• Paddington 2

    November 30, 2017 - By 

    After a month when the media has been dominated by stories of bullies and predators, how refreshing it is to revel in a film whose central message is kindness, courtesy and respect for others. To some, the idea of an animated movie about an eternally polite and optimistic bear might sound cloying, the visual equivalent of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one’s mouth, yet Paddington 2, a rare instance of a warranted sequel, effortlessly strikes the right balance between gentle humour and warmhearted whimsy. The result is a film that not only recaptures the blithely anarchic spirit of the…

  • Royal Blood w/ At The Drive-In & Black Honey @ 3Arena, Dublin

    November 27, 2017 - By 

    The 3Arena plays host to a veritable smorgasbord of rock and roll tonight with a trio of acts. Riff rockers Royal Blood were joined by El Paso post-hardcore icons At the Drive-In and UK newcomers Black Honey. It caps off a busy weekend at Dublin’s arena venue, which saw Queens of the Stone Age and Queen take to the stage on the two nights previous, with many of tonight’s attendees adorned in tees from these shows. On a rainy Sinday night, this added to the feeling that tonight was somewhat of a hangover from what were undoubtedly better gigs. The…

  • Björk – Utopia

    November 27, 2017 - By 

    A concise title is such lovely gift. Being able to neatly summarise a complex and expansive piece of art is a pure form of poetry. Björk’s latest LP has one of those titles: Utopia. Of all the words that she could pluck out of her expansive multilingual dictionary, why did a word which such loaded connotations leap out at her? On a global scale, any form of utopian ideal is running threadbare as pretty much everything around us falls into a state of disarray. In the context of Björk though, this is her first album after the emotionally raw exploration…

  • Cosi Fan Tutte @ Grand Opera House, Belfast

    November 26, 2017 - By 

    Who is immune to a little flattery? Who, if anyone, cannot be seduced? Who, if we’re honest, is not tempted by forbidden fruits? As Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte would have it, nobody – least of all women. All Women Do It translates the title of Mozart’s opera, written in the prolific period before he died. Near-full houses for three nights in The Grand Opera House for this Northern Ireland Opera production was proof that Cosi Fan Tutte remains one of the most popular operas in the world. It wasn’t always so. In fact, it wasn’t until the twentieth…

  • Five to Two – How Tall Do You Think You Could Grow (If You Wanted to Be So Tall)

    November 25, 2017 - By 

    Crudely speaking, size can be determined by a multitude of factors including environment, competition and space to grow into. Handily, for the sake of this review, the same biological principles can be transferred to culture, and as a subsection, music. Let’s put the Dublin jazz scene under the microscope here for a minute. In terms of environment, JJ Smyth’s has consistently flown the flag for Dublin’s jazz and blues scene for years, but is limited by its size and accessibility, whilst Sugar Club is arguably the best suited venue but is a challenge to book for jazz promoters amongst events…

  • Sufjan Stevens – The Greatest Gift Mixtape

    November 24, 2017 - By 

    The release of Sufjan Stevens’ last album proper, 2015’s Carrie & Lowell, proved him to be an artist still very much at the top of his game. A decade on from the breakthrough of Illinois, the album saw him swap that record’s lavish arrangements, and follow up The Age of Adz’s oddball electronics, for a return to the hushed folk and introspection found on 2004’s Seven Swans, this time themed around his parents in the wake of his mother’s passing. The album’s tracklisting seemed so perfectly formed – he tended to play all eleven tracks at subsequent live shows, as…

  • Battle of the Sexes

    November 24, 2017 - By 

    A gender wars back-and-forth with surprising emotional richness, Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris serve up an ace with Battle of the Sexes, a warm, solidly entertaining look at the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King, the top-ranked female player, and Bobby Riggs, an ex-World Champion hungry for the spotlight. Some of Little Miss Sunshine’s affection for misfits united by shared dysfunction is visible in Battle of the Sexes, Simon Beaufoy’s script framing Billie Jean (Emma Stone) and Bobby (Steve Carell) as a pair of almost-weirdos comparable in their compulsions. Billie Jean’s rebellion against tennis establishment…

  • Le Guess Who? 2017

    November 24, 2017 - By 

    Photo by Tim van Veen You can’t help but admire the audacity of Le Guess Who? After an almost household-friendly 2016 lineup, they made a point of aiming their powers of tastemaking further toward the underground, with a broad range of curators that give as accurate a microcosm of the festival as you’d hope – Perfume Genius, Jerusalem In My Heart, Grouper, James Holden, Han Bennink, Basilica Soundscape & Shabazz Palaces. This comes accompanied by everything a fan of music & the arts could dream of, including the world’s largest record fair, the smaller Le Mini Who? festival. Every festival…

  • Mac DeMarco w/ Montero @ Vicar Street, Dublin

    November 23, 2017 - By 

    As the doors to Dublin’s iconic Vicar Street open, a queue of eager teenagers file through in anticipation of seeing their idol take the stage. For many it would be their first gig and they embrace it with the uncontrollable excitement I remember having once upon a time; running to the barrier to get the best spot and buying as much merch as they can afford. Pints? Pfft, pints are for old people. Mac DeMarco’s allure has always enticed a younger crowd and even though his latest release, This Old Dog has seen him mellow out to a degree, he can’t…

  • Morrissey – Low in High School

    November 22, 2017 - By 

    To say that Steven Patrick Morrissey is a different artist to the one so many of us flocked to in our teens seems a platitude at this stage. In The Smiths, Morrissey’s marriage of equal parts teenage melodrama, small town misery and genuine wit struck a chord somewhere between Paul Weller, Oscar Wilde and Holden Caulfield. There have been plenty of smart-arsed indie singers since, but not one can hold a candle to what this man was when at his best.  The persona of a sensitive, working class and vehemently anti-Tory frontman is long gone though, and has given way to an increasingly…