Reviews

Mogwai – Happy Songs For Happy People

Fourth album from post-rock Glaswegians

The Lovin’ Spoonful

Classic reissues from John Sebastian's deceptively sweet combo

Isaac Hayes – At Wattstax

Black Moses meets his people at commercial and creative peak

Gary Bartz – Music Is My Sanctuary

Second-rate crossover jazz from the '70s

Chihwaseon

Rich portrait of a rebel artist

Shinjuku Triad Society

The first in Takashi Miike's career-making Triad Society Trilogy. Set in Tokyo's Shinjuku district, rogue cop Kippei Shiina puts himself between local yakuza and a gay Taiwanese mob; cue cocaine-fuelled blow jobs, anal rape and old ladies having their eyeballs plucked out. A Hollywood remake seems unlikely.

Bright Lights, Big City

Underrated 1989 adaptation of Jay McInerney's seminal NY nightlife novel, riddled with "Bolivian marching powder", period electro-pop and a brave (though criticised) performance from Michael J Fox as a broken-hearted magazine fact-checker who's burning the candle at three ends. Kiefer Sutherland's a bad influence. Dryly comic, painfully candid.

Brazil

Sam (Jonathan Pryce) dreams of love and escape from his clerical job in a monolithic bureaucracy, but finds himself sucked ever deeper into a Kafkaesque nightmare. Michael Palin and Robert De Niro play brilliantly against type, while Terry Gilliam's dystopian vision broke the mould. Dazzling, disturbing, darkly comic and downright essential.

The Go

Tough trad Detroit garage. Recent touring partner Jack White was once a member

California Dreamin’

Young Dublin five-piece capture sound of summer on West Coast-fixated debut
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