Music news

• Chappell Roan isn’t endorsing Kamala Harris. She’s taking a stand for critical thinking instead

  25-09-2024 19:06
  
  The year’s breakout pop star has attracted ire for refusing to champion the Democrats. But that refusal could empower her fanbase to think more deeply about their vote‘No, I’m not voting for Trump and yes, I will always question those in power,” Chappell Roan said in a recent TikTok video clarifying why she is not stumping for Kamala Harris in the forthcoming US presidential election. As she had explained to the Guardian last week, she doesn’t “feel pressured
  
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• Cat Glover was Prince’s thrillingly sexy sidekick – and brought out the best in him

  25-09-2024 18:57
  
  The dancer, choreographer and vocalist, who has died aged 60, was sometimes dismissed as eye candy – but her remarkable stagecraft took Prince to the next levelThe name Catherine Glover might not mean a lot in isolation, but when you know it’s who Prince commands “Cat, we need you to rap” on Alphabet Street, memories might come flooding back. Beautiful, energetic and comfortable with being wheelbarrowed around the stage in skimpy peach-coloured costumes, Glover – wh
  
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• Dual lingo: why UK rappers like Central Cee and Dave are embracing the EU

  25-09-2024 14:56
  
  British MCs are increasingly making bilingual tracks with their European peers – and, they explain, it’s not just to attract new audiencesThe British are notoriously bad at bothering to learn other languages – and even listening to them. Across Europe, music fans are used to enjoying tracks even if they can’t understand the lyrics, but this has rarely been the case in the UK, where we do not often deviate from English-language pop. Even Bad Bunny, who was the most streame
  
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• Benny Golson obituary

  25-09-2024 14:14
  Tenor saxophonist whose compositions were valued for their harmonic challenge and melodic graceWhen the photographer Art Kane trained his lens on a group of 57 assorted jazz musicians in front of a brownstone house in Harlem one day in the summer of 1958, what he saw represented almost the entire history of the idiom. Early masters such as the trumpeter Red Allen and the drummer Zutty Singleton were mingling with the swing-era heroes Count Basie, Lester Young and Gene Krupa, and with postwar beb
  
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• Linkin Park review – monster hits perfectly reshaped for a fresh chapter

  25-09-2024 13:19
  
  The O2, London
  Back on the road with vocalist Emily Armstrong making their back catalogue her own, the hybrid metallers have found a new audience and a reinvigorated sense of purposeLinkin Park laid the foundations for modern metal with their 2000 debut Hybrid Theory. They weren’t the first band to bring together rock, hip-hop, electronic music and a whole lot of angst – but they were the most successful. Throughout the 2000s and beyond, the band continued to toy with genre and pack
  
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• Paul McCartney and Wings: One Hand Clapping review – restored rockumentary is pure pleasure

  25-09-2024 10:00
  
  David Litchfield’s lost 1974 film captures McCartney’s extraordinary enthusiasm and skill, some killer tunes and a whole host of hilarious incidentalsI’m amazed, and there’s no maybe about it. Paul McCartney and Wings star in this engrossing hour-long documentary (or, if you will, rockumentary) shot on analogue video in 1974 (while Band on the Run was riding high in the charts) by cameraman and VFX veteran David Litchfield, as the band worked in Abbey Road on a potential
  
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• Lady Gaga announces 13-song Joker companion album Harlequin

  24-09-2024 19:18
  
  The singer and actor has revealed the upcoming release of a companion album to her role in Joker: Folie à DeuxLady Gaga has announced an accompanying 13-song album to her new film Joker: Folie à Deux.The singer and actor had been teasing the news on social media and has now shared that the album, Harlequin, will be released on 27 September. Continue reading...
  
