STEVE JOHNSON relishes a celebration of the commonality of folk music and its links with the struggles of working people the world over
Best of 2018: Albums
by Ian Sinclair
Troubadour of turmoil: Laura Veirs
This thriller is a politically charged and morally complex dive into climate activism and police repression, judges JENNY FARRELL
Cat show killer, avenging the pawns, women hunt the Ripper, and running dry in the outback
The Bard reflects on sharing a bed, and why he wont go to Chelsea
MARY CONWAY applauds a new play that foresees the unscrupulous tactics of a future far-right minority government
RON JACOBS is moved to tears by an eloquent journal of heartfelt intensity and human portraiture
ROBERT OVETZ recommends a case study, from the University of Leicester, in their struggle against precarization, AI, privatisation, outsourcing, and work intensification in higher education
2018 has been a strong year for instrumental music. Like his 2015 triple-album The Epic, Californian saxophonist Kamasi Washington’s Heaven and Earth (Young Turks) is a monumental jazz, soul and funk record, kicking off with an incredibly exciting version of the Fist of Fury theme tune.
The otherworldly Bellowing Sun (Paradise of Bachelors) from Mind Over Mirrors — aka US composer and musician Jaime Fennelly — is similarly ambitious, an aural document of a year spent living alone on Cape Cod watching nature’s rhythms and cycles.
More from this author
New releases from Steady Habits, Jeff Tweedy, and Tom Skinner
IAN SINCLAIR welcomes a lucid critique of a technology that reproduces and enables oppression, power, and environmental devastation
Reviews of new releases by Wednesday, Suede, and Nation of Language
Reviews of new releases by Jens Lekman, Big Thief, and Christian McBride Big Band
