9 h. ago Unseen Babyshambles at Glasgow Barrowlands snap unveiled to mark 20th anniversary of debut album

Brian Anderson captured an incredible snap of the Babyshambles singer but it nearly didn't end well.

Culture

37 h. ago Babyshambles to reunite for tour to mark 20th anniversary of Down In Albion

The band released their debut album in 2005.

Politics

3 d. ago Rihanna releases 'new music' but fans are furious over singer's announcement

Rihanna has marked 20 years since the release of her debut album Music Of The Sun and released something special for her loyal fans, but not everyone was impressed

Politics

3 d. ago Watch Gorillaz play debut album in full as they kick off London residency

Watch Gorillaz play debut album in full as they kick off London residency  NME

Politics

3 d. ago Rihanna shares heartfelt message on 20th anniversary of her debut album

The 37-year-old musician and Fenty Beauty founder posted a social media tribute on the anniversary of her debut album.

Politics

4 d. ago Gorillaz kick off run of four London shows with debut album in full

It was the first time the band had performed at their House Of Kong venue in the Copper Box Arena at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Culture

4 d. ago Add to playlist: jazz harp progressives Flur and the week’s best new tracks

Off-kilter London trio match lush arrangements with angular melodies and textural rhythm to take them on altogether fresh sonic adventuresFrom LondonRecommended if you like Nala Sinephro, Ambrose Akinmusire, Moritz von Oswald TrioUp next Debut album Plunge out 5 SeptemberThe harp is having a resurgence in jazz. Instrumentalists such as Nala Sinephro, Alina Bzhezhinska, Marysia Osu and Brandee Younger have recently released records that reference the decades-old legacies of harp pioneers Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby while creating new fusions of ambient electronics, soul and free jazz. The latest entry into this burgeoning genre is London-based trio Flur. Comprised of harpist Miriam Adefris, saxophonist Isaac Robertson and drummer Dillon Harrison, the group produce a distinctly off-kilter take on the harp combo, harnessing the lushness of its sound as a counterpoint to angular melodies and textural rhythm. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago SUSAN KNOX: From Sydney to Shoreditch: Royel Otis make mark on global stage with 'hickey'

Royel Otis’ debut album hickey marks a bold evolution in their sound, blending emotional depth with infectious indie-pop hooks - cementing their status as a rising global force, as showcased in an intimate and electric London performance, writes Susan Knox

Politics

7 d. ago Perrie Edwards opens up on anxiety struggles as she praises mum in sweet tribute

Perrie Edwards appeared on ITV's Lorraine to discuss her debut solo album and the Little Mix star opened up about her anxiety and panic attacks

Events

1 week ago Raye tells All Points East ‘music is medicine’ in emotional performance

The London singer performed songs including Prada and Escapism from her debut album My 21st Century Blues.

Politics

1 week ago Bleak Squad: Strange Love review – Australia’s newest supergroup sound like they’ve been together for years

Four music greats – Mick Harvey, Mick Turner, Adalita and Marty Brown – have created a genuine collaboration that leaves room for all their talentsGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailOccasionally the musical universe offers unexpected gifts that we might never have thought to ask for and had no right to expect. Strange Love, the debut album by new Melbourne supergroup Bleak Squad, is one such gift. The names who brought the band together speak for themselves: Adalita (Magic Dirt), Mick Harvey (the Bad Seeds, the Birthday Party), Mick Turner (Dirty Three) and Marty Brown (Art of Fighting, SodaStream, Claire Bowditch), who brought the band together.Brown’s intuition that such a combination would go well together has proven inspired. Such things can easily end up sounding better on paper than in practice. Instead, Bleak Squad sound pretty much exactly as you’d expect, given their name and collective histories: the hour is late, the lights are low, the writing is sharp, the arran...

