New music
Album: Faithless - Champion SoundThursday, 04 September 2025
Although they haven’t had a hit single in almost 20 years, Faithless remain a potent commercial force, continuing to rack up festival headline sets and big-selling albums. Longterm member Maxi Jazz left the band in 2016 but Champion Sound is the... Read more... |
Album: Saint Etienne - InternationalWednesday, 03 September 2025
International is Saint Etienne’s 13th album. It is their last. According to the promotional material, it was written while recording their last album, 2021’s I’ve Been Trying To Tell You. The trio – Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs – must... Read more... |
Album: Brad Mehldau - Ride into the SunMonday, 01 September 2025
Brad Mehldau’s three trio concerts in the UK in June showed what it is he does so brilliantly. The group (with bassist Felix Moseholm and drummer Jorge Rossy) played with a freedom and a sense of flow in their musical conversation, a sense of... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Outer Limits - Just One More ChanceSunday, 31 August 2025
The Outer Limits were from Leeds. Active over 1965 to 1968, the soul-tinged mod-poppers didn’t chart, but their two regular singles are now pricey collector’s items. There was also, before the orthodox 45s, a track on a Leeds University charity fund... Read more... |
theartsdesk Radio Show 37 - Pete Lawrence of the Big Chill discusses the power of protest music and his new project This Is The FireSaturday, 30 August 2025
This edition of Peter Culshaw’s peripatetic radio show features guest Pete Lawrence. Pete is one of the good guys – a positive force in the culture, as he says "my life's work is bringing people together".TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW CLICK THIS... Read more... |
Album: Sabrina Carpenter - Man's Best FriendSaturday, 30 August 2025
Following the success of 2024’s flirtatious Short n’ Sweet, Sabrina Carpenter has fully committed to her pin-up popstar status with Man’s Best Friend, perhaps to its detriment. It was clear from the release of the album artwork and recent press that... Read more... |
Album: CMAT - EURO-COUNTRYFriday, 29 August 2025
Queen of the earworm Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson has had quite the summer, capturing imaginations and sparking indignation. The brazen hussy has the audacity to wear what the hell she likes while belting out her stream of catchy country-pop, life-... Read more... |
Album: The Hives - The Hives Forever, Forever The HivesWednesday, 27 August 2025
The Hives must be one of the most self-assured bands around – but not without good reason. Ever exuberant, all their tunes are short and sweet, speedy and sharp – just the way that rock’n’roll is meant to be.These Swedish garage punks first came to... Read more... |
Album: Benedicte Maurseth - MirraWednesday, 27 August 2025
During the opening seconds of Mirra, an unusual sound leaps out – a grunting. It’s integral to a shifting aural pallete which also features a bowed violin and chiming percussion along with a recurring grind like that of a rotating waterwheel. The... Read more... |
Album: Nova Twins - Parasites & ButterfliesMonday, 25 August 2025
For Nova Twins, the alternative rock/metal duo of Amy Love and Georgia South, the years since 2020 have been a non-stop journey of evolution. Exploding from the independent UK rock scene, to sharing the stage with headline names like Bring Me The... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Beatles - What's The New, Mary JaneSunday, 24 August 2025
“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... Read more... |
The Maccabees, Barrowland, Glasgow review - indie band return with both emotion and qualitySaturday, 23 August 2025
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... Read more... |
