New music
Album: Twenty One Pilots - BreachSunday, 14 September 2025
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... Read more... |
Album: Ed Sheeran - PlaySaturday, 13 September 2025
“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.... Read more... |
Album: Motion City Soundtrack - The Same Old Wasted Wonderful WorldFriday, 12 September 2025
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... Read more... |
Album: Baxter Dury - AllbaroneThursday, 11 September 2025
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... Read more... |
Album: Yasmine Hamdan - I Remember I Forget بنسى وبتذكرWednesday, 10 September 2025
A lot is going on during Yasmine Hamdan’s third solo album. Despite all ten songs of I Remember I Forget بنسى وبتذكر drawing from the lyrics and music of Palestinian folklore, what is heard is avowedly non-traditional. Hamdan is sticking with the... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 92: Marianne Faithful, Crayola Lectern, UK Subs, Black Lips, Stax, Dennis Bovell and moreMonday, 08 September 2025
VINYL OF THE MONTHBlack Lips Season of the Peach (Fire)Some of the many releases by don’t-give-a-damn southern US rockers Black Lips are of variable quality. They’re actual rockers, not Modern Music BA university graduates, so it depends where their... Read more... |
Blondshell, Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow review - woozy rock with an air of nonchalanceMonday, 08 September 2025
There is such nonchalance with Sabrina Teitelbaum that even her appeals to the crowd appeared laid-back. At points during her set the Los Angeles singer would slowly raise an arm, in the time-honoured tradition of a musician demanding noise, but in... Read more... |
Ganavya, Barbican review - low-key spiritualityMonday, 08 September 2025
At the start or her show, the white-robed singer Ganavya does something unusual: while other performers usually warm their audience up before suggesting they sing along, she plunges straight in, a minute or so into chanting “a love supreme”, and... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Chiswick Records 1975-1982 - Seven Years at 45 RPMSunday, 07 September 2025
Chiswick Records 1975-1982 - Seven Years at 45 RPM is a triple album marking the 50th anniversary of the first release on the titular label. That record was a four-track, seven-inch EP by the rough, Rolling Stones-ish pub rockers The Count Bishops.... Read more... |
Album: Josh Ritter - I Believe in You, My HoneydewSaturday, 06 September 2025
Americana rocker Josh Ritter can write a beautiful song. He’s one of America’s premier wordsmiths of the form. He’s also written two novels, which is no surprise; many of his best songs have narrative edge. He’s equally capable at the music, which... Read more... |
Album: David Byrne - Who is the Sky?Friday, 05 September 2025
From his early days with Talking Heads, David Byrne has ploughed a highly individual furrow, and exploited a persona that combines naivety with knowingness, fun pop with serious intent. He's perhaps, without appearing to be, one of the most... Read more... |
Edinburgh Psych Fest 2025 review - eclectic and experimentalThursday, 04 September 2025
Now in its third year, Edinburgh Psych Fest returned to multiple venues in the old town and the city’s southside for 2025; namely Summerhall, Queen’s Hall, The Mash House and Sneaky Pete’s. Offering a day long feast of psych-tinged sounds,... Read more... |
