Reviews

Pietra – Montecorvino

Traditional Neapolitan melodies fused with North African rhythms

Tortoise – It’s All Around You

Post-rockers' fifth album, and first since 2000. Lovely cover, shame about the music

Johnny Cash – The Living End

This belated sequel to 2002's triple-album retrospective Love God Murder features 18 songs that might easily have fitted under one or another of that set's individual headings. Not, perhaps, "Murder"—the only death here is that of the Native American hero of Peter LaFarge's "Ballad Of Ira Hayes", a war hero allowed to fall into alcoholism and ignominy after he'd helped raise that iconic flag at Iwo Jima—but certainly "Love" and "God".

Sins Of The Father

Excruciating but riveting documentary about an American family torn apart by accusations of paedophilia

At Five In The Afternoon

Hard-hitting slice of realpolitik from Afghanistan

An Evening With Kevin Smith

From the man whose new movie, Jersey Girl, is promoted as "not featuring J-Lo very much really",here's a two-disc highlight set of his popular Q&A sessions at American colleges—his natural demographic. Frank, funny and quick to ridicule dumb questions,"Silent Bob" is a great raconteur, dissing Hollywood, Tim Burton and Prince ("a Jesus freak"),and revealing the truth behind his doomed Superman Lives script. Irreverent.

Dune

Twenty years and one truly awful TV remake later, David Lynch's adaptation of Frank Herbert's unfilmable sci-fi epic looks miraculously good. Kyle MacLachlan makes an impressive debut as the young desert messiah, the supporting cast are great (except Sting), and the amazing visuals more than outweigh the unwieldy script.

Run-Dmc

Run-DMC did more than anyone to bring rock into hip hop in the mid-'80s. Greatest Hits shows the band at their best (the Tipper Gore-baiting "Mary Mary") and worst (the cutesy "Christmas In Hollis"). The purists sneered at the Jason Nevins makeover of "It's Like That",but those warehouse visuals will have turned a new generation of suburban 13-year-olds on to hip hop.

Coco Rosie – La Maison De Mon Rêve

Hallucinatory, spectral folk debut from NY sisters Sierra and Bianca Cassidy

Jane Birkin – Rendez-vous

The return of the widow Gainsbourg, with friends
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