Music news

• Add to playlist: the dark fog of Los Angeles saxophonist Aaron Shaw and the week’s best new tracks

  16-01-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  The woodwind player who taught André 3000 music theory releases his searching debut album next monthFrom Los Angeles
  Recommend if you like Miguel Atwood Ferguson, Shabaka Hutchings’s flute music, the Coltranes
  Up next Debut album And So It Is released 13 FebruaryFor woodwind players, breath is everything: the lifeforce of artistry, the thing that furnishes sound with personality. But a few years ago, the Los Angeles saxophonist Aaron Shaw realised he was becoming increasingly breath
  
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• A$AP Rocky: Don’t Be Dumb review – a charismatic, playful return, but it’s no slam dunk

  16-01-2026 11:07 via theguardian.com
  (A$AP Rocky Recordings)
  Now a father of three and burgeoning actor, Rocky finally comes back to music with his strongest album since his 2013 debut – though there’s plenty of flabIt has been eight years since A$AP Rocky, once and future king of New York rap, released an album. In the world of hip-hop, where even A-list stars such as Rocky’s friend and collaborator Tyler, the Creator are prone to releasing multiple albums a year, this is a lifetime. In the time since Rocky relea
  
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• Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore: Tragic Magic review | Safi Bugel's experimental album of the month

  16-01-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  (InFiné)
  The composers’ first collaborative album ebbs from epic, cinematic heights to delicate and dreamy lullabiesAfter years of touring together, Los Angeles-based composers Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore have developed what the former refers to as a “musical telepathy”. Tragic Magic, the pair’s first collaborative album, evidences this bond: born out of a short series of improv sessions in Paris, it’s a wonderfully immersive set of new age and ambien
  
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• Julio Iglesias denies sexual abuse claims of two former female employees

  16-01-2026 08:58 via theguardian.com
  Women allege Spanish singer subjected them ‘to inappropriate touching, insults and humiliation … in atmosphere of control’The Spanish singer Julio Iglesias has broken his silence over allegations that he sexually abused two women who worked in his Caribbean mansions, saying he has never “abused, coerced or disrespected any woman”.The 82-year-old entertainer, whose career spans six decades, had been accused by two female former employees who allege they had been sex
  
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• BTS named their new album Arirang. What is so striking about their choice?

  16-01-2026 06:08 via theguardian.com
  The title is loaded with meaning for all Koreans, and will give fans globally an insight into the folksong culture that shaped the world’s biggest K-pop groupBTS announced their long-awaited comeback and world tour this week, with their first full-length album in nearly four years set for release on 20 March.On Friday, the K-pop group revealed its title – Arirang – a choice that carries profound emotional weight for Koreans. So what does it mean, what is its significance for th
  
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• ‘We wouldn’t still be playing if we’d got stinking rich’: the Damned celebrate 50 years of punk, goth and holy grail hunting

  16-01-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  An appetite for self-destruction left Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies hugely influential but financially insecure. They’re back with a big show and their first album together since 1995‘There isn’t one songwriter, and so the flavour of the band is always going to change,” says Dave Vanian, reflecting on 50 years of the group of which he has been the sole constant member, the Damned. “Captain Sensible is a great fan of syrupy pop music and prog and glam
  
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• Robbie Williams: Britpop review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

  16-01-2026 01:01 via theguardian.com
  (Columbia)
  Framed as the music Williams wanted to make post-Take That, Britpop surpasses pastiche and swerves unpredictably. Homoerotic paean to Morrissey, anyone?The arrival of Robbie Williams’s 13th album has been a complicated business. It was announced in May 2025 and was supposed to come out in October, when its title would have chimed with the 90s nostalgia sparked by the Oasis reunion. Williams spent the summer engaging in promotion, unveiling fake Britpop-themed blue plaques around
  
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• From Dylan to disco, Beyoncé to Bob Marley: the 30 best live albums ever – ranked!

