2 h. ago Joy Crookes: Juniper review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Insanity)Four years ago, the south Londoner’s star was on the rise with her debut Skin – then she vanished. Now, she’s back with shimmering sounds and cleverly unsentimental lyrics, plus explosive cameos by Vince Staples and KanoIn an overcrowded pop market, where artists are encouraged to maintain a constant presence and stream of what’s depressingly termed “product”, south London singer-songwriter Joy Crookes’s career has progressed in a curious series of fits and starts. After releasing a series of EPs, she ended 2019 as a hotly tipped act: appearances on Later With Jools Holland, nominated for the Brits Rising Star award, placed high in the BBC’s Sound of 2020 poll, invited to support Harry Styles on tour. But the latter was nixed by Covid, and her real commercial breakthrough didn’t arrive for nearly two years: released at the tail-end of 2021, her debut album Skin made the Top 5 and, in Feet Don’t Fail Me Now, spawned one of those long-tail viral hits that achieves a weird om...

Politics

14 h. ago Ed Sheeran admits he was 'intensely unhappy for years' as he reveals how chart topping success came at a price

The hitmaker, 34, who released his eighth studio album Play last week, is one of the most successful songwriters of his generation, yet the dizzying heights of fame came at a cost.

Politics

22 h. ago Robbie Williams delays release of new album Britpop to 2026 due to 'scheduling issues'

The album’s original release week coincided with Taylor Swift’s new album Life of a Showgirl dropping, though this has not been confirmed as a factor in the delay

Politics

8 d. ago Cmat, Pulp and PinkPantheress among Mercury prize shortlist light on new names

Only two debut albums – including the ‘token’ jazz release – feature among this year’s list of nominations for the coveted UK and Irish music prizeA raft of familiar names fill this year’s list of Mercury prize nominations, with only two debuts among the 12 shortlisted albums. In Limerence, the first full-length by the Scottish folk songwriter Jacob Alon, and Hamstrings and Hurricanes, the first by Welsh jazz musician Joe Webb, will compete with the likes of Pulp’s comeback album More, folk godfather Martin Carthy’s Transform Me Then Into a Fish and the album with the UK’s biggest opening week of the year so far, People Watching by Sam Fender.The list is split 50/50 between male and female or mixed acts. The solo female artists on the list tend to the iconoclastic: Irish pop star Cmat’s acclaimed third album Euro-Country, Leeds jazz musician Emma-Jean Thackray’s Weirdo, FKA twigs’ Eusexua and PinkPantheress’s mixtape Fancy That. As for bands, as well as Pulp, the Irish band Fontaine...

Politics

1 week ago Sabrina Carpenter leaves UK artist's fuming as album shatters impressive record

Pop icon Sabrina Carpenter released her seventh studio album Man's Best Friend this week and the US singer has beaten several UK artists to the top of the charts

Culture

1 week ago Sabrina Carpenter secures biggest opening week of 2025 for an international artist with Man's Best Friend after she hit back at the 'older generation' for criticising her 'over

Man's Best Friend - which eclipses the year's previous best - even tops the Official Vinyl Albums Chart, the most popular record of the week on wax, shifting 85,500 units in its first seven days.

Events

2 w. ago David Byrne: Who Is the Sky? review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Matador)His last album was criticised for being too upbeat during Trump 1.0 but became a phenomenal live show, and the Talking Heads frontman remains sunny – almost to a faultIt is seven years since David Byrne released his last solo album, American Utopia. So much has happened in the intervening period that it’s easy to forget that, initially, the record received a mixed response. There was praise for its expansive and experimental approach: songs built on rhythms by Brian Eno were handed over to a wide selection of producers to tinker with, then Byrne compiled the finished product. Part of a larger multimedia project called Reasons to Be Cheerful, it attempted to engender a spirit of positivity, but there were complaints that this amounted to a blithe abdication of responsibility amid the first Trump presidency. Respectful long-service-medal reviews coexisted with angry fulminating over the complete absence of female contributors.A mixed response was business as usual as far as B...

Politics

2 w. ago Brit winner and former Little Mix star Jade is coming to Bury

The Angel of my Dreams hitmaker is coming to the borough next week for a special album signing

Politics

2 w. ago The Jury: Murder Trial to Essex Honey: the week in rave reviews

A TV recreation brings gobsmacking courtroom drama, and gorgeous melodies meet languorous funk on Blood Orange’s latest album. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Wolf Alice top UK albums chart with latest offering The Clearing

Their fourth studio album also sits atop the official vinyl albums chart this week.

Politics

3 w. ago Blood Orange: Essex Honey review | Alexis Petridis’s album of the week

(RCA)Gorgeous melodies ground Dev Hynes’s questing fifth album, via dancefloor rhythms, indie pop and languorous funk – and cameos from Lorde and Zadie SmithDev Hynes’s fifth studio album as Blood Orange opens with a series of unexpected musical juxtapositions. The first track, Look at You, starts out with softly sung vocals over a cushion of equally soft synthesiser chords, before stopping dead, then re-emerging as almost an entirely different song: harmonies over guitar chords strummed so lazily you can hear the plectrum hitting each individual string. The second, Thinking Clean, offers a piano over pattering hi-hats: there’s something anticipatory about it, like an intro that’s about to burst into life, but when it does – complete with dancefloor rhythm – the song swiftly falls apart. The piano becomes increasingly abstract, before everything gives way to scrabbling, apparently improvised cello.It’s a lot to cram into six minutes, but anyone familiar with Blood Orange’s back cata...

Events

3 w. ago Radiohead’s Let Down enters US Billboard charts 28 years after its release

Song from 1997 album OK Computer scores band their fourth spot in the chart after going viral on TikTokRadiohead have entered the US singles chart with a song from their album OK Computer that has gone viral on social media 28 years after its release.Let Down, the third single from the British band’s 1997 album, entered at No 91 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week after rising in popularity on TikTok. Continue reading...

Economics

3 w. ago The tale of two Taylors! From Hollywood showmances to rebelling against studios

Last week, the Pennsylvania-born songstress revealed the second track on the album to the late actress, with whom she shares half her name.

Culture

3 w. ago Earl Sweatshirt: Live Laugh Love review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Tan Cressida/Warner Records)With a sunlit disposition and paeans to his daughter, the mood turns lighter on the US MC’s sixth album – but the glitching, crashing beats are as esoteric as everThe launch party for Earl Sweatshirt’s sixth album was, by all accounts, a confounding affair. Some attenders came away convinced that Live Laugh Love contained guest appearances not merely by Vince Staples, but actor/rapper Donald Glover and comedian Dave Chappelle (it doesn’t, although all three contributed to a fanzine produced for the event). At one juncture, the DJ announced the arrival of “my brother, Earl Sweatshirt” before the appearance of someone who was visibly not Earl Sweatshirt – he was Asian, and apparently goes under the winning stage name Gary Underpants – performing a succession of Earl Sweatshirt songs. In the aftermath, at least one online music title didn’t seem sure whether it actually was a launch party for a new album or “an elaborate prank”: would a man whose grim world...

Politics

last month Wolf Alice announce intimate London gig to launch new album ‘The Clearing’ this week

Wolf Alice announce intimate London gig to launch new album ‘The Clearing’ this week  NME

Politics