Album: The Streets - The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light

You're never to old to hit the clubs it would seem

You may have heard that Mike Skinner’s made a film. He’s certainly done the rounds, press-wise, so you’d be hard pushed to have missed it. You have to admire the man’s tenacity. When the money to make a feature film didn’t surface, he decided to fund it himself. And direct, produce, write, edit, score and star in it, too.

Album: Melanie De Biasio - Il Viaggio

Jazz-rooted Belgian individualist's oblique exploration of her Italian roots

Il Viaggio is a form of soundtrack. Its lyrics, music and soundscapes are created in response to the journey referenced in the title. Though born and raised in Belgium, Melanie De Biasio’s paternal grandfather was Italian. After the Europalia arts festival contacted her to see if she would create a work on its chosen theme of “Trains & Tracks” she chose to explore her roots. This took her to Abruzzo, in central eastern Italy – where Il Viaggio was born.

DVD/Blu-ray: Cry, the Beloved Country (1951)

The first movie to condemn apartheid is revelatory

Movie Blu-rays and DVDs brim with superficially engaging extras that frequently fail to illuminate the main attraction. The opposite is true of Cry, the Beloved Country, which has been restored in 4K and newly released in StudioCanal’s Vintage Classics series of British films. The disc’s extras have been carefully chosen to contextualise Zoltán Korda’s potent 1951 drama as the first film to condemn apartheid.

Album: Thea Gilmore

★★ THEA GILMORE - NICE NORMAL WOMAN Still strident after all these years

Still strident after all these years

The artist formerly known as Afterlight returns with her first self-titled album, a collection of songs which “delves into the cracks between the paving slabs of life's big themes” and which explores “the understanding that comes with experience”.

"Nice Normal Woman", the track, which opens the album, was inspired by a quote from Bette Davis in All About Eve (“write me one about a nice normal woman who just shoots her husband”) and it arrives in the world with an 800-frame stop-motion video attached, filmed by Gilmour in her bedroom.

Album: Drake - For All the Dogs

★★ DRAKE - FOR ALL THE DOGS Superstar rapper's inability to grow up is beyond frustrating

Superstar Canadian rapper's inability to grow up is beyond frustrating

Drake’s new album is his fourth full-length in under two years. While his peers like Kendrick Lamar and J Cole disappear for years at a time, Drake seems to be afraid that leaving the limelight means he will evaporate into thin air. As a result, For All the Dogs arrives with a side-order of Drake fatigue, which isn’t ideal considering the album is 23 songs and an hour and half long.

Album: Goat - Medicine

★★★★★ GOAT - MEDICINE Psychedelic folk-rock gold from Scandinavia

Psychedelic folk-rock gold from Scandinavia

Prior to the release of Goat’s last album, Oh Death, it had been six years since our favourite Scandi shamen and women had treated us to any new tunes. Less than 12 months later, however, Goatman and his band of hipsters and tripsters are back with a fine serving of Medicine that will elevate the soul of anyone who cares to tune in.

Album: Nils Petter Molvær - Certainty of Tides

An arresting symphonic journey through the heart of Molvær's musical world

With beautiful playing from the Norwegian Radio Orchestra conducted by Ingar Berby, sumptuous arrangements which hint at everything from the great jazz orchestrator Gil Evans to the haunting "night music" of Béla Bartók, and – at its heart – the wonderfully singing quality of Nils Petter Molvær’s trumpet playing, these symphonic reimaginings present a remarkable conspectus of the Norwegian musician’s work.

Album: Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers - I Love You

Likeable debut from Aussie outfit which combines punkish bio with a feminist edge

Canberra band Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers continue the recent tradition of Australian indie bands having unwieldy comedy names. However, their music, as laid out on their debut album, has higher aspirations, bridging their scuzzy punkin’ roots and a larger sound, loosely somewhere between The Breeders and Foo Fighters, yet very much their own thing.

Blu-ray: Targets

★★★★ BLU-RAY: TARGETS Serial killer meets his nemesis in Peter Bogdanovich’s first feature

Serial killer meets his nemesis - a horror movie star - in Peter Bogdanovich’s first feature

Targets (1968), Peter Bogdanovich’s first feature is generally regarded as a great film. And yet, it came out of a mixture of false starts and opportunism. Could it be that its unique quality, the elements which make it stand out in the history of cinema, owed as much as anything else to the randomness that accompanied the movie’s creation?

Album: Sufjan Stevens - Javelin

Exquisite songs of love and pain

Sufjan Stevens, so we’ve heard, has just been struck down with a rare and immobilising disease – the Guillain-Barré syndrome. With characteristic courage and faith, he has thrown himself into physical rehabilitation. That he should be so reduced and challenged with suffering resonates perhaps with the extraordinary vulnerability that distinguishes his work – a unique avalanche of remarkable albums, generous and brave collaborations.