tue 29/04/2025

New Music reviews, news & interviews

Album: Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars

Mark Kidel

Following a tradition that reaches back to the The Who’s Tommy, bands and musicians with serious artistic ambition have created rock operas, reaching beyond the thematic explorations pioneered in concept albums a form that transcends the limits of the three minute popular song.   Singer and guitarist Will Toledo, the leader of Car Seat Headrest, is the latest to throw himself into the drama and story-telling that an opera requires.

Music Reissues Weekly: The Hamburg Repertoire

Kieron Tyler

The blurb on the front of the double-CD set The Hamburg Repertoire says it collects “The original recordings of songs performed by The Beatles on stage in Hamburg.” Disc One opens with Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally.” Disc Two ends with Chet Atkins’ version of the “Theme From ‘The Third Man’.”

Album: Dr Robert & Matt Deighton - The...

Thomas H Green

There’s this mod milieu, harking back to the Eighties. Weller at the forefront; Dr Robert and his Blow Monkeys; all righteously hate Thatcher; then...

Album: Self Esteem - A Complicated Woman

Kathryn Reilly

Given that Prioritise Pleasure was Rebecca Lucy Taylor’s (RLT) Back to Black, and that there’s been a lengthy wait for this new...

Album: Jenny Hval - Iris Silver Mist

Katie Colombus

Had I read the contextual blurb about Jenny Hval's latest album first, I might have assumed it was a perfume company collaboration. The album is...

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Album: Billy Idol - Dream Into It

Joe Muggs

Immense charm and uniqueness shine through, but too much leaning into the generic

Album: Viagra Boys - Viagr Aboys

Ibi Keita

Louder, weirder and all the way in

Music Reissues Weekly: 1001 Est Crémazie

Kieron Tyler

Privately pressed Canadian jazz album resurfaces for its 50th anniversary

Album: Maria Somerville - Luster

Kieron Tyler

Irish musical impressionist embraces shoegazing

Album: Ronny Graupe's Szelest - Newfoundland Tristesse

Sebastian Scotney

A deep, subtle and constantly engaging album

Album: Gigspanner Big Band - Turnstone

Tim Cumming

Third album from British folk’s biggest big band

Album: Mark Morton - Without the Pain

Thomas H Green

Second solo album from Lamb of God guitarist lays down hefty southern boogie

Manic Street Preachers, Barrowland, Glasgow review - elder statesmen deliver melody and sing-a-longs

Jonathan Geddes

The trio ran through new songs, obscure oldies and big hits in a career spanning set

Album: Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson - What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow

Liz Thomson

Finger-picking good

Music Reissues Weekly: Motor City Is Burning - A Michigan Anthology 1965-1972

Kieron Tyler

Wide-ranging overview of the US state accommodating Detroit, the ‘rock city’

theartsdesk on Vinyl: Record Store Day Special 2025

Thomas H Green

What Record Store Day exclusives are available this year?

Album: Joe Lovano - Homage

Sebastian Scotney

Free-flowing spontaneity

Album: Bon Iver - SABLE ƒABLE

Mark Kidel

An album of exquisite wonder

Primal Scream, O2 Academy, Birmingham review - from anthems of social justice to songs of heartbreak

Guy Oddy

Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes aren’t ready to join the heritage circuit yet

theartsdesk on Vinyl 89: Wilco, Decius, Hot 8 Brass Band, Henge, Dub Syndicate, Motörhead and more

Thomas H Green

The last-standing and largest regular vinyl record reviews in the world

Tallinn Music Week 2025 review - Estonia’s capital accommodates all flavours of music

Kieron Tyler

The festival where everything appears on an equal footing

Album: Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong

Ibi Keita

A left turn that trades chaos for charm, with mixed results

An Evening with Joan Armatrading, Cadogan Hall review - thoughtful and engaging conversation

Liz Thomson

From rock'n'roll to Open University, the singer on life and work

Kenny Garrett, Ronnie Scott's review - a mixed bag

Mark Kidel

Conjuring the spirit and treading water

Album: Sofia Härdig - Lighthouse of Glass

Kieron Tyler

Swedish singer-songwriter takes control of her music

Music Reissues Weekly: Ibex Band - Stereo Instrumental Music

Kieron Tyler

Ethiopian jazz album from 1976 which resists easy categorisation

Album: The Waterboys - Life, Death and Dennis Hopper

Thomas H Green

An alternately involving then naff tribute to a countercultural film figurehead

Album: Miki Berenyi Trio - Tripla

Tim Cumming

Debut set from Lush singer-songwriter’s new trio

Album: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious

Guy Oddy

Geordie rockers’ pulverising psych metal is guaranteed to rattle windows

Footnote: a brief history of new music in Britain

New music has swung fruitfully between US and UK influences for half a century. The British charts began in 1952, initially populated by crooners and light jazz. American rock'n'roll livened things up, followed by British imitators such as Lonnie Donegan and Cliff Richard. However, it wasn't until The Beatles combined rock'n'roll's energy with folk melodies and Motown sweetness that British pop found a modern identity outside light entertainment. The Rolling Stones, amping up US blues, weren't far behind, with The Who and The Kinks also adding a unique Englishness. In the mid-Sixties the drugs hit - LSD sent pop looking for meaning. Pastoral psychedelia bloomed. Such utopianism couldn't last and prog rock alongside Led Zeppelin's steroid riffing defined the early Seventies. Those who wanted it less blokey turned to glam, from T Rex to androgynous alien David Bowie.

sex_pistolsA sea change arrived with punk and its totemic band, The Sex Pistols, a reaction to pop's blandness and much else. Punk encouraged inventiveness and imagination on the cheap but, while reggae made inroads, the most notable beneficiary was synth pop, The Human League et al. This, when combined with glam styling, produced the New Romantic scene and bands such as Duran Duran sold multi-millions and conquered the US.

By the mid-Eighties, despite U2's rise, the British charts were sterile until acid house/ rave culture kicked the doors down for electronica, launching acts such as the Chemical Brothers. The media, however, latched onto indie bands with big tunes and bigger mouths, notably Oasis and Blur – Britpop was born.

By the millennium, both scenes had fizzled, replaced by level-headed pop-rockers who abhorred ostentation in favour of homogenous emotionality. Coldplay were the biggest. Big news, however, lurked in underground UK hip hop where artists adapted styles such as grime, dubstep and drum & bass into new pop forms, creating breakout stars Dizzee Rascal and, more recently, Tinie Tempah. The Arts Desk's wide-ranging new music critics bring you overnight reviews of every kind of music, from pop to unusual world sounds, daily reviews of new releases and downloads, and unique in-depth interviews with celebrated musicians and DJs, plus the quickest ticket booking links. Our writers include Peter Culshaw, Joe Muggs, Howard Male, Thomas H Green, Graeme Thomson, Kieron Tyler, Russ Coffey, Bruce Dessau, David Cheal & Peter Quinn

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