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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Justin Timberlake's new album, FutureSex/LoveSounds
Justin Timberlake's new album hits the streets with a grunt, Kelis returns with another not-so-memorable collection of tracks, while Elton John's grand gesture of a record is yet another success.
Justin Timberlake: FutureSex/LoveSounds
Jive
Review: John Aizlewood
****
Nobody since George Michael has evolved from candyfloss to artist with the panache of erstwhile 'N Sync eye-candy Justin Timberlake. He's transformed himself into a musical force. Continuing where the terrific Cry Me a River ended, this is a mighty slab of string-laden, synth-propelled, supertaut R&B, packed with soaring melodies - Lovestoned/I Think She Knows and Losing My Way especially - and moments of endearing madness such as the grunting that underpins Chop Me Up and the Japanese tint to Until the End. Highlights are many, though nothing quite matches the sublime seven-plus minutes of What Goes Around.
Kelis Was Here
Virgin
Review: David Smyth
***
New Yorker Kelis has always been a reliable singles act without ever releasing a must-own album. Her latest, notable for leaving behind long-term producers and mentors The Neptunes in favour of other big names including Cee-Lo Green, Scott Storch and will.i.am, is no exception. Lead-off single Bossy is a typically freaky collision of siren-like synths and naggingly catchy rhyming. Other standouts, such as the vibrant ragga of Fire and I Don't Think So's glam stomp, will surely follow it into the charts. But over a wholly unnecessary 19 tracks, plenty becomes forgettable. Better wait for the inevitable greatest hits collection.
Elton John: The Captain and the Kid
Mercury
Review: Pete Clark
****
For his 44th album, Elton and Bernie Taupin have attempted to conjure up the spirit of 1975's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, an exercise in musical autobiography, detailing a career that had only just begun. As the past 30 years have been a period of almost unbroken success, hard luck stories are ruled out. So here we get allusions to unspecified pain (Blues Never Fade Away), drugs (Just Like Noah's Ark) and incendiary relationships (Tinderbox). For the rest, we are in the land of the grand gesture, and nobody does that like Elton.
JAZZ
Julie Sassoon: New Life
Babel
Review: Jack Massarik
****
Recorded when she was pregnant, this solo-piano album works beautifully. A classically trained pianist and violinist whose influences range from Vivaldi to Egberto Gismonti, Sassoon appeals to both jazz and classical music lovers. Apart from a brief piano sample and some wordless vocals, all she calls upon to develop these five beautiful original pieces is an unusually firm sense of structure, rhythm and harmony, a keyboard technique good enough to articulate any passing idea and the wit to disguise an occasional mistake by reshaping it instantly before moving on. Joyous free-jazz for tidy minds.
Voices for Humans, Ancestors and Gods: A Musical Journey Through India's Interior
East & North East (Topic)
Review: Simon Broughton
****
The latest in a series organised by the British Library Sound Archive, this is a vivid and exciting collection of music from village musicians in Eastern India. It's a reminder of how powerful real grassroots music can be. Parashumari, a 70-year-old Hindu, sings for the evening prayers; the gentlevoiced Chandra Mani Lenka sings a love song about Krishna; the Maasti minstrels play funky percussion accompaniments on little drums. It's a window on a rarely recorded and fast-disappearing world.
Stuart MacRae: Violin Concerto
Tetzlaff/BBC Scottish SO/Volkov (NMC, D115)
Review: Barry Millington
****
One of the successes of the 2001 Proms is now recorded here by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov, with Christian Tetzlaff the assured soloist. The first and third movements pulsate with energy. In the second, a homage to Xenakis, who died while the piece was being written, the violin soars and sways in elegiac mode. In the finale, fragments of previous movements are recalled and the music finally peters out. Loré Lixenberg is the admirable soloist in the harrowing Dante-derived Two Scenes from the Death of Count Ugolino. Powerful stuff.
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The Kelis album is a stinker – and with nearly 20 tracks, doesn't it go on! Ditching the Neptunes in favour of new producers was the first mistake. Not knowing when to stop was the second. Gone are the rumbling bass lines and melodies of previous efforts like Trick Me, replaced by (ugh!) retro glam on I Don't Think So. Not sure the 70s are where it's at, girl. Still, I'm loving Trilogy – best chorus on the album and the spangly Spanishness of Have a Nice Day is cool too. A bit of trimming – alright, a lot of trimming – and we'd have had a decent 10-song set. Where's that quality control, K?
- Sylvia, Tufnell Park