Politics

2 w. ago Tom Grennan looks back: ‘After being beaten up, I went from thinking I was loved to feeling hated’

The singer-songwriter on the rock’n’roll lifestyle, his happy childhood, and the fateful night out in Bedford that changed his life for everBorn in 1995 in Bedford, Tom Grennan found fame as a guest vocalist on Chase & Status’s 2016 track All Goes Wrong, which led to his inclusion on the BBC Sound of 2017 list. Known for his blend of soul, pop and indie rock, he released his debut album, Lighting Matches, in 2018 and has since had more than 1.5m album sales and 2.5bn streams. His new album, Everywhere I Went Led Me to Where I Didn’t Want to Be, is out now. He tours from September.This was taken in my mum and dad’s first house in Bedford. It must have been Halloween but I’m not sure what kind of monster wears socks on his hands or a Tom and Jerry T-shirt. I look very happy but boisterous, too – that graze on my face was probably because I’d fallen off my bike. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Ethel Cain: Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You review – a dark, Lynchian coming

The American singer-songwriter follows up her 2022 debut ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ with a concept album that’s often mesmerising

Politics

3 w. ago ‘The Welsh language has been aggressively oppressed’: Tristwch y Fenywod, the gothic trio communing with a mystical Wales

Inspired by the ‘enchanted, sapphic feeling’ of the coast and with bat sounds for drums, this Wales-obsessed band sound like no one else. They explain how queerness, neurodivergence and anti-colonialism guide what they do‘It’s often dealing with quite elemental things,” says the vocalist Gwretsien Ferch Lisbeth of Tristwch y Fenywod’s music. “The sense of being in an ancient landscape; or the enchanted, sapphic feeling of being by the ocean. Our music addresses things that are simple and foundational, but very powerful.”Released last August – and now being performed live by the band across the summer festival circuit – the trio’s self-titled debut album is a lush, cathartic mix of gothic instrumentation and eldritch melody, like a lost Cocteau Twins masterpiece recorded in a cave in Eryri, stirring intense feelings even in those who can’t understand its Welsh lyrics. There’s a political dimension too. “The oppression of the Welsh language over the past 200 years was so aggressive,” ...

Politics

3 w. ago ‘Sometimes I overshare’: Adam Buxton on fear, fun, finance – and falling out with friends

The comedian has just released his debut album. He discusses songwriting, his recent memoirs, the problems with modern politics and why we all need to open upOn a muggy summer day, Adam Buxton is talking me through the songs on his debut album, Buckle Up. “There’s one on there called Standing Still,” he says, “which was written when I was feeling absolutely bleak and lost and is about opening a packet of pasta when all the pasta spills. I thought: ‘You can get a joke in there about being a fusilli billy and maybe that will distract a bit from the more earnest and pain-laden lyrics about how, every morning, I drink a cup of tea and it helps me with all the thoughts I have to smother.’”What are these thoughts? “I get overwhelmed by the world and, the worse the news gets, the harder it bites,” he says. “I get existential fear and I think I should go and join Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and work with them. But then, is that really the best use of my talents? My wife is like: ‘Please ...

Politics

3 w. ago Scottish music legend Bobby Bluebell helps 1980s school band realise debut album dream

Three pals who started a group in their East Kilbride bedrooms at 16 will celebrate hitting their retirement decade by releasing their debut album.

Culture

3 w. ago ‘I feel equally rooted in bhangra and hyperpop, queer anthems and Sufi poetry’: Pakistani star Ali Sethi on his defiant debut album

The Pakistani-American singer has fused traditional singing with Technicolor pop to express forbidden love, take down trolls and explore the confusion of our ‘monstrous world’As a child, Ali Sethi was enthralled watching Sufi whirling – a religious dance – at nearby shrines in Punjab: “There’s this collective catharsis that takes place and, briefly, your caste, class, gender, appearance, they stop mattering. You have licence in an otherwise extremely hierarchical society to just express yourself.”This is something the 41-year-old Pakistani-American singer, songwriter and composer hopes to create himself. Though he’s also a writer – be that his acclaimed 2009 novel, The Wish Maker, or contributions to publications such as the New Yorker – music became somewhere Sethi could be accepted, especially as a queer person growing up in Lahore. “I think music has this shamanic function in south Asian culture,” he says, “where things you cannot say in lay language you say in the love language ...

Politics