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Theartsdesk
Wednesday, 01 October 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
Aleks Sierz
Thursday, 24 April 2025
“They fuck you up your Mum and Dad; they may not mean to, but they do.” These lines from Philip Larkin’s 1975 poem, “This Be the Verse”, sum up the emotional fuel of many recent...
Helen Hawkins
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
It’s easy to see metaphors about the status of modern Georgia, once again threatened by the Russian boot, in its recent artistic output. So while there are no overt political...
Pamela Jahn
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
It doesn't take much to get lost in a film by Miguel Gomes. In fact, it's required. Multiple layers, timelines, and perspectives unfold in his cinema is mysterious ways, allowing...
Joe Muggs
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
There’s always been a goofy charm about Billy Idol. As an implausibly chiselled Adonis shining out from the deliberate ugliness of the original London punk scene, he was a misfit...
Veronica Lee
Tuesday, 22 April 2025
Greg Davies doesn’t spare himself in his new show, Full Fat Legend, his first tour in seven years after having been busy being mean to celebrities on Taskmaster on Channel 4, and...
Boyd Tonkin
Monday, 21 April 2025
In a programme note for the St John Passion at the Barbican, the Academy of Ancient Music’s chief executive called their...
Ibi Keita
Monday, 21 April 2025
Sweden’s most gloriously unhinged export is back, and Viagr Aboys might just be Viagra Boys at their most fun, feral and...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 20 April 2025
It would have been hard to pick up a copy of the album credited to and titled 1001 Est Crémazie in 1975. Just 500 copies...
David Nice
Saturday, 19 April 2025
Never make your mind up too soon about any large-scale work by a genius. Back in 2010, I had my doubts about James MacMillan...
Adam Sweeting
Saturday, 19 April 2025
As well as generating a ceaseless stream of albums, whether live, studio or culled from his copious archives, Neil Young has...
First Person: St John's College choral conductor Christopher Gray on recording 'Lament & Liberation'
Christopher Gray
Saturday, 19 April 2025
When I arrived at St John’s College, Cambridge, in April 2023, it was a daunting prospect to be taking over the reins of a...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 19 April 2025
Thomas Adès: Orchestral Suites London Philharmonic Orchestra/Thomas Adès (LPO)Here are three orchestral suites taken...
Kieron Tyler
Saturday, 19 April 2025
Luster’s fifth track “Halo” has the lyric “mystical creatures… of Éirne,” referencing the Irish river and lough of the same...
Saskia Baron
Friday, 18 April 2025
As if penguins didn’t have enough to fret about with impending tariffs on exporting guano to America, here comes Steve...
Gary Naylor
Friday, 18 April 2025
A single sofa is all we have on stage to attract our eye - the signifier of intimate family evenings, chummy breakfast TV...
Markie Robson-Scott
Friday, 18 April 2025
“I was born with the ability and the demon to write. I have been punished for it constantly.” Written and directed by...
Sebastian Scotney
Friday, 18 April 2025
In this new album, three top-flight musicians based in Berlin, guitarist Ronny Graupe, Lucia Cadotsch (voice) and Kit Downes...
Bernard Hughes
Thursday, 17 April 2025
The name Arthur Bliss always summoned up for me the image of a fuddy-duddy old buffer writing boring music. But as I’ve...
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disc of the day
Album: Billy Idol - Dream Into It
Immense charm and uniqueness shine through, but too much leaning into the generic
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Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
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tv
Your Friends & Neighbors, Apple TV+ review - in every dream home a heartache
Jon Hamm finds his best role since 'Mad Men'
MobLand, Paramount+ review - more guns, goons and gangsters from Guy Ritchie
High-powered cast impersonates the larcenous Harrigan dynasty
This City is Ours, BBC One review - civil war rocks family cocaine racket
Terrific cast powers Stephen Butchard's Liverpool drug-ring saga
film
April review - powerfully acted portrait of a conflicted doctor in eastern Georgia
Dea Kukumbegashvili's second film is stylistically striking and emotionally raw
theartsdesk Q&A: filmmaker Miguel Gomes on his latest exotic opus, 'Grand Tour'
The Portuguese director's comic melodrama takes a fantastical journey through Southeast Asia and the history of cinema
Neil Young: Coastal review - the old campaigner gets back on the trail
Young's first post-Covid tour documented by Daryl Hannah
new music
Album: Billy Idol - Dream Into It
Immense charm and uniqueness shine through, but too much leaning into the generic
Music Reissues Weekly: 1001 Est Crémazie
Privately pressed Canadian jazz album resurfaces for its 50th anniversary
classical
Bach St John Passion, Academy of Ancient Music, Cummings, Barbican review - conscience against conformism
In an age of hate-fuelled pile-ons, Bach's gospel tragedy strikes even deeper
MacMillan St John Passion, Boylan, National Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Hill, NCH Dublin review - flares around a fine Christ
Young Irish baritone pulls focus in blazing performance of a 21st century classic
First Person: St John's College choral conductor Christopher Gray on recording 'Lament & Liberation'
A showcase for contemporary choral works appropriate to this time
opera
Owen Wingrave, RNCM, Manchester review - battle of a pacifist
Orpha Phelan brings on the big guns for Britten’s charge against war
theatre
Personal Values, Hampstead Theatre review - deep grief that's too brief
New play about two sisters, death and hoarding is well written, but feels incomplete
Ghosts, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre - turns out, they do fuck you up
Ten years on, Gary Owen and Rachel O'Riordan top their triumphant Iphigenia in Splott
All the Happy Things, Soho Theatre review - deep feelings, but little drama
New play about a sibling’s death is well imagined and deeply felt, but a bit slender
dance
The Forsythe Programme, English National Ballet review - brains, beauty and bravura
Once again the veteran choreographer and maverick William Forsythe raises ENB's game
Sad Book, Hackney Empire review - What we feel, what we show, and the many ways we deal with sadness
A book about navigating grief feeds into unusual and compelling dance theatre
comedy
Greg Davies, Brighton Dome review - chocolate bars and errant bumholes
Taskmaster's first tour in seven years is a joy
Marcus Brigstocke, Touring review - modern manhood laid bare
Observations on what it is to be a bloke today
Books
Patrick McGilligan: Woody Allen - A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham review - New York stories
Fair-minded Woody Allen biography covers all bases
Howard Amos: Russia Starts Here review - East meets West, via the Pskov region
A journalist looks beyond borders in this searching account of the Russian mind
visual arts
Ed Atkins, Tate Britain review - hiding behind computer generated doppelgängers
Emotions too raw to explore
Echoes: Stone Circles, Community and Heritage, Stonehenge Visitor Centre review - young photographers explore ancient resonances
The ancient monument opens its first exhibition of new photography
latest comments
Corrected, with thanks.
Yep. It's an incredible album.
Hi Robert,If I may make a correction to your...
the review doesn't match the score. you only have...
This rock solid testimony from his other son...
Tripla means Treble in hungarian, Three is Három...
Very illuminating and evocative assessment of an...
The memoir is engaging and perceptive, catching...