New Music Reviews
Billie Eilish, O2 review - power, authenticity and deep connectionTuesday, 15 July 2025
Billie Eilish may be one of the biggest names in new music, but here at the O2 Arena, she’s just Billie – the one who stares deep into your soul, smiles at you like she knows your secrets, and shouts “I love you” like she means it. “You are seen, you are safe,” she tells us. We believe her. And judging by the thousands of utterly hysterical fans, heaving and shaking with sobs amidst their singing – mostly clad in jorts, sports vests and ties – the feeling is mutual. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Beggars Arkive - Gary Numan's 1979 John Peel sessionSunday, 13 July 2025
Tubeway Army’s “Are ‘Friends’ Electric” hit the top of the UK single’s chart in the last week of June 1979. It stayed there for four weeks. Its parent album, Replicas, lodged itself in the Top 75 for 31 weeks. In April, just as Replicas was out, Tubeway Army began recording demos for the next album: the band which had been assembled for the task debuted on BBC2’s The Old Grey Whistle Test on 22 May. Read more... |
The Estonian Song and Dance Celebration 2025 review - the mass expression of freedomThursday, 10 July 2025
The branch of the fast-food chain Hesburger in downtown Tallinn shopping centre Solaris is busy. Nothing unusual as it’s located by the entrance to a multi-screen cinema. Double cheeseburgers and fries are going over the counter. Less typically, two-thirds of the people here are wearing traditional Estonian clothing. Men and boys with knee britches. Woman and girls in embroidered outfits with hats. Read more... |
Album: Gwenno - UtopiaWednesday, 09 July 2025
Stylistically, Utopia wears multiple faces. Opening cut “London 1757” drifts by like a twig floating upon an unhurried stream. Next, “Dancing on Volcanoes” swings, employs a staccato guitar and suggests a late-Sunday afternoon dance floor. The kind of scene embraced by a post-comedown crowd. Further in, “Ghost of You” has a soul ballad edge; Randy Crawford were her background in Broadcast-inclined, indie-experimenta. Read more... |
Sabrina Carpenter, Hyde Park BST review - a sexy, sparkly, summer phenomenonMonday, 07 July 2025
Has Sabrina Carpenter officially conquered London? A year after bestie and fellow Disney alumni Taylor Swift declared the “Summer of Sabrina” stateside, the army of fans clad in pink cowboy hats, bloomers and kiss transfers streaming into Hyde Park would seem to suggest so. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Motörhead - The Manticore TapesSunday, 06 July 2025
Manticore was owned by Emerson, Lake and Palmer and their manager. The organisation provided the name for the band’s label. Apart from ELP and its individual members, the best-known signees to the imprint were Italian prog-rockers PFM and former King Crimson member Pete Sinfield. Despite this new album’s title, Motörhead were not with Manticore. Read more... |
Glastonbury Festival 2025: Five Somerset summer days of music, controversy and beautiful mayhemFriday, 04 July 2025
MONDAY 30th JUNE 2025 “I think you’d better drive,” says Finetime, his face sallow, skull-sockets underscored by dark brown rings. He looks peaky. “Why?” I enquire. Sweat nodules down my face, my body, everywhere. So saline-intense it leaves powdery white steaks. “My eyes,” he replies, “They’re wobbling about.” Read more... |
Album: Brìghde Chaimbeul - SunwiseMonday, 30 June 2025
The first five-and-a-half minutes of Sunwise’s opening track “Dùsgadh / Waking" are taken up by a drone. Played on the Scottish small pipes – a form of bagpipes – this is in due course supplemented by a series of individual notes played in clusters. What’s heard symbolises the arrival of winter and the activities of Cailleach Bheurr who, in Celtic folklore, wanders moors and summons the elements to conceal any greenery, so winter’s blanket is absolute. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Rupert’s People - Dream In My MindSunday, 29 June 2025
Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” was an instant phenomenon. Recorded in April 1967 and issued as a single on 12 May after pre-release play on pirate station Radio London, it topped the UK charts four weeks later. Globally, it hit big on most pop markets and was integral to launching the classical music/pop hybrid which evolved into prog rock. Read more... |
Brad Mehldau Trio, St George's Bristol review - exquisite intelligenceWednesday, 25 June 2025
There's something luminous about the Brad Mehldau Trio. The music they create with such joy shines with a special clarity, in which ever-changing forms constantly reveal lines of shared thought, explicitly, yet purveying an abiding sense of wonder. Intellect – and there is plenty of that – is matched here with the fire of inspiration and the thrill of constant surprise. Read more... |
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