sat 17/05/2025

New Music Reviews

Iggy and The Stooges, Royal Festival Hall

Garth Cartwright

Having witnessed Neil Young’s shambolic O2 concert on Monday – Young treating the occasional venture into his back catalogue with listless contempt whilst serving up multiple banalities from his recent albums – I considered skipping seeing more veteran American rockers.

Read more...

The Gloaming, Union Chapel

peter Quinn

While the melodic and rhythmic subtleties of traditional Irish music are best experienced through listening to the solo performer, it's very much through groups that the music has reached a global audience. While some so-called "supergroups" have promised much and delivered very little – being nothing more than a session on stage with no thought for arrangements, pacing or mood – in this much anticipated UK premiere The Gloaming spectacularly fulfilled, and surpassed, all expectations.

Read more...

Reggie Watts/Mac Lethal, Royal Festival Hall

James Williams

The Meltdown Festival has always been a fascinating proposition, getting a living legend in their field to curate their own personal festival line-up, and present all of their idiosyncratic choices to London in the refined and retro-futuristic surroundings of the Royal Festival Hall.

Read more...

Neil Young and Crazy Horse, O2 Arena

Adam Sweeting

"Don't say it's over," wailed Neil Young at the end of "Hey Hey, My My", his raging anthem against the dying of the light which still sounds as bellicose and cantankerous as it did in 1979. And happily it isn't over yet, because on this evidence the 67-year-old Young still looks fighting fit and raring to run round-the-clock heavy metal marathons.

Read more...

Reissue CDs Weekly: Dr. Feelgood, The Three O’Clock, Ane Brun, Ruthann Friedman

Kieron Tyler

 

Dr. Feelgood: Taking No Prisoners (with Gypie 1977-1981)

Read more...

Chelsea Light Moving, Village Underground

Kieron Tyler

“We’re Chelsea Light Moving, we’re from London.” Coming from Thurston Moore during the first UK outing of his post-Sonic Youth combo, that’s amusing. Not only are the rest of the quartet American, Moore himself remains the definition of New York cool. And Chelsea Light Moving sound as American as apple pie with his trademark slash-and-dive guitar and conversational vocals. “It’s Sonic Youth,” declared a voice to my left.

Read more...

Travis, Islington Assembly Halls

Russ Coffey

“The reason we’ve been away so long,” explained Fran Healy halfway through last night’s gig, “is we wanted to take time off to enjoy our kids.” Such non-rock’n’roll sentiments are, of course, the sort of thing you might expect from a band once dubbed the “nicest in the world”.  What I hadn’t anticipated, however, was the amount of fire and passion that would surface during the night. Really.

Read more...

Songlines Encounters Festival

Tim Cumming

This is the third Songlines Encounters festival at Kings Place. Wednesday’s programme featured Balkans, Polish and Georgian music, Thursday had Egyptian Baladi Blues and Louisiana’s Sarah Savoy, and Friday featured West Africa, Spain and Palestine.

Read more...

Reissue CDs Weekly: Burt Bacharach

Kieron Tyler

 

Burt Bacharach The Art of the Songwriter Anyone Who Had a HeartBurt Bacharach: The Art of the Songwriter - Anyone Who Had a Heart

Read more...

The Tiger Lillies, Southbank Centre

Tom Birchenough

The last two years have seen the Tiger Lillies hit a prolific peak of activity, to be found as often on the theatrical as the concert stage, drawing on plenty of influences from outside the UK to boot.

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

Help to give theartsdesk a future!

It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

It followed some...

Songlines Encounters, Kings Place review - West African and...

Songlines Encounters is your round-the-world ticket to great...

The Deep Blue Sea, Theatre Royal Haymarket review - Tamsin G...

The water proves newly inviting in The Deep Blue Sea, Terence Rattigan's mournful 1952 play that some while ago established its status as...

Magic Farm review - numpties from the Nineties

There’s nothing more healthy than dissing your own dad, and filmmaker Amalia Ulman says that her old man was “a Gen X deadbeat edgelord skater”...

The Great Escape Festival 2025, Brighton review - a dip into...

As every social space in Brighton once again transforms into a mire of self-important music biz sorts loudly bellowing about “waterfalling on...

theartsdesk Q&A: Zoë Telford on playing a stressed-out p...

If you compiled a list of favourite TV series from the last couple of decades, you’d find that Zoë Telford has appeared in most of them. The...

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Wigmore Hall review - too big a splash...

It was a daring idea to mark Ravel’s 150th birthday year with a single concert packing in all his works for solo piano. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet knows...

Good One review - a life lesson in the wild with her dad and...

Good One is a generation-and-gender gap drama that mostly unfolds during a weekend hiking and camping trip in the Catskills Forest...

E.1027 - Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea review - dull...

It’s hard to say who is going to enjoy E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea. Admirers of the modernist designer-architect will...