25 h. ago Assassin’s Creed Shadows review – the wait for Feudal Japan was more than worth it

Ubisoft's long-awaited Japan-set Assassin's Creed game does excellent justice to its setting, offering an immersive way to fight through one of the franchise's most beautifully presented locations.

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48 h. ago Review: The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra’s unconventional yet 'ground

The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra’s returned to Manchester’s AVIVA Studios for Philharmonic Sessions: The Augmented Orchestra

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50 h. ago Playboi Carti: Music review – the most anticipated rap album this decade was worth the wait

(AWGE/Interscope)Already staggeringly popular since its long-awaited release on Friday, the Atlantan rapper shows off his almost mystical level of vocal range on his jaded, narcotised third LPAlmost no album in rap history has been quite so anticipated as Music, the third album by Atlanta’s Playboi Carti. The harsh, extreme-bass sound of his second, 2020’s Whole Lotta Red, took him to a new level of fame and acclaim – it was canonised as the second best album this decade by Pitchfork (beaten only by Fiona Apple) and a massive influence on a whole generation of rage-rap from Yeat to Ken Carson, OsamaSon and numerous other noisy young MCs. Carti initially announced Whole Lotta Red’s follow-up just three months after its release. Instead, it’s been – cue Titanic grandma voice – over four years, with Pitchfork recently issuing a 34-entry breakdown of all the false dawns and teased info that Carti has drip-fed his starving fans in that time.It looked like Music (renamed from I Am Music) ...

Culture

4 d. ago 44th Move: Anthem review – veers admirably from the beaten path

(Black Acre)Pianist and producer Alfa Mist’s latest project, with drummer Richard Spaven, showcases two musicians at the top of their gameIn the London jazz scene of the past decade, pianist and producer Alfa Mist has carved out a niche of melodically intricate improvisations that play through hip-hop swing and soulful harmony. It’s a fusion best expressed across his five albums since 2015’s debut EP Nocturne, while his collaborations with other artists delve into related influences, such as lo-fi UK rap on 2016’s 2nd Exit with MC Lester Duval, and downtempo R&B on 2020’s Epoch with singer Emmavie.Mist’s latest project, 44th Move, is a duo with drummer Richard Spaven that explores rhythm. Harnessing Spaven’s astounding capacity to play time-shifting yet metronomically perfect grooves, the duo’s debut album, Anthem, is a mighty showcase of beats and keys. Tracks such as the title number and 2nd September channel the classic Mist sound, featuring reverb-laden Rhodes chords and a l...

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4 d. ago Clairo at the Eventim Apollo: an ethereal masterclass in charming soft

The Atlanta-born singer has long made introverted, introspective rock – but last night was centre stage in her lavish 70s dreamland

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5 d. ago Chappell Roan: The Giver review – saddle up, there’s a new sheriff in town

The midwest princess embraces her roots with a queer country banger about pleasure that toys with the genre’s gender and class cosplayIt’s easy to forget that in the year that Chappell Roan became one of the world’s biggest pop stars, she only released one single. Good Luck, Babe! came out in April 2024, precipitating the explosion of the US pop star as a live phenomenon who made pop hyper fun and queer again, while also remaining strikingly principled about how far she was willing to go for her art.When streaming demands that pop stars pebbledash releases in order to stay buoyant on playlists, her disinclination to capitalise on Good Luck, Babe!’s success with more material is reflective of Roan’s confidence in her way of doing things, whether persisting with a vision that her previous label rejected – and being totally vindicated for it – or using her recent Grammys win to call for labels to provide musicians with proper healthcare. The tactic has paid off: in the absence of new s...

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5 d. ago Lady Gaga: Mayhem review – a wholesale rewind to core career values

(Interscope)It’s back to the dancefloor as the US superstar doubles down on what she does best – albeit with one eye on Madonna, Charli xcx, Taylor Swift and more Pop stars spend their careers impaled on the horns of a perennial dilemma: whether to reinvent themselves and show range, or stick to core value variations. With Mayhem, her sixth solo album, her 10th overall, Lady Gaga has dumped the former strategy, which was stuttering of late, for an emphatic reiteration of the latter.Mayhem marks a wholesale return to dancefloor freakiness, complete with self-quotes (Abracadabra) and a hard-edged electronic takedown of fame (Perfect Celebrity) that would not have been misplaced on her debut album, 2008’s The Fame. Continue reading...

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5 d. ago Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek: Yarın Yoksa review | Ammar Kalia's global album of the month

(Big Crown Records)Fuzzy, hypnotic beats, soulful saz-funk and emotive balladry mark Yıldırım’s powerfully imaginative new music, produced by Leon MichelsSince the 1960s, Turkish groups have honed a distinct blend of Anatolian folk and psychedelia. Early pioneers Moğollar and Erkin Koray electrified the lute-like saz, while newer acts such as Baba Zula and Altın Gün have added synths, dub echo and heavy fuzz to the mix. German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım has meanwhile taken a downtempo approach since her 2019 debut album Kar Yağar, singing soaring vocals over hazy reverb to produce soulful saz-funk.Yıldırım’s third album with her band Grup Şimşek is their first working with analogue soul producer Leon Michels (who produced pop singer Clairo’s acclaimed latest) and the resulting 11 tracks luxuriate in warm acoustics, tape hiss and earthy basslines. Opener Çiçek Açıyor sets the tone with Yıldırım’s powerful falsetto ascending beautifully over a driving, mid-tempo groove of fuzzing b...

