REVIEWS

For nearly two decades, Tracy Chapman has been a truly individual voice on the modern musical landscape, charting and artistic path that owes nothing to trend and fashion, and everything to personal spirit, intelligence, and integrity. An eloquent teller of stories that are at once deeply intimate and yet speak to universal human concerns and a wider social conscience, Chapman has created a body of work that has been as consistently compelling as it is honest and uncompromising.

This album is so smooth and cultured and I think is one of Tracy's best for years. Effortless vocals, calming tunes and poetic lyrics harking back to her debut. 'Talk To You' is my stand-out track of the moment and just how poignant and true is 'America'?

Given that it's largely credited with reinventing Hollywood--or at least fostering its overweening box office expectations--it's hard to imagine that the genesis of George Lucas' sprawling, multi-billion dollar Star Wars franchise was once considered a risky studio proposition at best. Each of the three double-disc collections here contains all of the music written for Star Wars: A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (and even Alfred Newman's introductory "Fox Fanfare"), newly upgraded via Direct Stream Digital remastering that adds stunning new presence and clarity to Williams' rousing, epochal scores.

It takes you through the whole Star Wars films musically which includes the Cantina Band (when Luke and Ben meet Han and Chewie in the bar) and their second number played (CD 1 disk one) but it also includes the other rare Darth Vader March theme(CD2). These tracks were only available from US Sources in CD singles before this stunning collection. If you are planning a Star Wars night or want to use the music for a quiz then I can highly recommend this 3 CD set to you; even if you are just a Star Wars collector then this is for you.

Originally released in 1969, Easy Rider is widely regarded as the original 'road movie'. It reflected the attitudes and longings of an entire generation, and was soon copied by other Hollywood studios. Two motorcyclists (Hopper and Fonda) embark on a coast to coast odyssey in search of the real America, encountering along the way the many faces of its big cities and small towns, a hippie commune, drugs and sex in a New Orleans bawdy house. The film also marks the magnificent performance by Jack Nicholson which brought him to international attention. Easy Rider was the official U.S. entry in the Cannes Film festival in 1969 where it came away with the award for Best Film by a New Director (Hopper).

THE counter culture classic that is now going higher and higher in critics' estimation. Famously reviewed by Leslie Halliwell in one of his indispensable guides as attracting "freakishly large" audiences. He was spot on - it opened up a crack in American cinema through which (albeit briefly) a new generation (Scorsese, Coppola, Demme, Spielberg, De Palma, Bogdanovich et al) scrambled headlong through. The decade of great cinema that followed has been unmatched in modern times. We have a lot to thank Hopper, Fonda and Nicholson for!

Arguably the greatest black comedy ever made, Stanley Kubrick's cold-war classic is the ultimate satire of the nuclear age. Dr. Strangelove is a perfect spoof of political and military insanity, beginning when General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), a maniacal warrior obsessed with "the purity of precious bodily fluids," mounts his singular campaign against Communism by ordering a squadron of B-52 bombers to attack the Soviet Union. The Soviets counter the threat with a so- called "Doomsday Device," and the world hangs in the balance while the U.S. president (Peter Sellers) engages in hilarious hot-line negotiations with his Soviet counterpart.

Some films have a timeless quality intrinsically inherent with the story, allowing for them to maintain a certain amount of relevance, despite the subject matter, or when they were made. This aspect holds true for many of Stanley Kubrick's films, in my opinion, and is true with this film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

With The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoterica culled from 2,000 years of Western history. A murder in the silent after-hours halls of the Louvre museum reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ.

Robert Langdon, Harvard Professor of symbology, receives an urgent late-night call while in Paris: the curator of the Louvre has been murdered. Alongside the body is a series of baffling ciphers. Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, are stunned to find a trail that leads to the works of Da Vinci - and further.

"John" by Cynthia Lennon is the story about who they were before they met, about Cynthia's marriage to the famous Beatle, how John ran off with Yoko, and how she managed after his rejection to resolve things amicably. We see John the person, and not as much of John the musician. History knows most of what happened during John's short life. Few details have been left uncovered. Most of what is known about the former Cynthia Powell is in the shadow of John Lennon. What she does here is shine the light on the John Lennon she knew, revealing John's own shadows and dark side.

I fully recommend "John" by Cynthia Lennon. It may not be the whole, unadulterated truth, but it should help hardcore fans sort through the mass of rumor, hogwash and facts residing about Lennon in popular culture.

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All content on this site is subject to copyright © 2000/2006
If you wish to use anything either text or graphics please ask permission