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Critics' Choice

Restaurants

Fay Maschler

quoteWith a single dessert and just two glasses of wine our bill was kept in check - but the effort of doing so was not much funquote

Fay Maschler Babbo Film

Andrew O'Hagan

quoteThis is a film with beautiful performances and a visual style that urges you towards reflectionquote

Andrew O'Hagan Bright Star Theatre

Henry Hitchings

quoteAlthough the first half of Kwei-Armah’s production is pacy, funny and intelligent, the energy level then drops offquote

Henry Hitchings Seize The Day

Reader reviews

Film

Squiz, Islington

quoteI loved this film from start to finish. Take the girlfriend, tell your mum - I'd see it again tomorrow and will buy the dvd.quote

An Education Theatre

Joe, London

quoteI saw this last night and can't remember the last time I was so moved in the theatre.quote

This Much Is True Restaurants

Hiroshi Sugiyama

quoteI have been to many of London's so-called best Japanese restaurants and none have been as good as the food that I've had at Aqua Kyotoquote

Aqua Kyoto

CDs of the week

Evening Standard   03.10.08

 Add your view

 

            Oasis

Creative: Oasis


            Bob Dylan

Enough already: Bob Dylan


            Jolie Holland

Delve in: Jolie Holland


            Ruthie Culver

Unassuming: Ruthie Culver


            Hector Zazou & Swara

Hit songs: Hector Zazou & Swara

Look here too

POP


Oasis
Dig out Your Soul (Big Brother)
***

Noel Gallagher has allowed Liam and a couple of Oasis drones more songwriting input than ever before on their seventh album. It should mean there's less of the filler which has derailed much of their post (What's The Story) Morning Glory? output — but alas the dreadful, pubby drear of Noel's (Get Off Your) High Horse Lady suggests the senior Gallagher might have been wise to surrender even more control. Still, his Waiting for the Rapture and the thunderous opener Bag It Up show Noel's fires haven't been entirely extinguished. Liam's gentle Beatles' karaoke, I'm Outta Time, is his most creative
flowering yet.
JOHN AIZLEWOOD

Bob Dylan
Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol.8 (Columbia)
***

Time was when a Bob Dylan bootleg was a truly desirable artefact. I remember searching the stalls in Ladbroke Grove, Soho and Camden Town for taped recordings of his early electric concerts when they shouted “Judas” and he told them they lied. Now, the term has become devalued: an official bootleg is a contradiction in terms. None of the versions of the songs (1989-2006) was considered worthy of release at the time, and one can only imagine that they appear now, in deluxe packaging, so that Bob can make a bob or two. It's not bad: Dylan remains the master of a simple twist of melody and resonant turn of phrase. It's just that this collection should be called Enough Already!
PETE CLARK

JOLIE HOLLAND
The Living and the Dead (Anti)
***

Texan singer Holland has been much praised for her old-time fusion of jazz and blues — she even counts labelmate Tom Waits among her fans. On this fourth album she moves towards a more modern country rock sound. The guitars are turned up to unprecedented levels for her on Corrido Por Buddy and Your Big Hands, though her creamy vocals are still best suited to a more subtle backdrop, as on the plucked guitar and whistling of You Painted Yourself In and the ghostly folk of Fox In Its Hole. She sounds relaxed and occasionally sloppy, especially on a giggly cover of Enjoy Yourself. Investigate her 2004 album Escondida first to hear what she does best.
DAVID SMYTH

JAZZ


Ruthie Culver
Refashioned (Purring Records)
***

Edging into the spotlight this week comes a gentle unassuming artist of subtle appeal and great potential. Ruthie Culver's voice is far from devastating, yet her delivery has a freshness that commands attention. A relaxed stage presence supports this. She performs continental numbers in flawless French and German (good cabaret potential there) and does the Great American Songbook in cut-glass English, which is equally rare. She also scores maximum planet-saving points by recording the album in a solar-powered studio, wrapping it in recycled, bio-degradable packaging and writing The Perfect Dress, a clever song with a PC sting
in its tail.
JACK MASSARIK

WORLD


Hector Zazou & Swara
In the House of Mirrors (Crammed Discs)
***

French producer Hector Zazou, who died last month aged 60, was a pioneer of world music fusions. His Songs From The Cold Seas included the first international release of Björk singing in Icelandic and his output embraces a range of styles. On this, his final album, he puts four instrumentalists from Uzbekistan and India — Toir Kuziyev on plucked tanbur, Milind Raikar on violin, Ronu Majumdar on bamboo flute and Manish Pingle on Indian slide guitar — and adds soft electronics and guest instrumentalists. These are sustained musical conversations which never seem to get anywhere. It is slow, meditative, ambient — almost devoid of passion — but somehow fitting as a valedictory statement.
SIMON BROUGHTON


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