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• Nubya Garcia: Odyssey review – a rich, orchestral journey of self-discovery

  22-09-2024 10:00
  
  (Concord Jazz)
  The British sax star rekindles her love for scoring strings on her second solo album, with the help of Chineke! Orchestra, Esperanza Spalding and moreTenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia is one of the top-line names to emerge from the past decade’s explosion of young London jazz talent. Her second solo album foregrounds Garcia’s deepening compositional and arranging skills, as well as bravura performances from some longtime associates – keys player Joe Armon-Jones (Ezr
  
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• Paradise Cinema: Returning, Dream review – walking a fine balance between chaos and euphoria

  21-09-2024 17:00
  
  (Gondwana)
  Portico Quartet saxophonist Jack Wyllie teams up with three percussionists for a thunderous, west African-influenced second albumLondon jazz outfit Portico Quartet have been a launch pad for side projects since their 2008 Mercury prize-nominated debut. Hang drum player Nick Mulvey departed in 2011 to become a successful singer-songwriter, while saxophonist Jack Wyllie is part of two projects: experimental electronica trio Szun Waves and the west African-influenced Paradise Cinema.The
  
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• Oxlade: OFA (Oxlade from Africa) review – an extremely likable debut

  20-09-2024 13:00
  (Epic)
  Two years on from his viral summer hit Ku Lo Sa, the Nigerian singer’s debut album showcases his free-floating, mellifluous styleNigerian prospect Oxlade landed a huge viral hit in 2022 with Ku Lo Sa, an addictive summer love song. In taking two years to follow it with his debut album, the 27-year-old singer has probably lost a little momentum, but OFA (Oxlade from Africa) is extremely likable, delicate pop. Stars such as Dave and Popcaan feature, but Oxlade’s imploring vocal,
  
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• Joan As Police Woman: Lemons, Limes and Orchids review – stripped back songs of love and loss

  20-09-2024 12:30
  
  (Play It Again Sam)
  On her first collection of originals since 2018, Joan Wasser lets loose with an album of slinky vocals and live instrumentationIt’s been six years since US multi-instrumentalist Joan Wasser released Damned Devotion, her last album of new material. There have been stopgaps along the way – 2020’s playful Cover Two, featuring reworkings of songs by the likes of Prince and the Strokes, and a live album – but Wasser seemed to be playing for time. On this 12
  
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• The Rheingans Sisters: Start Close In review – a radical leap into darkness

  20-09-2024 10:00
  
  (Self-released)
  With their golden voices, fertile soundworlds and evocative influences from across Europe, the Sheffield duo’s fifth album is admirably confrontationalAn infernal, harrowing scrape begins Rowan and Anna Rheingans’ first album in four years: a bow gnashed against a tambourin à cordes (a traditional Pyrenean strung drum) joined by a distorted and octave-pedalled viola, creating a frightening undertow. The song is Devils, inspired by singer Frankie Armstrong&rsquo
  
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• Kate Pierson: Radios & Rainbows review – bops, balls and belles from B-52s singer

  20-09-2024 09:30
  (Songvest)
  Pierson’s mellifluous vocals radiate positivity in a dozen bouncy tracks that skip giddily between electro-pop, rock, dance and discoFor nearly 50 years, Kate Pierson has been best-known as the mellifluous voice, mega-bouffant and keyboard player of the B-52s, as well as popping up on REM’s Shiny Happy People and Ramones’ Chop Suey or singing with Iggy Pop on Candy. She’s always sounded as if she’s enjoyed every minute, and says this second solo album is
  
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• Katy Perry: 143 review – wan Europop revival falls short of total catastrophe

  20-09-2024 06:00
  
  (Capitol)
  Following disastrous comeback singles and videos prompting environmental investigation, Perry’s seventh album isn’t the calamity expected – but it isn’t good, eitherThe video for Katy Perry’s recent single Woman’s World concluded with the artist being hoisted aloft, clinging to a helicopter’s door frame with one hand, brandishing a ring light in the shape of the medical pictogram for “female” and bellowing “I’M KATY PERR
  
