Blu-ray: I Was at Home, But...

★★★ BLU-RAY: I WAS AT HOME, BUT... Cold comfort in this story of family grief from Berlin director Angela Schanelec

Cold comfort in this story of family grief from Berlin director Angela Schanelec

The term most often used about Berlin director Angela Schanelec’s filmmaking seems to be “elliptical”, and her latest film, I Was at Home, But..., which won the Best Director award at Berlinale 2019, is no exception.

Album: Imelda May - 11 Past the Hour

★★ IMELDA MAY - 11 PAST THE HOUR Irish star makes rare musical blunder into whiffy 'classical rock' and balladry

Irish star makes a rare musical blunder into whiffy 'classic rock' and balladry on her latest

11 Past the Hour opens with its title song, a delicious, twangy, string-laden Nancy Sinatra Bond theme that never was. The album closes with a lyrically empowered torch song, “Never Look Back”, which rises and rises over a marching band drum tattoo and swelling orchestration. Its enormousness is hard to argue with. Unfortunately, in between these two, Imelda May’s sixth album is a bit of a stinker.

Album: Lady Dan - I Am the Prophet

★★★★ LADY DAN - I AM THE PROPHET Breaking free of patriarchy on Austin country-folk debut

Breaking free of patriarchy on Austin country-folk debut

There’s a line in “No Home”, the staggering centrepiece of Lady Dan’s debut album, that perhaps sums up the project. “Wolves will never be my masters again,” the artist, real name Tyler Dozier, sings as the strings swell, in a voice like the wilderness. “Men will never be my owners again.”

DVD/Blu-ray: Catch Us If You Can

★★★★ CATCH US IF YOU CAN John Boorman's Swinging '60s satire of capitalism on DVD/Blu-ray

John Boorman's debut skewered the capitalist exploitation of youth culture

Catch Us If You Can, the 1965 road movie starring Barbara Ferris and the eponymous drummer and guiding force of the Dave Clark Five, proved a more trenchant satire of capitalism in the embryonic Swinging ‘60s than did the box-office smash it was piggybacking, the previous year’s A Hard Day’s Night.

Album: Alan Vega - Mutator

★★★★ ALAN VEGA: MUTATOR Ex-Suicide frontman’s posthumous solo album is a sublime blast

Ex-Suicide frontman’s posthumous solo album is a sublime blast

If there’s someone who could claim to have proved Arnold Schoenberg’s pithy phrase “If it is art, it is not for all” it was Alan Vega. His and Martin Rev’s abrasive synth-punk duo, Suicide were famously detested by fans of the Clash, one of whom even threw an axe at him on stage when they supported Strummer’s more straightforward punk rockers in the late 70s. Yet, he was also worshipped by the Sisters of Mercy, Andy Weatherall and, somewhat surprisingly, Bruce Springsteen, among plenty of others.

Album: Cheap Trick - In Another World

★★★ CHEAP TRICK - IN ANOTHER WORLD Rambunctious new offering from rock vets

A rambunctious new offering from the age-defying rock veterans

A trend's been emerging, of late, for ageing rockers to actually sound younger on each new record. We last saw it with AC/DC's Power Up (2020), an infectious blend of carefree swagger and blistering solos.

Album: Raf Rundell - O.M. Days

★★★★ RAF RUNDELL - O.M. DAYS Deeper, stranger and more personal visions from the alt-pop journeyman

Deeper, stranger and more personal visions from the alt-pop journeyman

The career of Raf Rundell has had one of the most satisfying trajectories of any in UK music – a steady process of self-realisation, from record label staff via DJing and artist management, through being a serial studio collaborator, to becoming a fully fledged artist in his own right. For a musician to only now, in his late 40s, be releasing his second full album might seem odd, but there’s something very natural about the way it’s all happened, which is expressed in the confidence of his sound which only continues to mature like fine wine.

Album: Peggy Seeger - First Farewell

★★★★ PEGGY SEEGER - FIRST FAREWELL At 85, she still can't keep from singing

Carrying the torch - at 85, she still can't keep from singing

At 85, Peggy Seeger has lived in Britain for most of her life, arriving in 1956 as a Radcliffe dropout at the invitation of folklorist Alan Lomax, who had plans for a British equivalent of the Weavers. That didn’t work out, but the visit brought her together with Ewan MacColl, folk singer, song collector, actor and left-wing firebrand.

Blu-ray: Beginning

★★★★★ BLU-RAY: BEGINNING A masterpiece of 'slow cinema' from a hugely promising new festival talent

A masterpiece of 'slow cinema' from a hugely promising new festival talent

This debut feature from the young Georgian writer-director Dea Kulumbegashvili is exceptional in many ways. It stands out not only for its hypnotic quality as a film that feels like that of an already formed auteur, as well as for the complex psychological portrait of its central female character, but also, rather more paradoxically, for the environment from which it has emerged.

Album: Ballaké Sissoko - Djourou

★★★★ BALLAKE SISSOKO - DJOUROU Scintillating collaborations from a kora master

Scintillating collaborations from a master of the kora

Ballaké Sissoko is one of the greatest musicians in Africa – a kora player of extraordinary quality, strongly rooted in the Manding and family traditions that have nourished him. He’s also a born collaborator, with a sense of adventure that has resulted in very fruitful performances and recordings with musicians from his own culture as well as others from further afield.