3 h. ago Alabaster DePlume: A Blade Because a Blade Is Whole review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(International Anthem)While some listeners might baulk at the earnest spoken-word incantations, you can’t argue with DePlume’s outstanding melodies, played with tremulous vibratoAlabaster DePlume’s seventh album comes with a statement of purpose. “What is it FOR?” asks the accompanying blurb, written by the artist, born Angus Fairbairn. “To inspire and facilitate our independent healing Recently I told everyone to ‘go forward in the courage of your love’ and ‘be brazen like a baby’. Following this incitement to boldness it is only fair that I offer a perspective on healing whatever comes as a result.”There is more – a lot more, including a poem – but you get the gist. An album arriving with an explicit mission statement is an unusual occurrence, but to anyone familiar with Fairbairn and his work, the obvious response is: well, of course it does. The only variable is whether you say that in a tone of delight or with a roll of the eyes. Since his 2020 breakthrough with the soothing To...

Politics

5 d. ago Sam Fender scores biggest opening week for British album since Harry Styles

It comes as the singer prepares to perform at the Brit Awards this weekend.

Politics

7 d. ago Panda Bear: Sinister Grift review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Domino)Noah Lennox’s powerful and adventurous album has plenty of playlistable psych-pop, but then turns introspective: it’s a striking emotional arcThe last time the world heard from Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox, he was in the company of Pete Kember, better known as Sonic Boom, co-founder of Spacemen 3 – the latest in a string of musical left-turns that have made Lennox the most prolific and intriguing member of Animal Collective. Solo, he has variously spawned an entire sub-genre more or less singlehanded (the sample-heavy sound of his acclaimed 2007 album Person Pitch effectively gave birth to chillwave), collaborated with Daft Punk, Solange, Paramore and Jamie xx, commissioned dub albums from On-U Sound’s Adrian Sherwood, and dabbled in a stark acoustic sound on 2019’s Buoys.Lennox and Kember’s collaborative album, Reset, united two generations of psychedelic experimentalists in a charmingly playful musical dialogue. Among its delights was a track called Whirlpool. It sounded beati...

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9 d. ago Hard rock duo Nova Twins debut songs from upcoming album at Brits Week gig

The pair thanked their fans for ‘keeping venues alive’ during the gig at London’s Omeara.

Culture

1 week ago Ringo Starr's recent performance leaves Beatles fans all saying same thing

Ringo Starr was seen performing at The Opry in Nashville, Tennessee last week as he continues touring his latest album, Look Up, and fans are all saying the same thing about The Beatles' star

Sport

2 w. ago Sam Fender: People Watching review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Polydor)On his third album, produced by the War on Drugs, the North Shields singer-songwriter shows just how gifted he is at pairing stadium choruses with sharp, bleak vignettesSam Fender’s third album ends with a track called Remember My Name. It’s clearly a very personal song, about its author’s late grandfather – even revealing the address of his council house, 11 Walk Avenue. The northern British references – “Chasing a cross in from the wing / Our boy’s a whippet, he’s faster than anything” – are amplified both by Fender’s Geordie vowels and the backing, provided by the Easington Colliery brass band. It’s all very specific and individual – you really don’t hear brass bands, or indeed the mention of whippets in pop very often – and yet Remember My Name seems to have something of the self-fulfilling prophecy about it. You can immediately imagine its soaring melody being sung en masse by a huge festival audience, which is, one suspects, precisely the destiny that awaits it.It’s a...

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