New music
Album: Basia Bulat - Are You In Love?Monday, 23 March 2020
“No Control” feels like an instant pop classic. It opens with a brief introduction where layers of instrumentation are added in waves. There’s a restraint. Then, three-quarters of minute into what initially seems like a reflective mid-tempo ballad,... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: A Slight Disturbance In My MindSunday, 22 March 2020
Two of the 84 tracks on A Slight Disturbance In My Mind: The British Proto-Psychedelic Sounds of 1966 are covers of songs from Revolver. One is a rendering of “Tax Man” (sic) by a band named Loose Ends which was enterprisingly issued as a single on... Read more... |
Album: Little Dragon - New Me, Same UsSaturday, 21 March 2020
Buried lyrical tremors barely disturb Little Dragon’s blissed electronic R&B, on the former Gothenburg schoolmates’ fifth album. Though forming in 1996, they took another decade to really begin a career which has included collaborations with... Read more... |
The Indigo Girls, Facebook Live review - lightening the bluesFriday, 20 March 2020
Like all other performers, the Indigo Girls were forced to make the “heart-breaking decision” to cancel their spring tour. And in that moment, “we knew we wanted to play a free livestream show,” Amy Ray and Emily Saliers said in a statement. “... Read more... |
Album: The Weeknd - After HoursFriday, 20 March 2020
Let’s talk about “Blinding Lights”. What a sleek single, like an escapee from the acclaimed soundtrack to the film Drive, a polished riff on mid-Eighties synth-pop, ripe for 21st century dancefloors, one of the songs of the year so far, all topped... Read more... |
10 Questions for Irina NalisThursday, 19 March 2020
Normally we'd put a descriptor - "cellist", "film maker", "techno producer" for example - in the title of this interview, but for Irina Nalis there isn't space. Like, "10 Questions for psychologist, ministerial adviser, festival founder,... Read more... |
Album: Morrissey - I Am Not a Dog on a ChainThursday, 19 March 2020
The best place to start with Morrissey's new LP is the title track, which begins as a petty dig at the media: "I do not read newspapers/ they are troublemakers", the singer croons indignantly. But then, as the music builds and his anger mounts, Moz... Read more... |
Album: Roger and Brian Eno - Mixing ColoursWednesday, 18 March 2020
Perhaps remarkably, given both their careers as pioneers and inspirations in the world of ambient music, but this is the first duo album from brothers Brian and Roger Eno – although fans will treasure their music as a trio with Daniel Lanois on 1983... Read more... |
theartsdesk Radio Show 27 - direct from Sāo Paulo with guest stars including Chico CésarTuesday, 17 March 2020
The latest edition of Peter Culshaw’s global music radio update was recorded on the road in São Paulo, Brazil, featuring some of the most interesting local musicians a couple of weeks ago – before the virus tsunami hit (Brazil was behind the curve,... Read more... |
Morrissey, Wembley Arena review - reminders of greatnessMonday, 16 March 2020
“I’d like you to know that you can breathe as heavy as you like,” Morrissey declares, somewhat against government advice. “It really doesn’t matter. I can take it!” Like a cross between Elvis Presley and Donald Trump, this great, divisive pop star... Read more... |
Reg Meuross and David Massengill, Green Note, Camden review - master craftsmen at workMonday, 16 March 2020
When all around you is chaos and depression, an afternoon spent listening to acoustic music in a small club is as cleansing and restorative as a warm bath. At Camden’s Green Note on Saturday afternoon, two superlative folk music talents shared the... Read more... |
Album: The Chats - High Risk BehaviourMonday, 16 March 2020
At a time when stepping outside your front door constitutes risky behaviour, the short, sharp, shocking tales of misspent youth from Queensland pop-punk trio The Chats are a proper tonic."Short" might be an understatement, as it goes. The debut... Read more... |
