MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Albums with Ian Sinclair
DAMN GOOD: Bob Dylan
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
RELEASED online in March, Bob Dylan’s 17-minute Murder Most Foul felt, in some strange way, in close step with our difficult times.
Ostensibly about the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy, the monumental song ominously unspools like a slow-paced American Pie, with the now 79-year old mesmerisingly listing popular 20th-century artists and hit songs.
This extraordinary track closes his new album Rough and Rowdy Ways (Columbia), which was pretty damn good too. Perhaps rejuvenated by his previous five records of American standards, highlights include I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You and the nine-minute Key West (Philosopher Pirate).
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Reading the Uncut and Mojo magazines’ albums of the year lists over the last couple of weeks, I’ve realised anew they consistently ignore many exceptional, lesser known artists