Album: Van Morrison - Latest Record Project Volume 1

★★ VAN MORRISON - LATEST RECORD PROJECT VOL 1 Bad case of lockdown blues

The king of Celtic soul suffers a bad case of lockdown blues

If you want to understand the psychic harm that prolonged lockdown can do to a man, then take a listen to Van Morrison's new 28-song set. Actually, you don't need to listen, the song titles say enough: “Where Have All the Rebels Gone?”; “Stop Bitching, Do Something”; “Deadbeat Saturday Night”; “They Own the Media”; “Why Are You on Facebook?”

Blu-ray: Raw

★★★★★ RAW Bloody, compelling French horror in Julia Ducournau's feature debut

Bloody, compelling French horror in Julia Ducournau's feature debut

Raw opens with a bang, a distant figure on a remote country road stepping out in front of a car, causing it to crash into a tree. What’s really happened isn’t made clear until we’re well into French director Julia Ducournau’s 2016 feature.

Album: Ziúr - Antifate

★★★★ ZIUR - ANTIFATE Fantastical industrial cabaret from the cellars of Berlin

Fantastical industrial cabaret from the cellars of Berlin

It’s funny how the most high tech music can sound very traditional. In the case of producer / instrumentalist / occasional singer Ziúr, it’s the tradition of her hometown of Berlin that is expressed in her whirrs, clangs and mutated voices.

Blu-ray: The Chalk Garden

★★★★ BLU-RAY: THE CHALK GARDEN Who wouldn't want Deborah Kerr as a nurturing governess?

Who wouldn't want Deborah Kerr as a nurturing governess?

Enid Bagnold’s 1955 English play The Chalk Garden, a Broadway hit before it opened in the West End, is usually described as a comedy because of Bagnold’s acerbic dialogue and droll appreciation of intricate employer-servant dynamics. If most of the wit was polished out of the 1964 version, directed by Ronald Neame and scored by Malcolm Arnold in a high-blown romantic style, that only served to emphasize the psychological complexity of the relationships between its three strong women characters. 

Album: Sufjan Stevens - Convocations

★★★★ SUFJAN STEVENS - CONVOCATIONS Rich and complex requiem for a dad

Rich and complex requiem for a dad

Sufjan Stevens is not only prolific, multi-talented and wide-ranging in his experimentation, but he never fails to make interesting work. He’s undoubtedly one of the giants of American contemporary music. His originality and creative risk-taking have led to him being one of the most underrated artists of his time.

Album: Martial Solal - Coming Yesterday

★★★★ MARTIAL SOLAL - COMING YESTERDAY The great French jazz pianist's last concert

The great French jazz pianist's last concert

“Thank you. I think I’ve told you everything. I do have a couple more tunes, but I’ll hold them back for next time  I don’t want to bore you, it’s better that you leave here serene. A nice chord like this. (plays F major first inversion). A good impression. Voilà. Merci.”

Album: Marianne Faithfull & Warren Ellis - She Walks in Beauty

★★★ MARIANNE FAITHFULL & WARREN ELLIS - SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY Everyone's favourite nan crashes the goth poetry club

Everyone’s favourite Nan crashes the goth poetry club

Let’s get this clear from the off, Marianne Faithfull and Warren Ellis’s new album is not an artistic statement on a par with her classic 1979 album Broken English. Nor I suspect, was that ever the aim.

Blu-ray: To Sir, with Love

★★★★ BLU-RAY: TO SIR, WITH LOVE Rose-tinted but affecting look at life in a secondary modern

Rose-tinted but affecting look at life in a late 1960s secondary modern

To Sir, With Love is a very loose adaptation of ER Braithwaite’s autobiographical novel. Reflecting on his experiences as a teacher in London’s East End in the late 1940s, Braithwaite’s commentary (one of two provided here) advises us that “as you read the book, that’s how it was.

Album: Teenage Fanclub‎ - Endless Arcade

★★★★ TEENAGE FANCLUB - ENDLESS ARCADE Line-up changes no obstacle to excellence

Line-up changes are no obstacle to sustained excellence

A few hurdles need jumping before grappling with the essence of Teenage Fanclub’s 11th album. Endless Arcade is their first without bassist and founder member Gerard Love. He, alongside Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley, was one of the band’s songwriters. And this is their first with former Gorky's Zygotic Mynci mainstay and solo artist Euros Childs in the line-up on keyboards.

DVD/Blu-ray: County Lines

★★★★ COUNTY LINES An insider's angle on the impact of Britain's biggest drugs problem

An insider's angle on the impact of Britain's biggest drugs problem

The website of the National Crime Agency offers the following definition of County Lines: “[it is] where illegal drugs are transported from one area to another, often across police and local authority boundaries (although not exclusively), usually by children or vulnerable people who are coerced into it by gangs.