The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an impressive impersonation of Bob Dylan
Album reviews with IAN SINCLAIR: March 11, 2024
Leftist broadsides, indie in-jokes and lo-fi immensity: reviews of Grace Petrie, The Rhythm Method and Grandaddy
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Here, Vermiglio, William Tell and Wolf Man
New releases from Thorpe and Morrison, Daria Kulesh, and Will Finn and Rosie Calvert
RINA ARYA confronts the brutal operation of Francis Bacon’s approach to portraiture
Emphasising his continuous engagement in labour movement struggles, ALISTAIR FINDLAY salutes John Foster’s contribution as activist, strategist, intellectual and defender of the Morning Star
ANDY MIAH advocates the use of AI to assist people by expanding access to global literature and culture
EWAN KOTZ relishes a veteran Glasgow band that have lost none of their verve for live performance
Grace Petrie
Build Something Better
(The Robot Needs Home Collective)
★★★★
FOLLOWING 2021’s Connectivity, which dialled down the leftist broadsides to focus on matters of the heart, Build Something Better feels like a return to normal service for Grace Petrie.
Start Again is a classic call to arms from the Leicester-based folksinger. “I remember ’17, for a minute there we cracked the screen,” she recalls about Jeremy Corbyn’s astonishing election performance. There’s plenty of righteous passion: from The House Always Wins to Fixer Upper, with its references to 2016’s ”far-right fake news fucked up universe,” the climate crisis and The Mountain Goats. And there are some tender love songs too.
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