  15-01-2026 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive!, one of the bestselling live albums of all time, is turning 50. You won’t find that on this list, however: instead there’s metal, soul, and an ‘indecently exciting’ No 1 …Already stars in Black America, Maze became the ultimate if-you-know-you-know band among British fans of underground soul thanks to Live in New Orleans. It perfectly encapsulated their appeal: smooth but not slick, an awesomely tight band making breezil
  
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• Music executive LA Reid settles sexual assault lawsuit on day civil trial was due to begin

  13-01-2026 11:26 via theguardian.com
  The former Arista Records chief executive had faced allegations that he derailed the career of former employee Drew Dixon after she rejected his advancesThe Grammy-winning music executive LA Reid settled a lawsuit by a former employee who accused him of sexual assault and harassment, on the day the civil trial was due to begin.In 2023, Drew Dixon alleged that the former Arista Records chief executive born Antonio Reid – who helped develop Mariah Carey, TLC, Pink and Usher – derailed
  
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• Biffy Clyro review – triumphant set marks a thunderous renewal

  13-01-2026 11:21 via theguardian.com
  Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham
  Coming off the back of a rough period, the Scottish band find reconnection, renewal and purpose in their singular mix of pop, rock and metal‘With a little love, we can conquer all,” Simon Neil croons on Biffy Clyro’s opening song A Little Love, over its huge, infectious arena-rock chorus. It’s a line that feels like a mantra for the Scottish band 30 years and 10 albums in: they’re currently touring 2025’s Futique having come throug
  
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• Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin, guitarist for rock band Black Midi, dies aged 26

  12-01-2026 18:33 via theguardian.com
  Family statement said musician died ‘after a long battle with his mental health’Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin, the guitarist who was a member of acclaimed British experimental rock band Black Midi, has died aged 26.A statement from his family said he died “after a long battle with his mental health. A talented musician and a kind, loving man finally succumbed; despite all efforts. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘It was inspired by a snog in a photo-booth’: how Thompson Twins made Hold Me Now

  12-01-2026 16:28 via theguardian.com
  ‘We had a disagreement that spilled over into personal insults. But we soon made up – and wrote this about the process’Thompson Twins were a seven-piece, rag-bag, guitar-based band living in a squat when I met Alannah Currie, who was also squatting in London. She was in an anarchic improv band, the Unfuckables, who were clearly not destined for Top of the Pops, but there was something very exciting about her. When I invited her to come on at the end of a Thompson Twins gig, she
  
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• Post your questions for R&B star Jill Scott

  12-01-2026 15:21 via theguardian.com
  The neo-soul superstar – an in-demand musical collaborator, a seasoned actor and a bestselling poet – will take on your questionsIn the age of GLP-1s and the deep-plane facelift making dozens of famous women appear perpetually 32 years old, there’s something extra heartening about Pressha, the lead single from three-time Grammy-winner Jill Scott’s sixth album. “I wasn’t the aesthetic / I guess, I guess, I get it / So much pressure to appear just like them / Pr
  
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• Truckin’ on: Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead’s 10 best recordings

  12-01-2026 13:11 via theguardian.com
  From 46-minute jams to MTV video hits, here are the freedom-loving Dead guitarist and singer’s finest songs about ‘rainbows of sound’ and ‘enjoying the ride’• Bob Weir, co-founder of rock group the Grateful Dead, dies at age 78
  • Alexis Petridis: ‘Bob Weir was the chief custodian of the Dead’s legacy’
  • Aaron Dessner: ‘I’ll never forget playing with him’The Dead’s love for the road is in evidence on this segme
  
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• Andrew Clements, Guardian’s classical music critic, dies aged 75

