sat 02/08/2025

New Music Reviews

Frank Turner, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow review - songs about love, friendship and putting the world to rights

Lisa-Marie Ferla

“When I was a small boy growing up in the south of England,” says Frank Turner - pausing just long enough for the anticipated good-natured jeering from the Scottish crowd - “I dreamed of playing the legendary King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut.”

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Jon Savage's 1965–1968, Modern & Kent Northern Soul

Kieron Tyler

Last month, this column pondered a vinyl-only R.E.M. reissue. Despite the mystifyingly high sales price of original pressings, reissuing a best-of mostly collecting easily available tracks seemed a tad unnecessary. Moreover, it lacked imagination.

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Stevie Wonder, BST Hyde Park review - the Master Blaster steps out

Liz Thomson

Day two of the seventh BST Hyde Park concert series, and despite darkening skies the rain held off until the last hour or so, at which point anything else would have seemed inappropriate – for Stevie Wonder was about to tell us that in September he is to have a kidney transplant.

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Ministry, O2 Institute, Birmingham review – a different 4th July from Uncle Al

Guy Oddy

There can’t be many bands who have been around (on and off) for almost 40 years and who choose to play the whole of their latest album as their live set. That kind of thing is more often reserved for 10- or 20-year anniversary tours. No one could accuse Al Jourgensen and Ministry (or any of his many bands, for that matter) from having ever taken the easy route at any point in their career though.

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Glastonbury Festival 2019: hot as hell and a thousand times as fun

Caspar Gomez

As ever theartsdesk’s Glastonbury report arrives after all other media coverage. Despite management pressure Caspar Gomez refuses earlier deadlines. He told Editorial, “The press tent is like an office, a place of work, full of laptops and coffee. Who needs that?” His annual saga doesn’t attempt to compete with Tweeted micro-reviews or ever-available BBC iPlayer festival highlights.

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Janelle Monae, SSE Wembley Arena review - strong in both sound and sentiment

Katie Colombus

Janelle Monae says her show is all about making memories. She tells the crowd: “I hope that I can become a memory for you that you access when you’re feeling down – a memory that’s rooted in love and freedom.”

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Carrie Underwood, SSE Hydro, Glasgow review - country cliches brought to life

Lisa-Marie Ferla

“We didn’t come all the way from Nashville, Tennessee with just one fiddle,” says Carrie Underwood, halfway through her Glasgow show. The onetime American Idol turned multiple Grammy award-winning country superstar isn’t one for doing things by halves: hers is a show with a big band, big boots, big earrings and her gigantic, arena-filling voice.

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The Killers, Cardiff Castle review - The Man arrives

Owen Richards

With the fabled fields of Glastonbury on the horizon, The Killers chose the equally mythic Cardiff Castle as their practice run.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Jambú e os Míticos Sons da Amazônia

Kieron Tyler

Belém’s population is one-and-a-half million. Located 100km south of Brazil’s north coast on the east bank of the Amazon feeder river Pará, it’s the capital of the state sharing its name with the waterway. The city is only 160km south of the equator, an entry point into the rain forest and closer to Trinidad and Tobago than Brazil’s cultural magnet Rio de Janeiro.

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Joan as Police Woman, Folkestone Quarterhouse review - a living legend excels

Kathryn Reilly

This woman is a phenomenon. I’m not the first to write that and I won’t be the last. Yet the vast majority of the population won’t have heard of her. She’s the muso’s muso (BBC Six Music couldn’t lay any more praise at her door) and maybe the crazy name is a bit off-putting. But why isn’t she recognised as she should be? 

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