3 h. 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

7 h. 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

3 d. ago Taylor Swift’s new album smashes sales records in first week

Success of ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ unprecedented in era of declining music purchases

Politics

4 d. ago Taylor Swift brings Caitlin Clark to cheer on Travis Kelce and the Chiefs... hours before 'big announcement' on GMA

Swift has spent the week on a promotional tour for her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, but still made it back in time to watch Kelce and Co take on the Detroit Lions on Sunday night.

Politics

5 d. ago Parents who film their children crying for clicks should take a good look at themselves | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Toddlers have big feelings. But sharing their tantrums and pain on social media is not a ‘teachable moment’. It’s cruelThere’s a song that’s been in my head all week, and no, it’s not from Taylor Swift’s new album. It’s by a far more sophisticated songwriter than Swift: Ms Rachel. The song is called Big Feelings and it goes: “Big feelings are OK / I’m here to stay with your big feelings.”Thanks to the trend for gentle parenting, the concept of “big feelings” has become big money online, and for the most part I welcome that (Big Feelings isn’t the only song that reflects this cultural shift; the animation Small Potatoes on CBeebies has a song that goes “Feelings / I’ve got so many feelings”, which my husband likes to sing to me when I’m premenstrual). As a parent, strong emotions are hard to escape: you’re feeling them, the small child in your home is feeling them and, in one of the biggest departures for us as a species, so are myriad other children on your social media feed.Rhianno...

Society

7 d. ago Robbie Williams review – tiny Camden gig offers blinding star wattage – and a surprising new song about Morrissey

Dingwalls, LondonPreviewing new album Britpop to an audience of 600, the star promises ‘no stadium bravado’ and delivers droll new songs alongside stripped-back oldiesWhat do you do if you’re a superstar who has pulled well over a million people to a stadium tour? If you’re as contrary as Robbie Williams, you play a gig in a shoebox. This late-night show at the 600-capacity Dingwalls, the smallest venue of his career to date, is a rum event. It was originally a launch evening for a new album, Britpop, now postponed to February. Williams makes no bones about why. “It’s because of Taylor Swift,” he admits, in a week where her new album The Life of a Showgirl is outselling the rest of the UK Top 20 put together. “I could pretend it’s not, but it is. It’s selfish. I want a 16th No 1 album.”Bounding on stage just as the pubs are closing, a grinning Williams clearly relishes the intimate environment. “I’m not doing all that stadium bravado and pointing,” he vows, launching into a full, st...

Politics

8 d. ago Blawan: Sick Elixir review | Alexis Petridis’s album of the week

(XL Recordings)Jamie Roberts’ unsettling take on bass music is crammed with glitchy rhythms and jolting sounds. It’s as disorienting as it is immersiveSickElixir is not an album much interested in gently easing the listener into its darkly claustrophobic world. The first thing you hear is roughly approximate to the distressing sound of someone alternately gasping for breath and attempting to clear their passages of phlegm. It’s joined by a distorted bass drum overlaid with a metal-on-metal clank in lieu of a snare. There’s a weird noise somewhere between radio interference and the sound of fabric tearing, some incomprehensible, sonically warped and doom-laden guttural chanting, and harsh electronic tones that churn and screech. All this is in the opening minute of the first track: notice is served that Jamie Roberts’ latest album is probably not for everyone.This will hardly come as a shock to anyone with prior knowledge of his oeuvre. From the moment he started releasing music as B...

Politics

8 d. ago Taylor Swift beats Adele’s first week in US sales record with Life of a Showgirl

The star has already sold 3.5m units of her critically divisive album, a new record in the modern era of music salesTaylor Swift’s divisive new album, The Life of a Showgirl, has beaten Adele’s record-breaking 25 in first week sales numbers.According to data tracking firm Luminate, the album has already sold 3.5m units in the US which equates to 3.2m physical copies and 300,000 attributed to streaming activity. Adele achieved 3.482m in 2015 with her opening week sales of 25 which was led by hit Hello. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Taylor Swift breaks Adele's streaming record as new album The Life Of A Showgirl racks up 3.5M copies sold

The modern-era single-week sales record was previously held by Adele's album, 25, with 3.378 million copies sold upon its release in 2015.

Culture

1 week ago Taylor Swift’s new album secures biggest opening week of 2025 so far in UK chart

The 35-year-old is on track to secure her 14th number one album in the UK.

Politics

2 w. ago Annie Lennox's health battles as she reveals new diagnosis that's 'not easy to live with'

Former Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox celebrated the 39th anniversary of the release of the band's album Sweet Dreams earlier this week, but she has faced a number of health issues in recent years

Society

3 w. ago Award winning indie rock band announces first Glasgow show in ten years

A LEGENDARY indie rock band will be returning to Glasgow for the fist time in a decade. Multi-award-winning artist Kevin Parker will bring the Tame Impala tour to the city. Scotland's biggest city will be a stop on his lineup of gigs featuring his new album, Deadbeat. It is the first time Tame Impala will...

Events

3 w. ago Jade Thirlwall makes TV return as she joins CBeebies Bedtime Stories

Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall, who has just released her debut solo album, That's Showbiz Baby!, has this week become the latest celebrity to appear on well known TV show

Politics

4 w. 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

4 w. 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

4 w. 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