Music news

• Add to playlist: the introspective ‘Afromood’ of Nigerian star Strei and the week’s best new tracks

  05-06-2026 17:18
  Less interested in spectacle than vibe, the Delta State artist’s subtle atmospheric projects are carving a quietly distinctive pathFrom Delta State, Nigeria
  Recommended if you like Omah Lay, Rema, XXXTentacion, Juice WRLD
  Up next Album Night out nowBorn and raised in Delta State and now based in Lagos, Strei is part of a new generation of Nigerian musicians turning away from Afropop’s extroverted certainties and towards something more inward-looking. His self-described “Afromoo
  
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• From G-Flip to Tame Impala: why Australian music is soundtracking so much TV right now

  05-06-2026 17:00
  From Off Campus to the Summer I Turned Pretty, it seems like Australian artists are everywhere right now – but what does the exposure actually mean?Last month, a new Amazon Prime series, Off Campus, fought its way to the top of the streaming TV pile. Releasing its first season all at once, the glossy campus drama – set around an elite hockey team at a fictional US university – racked up 36 million viewers in its first 12 days, becoming the platform’s biggest debut among w
  
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• With warmth, kindness and unlimited energy, Kanya King revolutionised Black British culture

  05-06-2026 14:55
  The Mobo founder, who has died aged 57, had an unprecedented vision: to give Black British music a glitzy and joyful awards ceremony. But her impact went well beyond it• News: Kanya King, founder of Mobo awards for Black British music, dies aged 57I first met Kanya King in the mid-1990s, when I was still reeling from the failure of my own attempt to target the Black audience via my newspaper, Black Briton. Kanya came along a couple of years later and showed how it should be done. In framing
  
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• Dua Lipa and Callum Turner wedding divides Palermo: ‘I could understand if it was for the pope’

  05-06-2026 14:15
  While some residents are proud to host celebrations, others lament road closures and city’s transformation into a ‘theme park’Concetta Chillemi was chatting to friends outside her shop next to Palermo’s gallery for modern art housed in a sublime baroque church in the city’s historic centre. A few metres away, an Italian TV crew had its camera trained on the tiny square in front of the church where event staff in black T-shirts scurried around in the heat.They were p
  
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• Taylor Swift: I Knew It, I Knew You review – giddy up! Song for Toy Story cowgirl Jessie is Swift’s best in years

  05-06-2026 12:34
  Full of handcrafted care and the rootsy soul of her country origins, this gently elated song is a reminder of what fans love about Swift … and the film seriesTaylor Swift does not fear a challenge. She’s broken records then broken those records; taken Grammy snubs as a sign she just has to work harder; mounted probably the most physically exhausting tour of all time. But in writing a song for Toy Story’s cowgirl Jessie, she’s set herself a deranged task: how could anyone
  
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• Lizzo: Bitch review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

  05-06-2026 06:00
  (Atlantic)
  After scrapping an album and starting anew, Lizzo still sounds lost amid these weak genre-hopping songs. Perhaps the zeitgeist has simply left her behindJust over a year ago, Lizzo appeared on Saturday Night Live, announcing a new album called Love in Real Life in grandstanding style. Wielding an electric guitar, clad in a Trump-baiting T-shirt that read Tariffied, she performed its title track and two other new songs, Still Bad and Don’t Make Me Love U. As with her appearance e
  
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• ‘I knew it was over for us’: the bands who got left behind when punk exploded

  05-06-2026 06:00
  Fifty years ago this week, the Sex Pistols played their first Manchester gig – and upended pop culture. But what was 1976 really like before punk arrived? From swing bands to ‘spaghetti rock’, we discover a lost historyIn January 1976, the cover of the NME didn’t feature an artist, but a photo of a room damaged by an IRA bomb: there had been a string of terrorist attacks in London the previous year. The headline: “Is rock’n’roll ready for 1976 … I
  
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• Sing when you’re winning: the 20 greatest songs about football – ranked!

  04-06-2026 14:33
  ​As World Cup fever begins, we go beyond terrace chants and team anthems to look at footy-mad songwriting, from Cardiff rap to Zimbabwean rumbira ... and Rod StewartAh, fathers and sons and football. Here, Rod gets teary-eyed remembering how his dad used to cheer him from the touchline: an inessential but sweet and heartfelt song. Though Rod once told me that he tended to shout at his own son from the touchline, because he never tracked back. Continue reading...
  
