New music
Album: The Kooks - 10 Tracks to Echo in the DarkWednesday, 27 July 2022
From Brighton to Berlin with the Brit School alums, who formed 20 years ago – allegedly out shopping in Primark. Virgin signed them three months later. What started as “a joke” has endured through five albums – and here comes their sixth, 10 Tracks... Read more... |
Album: Jamie T - The Theory of WhateverMonday, 25 July 2022
When Jamie T first appeared in the early noughties, he was trumpeted by some who should have known better as the musical heir to Joe Strummer, while actually sounding more like a Kate Nash acolyte. Six years since his last album, The Theory of... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Beatles - Get BackSunday, 24 July 2022
“At all times, the film-makers have attempted to present an accurate portrait of the events depicted and the people involved.” The on-screen statement beginning each of Get Back's three parts acknowledges that definitions of accuracy can depend... Read more... |
Album: Ben Harper - Bloodline MaintenanceSaturday, 23 July 2022
Throughout the 1990s and the first decade of this century, Ben Harper achieved global stardom, although the UK was a territory where he never achieved lift-off. By contrast, in the US, Australia and much of Europe, he’s regarded as a heavyweight (he... Read more... |
Album: Kathryn Williams - Night DrivesFriday, 22 July 2022
Kathryn Williams’ creativity leaves most singers standing. She’s always up to something and it’s usually interesting. As well as multiple albums over two decades, including one themed around Sylvia Plath and another created with the poet Carol Anne... Read more... |
Album: Gareth Williams - Short StoriesThursday, 21 July 2022
Maybe it’s inevitable that their fate is to receive just a fraction of the recognition they deserve. Gareth Williams is one of the crop of truly remarkable – and now fully-formed – jazz pianists from the UK born in... Read more... |
Album: Jack White - Entering Heaven AliveWednesday, 20 July 2022
Jack White’s last couple of albums, Boarding House Reach from 2018 and Fear of the Dawn from April this year, were both driven by experimentalism, dipping into electronics, hip hop, noise and more. They were both, to differing degrees, admirable in... Read more... |
Frida Kahlo Through Indian Classical Music, Elgar Room, Royal Albert Hall review - a strangely effective meeting of culturesTuesday, 19 July 2022
This one sounded implausible. Frida Kahlo, the great (and fashionable – collected by the likes of Madonna) Mexican painter interpreted by Indian classical music at the Elgar Room in the Royal Albert Hall. It was, however, entrancing, made a... Read more... |
Haim, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - charismatic siblings personable as everMonday, 18 July 2022
Sweetness never lasts too long at a Haim gig. No sooner had Alana Haim, the youngest of the Californian siblings, finished a speech about her delight about being back in Glasgow by announcing she was going to “smell the f****** roses” then bass-... Read more... |
Album: Beabadoobee - BeatopiaMonday, 18 July 2022
Many of her fans initially came across Filipino-born, London-raised singer Bea Laus – Beabadoobee – via the massive TikTok sensation “Death Bed (Coffee for Your Head)” by Canadian producer Powfu, which was centred on the extremely catchy chorus to... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Happy In Hollywood - The Productions Of Gary UsherSunday, 17 July 2022
As either a producer or songwriter Gary Usher worked with The Beach Boys and The Byrds, the two most consequential California bands of the Sixties.When he co-wrote “409” with Brian Wilson for the Beach Boys’s first Capitol Records single in mid 1962... Read more... |
Album: Lizzo - SpecialSaturday, 16 July 2022
You can’t really blame Lizzo for playing to her strengths. When she started putting out records some nine years ago, there wasn’t really a niche in the market for a flute playing, twerking, positive-thinking, plus-size rapper-stroke-disco-diva.... Read more... |
