Reviews

A unique musical relationship caught in close-up

A Jerry Lee Lewis biopic from Jim (The Big Easy) McBride, starring an energetic Dennis Quaid as the piano-bashing, God-fearing rock'n'roller. He upsets the applecart (and middle America) by marrying the underage Myra (Winona Ryder), whose book provided the source material. Thus biased, it doesn't show the great balls it should, but Quaid amps it up.

Appealing second Peel selection from a post-Weddoes David Gedge

Not-quite-brilliant follow-up to Two Against Nature from US collegiate pop's Lennon & McCartney

When we speak of Anton Karas' score to Carol Reed's 1949 classic of dodgy penicillin and cuckoo clocks, we speak of the zither. Most of us couldn't describe a zither if the lives of the Swiss nation depended on it, but the Harry Lime theme is nonchalance personified. Karas—the chap with the zither—was discovered by Reed playing in a Viennese tavern and had no experience, but proved to be an inspired choice.

Fabulous Thunderbirds frontman keeps it bluesy

Part-new album, part-remix project from post-rock supergroup

Ten years ago, as Sonic Boom's new sleevenotes attest, he and Jason Pierce were "making hypno-monotony" and smoking a lot of grass. Spacemen 3 were a cult on the brink of brimming over, which soon happened with the spin-off of Pierce's Spiritualized. Their penultimate LP as a pairing was The Perfect Prescription, here stretched to a double with the addition of various demos and unreleased sessions. In two modes, hippie-trance riffery and hushed faux-religious reverence, it's love-it-or-hate it puritan-rock. The drugs, clearly, worked for them.

Punk compilation selected by Sniffin' Glue editor Mark Perry

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