SIMON DUFF recommends a recording of Arvo Part that takes the listener on a pilgrimage through seemingly distant times and events of the Bible
Album reviews with Ian Sinclair: August 15, 2023
Reviews of Ani DiFranco, The Clientele and Emma Rawicz
JENNY FARRELL relishes an intimate memoir about growing up in the household of the great Irish communist and playwright Sean O’Casey
SIAN LEWIS relishes a comprehensive account of high rise social housing in Britain by prize-winning social and political historian Holly Smith
SIMON PARSONS feels a little overwhelmed by the joke count of an ebullient production that manages to convey Stoker’s Dracula without corpsing
SYLVIA HIKINS enjoys a varied Scouse alternative to traditional pantomimes
Rereleases from The Pentangle, The Charlie Daniels Band, and Cousins and Willoughby
Ani DiFranco
Little Plastic Castle
(Righteous Babe)
★★★★
THIS 25th anniversary remastered reissue of Ani DiFranco’s album Little Plastic Castle confirms the Buffalo-born left-wing feminist should take her rightful place as one of the greatest living US singer-songwriters.
Her highest charting record, it’s a dazzling fusion of political and personal folk-rock. The talk sung Fuel is an incisive, often humorous late-90s state of the nation address, while live favourite Gravel takes aim at a two-timing lover. There is a real joyousness to the music too – like when the brass kicks in and swings on the title track, and in the emotional comfort and release given by the sweet-sounding As If.
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