  12-01-2026 01:01 via theguardian.com
  An outstanding critical voice, his deep knowledge and love of music was evident in everything he wroteThe Guardian’s long-serving and much admired classical music critic Andrew Clements died on Sunday aged 75 after a period of illness.Clements joined the Guardian arts team in August 1993, succeeding Edward Greenfield as the paper’s chief music critic. His appointment was clinched by a personal recommendation to the editor from the late Alfred Brendel, who argued for Clements to get t
  
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• Bob Weir remained completely in touch with the Grateful Dead’s wild wonder. I’ll never forget playing with him | Aaron Dessner

  11-01-2026 18:21 via theguardian.com
  The Dead were a formative band for the National. Getting to play with Bob felt like entering a portal into their mystical, musical landscape – though he was always completely present• Alexis Petridis: ‘Bob Weir was a songwriting powerhouse for the Grateful Dead – and the chief custodian of their legacy’It’s hard to believe that Bob Weir, founding member of the Grateful Dead who carried the torch for the band’s music after Jerry Garcia passed in 1995, is g
  
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• Bob Weir was a songwriting powerhouse for the Grateful Dead – and the chief custodian of their legacy

  11-01-2026 16:08 via theguardian.com
  ‘The Kid’s jazz-influenced rhythm guitar made him utterly integral to the Dead and his later collaborations solidified the band’s influence over latter-day alt-rock• Bob Weir, co-founder of rock group the Grateful Dead, dies at age 78
  • Bob Weir: a life in pictures
  • Aaron Dessner: ‘Bob Weir remained completely in touch with the Grateful Dead’s wild wonder. I’ll never forget playing with him’For most of their career, the other members of t
  
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• ‘It’s more productive than doomscrolling’: film-maker Ben Wheatley on his secret life as musician Dave Welder

  11-01-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  While playing with nine-figure Hollywood budgets, the Kill List and Meg 2 director has become a prolific music producer. Next up is his experimental film, BulkDave Welder may just be the most prolific musician you’ve never heard of. In a little more than a year, he has released a staggering 26 records spanning electronica, dub, ambient, kosmische and drone. One of these albums, Thunderdrone, is more than four hours long. Based in Brighton and Hove and described as “a rotating group o
  
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• Bob Weir, co-founder of rock group the Grateful Dead, dies at age 78

  11-01-2026 02:01 via theguardian.com
  Rhythm guitarist helped guide the legendary jam band through decades of change and success• Alexis Petridis: ‘Bob Weir was a songwriting powerhouse for the Grateful Dead – and the chief custodian of their legacy’
  • Aaron Dessner: ‘Bob Weir remained completely in touch with the Grateful Dead’s wild wonder. I’ll never forget playing with him’Bob Weir, the veteran rock musician who helped guide the legendary band the Grateful Dead through decades
  
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• Toni Geitani: Wahj review | Ammar Kalia's global album of the month

  09-01-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  (Self-released)
  The Beirut-born producer’s masterly second album revels in dark tension to cinematic effect, finding beauty in ruinous soundArabic electronic experimentalism is thriving. In recent years, diaspora artists such as Egyptian producer Abdullah Miniawy, singer Nadah El Shazly and Lebanese singer-songwriter Mayssa Jallad have each released records that combine the Arabic musical tradition of maqam and its slippery melodies with granular electronic sound design, rumbling bass and
  
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• Jenny on Holiday: Quicksand Heart review – Let’s Eat Grandma innovator’s knowing new-wave reinvention

  09-01-2026 09:38 via theguardian.com
  (Transgressive)
  In Jenny Hollingworth’s first solo venture, her singular songwriting powers shine in swooping vocals and transcendent pop melodiesOver the past decade, 27-year-old Jenny Hollingworth’s musical output has become steadily less strange. As half of Let’s Eat Grandma, the Norwich native started out making freaky synth-folk the arch syrupiness of which chimed with the then-nascent hyperpop scene: I, Gemini, the duo’s 2016 debut, was outsiderish juvenilia of the
  
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• ‘There’s serendipity to my story’: Emmylou Harris on Gram Parsons, her garlanded career – and her dog rescue centre

