WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
Album reviews
Latest releases from Fruit Bats, Valerie June and Field Music
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
Fruit Bats
The Pet Parade
(Merge)
★★★★
“HELLO from here to you all out there/It feels like it has been years.” I’m not sure when the opening words to the Fruit Bats’ ninth album were written, but their lonely delivery makes them perfect for the Covid years.
Having worked under the Fruit Bats moniker for 20 years, US musician Eric D Johnson — also active with Bonny Light Horseman — has created an impressive set of mercurial Americana on this album.
More from this author
At the very moment Britain faces poverty, housing and climate crises requiring radical solutions, the liberal press promotes ideologically narrow books while marginalising authors who offer the most accurate understanding of change, writes IAN SINCLAIR
New releases from Allo Darlin’, Loyle Carner and Mike Polizze
New releases from Toby Hay, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Dobson & The Hanging Stars
As the cover-ups collapse, IAN SINCLAIR looks at the shocking testimony from British forces who would ‘go in and shoot everyone sleeping there’ during night raids — illegal, systematic murder spawned by an illegal invasion
