New music
Guy Oddy
Despite playing together for almost 25 years, Rodrigo y Gabriela are still taking chances in the live arena and refusing to take the easy path. They certainly didn’t put on a heritage act set in Birmingham this weekend.The Mexican guitarists’ show comprised wholly of tracks taken from their recent In Between Thoughts… A New World album and a handful of unrecorded tunes that have been composed since recording this disc. So, there was no “Diablo Rojo” and none of their flamenco nuevo-tinged covers of “Creep”, “Stairway to Heaven” or even their magnificent take on Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”, not that Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Simon Le Bon has described Duran Duran’s new album as being “about a crazy Halloween party” that is “supposed to be fun”. In fact, it’s a fair bit thinner than even that might suggest.Danse Macabre consists of mainly inadvisable cover versions of tunes by the likes of the Specials and Billie Eilish, a handful of reinterpretations of some of their old album tracks and three uninspiring new songs, written especially for this project. So, anyone expecting a reworked film soundtrack to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre might be advised to lower their expectations to something closer to an alternative Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Marilou lies on the ground. She’s been bludgeoned to death by a fire extinguisher. Its foam covers her body. Her murderer is a forty-something man who has become obsessed with her. She shampoos hair in a barbers, where he first comes across her. Their affair turns sour after he finds her in bed with two other men. After the murder, her killer ends up in a mental hospital.This depraved, sordid story is told on a song-by-song basis by its provocative creator Serge Gainsbourg on his 1976 album L'Homme à tête de chou. The narrative of the album whose title translates as “the man with the cabbage Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The three previous albums that Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark have released since reforming in 2010 have all, to varying degrees, adhered to their early sound. The band were part of the post-punk, post-Kraftwerk, 1979-82 synth-pop boom, alongside the likes of The Human League, Depeche Mode and Gary Numan.Those three albums, History of Modern, English Electric and The Punishment of Luxury, were all deep dipped in the sonics of that era. This time round, though, OMD’s sound often moves towards their mid-Eighties output; a less universally loved era.They sound also like they’re having fun. Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Patterns is a small, low-ceilinged, underground, seafront venue. Tonight it would be a feast for any passing ancient succubae who happens to feed on raw human energy. From 7.00 PM until 10.00 PM, the room plays host to a package tour of three rising bands. Their short, vim-filled sets are hard-wired to a thrilling, relentless punk intensity.First up is Brighton four-piece Monakis (pictured left), fronted by bare-topped tattooed, bass-playing James Porter, who has a touch of Bon Scott about him. The band have just driven down from Glasgow, he tells us, and are glad to be home. They ramraid Read more ...
Harry Thorfinn-George
In 2011 the BBC aired Wonders of the Universe, a documentary presented by physicist Brian Cox about the origins of the universe divided into four parts: “Destiny”, “Stardust”, “Falling” and “Messengers”. These episodes could easily have been titles of songs on Sampha’s remarkable new album, Lahai, which is similarly concerned with the cosmos – but in a deeply personal way.Since emerging from London’s left-field indie electronic scene in the 2010s, Sampha has become a sought-after collaborator. It’s as if his emotionally baring lyrics and bruised falsetto grants access to buried emotions for Read more ...
Jonathan Geddes
When Maisie Peters first appeared onstage she loudly asked if the crowd were ready for “the best night of their lives”, and given the youthful nature of the audience the ensuing 80 minutes might have lived up to the hype. There were screams, hysteria and, in one case, an emotional lass getting on her phone to tell her significant other that hearing break-up songs brought home how much they appreciated them.There were a lot of those songs, in fairness. When Peters observed that she was seeking to provide music from different eras of her life it was easy to raise an eyebrow, given she’s still Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Well, this is lovely. Pearlies opens with “I Was Miles Away”, a puffball of a sonic cloud which marries twinkling electronica with guitar-led shoegazing. It has a familial resemblance with the sort of thing perfected by Sweden’s I Break Horses, but lacks the frostiness. Here, there is a glow akin to that of a fire’s embers. Next, the vaguely bossa nova-ish and similarly exquisite “Bend the Round”.Emma Anderson was one-half of the front-line of Lush and her contemplative yet instant first solo album is brim-full of such gems. Take, at random, “Xanthe” with its giallo soundtrack undertone. What Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Exactly 40 years since Madonna’s first UK hit, “Holiday”, was skittering about the Top Five, she launches her global Celebration Tour at the O2.It is spectacle on the very grandest scale. In the latter half, following a video montage of tabloid controversies that pursued her career, and, to some extent, made it, a banner headline flashes “Age is a sin”. Madonna responds, “The most controversial thing I’ve ever done is to stick around.” The most successful female artist of all time is here to refute the sniping.The show is biographical concept album as dance theatre. It begins, as Madonna did Read more ...
Tim Cumming
It’s been a while since Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood sat down together at the Hackney Empire to introduce their first album of new songs in 18 years, and their single, “Angry”, is now approaching 20 million views on YouTube.The album is released this Friday, and a raft of four- and five-star reviews are already in: after a week of listening to a record company stream, they are on the money. Hackney Diamonds is 45 concentrated minutes of peak-level Rolling Stones, a bravura performance benefiting from the level of focus and detail the band, under the producer’s baton of Andrew Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Initially, it doesn’t sound so unusual. The collection’s first song is titled “Never Understand.” Sung in English, it’s poppy reggae with a light feel, twinkling keyboard lines and a lengthy, rock-oriented guitar solo. The singer appears to be a fan of Bob Marley. Originally, it was the last track on Side One of Hesnawi and Peace, the 1980, Italy-recorded debut album by Ibrahim Hesnawi.Next up, “Tendme.” While cut from the same cloth musically, the voice is different – keening, less smooth. This time, the language is unfamiliar. The lyrics are in Libyan Arabic. Ibrahim Hesnawi (Ibrahim al- Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
When ABBA split in 1982, Agnetha Fältskog went on to a solo career that was mostly overshadowed by the titanic popularity of her former band. By the 21st century ABBA’s status in pop, especially with the Mamma Mia phenomenon, had become iconic.They were as big as it’s possible to be, now cemented by the continuing success of the holographic Voyage show in London. Fältskog also finally achieved widescale solo recognition and Top 10 chart placings across the world with 2004’s My Colouring Book, an album of covers, and its successor, 2013’s A. Her new album, A+ is a reimagining of the latter Read more ...