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• ‘Fame is like going through puberty’: Chappell Roan on sexuality, superstardom and the joy of drag

  20-09-2024 06:00
  
  She’s gone from obscurity to the A-list, but not without struggle. On the road in the UK, the singer talks teenage angst, her queer inspirations ... and why she hasn’t endorsed Kamala HarrisChappell Roan once started a bar fight. A man was talking down to a server and she called him out. He squared up to her, one thing led to another and her friends ended up brawling with him. “If you’re an asshole, I’m gonna be like: ‘Yo, fuck off.’ You don’t get
  
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• Nelly Furtado: ‘Flames shot out of the speaker when I started making Maneater’

  19-09-2024 16:05
  
  As she releases new album 7, the Canadian pop star answers your questions on going in the studio with Timbaland, songwriting with Chris Martin, and the melancholy magic of fadoYou’ve often declared your love of Oasis. Have you managed to get tickets? Bauhaus66I just taped Never Mind the Buzzcocks in the UK wearing my Oasis T-shirt – and this was before they announced the reunion, so my love of Oasis is not trendy. It started when I was 17, with the first two albums. I feel like Noel
  
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• Moby review – full of teenage energy on first tour in over a decade

  19-09-2024 13:38
  
  Manchester Apollo
  With songs either maximalist or stripped back, there’s not much subtlety during this 25th anniversary tour for the once-ubiquitous Play – but there are some head-rush thrills‘I’m a little vegan, I’m sober, bald, maybe inbred, and I am a raver,” announces Moby tonight. It’s the first time he has toured in over a decade, as he marks the 25th anniversary of Play, the monstrously successful album that no doubt helped to put him in a positio
  
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• Jamie xx: In Waves review – bright, blissful bangers for 3am on big speakers

  19-09-2024 13:07
  
  (Young)
  Filled with guest stars from his xx bandmates to Robyn, this long-gestating second solo album picks up where In Colour left off, and deepens its dancefloor devotionIf your exposure to Jamie xx was largely via the band who gave him his pseudonym, his debut solo album might have come as a shock. You doubtless knew he had a parallel career as a DJ and dance producer, but even so, the mood of 2015’s In Colour was at odds with that reliably conjured by the xx.Where the band of childhood
  
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• Hendrix, Jagger, Bowie and me: Terry Reid, the British pop outlier adored by the greats

  18-09-2024 16:53
  He was courted by Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, toured with Tina Turner and the Rolling Stones and was idolised by everyone from Aretha Franklin to Dr Dre. British pop’s nearly man tells his astonishing story‘There are only three things happening in England,” Aretha Franklin announced to the world’s media during a visit to Britain in 1968. “The Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Terry Reid.”I mention this to Reid and the 74-year old musician laughs. “See, I
  
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• ‘I love it when things get out of hand’: the return of outrageous 90s rockers the Jesus Lizard

  17-09-2024 15:00
  
  Darkly comedic, frequently naked and with fans in Kurt Cobain and Henry Rollins, the quartet burned a bloodstained trail through the alt-rock scene. They explain how they’re staying dangerous after 26 years awaySweaty, unhinged and with one of them frequently naked, few underground rock bands remain as revered as the Jesus Lizard. The US band’s early 90s albums Goat and Liar inspired awe in American alt-rock royalty such as Kurt Cobain, Steve Albini and Henry Rollins, and the band&rs
  
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• ‘Only three more songs till I kick your ass!’ Rock’n’roll’s biggest onstage bust-ups

  16-09-2024 18:26
  
  Jane’s Addiction’s future is in doubt after a mid-song spat last weekend – but from the Kinks to Oasis, such squabbles are extremely commonJane’s Addiction cancel tour after onstage fight citing safety concernsLong before they decided All You Need Is Love, even the Fab Four were subject to an onstage bust-up. During their pivotal spell in Hamburg, something Paul McCartney said to bandmate Stuart Sutcliffe about his new engagement to local, Astrid Kirchherr, led Sutcliffe
  