  09-01-2026 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Ahead of her final European tour, the US songwriter discusses her unlikely life as a country star, seeking advice from Pete Seeger – and why retirement isn’t on the cards just yetWhen Emmylou Harris was starting out in the late 1960s, she thought country music wasn’t for her. “I hadn’t seen the light,” she says. “I was a folk singer who believed you don’t ever work with drummers as they wreck everything.” It was Gram Parsons, of the Byrds and
  
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• Singer-songwriter Bill Callahan: ‘I’m not a craftsman – I’m more of a drunk professor who likes coincidence and mistakes’

  08-01-2026 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Preceding the release of My Days of 58, the Americana legend once known as Smog discusses his Yorkshire youth, why Spotify is like the mafia and the bleak state of AIWe got married to [Smog’s] Our Anniversary. When you write songs, do you think about how listeners might carry them into their own lives, or do the songs stop being yours after they are done? Vanearle
  When I wrote [2019’s] Watch Me Get Married, I thought maybe people would have that as their wedding song. But mostly it&r
  
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• The Cribs: Selling a Vibe review | Alexis Petridis’s album of the week

  08-01-2026 13:39 via theguardian.com
  (PIAS)
  The Jarman brothers’ ninth album adds a little 80s pop sheen to their distorted guitars and confident songwriting, while always sounding exactly like the indie stalwartsLast summer, the BBC broadcast an eight-part podcast called The Rise and Fall of Indie Sleaze. Its third episode heavily featured the Cribs’ bassist and vocalist Gary Jarman talking about his band’s first flush of mid-00s fame. It centred on their 2005 single Hey Scenesters!, from which the episode also t
  
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• Add to playlist: the mysterious chillout milieu of False Aralia and the week’s best new tracks

  08-01-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Somewhere between record label and artist project, False Aralia harks back to microhouse and dub techno with its deep, detailed productionsFrom San Francisco
  Recommended if you like Rhythm and Sound, Ricardo Villalobos, Vladislav Delay
  Up next Double LP from Topdown Dialectic released in springFalse Aralia disappears into a misty gulch somewhere between record label and artist project. It’s ostensibly a label, where each EP has a different named artist, and each sleeve, designed by Nick Al
  
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• ’I inexplicably detest Mr Brightside’: John Simm’s honest playlist

  04-01-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  The actor first realised what music was when he heard Yellow Submarine and knows a lot of Paul Simon lyrics, but what would he put on at a party?The first song I fell in love with
  My earliest memory is walking into a room at nursery school where they were playing Yellow Submarine by the Beatles. I was captivated by the sound effects, and Lennon shouting: “Full speed ahead!” When it got to the chorus, I remember thinking: “This must be music!”The first single I bought
  When
  
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• Songs about new beginnings – ranked!

  01-01-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  From CMAT and the Carpenters’ fresh starts to the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun and Nina Simone’s Feeling Good, starting again is a rich theme in pop. Here are some of the best examplesIt’s hard to imagine anyone’s heart not being lifted a little by Right Back Where We Started From: the euphoric rush of new love rendered into three minutes of cod-northern soul (performed, unexpectedly, by various ex members of ELO, the Animals and 60s soft-poppers Honeybus). Avoid the
  
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• Dry Cleaning: Secret Love review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

  01-01-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  (4AD)
  The standout act in the sprechgesang wave, the four-piece’s newly expansive sound carries singer Florence Shaw’s distinctive tales of mundane lives spiralling out of controlDry Cleaning’s third album features a lot of strikingly odd lyrics. Take your pick from “alien offshoot mushroom, going the gym to get slim”; “my dream house is a negative space of rock”; or, indeed, “when I was a child I wanted to be a horse, eating onions, carrots, celer
  
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• The best songs of 2025 … you may not have heard

