ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
Album reviews with Ian Sinclair: November 18, 2024
New releases from Jennifer Castle, Primal Scream and Keith Jarrett
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Am Martin Parr, September Says, The Monkey, and The Gorge
RITA DI SANTO applauds a touching and witty opener that touches a hot topic in Germany: the future of the immigrant population
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
PAUL FOLEY recommends an extraordinary double bill that packs a punch and leaves you reeling
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide 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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