Reviews

James Brown – The Next Step

The Godfather's 2002 US release with three remixed "bonus" cuts

Jackie-O Motherfucker – Bit’s

Bit's

Richard X – Richard X Presents His X-Factor Volume One

The pioneer of bootleg mixes unleashes his first "official" album

The Broken Family Band – Cold Water Songs

First full-lengther from genre-hopping Cambridge quartet

The Ruts – 999

Two punk outfits of varying quality anthologised

Other Side Of The Tracks

The Modfather's version of Pin-Ups and Anthology over three CDs

Veronica Guerin

Competent Dublin crime drama on well-worn turf

The Lady Vanishes

A '70s remake of the Hitchcock classic, with Angela Lansbury as an English nanny kidnapped on a German train on the eve of WWII. Can dizzy US heiress Cybill Shepherd foil this Nazi plot with the aid of rugged news photographer Elliott Gould? It might have worked if they'd played it straight; instead, they go for screwball comedy, and it's a disaster.

Joni Mitchell—Woman Of Heart And Mind

It doesn't matter whether you're a fan. This study of Mitchell is a model of musical biography in DVD form. Over two hours we get her life story in perfectly matched words, music and images. The interviews with Mitchell are candid, the recollections from the likes of James Taylor, David Crosby and Graham Nash are fascinating, and the musical excerpts, which cover her entire career, are luminous.

Spider

Depressing study in madness, memory and murder from David Cronenberg, with Ralph Fiennes, recently released from a mental institution, setting up home in a halfway hostel in London's East End close to where he grew up, and the scene of a massive childhood trauma. Despite some typically creepy Cronenberg moments and universally impressive performances, the plot's predictable, and the relentless bleakness wears after a while.
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