sun 24/08/2025

New Music Reviews

Music Reissues Weekly: The Beatles - What's The New, Mary Jane

Kieron Tyler

“What's the New Mary Jane” is a nursery rhyme-like song, one of John Lennon’s most peculiar offerings. It was recorded for late 1968’s double album The Beatles (i.e. the White Album) but, literally, did not make the cut. Nonetheless, John Lennon would not let it go.

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The Maccabees, Barrowland, Glasgow review - indie band return with both emotion and quality

Jonathan Geddes

You wait years for a guitar group with brothers to reunite and then two come along at once. The Maccabees return might have attracted far less attention compared to the Gallaghers hitting the road again as Oasis, but as they strolled onstage on a humid Glasgow night the ecstatic reaction from fans suggested it was a sight many had not expected to see again.

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Houghton / We Out Here festivals review - an ultra-marathon of community vibes

joe Muggs

The long, hot summer of 2025 has been something else, right? Hate rallies, creeping authoritarianism, a weird reluctance to discuss the extremity of the weather even as everyone scrambles to buy air conditioners...

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Album: Eve Adams - American Dust

Kieron Tyler

A sticker on the cover of American Dust is says it’s “an ode to the beauty of the American Southwest,” specifically the High Desert area within the wider setting of California's Mojave Desert. North-East of Los Angeles, this region contrasts with the city’s urban and suburban sprawl by incorporating scattered settlements.

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Gibby Haynes, O2 Academy 2, Birmingham review - ex-Butthole Surfer goes School of Rock

Guy Oddy

Gibby Haynes is the wild-eyed crazy man who used to front the Butthole Surfers back in the 1980s and 1990s. At the time, there was none weirder or more out there than the Texan psychedelic punks – and even Ice-T was then prepared to step back and acknowledge their place in the pantheon of musical barbarians.

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Music Reissues Weekly: The Residents - American Composer's Series

Kieron Tyler

George & James was originally released in March 1984. Stars & Hank Forever! emerged in October 1986. The two LPs were parts of – and, as it turned out, the only entrants in – a series of albums their creators, San Francisco’s Residents, designated the American Composer’s Series.

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BBC Proms: Anoushka Shankar 'Chapters' review - somehow, it worked

Sebastian Scotney

You can't explain stage presence like Anoushka Shankar’s. It just "is". When she steps out in front of a completely packed Royal Albert Hall, and utters a welcoming, exploratory, London-ish “Hi... welcome to my Prom… Oh, my God!”, a friendly connection with audience is made. Instantly and with disarming ease.

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Album: Marissa Nadler - New Radiations

Kieron Tyler

“I will fly around the world just to forget you” are the opening words of “It Hits Harder,” the first track on New Radiations. The song is about a farewell. The album ends with “Sad Satellite,” where the titular heavenly object is used as a metaphor for distance, when the gap is increasing between the narrator and the subject: the latter a character who is “sucking me dry” and “took me for ride”.

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Music Reissues Weekly: The Final Solution - Just Like Gold

Kieron Tyler

The booklet coming with Just Like Gold - Live At The Matrix frequently refers to the band as “The Solution.” It will be the same here.

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Mogwai / Lankum, South Facing Festival review - rich atmospheres in a south London field

India Lewis

Running as part of the South Facing Festival in Crystal Palace Bowl, Thursday’s headliners, Mogwai, and their friends across the water, Lankum, were an excellent pairing, both atmospheric, wonderful musicians whose instrumental (and vocal, in the case of Lankum) virtuosity, were a real joy to listen to.

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