9 h. ago Taylor Swift retains number one album and single in UK charts for second week

The pop star broke a number of UK chart records following the release of her 12th studio album, The Life Of A Showgirl.

Politics

15 h. ago Add to playlist: Conna Haraway’s deeply detailed dub techno and the week’s best new tracks

Listening to Shifted, a new EP from the Glasgow producer, is like running your hand over cool, subtly textured slate tilingFrom Bath, now based in GlasgowRecommended if you like Porter Ricks, Basic Channel, Robert Hood Up next Manchester and Glasgow DJ sets this weekend, a China and Japan tour in November, and new collaborative project Departure releasing an album in NovemberAs autumn paints the British air, skies and seas grey-white, it’s time to colour-match your soundtrack accordingly. Dub techno is something I always reach for at this time of year, cold but with a crackle of heat at its heart. Pioneered in the early 90s and blending stern techno with kindlier ambient and the sagely nodding offbeat of dub, it has been a deep, slow current in dance culture ever since and still has excellent new proponents such as Purelink, Cousin and the Glasgow producer Conna Haraway (who also heads up the labels co:clear and Index:Records). Continue reading...

Politics

19 h. 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

19 h. ago After years in the music industry, Jessica Winter is forging her own pop path

The star has just released her first music album in her thirties - and has never felt so liberated

Politics

22 h. ago Ty Dolla $ign returns with ‘Tycoon,’ his first solo album in five years

The inventive R&B artist Ty Dolla $ign released his fifth studio album on Friday

Politics

31 h. ago London Musical Bronco Billy Dates Album Release; Get a 1st Listen to a Track

London Musical Bronco Billy Dates Album Release; Get a 1st Listen to a Track  Playbill

Economics

39 h. ago New Music Friday: The Last Dinner Party, Tame Impala, Sudan Archives and more big releases this weekend

Something for the weekend? Our pick of some of this weekend’s biggest album releases from the musical world.

Politics

43 h. ago Nicki Minaj cancels release of upcoming album as she hits out at Jay

Nicki Minaj announced she will no longer be releasing her sixth studio album, which she previously stated would drop in March next year

Events

4 d. ago Robbie Williams says 'here's the truth' as he delays album release by four months

The former Take That star had been due to debut his record BRITPOP on October 10

Politics

5 d. ago Denise Van Outen reveals she's set to release a new album of Ibiza

The TV and stage star, 51, is gearing up to make a return to the music scene but this time with an Ibiza-inspired twist.

Politics

5 d. ago Robbie Williams makes Julia Roberts blush as he gives a shout out to her baking skills during a live performance on The Graham Norton Show

The singer, 51, appeared on The Graham Norton Show on Friday alongside Hollywood star Julia, Colin Farrell, Benedict Cumberbatch and Gloria Estefan.

Events

5 d. ago Taylor Swift revives old jewellery trend with stunning silver anklet stack

Taylor Swift is once again causing a stir with her accessories, her latest album release has revived an old jewellery trend as she donned a stunning silver anklet

Politics

6 d. ago Robbie Williams leaves Julia Roberts speechless after wild prostitute confession inspired by Pretty Woman

The singer, 51, and actress, 57, were joined on the sofa by Colin Farrell, Benedict Cumberbatch and Gloria Estefan.

Politics

6 d. ago Robbie Williams' 'prostitute' admission leaves Julia Roberts speechless

Singer Robbie Williams appeared on the latest episode of The Graham Norton Show alongside some other famous faces, including Hollywood actress Julia Roberts

Events

6 d. ago ‘My Led Zeppelin road trip was counted as a class credit’: Cameron Crowe on the interview that changed everything

In an extract from his new memoir, the writer and film-maker reflects on how as a teenager he managed to bag the exclusive of a lifetime• ‘Rock stars would be like, Yeah, bring the kid in’: read an interview with Cameron CroweThere was always something slightly forbidden about Led Zeppelin. They were darker than the other bands and they had a command of mystique. You didn’t see a slew of interviews with them; you barely saw any at all. They famously hated Rolling Stone. The rumour was that Jimmy Page and [Rolling Stone co-founder] Jann Wenner had tangled over a girl in London. The magazine trashed their first album. I had, however, interviewed Led Zeppelin for the Los Angeles Times. It was a kind of maiden voyage into the mainstream for the band, and two years later, as they were about to release their album Physical Graffiti, I was invited on the road with them by Danny Goldberg, the band’s publicist and an executive at the label they’d started, Swan Song.The key to getting Ze...

Politics

6 d. ago Robbie Williams leaves Julia Roberts lost for words with Pretty Woman admission

Julia Roberts was speechless after Robbie Williams told her what he did after watching Pretty Woman six times in a row.

Events

7 d. ago Robbie Williams rants 'you can't compete' with Taylor Swift as he pushes back album release to avoid clash with The Life Of A Showgirl

The hitmaker, 51, has never been afraid to speak his mind and now the pop legend has confessed he pulled the plug on his album release after realising he'd be going up against Taylor Swift.

Politics

7 d. ago Taylor Swift breaks chart records with new album despite mixed reviews

Taylor Swift has broken several chart records in the UK with the release of her new 12th studio album The Life Of A Showgirl as she celebrates her most successful debut yet

Politics

7 d. ago The Guide #212: The Taylor Swift backlash has me asking: how much good music can one artist really produce?

In this week’s newsletter: The mixed response to The Life of a Showgirl is proof that even the biggest star isn’t immune to creative burnoutAmid the flood of discourse around Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl, one recurring sentiment jumped out: that the album – which many critics have declared a misstep in Swift’s otherwise consistently solid discography – felt hurried, hasty, rushed. “The Life of a Showgirl Is 40 Minutes of Elevator Music Rushed Out to Break a Beatles Record”, read the particularly savage headline of a piece on Collider. In the Guardian music desk’s excellent round table on the album, just about every panellist expressed a wish that Swift would take a break from the constant churn of releasing records, in order to recapture a lost spark.And it has been quite the churn. Since 2019 Swift has on average released an album a year, and that’s not counting the Taylor’s Version re-records of her older albums. All of this managed alongside a certain billion-dollar-gros...

Culture

7 d. ago Louis Tomlinson admits he was ‘Rude’ passenger on flight with Robbie Williams

Louis Tomlinson admitted he was the "rude" celeb that Robbie Williams was talking about when he recalled being branded 'much nicer" than another star on board the same flight

Politics