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7 d. ago Review: Sharon Van Etten delivers touching David Lynch tribute at Manchester show that packs plenty of sonic nods

The stained-glass surroundings of the Manchester venue perfectly suit the American singer's gothic aesthetic

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8 d. ago Sharon Van Etten at the Royal Albert Hall review: a stunning homecoming

With dry ice, gothic reimaginings of classic tracks and lashings of drama, this felt like the 44-year-old’s most complete performance yet

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8 d. ago Review: Teddy Swims delivers show packed full of hits and mammoth vocals at Co

Teddy Swims wowed Manchester fans on the latest leg of his ;I've Tried Everything But Therapy' tour

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9 d. ago The Darkness review – retro rockers are still in acrobatically high spirits

Swansea Building Society ArenaFresh from Taylor Swift’s endorsement, Justin Hawkins and his hard-riffing band can still strut and peacock with the best – so it’s a shame about the bad sound mixMidway through the deliriously profane Get Your Hands Off My Woman, Justin Hawkins demands that the crowd claps along. Before you know it, the frontman is standing on his head and joining in by slapping together the heels of his pointy white shoes. There has already been bountiful swearing and ripping guitars, and now there is showing off. All is right in the Darkness’s world.Hawkins has never misplaced his desire to peacock in front of an audience, and yet his acrobatic high spirits do appear to be supercharged at an interesting moment in the group’s long career. Fresh from becoming a side quest for Taylor Swift’s legion of fans due to her admiration of their 2003 hit I Believe in a Thing Called Love – a song dispatched here with undimmed bombast – the Darkness have a new record out shortly t...

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9 d. ago Sabrina Carpenter’s naughty O2 show makes tweens shriek (and their parents blush)

The pop behemoth delivers a raucous, cheeky and innuendo-filled rendition of her chart-topping album ‘Short n Sweet’

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1 week ago Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver: Hinterland review – folk at its most exalted

(Ear to the Ground)Sealing years of collaboration with their first official duo album, the singer and producer fuse folklore and the everyday with dazzling directnessSince her 2007 debut, Wild and Undaunted, Londoner Lisa Knapp has blazed an impressive trail at the avant edge of British folk, her bravura vocals lighting up self-penned songs and well-loved standards, while the inventive arrangements of partner and producer Gerry Diver – now credited as co-creator – have helped capture the wyrdness, wonder and darkness of folklore.On Hinterland, the pair repeat the trick to thrilling effect. Opener Hawk & Crow has Knapp at her larkish best, giving voice to a cast of birds over a stumbling, broken rhythm – a kind of elfin Tom Waits. The spoken-word Train Song relocates us to today’s mundane realities – “poplars tall, village hall, stately home, sewage works” – before Star Carr whisks us back to the Mesolithic Yorkshire site where ritual headdresses of red deer antler hint at ancien...

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1 week ago Jack White review – rock’n’roll showman makes believers of us all

Troxy, London Touring his 2024 solo album No Name in a barnstorming gig, the former White Stripe plays fast and loose with the truth but is absolutely the real deal“Do you believe me yet?” yells Jack White from the lip of the stage, a few songs into his second night’s work at this classy art deco venue in east London. It’s a very Jack White kind of location: highly stylised, lovingly restored, but not entirely removed from its unglamorous surroundings.Lit in deep blue and strobing white, the colour palette of his solo career, White and his band have played tracks from his most recent album, the surprise-released No Name, first handed out free on white-label vinyl to unsuspecting shoppers at Third Man stores in Nashville, Detroit and London last summer (Third Man Records is White’s own imprint). It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking) is a particularly rousing workout full of guitar shock and awe, from an album that has drawn relieved and delighted comparisons to White’s first band, th...

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1 week ago Rizzle Kicks look back: ‘Because of how fast it went, we became delusional about how easy it was to get successful’

Jordan Stephens and Harley Alexander-Sulé on their early success, breakup, and why good friendships are like the tideJordan Stephens and Harley Alexander-Sulé started making music at the Brit school for performing arts in south London. In 2011, they released their debut album, Stereo Typical, which featured Top 10 hits including Down With the Trumpets and Mama Do the Hump. Rizzle Kicks went on hiatus in 2016, due to addiction and mental health problems. They are now back with Competition Is for Losers, their first album in a decade. Continue reading...

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1 week ago Doves at Aviva Studios: Manchester heroes' first home city shows in 15 years worth the wait

'Hello beautiful Mancunians... what a posh venue, we'll have to up our game'

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1 week ago Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count was well worth the wait – read my full review

The award-winning authors new novel explores four women’s lives

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1 week ago Sasami: Blood on the Silver Screen review – a quirky move to the mainstream

(Domino)The US artist segues from industrial metal to radio-friendly pop most memorable for its vividly relatable lyricsSasami Ashworth’s gentle indie rock debut, Sasami (2019), felt reasonably familiar to fans of her previous band, Cherry Glazerr; the bracingly industrial metal of 2022’s Squeeze less so. Now the California musician has moved into sprightly, shiny pop for her third solo album, picking over matters of the heart. And the groin – apparently, Lana Del Rey-alike Nothing But a Sad Face On is about Eve’s mixed emotions after being “banished from the Garden of Eden for fucking a snake”. Don’t fret if you can’t recall that precise bible story; Ashworth has plenty more relatable tales of compromised, messy modern-day dating.Pop may not always come naturally to her. Most of Ashworth’s choruses linger on the ear no longer than a lost ladybird, and the deft Taylor Swift via Grimes-sounding production can’t conceal a dearth of durable material. But Slugger is surefooted, summery ...

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1 week ago Lady Gaga Mayhem review: murderous music to dance all night to

Bleach your eyebrows and head to your nearest gay bar, Lady Gaga is back

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