New music
CD: Corinne Bailey Rae - The Heart Speaks in WhispersSunday, 08 May 2016
Corinne Bailey Rae’s heart may speak in whispers, but it dreams in glorious technicolour. The title of the Leeds-born songwriter’s new album is an echoey chorus line that swims among the layers of its opening track – a song with the bridge of a... Read more... |
Donovan, London PalladiumSaturday, 07 May 2016
"Sunshine came softly through my window today..." How fortuitous that veteran Scottish tunestrel Donovan should have picked London's glorious first day of summer to stage his "Beat Cafe" event at the Palladium. The plan was to rove across his back... Read more... |
CD: Meghan Trainor - Thank YouSaturday, 07 May 2016
When US singer Meghan Trainor broke through a couple of years back with the massive hit “All About That Bass”, it seemed a clear-cut case of a woman’s response to lollipop-headed, bulimic mainstream media images of her sex. No argument, right? But... Read more... |
Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, BarbicanThursday, 05 May 2016
In which two of the biggest beasts of Brazilian music played in tandem (and it was often playful) sparred with each other and revealed despite being rivals, how close they have been and remain. The equivalent might be something like the Sting/Paul... Read more... |
Chris Cornell / Fantastic Negrito, Royal Albert HallThursday, 05 May 2016
Bold programming always deserves credit. Last night’s Royal Albert Hall audience enjoyed an unusually piquant blend, as grunge-rocker turned soloist Chris Cornell on his Higher Truth album tour was paired with upstart bluesman Fantastic Negrito,... Read more... |
CD: Jessy Lanza - Oh NoThursday, 05 May 2016
Canadian singer/producer Jessy Lanza's records – and this one more than ever – can feel like they're mapping an alternative history, one where populist and leftfield electronic music were never separate. Two aspects dominate her sound: her crisp,... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Denmark: Ambition and Attack in Aalborg and AarhusWednesday, 04 May 2016
Denmark is casting a shadow in a way it has not done before. The international success of Copenhagen’s Lukas Graham is unprecedented. While Aqua, The Ravonettes, Efterklang and Trentemøller are amongst the great Danes who have made international... Read more... |
CD: Kel Assouf - TikounenWednesday, 04 May 2016
When the Tuareg band Tinariwen first started to come to prominence a decade or so ago, world music purists tried to lay claim that they were purveyors of what they called "desert blues". The reason being, presumably, that the blues in their... Read more... |
CD: Snarky Puppy – Culcha VulchaMonday, 02 May 2016
Snarky Puppy make music on their own terms. Boundary-straddling is their stock in trade, from their origins between Brooklyn and Texas, their technique comprising complex orchestration and individual improv, an expansive approach to genre that spans... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Move, The YardbirdsSunday, 01 May 2016
The figures are approximate, but the Yardbirds’ first studio album has been issued on CD at least 12 separate times. With The Move, their debut album and its follow-up Shazam have each had a comparatively paltry eight outings on CD. As for vinyl... Read more... |
CD: Gregory Porter - Take Me to the AlleySunday, 01 May 2016
I find myself incredibly conflicted by a musician like Gregory Porter. Is my lack of response to his effortlessly soulful voice (the “liquid spirit”, perhaps, of the 2013 Grammy-award winning album of the same name) a symptom of some sort of... Read more... |
CD: Beyoncé - LemonadeSaturday, 30 April 2016
When life gives you lemons, what do you do? Well, Beyoncé took the fruits of her musical labour, those of the black women before her and those hanging between her husband's thighs, to create something pretty sharp. This is a new sound, a... Read more... |
