wed 23/04/2025

New Music reviews, news & interviews

Album: Billy Idol - Dream Into It

Joe Muggs

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 among misfits. As a pop star through the ‘80s, he was visibly so spectacularly high almost all the time that he somehow made everything pantomime-ish around him. Latterly he’s been such a perfect encapsulation of the Brit rock star in LA archetype he could quite plausibly be starring in a Spinal Tap spinoff.

Album: Viagra Boys - Viagr Aboys

Ibi Keita

Sweden’s most gloriously unhinged export is back, and Viagr Aboys might just be Viagra Boys at their most fun, feral and fully realised. This album doesn’t try to out-clever the world; it grabs it by the collar, shakes it around, and laughs in its face.

Music Reissues Weekly: 1001 Est Crémazie

Kieron Tyler

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 were pressed. It didn’t...

Album: Maria Somerville - Luster

Kieron Tyler

Luster’s fifth track “Halo” has the lyric “mystical creatures… of Éirne,” referencing the Irish river and lough of the same name – both of which are...

Album: Ronny Graupe's Szelest - Newfoundland...

Sebastian Scotney

In this new album, three top-flight musicians based in Berlin, guitarist Ronny Graupe, Lucia Cadotsch (voice) and Kit Downes (piano) work...

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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

Album: Elton John and Brandi Carlile - Who Believes in Angels?

Liz Thomson

Elton John & Brandi Carlile step out in style

Album: Erlend Apneseth - Song Over Støv

Kieron Tyler

Norwegian musical impressionist’s journey into the centre of a vortex

Music Reissues Weekly: Yeah Man, It's Bloody Heavy

Kieron Tyler

The ne plus ultra of British heavy rock

Album: Bryan Ferry and Amelia Barratt - Loose Talk

Graham Fuller

A match made in urban nightlife and the mysteries of everyday living

Album: Will Smith - Based on a True Story

Ibi Keita

Big Willie’s back - but maybe he should’ve stayed home

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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