43 h. ago Julien Baker and Torres: Send a Prayer My Way review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Matador)The two deep south songwriters ditch country’s rhinestones for a personal, defiant reframing of the genre’s tropesThe origins of Send a Prayer My Way stretch back nearly a decade. The partnership between US singer-songwriters Mackenzie “Torres” Scott and Julien Baker germinated in 2016, when the pair performed together in Chicago. Scott subsequently suggested, in a text sent during the pandemic, that they make a country album. Accusations that the pair are jumping on an ongoing trend for high-profile pivots towards a Nashville-oriented sound – which has so far involved the likes of Beyoncé, Post Malone, Zayn Malik, Chappell Roan and Lana Del Rey – are thus diffused.Nevertheless, it still feels telling that Send a Prayer My Way arrives now. Baker has spent much of the 2020s as one-third of Boygenius, a collaboration with Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers that made her far more famous than her previous solo albums. It spiralled into something that resembled a genuine pop phenome...

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5 d. ago David Bowie’s daughter Lexi Jones launches new album with defiant message to haters

Lexi Jones proved she'd inherited her father's aptitude for music this week with the release of her debut album, but despite the milestone she has shared her frustration at being compared to the music icon

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6 d. ago Will Smith's comeback album 'flops' as his first record in 20 years sells very few copies in the wake of the Chris Rock Oscars slap scandal

Last month, the actor and rapper, 56, released his latest record Based On A True Story, but despite his superstar status, the album only sold 268 copies in its first week in the UK.

Science

2 w. ago Black Country, New Road: Forever Howlong review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Ninja Tune)After losing their frontman, the band’s third studio album shows how resilient and adaptable they are, with luscious melodies, fantastical lyrics and lots of recordersThe last time Black Country, New Road released a studio album, in 2022, it was accompanied by a strange feeling. Their debut the previous year had reached No 4 in the UK charts, and Ants from Up There was an even greater breakthrough, the sound of the UK septet pulling confidently away from the serried ranks of sprechgesang-heavy alt-rock bands who proliferated in the late 2010s. But there was an elegiac feeling around its release: Black Country, New Road’s frontman, Isaac Wood, had announced his departure four days prior. The others had resolved to continue without him, but given how distinctive Wood’s declarative, ruminating vocals were, many thought the band’s future was uncertain at best.That proved to be an underestimation. Instead of touring Ants from Up There, the remaining members stopped playing an...

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2 w. ago Skunk Anansie to headline The Independent’s stage at The Great Escape Festival

Rare intimate performance will take place a week before the release of the band’s first album in nine years

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3 w. ago Lucy Dacus: Forever Is a Feeling review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Geffen/Polydor)The Virginia songwriter gets lost in understatement on a loved-up album about her relationship with bandmate Julien Baker, shrouding sharp lyrics in shy melodiesLast February, the American “indie rock supergroup” Boygenius – AKA Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus – announced an indefinite hiatus. The announcement came a couple of weeks before their solitary album, The Record, won three of the seven Grammys for which it had been nominated. This was a suitably triumphant ending to a project that had been garlanded with acclaim, both for their music – “at the vanguard of keeping rock alive,” as one US magazine editor put it – and their willingness to indulge in attention-grabbing gestures, frequently designed to prick at the male domination of rock history.Their debut EP came in a sleeve that referenced that of Crosby, Stills & Nash’s eponymous 1969 album. They dressed as the Beatles for an appearance on Saturday Night Live and as Nirvana on the cover of R...

Politics

4 w. ago Bryan Ferry and Amelia Barratt: Loose Talk review | Alexis Petridis’ album of the week

(Dene Jesmond)Veering from the standard heritage-artist playbook, Ferry pairs unearthed demos from across his career with cool narration from Barratt, to beautiful, unsettling effectThere comes a point in every august artist’s career where they’re forced to make an accommodation with their own past, a tacit acknowledgment that anything new they release exists in the shadow of their own back catalogue. In recent years, Bryan Ferry has done just that, tending his legacy via vast box set retrospectives of his solo work; reconvening Roxy Music for a 50th anniversary tour; and releasing a cover of Bob Dylan’s She Belongs to Me that seemed to discreetly reference the subtler moments on Roxy’s eponymous debut or 1973’s For Your Pleasure.Anniversary tours, deluxe box sets, slyly referential cover versions: these are the things almost all artists of a certain vintage and standing indulge in. But Ferry has also taken a more idiosyncratic parallel approach to his history. On 2012’s The Jazz Ag...

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