Favourite Five Recent Releases

Five of the best albums from the recent postings at Elsewhere. Music too good to let slide into the archives. The Elsewhere place if you're looking for a quick fix.

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BOB DYLAN, ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS (2020): The curtain call for his masterpiece theatre?

21 Jun 2020  |  5 min read  |  1

Pause for a moment to pity those journalists for major newspapers and websites whose job it is to constantly update obituaries. Many obits are easy because most of the subjects are of great age and haven't done anything much in recent decades. But then they look at their words on Bob Dylan. A decade ago when... > Read more

Lady Gaga: Chromatica (Interscope/digital outlets)

15 Jun 2020  |  1 min read

Around Elsewhere's way, song for song, album for album, costume for costume and now movie for movie, Lady Gaga has it all over Lady Madonna. And if you doubt it then just slide this terrific dancefloor-cum-brainfood album alongside Madonna's best which is Ray of Light by some clear margin (and 22 years ago). Very different albums with different career intentions, but Madonna rarely... > Read more

Lucinda Williams: Good Souls Better Angels (Highway 20/digital outlets)

29 May 2020  |  1 min read

Artists who build a vast catalogue can fall victim to their own productivity. At what point do you feel you have exactly the right number of albums by Van Morrison, Neil Young or Elvis Costello in your collection? Or Steve Earle or Lucinda Williams? Williams has more than 15 albums to her name (one a double) and with almost half of them being essential you'd think her audience might... > Read more

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Tamikrest; Tamotait (Glitterbeat/digital outlets)

11 May 2020  |  1 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one . . . Hard to believe that Elsewhere could miss this new album, released last month, by the extraordinary Tamikrest whose sub-Saharan blues we have championed right from their debut Adagh 10 years ago to their previous release Kidal (named for the town in Mali where they formed) in 2017.... > Read more

Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters (Epic/digital outlets)

4 May 2020  |  2 min read

This one of the best albums released so far this year, and we'll get back to that. But first, this . . . When music writers offer reference points for an album, they can fall at a couple of hurdles. First, the references will only be useful if the reader knows them. Saying something sounds like Dark Side of the Moon or Like a Virgin might be a safe bet, but with this new album... > Read more