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• Frankie Beverly obituary

  16-09-2024 18:11
  American singer, musician and founder of the R&B band Maze whose sensual voice was at the core of their soundIt was a source of frustration to Frankie Beverly, who has died aged 77, that he and his group Maze never enjoyed huge pop success, though they cracked the mainstream Top 30 with their albums Golden Time of Day (1978) and We Are One (1983). However he could also reflect that the group’s enduring status and faithful audiences allowed him valuable creative freedom.While musical tr
  
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• Post your questions for Ice-T

  16-09-2024 17:24
  
  As his heavy metal band Body Count return, the vocalist and actor will answer questions about his varied careerWith a scorn-dripping voice put to work on everything from classic hip-hop to gnarly heavy metal, Ice-T is one of America’s most iconic MCs – and as he and his band Body Count get ready to release their new album Merciless, he will be answering your questions.Now 66, Ice-T was born in New Jersey but was orphaned as a young teenager and moved to Los Angeles, getting a taste f
  
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• Donald Trump loses legal fight over using Eddy Grant song without permission

  16-09-2024 15:37
  
  Judge rules presidential candidate is liable for damages over unauthorised use of Grant’s song Electric Avenue in animated video ridiculing Joe BidenDonald Trump has lost a legal battle with the singer Eddy Grant over using his 1983 song Electric Avenue in a 2020 ad without permission.The 40-second clip – an animation of Joe Biden travelling in a railroad cart while a Trump-Pence campaign train passes at high speed – was viewed more than 13.7m times on Twitter before it was rem
  
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• Tito Jackson, Jackson 5 member and brother to Michael, dies aged 70

  16-09-2024 15:23
  
  The third of nine Jackson children and last to release a solo project, Tito was ‘an incredible man who cared about everyone’Tito Jackson, one of the brothers who made up the pop group the Jackson 5, has died at the age of 70.Tito was the third of nine Jackson children, including global superstars Michael and Janet. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘I’m not a singer but I can just about do Sweet Dreams at karaoke’: Eve’s honest playlist

  16-09-2024 08:00
  
  The rapper and author on belting out 80s synthpop and the verse that changed her life – but which glam-rock classic soundtracked her giving birth?The first song I fell in love withThe first song that really impacted me was Cappucino by MC Lyte. When I saw the video, I had that spark of: “Maybe I could maybe do this. I could be a female rapper.” I just loved her attitude and style.The song that gets me up in the morningI’m on a single with Sia and Chaka Khan, which I can&r
  
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• Chappell Roan review – having the time of her life

  15-09-2024 17:00
  
  Manchester Academy
  From YMCA-style dance to thrashing guitars, a queer take on Aerosmith to Kate Bush cosplay, Roan’s DIY approach maintains her humanityOver the last few months, Chappell Roan has been through it. The breakout star of 2024 has shared stories of intrusive fan behaviour, being stalked and expressed her anxiety about her newfound level of fame. “I’ve pumped the brakes on anything to make me more known,” she said during a podcast interview in July. “It&
  
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• Jack White review – virtuoso noisemaker delivers in riotous style

  15-09-2024 13:37
  
  Islington Assembly Hall, London
  White and his band sound like a hooligan Rage Against the Machine or a basement-dwelling AC/DCFair play to Jack White. After the White Stripes dissolved in 2011 he really did move on: country rock, synths, Q-Tip collaborations. Only now, with his sixth solo album, No Name, has he returned to the well of raw and riotous blues-rock delivered in the style of a possessed carny, and bagged his best reviews in years. Even his hair has regressed from an aqua-blue quiff t
  
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• I’m a devout agnostic. But, like Nick Cave, I hunger for meaning in our chaotic world | John Harris

