Blu-ray: The Count Yorga Collection

★★★★ BLU-RAY: THE COUNT YORGA COLLECTION Hip, vicious Seventies vampire update

Hip, vicious Seventies vampire update sees a Gothic count stalk LA

In 1970, the coffin of America’s new vampire count travels to his lair in the hills of LA on a pickup truck. A giant billboard for John Wayne in True Grit observes his passage through Hollywood’s urban bustle, as this Gothic monster enters the then modern world.

Album: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Return of the Dream Canteen

★★★★ RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - RETURN OF THE DREAM CANTEEN Stadium rock old-timers summon up a feast of West Coast guitar pop

Stadium rock old-timers summon up a feast of West Coast guitar pop

Does the world need to hear more from Red Hot Chili Peppers? Outside the bouncin’ bro’ fanbase, a regular consensus is that, despite being one of the biggest bands in the world, doing their global stadium rock thing – with free added funk! – achieving the highest level of commercial success, they're not of actual interest.

Album: Gabriels - Angels & Queens, Part I

★★★★★ GABRIELS - ANGELS & QUEEN, PART 1 A mesmerising, superbly crafted debut album

A mesmerising, superbly crafted debut album from the LA-based trio

Lauded by Elton John (who called their 2020 debut EP Love and Hate in a Different Time “probably one of the most seminal records I've heard in the last 10 years”), a show-stealing performance on Later… With Jools Holland in 2021, fêted at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. The inexorable rise of LA-based trio Gabriels – Jacob Lusk, Ryan Hope and Ari Balouzian – continues with the release of this mesmerising, superbly crafted debut album.

Album: Marina Allen - Centrifics

★★★★ MARINA ALLEN - CENTRIFICS US singer-songwriter’s second album eschews templates

US singer-songwriter’s jazz-tinged second album eschews templates

Marina Allen’s singing voice fluctuates between the conversational and the flutingly melodic. In one song, she can be asking “Why do I sing my song for you” in a no-nonsense Randy Newman manner and then shift into a series of spiralling, ascending arpeggios. Centrifics, her second album, is about contrasts.

Album: Demi Lovato - Holy Fvck

★★★★ DEMI LOVATO - HOLY FVCK Wounds on her sleeve: surf the F word with maximum energy

Surfing the F word with maximum energy

Demi Lovato doesn’t do things by halves. She has one of the most powerful voices around, as suited to the yang of punchy hard rock as it is to the sensual yin of R&B or or the contagious sweetness of girly pop.

Blu-ray: Double Indemnity

★★★★★ BLU-RAY: DOUBLE INDEMNITY Billy Wilder's classic defines film noir

Billy Wilder's cold-blooded yet sultry classic defines film noir

His car skids through an LA stoplight, then Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) enters his insurance office in the small hours, taking a lift as if to the scaffold, coat hanging like a cloak, a dark stain on his shoulder. From his upstairs office, the desks below look like a hellish pit, the lamps insectile.

Pleasure review - that Eve Harrington syndrome again

★★★★ PLEASURE The ruthless ambition of a would-be porn queen

The ruthless ambition of a would-be porn queen

The film title Pleasure begs the question, whose pleasure? Since first-time feature director Ninja Thyberg’s cautionary drama depicts the journey of a newcomer intent on becoming the Los Angeles adult film business's top female performer, the pleasure self-evidently isn’t hers, but that taken by the hordes of men who’ll watch her being systematically degraded on Pornhub and its ilk. 

Album: Kendrick Lamar - Mr Morale & the Big Steppers

★★★★★ KENDRICK LAMAR The philosopher-king of hip hop culture ventures ever inwards

The philosopher-king of hip hop culture ventures ever inwards: but will he become too dour?

Kendrick Lamar is so breathlessly revered it’s sometimes hard to pull apart what’s going on in his records. It’s sometimes felt like he might become the rap game Radiohead: exploratory, aware, hugely technically accomplished, endlessly thematically “important” – but not actually that interesting to listen to.

Blu-ray: Escape from LA

★★ BLU-RAY: ESCAPE FROM LA John Carpenter's overblown sequel to his cult classic gets a sparkling re-release

John Carpenter's overblown sequel to his cult classic gets a sparkling re-release

Fifteen years after John Carpenter scored a massive box-office hit with his ingenious low-budget sci-fi thriller Escape from New York (1981), he was given a free rein to make Escape from LA. Unfortunately, unlimited access to extras and all the toys available in the special-effects cupboard in 1993 didn’t make for a better movie. 

Album: Warpaint - Radiate Like This

The LA four-piece return with a carefully crafted and beautifully considered collection

Radiate Like This is the first album in six years from American indie rock outfit Warpaint. The wait is, in part at least, down to Covid, which took hold just after they’d finished early recording sessions, forcing the band – like the rest of the world – into a solitary stasis of sorts.