15 h. ago Dave: The Boy Who Played the Harp review – it’s clearer than ever what a stunningly skilled rapper he is

Returning with his first album in four years, the arena-filling UK rapper is still such a smart, sharp lyricist as he explores a series of existential crisesAs Dave notes, a few minutes into his third album, he’s been conspicuous by his absence for “a couple summers”. Four years separate The Boy Who Played the Harp from his last solo album, the platinum-selling We’re All Alone in This Together. Perhaps more strikingly, it’s been two years since he released Split Decision, the collaborative EP with Central Cee that spawned Sprinter: not just the longest-running UK rap No 1 in history, but the track that finally did the thing that it seemed increasingly unlikely a UK rap track would ever do and became a hit in the US, selling a million copies and even winding up on Barack Obama’s annual playlist. But rather than attempt to capitalise on its US success, as Central Cee did – jumping on tracks by big names ranging from J Cole to Ice Spice to Jung Kook from BTS; releasing a debut album th...

Events

21 h. ago West End Girl by Lily Allen: A masterpiece album of betrayal

Lily Allen’s first album in seven years is a searing takedown of a dying relationship that reminds us all how confessional pop is done best: with actual confessions

Politics

33 h. ago West End Girl by Lily Allen: Betrayal concept album is like The Streets writing Lemonade

Lily Allen’s first album in seven years is a searing takedown of a dying relationship that reminds us all how confessional pop is done best: with actual confessions

Politics

42 h. ago RLPO/Hindoyan: Iberia album review – Hindoyan and the RLPO turn the heat up with Spanish colours and sunshine

(Onyx) There’s addictive Latin rhythms and perfectly judged musical adrenaline in Domingo Hindoyan and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s recording of these six French works with a Spanish themeThere’s a certain reverence for a bygone era about Iberia, the latest album from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under chief conductor Domingo Hindoyan. All six works here are familiar fare, the common thread being the late-19th and early 20th-century French enthusiasm for all things Spanish. It’s the kind of programme the record industry thrived on in the 1960s and 70s. There’s nothing dusty about the playing, however, nor the state-of-the-art recording, which possesses sonic depth while leaving plenty of space for the music’s delicate perfumes to waft to the surface.For all his reserves of Venezuelan fire, Hindoyan takes a measured approach, resisting the temptation to grandstand. The results are frequently revelatory, with much that strikes the ear anew: diaphanous textures, add...

Politics

42 h. ago Iberia album review – Hindoyan and the RLPO turn the heat up with Spanish colours and sunshine

(Onyx) There’s addictive Latin rhythms and perfectly judged musical adrenaline in Domingo Hindoyan and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s recording of these six French works with a Spanish themeThere’s a certain reverence for a bygone era about Iberia, the latest album from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under chief conductor Domingo Hindoyan. All six works here are familiar fare, the common thread being the late-19th and early 20th-century French enthusiasm for all things Spanish. It’s the kind of programme the record industry thrived on in the 1960s and 70s. There’s nothing dusty about the playing, however, nor the state-of-the-art recording, which possesses sonic depth while leaving plenty of space for the music’s delicate perfumes to waft to the surface.For all his reserves of Venezuelan fire, Hindoyan takes a measured approach, resisting the temptation to grandstand. The results are frequently revelatory, with much that strikes the ear anew: diaphanous textures, add...

Politics

7 d. ago Tame Impala: Deadbeat review | Alexis Petridis’s album of the week

(Columbia)Australian indie’s breakout star takes a dancefloor diversion, but amid the four-four fun are fears about fame’s effect on his domestic lifeIn May, Dua Lipa introduced a special guest at her Sydney gig: Kevin Parker, who duetted with her on a version of The Less I Know the Better, the biggest hit Parker has ever released under the name Tame Impala. The pair have a longstanding creative relationship – Parker co-produced and co-wrote most of Dua Lipa’s last album, Radical Optimism – but nevertheless made for quite the study in contrasts. She was resplendent in a glittering lace catsuit, stiletto-heeled boots, a fake fur stole draped over her shoulder. Lank-haired, clad in a baggy multicoloured cardigan and a string of wooden beads, Parker looked not unlike a man who had arrived onstage direct from a very long night up at Glastonbury’s stone circle.You could see it as a visual metaphor for Parker’s unlikely journey to pop’s upper echelons which began, improbably enough, while...

Events

8 d. ago Sebastian Rochford: Finding Ways review | John Fordham's jazz album of the month

(Edition)Rochford showcases his signature alchemic touch, featuring seven electric guitarists in a fusion of improv, reggae and romantic popWhen Aberdeen-raised drummer and composer Sebastian Rochford’s star rose around the millennium, he quickly made an impact with his precocious and inclusive awareness of 1950-1960s Monk-and-Miles jazz grooves, rock, funk, global music and more. From 2002, Rochford’s unique sax-led quintet Polar Bear began earning nominations for Mercury, Mobo and Urban Music prizes, as well as the kind of fame rare in instrumental jazz. He also played key roles with Acoustic Ladyland, Basquiat Strings, Fulborn Teversham, Sons of Kemet, and as a sideman with Damon Albarn, Brian Eno and Adele.Finding Ways follows 2023’s A Short Diary (a duo album in partnership with pianist Kit Downes) in dealing with the death in 2019 of Rochford’s beloved poet father Gerard. The title of Finding Ways is no accident: this sharply contrasting record features edgy, metal sounds from...

