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new music reviews, news & interviews
Liz Thomson |

London was where James Taylor got his big break when, after a rocky, drug-strewn apprenticeship in New York City, he reinvented himself as a solo performer and managed to get a demo tape to Peter Asher, who played it to his pal Paul McCartney. “Something in the Way She Moves” in particular caught the Beatle’s ear: "I just heard his voice and his guitar, and I thought he was great ...

Ibi Keita |

Fans have been waiting for a new Strokes album for six years, and after a few listens, Reality Awaits left me feeling more disappointed than excited. There are moments where the band remind you why they've been one of the most influential rock bands of the last 25 years. The guitars still lock together effortlessly, the rhythm section is as tight as ever, and there are flashes of melodies that stick around long after the album ends. 

Mark Kidel
It’s always a pleasure to meet again with Charles Lloyd, whose sweet and expressive tone first enchanted me as a teenager in 1963, when he graced the…
Kieron Tyler
The key track gives the album its title. “Where the Fades Meet” opens with swelling strings, which are swiftly underpinned by groovy, shuffling,…
Thomas H. Green
I didn’t want to review Shania Twain. My sense of her is of ancient mega-selling hits I can’t stand. I didn’t even go to her Sunday afternoon set at…

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Kieron Tyler
The welcome return of a foundational album of electronic minimalism
Liz Thomson
The Punch Brothers and a new sister: virtuosic
Joe Muggs
Surrealism, social observation and more muscular sound from the Leeds quartet
Kathryn Reilly
A powerful personal outpouring of joy and pain - with a great beat
Jonathan Geddes
The London quartet have taken to playing large venues with ease, as this career-spanning set showed
Ellie Roberts
The Philadelphia punk rockers continue to impress
Kieron Tyler
A partial account of how Brit-punk absorbed an aspect of reggae
Peter Culshaw
The Fez Festival Of World Sacred Music and the Fes Gathering bring the world together
Mark Kidel
Enchanted sounds from a haunted man
Thomas H. Green
Bristol band aren't happy but offer up the occasional sing-along
Guy Oddy
A new album is unveiled and old tunes are played for the last time
Joe Muggs
Decades of psychedelia and wonder packed into a puzzling construction
Guy Oddy
Neo-folk songs that are woozy and atmospheric but thoroughly engaging
Kieron Tyler
First-rate salute to a creative colossus
Guy Oddy
An eardrum damaging evening spent with Birmingham’s Sunn O))) worshippers
Sebastian Scotney
Trio with Gene Calderazzo and Alec Dankworth is a jewel of British jazz
Thomas H. Green
Madonna and Stuart Price concoct a set that's bangin' and occasionally affecting
Joe Muggs
Boundaries not broken, but extraordinary interlocked playing, on the quintet's fourth album
Tim Cumming
The follow-up to comeback album 'Hackney Diamonds' is a raucous, joyful late-period classic
Guy Oddy
US freak-rockers exhume their final album of supreme bizarreness
Thomas H. Green
The hugest regular record reviews in the universe
Thomas H. Green
An entertaining second album full of feminist fun and lethal put-downs
Kieron Tyler
Making the case for wading through a hotchpotch of archive releases

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