New music
Guy Oddy
It’s not too much of a stretch to suggest that Tori Amos might inhabit a music genre populated by one artist. That doesn’t make her tunes indescribable though. There’s the mezzo-soprano vocal range backed by neo-classical piano, a bit of a jazzy groove and a light sprinkling of Kate Bush vibes. However, once Amos’ music has been experienced, any and all of her songs are instantly recognisable as coming from her canon, no matter whether they’ve been heard before or not.This has built Tori Amos a significant international following and the auditorium of Birmingham’s Symphony Hall was all but Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The pairing of Chemical Brother Tom Rowlands and Norwegian pop star Aurora sounds interesting but not, on paper, like the formula for something extraordinary. Tomora’s debut album kicks such presumptions to the kerbside. It feels like a project they both urgently need, a vital escape from their “day jobs” which they dive into with effervescent giddiness, whether embracing the android-ethereal or the thunderously bangin’.The Chemical Brothers’ last two albums have showcased a unit who, three decades into their ravey career, are still alive to the possibilities of electronic music, to pushing Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Evil Grave were from Malta. They were a going concern between December 1971 and around May 1977. Despite their longevity, they released no records. However, there were ad hoc recording sessions: at the studio of the island nation’s TV company Rediffusion in March 1973 and, at a home studio, in either April or May 1977. These provide what’s heard on the extraordinary Death From Malta.The band’s name drew from the Black Sabbath songs “Evil Woman” and “Children of the Grave.” To an extent, this points to where Evil Grave – at least on the evidence of Death From Malta – were coming from. “Optica Read more ...
Carsie Blanton & the Burning Hell, Hare & Hounds, Birmingham review - a fine revolutionary singalong
Guy Oddy
In these times of genocide, illegal invasions and a class war which the ultra-rich are emphatically winning, we clearly need a woman to point out the nonsense that we have just come to accept as the way things are meant to be. That woman is Carsie Blanton.Powered by revolutionary optimism, a guitar and a group of like-minded friends, she has plenty to say about the world – but does so with a sense of hope for the future and a wry smile. Folk, jazz, blues and ragtime songs such as “Rich People”, “Elon Musk” and “Ugly Nasty Commie Bitch” are funny but serious, hip-swinging but thoughtful and Read more ...
Tim Cumming
This is, surprisingly, Judie Tzuke’s 24th album since her 1979 debut with Welcome to the Cruise. After early stints with Elton John’s Rocket Records and later Chrysalis, Polydor, Columbia, then her own Big Moon label, it follows on from 2023’s Jude the Unsinkable which emerged out of the Covid years and her own confrontation with cancer. She’s had just the one chart entry in all those years, at No 16 in the UK charts for “Stay with me Til Dawn”, but anyone who heard that way back then, or saw her on Top of the Pops, or heard it in the decades later, tend to not forget that moment. Read more ...
Liz Thomson
It’s fifteen years since Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan, two boys from Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, let slip their debut album. “Released” is not the right word, for Prologue (2011) was posted quietly online as a free download, the link sent to friends. Fame and fortune weren’t the goal – it was another f-word: folk, in a pure sense. Simple, quietly affecting music-making with authenticity and honesty at its heart. “We were very conscious back then of trying to make our two voices sound like one thing,” Ryan recalls. “And we wanted our guitars to sound like one instrument too.” The San Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Record Store Day 2025 is this Saturday! At theartsdesk on Vinyl we’ve been playing through exclusive RSD goodies. Check the reviews. Then check head to your local record shop! See you amongst it. I apologise for the lack of current pop, particularly female pop singers, both established and rising. I spent time chasing such material but none arrived. Our RSD Special, then, lacks this tasty sliver of seasoning, but is still extremely tasty. That aside, DIVE IN!THEARTSDESK ON VINYL’S CHOICEST CUT OF RECORD STORE DAY APRIL 2026Robert Plant with Suzi Dian Saving Grace: All That Glitters Read more ...
Guy Oddy
It’s ten years since Tiga’s last solo album, the slightly tepid No Fantasy Required was released. So, it is something of a relief to discover that the Canadian DJ, producer, remixer and label head has taken a somewhat more direct route with his new disc, Hotlife.In Tiga’s 2026, harsh and sleazy electro-clash tunes rub up against more minimalist techno-punk workouts in an album that reaches backwards as much as it pushes forward. So, while there are collaborations with contemporary fellow travellers like Boys Noize, Fcukers and Maara, there’s also a hypnotic reworking of INXS’ 1987 megahit “ Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Blues? Maybe, in atmospheric terms. But not in the 12-bar, blues-rock or Delta blues sense. Or most other senses. The album title is a play on Miles Davis’ end-of-Sixties LP Bitches Brew which, at that point, was his most overt nod to the dynamics of rock music. Nonetheless, Bitches Blues doesn’t obviously use the 1969 set as a point from which to jump. But the reference sets up the first studio album from Hedvig Mollestad Weejuns – the latter word a slang reference to the trio’s Norwegian identity – as non-conformist, carving-out their own musical character; albeit just within the limits of Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Superbloom is the third chapter in Jessie Ware’s transformation, over the last six years, into a self-proclaimed and full-blown disco diva. How does it differ from 2020’s What’s Your Pleasure? and 2023’s That! Feels Good!? Arguably, it leans further into Seventies stylings, as opposed to the more electronically updated direction of its predecessors. It is also juicy with sex and fleshy queer nightclub shenanigans.Ware is a hugely successful podcaster (Table Manners, with her mum) so she probably doesn’t need to make music anymore. This has clearly freed up her approach and she sounds like she Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“Do You Believe in Magic.” “You Didn't Have to be so Nice”. “Daydream.” “Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind?” “Summer in the City.” “Rain on the Roof.” “Nashville Cats.”The first seven singles by The Lovin’ Spoonful are all great, really great, and all were hits. Top Ten in the band’s US home. International hits too. Arriving in a torrent over July 1965 to November 1966, they help define Steve Boone, Joe Butler, John Sebastian, and Zal Yanovsky as integral to America’s riposte to the Beatles-kindled British Invasion of the US charts. The Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man” had been released in Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Lincolnshire singer Holly Humberstone, now London-based, was awarded the Brit for Rising Star in 2022. A UK Top 5 album followed, Paint My Bedroom Black. But her second album, Cruel World, will showcase what long-term following she’s developed, via her support slots with Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Sam Fender. Well, things don’t go anywhere too unexpected but, by the same token, she knows her way around a honeyed hook.Humberstone is, at her best, a fine lyricist, telling stories, usually of angsty, youthful love, longing and break-up, with an evocative literate snappiness. “I think I Read more ...