Colors performance stream on YouTube review - vocalists on lockdown

★★★★ COLORS, YOUTUBE The normally slickly branded music channel adapts to circumstances

The normally slickly branded music channel adapts to circumstances with surprising effect

The Colors studio in Berlin has quietly created one of the biggest new brands in music from filming back-to-basics performances with laser-focused branding. From international megastars (Billie Eilish, Mac DeMarco) to up-and-comers, singers and occasionally rappers are filmed alone in a simple cube-shaped stage with distinctive colour-cycling lighting.

Album: Ren Harvieu - Revel In The Drama

★★★★ REN HARVIEU - REVEL IN THE DRAMA The soulful voice of Salford takes control

Almost a decade on from ‘Through The Night’, the soulful voice of Salford takes control

Filmic. Lushness balanced with intimacy. Ren Harvieu’s follow-up to 2012’s Top Five Through The Night is crammed with wide-screen aural dramas. Take “Cruel Disguise”. It begins with a slinky Sixties spy thriller vibe along the Shirley Bassey lines and after a brief moment of contemplation evolves into a swirling drama evoking Dusty Springfield’s “You Don’t Have to Say You Love me”. Next up, the crisp “Yes Please” nods to Laura Nyro when she’d hooked up with LaBelle but, again, darker – trip-hop-tinged – terrain is explored.

Album: Thundercat - It Is What It Is

★★★★ THUNDERCAT - IT IS WHAT IT IS Shadowy Californian dreams from bassist firing at full-blast

Shadowy Californian dreams from bassist firing at full-blast

Alongside the man he calls “the other half of my brain”, Flying Lotus, Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner sits near the heart of Los Angeles’ fertile, genre-busting scene, helping to link Kendrick Lamar’s righteous rebel rap, Kamasi Washington’s spiritual jazz, and the faux-nerd white one-man bands of Louis Cole and Sam Gendel. Breaking through himself with Drunk (2017), It Is What It Is confirms Thundercat’s own complex character, being both slyly funny and obscurely moving, as if attending a party that’s almost over.

Sinatra: All Or Nothing At All, Netflix review - epic two-parter on pop's first superstar

SINATRA: ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL, NETFLIX Epic two-parter on pop's first superstar

Built around a 1971 farewell concert, Alex Gibney's documentary makes richly engaging viewing

Coming in at around four hours, in two parts, this 2015 documentary is ostensibly about Ol’ Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra, but really, via the prism of his existence, it’s as much about America’s journey through the first two thirds of the 20th century.

Album: Basia Bulat - Are You In Love?

★★★ BASIA BULAT - ARE YOU IN LOVE? Singer-songwriter's uneven fifth studio set

Uneven fifth studio set from the Canadian singer-songwriter

“No Control” feels like an instant pop classic. It opens with a brief introduction where layers of instrumentation are added in waves. There’s a restraint. Then, three-quarters of minute into what initially seems like a reflective mid-tempo ballad, a soaring chorus with contrapuntal drums and piano hits home. Basia Bulat’s gospel-like incantations reach the stars. Even so, there’s an intimacy.

Reissue CDs Weekly: A Slight Disturbance In My Mind

Provocative canter through ‘The British Proto-Psychedelic Sounds of 1966’

Two of the 84 tracks on A Slight Disturbance In My Mind: The British Proto-Psychedelic Sounds of 1966 are covers of songs from Revolver. One is a rendering of “Tax Man” (sic) by a band named Loose Ends which was enterprisingly issued as a single on the same August 1966 day The Beatles’ album was released.

The Story of Ready Steady Go!, BBC Four review - when life was fab

★★★★ THE STORY OF READY STEADY GO!, BBC FOUR The show which started the whole concept of music television

The show which started both the weekend and the whole concept of music television

It’s almost unbearably poignant, on this black Friday evening in March 2020, to watch a documentary about Ready Steady Go! , “the most innovative rock ‘n’ roll show ever”, believes Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the second of its four directors who went on to work with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he!” – but he’s right.

Morrissey, Wembley Arena review - reminders of greatness

Dangerous views are docked for a night of potent performance

“I’d like you to know that you can breathe as heavy as you like,” Morrissey declares, somewhat against government advice. “It really doesn’t matter. I can take it!” Like a cross between Elvis Presley and Donald Trump, this great, divisive pop star feeds off rallies of the faithful.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Matt Monro - Stranger In Paradise

REISSUE CDS WEEKLY: MATT MONRO - STRANGER IN PARADISE  Hear 'Invitation to Broadway' as it was originally intended

The golden-voiced crooner’s ‘Invitation To Broadway’ album is finally heard as originally intended

Two years before he took on The Beatles, George Martin was working with another artiste who would go on to have success in America. Martin first encountered Matt Monro in 1960 when he signed him to the label he ran, Parlophone. The “Portrait of my Love” single charted later in the year. In summer 1961, “My Kind of Girl” hit America’s single’s charts. His 1965 version of ”Yesterday” had a Martin arrangement.

Halsey, SSE Hydro, Glasgow review - a pop star with plenty of personality

★★★ HALSEY, SSE HYDRO, GLASGOW A pop star with plenty of personality

The songstress is an exciting performer, but her set slowed down too much

There is something enjoyably spikey about Halsey, even when she is adhering to pop convention. At one stage she told the crowd how good they looked, before dryly adding it was praise they wouldn’t have heard before. These are brave words when playing to a Glasgow audience.