Reviews

Ken Russell's 1967 movie was the last in the original Harry Palmer trilogy, and it's lunatic great. Retired from MI5 and living on cornflakes as a flea-bitten private eye, Michael Caine's downbeat, kitchen-sink Bond has to deliver some eggs, and deal with a militaristic right-wing Texan oil baron who's planning to destroy Soviet Russia with his computer (the titular brain). Caine is quite brilliantly morose.

Classic '67 pop-soul debut from Blue Mink chanteuse and friend of Dusty

Lost album from Eric Clapton's erstwhile mentor and sometime partner of Bonnie

A rich seam of strangeness from the velvet tinmine

Trinidadian soca selected by Damon Albarn and his Honest Jon's partners

Psychedelic pomp from east London quintet

Brilliant Latin folktronica from Argentine ex-comic

Like his contemporary Rodney Crowell, head Blaster Alvin seems to have reached a reflective career intersection. His first all-new LP in six years revisits youthful memories of the titular LA club where he became spellbound by Big Joe Turner and T-Bone Walker. As a result, it's his bluesiest, toughest record since '91's Blue Boulevard.

Expansive seventh LP from NYC blues-punk trailblazers

Folk-rock that nods to both the present and the past