Rosanne Cash
She Remembers Everything
Blue Note
Rosanne Cash had a terrific 1980s – wonderful albums, bursting out of the gates, there was country legacy in her sound (she had the name of course but straight away proved she had plenty more besides). But she added aspects of the time, the rockabilly revival and shades of the new wave – just a total class act. Read More
Jumanji: Welcome To The JungleReviewed by Oscar Sweetman (age 7)
Hi guys, it’s me – Oscar. I am seven now, and it’s time for a new review. As promised I’m going to talk about Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle.
On one picture it says 12+ for the age – but that doesn’t mean you have to be 12 to read this review. But if you’ve seen it, it will make more sense. 
I am lucky because when I was like, 6 and a half, Dad let me watch it because my friends who are nearly 12 and had seen the first one wanted to watch it. It was in the adult’s corner of our video store.
So, there are people who get detention and they play a video game and choose their characters. ‘Fridge’ chose ‘Mouse Finbar’, Spencer chose ‘Dr Bravestone’, Martha chose ‘Ruby Roundhouse’, Bethany chose ‘Shelly Oberon’ and it’s funny because Bethany is a woman but Professor Shelly Oberon is played by Jack Black – so it means she turns into a man. 
When they play the game they get sucked right into it – and are living in the game and become their avatars that they chose. And if you lose a tattoo it means you’re in danger, and when you lose all of them you die in the game.
So, Jack Black loses one at the beginning because he gets eaten by a rhino and fell out of the sky.
Ruby Roundhouse is in love with Spencer.
She fights the men – and she is really good at fighting!
Because they need to distract her, and I think they are getting the plane to get the jewel to put it up in the bizarre to go up a level and win the game. When you see the elephant you begin the climb.
There’s a gross bit where Kevin Hart pulls a tooth out of a snake’s mouth and the people who Ruby is fighting are friends with Bobby Cannavale – he is a baddie! There is a violent bit at the end where he wants the jewel. He goes, “Give me the jewel or your friend dies”, and he puts the gun on him, ready to shoot him if he doesn’t give him the jewel. And then he goes, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1” and then Kevin Hart comes out on an animal and calls him a “Zoology B-word”. (The one that rhymes with witch). There’s also the ‘Sh’-word in it. And I don’t mean…”Shhhh”.
The note on the movie-cover is “PG: Violence. Coarse Language. And Sexual References”. Violence means fighting and beating people up. Coarse language means swear words like the ‘B-word’ and the ‘S-word’ and sexual references means k-i-s-s-i-n-g…
There’s another violent bit where Dwayne Johnson calls Kevin Hart a “dumb-ass” and then pushes him off a cliff, and just like Jack Black, he falls 100m out of the school. Kevin Hart says “I could kick the sh… out of you right now”. And then Dwayne Johnson says, “I’d like to see you try”. And then after he falls from the sky he goes, “don’t you call me a dumb-ass and don’t you push me” and then Kevin Hart goes, “Or what, Spencer?” And he says, “Or I’ll push you back”. And then he whacks him in the face but Dwayne Johnson is used to it because he is really good at fighting. And then he pushes him back and he falls on to the back of the cliff and he goes, “Aaaargh, what the hell??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
After Jack Black gets eaten by the rhino they run away from the rhino and see the car, ad then Rhys Darby tell them all about it and says the Bizarre is where they put the jewel to save Jumanji. They climb up to put the jewel at the top and call out its name and look for the missing piece…they think it’s the missing piece of a map but it’s actually a human. And he’s been stuck in the game for 20 years. 
I would give it four and a half stars out of five because at the end when they turn back into humans, after the game, it’s a bit boring. But that’s not the main bit of the story. It’s mostly really great.
So that’s our review, guys. I promised the next review would be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and then Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone and then the pantomime, Puss in Boots and then The Simpsons Movie. I will also review Kiwi Christmas, the New Zealand movie. Then Despicable Me
and then Horrid Henry
Bye guys, I hope you liked this review. Check out the film. I think you’ll really like it. But if you’re less than 12 ask your mother!
You can support Off The Tracks via PressPatron
Ralph Towner
My Foolish Heart
Deutsche Grammophon/ECM
One of my all-time favourite albums by anyone ever is Diary by Ralph Towner. What a beautiful and tranquil thing that is. And I found it because, on a whim, I was desperate for more Ralph Towner because, up to that point, and I guess beyond, one of my favourite Ralph Towner albums was (and is) Anthem – which I discovered in the best possible way when it comes to music: by fluke (glorious fluke). Read More
Greta Van Fleet
Anthem of the Peaceful Army
Republic Records
I’ll acknowledge it right at the top, Pitchfork did a number on this band – they nailed it; got it right in a way the website hasn’t managed in years – and to not acknowledge this and go on to write about this band now would be, well, it’d be like the members of Greta Van Fleet suggesting they weren’t previously aware of anything called… “A Led Zeppelin?”