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• Mike D review – ex-Beastie Boy’s first UK gig in two decades, in a Tyneside bingo hall, is uproarious fun

  04-06-2026 13:36
  King Street Social Club, North Shields
  Teeing up a forthcoming solo album, the rapper doesn’t reheat his old Beastie Boys sound, instead throwing down everything from ballads to Kraftwerk referencesAdam Yauch AKA MCA’s death in 2012 from cancer aged 47 effectively ended the stellar recording and performing career of hip-hop trio Beastie Boys. Since then, bandmates Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond have made few public appearances but the lat
  
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• ‘I don’t listen to indie music any more’: Ed O’Brien’s honest playlist

  04-06-2026 12:42
  The Radiohead guitarist once serenaded a girl with the Smiths and thinks George Michael was a genius. But what is his favourite football song?The first single I boughtAlly’s Tartan Army, the 1978 Scottish World Cup song, because England hadn’t qualified. I loved that Scottish team – Alan Rough, Martin Buchan, Gordon McQueen, Kenny Dalglish – and the 10-year-old me got completely swept up in World Cup fever.The first song I fell in love withWhen I was 17, I fell in love wi
  
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• Peabo Bryson, R&B singer behind classic Disney duets, dies aged 75

  03-06-2026 15:51
  Two-time Grammy winner was best known for songs from Beauty and the Beast and AladdinPeabo Bryson, the R&B singer best known as the voice behind the Oscar-winning Disney film duets Beauty and the Beast with Celine Dion, and A Whole New World with Regina Belle from Aladdin, has died. He was 75.His family said in a statement that Bryson, who won two Grammy awards, died on Tuesday, days after having a stroke. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘We’re really good. I don’t mean that arrogantly’: Yard Act on bullying, imposter syndrome and their heavy new album

  01-06-2026 06:00
  The Leeds group arrived in a frenzy of post-punk energy, picking at the scabs of society – then started questioning their instant success. They talk about dodging ‘the megaband treadmill’ to make their surreal new albumIt’s certainly a novel way to announce your comeback. On the opening song of Yard Act’s new album, over a cacophony of doomy piano chords and crashing drums, singer James Smith announces: “I’ve got absolutely nothing – absolutely not
  
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• Take That review – stadium redux of Circus tour has maximal razzle-dazzle

  30-05-2026 13:00
  St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton
  Elephants, clowns, aerialists hanging by their hair … the Big Top concept doesn’t let up at this hugely enjoyable outing for a boy band with hits to spareTake That have never been shy when it comes to repackaging their past. In 2018, they followed two official best-of collections with Odyssey, a Stuart Price-produced curio in which they “re-imagined” their greatest hits. Around the same time, band captain Gary Barlow – now overs
  
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• Add to playlist: the whimsy and warped electronics of duo Ear and the week’s best new tracks

  29-05-2026 13:00
  There’s nostalgia to the New York/London duo’s lo-fi laptop sound, but their second album pushes them into vivid, weirder new territoryFrom Hudson valley, New York, and London
  Recommended if you like the Books, Leila, Worldpeace DMT
  Up next Rumspringa released 29 MayJonah Paz and Yaelle Avtan recorded their first ever track as Ear on an iPhone in the Bard College library. That song, Nerves, pits their murmuring voices against weightless strings and barely perceptible drums. Just as i
  
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• Matías Aguayo: Anenoa review | Ammar Kalia's global album of the month

  29-05-2026 10:00
  (Platoon)
  The Chilean-German producer’s shapeshifting vocals stir Latin rhythms, ghetto house, trance and more into a playful partyOver the past two decades, Chilean-German vocalist and producer Matías Aguayo’s mutable, instinctive singing has been an instantly identifiable ingredient of leftfield electronic music. On Battles’ 2011 track Ice Cream, he squealed and tripped through syllables against a thunderous synth backing, while Japanese synth-pop group Crystal’s
  
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• Violet Grohl: Be Sweet to Me review – alt-rock arriviste aces the part

  29-05-2026 09:30
  (Island)
  The daughter of Foo Fighters’ Dave does a serviceable line in 90s throwback sounds, though the nostalgia is too reverent‘I’ll eat your liver,” Violet Grohl threatens on 595, a scuzzy, slasher-inspired alt-rock single that feels made for 90s MTV. Arch, deadpan verses give way to a big, bluesy, intentionally sleazy chorus, finished with blown-out guitar and squealing feedback: part Veruca Salt, part Queens of the Stone Age. Despite just turning 20, Grohl has the ro
  
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• ‘I can gauge John’s reaction: that’s good, stick that in’: Paul McCartney on how old bandmates – and Oasis – inspired his nostalgic new album

  29-05-2026 06:00
  At 83, McCartney is looking back for his 18th solo LP, to formative flirtations, family singalongs, even his own birth – and the febrile times that mirror our own. It’s given him ‘every hope that we’ll get through’• Alexis Petridis reviews The Boys of Dungeon Lane: ‘At 83, his gift for melody still astounds’
  ‘How far do you want to go back?” In his office overlooking Soho Square in London, Paul McCartney and I sit together on a small sof
  
