fri 22/08/2025

New Music Reviews

Mélanie De Biasio, QEH review – six years after 'No Deal'

Sebastian Scotney

“Alexa, play Mélanie De Biasio”... and you know exactly where you’re headed. The Charleroi-born singer has created a sound-world, a place which is instantly recognisable.

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Neneh Cherry, Brighton Festival 2019 review – beloved bohemian

Nick Hasted

Neneh Cherry’s matchless bohemian life has perversely secured her pop position. The crowd tonight is maybe three-quarters female, and as unconcerned by a setlist almost wholly drawn from new album Broken Politics as Cherry is by the long lacuna in what you could hardly call a career.

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Peter Perrett, Concorde 2, Brighton review - it’s a family affair for the former Only One

Guy Oddy

It’s been a couple of years since Peter Perrett, the former frontman and creative force behind the much loved but commercially under-performing Only Ones decided that he’d had enough of being a mere legend and got back into the musical ring.

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Manic Street Preachers, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - 20th anniversary tour lets underrated songs shine

Lisa-Marie Ferla

Nothing brings home the difference between sequencing an album and sequencing a live show like going to see a classic album played in its entirety.

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Mariah Carey, Royal Albert Hall review – fervent worshippers in Mariah-heaven

Sebastian Scotney

The sheer scale of the Mariah Carey phenomenon is truly astounding. Since the release of her first album in 1990, she has now clocked up worldwide album sales of over 200 million, and had 18 US Number One singles. Also – and far less frequently mentioned – she is actually third in the list of songwriters with the most chart-topping singles, and sixth in the list of producers.

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The Strokes, All Points East Festival review - let them entertain you

Chris Harvey

Back in 2001, after the release of their debut album This Is It, The Strokes weren’t just the most fashionable band in the world, they were also regarded as the group that could “save rock”. That was asking quite a lot.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Bernard Herrmann

Kieron Tyler

Debates about whether 1964’s Marnie presaged Alfred Hitchcock’s downslide as a force will run and run.

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Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Cardiff Castle review - wonder within castle walls

Owen Richards

Blessed with a red sunset and an adoring crowd, Noel Gallagher brought life to the ruins of Cardiff Castle. With support from fellow 90s alumnus Gaz Coombes, and Wales’s next-gen prodigies Boy Azooga and Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, the evening provided a winning mini-festival affair.

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Spice Girls, Croke Park, Dublin review - uncomplicated fun

Veronica Lee

They’re back and they’re looking and sounding good – and Spice Girls mania took over Dublin’s city centre for several hours before their concert yesterday. Hotels were booked out, every other woman I passed in the street was wearing a Spice Girls T-shirt or hat, and by mid-afternoon the whole city appeared to be moving as one towards Croke Park. 

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The Waterboys, Roundhouse review - energetic delights

Liz Thomson

Was it imagination or did The Waterboys’ audience at London’s Roundhouse, invited to sing along to “The Nearest Thing to Hip”, really sing extra-loud and lustily on the line “in this shithole”?

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