Read More
St. Vincent
MassEducation
Loma Vista
I rather like St. Vincent’s music – but just recently, I watched her rather amazing performance at Austin City Limits (a highlight, topped only by Sir Paul of Macca) – and commented that it would be nice if she had some songs. That’s where it all falls over. Art as artifice and that’s fine, especially when you’ve got David Byrne on speed-dial, but I want something to hang on to. Read More
The Mountain Goats
Hex of Infinite Binding EP
Merge Records
I guess it should come as no surprise but John Darnielle and his Mountain Goats continue to release great music – and this, since becoming “a real band”. The delicate piano drops and woodwind motifs that hover in and around the opening brace of song on this surprise-release EP might seem a million miles from the scratchy, raw-af cover of Steely Dan’s FM that Darnielle bashed out on a barely-tuned acoustic and recorded on a BoomBox; almost as many miles from the duo shows and albums where bass and guitar pushed and pulled and prodded and poked literate punk songs into shape. Read More
Steel House
Steel House
ArtistShare
Scott Colley (bass), Edward Simon (piano/keys) and Brian Blade (drums) are all master musicians and on their self-titled debut as Steel House they make a set of lithe, loping, languid jazz noises that s are alternately buoyed by Colley’s bass, gliding along under Simon’s strident piano glissandos or pulled into place by the colourful stamp of Blade’s bright, percussive ideas – and sometimes this happens, by turn, all within the same tune (Kingpin). Read More
Steve Gadd, James Carter & The Rodger Fox Big Band
Globe Theatre; Palmerston North
Wednesday, October 17
Rodger Fox has been trying to get Steve Gadd to New Zealand for at least two decades – and finally it happened, he has Gadd in town for a series of shows, the first of which was in Palmerston North. As well as being Gadd’s first visit to New Zealand it was a debut performance from American saxophonist James Carter. Read More
Connan Mockasin
Jassbusters
Kemado Records, Inc./d/b/a/ Mexican Summer
Connan Mockasin’s latest album is so languid as to make Kurt Vile seem like a Gordon Gekko/Patrick Bateman/Jordan Belfort-type. You can almost hear Mockasin washing away anything he’s done before as he paints over the sounds from Caramel – the closest antecedent to this; it’s as if he’s brush-stroking away his relevance to all but the admired close few and he’s so fine with that and so are they. That means he’ll get rave-reviews from the hip sites – and he’ll possibly even deserve them. He’ll certainly force several hands towards heads in a scratching motion. Which might seem the very motivation here. And he’ll be taken apart by some for the tone-deaf pitching of a five-part melodrama (Bostyn ‘n Dobsyn) intentionally filmed in wonky old broadcast-camera video which explores a forbidden love angle, is possibly trans-phobic, is certainly not of the times and is set to make The Room look like it has Peter Jackson-level production values. And he’ll possibly deserve ever jibe and jab he gets for making that nonsense project at almost exactly the worst time possible. And he’ll likely give not one fuck. Read More
Anika Moa
Anika Moa
Diamond & Kowhai Ltd./ Universal
Anika Moa is many things – TV host, kids music specialist, sensitive singer/songwriter, total clown, irreverent and indelicate yet there’s heart and soul in her work; huge heart in her as a person too. And that’s clear in her zest, the relish, and she’s always heart-on-sleeve when she’s making new music. Read More
Once a month or so I have a chat on RNZ on their Afternoons show with Jesse Mulligan. These things start – randomly and stop in much the same way. I hope to keep doing this. For a while at least. I think I started in December of 2015, so now nearly three years into it. Last year I collected up all the RNZ reviews at the end of the year and shared them all as links in one post. This year I thought I’d do them month-by-month for anyone that missed them at the time and wants to hear them while still current. Read More
I Feel Pretty
Directors: Abby Kohn & Marc Silverstein
Wonderland Sound and Vision/STXfilms
When this was released there was talk of Schumer’s shaming – she had the body-image stuff all wrong; was tone-deaf.
That’s probably the least of this film’s worries I would have thought. Well, I can say that, I’m a man. (I am a fat man though if that means anything, other than at tea-time…) Read More