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• ‘The biggest myth? That I left Sister Sledge’: Kathy Sledge on sibling rivalry, Chic and disco’s political power

  28-05-2026 16:00
  One of disco’s biggest stars answers your questions, recalling tours with Rick James, inspiration for Destiny’s Child and what she wished she asked Michael JacksonYou have been an active contributor to an astounding canon of music. What was the essential ingredient that made it all happen? eamonmccThe first word that comes to mind is passion – for the music, for what I do. If you get to be the voice of a song like We Are Family, which is here for generations to come – to
  
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• Iceage: For Love of Grace & the Hereafter review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

  28-05-2026 13:00
  (Mexican Summer)
  The quintet add shoegaze, country and 50s rock’n’roll to their core indie-punk sound, resulting in songs that offset lyrical bleakness with gleeful, uplifting musicIceage have always seemed like a band in a state of constant development. You might say that’s understandable, given the Danish musicians were in their teens when their debut album New Brigade was released in 2011: if you don’t change between the age of 18 and your early 30s, you’re proba
  
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• Sonny Rollins obituary

  26-05-2026 18:34
  One of the great American jazz saxophonists regarded as an improvising genius by fans all over the worldThe flyers for his shows often called the saxophonist Sonny Rollins “the greatest living improviser”. On the face of it, that statement appeared to collide with the evidence, because many of the elements of a Rollins gig were repeated from one show to another.But you had to listen beyond the themes of favourite Rollins vehicles such as St Thomas, Don’t Stop the Carnival and A
  
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• Sugar review – Bob Mould’s reunited band still in a sweet spot between noise and melody

  25-05-2026 12:09
  O2 Kentish Town Forum, London
  After three unlikely Top 10 albums in the 90s, the trio are back – and on the basis of this rapid-fire set, you hope they’ll stick aroundBob Mould has never seemed to have much interest in looking back. The bridges to a Hüsker Dü reunion were burned long before drummer and songwriter Grant Hart died in 2017; the notion that Mould might revive Sugar, the band who scored three unlikely UK Top 10 albums of ferocious alt-rock in the mid-90s, seemed
  
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• Doja Cat review – pop superstar or true freak? US iconoclast plays the tension to perfection

  22-05-2026 12:12
  OVO Hydro, Glasgow
  Moving seamlessly throughextravagant choreography between bubblegum–rap and darker, rockier material, the singer is always in full command Since her breakout almost a decade ago, singer and rapper Doja Cat has been musically restless: bouncing between the pop-rap of her first album Amala to her darker, toothier 2023 release Scarlet; collaborating with SZA then heel-turning to cover Hole. On last year’s fifth album Vie she negotiated the tension between the pop pers
  
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• Kurt Vile: Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me review – indie rock’s most easygoing dude gets existential

  21-05-2026 13:30
  (Verve)
  Sounding characteristically virtuosic but unbothered, Vile is more forward-thinking than ever on a record that surveys the bliss and bumps of life in his mid-40sThese days, Kurt Vile songs begin in the middle of the story. In the third decade of his career, the journeyman musician seems even more content than ever to ride his own wave, to let his laid-back koans sit in the air without explanation or context, waiting for a listener to find the right frequency to understand or absorb them
  
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• Nedra Talley Ross helped make the Ronettes the platonic ideal of a girl group

  27-04-2026 11:28
  Even though she was unwell, the last surviving Ronette was full of poignant memories and saucy asides when I met her last year. And she had a rich life after pop success• Nedra Talley Ross dies aged 80 – newsNedra Talley Ross wasn’t a household name any longer, but she had been once upon a time. When she turned 18 in January 1964, George Harrison was among the guests who helped her celebrate. She and her cousins were feted, surrounded, adored. For she and her cousins were the Ro
  
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• Dave Mason, co-founder of Traffic who had a star-studded solo career, dies aged 79

  22-04-2026 12:44
  British singer and guitarist wrote and performed Traffic classics including Feelin’ Alright? before platinum-selling solo albums and work with Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac and moreDave Mason, the co-founder of rock band Traffic who also collaborated with Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac and many other A-list musicians, has died aged 79.A statement from his representative said he died peacefully on Sunday at his home in Gardnerville, Nevada, having settled in the US in 1969. “Dave Mason liv
  
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• Add to playlist: the dark fog of Los Angeles saxophonist Aaron Shaw and the week’s best new tracks

  16-01-2026 13:00
  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
  (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
  (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
  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
  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
  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
  (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
  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
  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
  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
  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
  ‘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
  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
  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
  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
  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
  ‘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
  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
  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
  (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
  (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
  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
  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
  (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
  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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