wed 02/04/2025

New Music Reviews

The Sisters of Mercy, Roundhouse review - hits delivered from the darkness

Thomas H Green

While bands such as The Birthday Party, Siouxsie and the Banshees and, especially, Bauhaus had a hand in inventing goth music at the start of the Eighties, it was The Sisters of Mercy who defined it. Their combination of black clad cowboy shtick, mirror shades and dry ice worked a treat.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: The Beatles - Abbey Road

Kieron Tyler

Among the issues integral to the final album The Beatles recorded two, though usually low profile, are worth bearing mind. Abbey Road was their first album to be released in stereo only. There was no mono edition.

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theartsdesk in Hamburg: Reeperbahn Festival 2019 review

Kieron Tyler

Hatari’s 10th placing in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest hasn’t done them any harm. Neither did ruffling the feathers of the European Broadcasting Union and host nation Israel with their stance on Palestine.

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Keane, De La Warr Pavilion review – hometown heartbreak

Nick Hasted

Keane grew up six miles away in Battle, making this night in balmy Bexhill-on-Sea as close as they can practically get to a hometown gig. Prior to their first headline tour in six years, they’re playing new album Cause and Effect in full in an “in-store appearance”, hosted by the Music’s Not Dead record shop within the town’s art deco De La Warr Pavilion, but played in the main auditorium.

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BBC Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park review – Pet Shop Boys, Westlife and Status Quo deliver the hits

Ellie Porter

You might think that being first on the bill with a half-hour slot at 1.15pm would be an affront to a band who’d had a 12-times platinum album and ruled the 90s airwaves, but if they are offended Simply Red aren’t showing it.

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Muse, 02 review - bombastic Brit-rock with a sci-fi theme

Katie Colombus

For a band mostly known as a brilliantly ludicrous cocktail of other’s people’s sound-styles, the Simulation Theory tour is proof that Muse have become musical legends in their own right.

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Pere Ubu, Bush Hall review - terminal Americana

Nick Hasted

Pere Ubu are much like The Fall in their dauntless explication of one man’s vision, and commitment to an individual, primal rock’n’roll, initially called punk, but pushing far past its limits. Where Mark E.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Caravan

Kieron Tyler

Last week in central London, the Covent Garden branch of the book and music chain Fopp was selling CD sets branded as “5 Classic Albums” and “Original Album Series”. Each collected five CDs of the same number of albums. Amongst what could be picked up were collections by Kevin Ayers, Fairport Convention, Steve Hackett and Man. The asking price for each was £10.

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Gazelle Twin, Mirth, Marvel and Maud review - sardonic folk

Katherine Waters

Elizabeth Bernholz, known on stage as Gazelle Twin, comes straight from a line of musical visionaries  rebels and misfits whose influences fleet through her songs like will-o’-the-wisps.

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Edwyn Collins, Concorde 2, Brighton review - enjoyable evening of tight guitar pop

Thomas H Green

In March of this year Edwyn Collins released his ninth studio album, Badbea, his fourth since two life-altering cerebral haemorrhages derailed him in 2005. It’s a vivacious collection that runs the gamut of what guitar pop can be, from acoustic strumming to psychedelic riffing to lo-fi punkin’, all catchy as burrs.

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