  15-09-2024 13:34
  
  The spiritual aridity of modern life can be tough to handle. Maybe that’s why the singer, and his new album Wild God, have struck a chordThere is a tension in 21st-century life that may come close to defining how millions of us now live. Whenever we want to commune with other people, we need only reach for an object the size of a Twix and there they all are: scores of acquaintances and a veritable galaxy of complete strangers, offering insights and opinions on a huge range of subjects. But
  
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• Azealia Banks review – thundering bare bones set almost brings down the building

  15-09-2024 12:54
  O2 Academy Brixton, London
  Harlem rapper’s raw and eclectic performance has the whole venue bouncingThe balcony at Brixton Academy is shaking with the volume of 5,000 people screaming “IMMA RUIN YOU CUNT” at the tops of their lungs. It’s the second date of Azealia Banks’s first UK tour in more than five years, and the Harlem rapper has the crowd eating out of the palm of her hand like she’s working a basement club.
  With a career spanning 16 years and just one
  
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• ‘My whole life’s interconnected’: Neneh Cherry on the relationships that inspire her, leaving home at 15, and the joy of a trashy box set

  15-09-2024 11:00
  
  As her highly anticipated memoir is published, the celebrated musician and all-round creative powerhouse answers questions from Observer readers and famous fans including Michael Stipe, Bernardine Evaristo, Questlove and Sadiq KhanNeneh Cherry, singer, writer, is sipping tea and talking about a party back in the day. “I keep thinking about it,” she says. “It was the first party I brought Naima to. I was 18, Naima was a baby, so it was in the early 80s. The party was at Jeannett
  
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• Nic Cester from Jet: ‘I wrote the majority of Get Born while sitting on the toilet’

  14-09-2024 22:00
  The frontman of the Australian rock band reflects on the last two decades, his worst date and his favourite sandwichRead more 10 Chaotic QuestionsGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailWhat is the best guitar riff of all time?I find joy in simplicity. If you have the capacity to boil something down to essential ingredients, I think that is often more powerful and clever than something complicated. So my answer is potentially banal – but I think it’s the riff from James Bond. Ever
  
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• Astrid Williamson: Shetland Suite review – a beautiful enchantment

  14-09-2024 17:00
  
  (Incarnation)
  Playing, singing and producing, the Scottish musician pays tribute to her homeland and her late mother on this powerfully moving setBorn and raised in Shetland and classically trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, Astrid Williamson was pulled back to her homeland by her mother’s turn to dementia and subsequent death. Shetland Suite, Williamson’s 10th album (including one fronting alt rockers Goya Dress), is an affecting tribute to her mother, a pian
  
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• Jungle review – like a puzzle with a piece missing

  14-09-2024 15:00
  
  Utilita Arena, Cardiff
  The Brit award winners keep their audience in happy shuffle mode with a plush set of disco-flecked retro bangers – albeit one short on the dance and visuals they’re renowned forBands often talk loftily about creating worlds, usually in an effort to elevate a handful of tunes into something greater. Some outfits, though, achieve something close to that aim. Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz – the erstwhile virtual band – are just one who spread out into
  
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• One to watch: Friedberg

  14-09-2024 13:30
  
  The London-based four-piece led by Austrian singer-songwriter Anna F serve up the coolest dance punk this side of LCD SoundsystemFor economic and other practical reasons, it’s increasingly rare for singer-songwriters to seek shelter in a band, but that risky shift has paid off for Anna Friedberg. She grew up learning guitar and writing songs in her bedroom in Austria, then evolved into solo artist Anna F, supported by her side hustle as a sports journalist. Tiring of working alone, five ye
  
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• Herbie Flowers obituary

  13-09-2024 18:11
  
  Bassist who played on an estimated 500 hit songs – the most recognisable being the motif he provided for Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild SideThe bassist Herbie Flowers, who has died aged 86, was one of the most prolific session musicians of the 1970s. He played on an estimated 500 hit songs over the course of his career, laying down the foundations to tunes by three former Beatles (John Lennon was the exception), plus David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Lou Reed, Elton John, Bryan Ferry, Cat Steven
  
