New Music Reviews
Glastonbury Festival 2023: Down to the Paradise CityThursday, 29 June 2023
TUESDAY 27TH JUNE 2023 I wake up around 11.00, get outta bed around 12.00. Read more...
|
Theatre at Glastonbury Festival 2023 - so big and wild a hallucination, you're always left wanting moreThursday, 29 June 2023
And that’s it again for another year. Oh Glastonbury. A fever dream where the time of reality stops as you hop on a ride to a land of magic. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Blossom Dearie - Discover Who I AmSunday, 25 June 2023
Had Blossom Dearie overtly embraced pop, her vocal style could be characterised as along the lines of Priscilla Paris, Jane Birkin or Saint Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell – intimate, a little breathy, oxygenated. However, jazz was her bag and June Christy, Peggy Lee and Norway’s Karin Krog are the closest reference points. Read more... |
Peter Gabriel, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - beaming with optimism and creativitySaturday, 24 June 2023
Even when Peter Gabriel is bleak, he has reasons to be cheerful. Early on in his set he opined that soon enough “none of us will have jobs anymore”, referring to the ongoing rise of artificial intelligence, although this was followed by him stressing the positives that can be found in such new technology. It seemed fitting, because Gabriel himself, now 73, showed on this evening that optimistic possibilities of the future occupy his thoughts as much as ever. Read more... |
Album: Brigid Mae Power - Dream From The Deep WellSaturday, 24 June 2023
The cover versions on Dream From The Deep Well include “I Know Who is Sick,” most familiar from the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Maken interpretation, and “Down by the Glenside,” which The Dubliners incorporated into their repertoire. The first opens the album, the second closes it. Between, amongst the original compositions, there is also an adaptation of Tim Buckley’s “I Must Have Been Blind.” Read more... |
Siouxsie, The Halls, Wolverhampton review - former Banshee brings the house downFriday, 23 June 2023
When the Queen of the Goths comes down from her castle to tour the UK, given that she hasn’t played here at all in the last 10 years, people take notice. Read more... |
The War On Drugs, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - impressive musicianship but a lack of excitementThursday, 22 June 2023
War might be good for absolutely nothing, but it does provide bands with some easy names. Before the War on Drugs headline set, Warpaint took to the stage, and despite a muted reaction to the quartet they were on enjoyable form. They’re unlikely to ever be topping the bill in arenas in their own right, but maybe that’s a good thing, and the funky closing double header of “New Song” and “Disco//Very” whipped by with pace and verve. Read more... |
Pete Fij / Terry Bickers, Worthing Festival 2023 review - lyricism, amusing anecdotes and gorgeous guitar playingTuesday, 20 June 2023
Pete Fij and Terry Bickers are bathed in muted red light. They are sat side-by-side, Fij with an acoustic guitar, Bickers with a vintage 1970s CMI hollow-bodied electric. Behind them, oil wheel lighting gloops and bubbles gently, bespattered with glowing green circles cast by the stationary disco ball hanging high above them. “It’s surprising to see how much life you can fit into the back of a van,” sings Fij, dolefully, then adds, “It only took two trips.” Read more... |
Arctic Monkeys, Arsenal Emirates Stadium review - the masters of indie pop excelMonday, 19 June 2023
“I hope they do Mardy Bum,” a small boy squeaks longingly to his mother. She was probably his age when Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I’m Not came out almost two decades ago. This is very much a multi-generational affair incorporating those of us who were too old to like them when they started, their peers now also in their mid-30s, and lots and lots of kids. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Tribal Rites of the New Saturday NightSunday, 18 June 2023
“It all started with a June 7, 1976 article in New York magazine about Queens, New York working-class young adults who flocked to a local disco in platform shoes and outlandish clothes to perform organized dances. [Bee Gees manager] Stigwood read Tribal Rites of Saturday Night, and immediately bought the rights from the author, seminal rock critic Nik Cohn.” 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
Music Reissues Weekly: Lee 'Scratch' Perry and Fri...
After the March 1969 UK release of the “Return of Django” single, prospective performers of the song could buy it transcribed as sheet music. On...
Prom 62, Mahler's Sixth Symphony, Bavarian RSO, Rattle...
Mahler’s Sixth is one of those apocalyptic megaliths that shouldn’t be approached too often by audiences or conductors. It’s been a constant in...
Ballet Nights #006, Cadogan Hall review - a mixed bag of exc...
It’s exactly a year since Ballet Nights, the self-styled taster platform for ...
Kaos, Netflix review - playing fast and profuse with the Gre...
The ancient Greeks would probably have liked a lot about Charlie Covell‘s manipulation of mythic material. After all, Euripides was prepared to...
The Allergies, Hare & Hounds, Birmingham review - funky...
The Allergies kicked off their Freak the Speaker tour in Birmingham this week. However, the album that they were promoting was nowhere to...
The Silver Cord, Finborough Theatre review - Sophie Ward is...
One of the Finborough Theatre’s Artistic Director, Neil McPherson’s, gifts is an uncanny ability to find long-forgotten...
Album: LL COOL J - THE FORCE
This album only has one serious flaw: LL COOL J didn’t open it with “OK you can call it a comeback”. Sorry, cheap joke (if you didn’t know, his...
Prom 61, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rattle review -...
Hot on the glittering heels of the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle brought another stellar German outfit to the...
Gossip, SWG3, Glasgow review - powerhouse voice provokes onl...
Beth Ditto protests too much. 'Do you feel young" she hollered early on, before adding "I don't", one of several references during the gig...
The Third Man rides again - 75th anniversary of Carol Reed...
It was originally released in Britain 75 years ago this month, making its debut in a small cinema in Hastings on 1 September 1949, and quite a few...