None of McCartney’s new songs will trouble his setlist for long
On 30 May 1966, the Beatles released ‘Paperback Writer’ – a fortnight after ‘Paint It Black’ by the Rolling Stones…
Joy and melancholy from Tame Impala
About 15 years ago, I spoke to a relatively unknown neo-psychedelic musician from Western Australia called Kevin Parker. It was…
Compelling: Cowboy Junkies at Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, reviewed
Anyone who was listening to independent music back in the 1980s and 1990s might find it surprising to learn which…
How good are the Rolling Stones’ alter egos, the Cockroaches?
Would you pay a tenner on the door to see the Cockroaches, the Fireman, Patchwork, the Network and Bingo Hand…
Unrelentingly entertaining: Basement Jaxx reviewed
How would you like your nostalgia served, sir (and it is usually ‘sir’): in mist-shrouded monochrome or crazed lysergic Technicolor?…
Anthemic angst from The Twilight Sad
The only thing misery loves more than company is a backbeat. While capturing pure happiness surely remains the Holy Grail…
David Byrne has done it again
The title of David Byrne’s most recent album and current tour is Who Is The Sky?. The phrase works two…
U2’s childlike response to world affairs
Whither the protest song in 2026? In January 1970, John Lennon wrote and recorded ‘Instant Karma!’ in a single day…
Mumford & Sons are trolling themselves: Prizefighter reviewed
It is axiomatic that most artists spend the first few years of their career trying to achieve some level of…
Who stuck the great Emmylou Harris in a sports hall?
Somebody obviously thought it a good idea that Emmylou Harris play her last ever Scottish show in a soulless sports…
Zach Bryan is no Springsteen
There would, on the surface, appear to be little common ground between the wife of stuffy old Malcolm Muggeridge and…
The tedium of softboi rap
A male British rapper who is unafraid to show tenderness and vulnerability is not a particularly new phenomenon: Dave, Stormzy,…
Fionn Regan has gone method Worzel Gummidge
Watching the Mercury Music Prize on television last week, I remembered that Fionn Regan’s debut album, The End Of History,…
Has Taylor Swift been reading The Spectator?
The Last Dinner Party received quite the critical backlash when they arrived amid much fanfare in 2023. Posh, precocious and…
Uplift from an odd couple: James Yorkston & Nina Persson reviewed
Let’s hear it for the odd couples of popular music: Bowie and Bing. Shaggy and Sting. Metallica and Lou Reed.…
The problem with Chappell Roan
There is a downside to being fast-tracked into the position of this season’s newest pop sensation, and it became more…
Shambolic, spontaneously chaotic and combustible: the Lemonheads at SWG3 Galvanizers reviewed
Nowadays, when the default setting for live music is ruthlessly choreographed efficiency, there is a queasy kind of thrill in…
Ultimately hard to resist: Elbow reviewed
Our relationships with bands are often very like our relationships with people. Some are pure and lasting love. Some start…
Why I don’t get the blues
The Louisiana bluesman Buddy Guy is releasing a new album this week. It is called Ain’t Done With The Blues…
A theatrical one-woman show: Billy Eilish at the OVO Hydro, Glasgow reviewed
Like spider plants and exotic cats, certain artists are best suited to the great indoors. Lana Del Rey, for instance,…
No amount of discourse will make a good pop song into a great one
There is no higher calling than making great pop music, and no mechanism by which such an achievement can be…
Jarvis Cocker still has the voice – and the moves
For bands of a certain vintage, the art of keeping the show on the road involves a tightly choreographed dance…
Compelling: Little Simz’s Lotus reviewed
It is not uncommon for (predominantly male) music critics to invert the ‘great man/great woman’ dictum in order to suggest…
We’ve underestimated Francis Rossi
I have a friend who insists that had Status Quo hailed from Düsseldorf rather than Catford, they would nowadays be…
The powerfully disorienting world of Mark Eitzel
There’s a lot to be said for an artist making an audience feel uncomfortable. Richard Thompson used to say that…