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• Zoot Money obituary

  13-09-2024 18:03
  Keyboardist and bandleader who rode the wave of the British rhythm and blues movement in the 1960sWhen Georgie Fame called his old friend Zoot Money up on stage to sing at Ronnie Scott’s Club one autumn night in London in 2022 – “Come on Zoot, I can’t do this without you” – they tore the house down.It was a moving moment for both performers, as they joined forces with the Guy Barker Big Band to sing Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag, that brought back memories
  
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• Jonas Brothers review – epic 60-song eras set is full of cheesy joy

  13-09-2024 17:53
  Co-Op Live, Manchester
  The former Disney stars’ voices have matured nicely – and they give Taylor Swift a run for her money with this exhilarating trip through their careerWatching the Jonas Brothers’ show, it can feel like siblings Joe, Nick and Kevin asked Taylor Swift whether they could copy her homework. As with the Eras Tour, the show is a career-spanning retrospective with a set neatly partitioned by specific albums. Some might call it plagiarism. Others may call it smart
  
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• The Weeknd: Dancing in the Flames review – another apocalyptic romance, and another surefire hit

  13-09-2024 15:54
  
  (XO/Republic)
  Abel Tesfaye revisits his usual theme of nihilistic love and his beloved palette of 80s synths, but it’s melodically solid and there are some tweaks to the formulaWhen the Weeknd released his last album, 2022’s Dawn FM, it carried a certain sense of finality. A grand concept album filled with both starry and august special guests – Jim Carrey, Quincy Jones, Beach Boy Bruce Johnston – and intimations of death, apocalypse and the afterlife, it was accompanied
  
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• ‘Instantly a very different vibe’: the glory and controversy of Linkin Park’s explosive comeback

  13-09-2024 13:56
  On hiatus since the 2017 suicide of Chester Bennington, the rockers have had huge success with return single The Emptiness Machine – but there is disquiet over the frontman’s replacementOasis may have sold a lot of tickets, but for many music fans there’s an even bigger rock comeback this year: Linkin Park, whose first three albums went 25 times platinum between them in the US alone, have dramatically ended a seven-year hiatus which followed the 2017 suicide of co-frontman Ches
  
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• The Jesus Lizard: Rack review – Chicago punks return with pyrotechnics undimmed

  13-09-2024 13:00
  
  (Ipecac)
  The Nirvana peers’ first album in 26 years is a masterclass in tightly controlled chaosA split single with Nirvana made feral Chicago-based punk four-piece the Jesus Lizard unlikely UK chart stars in 1993, but they suffered diminishing returns after signing to a major label a couple of years later, and had disappeared with an uncharacteristic whimper by the end of the decade. Thankfully, Rack, their first album in 26 years, has far more in common with the thrillingly out-there run
  
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• Fousheé: Pointy Heights review – a Caribbean-facing new direction

  13-09-2024 12:30
  
  (RCA)
  The in-demand US singer-songwriter’s second album takes its cue from her Jamaican heritageAmerican singer-songwriter Brittany Fousheé’s music is often unpredictable. An in-demand collaborator, her soft-toned R&B vocals feature on singer Steve Lacy’s 2022 track Sunshine from the Grammy-winning album Gemini Rights, while her solo work spans the intimate, whispered R&B of 2021 EP Time Machine and 2022’s explosive debut album, Softcore, which harnessed ra
  
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• Daniel Inzani: Selected Worlds | John Lewis's contemporary album of the month

  13-09-2024 10:00
  
  (Hidden Notes/Tardigrade)
  In his first major solo release, the pianist and composer explores the very different sides to his musical personality across three contrasting but connected LPsSelf-taught pianist and composer Daniel Inzani has been a pivotal figure on the Bristol scene for more than a decade. He leads a neoclassical outfit, Spindle Ensemble, co-curates the excellent Hidden Notes festival in Stroud, and he’s worked with a baffling array of outfits, playing Ethiopian funk, Indones
  
