Album: Santigold - Spirituals

★★★★ SANTIGOLD - SPIRITUALS Blazing a creative trail: mind-bending inventiveness this way

She's back and she's still blazing a creative trail

Those talented internationally-renowned musicians are just like the rest of us, you know? They had a rubbish time during lockdown too – turns out it was the great leveller after all. Santigold’s latest album (her sixth, the first for four years) is the direct result of being stuck at home with three kids under six. But rather than sending her crawling up the walls (although there is a bit of that) it’s made her reassess her creative direction.

Album: Parkway Drive - Darker Still

★★★★ PARKWAY DRIVE - DARKER STILL A heavy metal treasure trove, punchy and energetic

A heavy metal treasure trove - euphoric and atmospheric throughout, yet punchy and energetic

Away from the spotlight of mainstream music the metal scene thrives, unbothered with how much attention it picks up. When bands like Architects reach number one in the UK charts, it is huge, but unimportant. Instead the scene is preoccupied with its own endlessly shifting subgenres and sounds.

Album: Tom Chaplin - Midpoint

Music that was always middle aged ironically ages gracefully

Travis, Coldplay, Haven, Elbow, Snow Patrol, Aqualung, Embrace, Starsailor, Turin Brakes, Athlete, Elbow, Doves… and of course Keane. The turn of the millennium deluge of sincere young men opening up their feelings to the world, their voices cracking into falsettos over grandiose post-U2 rhythms, really was quite a major cultural movement, wasn’t it? Easy to mock – and indeed the target of some real hatred – but absolutely inescapable, and as defining of its time as any hipper sound.

Album: Two Door Cinema Club - Keep On Smiling

★★★ TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB - KEEP ON SMILING An uneven return, but a passing grade for the electronic-infused indie trio

An uneven return, but a passing grade for the electronic-infused indie trio

Three and a half years on from 2019’s False Alarm, Keep On Smiling comes album number five from Northern Ireland trio, Two Door Cinema Club. Known for having more bounce to the ounce than your average band, their brand of guitar-flecked electro pop has won hearts, minds and sales in roughly equal measure.

Blu-ray: Desire / All My Good Countrymen - Two films by Vojtěch Jasný

★★★★★ BLU-RAY: DESIRE / ALL MY GOOD COUNTRYMEN - TWO FILMS BY VOJTECH JASNY A distinctive director’s take on post-war Czech life

A distinctive director’s take on post-war Czech life

Hailed by Miloš Forman as “the spiritual father of the Czech New Wave”, Czech film director Vojtěch Jasný’s long career began in the early 1950s and spanned five decades. All My Good Countrymen (Všichni dobří rodáci), based on a screenplay originally written by Jasný in 1956, was released in 1968 and won him a Best Director award at Cannes a year later.