Album: Robert Plant - Saving Grace

★★★★★ ROBERT PLANT - SAVING GRACE Mellow delight from former Zep lead

Mellow delight from former Zep lead

Robert Plant is magnificently well-equipped to shine as a consummate musical survivor: not only has his voice kept its magic, with a range from sensual caress to ecstatic howl, but he’s deeply rooted in timeless music, Scots-Irish and American folk as well as the country blues.

Brìghde Chaimbeul, Round Chapel review - enchantment in East London

★★★ BRIGHDE CHAIMBEUL, ROUND CHAPEL Inscrutable purveyor of experimental Celtic music summons creepiness and intensity

Inscrutable purveyor of experimental Celtic music summons creepiness and intensity

Hackney’s Round Chapel is an appropriate venue. Scottish smallpipes player Brìghde Chaimbeul opens her set with “Dùsgadh/Waking.” It has the spirit of a call to prayer: the directness, the insistence, the magnetic quality. All of which draws in anyone exposed to its power. It enchants.

First Person: Musician ALA.NI on how thoughts of empire and reparation influenced a song

FIRST PERSON: MUSICIAN ALA.NI On how thoughts of empire and reparation influenced a song

She usually sings about affairs of the heart - 'TIEF' is different, explains the star

I’ve never thought of myself as a political artist. I write about love. The tender bits, the messy bits, the heartbreak that rearranges a life. That’s where songwriting usually finds me. “TIEF”, from my forthcoming album Sunshine Music, arrived differently. It’s built around an interpolation of “Slave” by the legendary calypsonian singer Mighty Sparrow. Calypso, a music that has lived in my bones for as long as I can remember. “Slave” proposed a question I sought to answer.

Album: NewDad - Altar

The hard-gigging trio yearns for old Ireland – and blasts music biz exploitation

With their second album Altar, the Irish combo NewDad has moved from the love-embittered shoegaze of their 2023 debut Madra toward a worldlier perspective married to a comparatively sophisticated but confrontational style. Some reviewers have suggested it’s poppier, but tunes like "Other Side" (with its deceptively quiet start), “Misery”, “Puzzle”, and “Mr. Cold Embrace” are happily closer to post-punk.

Album: The Divine Comedy - Rainy Sunday Afternoon

Neil Hannon takes stock, and the result will certainly keep his existing crowd happy

Neil Hannon has been recording and touring as the Divine Comedy since 1989 and has tried a fair few flavours along the way, from chamber pop to Britpop, while sounding fundamentally himself throughout. Rainy Sunday Afternoon, however, sounds like a stocktaking, a deep breath and a meditation on late middle age.

Music Reissues Weekly: Robyn - Robyn 20th-Anniversary Edition

ROBYN - ROBYN 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION Landmark Swedish pop album hits shops one more time

Landmark Swedish pop album hits shops one more time

Sometimes, record labels don’t like what those on their roster have recorded. Such was the case with BMG Sweden and Robin Carlsson who, as Robyn, had made three albums with varying success and a raft of home-country hit singles for the label from the mid-Nineties to 2002.

Album: Twenty One Pilots - Breach

★★★ TWENTY ONE PILOTS - BREACH Ohio duo wrap up 10 year narrative, showing interplay 

Ohio mainstream superstar duo wrap up their 10 year narrative

For the past decade, the Ohio alternative superstars Twenty One Pilots have cultivated a deep lore starting with 2015’s Blurryface, and continued through the subsequent albums of 2018’s Trench, 2021’s Scaled and Icy, and seemingly concluded with last year’s Clancy. Yet the duo of Tyler Joseph (vocals) and Josh Dun (drums) left proceedings on a cliffhanger.

Album: Ed Sheeran - Play

★ ED SHEERAN - PLAY A mound of ear displeasure on the global star's already gigantic stockpile

A mound of ear displeasure to add to the global superstar's already gigantic stockpile

“It’s a long way up from rock bottom/There’s been times I felt I could fall further.” So runs the opening line of Ed Sheeran’s eighth studio album. It’s delivered with the quavering falsetto-voice-breaking that’s become default for sung emotion. Like much of the album, it’s a “poor me” lyric. A generation has grown up with popular music ruled by solipsistic whining, with Sheeran leading from the front.

Album: Motion City Soundtrack - The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World

★★★★ MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK - THE SAME OLD WASTED WONDERFUL WORLD A solid return for the emo veterans

A solid return for the emo veterans

Everyone’s favourite angsty pop-punk nerds are back, balancing new with nostalgia and synths with guitars, this is exactly what fans have been waiting for after a decade-long hiatus from the Minneapolis rockers. The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World is an album that not only continues Motion City Soundtrack’s legacy but expands on it and gives a glimpse into what the band have been focusing on in their time off. Their sound is as recognisable as ever, and the album is sprinkled with various 2000s alt-rock star collaborations just to make the nostalgia even sweeter.

Album: Baxter Dury - Allbarone

★★★★★ BAXTER DURY - ALLBARONE The don diversifies into disco

The don diversifies into disco

Quite why Baxter Dury isn't already a national treasure is a mystery to me. Not for his nepo connections but for his perfectly pitched delivery and super-dry observations. He's sardonic, sleazy, sexy and has a cracking dog – what more does any man need? Maybe a bigger profile and some higher rankings in the charts...