MARK TURNER is staggered by a gifted jazz pianist from the Welsh Valleys
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Album reviews with Ian Sinclair: November 18, 2024
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JESSICA WIDNER explores how the twin themes of violence and love run through the novels of South Korean Nobel prize-winner Han Kang
SARAH TROTT explores short fictional slices of life in the American midwest from a middle-aged and mostly female perspective
New releases from Black Country, New Road, Anouar Brahem, and Jaywalkers
RICHARD CLARKE recommends a hugely valuable text for those seeking theoretical analysis and practical action to defend public services
JOHN HAWKINS is moved by an oral history that examines five black families pushed into homelessness in the US
BOB NEWLAND recommends an outstanding study of how images have shaped narratives of identity, resistance and power in South Africa
Jennifer Castle
Camelot
★★★★
RELEASED in 2020, Jennifer Castle’s glacially paced Monarch Season, recorded alone in her kitchen looking out over Lake Erie, was the perfect soundtrack to the isolating Covid lockdowns.
Four years later and the Canadian singer-songwriter’s new record broadens her sonic palette beyond the restrained contemporary folk she is known for, with several tracks like Lucky #8 getting close — whisper it — to rocking out. With the set supposedly a commentary on middle age, she’s helped out by a cast of talented musicians, including Cass McCombs on various guitars and Owen Pallett writing the string arrangements.
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