New music
peter.quinn
London's iconic Roundhouse, packed to the rafters, provided the perfect setting for the UK premiere of Louis Cole's groundbreaking album nothing – his fifth album and third on Brainfeeder. This one-night-only performance, featuring Cole on drums and keys with an orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley, delivered electrifying musicianship, fascinating stylistic mash-ups, and melodies that imprinted themselves on your consciousness.Released last August to critical adulation, nothing presented something far more ambitious than an orchestral rehash of greatest hits. The LA-based composer, multi- Read more ...
Tim Cumming
Following on from an impressive set with the Libertines – last year’s No 1 album All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade – Peter Doherty returns to the fray with his first solo album in nine years. In youth renowned for opiates, crack and chaos, and for cholesterol over alcohol in middle age (he’s now 46), the songs on Felt Better Alive come across as swiftly taken snapshots developed in a musical dark room. Some tracks feel like demos awaiting a few more layers of invention, others more richly built up, but all of them trailing the loose, intimate charm of home-made things, wrapped in a Read more ...
Graham Fuller
Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”, the ineffable progressive rock epic that occupies side two of 1971’s Meddle, is having a moment. Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets released a sensational one-sided 12-inch vinyl version of the track on Record Store Day, April 12. Recorded at the Centennial Hall in Frankfurt last August, the 23.04-minutes single – which plays from the centre outwards – reached number six in the vinyl chart, dropped, and is rising again. It’ll be on Radio One next, jostling for air time with Taylor, Sabrina, and Ed.Then there’s the new Pompeii version. At the ruined Italian city’s re- Read more ...
Tom Carr
It has never been an exact science understanding when something will capture lightning in a bottle and go viral. Even less expected is for an anonymous metal band to become a social media sensation, but in early 2023 that's exactly what happened for Sleep Token.The anonymous UK metal collective had been slowly cultivating their following since arriving on the scene in 2016. Their gothic stage presence and mysterious lore set them aside from their contemporaries immediately, as did their playing with various genres around a modern metal sound. And though they had achieved steady success across Read more ...
joe.muggs
I’ve got an admission: I never really got Radiohead, in no small part because of Thom Yorke’s singing. I appreciate his technical abilities and songwriting, and that a lot of people find his anguish cathartic, but the more he goes for it the more I switch off.Even in gentler and less rockist songs he tends to go for a keening sound that still jangles my nerves. Rather like Paul Weller (not someone I imagine he’s compared to very often) straining to express intensity seems to have become a vital part of his musical brand, but just like Weller, I infinitely prefer it when he sits back a bit and Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
There’s plenty of noise out there about 24-year-old Kentish musician Victoria Walker, AKA PinkPantheress. Since being acclaimed BBC Sound of 2022, the spotlight has been on her. She supported Halsey and Olivia Rodrigo on tour, worked with Beabadoobee, Skrillex, and K-Pop sensations Le SSerafim, and had a song on the Barbie soundtrack. It’s a lot. Perhaps, judging from this mixtape – a 20-minute filler release we might once have called an EP – she’s spreading herself too thin.The idea is that Fancy That tips its hat to millennial dance sounds and, indeed, it features Basement Jaxx’ music on “ Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
After kicking off with the psychedelia-tinged “Sgt. Major,” they keep coming. A string of songs as Sixties-influenced as they are edgy and propulsive. The tempo may not be speedy but there is always forward motion, even in a song where different sections unite in a portmanteau structure.The filigreed, swirling “Pull Together,” the muted, bossa nova-esque “Soldier Man,” the shadowy “Miles Apart,” with its Bacharach and David touches, the gently churning, foggy “Stranger.” Each is instantly memorable, and each – the opening five songs of this evening’s show – remains seductive. Lovely songs. Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
20 years on from their first appearance on record, the seventh long-player from Canadian indie-art-rock behemoths Arcade Fire comes off the back of four consecutive UK album chart-toppers.Also lurking in the background are the 2022 sexual misconduct allegations against mainstay Win Butler. He seems to have weathered them better than most, supported by his wife and bandmate Régine Chassagne. This review is not the place for an investigative deep-dive. Make your own mind up. But Pink Elephant, especially its first half, contains some impressive songs.Working with Daniel Lanois, Butler and Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Sixes and Sevens is a surprise. A big one. Since leaving Siouxsie and the Banshees in September 1979, John McKay has largely been a mystery. On record, the only suggestion this influential guitarist had continued with music was the EP his post-Banshees band Zor Gabor issued in 1987. Otherwise – nothing.Sixes and Sevens collects 11 tracks excavated by McKay from his personal archive. It is not an unreleased album. Three tracks are from 1980, three are from 1983, and there is one apiece from 1985, 1986 and 1987, and two from 1989. One of the 1983 tracks is titled “Zor Gabor” and, as well as Read more ...
Sebastian Scotney
Does it spark joy? Yes, definitely...and maybe we music critics should ask the Marie Kondo question more often. London-based vocalist/lyricist Georgia Mancio and New Zealand-born, US-based pianist, arranger and composer Alan Broadbent have been prospering as a songwriting and performing partnership for more than a decade and have so far produced three strong albums. Wednesday night’s concert at Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho was part of the launch tour for the third album, A Story Left Untold.In fact, the undimmed spark and the palpable joy of this singing, this playing and these songs Read more ...
Ellie Roberts
PUP’s Who Will Look After The Dogs? is a raw and emotionally charged album that captures the band’s chaotic spirit while showing clear growth in both sound and subject matter. Across 12 tracks, the Toronto group delivers a mixture of driving punk energy, wry humour and moments of vulnerability. It is a loud and heartfelt record that might not hit the heights of their best work, but still leaves a strong and lasting impression.Lyrically, frontman Stefan Babcock leans into personal struggles with disarming honesty. Themes of isolation, self doubt and fractured relationships run through the Read more ...
Amelia Coburn
“Sandra” is one of my favourite tracks from my album Between The Moon and the Milkman which was released last year. While living in Paris a few years ago I shared a flat with an older French lady. We loved to chat every night when I came home from work, but one time she told me a story that stayed with me about her late husband, who was an abusive alcoholic. When he died, his only final wishes were to be buried. So of course, she had him cremated.I couldn’t stop thinking about her story, and knew that one day I wanted to write a song about it. A few months later, in Mexico, I had quite Read more ...