New music
Tom Carr
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.So perhaps predictably, their latest, Breach, continues the story. The yarn the duo has been spinning for ten years is a dystopian tale set in a fictional city called Dema. Dema is run by nine bishops, one of which is a titular Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
“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. Meanwhile the world burns.Not his fault of course, the trouble we’re all in. He seems a decent man, likeable, good values. But why do so many relate to this drivel? It deflates the soul. Play Read more ...
Ellie Roberts
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.Single “She Is Afraid” did a Read more ...
Kathryn Reilly
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...This is a very different proposition from the last album, I Thought I Was Better Than You (full disclosure, I gave it album of the year on this very site, so this was going to have to work hard to impress). The different tone is down to producer Paul Epworth (Adele, Rhianna, Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
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 electronica she has been associated with since the late 1990s.The title track exhibits an acid house pulse. “Seven vows سبع صنايع” begins as a smoky ballad but quickly incorporates ominous washes of sound and echoing, gun-shot percussion. “Shadia شادية”, the most linear track, has a Seventies film-theme vibe. “Mor مرّ التجنّي” evokes a desiccated, Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
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 wild heads are at. Their latest is a good one. Their garage instincts are intact, but they also render loose-limbed, fibrous versions of country music, southern soul and indie guitar pop. There aren’t many bands who could write a song with a chorus that runs, “I just want a prick of my own”, and make it a catchy new wave singalong akin to the best Read more ...
Jonathan Geddes
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 a way that suggested she wasn’t bothered if the call was actually heeded. Then again, perhaps it was just a sign that she knew the gesture would have the desired effect, given her evident popularity here.Two albums into her career, and with this show – her first ever in Scotland – upgraded due to demand, the 28-year-old appears in a settled Read more ...
Mark Kidel
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 gets everyone to join her in what can only be described as a communal act of devotion. This is a kind of high-wire daring, and it works, suggesting as well that she's assured of a large group of listeners for whom she can do no wrong.Now well-established as a purveyor of spiritual jazz and traditional South Indian chants, born and raised in New York Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
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. It came out in November 1975.Setting the trend for what was around the corner with punk, not only was The Count Bishops EP on an independent label it also came in a picture sleeve. The label was an outgrowth of the Rock On record stall and shop. The folks behind the imprint – Roger Armstrong, Ted Carroll and Trevor Churchill – all had backgrounds Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
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 he calls “cosmic country”. At his best, it has qualities that elevate the human spirit.On his latest, his 13th album in a quarter-century career, the music is variable, but the lyricism seldom flags. The album is titled for his muse, which he calls “my honeydew” (yes, overly cutesy), and the songs are in honour of that. Be that as it may, the 10 Read more ...
Mark Kidel
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 spiritually orientated artists working in popular music today. He's always been true to form, whether wearing outsize suits or doing almost robotic dances. His latest album is in many ways no surprise, as although he’s decades older than when he sang “psycho-killer, qu’est ce que c’est” or recreated sound poems by Dadaist poet Kurt Schwitters, his Read more ...
Miranda Heggie
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, Manchester-based promoters Now Wave brought a mix of bigger names and lesser-known bands to these various stages.Opening with a set from English experimental rockers The Moonlandingz, the band brought an irreverent humour to their set, with lead singer Lias Saoudi (who also fronts alt-rock group Fat White Family) joked that they had the "worst slot of the Read more ...