17 h. ago Westlife at the Royal Albert Hall: raising the roof one bar stool

Harmonies and hits mesh gloriously with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Politics

49 h. ago Erykah Badu at Royal Albert Hall: 'An Afrofuturistic universe of cosmic wisdom'

The multi-Grammy winner takes the Royal Albert Hall to the stars and back

Politics

5 d. 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

5 d. ago Mohinder Kaur Bhamra: Punjabi Disco review – rediscovery of an 80s trailblazer

(Naya Beat)Punjabi folk vocals backed by hammering electronic percussion, disco basslines and fizzing synth melody: a key predecessor to the Asian dance music explosionIn 1982, London-based Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra recorded a true oddity. Accompanied by her son Kuljit on an early Roland synthesiser and drum machine, the pair laid down nine tracks of Punjabi folk vocals backed by hammering electronic percussion, disco basslines and fizzing synth melody. Only 500 copies of the resulting album, Punjabi Disco, were pressed; it was released to confusion from a diaspora audience used to the bombast of bhangra. In the decades since, rare LPs have appeared on resale sites, but Kuljit’s recent rediscovery of the master tapes has now made the record widely available for the first time.The blipping electronic toms and rattling shaker of opening number Disco Wich Aa set the tone, gradually building a swaying groove over siren-like synth melody before Mohinder’s falsetto vocal...

Politics

5 d. ago Jennifer Walton: Daughters review – a stylish and painful debut

(Local Action)Fiction, folk and a devastating diagnosis feature in the producer and DJ’s literary penmanship, her gentle, gothic vocals thick with morbid, magical thinkingMiss America, the centrepiece of Jennifer Walton’s stylish, painful debut record, sits us down in a hotel room near JFK airport, watching on as Walton learns that her father has been diagnosed with cancer. The Sunderland-born musician had been touring the US for the first time, drumming with indie band Kero Kero Bonito, and now grief greys everything out. Faltering piano and hushed strings accompany gothic dispatches from the tour van: “Cattle farm and broke down shack / Strip-mall, drug deal, panic attacks.”Walton’s gentle vocals are deadpan, with the record’s tension brought by her penmanship (encompassing fiction, folksy sayings and blunt diary entries) and her sharp, surprising maximalism. Few songs this year have stronger novelistic flair than Shelly, which witnesses the killing of a deer and spirals into a pe...

Politics

5 d. ago Demi Lovato review, It’s Not That Deep: Plenty of human heart pumping beneath the bangers

If the hooks and vocal commitment feel so steel-cored, it’s perhaps because the pop star is hanging onto them for dear life

Politics

5 d. 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

5 d. 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

5 d. 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

6 d. ago Stephen Kovacevich and friends at Wigmore Hall review: time for our annual dose of magic

When keyboard giants Stephen Kovacevich and Martha Argerich come together, it’s always an unmissable event

Politics

7 d. ago Dekmantel Festival 2025 review: still showing others how it's done

11 years in, this legendary music festival in Amsterdam continues to draw in a heady mix of rising talent and big hitters

Culture

1 week 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

1 week 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

1 week 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

1 week 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

1 week 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 Mitsuko Uchida at Wigmore Hall review: 'A full house for a consummate artist'

Mitsuko Uchida’s sell-out recital at Wigmore Hall showed a pianist in total command

Politics

2 w. ago Albert Herring review – ENO heralds new era with witty staging of Britten’s story of a mummy’s boy

Coliseum, LondonEnglish National Opera’s first shared production between London and Salford is a fluent and finely sung take on Britten’s 1947 comic opera. Antony McDonald’s lively staging gives the slender tale a sitcom feelThis is English National Opera’s first production shared between London and Greater Manchester – where the company has been obliged to plan to move its base, following Arts Council England’s diktat. The choice of a relatively small-scale opera – necessary in the circumstances – means it was never going to be the kind of show to announce the new era with a bang. Albert Herring is Britten’s 1947 work based on a slender 19th-century French story about a mummy’s boy suddenly finding freedom calls for only a small orchestra and no chorus, so the company won’t be heading en masse to Salford next week. It’s regular fare at music colleges thanks to its large and even cast, but this staging, surprisingly, is an ENO first.Billing Antony McDonald’s production as a semi-sta...

Politics

2 w. 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 La Bohème review – noirish reframing of Puccini’s classic weepy

Glyndebourne, SussexFloris Visser’s stylish bohemia recalls Brassaï’s Paris, while Puccini’s score is delivered with crispness and elasticityDitching the penguin suits and picnic hampers for affordable tickets and a smart-casual elegance, Glyndebourne’s autumn season opened with Floris Visser’s stylish La Bohème. Seamlessly revived by Rachael Hewer, it not only looks good, it does full justice to Puccini’s classic weepy while finding novel ways to raise the odd goosebump.Dieuweke van Reij’s set – a metaphorical highway to heaven – serves for all four acts with more than a nod to Brassaï’s noirish photos of 1930s Paris. Bare walls and glistening cobblestones are breathtakingly lit by Alex Brok, while Jon Morrell’s monochrome costumes ooze couture. Visser’s bohemians inhabit a kind of twilight zone, a world of fogs, gendarmes and prostitutes, where the spectre of Death stalks the streets with the consumptive Mimì firmly in his sights.At Glyndebourne, Sussex, until 2 November. Continue...

Politics