as munching your way through a kilo of sixpences hoping to find a tiny nugget of Christmas pudding.The idea that former Keane frontman Tom Chaplin could manage to reverse this trend might seem unlikely, but then this winter has been quite the season for shocks. From the President of the US trying to start a war in the Middle East to distract from his sexual misconduct, to a bungling burglar on a Christmas ad hugging a Read more ...
Saskia Baron
Cinematographer Douglas Slocombe is a true prince of darkness here, picking out Leslie Caron’s beautiful eyes and gleaming mouth despite the gloom of a seedy Notting Hill boarding house. Taking a break from her usual roles as a happy hoofer, Caron plays Jane, a serious young French woman adrift in London with an unplanned pregnancy who finds herself renting an attic bedsit.Adapted from Lynne Reid Banks’s best-selling novel, The L-Shaped Room was very daring in 1962 and the film faced several battles with the censors. Not only does Jane visit a Harley Street abortionist (a creepy Emlyn Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Sia is a 21st century pop behemoth, an unstoppable figure who, despite no longer wishing to take part in the increasingly visual aspects of our social media age, still maintains a top-flight career. The best of her output hits the Venn diagram sweet spot where ear-bud phone-pop crosses over with wit and canny thinking. She’s not this writer’s bag – with the exception of Katy Perry’s smasher, “Chained to the Rhythm”, which she co-wrote – so it’s all the more of a surprise that her Christmas album proves such an endearing proposition.Everyday Is Christmas was created with another contemporary Read more ...