Reviews

50 Cent – Get Rich Or Die Tryin’

Former boxer 50 Cent already has a bloody history, having been stabbed in his studio in 2000 and shortly afterwards shot nine times while sitting in a parked car. There's no sense of community on this unapologetic throwback to straight-assed songs about guns, girls and drugs which has already sold nearly a million copies in America. Musically, the standout is the Dr Dre-produced "In Da Club," which, with its grim, joyless concentration on pleasure echoed by the death knell of its orchestral sample, could be the converse of Nelly's anthemic "Hot In Herre". His macho

The Divine Brown – How The Divine Brown Saved Rock’n’Roll

Noisy rock from south London foursome named after Hugh Grant's BJ buddy

The Beach Boys – Live At Knebworth 1980

46,000 surf fans gather in the grounds of a stately pile and have fun, fun, fun

Various Artists – Down At The Crossroads:The Robert Johnson Connection

Boxed three-disc set exploring the historical context surrounding the '30s country-blues guitarist

Evelyn

Inferior rival to Peter Mullan's The Magdalene Sisters

Rock’n’Roll Suicide

Watch Mr Bowie's greatest creation take his curtain call

Kurt & Courtney

Nick Broomfield's documentaries are as much farcical as investigative, with the director affecting the role of bumbling, plummy-voiced faux-naif, Kurt & Courtney (1998) was no exception. He looks hilariously out of place trailing around grungey Seattle, politely interrogating a series of eccentrics, conspiracy theorists and whacked-out dopers. He examines the possibility that Courtney murdered her husband, but witnesses prove so unreliable he drops the charge.

Sci-Fi – Fantasy Roundup

Psychiatric patient Prot (Kevin Spacey) seems remarkably sane, except for his assertion that he's really an alien visitor from a distant planet named K-Pax. It's Starman meets One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (in a nicely ironic piece of casting, Jeff Bridges plays the psychiatrist determined to discover Prot's real identity), and works nicely even if it does err on the side of sentimentality.

Bent – The Everlasting Blink

Now wealthy enough to not fall foul of record company lawyers (unpaid for Nana Mouskouri samples resulted in tracks being pulled from their 2000 debut Programmed To Love), The Everlasting Blink features a series of inspired if somewhat bizarre guest stars.

The Minus 5 – Down With Wilco

Tweedy & co prove handy recruits to the R.E.M. spin-off
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