sun 13/04/2025

New Music reviews, news & interviews

Music Reissues Weekly: Motor City Is Burning - A Michigan Anthology 1965-1972

Kieron Tyler

In October 1967, John Lee Hooker released a single titled “The Motor City is Burning.” The song commented on the civil unrest which had taken place in his Michigan home city of Detroit that July. “Oh, the motor city's burnin',” sang Hooker. “My home town burnin' down to the ground, Worser than Vietnam, Well, it started on 12th and Clairmont, this mornin'.”

theartsdesk on Vinyl: Record Store Day Special 2025

Thomas H Green

Record Store Day 2025 is tomorrow (Saturday 12th April 2025)! At theartsdesk on Vinyl we’ve been sent a selection of exclusive RSD goodies. Check the reviews. Then check your local record shop! See you amongst it.THEARTSDESK ON VINYL CHOICE CUT FOR RECORD STORE DAY APRIL 2025Marianne Faithfull Burning Moonlight EP (Decca)

Album: Joe Lovano - Homage

Sebastian Scotney

Tenor titan Joe Lovano is thrilled by how Homage has turned out. He actually told me so himself in person a few weeks ago, and his new album has a...

Album: Bon Iver - SABLE ƒABLE

Mark Kidel

With a sound that's instantly recognisable, Justin Vernon – known as Bon Iver - continues to astonish. Purveyor of wonder, sculptor of enchanting...

Primal Scream, O2 Academy, Birmingham review -...

Guy Oddy

Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes may have been steering the good ship Primal Scream for some 40 years but, on the evidence of this week’s visit to...

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theartsdesk on Vinyl 89: Wilco, Decius, Hot 8 Brass Band, Henge, Dub Syndicate, Motörhead and more

Thomas H Green

The last-standing and largest regular vinyl record reviews in the world

Tallinn Music Week 2025 review - Estonia’s capital accommodates all flavours of music

Kieron Tyler

The festival where everything appears on an equal footing

Album: Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong

Ibi Keita

A left turn that trades chaos for charm, with mixed results

An Evening with Joan Armatrading, Cadogan Hall review - thoughtful and engaging conversation

Liz Thomson

From rock'n'roll to Open University, the singer on life and work

Kenny Garrett, Ronnie Scott's review - a mixed bag

Mark Kidel

Conjuring the spirit and treading water

Album: Sofia Härdig - Lighthouse of Glass

Kieron Tyler

Swedish singer-songwriter takes control of her music

Music Reissues Weekly: Ibex Band - Stereo Instrumental Music

Kieron Tyler

Ethiopian jazz album from 1976 which resists easy categorisation

Album: The Waterboys - Life, Death and Dennis Hopper

Thomas H Green

An alternately involving then naff tribute to a countercultural film figurehead

Album: Miki Berenyi Trio - Tripla

Tim Cumming

Debut set from Lush singer-songwriter’s new trio

Album: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious

Guy Oddy

Geordie rockers’ pulverising psych metal is guaranteed to rattle windows

Album: Elton John and Brandi Carlile - Who Believes in Angels?

Liz Thomson

Elton John & Brandi Carlile step out in style

Album: Erlend Apneseth - Song Over Støv

Kieron Tyler

Norwegian musical impressionist’s journey into the centre of a vortex

Music Reissues Weekly: Yeah Man, It's Bloody Heavy

Kieron Tyler

The ne plus ultra of British heavy rock

Album: Bryan Ferry and Amelia Barratt - Loose Talk

Graham Fuller

A match made in urban nightlife and the mysteries of everyday living

Album: Will Smith - Based on a True Story

Ibi Keita

Big Willie’s back - but maybe he should’ve stayed home

Album: Perfume Genius - Glory

Joe Muggs

Album seven from an artist carving out his own space in the most modernist of ways

Album: Alison Krauss & Union Station - Arcadia

Tim Cumming

Their first album in 14 years looks hard at the past, and its role in the present

Lauren Mayberry, Barrowland, Glasgow review - solo star stays too close to the day job

Jonathan Geddes

The Chvrches singer mixed some great tunes with an overly heavy sound.

Album: Toria Wooff - Toria Wooff

Kieron Tyler

Assured but too measured debut album from Americana-inclined singer-songwriter

Music Reissues Weekly: Too Far Out - Beat, Mod & R&B From 304 Holloway Road 1963-1966

Kieron Tyler

Maverick producer Joe Meek’s maximum-impact approach to the beat-group scene

Album: Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco - I Said I Love You First

Thomas H Green

An album by a pair of loved-up Hollywood celebs that is, whisper it, rather good

Album: The Horrors - Night Life

Thomas H Green

A new line-up proves no hindrance to a band bringing electro-rock zip to the darkness

Mercury Rev, Islington Assembly Hall review - the august US psychedelic explorers cover all bases

Kieron Tyler

Balance is maintained between the anticipated and the spontaneous

Lizz Wright, Barbican review - sweet inspiration

Mark Kidel

Soul, jazz and gospel seamlessly mixed

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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