MARJORIE MAYO recommends an accessible and unsettling novel that uses a true incident of death in the Channel to raise questions of wider moral responsibility
Album review with Ian Sinclair: March 16, 2022
New releases from Father John Misty, Let’s Eat Grandma and Brad Mehldau
MIK SABIERS wallows in a night of political punk and funk that fires both barrels at Trump
Reasonable radicalism, death in Abu Dhabi, locked-room romance, and sleuthing in the Blitz
SIMON DUFF recommends a new album from renowned composer and oud player Anour Brahem.
JAMES WALSH has a great night in the company of basketball players, quantum physicists and the exquisite timing of Rosie Jones
A New Awakening: Adventures In British Jazz 1966 - 1971, G3, and Buck Owens
JAMES WALSH is moved by an exhibition of graphic art that relates horrors that would be much less immediate in other media
Father John Misty
Chloe and the Next 20th Century
(Bella Union)
★★★★
US singer-songwriter Josh Tillman’s work as Father John Misty is so idiosyncratic and audacious he feels like an increasingly polarising figure.
His fifth album is unlikely to win over naysayers, though his many fans, like me, will lap it up. Opener Chloe sets the scene, a strings-laden Great American Songbook-style ballad, with Tillman smoothly channelling Sinatra as he tells the surreal story of the titular character who is “a borough socialist.”
More from this author
New releases reviewed by IAN SINCLAIR
Despite liberal whining that Trump threatens the ‘international rules-based order,’ the historical record shows Western nations have repeatedly overthrown democracies, backed genocides and violated sovereignty, writes IAN SINCLAIR
IAN SINCLAIR draws attention to the powerful role that literature plays in foreseeing the way humanity will deal with climate crisis
Detailing the deluge of delusion and dishonesty pushed by the pro-war camp, IAN SINCLAIR identifies four key tactics corporate journalists use to confuse audiences and suppress opposition to the proxy war in the east
Similar stories
New releases from Richard Dawson, Yazz Ahmed, and The Murder Capital
John Cale's rediscovered classic album 1919, and new releases from Father John Misty and Lucinda Williams
STEVE JOHNSON, CHRIS SEARLE and KEVIN BRYAN review new releases from Brooks Williams and Aaron Catlow, Kris Davis Trio, PP Arnold, Rum Ragged, David Virelles, Mark Harrison Band, Linda Moylan, Catriona Bourne, Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity
New releases from Jessica Pratt, Oisin Leech and Bill Frisell