SOUND JUDGEMENT
The latest album releases reviewed
RED (TAYLOR’S VERSION) TAYLOR SWIFT HHHHI
When Taylor Swift released Red in 2012 she sent a message to the music industry: no longer was she its country starlet and to re-gain ownership of her music, Swift recently embarked on the re-recording of her first six albums after the master recordings were sold, and Red presents the best opportunity for exploration. Like Fearless (Taylor’s Version), this album is true to the original.
Treasures, however, are found including a 10-minute version of All Too Well – reportedly inspired by Swift’s romance with actor Jake Gyllenhaal – that will delight fans with its telling extra verses.
Swift has elevated what could have just been a re-release to a self-portrait of her younger self, with a dash of something new for good measure.
BETWEEN US LITTLE MIX HHHII
This greatest hits collection embellished by five pieces of new material is a road map of where Little Mix have been, and where they are going. From their creation on The X Factor in 2011, Jade Thirlwall, Perrie Edwards, Leigh-anne Pinnock and the recently departed Jesy Nelson have carved out a public persona defined by songs about female empowerment and cathartic break-ups.
The five new tracks both hit and miss but No and Trash are indicators of the band’s intended direction as a three-piece – more chart-ready electro-pop. Between Us does little to surprise, but is a full stop to this stage of Little Mix’s career.
TIME FLIES LADYHAWKE HHHHI
Welcome back electropop artist Pip Brown with her fourth album as Ladyhawke, and first in five tumultuous years.
Since her 2008 breakthrough with the catchy Paris Is Burning and My Delirium, the New Zealander explored a heavier, guitar-led direction, then breezy pop, and Time Flies returns to her original inspirations.
Opener My Love and synthpop singles Mixed Emotions and Think About You are aimed firmly at the dancefloor, while Walk Away has classic disco tones.
Brown had challenging health issues including post-natal depression and skin cancer treatment, before writing these songs in 2019, and there’s a sense of rebirth and freedom.
This is the best Ladyhawke album since her debut and should see her return to the spotlight she deserves.
THERE’S “somethin’ strange” in your neighbourhood cinema this weekend – a reboot that spookily resurrects the spirit of the original.
Original writer/director Ivan Reitman returns as producer and he and his film-maker son Jason (Juno, Young Adult) bravely ditch the New York setting to introduce a new generation of ghostbusters.
But two key ingredients of the old formula are brought back from the grave – the deadpan humour and the heart.
Mckenna Grace is 12-year-old science buff Phoebe, dragged from New York with her 15-yearold brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) to live in the rundown Oklahoma farmhouse where her ghostbuster grandfather Egon
Spengler (the late Harold Ramis) lived out his last years.
When their struggling single mum Callie (Carrie Coon) sees the state of her inheritance, she is in no mood to reminisce about her father’s 80s heyday.
Fans of the film may feel differently. A bit like Halloween 2018, Afterlife pretends the previous film, the misfiring female-lead redo from five years ago, never happened.
While that film went for self-aware snarkiness, this one is an unashamed nostalgia trip as the curious Phoebe discovers
Egon’s gadgets hidden in the farmhouse and Trevor uncovers a rusty Ecto-1 in the garage. As the reason for Egon’s mysterious move to Oklahoma is revealed, the Reitmans summon up retro spooks rendered in endearingly old-school effects.
The final act is perhaps a little too familiar but Paul Rudd nicely channels Bill Murray’s worldweary delivery as jaded teacher Mr Grooberson and little Logan Kim, as Phoebe’s new sidekick Podcast, delivers his lines with the timing of a seasoned pro. “You can be whatever you want to be,” he shrieks when he learns of Phoebe’s famous grandfather. “A DJ or an influencer!”
Afterlife may trade on nostalgia but, like the original, its real power lies in sharp dialogue and the fizzing chemistry of its leads.
■ In cinemas now