Album: CMAT - EURO-COUNTRY

★★★★★ CMAT - EUROCOUNTRY The flame-headed chanteuse with the comic touch hits pop perfection

The flame-headed chanteuse with the comic touch hits pop perfection

Queen of the earworm Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson has had quite the summer, capturing imaginations and sparking indignation. The brazen hussy has the audacity to wear what the hell she likes while belting out her stream of catchy country-pop, life-affirming hits. She’s in your face, unapologetic and going absolutely nowhere.

Album: Benedicte Maurseth - Mirra

★★★★ BENEDICTE MAURSETH - MIRRA Haunting, intense evocation of Norway’s uplands and its wildlife

Haunting, intense evocation of Norway’s uplands and its wildlife

During the opening seconds of Mirra, an unusual sound leaps out – a grunting. It’s integral to a shifting aural pallete which also features a bowed violin and chiming percussion along with a recurring grind like that of a rotating waterwheel. The mood is chilly, suggesting an environment where unalloyed nature has the upper hand, a place where the seasons define what comes to pass.

Blu-ray: Finis Terrae

Bleak but compelling semi-documentary, filmed on location in Brittany

British audiences of a certain age will note Finis Terrae’s similarity to Finisterre, one of the 31 sea areas listed in the BBC’s Shipping Forecast. Or previously listed – it was renamed Fitzroy in 2002 to avoid confusion with another Finisterre off the coast of Spain.

Album: Nova Twins - Parasites & Butterflies

★★★ NOVA TWINS - PARASITES & BUTTERFLIES London duo turn inward & more introspective 

Exciting London duo turn inward and more introspective with their third album while retaining their trademark hybrid sound

For Nova Twins, the alternative rock/metal duo of Amy Love and Georgia South, the years since 2020 have been a non-stop journey of evolution. Exploding from the independent UK rock scene, to sharing the stage with headline names like Bring Me The Horizon; attention has come very quickly for the now twice BRIT nominated duo.

Album: Blood Orange - Essex Honey

A triumph for the artist who doesn't clamour for attention but just keeps growing

The more time goes by, the more it seems like Dev Hynes might be the antidote to what Guy Debord called “the society of the spectacle”. As is documented in the fantastic recent book Songs in the Key of MP3, Hynes is representative of a type of modern musician whose relationships to mainstream and underground, art and pop, just don’t make sense in the traditional “star” framework of the post rock’n’roll era.

Album: Wolf Alice - Clearing

★★★★ WOLF ALICE - CLEARING Wolf Alice once again make magic from the familiar 

Ten years from their debut, Wolf Alice once again make magic from the familiar

Wolf Alice are a band who consistently over-deliver. Their presentation is so staid, their cited influences so safe (The Beatles! Blur!), their politics so “bad things are bad, m’kay?”, that they give every impression they’re going to be bland and generic.

Album: Deftones - Private Music

★★★ DEFTONES - PRIVATE MUSIC Deftones give us a glimmer of hope, but that's all...

Deftones give us a glimmer of hope, but that's all...

Deftones’ Private Music arrives as the band’s long-awaited tenth studio album, carrying with it the weight of expectation built from nearly three decades of powerful records. Known for mixing aggression, atmosphere and vulnerability in equal measure, Deftones have rarely missed the mark. Sadly, this latest release does not live up to their impressive past.

Album: Eve Adams - American Dust

Taking inspiration from the Californian desert

A sticker on the cover of American Dust is says it’s “an ode to the beauty of the American Southwest,” specifically the High Desert area within the wider setting of California's Mojave Desert. North-East of Los Angeles, this region contrasts with the city’s urban and suburban sprawl by incorporating scattered settlements.

Blu-ray: Who Wants to Kill Jessie?

Fast-paced and visually inventive Czech comedy

"Crazy comedy" was a recognised subgenre in post-war Czech cinema. Turn to this disc’s bonus features first and watch Michael Brooke’s video essay Those Crazy Czechs, an entertaining whistle-stop guide which piqued my curiosity about films such as You Are a Widow, Sir!, I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen! and How About a Plate of Spinach?