CD, Video & DVD Shop!

in association with

	Come Away With Me - by Norah Jones In Come Away with Me , it is not just the timbre of Norah Jones's voice that is mature beyond her years. Her assured phrasing and precise time are more often found in older singers as well. She is instantly recognisable, blending intimations of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone without sounding like anyone but herself. Any way you slice it, she is a singer to be reckoned with. Her readings of the Hank Williams classic, "Cold Cold Heart" and Hoagy Carmichael's "The Nearness of You" are worth the price of the CD. Jones's own material, while not bad, pales a bit next to masterpieces such as these. They might have fared better had she and producer Arif Mardin opted for some livelier arrangements, taking better advantage of brilliant sidemen such as Bill Frisell, Kevin Breit and Brian Blade; or if the tunes had simply been given less laconic performances. Jones has all the tools; what will come with experience, and some careful listening to artists like JJ Cale and Shirley Horn, is the knack of remaining low-key without being sleepy--sometimes less is not, in fact, more. --Michael Ross
	Ether Song - by Turin Brakes Ether Song is the follow up to Turin Brakes' critically acclaimed The Optimist . As leading lights of the much vaunted New Acoustic Movement, Turin Brakes were one of the bands that took on the unenviable task of making quiet, faintly nostalgic acoustic guitar music appeal to a young audience that, rightly, should want anything but. However, their debut LP, The Optimist had a certain soulful promise that ensured it appealed more to the post-clubbing than the pipe-and-slippers crowd, and its follow-up, the sturdy Ether Song builds on its predecessor with added clarity of purpose. Now, South London duo Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian have chosen to bolster their fragile acoustic core with a slightly more robust instrumentation: drums beaten rather than brushed, vibrant piano motifs to flesh out the languid strum, and even--gasp!--the odd electric-guitar solo. They still fall for clichés with a slightly depressing regularity: "Summer rain / Dripping down your face again", they duet on "Pain Killer"--the sort of lyrical profundity that should really be left to Bryan Adams. But there is real content here: "Panic Attack" holds a hint of the peculiar Englishness of Syd Barrett , while the shiversome "Long Distance" stands out as the finest song Turin Brakes have yet written, a grandiose treatise on obsession spattered with electronic laser-bursts and borne out by a piano coda of weighty epic stature. -- Louis Pattison
	Reason - by Melanie C  There was a sense with 2000's Northern Star that the former Spice Girl Melanie C was trying out a new persona. With its swinging backbeat and Southern style horns, Reason is smoother, more mature, less eclectic. Like a female Robbie Williams, Melanie C is going for the classic pop soul sound that best suits her voice. There are layered guitars and rock choruses, but she never gets lost in the mix. She has cowritten each song with a production team that includes Marius de Vries and Pat McCarthy, and created a thoughtful, personal set. On the title track, for instance, a piano-led song with a jazzy tinge, she sings about being the reluctant lover wanting to be overwhelmed, while on the languid "Do I", she asks hopefully: "Am I the one / Who makes you come undone?" She resurrects the rock chick for the more brazen "Yeh Yeh Yeh", yet this is executed, it seems, with tongue firmly in cheek. --Lucy O’Brien
	The Rising - by Bruce Springsteen The Rising is Bruce Springsteen's much-anticipated first full-length album with the E Street Band in 18 years. Although it seemed the Boss had put writing rock anthems behind him following Born in the USA , his long-time fans knew if any artist could write anthems addressing September 11, 2001 and not make them sound jingoistic, it would be Bruce Springsteen. The numerous anthems on The Rising are subtler than those of the Born to Run era. But the elements are all there--be it the joyous rocking strains of "Countin' on a Miracle", "Mary's Place" and "Waitin' on a Sunny Day"; the dark overtones of "Further on Up the Road"; or the stunning guitar solo that closes "Worlds Apart", a dramatic Arabic-tinged piece detailing star-crossed love between a Muslim and an "infidel." While most of these songs deal with death and tragedy, they still inspire. But while the lyrics are intriguing, what's more remarkable is how well The Rising works as epic rock & roll as it draws from rockabilly, soul, doo-wop hard rock, country and even industrial. To skewer an old cliche, when The Rising is good, it's great. And even when it's not great, it’s still awfully good. --Bill Holdship
	Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets (DVD) The world's most famous boy wizard dives straight into a darker and more thrilling magical adventure in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets . It's practically the same set-up--something evil's afoot at Hogwarts; Harry and his pals must put it right--but fans of the books won't be disappointed. Director Chris Columbus, whose artistic licence is necessarily limited by the demands of adapting JK Rowling's phenomenally popular novel , does a spectacular job rendering Rowling's imaginary world: the production design and costumes are fascinating in their own right; such is the impressive attention to detail. Daniel Radcliffe gives a more assured performance here as Harry, though he's not quite strong enough to carry the film without the aid of an excellent ensemble cast of experienced adults, notably a twinkly-eyed Kenneth Branagh. Of course, most viewers will already know what's going to happen as far as the story is concerned, so for them the pleasure in watching The Chamber of Secrets lies in the visualisation of Rowling's magical creations and the verve brought to the action sequences. It's fantastic fun for kids and a good excuse to regress back to childhood for the rest of us. -- Laura Bushell
	Gosford Park (vhs) Gosford Park finds director Robert Altman in sumptuously fine form. From the opening shots, as the camera peers through the trees at an opulent English country estate, Altman exploits the 1930s period setting and whodunit formula of the film expertly. Aristocrats gather together for a weekend shooting party with their dutiful servants in tow, and the upstairs/downstairs division of the classes is perfectly tailored to Altman's method (Nashville ,Short Cuts ) of overlapping bits of dialogue and numerous subplots in order to betray underlying motives and the sins that propel them. Greed, vengeance, snobbery and lust stir comic unrest as the near dizzying effects of the plot twists are allayed by perhaps Altman's strongest ensemble to date. Maggie Smith is marvellous as Constance, a dependent Countess with a quip for every occasion; Michael Gambon, as the ill-fated host, Sir William McCordle, is one of the most palpably salacious characters ever on screen; Kristin Scott Thomas is perfectly cold yet sexy as Lady Sylvia, Sir William's wife; and Helen Mirren, Emily Watson and Clive Owen are equally memorable as key characters from the bustling servants' quarters below. Gosford Park manages to be fabulously entertaining while exposing human shortcomings, compromises and endless need for confession. --Fionn Meade, Amazon.com
	Band of Brothers (DVD box set) A genuinely epic achievement, the 10-part World War II drama Band of Brothers is a television series that makes big-screen Hollywood war movies look small in comparison. Based on the book by historian Stephen Ambrose, the series follows the US 101st Airborne Division's "Easy" E-Company from initial training through D-Day and across Holland, Belgium, Germany and Austria until the end of the war. Coproduced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the series take its initial inspiration from Saving Private Ryan and borrows that film's visceral visual approach to combat scenes using hand-held camerawork and de-saturated photography. But where Band of Brothers excels is in its scrupulous attention to the realities of military life (retired US Marine Captain Dale Dye , who also co-stars, is the man to credit). After the high drama of the parachute drop on D-Day, Easy's greatest trial comes during the Battle of the Bulge, when they are besieged at Bastogne in the depths of winter. In one of the most harrowing and credible depictions of war ever committed to film we see the men enduring the repeated artillery attacks of the German forces and experience, if only vicariously, some of the sheer terror of the assault, while being humbled by the soldiers' courage and determination. Such feelings are enhanced by the series' masterstroke--bookend interviews with the surviving members of Easy Company, who talk with barely suppressed emotion of the experiences we see recreated. The endorsement of these veterans elevates Band of Brothers beyond any mere "war film"--its extraordinary achievement is that it shows the horror and savagery of war without gloss or jingoism, and yet celebrates the fraternal bonds and dogged heroism of the men who fought. -- Mark Walke

Please note that all orders will be fulfilled by Amazon.co.uk.