5 h. ago Model/Actriz: Pirouette review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(True Panther Sounds/Dirty Hit)Inspired by Mariah and Kylie but full of jackhammer rhythms and noise, the quartet’s second album could attract a big followingYou can see why Model/Actriz’s 2023 debut album Dogsbody attracted a lot of approving critical attention. In an era when rock music largely leans towards familiarity – where originality has essentially come to mean rearranging recognisable sounds from the past in a relatively fresh way – here was a band who genuinely didn’t seem to sound much like anyone else.The Brooklyn quartet had released a handful of noisy singles pre-Covid, which attracted vague comparisons to the notoriously challenging clangour of the late 70s no wave movement or the frenetic dance-punk of Liars, an outlier band on the far left field of the early 00s New York scene that gave the world the Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But on Dogsbody they honed their sound into something entirely their own. Continue reading...

Culture

7 d. ago Self Esteem: A Complicated Woman review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Polydor)After her big breakthrough and West End fame, Rebecca Lucy Taylor works through her worries in real time on her new album – to fascinating and confusing effectLast week, London’s Duke of York’s theatre played host to an elaborate four-night live staging of Self Esteem’s third album. Devised by Self Esteem herself – Rebecca Lucy Taylor – along with Tony award-winning theatrical director and designer Tom Scutt, it was rapturously received by critics, and seemed to speak of an entirely understandable confidence on Taylor’s part.Since 2017, she has completely reinvented herself, from one half of middle-ranking indie duo Slow Club into an on-her-own-terms pop star. Her second album as Self Esteem, 2021’s Prioritise Pleasure, was a critical and commercial success, shifting her into the realm of breakfast TV interviews and appearances on The Graham Norton Show and Celebrity Bake-Off. She also has a burgeoning career as an actor, having played Sally Bowles in a West End production ...

Politics

2 w. 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...

Politics

2 w. 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

Politics

2 w. 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

4 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...

Politics

4 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

Politics