  27-12-2025 12:02 via theguardian.com
  From a folk murder ballad to an impassioned call for peace, Guardian writers pick their favourite lesser-heard tracks of the yearThe pick of 2025’s film, music, art, TV, stage and games, chosen by Guardian critics and writersThere is a sense of deep knowing and calm to Not Offended, the lone song released this year by the Danish-Montenegrin musician (also an earlier graduate of the Copenhagen music school currently producing every interesting alternative pop star). To warmly droning organ
  
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• Soul-baring ballads, alt-rock fury and neon-lit techno: five-star albums you may have missed this year

  26-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Valentina Magaletti drummed for her life, Sarz got hips swinging and Daniel Avery got slinky and serpentine: our writers pick their favourite unsung LPs from 2025
  • The 50 best albums of 2025
  • More on the best culture of 2025Towards the end of Tether, there is a song called Silk and Velvet; its sound is characteristic of Annahstasia’s debut album. Fingerpicked acoustic guitar and her extraordinary vocals – husky, expressive, elegant – are front and centre. The arrang
  
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• The 10 best jazz albums of 2025

  26-12-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Jakob Bro’s Bill Frisell collaboration finally saw the light, Cécile McLorin Salvant drew on her teenage pop memories and Anthony Braxton looked back to 1985
  • The 50 best albums of 2025
  • More on the best culture of 2025UK saxophonist, composer and bandleader Tom Smith was dropping clues to his distinctively contemporary take on jazz traditions as a BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year finalist in 2014 and 2016, and later as a leader of groups including the sax trio Gecko
  
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• The best old music we discovered this year

  25-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Strange folk, lost pop, disco oddities and, um, Dido – here are the forgotten tracks that became this year’s most replayed revelations
  • The 50 best albums of 2025
  • More on the best culture of 2025I grew up listening to the Mamas and the Papas’ hits but had never heard their albums before this year. I had no idea anything as creepy as Mansions lurked within their sunny oeuvre. Its sound is ominous, its mood one of stoned paranoia, its subject rich hippies sequestered
  
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• Chris Rea’s Driving Home for Christmas is an evergreen, everyman anthem that captures the season’s true spirit

  22-12-2025 18:21 via theguardian.com
  By rejecting the bombast of 80s pop, the late singer-songwriter’s track has endured, and thereby perfectly captures the nostalgic feelings at the heart of Christmas• Chris Rea, rock and blues singer-songwriter, dies aged 74
  • Chris Rea – a life in picturesBritain isn’t a great island for road songs. It’s not big enough, really, for you to hit the road and drive. And if you try, you may just end up stuck in traffic on the A1, where the late Chris Rea found himsel
  
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• Robert Plant’s Saving Grace review – self-effacing superstar still sounds astonishing

  12-12-2025 13:01 via theguardian.com
  Royal Festival Hall, London
  Playing a mix of traditional folk and radically rearranged acoustic Led Zeppelin classics, the former Zep frontman is in fine voice – but also happy to step out of the spotlightBetween songs, Robert Plant describes his latest project, Saving Grace, as hailing “from the west side of common sense”. It’s a self-effacing remark but he has a point. Most rock stars of his vintage and stature (78 next year, somewhere between 200m and 300m albums sold
  
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• R&B Xmas Ball review – Toni Braxton melts hearts and Boyz II Men blow minds on trip back to the 90s

  08-12-2025 15:10 via theguardian.com
  OVO Wembley Arena
  With additional sets from Dru Hill and Joe, this revue is a little too nostalgic and lacks the advertised festive spirit – but the vocal prowess on show is undeniableAll of the artists on the lineup for the second annual R&B Xmas Ball – Dru Hill, Joe, Toni Braxton and Boyz II Men – have Christmas albums from the last two decades, but rather than putting a twist on carols or crooner standards, this is an evening that merely uses Christmas as an excuse for a
  
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• ‘Witness (1 Hope) by Roots Manuva gives me some bad girl energy’: Eliza Rose’s honest playlist

