Blu-ray: The Last Metro

Truffaut's 1980 film, a tense drama set during the Nazi Occupation of Paris, is one of his best

The Last Metro (Le dernier métro), from 1980, is without doubt one of François Truffaut’s best films: a story beautifully told, strong on character, sometimes funny and always profoundly moving. Most of the credit has gone to Truffaut and co-stars Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu, but there is a key member of the team whose name is barely known outside the world of French cinema history.

Album: Ron Trent presents WARM - What Do the Stars Say to You

★★★★ RON TRENT PRESENTS 'WARM' - WHAT DO THE STARS SAY TO YOU The producer's first album in more than a decade is a smooth-as-silk success

The producer's first album in more than a decade is a smooth-as-silk success

In 1990, teenage prodigy Ron Trent released a single on Armando’s Warehouse imprint. Recorded on cheap equipment it was, nevertheless, a staggering piece of music. Urgent, insistent and unrelenting its piercing strings, metallic cymbals and  juddering, robotic bass created a spiralling sense of joy that has remained undiminished for more than 30 years.

Album: Nick Mulvey - New Mythology

★★★★ NICK MULVEY - NEW MYTHOLOGY Continuing Mulvey's increasingly mystic song cycle

The ex-Portico Quartet singer-songwriter continues his increasingly mystic song cycle

In these meta times when everything – EVERYTHING! – is ironic, a smirk to be replayed forever on a screen, the last thing we expect is a hippy, a proper real-life hippy, preaching oneness and love. Even yoga sorts these days mostly go on about their own “wellness”, rather than the cosmic inference of it all. Nick Mulvey’s previous albums were lightly marinaded in Baba Ram Dass and ayahuasca revelation but, with his third solo album, New Mythology, he’s gone full mystic.

Album: Shearwater - The Great Awakening

★★★ SHEARWATER - THE GREAT AWAKENING Erudite Texans ponder the state of the nation

After six years away, the erudite Texans ponder the state of the nation

The title The Great Awakening is a metaphor for America’s switch from its previous presidential administration to the current: the arrival of a new era and, with it, a fresh phase of life. Emblematic of this is the xenarthran, a type of armadillo, which lends its name to the album’s third track. Native to South America, it slogs its way into Texas where it deals with a new environment.

Blu-ray: The Proposition

★★★★ THE PROPOSITION John Hillcoat’s anti-Western is a bloody allegory of colonial mayhem in 1880s Australia, with a stand-out role from Ray Winstone

John Hillcoat’s anti-Western is a bloody allegory of colonial mayhem in 1880s Australia

Commenting on Australia’s horrendous colonial history at the start of an audio commentary packaged with this BFI Blu-ray release of John Hillcoat’s impeccably directed, newly restored The Proposition (2005), Alexandra Heller-Nicholas declares, “It’s fucking awful.”

Album: The Utopia Strong - International Treasure

★★★ THE UTOPIA STRONG - INTERNATIONAL TREASURE Snooker legend Steve Davis chills out with ambient soundscapes and trippy kosmiche

Steve Davis chills out with ambient soundscapes and trippy kosmiche

Who’d have thought that Steve “Interesting” Davis OBE (as he was mercilessly dubbed by the original Spitting Image in the 80s – at a time when he was wiping the floor with the best of the international snooker world on a regular basis) would turn out to be the most interesting ex-World Snooker Champion in living memory?

Album: Neneh Cherry - The Versions

★★★ NENEH CHERRY - THE VERSIONS Esoteric set of multi-artist cover versions from the singer's back catalogue

Esoteric set of multi-artist cover versions from the singer's back catalogue

Initially, the weird thing about this is it’s being released as a Neneh Cherry album rather than a compilation of artists doing Neneh Cherry covers, which is what it is. That said, awareness slowly grows of a kindred sensibility to recent Neneh Cherry output, the esoteric jazzual spirit that’s imbued her last couple of albums.