mon 28/07/2025

New Music Reviews

Get The Blessing, Rich Mix

Matthew Wright

You would expect a galactically-themed album like Astronautilus to blast off into extra-terrestrial airiness. The fifth album from west-country jazz-rock space cadets Get The Blessing scorched some earth at its launch in Shoreditch last night, yet the battery of horns, bewitching, asymmetric drums and repeating patterns of surging melody felt grounded and earthy.

Read more...

Ride, O2 Academy Brixton

Barney Harsent

Back when this was the plain old Brixton Academy, before Britpop, before New Labour, before the world wide web had weaved its way into our homes, before the war on terror, before the nebulous notion of ‘content’ had yet to ruin everything and devalue everyone, I saw Ride play a gig here. It was ace.

Read more...

Reissue CDs Weekly: Georgie Fame

Kieron Tyler

 

GEORGIE FAME THE WHOLE WORLD’S SHAKINGGeorgie Fame: The Whole World’s Shaking – The Complete Recordings 1963–1966

Read more...

Alan Broadbent & Georgia Mancio Songbook, Watermill, Dorking

Matthew Wright

Fashions in art and music come and go in less time than it takes to read a Buzzfeed list. So there was something uncannily satisfying about star pianist Alan Broadbent’s admission that he’s been working on last night’s collection of entirely new songs for the past 50 years.

Read more...

Sebadoh, Ramsgate Music Hall

Barney Harsent

The three-toed sloth moves at a maximum – that’s maximum – of 10 feet per minute. It’s thought to be the slowest animal in the world. While on a train hugging the north Kent coast however, I reckon I could give it a, figurative, run for its money. I’m on my way to a tiny venue in Ramsgate to see understated US rock band Sebadoh, whose album count is in double figures, on a tour that will see them joining Lemonheads in London for a high-profile gig. Well, at least that’s the plan.

Read more...

Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind, Rainbow, Birmingham

Guy Oddy

“It’s good to be back in fucking Birmingham, but come a bit closer and let’s pretend it’s a rock ‘n’ roll gig,” called frontman Jim Jones from the stage of the Rainbow, before bursting into the swampy blues of “Aldecide”. The audience needed no other invitations and pushed towards the stage to drink up the Righteous Mind’s primal groove.

Read more...

Squeeze & John Cooper Clarke, Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Guy Oddy

Considering that they have never been known for their sartorial elegance, Squeeze are looking pretty smart and stylish these days. Band leaders Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook took to the stage in Birmingham looking especially dapper, with Tilbrook looking like he’d just walked off the set of Miami Vice in his pink suit.

Read more...

Reissue CDs Weekly: The City

Kieron Tyler

 

the city Now That Everything’s Been SaidThe City: Now That Everything’s Been Said

Read more...

The Lemonheads, Institute, Birmingham

Guy Oddy

It has been three years since The Lemonheads, Evan Dando’s slacker kings, last toured the UK and six years since they released Varshons, a covers album. So it was a pleasant surprise when they recently announced a return to these shores to play some shows with no particular product to push, especially given that anyone might imagine that they had since long disappeared.

Read more...

Reissue CDs Weekly: Bert Jansch

Kieron Tyler


Bert Jansch: It Don't Bother meBert Jansch: It Don't Bother Me, Jack Orion / Bert Jansch & John Renbourn: Bert and John

Read more...

Pages

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Inter Alia, National Theatre review - dazzling performance,...

Rosamund Pike is back. For her first stage appearance since 2010, when she played Hedda Gabler in Adrian Noble’s production for Bath Theatre Royal...

The Waterfront, Netflix review - fish, drugs and rock'n...

You wouldn’t really want to belong to the Buckley family, a star-crossed dynasty who run their fishing business out of Havenport,...

Album: Debby Friday - The Starrr of the Queen of Life

Debby Friday is a Nigerian-Canadian singer-producer who found...

The Fantastic Four: First Steps review - innocence regained

Marvel goes back to its origins, gulping the fresh air of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s first hit comic The Fantastic Four in 1961. Ignoring...

Music Reissues Weekly: The Pale Fountains - The Complete Vir...

The Pale Fountains played their first live show on 12 February 1980 as the support to on-the-up fellow...

Giselle, National Ballet of Japan review - return of a class...

A new Giselle? Not quite: the production that ...

Buxton International Festival 2025 review - a lavish offerin...

The Buxton International Festival this year was lavish in its smaller-scale productions in addition to Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet, the...

Eddie Pepitone, Special review - return of the curmudgeon

There aren’t many comics like Eddie Pepitone any more – the veteran comic’s shtick harks to back an earlier age, pre-suitable for TV...