  07-12-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  The DJ, producer and singer likes the kind of dancehall her dad disapproves of, and her funk to be electronic. But whose songs make her feel bougie?The first single I ever boughtAaliyah, Rock the Boat. My nan sent me and my cousin to pick up some bits in Dalston and there was some change left over so I went into HMV and bought this CD for £1.99. I shouldn’t have been stealing my nan’s change but I felt so grownup. If my Jamaican dad had found out, he wouldn’t have been ha
  
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• Nick Cave’s Veiled World: the starry tale of how sometimes the devil doesn’t have the best tunes

  06-12-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  This documentary on the musician interviews everyone from Flea to … Rowan Williams. It’s a thoughtful take on his songs and ChristianityDevouring the new Nick Cave documentary on Sky, I am reminded how critics go wild for arty musicians who constantly change direction and dabble in everything. This is its own kind of myth. I know plenty of artists who keep moving – one week they’re sewing fish scales on to jackets, the next they’re painting mirrors or putting seaho
  
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• Kendrick Lamar review – with Doechii revving up the crowd, this is an extraordinary show for the ages

  06-12-2025 00:00 via theguardian.com
  AAMI Park, Melbourne
  Rap’s ‘swamp princess’ had the audience in the palm of her hand before Lamar dazzled with pyrotechnics and Drake dissesAside from the immediate delight that comes from seeing two of the biggest names in rap in one show, there is a pleasing asymmetry in Doechii and Kendrick Lamar performing together. Fame is still new enough for Doechii, rap’s “swamp princess” and most rapidly ascending star, that her rapid-fire lyrics mostly revel in the p
  
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• Five of the best music books of 2025

  05-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  From an enraging indictment of Spotify to Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie’s account of Parkinson’s and a compelling biography of Tupac Shakur, here are five titles that strike a chordMood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect PlaylistLiz Pelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
  Enraging, thoroughly depressing, but entirely necessary, Mood Music offers a timely, forensically researched demolition of Spotify. In Pelly’s account, the music streaming giant views music a
  
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• Laura Cannell: Brightly Shone the Moon review | Jude Rogers' folk album of the month

  05-12-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  (Brawl)
  The violinist sets out on her darkest exploration of yuletide yet, giving a murky and melancholy twist on familiar Christmas standardsTraditional music finds its popular, cosy home in the carol, despite the uncanniness that surrounds the nativity story, and the fraying thread back to the past that each winter brings. A veteran explorer of the season (in 2020’s sparkling Winter Rituals EP with cellist Kate Ellis, and 2022’s starker New Christmas Rituals, with amplified fiddle-
  
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• This Is Lorelei: Holo Boy review – sweet-sad songs from a new pearl of the US alt scene

  05-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  (Double Double Whammy)
  One half of Water From Your Eyes re-records songs from the back catalogue of his other band, resulting in acoustic fare touched with regret and darknessAs one half of Brooklyn-based duo Water From Your Eyes, Nate Amos makes left-field pop that feels hypermodern: wry, memey lyricism; post-ironic genre-hopping; the kind of jilted chaos and tonal jumble that characterises a social media feed. Yet the band had actually been plugging away for seven years before their 2023 break
  
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• ‘Constant stimulation, dopamine overload’: how EsDeeKid and UK underground rap exploded on a global scale

  05-12-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  With an experimental and maxed-out sound, bold new MCs are emerging from all corners of the UK – and with US rap in the doldrums, the time is ripe for another British InvasionIt’s early November and London’s Electric Ballroom is heaving. The warm-up DJ drops Fetty Wap’s 2014 smash Trap Queen, and the young crowd, a fair portion of whom were in primary school when the tune first came out, roar every word. They’re clad in baggy skatewear, with distressed, monochromati
  
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• From Otis Redding to Booker T, Steve Cropper was a strong yet subtle force that shaped so many soul classics

