Stranger Than Paradise レコード& CD

Review: A popular and controversial new TV series, This England, documents the recent history of England's most contemptible prime minister, Boris Johnson, and his Conservative government's reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. Notwithstanding the surreality of so quickly dramatizing a very real and bad collective experience (there are theories out there that say turning real traumatic world events into TV spectacles has the useful effect of placating a public that would otherwise grow revolutionarily angry), we still commend the OST by David Holmes here, which matches the urgency and quick-action of the pandemic as it spread across the country. Holmes' orchestral score aims for three disparate themes ('creeping', 'urgency', and 'careful'), which cause the music to rise in tactful intensity, contrasting to not-so-tactful 'traffic light' system to which the public was subject - but which the government somehow weren't.

Review: Paying tribute to the iconic SEX shop run by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren in the punk heyday, Stranger Than Paradise once again delve into the mythical selections from the store's jukebox for a second compilation. As with the first round, it's Marco Pirroni from Adam & The Ants and Siouxsie & The Banshees making these selections, capturing the sounds heard between 1974 and 1976 by the impressionable young ears who would go on to shape the punk explosion. From The Animals to Max Bigraves, Nico to Burundi Black, this is a unique portal into the build-up to a world-shaking cultural movement.