41 h. ago Addison Rae: Addison review – 2025’s most refreshing star revels in pop’s shallow pleasures

(Columbia)The one-time TikTok dancer’s remarkably cohesive debut spans Jersey club to R&B, and defies an obsession with ‘lore’ to suggest that the best pop isn’t that deepWhen Madonna came to the height of her powers in the late 90s and early 00s, it felt as though she had perfected a new mode of pop stardom, making icy, complex and uncannily incisive records such as Ray of Light and Confessions on a Dance Floor. Those albums are powered by a gripping interplay between detachment and intensity; they sound, to me, like attempts to make pop albums without any sense of ego. As if she’s saying: this isn’t a Madonna record, it’s a pop record.Addison Rae’s exceptional debut album reminds me of that unimpeachable run of Madonna records, understanding that supreme confidence and exceptional taste can sell even the most unusual album. It’s both familiar – Rae is an artist who unapologetically lives and dies by her references – and totally bold: I get the sense that she is less trying to ...

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45 h. ago Addison Rae’s debut album proves her evolution from influencer to pop heavyweight is complete

On her carefree debut, the US musician has gone mononymous and enlisted Swedish producers to help craft a Nineties and Y2K scrapbook that balances pop, past and present but never feels too try-hard

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3 d. ago Skepta admits he 'hates being famous' and 'dreams of going back to his normal life' as he teases his next album will be 'best he's ever made'

Since bursting on the scene with his debut album in 2007, the grime star, 42, has gone on to win the Mercury Prize and conquered the worlds of music, fashion, modelling and film.

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7 d. ago Rapper Betty Boo says she did not want to ‘fade away’ in her 50s, ahead of tour

The Scottish- Malaysian singer, Alison Clarkson, is best known for her 1990s hit single Doin’ The Do and her debut album Boomania.

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9 d. ago Jacob Alon: In Limerence review – dreamy story songs of myth and melancholy

(Island)The Scottish songwriter delivers a confident, well-expressed debut even if their songs sometimes stray into overfamiliar indie-folk territoryThe title of Scottish indie-folk musician Jacob Alon’s delicate debut album may seem ironic: the phrase describes an intense kind of desire, and Alon’s music can be shatteringly desolate and lonely, their voice and fingerpicked guitar conveying isolation and introversion with raw clarity. But In Limerence makes a strong case for its name: isn’t desire, Alon seems to ask, one of the most incurably lonely feelings of all? These story songs – about youthful infatuation, reckless hedonism and one-sided obsession – are brittle and wounded, each zeroing in on a different strain of disappointment or heartache.Alon was born in Dunfermline, Fife, a city tucked between pockets of forest, and they play up the organic, semi-mystical nature of their music, performing in wings and Midsummer Night’s Dream-esque wreaths; In Limerence’s lyric sheet is f...

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1 week ago Spice Girls 30th reunion: Mel B hints that the band might get back together to celebrate anniversary of debut

The band’s debut album, Spice, celebrates turning 30 in 2026.

Culture

2 w. ago Kaiser Chiefs announce 20th anniversary reissue of seminal debut album Employment

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2 w. ago ‘Dylan said: teach me that!’ Martin Carthy on six decades of Scarborough Fair – and his new solo album

As the folk icon celebrates his 84th birthday today, he looks back on falling out with Paul Simon, smashing up pianos with Dylan – and the classic song he’s still not got quite rightMartin Carthy has returned to Scarborough Fair. It’s been 60 years since he first recorded the song on his self-titled debut album, and famously taught it (or tried to teach it) to both Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, when they came to watch the young guitar hero playing in the London folk clubs. Dylan transformed the song into Girl from the North Country, while Simon turned it into Scarborough Fair/Canticle, a hit single for Simon & Garfunkel and the opening track on their 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.Carthy’s new version is on Transform Me Then into a Fish, his first solo album in 21 years, released on his 84th birthday today. It now has sitar backing from Sheema Mukherjee, giving it a mysterious, spooky edge. “That’s the kind of a song it is. Try not to be scared of it,” said Carthy, who...

