tue 18/03/2025

New Music reviews, news & interviews

Music Reissues Weekly: Norma Tanega - I Don't Think It Will Hurt If You Smile

Kieron Tyler

After scoring a hit in 1966 with the distinctive folk-pop of her jazz-inclined debut single "Walkin' my Cat Named Dog," US singer-songwriter Norma Tanega (1939–2019) seemed to melt away. Three follow-up 45s weren’t hits. Her album wasn’t a strong seller. Latterly, though, one of its tracks, “You're Dead,” has been heard as the theme of the TV and cinema versions of What We Do In The Shadows.

Album: The Loft - Everything Changes, Everything Stays The Same

Kieron Tyler

“Sitting on a sofa, cigarettes and beer, ten years disappear…agreeing to agree, just to get along.” By going into the difficulties of resuscitating the past, the lyrics of “Ten Years,” the fourth song on The Loft’s first album, neatly sum-up the band’s current situation. The final line gives the 10-track set its title: “Everything changes, everything stays the same.”

Album: Jason Isbell - Foxes in the Snow

Joe Muggs

America – the pro-wrestling-ass nation, the ultimate society of the spectacle – famously likes things big, and modern country and western music has...

First Person: singer-songwriter David Gray on how...

David Gray

Occasionally, when I pass my own reflection, out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of the likeness of my father, shining out through the...

Album: Steven Wilson - The Overview

Graham Fuller

Steven Wilson’s cinematic concept album The Overview is named for the cognitive shift required of astronauts and others who’ve observed Earth from...

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Album: Coheed and Cambria - The Father of Make Believe

Ellie Roberts

An impressive welcome back to the group's imaginitive universe

Album: Reg Meuross, Fire & Dust: A Woody Guthrie Story

Liz Thomson

At once a celebration and an exploration of the timeless Dust Bowl Balladeer

Music Reissues Weekly: Liverpool Sunset - The City After Merseybeat

Kieron Tyler

Times changed, but the city which birthed The Beatles still came up with the goods

Album: Lady Gaga - Mayhem

Joe Muggs

The godmother of theatre-kid pop is back! Back!! BACK!!!

Album: Spiritbox - Tsunami Sea

Tom Carr

Second album from Canadian metalcore band is a sonic assault yet graceful and beautiful

Album: The Burning Hell - Ghost Palace

Kieron Tyler

Reflective Canadians interpret an increasingly unfathomable world

Chuck Prophet, Mid Sussex Music Hall, Hassocks review - the good American

Nick Hasted

Liberating, humane rock'n'roll from an unassuming master

Album: Anoushka Shankar - Chapter III: We Return to Light

Guy Oddy

Sitar titan blends the sounds of modern India into her travelogue triptych

Album: Jethro Tull - Curious Ruminant

Graham Fuller

Tull burst out again with a set of bristling folk-prog anthems

Music Reissues Weekly: Kraftwerk - Autobahn at 50

Kieron Tyler

A reminder of changing perspectives

Album: Architects - The Sky, The Earth & All Between

Tom Carr

The Brighton metallers condense their 20-year career into an impactful concoction

Jopy/Lemonsuckr/King of May, Green Door Store, Brighton review - exhilarating showcase for new young guitar bands

Thomas H Green

Local label Goo Records put on an ebullient show on their home turf

Album: Abel Selaocoe - Hymns of Bantu

Mark Kidel

A celebration of the ancestors, African and European

Album: Doves - Constellations for the Lonely

Joe Muggs

Prog-rock existential wranglings from the grizzled Mancunians

Album: bdrmm - Microtonic

Kieron Tyler

Post-shoegazing quartet’s third album evokes the communal musical experience

Rats on Rafts, The Victoria review - crepuscular Dutch quintet begins to see the light

Kieron Tyler

Unexpected sprightliness gets feet moving

Bilk, O2 Academy 2, Birmingham review - Essex rock'n'rollers blast into the weekend

Guy Oddy

Sol Abrahams’ crew whip up a storm

Album: Artemis - Arboresque

Sebastian Scotney

A safe album from a band with a necessary message

Hinds, St Lukes and the Winged Ox, Glasgow review - Spanish garage rockers surviving and thriving

Jonathan Geddes

After a difficult few years, the group sounded resurgent, delivering a frantic show.

Music Reissues Weekly: Diggin' For Gold Volume 14 - Norway's Sixties beat-group scene

Kieron Tyler

Welcome overview of neglected musical territory

Album: Heather Nova - Breath and Air

Katie Colombus

A mellower, acoustic sound that contemplates life's rhythms

Album: Panda Bear - Sinister Grift

Guy Oddy

A psychedelic curiosity that’s unlikely to wear anyone’s stylus down

Album: Sam Fender - People Watching

Tom Carr

The North Shields indie star's third album is a solid, sincere evolution

Album: Basia Bulat - Basia's Palace

Thomas H Green

Canadian singer's seventh album musters dreamy pop that simultaneously arrives and floats away

Footnote: a brief history of new music in Britain

New music has swung fruitfully between US and UK influences for half a century. The British charts began in 1952, initially populated by crooners and light jazz. American rock'n'roll livened things up, followed by British imitators such as Lonnie Donegan and Cliff Richard. However, it wasn't until The Beatles combined rock'n'roll's energy with folk melodies and Motown sweetness that British pop found a modern identity outside light entertainment. The Rolling Stones, amping up US blues, weren't far behind, with The Who and The Kinks also adding a unique Englishness. In the mid-Sixties the drugs hit - LSD sent pop looking for meaning. Pastoral psychedelia bloomed. Such utopianism couldn't last and prog rock alongside Led Zeppelin's steroid riffing defined the early Seventies. Those who wanted it less blokey turned to glam, from T Rex to androgynous alien David Bowie.

sex_pistolsA sea change arrived with punk and its totemic band, The Sex Pistols, a reaction to pop's blandness and much else. Punk encouraged inventiveness and imagination on the cheap but, while reggae made inroads, the most notable beneficiary was synth pop, The Human League et al. This, when combined with glam styling, produced the New Romantic scene and bands such as Duran Duran sold multi-millions and conquered the US.

By the mid-Eighties, despite U2's rise, the British charts were sterile until acid house/ rave culture kicked the doors down for electronica, launching acts such as the Chemical Brothers. The media, however, latched onto indie bands with big tunes and bigger mouths, notably Oasis and Blur – Britpop was born.

By the millennium, both scenes had fizzled, replaced by level-headed pop-rockers who abhorred ostentation in favour of homogenous emotionality. Coldplay were the biggest. Big news, however, lurked in underground UK hip hop where artists adapted styles such as grime, dubstep and drum & bass into new pop forms, creating breakout stars Dizzee Rascal and, more recently, Tinie Tempah. The Arts Desk's wide-ranging new music critics bring you overnight reviews of every kind of music, from pop to unusual world sounds, daily reviews of new releases and downloads, and unique in-depth interviews with celebrated musicians and DJs, plus the quickest ticket booking links. Our writers include Peter Culshaw, Joe Muggs, Howard Male, Thomas H Green, Graeme Thomson, Kieron Tyler, Russ Coffey, Bruce Dessau, David Cheal & Peter Quinn

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