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Reviews

Alaska – Happiness

Ironically titled debut from Brighton-based trio

Chris Whitley – War Crime Blues

Previously available only at gigs or on the Internet (along with the similarly acoustic Weed), War Crime Blues is a masterclass in bottleneck guitar and mud-caked Mississippi stomp from this most distinctive of guitarists. There are similarities to contemporaries like Chris Smither in the wounded delivery, but the Texan's style is more aggressive, his accentuated strums—like sudden lightning forks—more akin to the late great Tucson guitarist Rainer Ptacek (see "Ghost Dance" and the title track).

Sheer Heart Attack

New volume of basement lo-fi by unreconstructed rocker in folk clothing

Wreckless Eric – Bungalow Hi

Typically idiosyncratic but highly welcome return

Ravaged Beauty

Polly Harvey and Nick Cave help create her most potent album since Broken English

Into The Mirror

South Korean supernatural mystery

Heavy Mental

Enjoy the guilty pleasure of witnessing a hugely successful rock band tear itself apart

The MC5

Not the definitive doc currently in legal limbo, but an atmospherically filmed record of the Detroit punk pioneers' Levi's-sponsored comeback at London's 100 Club last year. Of the stand-ins for late brothers Rob Tyner and Fred "Sonic"Smith, Lemmy stars, but the celebratory thunder of the surviving trio moves most.

Secret Window

Highly entertaining Stephen King adaptation, stylishly directed by David Koepp, with a mesmerising Johnny Depp as a best-selling mystery writer in the throes of a messy divorce who's accused of plagiarism—and threatened with unpleasant retribution—by sinister hillbilly John Turturro. Cue havoc on all fronts, and bodies piling up very quickly indeed. Splendid.

The Residents

THE RESIDENTS' COMMERCIAL ALBUM ON DVD
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