Music news

• Marry Waterson and David A Jaycock review – dreamlike and mysterious

  10-04-2016 16:26
  
  Kings Place, LondonThe singer and guitarist showcase their award-nominated new album and find time to pay clever tribute to the wider Waterson folk clanMarry Waterson explains that she has two voices. There’s the powerful one that you would expect to hear as she strides to the front of the stage with her hands on her hips. And then there’s the intimate, breathy style that dominates her new album Two Wolves, a collaboration with the laid-back acoustic guitarist David A Jaycock which h
  
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• Lemony Snicket: why I love classical music

  10-04-2016 16:00
  
  Uncool, stuffy, inaccessible: classical music has been called all that and worse. Daniel Handler, who writes his Lemony Snicket novels to the sound of string quartets, wants to set the record straight … and inspire a new wave of young fansI was 11 or 12 when my friend David Fisher took me aside. “You’re never going to have a girlfriend or any kind of social life if you insist on listening exclusively to classical music,” he said, and gave me an album by Men at Work. &ldq
  
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• Lemony Snicket: the trouble with being interested in classical music is that people look at you funny

  10-04-2016 16:00
  
  Uncool, stuffy, inaccessible: classical music has been called all that and worse. Daniel Handler, who writes his Lemony Snicket novels to the sound of string quartets, wants to set the record straight … and inspire a new wave of young fansI was 11 or 12 when my friend David Fisher took me aside. “You’re never going to have a girlfriend or any kind of social life if you insist on listening exclusively to classical music,” he said, and gave me an album by Men at Work. &ldq
  
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• National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain/Järvi review – exuberant and extrovert

  10-04-2016 15:40
  
  Royal Festival Hall, LondonKristjan Järvi coaxes his outstanding teenage musicians into an exhilarating performance every bit as fiery as their programme’s themeFire was the overall theme of this spring tour concert by the National Youth Orchestra under Kristjan Järvi, the word itself featuring in the titles of all three works in the programme. The centrepiece was American composer Michael Daugherty’s violin concerto, Fire and Blood, which comprises a happy-go-lucky melange
  
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• Are Cheryl And Liam Heading Down Under?!

  10-04-2016 15:37
  
  The couple are reportedly being poached for X Factor Australia...
  
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• Taylor Swift Has Just Been Compared To Margaret Thatcher. Seriously.

  10-04-2016 15:01
  
  But who dared to twin the pop princess with the Iron Lady?
  
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• 5 Seconds of Summer review – formulaic net-generation pop

  10-04-2016 14:59
  
  O2 Arena, London
  The Australian band’s show certainly connects with screaming fans, but it’s hard to banish the scepticism“This is the part where I write a song,” announces guitarist Michael Clifford, somehow picking out London-based theme suggestions from the deafening teen screams like the most libidinous ever episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway? The 30-second, one-note pop punk number he insta-composes is called Fish and Chips; last night it was Bangers and Mash. Even t
  
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• Blac Chyna Just Threw Major Shade At Kylie Jenner & Her Lip Kits

  10-04-2016 14:33
  
  Looks like the future sister-in-laws aren't playing nice...
  
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• All The Victoria's Secret Angels Were In Vegas This Weekend & We're Not Jealous At All

  10-04-2016 13:42
  
  Happy birthday Josephine Skriver!
  
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• Brian May lashes out at Sacha Baron Cohen over Freddie Mercury biopic

  10-04-2016 13:30
  
  Queen guitarist criticises Ali G actor for becoming ‘an arse’ and telling ‘untruths’ about the project in the pressQueen’s Brian May has lashed out at Sacha Baron Cohen, declared he is not a fan of David Cameron and said he would love to stop Donald Trump. Cohen was in talks with May and Roger Taylor about playing the part of Freddie Mercury in a long-awaited biopic, but the talks broke down and Cohen spoke to the press about the process, which drew criticism from t
  
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• Gigi Hadid Shows Off A Totally New 'Do At The MTV Movie Awards

  10-04-2016 13:15
  
  *Phones hairdresser* *demands fringe*
  
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• Rusalka review – Scottish Opera leave fairytale cruelty to lurk below the surface

  10-04-2016 13:10
  
  Theatre Royal, Glasgow
  With Anne Sophie Duprels as the titular water nymph, backed distinctively by Peter Wedd and Willard White, this stylish production of Dvořák’s dark opera avoids the excesses of some interpretationsA young woman mutilates herself in the hope of winning a man; she gives up her voice, too, which in opera is surely the greatest sacrifice of all. Rusalka is a brutal piece. The music is ravishing — Dvořák spent most of his life pondering how t
  
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• Crossroads Fans, Rejoice! Britney Spears Is Returning To Acting... In A Panto?!

  10-04-2016 12:51
  
  We could be seeing Britney turn Cinderella this Christmas...
  
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• Bach Collegium Japan review – intense, marathon immersion

  10-04-2016 12:33
  
  Barbican Hall, London
  Masaaki Suzuki led his players in a whirlwind 26-hour residency of concerts, talks and recitals delivered with poise, grace and panacheWhat was billed as the Bach Collegium Japan’s first major UK residency was a compact, intense 26 hours of, yes, Bach, beginning on Friday night with the B minor Mass and ending the following evening with the Magnificat. Most of the daylight hours in between were filled with Bach talks, the BCJ’s lunchtime Bach concert, a Bach lec
  
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• You'll Never Guess What Ariana Grande Did After The MTV Movie Awards

  10-04-2016 12:12
  
  The question is: did she go grande?
  
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• Harry Styles & Kendall Jenner Have Been Hanging Out Again *Shocked Face Emoji*

  10-04-2016 11:36
  
  The stylish pair were spotted shopping together in LA...
  