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• Wendy Eisenberg: Viewfinder review – insightful jazz voyage into life after laser eye surgery

  13-09-2024 09:00
  
  (American Dreams)
  Instrumental interludes and unexpected shifts in pace mix with Americana and jazz, while the singer-songwriter’s distinctive guitar sound drives a song cycle like no otherI got my first pair of glasses recently – a light prescription I didn’t think I would notice, but they delivered such a sharpening of the world that I’m having to learn to look again. These experiences – how we adjust when sight is corrected; how eyes heal – are what concern
  
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• Social media have blurred the boundaries between fans and celebrities – with disturbing results | Hannah Ewens

  13-09-2024 09:00
  
  If entitled fans treat famous people as fodder for their Instagram feeds, they risk losing a connection to them altogetherA few months ago, I watched a video of apex predators close in on and devour a pair of zoo animals. Sorry – a clip of some young women interrupting a cuddling Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco on a picnic in a New York park. They didn’t ask about Gomez’s work or acknowledge her personal space, and instead went straight for what mattered: the photo. A vulnerably
  
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• ‘Singing about faith was scary. I wanted to be cool’: Michael Kiwanuka on God, fatherhood and his secret to great art

  13-09-2024 06:00
  
  As he announces ‘understated’ fourth album Small Changes, the Mercury-winning musician explains how he went from ‘slight weirdo’ to wowing Glasto – and why more of us are turning to religionAt the start of the summer, Michael Kiwanuka played at Glastonbury. A warm-up show in Halifax aside, it was the first gig he had played in Britain for a couple of years, a chance to debut songs from his forthcoming fourth album, Small Changes. A malfunctioning vintage synthesiser
  
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• Maze’s Frankie Beverly united Black America with his everyman brilliance | Alexis Petridis

  12-09-2024 16:13
  The funk and soul singer, who has died aged 77, was part of Black family life in the US while being a cult sensation in the UK – and his smooth but never slick music rightly enduresThe online tributes to Frankie Beverly in the wake of his death on Wednesday offered a fascinating study in contrasts. Black Americans wrote about his band Maze as a fact of life, invoking memories of family parties, summer barbecues and picnics to which they had inevitably provided the soundtrack: “Any ti
  
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• Florence and the Machine: Symphony of Lungs review – one crescendo of ecstasy after another

  12-09-2024 13:27
  
  Royal Albert Hall, LondonAn appropriately maximal reading of debut album Lungs, made with Jules Buckley’s orchestra at Prom 69, provides a grand stage for Welch’s even grander voiceWill it surprise you to learn that Florence Welch’s orchestra features not one, but two harps? That there is a lute and a rainstick, and a violin solo so furious that it feels like a devil is being conjured? As the grand high witch of maximalism, the Proms is the ideal way for Welch to revisit the pa
  
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• Tindersticks: Soft Tissue review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

  12-09-2024 13:00
  
  (City Slang)
  From 70s soul to glowing strings, the cult outfit continue to illuminate the fringes of pop music, celebrating the beauty in small thingsIt’s easy to see the initial part of Tindersticks’ career as a missed opportunity. There was a brief moment, around the time of their eponymous 1995 album and its successor Curtains, where it looked as if the Nottingham band’s lushly orchestrated, emotive songs might find a wide audience: the former briefly reached the Top 20, the
  
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• ‘They put Cork on the map!’: what the kids behind rap sensation The Spark did next

  12-09-2024 11:00
  
  Theirs was the feelgood song of the summer – praised by Stormzy and reaching hundreds of millions of listeners online. But what’s it like to go on the road when you’re still at school?It may be called Harbour View Road – but there is no harbour and not much of a view in this patch of suburb outside Cork city, just a row of nondescript houses in a sea of housing estates. The doors of the 202 bus, which trundles here from the city centre, emit a little sigh when they open.A
  
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