Politics

8 d. ago The Last Dinner Party: From the Pyre review – baroque’n’roll band’s speedily released second album is overheated

(Island Records)The London five-piece throw the kitchen sink at these dizzyingly dense songs, often crushing their melodic pleasures in the processIn an era when new bands struggle to break into the mainstream, the Last Dinner Party’s unusually swift rise (they were supporting the Rolling Stones a mere eight months after their first gig, and won the Rising Star Brit award just two years later) meant they spent much of the press cycle for their Mercury-nominated, chart-topping 2024 debut rubbishing suggestions they’d been manufactured by the music industry. As its follow-up arrives, the London five-piece still seem defensive. “While it may seem to an outsider that we have moved quickly on to a second album,” they write in a self-penned press release, “this timing felt like a natural progression to us.”From the Pyre certainly doesn’t sound opportunistically rushed out. Quite the opposite, in fact: this is a dizzyingly dense collection of long, intricate tracks that layer biblical imag...

Society

8 d. ago Tame Impala review, Deadbeat: Imposter syndrome meets disco on this anxiety

Kevin Parker’s latest record begins with what might be the best opening track of the year, as he makes mountains out of social awkwardness molehills

Events

8 d. ago Hugh Cutting: Refound album review – an idiosyncratic and profoundly satisfying collection

(Linn)The Kathleen Ferrier award-winning countertenor’s debut recital album showcases his warm tone and effortless musical line – and his originalityIn 2021 Hugh Cutting was the first countertenor to win the Kathleen Ferrier award. Since then, he’s been consistently admired for his warm tone, effortless musical line and theatrical originality. His debut recital album continues that trend, but don’t expect the usual lineup of Handel arias or Dowland lute songs. On Refound, a collection of art songs with reinvention at its heart, his choices are eclectic, idiosyncratic even, but also profoundly satisfying.Connections and parallels abound. Ravel’s reworkings of Greek folk song pair with Vaughan Williams’ Linden Lea, Dvořák’s Biblical Songs mirror Howells’ medieval carol setting, Come Sing and Dance. It’s Cutting’s plush yet flexible voice, however, that ties it all together. His handling of text, a willingness to go deep, and an impeccable musical sensitivity illuminate each song, from...

Politics

1 week ago Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition review – fabled album falls short of expectations

(Sony Music)Rumours of the existence of E Street versions of Springsteen’s masterpiece have swirled for decades, but the reality doesn’t live up to the hypeFor the last 40-plus years, the holy grail for diehard Bruce Springsteen fans was something referred to as Electric Nebraska. The rumour circulated that there were full E Street Band versions of the songs from Springsteen’s 1982 solo acoustic release that were recorded, but remained unreleased and never leaked.Nebraska’s origin story had already made the album mythical: demos recorded in Springsteen’s bedroom got turned into a album. After spending literal years in the studio for his previous records, this time he walked in with finished songs. The cassette tape that he had carried around in his pocket got turned into a classic, five-star record of desolate modern folk songs about the dark side of the American dream. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Beethoven 5 Vol 4: Salvatore di Sciarrino album review – classical weight, contemporary subtlety

Jonathan Biss/Swedish Radio SO/Omer Meir Wellber(Orchid Classics)Biss pairs Beethoven’s fourth concerto with Sciarrino’s 21st-century miniature, creating a programme that is thoughtful and vividly expressiveTen years ago, immersed in his project to record all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, Jonathan Biss began commissioning new works to pair with each of the composer’s five piano concertos. His recordings of these with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra reach their penultimate volume with the Concerto No 4 and Salvatore Sciarrino’s 15-minute Il sogno di Stradella, conducted by Omer Meir Wellber.Biss’s tempos are unhurried in the concerto, and while his playing fizzes when Beethoven asks it to, this exuberance isn’t a constant undercurrent; the first movement sometimes feels a little episodic. Yet the tension in the middle movement between the belligerent orchestra and the serene piano is highly effective, and the finale, genial without being playful, has enough weight to balance it ...

Politics

2 w. ago The Hermes Experiment: Tree album review – vivid voices and bold textures from inventive ensemble

(Delphian)An exhilarating album of new and reimagined works by Errollyn Wallen, Laura Moody and others reaffirms this group’s reputation for fearless musical curiosityThe third album from the Hermes Experiment again shows what a liberating force in contemporary music this ensemble have become. Beautifully thought through and rewardingly eclectic, Tree begins in a melancholy but open style with Islands by Marianne Schofield, the ensemble’s bassist, and ends with the title track by Errollyn Wallen, unfolding over a steady bass like something by Purcell.Clarinettist Oliver Pashley and singer Héloïse Werner contribute their own songs while harpist Anne Denholm-Blair provides a subtly textured arrangement of Nicola LeFanu’s wistful song The Bourne. Schofield is also behind a gorgeous version of Les Rossignols by Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, initially halting and ethereal, then coalescing into something approaching its 17th-century original. Abel Selaocoe’s Buhle Bendalo is full of bea...

