new music reviews, news & interviews
Ellie Roberts |
Johnny Franck’s energy is palpable with the latest Bilmuri instalment, his signature comedic country metalcore style is as honed as ever and Kinda Hard really just sounds like it was a lot of fun to make. Even with the genre blending, this album falls very much under the pop punk umbrella, with humour through emotion being at the forefront of its style.
Kieron Tyler |
The opening track is Hoyt Axton’s “Evangelina.” After first appearing on the 1976 album Fearless it was re-recorded and issued as a flop UK single in July 1980. The new version had also been an OK-selling US single in 1980.
Sebastian Scotney
Mountain Call from ECM – it consists of recordings made in Prague in very different contexts and settings between 2003 and 2010 – is a timely…
Jonathan Geddes
There was something incongruous about seeing Basement Jaxx in a venue best known for regularly playing host to the likes of Scotland’s national…
Guy Oddy
About a dacade ago and then again last year, Seattle’s proto-grungers, Melvins and Birmingham’s grindcore originators, Napalm Death hit the road with…
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
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.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
Joe Muggs
The quietly poetic singer-songwriter finds an impressive way to get louder
Thomas H. Green
The last great bastion of regular international vinyl record reviewing
Tim Cumming
Third album from Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and friends is propelled by cosmic as well as worldly themes
Thomas H. Green
With a line-up that includes Exodus and Carcass, a top-notch night of the heaviest metal
Mark Kidel
Leading Kurdish vocalist takes tradition on an adventure
Tom Carr
Gloomy yet brooding and compelling human
Ibi Keita
A well-crafted sound that plays it a little too safe
Jonathan Geddes
Damon Albarn's animated outfit featured dazzling visuals and constant guests
Tom Carr
A meaningful reiteration and next step of their sonic journey
Joe Muggs
While some synth pop queens fade, the Swede seems to burn ever brighter
Sebastian Scotney
Raye’s moment has definitely arrived, and this is an inspirational album
Guy Oddy
Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s solo album is a great success that strays far from the day job
Kieron Tyler
A one-stop showcase for the fabulous
Joe Muggs
The youthful grandaddies of K-pop are as cyborg-slick as ever
Mark Kidel
Risk-taking flights of musical imagination
Katie Colombus
Life after burnout and bad decisions for the Buenos Aires duo
Liz Thomson
Sing out, sisters
Kieron Tyler
Former member of múm musically reclaims herself
Thomas H. Green
In memory of the legendary band's riffing heartbeat for more than 30 years, we revisit this 2013 interview in which he talks Johnny Cash, Hawkwind and, of course, Lemmy
Jonathan Geddes
The trio have recently returned after a hiatus of more than a decade
Guy Oddy
A love letter from Portland’s favourites to the songs and bands that inspire them
Thomas H. Green
Much-talked-about divorce album is better as theatre
Kieron Tyler
First-ever collection dedicated to the musical polymath’s latterly defined golden years
the future of arts journalism
You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!
We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d
And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.
latest in today
We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts…
François Ozon has typically filtered his version of Albert Camus's existential novella The Stranger through his cool, ironic sensibility,…
Stories about slavery tend to be simplistic: white perpetrators are bad, black victims good. One of the more striking features of Winsome…
David Mackenzie’s second superbly marshalled thriller in a year makes an unexploded bomb the backdrop for a London heist and its chaotic…
Sarah Millican is at an age where she is pausing to reflect and in Late Bloomer, her most recent show – shown as a special on Channel 4 and…
Johnny Franck’s energy is palpable with the latest Bilmuri instalment, his signature comedic country metalcore style is as honed as ever…
The opening track is Hoyt Axton’s “Evangelina.” After first appearing on the 1976 album Fearless it was re-recorded and issued as a flop UK…
Time is a terrifying force in Romeo & Juliet, and Robert Icke's headlong production never lets playgoers forget that fact. Returning to…
Just a year after the first series, Your Friends & Neighbours returns to titillate and amuse us with the escapades of the moneyed but…
Science on stage is quite the thing at the moment with a revival of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen opening at Hampstead Theatre next week and…
Most read
Apart from voting, there is only one duty the United Kingdom asks of its residents: if, or less likely when, it comes, to answer the…
Quentin Tarantino’s made a big deal of this being his ninth film, while heralding his retirement after number 10 with the sort of…
Tom Misch’s Full Circle is an easy, pleasant listen, but it tends to drift by without leaving much of a lasting impression. He leans into a…
The baldness of the titles the writer-director Stefan Golaszewski gives his TV series — Him & Her, Mum, Marriage and now Babies — is a…
Bart Layton’s class-conscious pulp fiction gives Chris Hemsworth his most convincing lead role since Thor as Mike Davis, an LA jewel thief…
There’s never been any agreement about translating the participle. Its victory as 1968’s best foreign film is listed on oscars.org as…
When the joyful energy at the final curtain - love briefly triumphant in the power-dominated world of Wagner's Ring - is as insanely high…
If ever there was a piece that epitomised the view that villains are infinitely more fun than heroes, it would be Pierre Choderlos de…
Stories about slavery tend to be simplistic: white perpetrators are bad, black victims good. One of the more striking features of Winsome…
The title doesn’t refer to a void into which detectives disappear, but to Harry Hole, the fictional Norwegian sleuth created by novelist Jo…