Society

2 w. ago ‘We’re zombies. We’ve lost all connection to one another’: Astropical, the Latin supergroup healing our broken brains

After his band Rawayana were driven out of Venezuela by their own president, Beto Montenegro joined with Li Saumet of Bomba Estéreo to make music that battles political strife with pure joyThe coming together of two of Latin America’s most successful and inventive pop acts might seem like a market-savvy partnership dreamed up by their record labels, but for Li Saumet, frontwoman of Colombia’s Bomba Estéreo, it’s a cosmic calling.“One day I received a message from the universe: it’s time to make a song with Rawayana,” she says, sitting next to Beto Montenegro, frontman with that Venezuelan band and now Saumet’s partner in the supergroup Astropical. In a Bogotá hotel ahead of a performance at Estéreo Picnic festival, the duo regularly finish each other’s sentences, and Saumet rests her head on Montenegro’s shoulder with the ease of a sibling. On Astropical’s self-titled debut album, Saumet’s vibrant calls to dance and appreciate natural beauty bounce harmoniously off Montenegro’s soft...

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2 w. ago Supergrass Review: I Should Coco at 30 tour prove '90s legends are as fresh as ever

Supergrass' debut album anniversary show in Cardiff was sold out and it deserved to be

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3 w. ago Shanti Celeste: Romance review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Method 808/Peach Discs)Six years on from her acclaimed ‘fast house’ debut, the UK singer-producer invites listeners into a sunlit space between night out and morning afterNo one could accuse Shanti Celeste of being a dance producer who indulges in lofty conceptualising about their music. Not for her, the album that represents the soundtrack to a film that hasn’t been made yet, or a sci-fi-influenced cosmic opera, or a globe-spanning travelogue inspired by the peripatetic lifestyle of a DJ. Her acclaimed 2019 debut album was called Tangerine, a title she chose because she “really like[s] fruit”. A journalist who gamely attempted to press further, inquiring about the images conjured in her mind while creating the music, was told: “Moments on the dancefloor.”Tangerine featured ambient interludes and the sound of Celeste playing the kalimba in the living room of her father’s home in Chile (she moved to the UK with her mother as a child). But its signature sound was the author’s own, in...

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3 w. ago Cassie Ventura, singer and Diddy’s former girlfriend, is at the heart of the mogul’s sex trafficking trial

The R&B star released a string of singles, an acclaimed debut album, and appeared in several movies over the course of her rocky relationship with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

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3 w. ago Wheatus UK Tour 2025: ‘00s group to celebrate anniversary of their debut album in full

Two tickets to Iron Maiden? How about two tickets to Wheatus’ 25th anniversary tour instead?

Society

3 w. ago Hurts UK Tour: Adam Anderson confirms he will not be part of 15th anniversary shows to focus on his wellbeing

The duo are celebrating the 15th anniversary of their debut album, Happiness

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last month ‘Rethink it all!’ Why is one Danish school producing nearly every cool alt

Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory finds common ground between Ella Fitzgerald and Charli xcx – and its free-thinking alumni are thriving. We go on a tour to see what’s in the water there (aside from shipwrecks)Before she was getting DMs from Dua Lipa and minting K-pop hits, and long before yesterday’s surprise release of her sumptuous fourth album, Erika de Casier was a nervous student in her 20s debating what to wear on her first day.It was 2019, her debut album Essentials had come out that year and received critical acclaim. But at Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory (RMC), that was by the by. “In Denmark, it’s incorporated in our way of being: everybody is so humble,” says the Portuguese musician. “It wasn’t like I went to school and people were like ” She makes an exaggerated starstruck face. “That would be crazy. It was just, ‘Oh, congrats. I heard the new album. Sounds great.’” Continue reading...

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