New music
Tim Cumming
One of the founding partners of theartsdesk back in the day, author of the immersive Manu Chao biography, Clandestino, roving world music journalist, composer and "nomad pianist" Peter Culshaw released his previous set, Music from the Temple of Light, in 2023. Surrender to Love is spun from the same threads that were woven through that Temple of Light – mixing an ambient piano as a grounding for the music, with a range of Eastern and Middle Eastern instruments and voices, and a ruling spirit and approach that’s drawn from the Sufi wing of spirituality – a music and practice associated Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
There’s a slight “Sympathy For the Devil” tone to the opening seconds of “Pendulum Swing”, the first track on the US country adjacent stylist and former Grammy nominee Courtney Marie Andrews’ ninth studio album – the descending piano figure, the circling percussion. As the song opens out, it develops into a dark-light exercise in contrasts, along the lines of the more muted moments of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. Ambiance set, the ensuing nine tracks evince a similar restraint, where a low-key vibe is punctuated by flashes of gospel-esque drama. A lot of Valentine, Andrews' first album on Read more ...
Guy Oddy
In recent years, Sleaford Mods have moved on somewhat from sounding like an insistent and angry drunk yelling over a cheap Casio keyboard. Fortunately, not too much, though.Andrew Fearn and Jason Williamson’s potty-mouthed, minimalist punk-funk is still one of the sharper musical commentaries of the UK’s seeming demise and their style fits the subject matter like a glove. Angry, harsh and taking absolutely no prisoners. Sleaford Mods are the perfect soundtrack to a country that over-estimates its worth, while blithely strutting towards the edge of a steep cliff. As John Peel used to say about Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong is the debut album by the London-based duo Woo. Originally issued on the Sunshine Series imprint in May 1982, it was subsequently picked up for a 1987 US release by the LA-based Independent Project Records label. After this, Woo's second album, It's Cosy Inside, came out in 1989 on Independent Project Records. There was no UK version of the follow-up album back then; a US reissue on Drag City followed in 2012.When Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong appeared in the UK in 1982, NME’s review said “How strange that in a year so packed Read more ...
Graham Fuller
That was clever. The original Wet Leg – singer Rhian Teasdale and guitarist Hester Chambers – instantly snagged global attention with a droll novelty single, launched with a knowing faux-rustic video, about a sexy piece of furniture. After scoring a chart-topping multi-genre debut album, the duo recruited three noisy, hirsute male musician-writers, toughened up, and metamorphosed into one of the hottest indie combos on the planet. That evolution is crystallised in their second album, another smash and – in its flawlessness – a 21st-century equivalent of the Human League’s epochal Read more ...
Ellie Roberts
2025 was another year of flaunting for the ever impressive beast that is female-led pop domination. The now iconic line up of legends and future greats, and their growing class of inspired apprentices, have punctuated the year with defiance and celebration in the form of fantastic pop songs. The prevalence across festival stages, TikTok trends, and radio are telling of the power that this entity basks in but doesn’t take away from the deserved success of most of it. Lady Gaga’s Mayhem took the crown for me this year, it’s an all round well planned and polished album with a perfectly Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“Ace tribute to The Doors” is what the poster says. And after The Fire Doors stroll on stage and blast into “Break on Through (to the Other Side),” Jim Morrison and Co’s January 1967 debut single, it’s instantly clear this band has the chops.The bass – played left-handed on a keyboard balanced upon a Crumar Mojo 61 Hammond-organ style synth – pumps relentlessly. The spikey guitar penetrates. The drumming swings, jazzily. The keyboard fills are baroque, filigreed. The singer, though he doesn’t look exactly like Jim Morrison or attempt to, inhabits the persona of The Doors' frontman Read more ...
Ibi Keita
2025 was a somewhat scarce year for fans of punk, hardcore and metal, to be honest, it was a scarce year for most genres as a whole from what I can see looking up from the underground. Considering the mundane nature of 2025 for metal, there have been some astounding glimmers of effort, Deftones’ Private Music showed promise and nostalgia, with the punchy track Milk of The Madonna firmly staying in my listening rotation since it’s release. Motion City Soundtrack tapped us on the shoulder to say hello and pulled The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World out of their back pockets, in a Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“This is our last concert, ever. And we’d love to do you for now on our last concert ever…” After the words peter out, a ragged, yet blistering, five-minute version of “(I Can’t Get no) Satisfaction” explodes from the stage. Show over, The Rolling Stones leave Hawaii’s Honolulu International Center to…what?It’s not as noteworthy a stitch in rock’s rich tapestry as David Bowie’s 3 July 1973 announcement at the Hammersmith Odeon that “not only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show that we'll ever do.” Or even George Harrison’s “that's it, then. I'm not a Beatle anymore” Read more ...
Tom Carr
There are some years where choosing a personal album of the year is rather straightforward, something either stands above the rest, or never left the rotation throughout the year. But 2025 was a bountiful year, with regular new favourites popping up as the months rolled by.The year started very productively, with offerings from Sam Fender and People Watching, the UK’s millennial answer to Bruce Springsteen, and Architects, who continued to sit atop the modern UK Metal scene with The Sky, The Earth & All Between. These two albums were both early contenders for this writer, even at that Read more ...
Sebastian Scotney
John Patitucci, one of the world’s great bassists, was an irreplaceable pillar of the unsurpassable Wayne Shorter Quartet for two decades. On one level, his new, Grammy-nominated disc ‘Spirit Fall’ (Edition), a trio album with saxophonist Chris Potter and drum magician and fellow Shorter alumnus Brian Blade, is merely a snapshot: the album was recorded with ideal and close colleagues in the course of a single day. But after repeated listens, it feels like a much stronger statement than that, maybe even an "apologia pro vita sua", the first-hand, updated story of what makes Patitucci so Read more ...
peter.quinn
For a beautiful treatment of Matsuo Bashō's celebrated haiku “A frog jumps in”, the dreamlike stream-of-consciousness of “I am a volcano”, the delightful, multilayered vocal harmonies in “Take this stone” and more, Cécile McLorin Salvant’s Oh Snap is my Album of the Year. A remarkable collection even by Salvant’s exalted standards, the sudden textural dropout and devastating climax of “What does blue mean to you?”, inspired by Toni Morrison’s Beloved, was a coup de théâtre.Christian McBride and his Grammy-winning big band’s powerhouse collection, Without Further Ado, Vol 1, offered Read more ...