Politics

2 w. ago Blawan: Sick Elixir review | Alexis Petridis’s album of the week

(XL Recordings)Jamie Roberts’ unsettling take on bass music is crammed with glitchy rhythms and jolting sounds. It’s as disorienting as it is immersiveSickElixir is not an album much interested in gently easing the listener into its darkly claustrophobic world. The first thing you hear is roughly approximate to the distressing sound of someone alternately gasping for breath and attempting to clear their passages of phlegm. It’s joined by a distorted bass drum overlaid with a metal-on-metal clank in lieu of a snare. There’s a weird noise somewhere between radio interference and the sound of fabric tearing, some incomprehensible, sonically warped and doom-laden guttural chanting, and harsh electronic tones that churn and screech. All this is in the opening minute of the first track: notice is served that Jamie Roberts’ latest album is probably not for everyone.This will hardly come as a shock to anyone with prior knowledge of his oeuvre. From the moment he started releasing music as B...

Politics

3 w. ago Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl review: penis metaphors and poor little rich girl tales start to chafe

Is this really the same artist that gave us Folklore and Evermore?

Politics

3 w. ago Taylor Swift champions future husband Travis Kelce and dethrones enemies on four star new album

Our 4 star track-by-track review of Taylor Swift's The Life Of A Showgirl album digs deep into all the lyrics and Easter eggs. A celebration of her love for future husband Travis Kelce, along the way she still dabbles in a dose of poetic revenge, with a few new grunge flavours thrown in too. Peak Taylor triumphs again.

Culture

3 w. ago Christian Tetzlaff: Elgar and Adès Violin Concertos album review – refreshing and exhilarating

Tetzlaff/BBC Philharmonic/Storgårds(Ondine)The violinist’s performance of these two concertos is energetic but also thoughtful, with the BBC Phil sounding electricNot everyone who loves Elgar’s Violin Concerto is going to love Christian Tetzlaff’s new recording of it, but nobody will find it bland. What’s perhaps most striking is the pace of the performance, which knocks minutes off anybody else’s: Tetzlaff could have packed up and left the building by the time, say, Vilde Frang gets offstage. Egged on by the conductor John Storgårds – who has the BBC Philharmonic sounding electric – Tetzlaff often runs towards moments of burgeoning intensity, rather than broadening out into them, and the effect is exhilarating. The downside is that some of the more densely woven passages sound fragmented this way; Tetzlaff is like a cat playing with a mouse, continually tensing, ready to pounce.It’s not by any means all rushed, though. Sometimes Tetzlaff is introspective where other violinists are ...

Culture

4 w. ago Baltimore SO/Alsop: Clyne, Abstractions album review – Clyne writes accessible and attractive music

(Naxos)Marin Alsop’s fine recording offers a chronology of Anna Clyne’s orchestral writingOver the last couple of seasons, works by Anna Clyne seem to have been cropping up everywhere, with orchestras and ensembles eager to commission her, as they realise what strikingly attractive and accessible music she writes. Marin Alsop’s fine disc offers a brief chronology of how Clyne has developed as an orchestral composer, from 2008’s Within Her Arms, an elegy to her late mother, to the three movements, Yellow, Red, Orange, of Color Fields of 2020.Within Her Arms, whose string writing seems close to Tippett’s Corelli Fantasia at times, is impressively impassioned, but in each piece here Clyne’s command of her material seems ever more assured and focused. Each of the five short movements of Abstractions of 2016, ranging from the urgently hyperactive to the dreamily impressionistic, was inspired by a work in the Baltimore Museum of Art, while the punchy Restless Oceans, which Clyne composed ...

Culture

4 w. ago WDR SO Cologne Chamber Players: The Romantic Room, Chamber Works by Spohr album review – plenty to discover

(Pentatone, six CDs)The early 19th century German composer wrote a prodigious amount of music, little of it known today. This rewarding collection features his larger-scale chamber works The sleeve notes for this ambitiously extensive collection of Louis Spohr’s larger-scale string chamber music hails him as: “The most significant German composer between Beethoven and Schumann.” Two hundred years on, that seems a dubious claim – historically, Weber surely proved more influential – but there’s no doubt that in his lifetime, as a violin virtuoso and conductor as well as a composer, Spohr (1784-1859) was a celebrated figure across Europe. As a composer, he was certainly prodigious; he wrote in virtually every genre, and alongside his 11 operas, nine symphonies and about 30 concertos, of which at least 19 are for violin, there were copious songs and chamber music, including 34 string quartets.The selection made by the ensemble of string players from the Cologne orchestra does not includ...

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