Album: Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

★★★★ EMMA RUTH RUNDLE & THOU - MAY OUR CHAMBERS BE FULL Unexpected post-rock/sludge metal collaboration yields fine results

Unexpected post-rock/sludge metal collaboration yields fine results

Post-rock singer-songwriter Emma Ruth Rundle and high-volume, sludge metal-heads Thou are not obvious musical collaborators, but with May Our Chambers Be Full, they really have come up trumps with an album that may not encourage many to take to the dancefloor but will certainly grab the attention of their disparate groups of fans and a fair few others too.

Album: Elvis Costello - Hey Clockface

★★★ ELVIS COSTELLO - HEY CLOCKFACE Good songs, poor intonation

Good songs, poor intonation

Elvis Costello’s was the last major concert before lockdown. At Hammersmith, I remember the feeling, a last hurrah as we stared into the abyss and the inescapable thought that we must have been experiencing something akin to what our parents and grandparents felt in early 1939. Like them we cannot have understood the perils that lay ahead, or the losses.

Album: Gorillaz - Song Machine: Season One - Strange Timez

★★★★ GORILLAZ - SONG MACHINE - STRANGE TIMEZ The virtual virtuosos' seventh album makes an impressively singular sound with many, many voices

The virtual virtuosos' seventh album makes an impressively singular sound with many, many voices

The cast list for Song Machine…, the seventh album from virtual virtuosos Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, is the size of some festival line-ups: Beck, Fatoumata Diawara, Imagination’s Leee John, Peter Hook, Robert Smith, Slaves, Slowthai, St Vincent, Joan As Police Woman, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Skepta and long-time collaborator Tony Allen are just some of the artists featured here and, while impressive, the roll call poses a question.

Album: Bruce Springsteen - Letter to You

★★★ BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - LETTER TO YOU Nostalgia for the future

Nostalgia for the future

As he cruises into the autumn of his life, 71 year-old Bruce Springsteen, The Boss, as he's generally known, revisits territory that will sound very familiar to his fans. Perhaps that's what's needed, at this time when those core American values he's sung about with enduring passion seem threatened as never before.

Album: Melody Gardot - Sunset in the Blue

★★★★ MELODY GARDOT - SUNSET IN THE BLUE The Melody lingers on

The Melody lingers on

What a pick-me-up this album is. Released as the days darken, literally and metaphorically, it’s a real joy – a transport of delight to dappled squares in Paris or Lisbon, or a street party in Rio. Sunset in the Blue is billed as “an orchestral celebration of Melody Gardot’s jazz roots” but the abiding sound that remains in the mind’s ear after the album’s finished is that of a jazz guitar, played with a bossa nova rhythm.

Album: Songhoy Blues - Optimisme

★★★★ SONGHOY BLUES - OPTIMISME An unashamedly political album to move hips and feet

An unashamedly political album to move hips and feet from the West African superstars

It’s not hard to understand why so many people in the UK really don’t like political pop and rock music. For one, you only have to look at the clowns who ply their trade in the world of politics, but also so much music that tries to tackle the subject is painfully dull and worthy. The Special AKA’s “Free Nelson Mandela” was an obvious exception, but it is very much in a minority.

Blu-ray: Eraserhead

★★★★ BLU-RAY: ERASERHEAD David Lynch's first feature film is a surrealist nightmare

David Lynch's first feature film is a surrealist nightmare

Shot across a period of five years, David Lynch’s creepy debut feature Eraserhead (1977) follows the story of Henry Spencer, played by Jack Nance, an employee at a print factory in a quiet, unnamed town. Henry arrives home one evening to a missed telephone call from a woman named Mary (Charlotte Stewart), inviting him to dinner at her parents’ house. Once he arrives, Mary’s mother breaks the news that her daughter has given birth to a baby, and Henry is the father.

Blu-ray: Yield to the Night

★★★★ YIELD TO THE NIGHT Diana Dors shines in classic British noir

Diana Dors shines in a sombre British noir

Released in 1956, J. Lee Thompson’s Yield to the Night is remembered by many for what it isn’t, namely a fictional retelling of the events leading to Ruth Ellis’s execution in 1955. Mike Newell’s Dance with a Stranger told that story in 1985 with Miranda Richardson in the lead role. Thompson’s star, Diana Dors, stated that the film "wasn’t about Ruth Ellis at all.