albums

A new solo album by a former Beatle that – astonishingly – demands repeated plays

18 January 2025 9:00 am

For artists lacking any obvious feel for the style, ‘going country’, similar to mainstream white artists dabbling in reggae in…

The real best album of last year

4 January 2025 9:00 am

Grade: A+ In a desperate wish to avoid the appellation of a derided genre, this young man from Asheville, North…

Dazzling: Marc-André Hamelin’s Hammerklavier

23 November 2024 9:00 am

Grade: A When Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata was published in 1818, pianists were confronted with a mixture of ‘demonic energy and…

Goodbye to MC5, the holiest of rock’s holy cows

16 November 2024 9:00 am

Grade: D+ Ah, the original Linkin Park, except even more spavined. MC5 came outta Detroit in the mid 1960s and…

Terrifically good value: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds reviewed

9 November 2024 9:00 am

A few years ago, I received an early morning phone call from Nick Cave’s former PR, berating me for not…

A box set for those on the spectrum: Markus Poschner’s Bruckner Symphonies reviewed

28 September 2024 9:00 am

Grade: B+ Anton Bruckner wrote 11 symphonies – Numbers One to Nine plus a student exercise and the formidable rejected…

How some of the most derided bands of all time are making a comeback

28 September 2024 9:00 am

The fate of the pop musician – at least the pop musician below the top tier of stardom – has…

The ethics of posthumous pop albums

28 September 2024 9:00 am

‘At the record company meeting/ On their hands – at last! – a dead star!’ Back when Morrissey was more…

Too bombastic to be country music: Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion reviewed

24 August 2024 9:00 am

Grade: B Country music has become the acceptable route through which American pop stars resuscitate their floundering careers: sales are…

Jack White’s new album will be of close interest to Led Zeppelin’s legal team

3 August 2024 9:00 am

The ploy of releasing an album without any advance warning comes into play when an artist feels they are being…

Camila Cabello’s new album presents an existential threat to songwriting

6 July 2024 9:00 am

It is always interesting to observe the ways in which pop stars try to negotiate first growing up, and then…

The weird, hypnotic world of Willie Nelson

25 May 2024 9:00 am

Many years ago, I wrote a book about Willie Nelson. At its conclusion, I reached for an elegiac, valedictory tone.…

Taylor Swift’s new album is exhausting

27 April 2024 9:00 am

How to explain the supercharged star power of Taylor Swift? An undeniably gifted artist, Swift’s albums 1989, Folklore and Evermore,…