Episodes
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The question isn't whether the debut solo album by the iconic Portishead singer, lives up to the unbearable weight of expectation, it's whether it will be my album of the year.
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The New Jersey via Haiti mystery that is Mach-Hommy seems to be circling closer to the mainstream with a worthy follow up to 2021's Pray for Paris, in a year that seems a standout in rewarding old heads with actually decent rap albums.
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Missing episodes?
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Although I've been fonder of the more intense and dense albums by the UK's Darren J. Cunningham, unlike the recent Four Tet release, this at least goes on a cohesive journey and ends up being more than the sum of its parts.
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With a show-stopping performance from Alisha Weir as a young kidnapped rich girl (>cough<), an uneven yet ultimately welcome entry into a golden era for horror films, this deliberately at the schlockier end of the spectrum.
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Despite having everything on paper - including strong reviews - this amiable farce is only half the film it could be, or needs to be. A waste of the talent and budget on display. It's too slight and surface level and the story too weak to be anything more than a forgettable once through. And I'm docking it another point for that godforsakenly awful cover of The Unknown Stuntman.
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The hugely surprising second act in the once terrible, now pretty great, director Guy Ritchie's career continues. Ironically Henry Cavill gets to play the guy that inspired James Bond, in this wild re-telling of a genuine WW2 story. Superficial to a fault but hugely entertaining. Someone help him with his movie titles though.
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This excellent and surprisingly art-house prequel to the original (and superb) Omen movie, is also very bizarrely close to the recent Immaculate.
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I was a huge fan of Tom Krell's early work How to Dress Well, though faded when it became a more ordinary RnB proposition. This wildly artistic and conceptual 6th album is criminally underrated and one of the years unsung gems.
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Being very much down with my fellow kids, I am a big fan of the last decades king of outsider rap, particular in the middle of a terrible era for mainstream rap music. Keef's wildly prolific period of endless album length projects on whatever the hell he felt like, has given way to much stronger and more focused releases in recent year, culminating with the rap album I will probably play the most this year.
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Damon McMahon, AKA Amen Dunes' last album, 2018's Freedom, is one of the great singer-songwriter albums of the last few years and the first to make, sounds a bit like David Gray into a compliment. However, his far more experimental follow up has nowhere near the memorable songs of its predecessor.
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My irregular series on albums that are perfect 10/10s - here celebrating the 25th anniversary of the album that put the underground alt stars on the same level as Radiohead, and with Yoshimi, one of the great one-two's in alternative music. Much credit has always gone to the incredible "Indie Pet Sounds" music, but Wayne Coyne's singing and in particular, lyrics are criminally underappreciated. It's one of the greatest alternative albums thematically - and its themes of angst filled superheroes, scientists trying to save the world and existential dread and wonder, feel even more relevant today.
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What should be the year's most important film, is its biggest let down. Director-writer Alex Garland, refuses point blank, to engage with anything at all happening in America today, and instead delivers yet another war correspondent film, and not a good one, that could have been filmed in any country, about any conflict in the last 50 years.
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Actor Dev Patel has had a wild ride of a career so far, back to back the world conquering high of Slumdog Millionaire followed by the atomic crash of The Last Airbender. In recent years he has grown back fully into stature, peaking with his directoral debut - correctly dubbed the Indian John Wick.
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Much like it's unexpectedly entertaining precessor, I enjoyed it more than most critics. Though it misses the faux-Spielberg 80s magic of Afterlife, once it clicks into gear, the second half is the superior.
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I've been a big fan of the American iteration of the Godzilla franchise, though after the high water mark of the previous outing, this is arguably the least essential of the lot. Still enjoyable hokum but undeniably shown up by its proximity to the awesome Godzilla Minus One. A much lower stakes and for some reason lower scale outing.
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Wildly imaginative and original and actually thrilling, plus a great showcase of a so far unsung actor, that crops up over and over again in hugely memorable bit parts (from Nolan's Batman to Villeneuve's Prisoners) David Dastmalchian. Writer/Director/Editors Colin and Cameron Cairne's 70s chat show horror is NOT a satire but definitely is a horror.
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Only being available to watch on Paramount Plus streaming in Japan, I took a flight to the country and ordered one months subscription, to be able to bring you this review. Is it worth the hype? It certainly is. The writing and development of the human characters wipes the floor with the (often excellent) modern American Godzilla franchise, the cinematography, effects and score are magnificent and the story packs a real wallop.
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The California singer songwriter broadens the setting of her voice on her lovely new album, sounding less idiosyncratic than in the past, though more of that instrumentation would've been welcome.
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The first album by the legendary Hartnoll brothers is bizarrely a group in flux even on their debut. Much more a collection of tracks compared to the immortal run of albums that would follow and a more dated sound. Yet it's still often fascinating and when the material peaks across tracks like Chime and Belfast, they were already a cut above. This 5 CD reissue benefits from remastered sound quality, though is really for completists who want everything from an era nowhere near as interesting as what was coming.
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In my infrequent series on art denied classic status on release or forgotten from the conversation since. Like almost no one since Sergio Leone, director Paul Verhoeven's work was been critically derided on release, hugely successful with the public and gone through countless upward critical revision since. Whereas Robocop and Total Recall have remained permanently in the public consciousness, Starship Troopers has undergone endless re-appraisal and even Showgirls has become a cult classic, his most controversial film of all has remained curiously quiet, a look back at the impeccably made Neo-noir that cause such a stir on release - a much better film than the trash-controversy elicits and in Sharon Stone, one of the most electric major league debuts in cinema history.
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