Issue 592

Sigur Rós - Hvarf-Heim

13 Dec 2007

ROCK (EMI) Released to loosely accompany the Icelandic outfit’s superb recent film, Heima, this two-CD album is a revelation. The Hvarf half contains outtakes and rarities from 12 years of full-band studio sessions and is full of the sumptuous epic…

Riverside development gets underway in Glasgow

13 Dec 2007

The first blocks will be put in place for Glasgow’s much anticipated Riverside Museum this month. The new £74m Museum of Transport on the Clyde will be designed by internationally-renowned architect Zaha Hadid to house the city’s transport and…

Review of the year - visual art

13 Dec 2007

In a year that’s brought the best work by Picasso and Warhol to our doors, this has otherwise been a relatively quiet one for Scottish visual art. Everybody got on with what they did best. In the capital the first Edinburgh Art Festival took place under…

Society - DVD review

(18) 99min

13 Dec 2007

Fifteen years after its release (which wasn’t until some years after its making) Brian Yuzna’s unheralded genre film still shows the capacity to both appall and challenge, standing beside John Carpenter’s They Live as one of the most explicit attacks on…

Les Chansons d’Amour - review

Musical/comedy

13 Dec 2007

MUSICAL/ROMANCE LES CHANSONS D’AMOUR (LOVE SONGS) (15) 100min In Les Chansons d’amour Christophe Honoré uses the great French filmmaker Jacques Demy’s 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg as a template, splitting his musical romance into three…

Remote Control: Documentary Reviews

13 Dec 2007

Brian Donaldson uncovers some fine documentaries about daredevils, dancers and daggers There’s a special poignancy about Richard Hammond Meets Evel Knievel (BBC2, Sun 23 Dec, 9pm) now that we know the subject of the show has since died. The Top Gear…

DJ Funk

13 Dec 2007

Following his riotous performance at the Sub Club in June, Numbers, Monox and Kaput! have invited booty bass bampot DJ Funk back to Glasgow to headline their Hogmanay party. For the uninitiated, Numbers has been operating since 2003 under the mantra…

The Wizard of Oz

13 Dec 2007

The Pitch If we aren’t in Kansas, Toto, Edinburgh makes for a pretty convincing substitute. Dorothy (Denise Hoey) moves from twister to twisted into the surreal world of Oz, where that absolute shoeligan the Wicked Witch of the West (Julie Austin) is…

E.S.T. - Live in Hamburg

13 Dec 2007

JAZZ (ACT) This double CD from an ecstatically received set in Hamburg on the Tuesday Wonderland tour in 2006 provides an authentic record of the band on a good night. When they are on song, E.S.T. (the Esbjörn Svensson Trio) are arguably the most…

Rihanna

13 Dec 2007

Girls Aloud know it, Leona Lewis knows it, and even Franz Ferdinand know it – great pop is hard to beat. America’s most recent answer to our successful crop has to be Rihanna, whose infectious ‘Umbrella’ dominated the UK charts and playlists for months…

Extras

13 Dec 2007

For all his faults (and his stand-up and radio work make them plentiful), Ricky Gervais at least knows when a TV comedy should bow out. Having clocked off at The Office with 12 episodes and a Christmas special, he has opted for the same strategy with…

Hogmanay in Glasgow and Edinburgh 2008

13 Dec 2007

Kirstin Innes looks at the options for celebrating Hogmanay in Glasgow this year while Allan Radcliffe discovers the traditional meeting the contemporary in a diverse programme of events for the capital’s Hogmanay.

Hot 100 - 2007's hottest talent

13 Dec 2007

Scottish culture has shone in 2007, and so have Scottish stars. Throughout the year we have been working tirelessly to spot the hottest talent out there. We also invited you to nominate the people, places and events you think have made the greatest…

I'm Not There - interview with Todd Haynes

13 Dec 2007

Todd Haynes is an artist who knows about shedding skins. The director originally came to prominence as part of the New Queer Cinema movement, a group that reacted to the arrival of AIDS by making films that investigated its impact on gay America. Now…

Review of the year - music

13 Dec 2007

The year kicked off in vitriolic style with The Hold Steady at the Cathouse. Now the paunchy book and vinyl nerds have a god to worship. Bow down people, here’s Craig Finn. Similar idolatry occurred at Barrowland for LCD Soundsystem ’s umpteenth show in…

Review of the year - clubs

13 Dec 2007

We can’t look back on 2007 without mentioning two of the biggest (but very different) clubs in Scotland reaching their tenth birthday. Optimo (pictured) have continued to plough their own furrow of weird goodness as Twitch and Wilkes forge ahead with…

Review of the year - songs

13 Dec 2007

The List’s crack team of music critics pick the songs that floated their boat in 2007 Ida Maria ‘Oh My God’ Iggy Pop meets Björk meets Janis Joplin from this feisty Norwegian. The Horrors ‘ Little Victories’ Inspired, bellowing from under the…

It's a Wonderful Life

(U) 130min

13 Dec 2007

You know Christmas has arrived when Frank Capra’s perennial festive season favourite receives its annual reissue. The 1947 classic is one of the most inspirational films of all time, as well as being a fine romance, a terrific comedy and genuine…

The Kite Runner

(12A) 127min

13 Dec 2007

This adaptation of Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini’s popular novel arrives in cinemas trailed by the news that its two young stars have been evacuated out of Afghanistan by the film’s producers, for fear of reprisals from still active Sunni…

Glasvegas - preview

13 Dec 2007

Alan McGee calls these boys and girls: ‘the best Glasgow band since The Jesus and Mary Chain.’ and he should know given his track record. The retrophiles released their debut single ‘Daddy’s Gone’ last month so time for a bit of a celebration at regular…

Review of the year - comedy

13 Dec 2007

Stewart Lee Becoming a father should be a big enough deal in anyone’s year, but British comedy’s bossman also scooped the number 41 slot in Channel 4’s stand-up comic poll. And boy, did he make hay from that, conjuring the Fringe’s comedy highlight in…

Princesses (Princesas)

(18) 113min

13 Dec 2007

Madrid-born and bred filmmaker Fernando León Aranoa confirms himself as Spain’s answer to Ken Loach with this affecting but unsentimental, gritty but humorous drama about a pair of prostitutes eking out a living in the Spanish capital. Just as Aranoa’s…

Stockholm and Reykjavik

13 Dec 2007

Let there be light As the largest metropolis in the biggest of the Nordic countries Stockholm proudly lays claim to be the capital of Scandinavia. Yet, the city – essentially a collection of small islands which collide at the point where the Baltic in…

Comedy DVDs

13 Dec 2007

DVD Marcus Brigstocke: Planet Corduroy The Show The erudite satirist rails against the injustices of the world in London’s Shaw Theatre, analysing how tough it must be to live life as a corduroy-loving middle-class white chap. The Extras A stirring…

Review of the year - TV

13 Dec 2007

The Sopranos David Chase’s cryptic diner finale wasn’t to all tastes, but the doubters were, obviously, just plain wrong. TV won’t ever be the same with Tony’s passing. Life on Mars Seems that some weren’t that keen on how the curtain was brought…