New music
Katie Colombus
A lost weekend is time you can't account for: you come out of it changed, unsure quite how. Phoebe Bridgers, it seems, has been living inside one. Six years after Punisher, she returns not with interviews but phone-free pop-up shows for $20, and an album that drifts further out than anything she's done before: sixteen songs about losing her father, ending a relationship and falling headlong in love."The Outside" opens muffled and distorted, Bridgers' delicate voice melting through the static as she watches someone "get carried away", frozen in place but not afraid. It is an introduction to an Read more ...
Liz Thomson
Unlike in Britain, where the bar for entry is more survival than talent, “national treasure” is not a term in such wide currency in America. But Mavis Staples is indeed a National Treasure – rather, an International Treasure – writ large. Younger readers who were mesmerised by Timothy Chalamet playing Bob Dylan and who then asked on social media “what did Joan Baez and Pete Seeger do after A Complete Unknown?” (yes, really) may recall a scene early in that movie where “the unwashed phenomenon” (as Baez would later describe him) plays a hootenanny at Riverside Church. There he meets not Read more ...
Joe Muggs
It’s easy to miss what an interesting artist Carly Simon is. I’ve certainly been guilty of it; bar a few undeniable gems, it felt like her oeuvre was based in a 1970s white rock music retreat from the innovations of the previous decade – a footnote to The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and Elton John’s mega-big building of a new conventionality. It didn’t help that contemporary reviews or cultural commentary tended to mention her almost entirely in gossipy terms about her glamour and social / romantic life – essentially through a prism of her relationship to famous men. As such I ignored her later Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Temple Songs opens with “Arc Still Bends”. The song begins with filigreed acoustic guitar and Laura Veirs singing “the arc still bends towards justice, right?” “So why I am still holding this fucking sign,” she continues. It’s not hard to get where this is coming from. Atmospherically, what’s conjured suggests the glacial shimmer of Linda Perhacs. As the album beds in, a Joni Mitchell-evoking jazziness is apparent. A recurrent cross talk between Veirs’ lead voice and her dubbed-in backing vocals is another Perhacs-like quality. Lyrics are questioning, asking to be accepted at face value Read more ...
Tim Cumming
Tread softly into Jon Batiste’s third volume of his Piano Series, Monk Meditations, drawing on and drawing out a number of introspective solo piano pieces inspired and adapted from Thelonius Monk. It’s one of two Monk-based sets (Monk Movements is its twin) that land on the same day along with a second volume of Black Mozart – August 14. While Movements sees Monk classics, such as the title track of his 1967 album Brilliant Corners, transform into classical piano suites, Batiste’s aim on Meditations is to erase barriers between jazz, blues and classical by embracing a minimalist, ambient New Read more ...
Joe Muggs
On first impressions, London vocal trio FLO’s music can seem very familiar. Their sound has always been that of American R&B rooted heavily in the 00s – before EDM throb and then hazy, narcotic atmospheres started to dominate it – with vocal acrobatics and rich harmonies front and centre. And the lyrics very much have the preoccupations of that era: luxury, self-confidence, a lot of sex, and “popping bottles in the club”. On their second album, though, the closer you listen, the more you realise that there are some extremely interesting things going on the lyrics, which drip with Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Although the sound quality is slightly boxy, the opening track on CBGB’s 1985 is a treat. “Gardens” is on a line between first-album Rain Parade and Unhalfbricking-era Fairport Convention, it’s hard to tell from this live album whether Rochester, New York’s Absolute Grey – grey, not gray – caught the attention of their subdued-seeming Manhattan audience four decades ago while playing NYC’s prime roots-level venue. Now, though, it’s clear “Gardens” is top-drawer folk rock-inclined psychedelia which demands instant attention.When a studio version of “Gardens” – recorded in July 1985 – was Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Comparatively speaking, Rotherham appears in the news more than most British towns of an equivalent size. And much of that news is not good. Much of it is representative of poverty, social disenfranchisement, and the ugly face of flag-waving Britain. But self-released, 2020s grass roots indie rockers The Reytons offer a reminder of working class community power, a band who hark back to the days when the only way out of big city estates was through football and pop.Their last couple of albums (of four, including this one), made it to No.1 and No.2 in the UK album charts, respectively. This Read more ...
Sebastian Scotney
Last night's BBC Prom was a celebration – of 40 years since the release of Paul Simon’s triumphant album Graceland in August 1986. Before long, the celebration had morphed into a dance-along, with the fully populated arena of the Royal Albert Hall bobbing and swaying, spurred into movement by the stylish choreography of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. And by the time we got to the final number in the programme, “You Can Call Me Al”, the dance-along had blossomed further into a joyous sing-along. Like all good celebrations, the reasons why or how it’s actually happening can get lost in the Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
VINYL OF THE MONTHJohn R Miller The Great Unknowing (Rounder)
Image
John R Miller’s youth was spent in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, an area where he imbibed Americana-folk fiddle music and began his career. The fiddles are mostly long gone but the feel of them is retained on The Great Unknowing, his fifth album. Miller combines raw country songwriting with a rough-edged bar-blues guitar twang. His voice is world-weary and his songwriting literate but catchy, dosed up on the blackly humorous cynicism found in the best country music Read more ...
Ibi Keita
There is something quietly reassuring to me about hearing a record that knows exactly what it wants to be. Wales-born duo Overmono's latest release Pure Devotion isn't chasing reinvention or festival-sized maximalism. Instead, it leans into groove, atmosphere and immaculate production, trusting subtlety over spectacle.The opening tracks, "Lockup" and "Knight in Shining Prada", immediately set the tone. Both pulse with an unmistakable French house influence, their filtered loops, buoyant basslines and crisp drums recalling the house party fantasies of Daft Punk. It's a comparison that feels Read more ...
Camp Bestival 2026, Lulworth Castle review - where the daytime magic still outshines everything else
Katie Colombus
A few years ago, Camp Bestival felt like a charming, quietly eccentric affair, fairly small in the best sense, especially set beside the giants of the British festival calendar. Curated as ever by its founder Rob da Bank and held in the grounds of Lulworth Castle on Dorset's Jurassic Coast, it has grown into something that feels much bigger and even more beloved: a multi-award-winning family institution. But the essential character holds. This is a camping festival for extraordinary creative arts by day and a measure of hedonism by night - all done to the absolute highest standard Read more ...