Pop
Is this really the best Charli XCX can do?
Of the three creative pursuits that give Charli XCX’s eighth album its title, the English pop star seems least interested…
Wet Leg have become a proper rock band
Everyone uses the word ‘indie’ to describe a style of music. And Pulp and Wet Leg are two bands that…
Confessions II gets thrillingly close to vintage Madonna
There comes a point in the career of any established artist when looking backwards seems to be the only possible…
The slipperiness of Harry Styles
For the first time at a gig, I spent much of Harry Styles’s show thinking about the maths. He’s cunningly…
It’s impossible not to be impressed by Metallica
The intensely ritualised choreography of the standard summer stadium show has one inbuilt structural issue, which is especially obvious when…
Is there anything sadder than a Scots Gaelic lament?
Sad songs hit harder, I find, when their meaning hangs just out of reach. Aside perhaps from the exquisite ache…
The liberating delights of Aldous Harding
The first thing I did after getting home from the Barbican the other week was google ‘Aldous Harding neurodivergent’. It…
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…
The perfect jazz song to play at your funeral
The prospect of the new Paul McCartney album does not set my pulses racing, still less that of the Beatles…
The appeal of doom, stoner and sludge metal
It was odd, walking around Camden Town during Desertfest – the annual weekend-long celebration of doom, stoner and sludge metal…
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…
Rosalia’s O2 show was a landmark concert
If Olivia Dean is the girl next door, Rosalia is the girl next planet. Their shows in successive weeks at…
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…
Big Thief is this generation’s R.E.M.
By the time Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief was born in 1991, Kim Gordon had already released seven albums with…
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…
The joy of Belle and Sebastian
Do Belle and Sebastian have the most polite audience in pop? Normally when a pop singer leaves the stage to…
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?…
It’s time to redefine what we mean by classic rock
Classic rock used to be an American radio genre made up of bluesy guitar bands from the past. It spawned…
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…
The alluring mess of CMAT
The last time I saw CMAT – Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson – was in the middle of a grey afternoon at…
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…
Morrissey is pop’s prophet of England
Morrissey is back. And he’s sassy as hell. At the O2 on Saturday night, the once-waifish Smiths frontman turned stocky…
Flexible and imaginative: Wednesday at the Roundhouse reviewed
How is it that two things that are fundamentally the same can be completely different? Two bands, each harking back…
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…
