sat 02/11/2024

New Music reviews, news & interviews

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Theartsdesk

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 team of arts and culture writers went ahead with an ambitious plan – to launch a dedicated internet site devoted to coverage of the UK arts scene.

Album: Willie Nelson - Last Leaf on the Tree

Tim Cumming

Well, seems like only yesterday when I reviewed Willie Nelson’s last album, Borderline, an excellent set from the man’s ninth decade, and now here comes Last Leaf on the Tree, a consummate set that’s at a higher level.

Album: The Cure - Songs of a Lost World

Joe Muggs

Could melancholia be an elixir of creative youth? Or is it that sad people were never really that youthful, so age suits them? Certainly it seems...

Album: Peter Perrett - The Cleansing

Guy Oddy

That Peter Perrett is still alive after the decades of bad habits that he inflicted on himself must be something of a surprise to those who’ve...

Book Extract: Where Songs Come From - The Lyrics...

Jim Bob

For a few months a couple of years ago, when you googled the name Jim Bob, although you’d get a lot of information about me, Jim Bob, the lead singer...

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Album: Pixies - The Night The Zombies Came

Ellie Roberts

Quirky indie with a Halloween twist from legends of the genre Pixies

Music Reissues Weekly: Gerry and the Pacemakers - I Like It! Anthology 1963-1966

Kieron Tyler

How the key Merseybeat hitmakers were left behind as pop moved on

Album: Halsey - The Great Impersonator

Thomas H Green

The US star muses on mortality via channelling her musical heroines

Album: Underworld - Strawberry Hotel

Mark Kidel

Contagiously joyous rollercoaster from Smith and Hyde

Album: Bastille - &

Thomas H Green

Dan Smith attempts to pare back to less bombast but doesn't always succeed

Isabel LaRosa, Saint Luke's and the Winged Ox, Glasgow review - TikTok pop and a school disco atmosphere

Jonathan Geddes

The up-and-coming pop star was lively but one-dimensional

Album: Amyl and the Sniffers - Cartoon Darkness

Guy Oddy

Australian pub rockers are a riot

Since Yesterday review - championing a neglected female music scene

India Lewis

A chronological journey through the unjustly underrated world of Scotland's women bands

Album: Tess Parks - Pomegranate

Kieron Tyler

With the Brian Jonestown Massacre association concluded, psychedelic auteur reintegrates with the wider world

Music Reissues Weekly: Rain - Tomorrow Never Comes: The NYC Sessions 1967-1968

Kieron Tyler

The final chapter in the story of Merseybeat pioneers The Undertakers

Public Service Broadcasting, Barrowland, Glasgow review - history given euphoric life

Jonathan Geddes

From Ameila Earhart to the space race, the quartet were as creative as ever

Album: Laura Marling - Patterns in Repeat

Katie Colombus

An intimate ode to the miracle of life

Album: Kylie Minogue - Tension II

Joe Muggs

Kylie's relentless energy never fails to impress but are we hearing the law of diminishing returns in action?

Album: Elephant9 with Terje Rypdal - Catching Fire

Kieron Tyler

Thrilling union of prodigious Norwegians

Album: Mystery Tiime - Maudlin Tales of Grief and Love

Joe Muggs

Cold, crisp, bleak reality in a sad set of post-punk sketches

theartsdesk on Vinyl 86: Molly Tuttle, Depeche Mode, Pharoah Sanders, Seefeel, Hinds, Sofi Tukker and more

Thomas H Green

Britain's premier vinyl record reviews

Album: MC5 - Heavy Lifting

Guy Oddy

Partial final reformation by proto-punk greats is a mixed bag

Music Reissues Weekly: Arvo Pärt - Tabula Rasa

Kieron Tyler

A foundational album returns

Album: Justin Adams & Mauro Durante - Sweet Release

Tim Cumming

The duo’s second set cooks on a recipe of Italian Pizzica, rock, blues and Fairuz

Album: Immanuel Wilkins - Blues Blood

Sebastian Scotney

When adventurous programming goes wrong

Album: The Offspring - Supercharged

Ellie Roberts

Another successful Pop Punk celebration

Album: Ded Hyatt - Glossy

Joe Muggs

A genuinely boggling record mangles a world's worth of pop and avant-garde influences into... something

Songs We Carry, Ana Silvera and Saied Silbak, Kings Place review - harmony between Arab and Jew

Mark Kidel

Witnesses to the possibility of reconciliation and love

Album: Permafrost - The Light Coming Through

Kieron Tyler

A chill wind blows in from Norway

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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