There were times when this event felt more like a devotional rite than a concert. Thirteen thousand of us had gathered at the Utilita Arena by the canals in Birmingham to be “morally present at the mass”, as James Joyce once put it, in the company of unique and now venerable figure in music. I kept meeting members of the audience who had travelled a very long way just to be there.Stevie Wonder absolutely matches such expectations and delivers: he exudes warmth, bonhomie, grace and serious respect for the musicians around him. He is also still remarkably sprightly for a man of 76, seven years Read more ...

A tray of water, a metallic plate piled with salt, a bubble-producing plastic stick. The kind of tat that looks so cheap you probably wouldn’t trust it with an adult, let alone children. Hardly the standard setup for an average gig, but the scenes unfolding on a simple desk at one end of Manchester’s intimate Anthony Burgess Centre event space is anything but.It’s not a music show in any traditional sense. Instead, we’re watching mysticism expert, author and artist Mark Wagner explain cymatics: the phenomenon of different sonic frequencies producing geometric shapes, or Chladni, in various Read more ...

Last year I was at the convention of the Association of British Choral Directors in York and, at the end of a long day and feeling tired and headachey, I nearly didn’t go to the evening concert, given by the Barnsley Youth Choir. But I’m so glad I did, as I was completely blown away by what I heard: 70 young singers from a neglected northern town singing everything from Tallis to gospel to traditional South African music with a heartwarming passion and skill. I am not generally a lachrymose person, but I was soon in tears.A couple of months ago I heard them sing again, at the Edinburgh Fringe Read more ...

It all began over a decade ago when Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant simultaneously read mathematician Andrew Hodges’ biography of Alan Turing, which is considered the definitive text on his life. Tennant started underlining the mellifluence, and typed it all up while discussing a possible project with Lowe. They started writing and then it occurred to them they should probably mention it to the author, who fortuitously happened to be a fan.Upon its live debut at the Royal Albert Hall in 2014, the eight-movement concept piece was deemed by the Guardian as having too little involvement from Lowe Read more ...

Australian singer Courtney Barnett exists within a rare Venn Diagram intersection. Her lyrics meld poetry and prosaic everyday detail with witty, very human insight. Her music wanders, unvarnished, around 20th century indie-rock. Her vocal phrasing recalls Lou Reed deadpan. Her presentation is unbothered with glitz of any kind. Cheeringly, and most unlikely in our age of Insta-glam superficiality, this amalgam has resulted in a successful, decade-long, international career, four albums’-worth.Thus, Rock City is full. This crowd is partisan and keen. Barnett, clad in a striped tee and wide Read more ...

From 2010, for around five years, Tinie Tempah was one of Britain’s biggest pop stars. He had three chart-toppers, as well as many other hits, and breathed new life into UK rap well beyond grime. Then, about, a decade ago, he vanished from the spotlight, focusing on parenthood and, more lately, dabbling in TV. He now returns with his fourth album and it’s a concept piece, nostalgic for his wild, free clubbing days.He’s said of The Night’s Not Dead that, “We're more connected digitally than ever before, but shared real life experiences feel increasingly rare,” so he wants to celebrate “the Read more ...

“My childhood was small, but I’m going to be big,” sang Grian Chatten on Dogrel in 2019. He wasn’t kidding. Fontaines DC are on one hell of a roll and critics far and wide are lapping it up (the Guardian review has to be read to be believed). None of them are wrong. Dopamine Chamber is an excellent album – the zenith of their career (so far). The journey from those early days has been long and twisting, now giving way to something unexpected – from orchestral ballads to songs with no guitars. Not something that anyone could have imagined back at the snarling start.“Six Shot Morning” sets the Read more ...

Music can be a life-healing catalyst, the untrammelled essence of heart and mind conveyed human and raw from the soul. There’s magic in that. Alternately, there’s singing, “Lost in the valley of the unicorns/On a quest for Aberdeen/Fighting the demons of the netherstorm/Guided by a force unseen,” while bombastic power metal gallops along.This is a branch of metal whose raison d’etre is mythic fantasy imagery combined with triumphalist, orchestra-backed riffage. New York’s Manowar were 1980s progenitors but, since then, bands have gone in many unlikely directions, from Amon Amarth’s “Viking Read more ...

Over the last 30 years or so, the Avalanches have proved themselves to be samplers supreme and masters of the cut-up, producing soulful pop and hip hop tunes aplenty from a snip here and a loop there of already recorded material. They may have only actually released three albums to date, but they’ve all been works of technical genius, if not necessarily ones to stick to the turntable indefinitely.Disc number four, however, marks a sharp stylistic left turn for the Aussie mavericks. In fact, No Bad Memories sounds most of all like it could easily have come from a frenzied collaboration between Read more ...

Danny Wagner (b. 1998) joined Greta Van Fleet in 2013, becoming the drummer for one of rock’s most prominent modern torchbearers. Hailing from Frankenmuth, Michigan, the band broke through with their 2017 double EP From the Fires, earning widespread attention for their revival of classic hard rock and winning the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 2019. Blending blues-driven riffs, soaring vocals and an expansive, theatrical sound, they have since grown from a rising rock act into a Grammy-winning band with a global following.Following their debut album Anthem of the Peaceful Army (2018), Read more ...

Remi Wolf is getting dirty – literally. The album cover depicts her drenched in mud, bits smeared across hair and teeth and skin, but there seems to be an implication, too, of mud as a means of cleansing. The Californian singer-songwriter’s third album itself feels like it’s holding a similar notion, with Wolf taking a more grounded and confessional slant to this album than on previous records: really diving into that dirt.  Mud opens fully submerged, with “Bottle” depicting self-destructive behaviour and desperation: a motif that’s continued through “Champagne” with its startling Read more ...

2023’s Something to Give Each Other is Troye Sivan’s best album. A sweaty dance-pop record that roams through feelings of hedonism, intimacy and desire, honing the skills he had been developing throughout his two prior albums. And of course for any artist, following up a project of this calibre makes the question of where they choose to take their work next more weighty. Unfortunately, She’s the Best, while highly competent, gets stuck retreading concepts already explored by its predecessor. “Canada Dry” is a hot, pulsating track directed towards an attractive guy which does at times Read more ...