Reviews

Kylie Minogue – Body Language

On her ninth studio album Kylie discovers coitus. Again

The Boggs – Stitches

Hillbilly punk from The Rapture's flatmates

The Byrds – Sweetheart Of The Rodeo

Deluxe two-CD pressing of massively influential '60's country classic

The Fall – The War Against Intelligence

Their major label period. Better than you remember

Taking Sides

Keitel struggles to enliven tepid war crimes drama

Born To Win

Beware: this re-release of Ivan Passer's neglected 1971 movie comes billed as "starring" Robert De Niro. In fact, Two Oscars Bob, then unknown, has little more than a bit part, as a cop hassling real star George Segal, in one of his best performances as a bottom-rung junkie stealing through a wintry New York to feed his habit. Czech Passers' first US movie combines black comedy with bleakness and a nicely shabby feel which, though not entirely successful, points toward his best film, Cutter's Way.

Nowhere In Africa

The 2003 Oscar-winner as Best Foreign Language Film, this sees a German-Jewish family flee to a farm in Kenya to escape the rise of Nazism. Naturally, problems abound as the rural life turns tough, relationships disintegrate, locusts swarm and so do anti-Semites. Viewed through a child's eyes, the importance of each event is intensified, making for a visually impressive and emotionally testing experience.

The Hunted

William Friedkin's thriller casts Benicio Del Toro as a Special Forces killing machine running amok and Tommy Lee Jones as the man who trained him and now has to bring him in. Hokum, basically, but the knife fights are the best since David Carradine and James Remar went at each other with some gusto in The Long Riders.

Neil Cleary – Numbers Add Up

Cleary's career has included drumming in psych-poppers The Essex Green, stints in The Pants and Famous Potatoes, mandolinist in contra-dance string bands and a 1997 release under the moniker Stupid Club (Made To Feel). Once resident of Austin, he now calls New York home, but sounds Tennessee in spirit. Confused? You should be, but Numbers Add Up sounds like the happy nesting of a restless muse. Tapping into a literate strain of country-folk, his mellow delivery is as easy to swallow as James Taylor's, but glows with lasting warmth.

Hymie’s Basement

Fog's Andrew Broder meets cLOUDDEAD's Jonathan Wolf
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