  04-12-2025 16:06 via theguardian.com
  The guitarist for Booker T & the MGs defined the sound of original R&B, co-creating soul anthems and proving himself one of the most influential musicians of the 60sSteve Cropper, legendary guitarist for Booker T & the MGs, dies aged 84Steve Cropper stood at the side of musical legends and toiled in the shadows of the studio, never a star. But his work with his fellow musicians and singers at Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, established him as one of the most creative and influent
  
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• Jamiroquai review – hat-sporting acid jazz superstars are slick but lack substance

  04-12-2025 11:16 via theguardian.com
  OVO Hydro, Glasgow
  The novelty headgear tally is high and frontman Jay Kay is in impressive voice – but strong material is smothered by polished playing and flashy productionBy the look of the crowd, there aren’t many fluffy, oversized or sparkly hats left on the shelves in Glasgow. Among the originators of the quintessentially 90s acid-jazz genre, Jamiroquai are now a legacy act worthy of their own themed dress-up. Tonight, sole founding member and noted headgear enthusiast Jay Kay
  
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• The 20 best songs of 2025

  03-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  This year’s outstanding tracks – from post-punk rap to indie-disco and operatic pop – as voted for by 30 Guardian music writers***20 Continue reading...
  
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• Cameron Winter review – Geese wunderkind whittles confident rearrangements in an intimate show

  01-12-2025 11:47 via theguardian.com
  Albert Hall, ManchesterWith two of the most-feted albums of the past 12 months under his belt, the New York singer-songwriter puts fresh spins on songs from his solo debutHearing Cameron Winter croon of God, Jesus and the devil in the former Methodist chapel of Manchester’s Albert Hall may seem appropriate, but this superficial link belies the 23-year-old’s talent for the secular and absurd. Winter works primarily in contrasts: poppy instrumentation with off-kilter song structures; l
  
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• Wolf Alice review – indie chameleons sparkle on a glam-rock bender

  30-11-2025 12:14 via theguardian.com
  Manchester Arena
  With 70s rock references, tinselly backdrop and some full-on cabaret-theatre vibes, the four-piece have undergone their most fun and complete reinvention yet‘If I want to wear my sparkly knickers, I will!” Ellie Rowsell giggles into the mic as she struts into The Sofa, a stylish 70s slow-burner about making guilt-free decisions and watching “reruns on the TV” without judgment. Tonight there is no sign of a settee-induced slumber, as the sparkling singer w
  
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• ‘I sang karaoke with Novak Djokovic – a surreal experience’: Jacob Collier’s honest playlist

  30-11-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  The musical prodigy discovered Stevie Wonder aged two and danced to Brazilian jazz at a Grammys afterparty. But what song does he think is the best in the world?The first song I fell in love with
  So many songs hit me as a child, they were like windows opening up new worlds. But the first I truly loved was Did I Hear You Say You Love Me, by Stevie Wonder, which I remember clearly when I was around two years old.The first single I bought
  I bought an iTunes single by Take 6 when I was 13. They are
  
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• ‘It has made me live life more’: Jessie J on cancer, comebacks and cracking China

  29-11-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, suicide and gaslighting … they are all laid bare on the singer-writer’s new album. But just as she finished recording it, she got a shock diagnosis. She explains why it’s made her determined to be in the momentYou couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler having struggled to conce
  
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• ‘An engineering feat’: the 26-year-old Australian making costumes for Lady Gaga

  28-11-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Samuel Lewis had to push his limits for the pop star’s global tour, set to hit his home town Melbourne next weekGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailIt starts in a flood of red: a red-curtained stage, red flashing lights. It’s Lady Gaga, so theatrics are par for the course. As the lights go up it becomes clear she’s not standing on a giant stage but, in fact, wearing it.A militaristic bodice extends into the swooping velvet drapes of a 7.5-metre-high gown. “It&rsquo
  
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