CATHERINE STEEL relishes a compelling novel about Augustus’s right hand man, but misses the politics, the cultural shifts, and more detail about his restoration of Rome
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Album round-up
Ian Sinclair reviews the latest from Dear Reader, Townes Van Zandt and Ralph Towner
TONY BURKE speaks to JOEL McIVER, co-author of the biography of bluesman John Mayall
A misfit couple unhappily ever after, a dead man walking, dodgy journos, and trench art trucking
New releases from Javon Jackson, IZE Trio, and Mal Waldron Trio
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an intriguing multi-layered depiction, dominated by a stunning impersonation of Marilyn herself
EWAN CAMERON marvels at the impossible ambition, realised with dreamlike finesse of translating Italo Calvino to the stage
Dear Reader Day Fever (City Slang)
RECORDED in San Francisco, this is the fifth album by Dear Reader — South African singer-songwriter Cherilyn MacNeil — following her politically infused 2013 record Rivonia. Like her previous work, it’s an impressive mix of orchestral indie music, all dubbed to tape by analog enthusiast John Vanderslice.
Joanna Newsom is a key influence, especially on MacNeil’s fairy-tale vocals on tracks like So Petty So Pathetic. The grandiose ambition and attitude of critics favourite Sufjan Stevens also seems an important touchstone.
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