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• Merle Haggard: the maverick musician and his ‘defiantly contrarian journey’

  10-04-2016 10:15
  
  The singer-songwriter, who died on 6 April, drew on his genuine outsider experience to forge a tougher sound in opposition to Nashville’s slicknessLegend has it that when Johnny Cash performed in San Quentin prison in 1958, Merle Haggard was in the audience, serving time for burglary and fleeing police custody. While Cash carefully nurtured his outlaw status, famously styling himself “the Man in Black”, the troubled, taciturn Haggard was the real deal: an outsider by temperamen
  
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• Misty Miller: The Whole Family Is Worried review – grungily honest, impeccably tuneful

  10-04-2016 10:00
  
  (Relentless)Misty Miller used to be rather mistier than she is now. Some years back she emerged as a ukulele-toting folkie, so wholesome she was charged with tiptoeing through bluebells for the Woodland Trust.Now, like Grimes, the 21-year-old south Londoner wields her own tattoo gun, often on a whim. You can hear these growing pains played out on Miller’s winning new album. The Whole Family Is Worried takes the vexed business of being young and female to grungily honest but impeccably tune
  
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• Anderson Paak: ‘If Dre had called five years ago, I don’t think I’d have been ready’

  10-04-2016 10:00
  
  The US rapper and singer spent his 20s on the fringes of the music industry. But only now, with his dazzling second album, is Dr Dre’s latest protege equipped to address his turbulent youth – and his stint working on a weed farm…I’d be lying if I told you that my interview with Anderson Paak gets off to a flying start. The reality is anything but. The 30-year-old rapper and singer-songwriter from Los Angeles is ushered into my cramped hotel room in Salford looking like d
  
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• Lucia di Lammermoor review – flawed but full of provocative thought

  10-04-2016 09:30
  
  Royal Opera House, London
  Thrilling moments and misjudged ones fight it out in Katie Mitchell’s overworked new productionLong before Royal Opera’s new Lucia di Lammermoor hove into sight, the advance party had announced its coming, not so much with a red flag as a bitonal ding-dong. “One woman’s fight for love and survival,” crooned the promos, with soft-focus artwork vaguely placing Donizetti’s 1835 bel canto tragedy in romantic fiction mode. “I have a
  
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• Purcell/Britten: Songs CD review – Britten’s fascinating take on Purcell

  10-04-2016 09:05
  
  Blaze, Clayton, Grevelius, Hughes, Nelson, Rose/Middleton
  (Champs Hill)
  Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears were early advocates of the glorious songs of Henry Purcell, including some in almost all their recitals together. As pianist, Britten developed elaborate accompaniments for them that today seem a little overworked, but it’s fascinating to hear their period style on these two CDs, especially with the unifying and responsive playing of pianist Joseph Middleton. The vocal styles vary
  
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• Tim Hecker: Love Streams review – genuinely immersive

  10-04-2016 09:00
  
  (4AD)Tim Hecker’s tongue might be in his cheek when he explains Love Streams is driven by “liturgical aesthetics after Yeezus”. But sacred acoustics have previously figured in this Canadian ambient sculptor’s electronic output, not least the Icelandic church organ on which Hecker recorded much of Ravedeath, 1972, his breakout work of 2011. Here, on Black Phase or, even more so, on Castrati Stack, 15th-century chorale vibes – recorded with an Icelandic choir –
  
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• Rachel Newton: Here’s My Heart Come Take It review – a beauty

  10-04-2016 09:00
  
  (Shadowside)A frequent flyer on the folk circuit, where she plays with the Shee and the Furrow Collective among others, Rachel Newton has also cut a solo path over two albums that combine her harp and ethereal voice. Here’s My Heart brings a more exploratory approach to her choice of antique ballads (a couple in Gaelic). In brooding, cavernous atmospheres (the cover screams “dark and weird”), Newton’s harp and voice have a bright but spectral quality, not least on superna
  
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• Parquet Courts: Human Performance review – sublime highs worth waiting for

  10-04-2016 09:00
  
  (Rough Trade) Related: Parquet Courts: ‘Winning is the whole point’ With 2014’s Sunbathing Animal, New York four-piece Parquet Courts finally, at the third time of asking, began to marshal their undoubted talents into memorable songs. Human Performance feels like a logical progression, with slightly stronger material, most notably the title track, a sublime slice of brooding garage rock, and the emotional dislocation of Berlin Got Blurry. Elsewhere, One Man, No City starts like
  
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• Ireland: Music for String Orchestra review – bucolic charm

  10-04-2016 09:00
  
  Raphael Wallfisch (cello), Orchestra of the Swan/Curtis
  (Naxos)Evocations of rolling English landscape are ever-present in the music of John Ireland (1879-1962), whether implicit, as in A Downland Suite, or implied, as in the brooding Cello Sonata in G minor, played here with arresting vigour by Raphael Wallfisch in an arrangement for strings by Matthew Forbes. Wallfisch also finds grace in several tuneful miniatures, notably a Cavatina from 1904. David Curtis and the Orchestra of the Swan make
  
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• George Coleman: A Master Speaks review – tuneful alchemy

  10-04-2016 09:00
  
  (Smoke Sessions)George Coleman’s gold-plated reputation goes back to his days in the 50s with BB King, taking in periods with Miles Davis and classic recordings with Herbie Hancock. This is his first solo album in 20 years and proves that, at 80, he’s still one of the most fluent and inventive tenor saxophonists around. His style is commonly labelled as hard bop, but his tone is gentler and his improvisations more melodic. By some extraordinary alchemy, he turns quite abstruse harmon
  
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• Bombino: Azel review – Dave Longstreth collaboration fails to ignite

  10-04-2016 09:00
  
  (Partisan)For his last record, 2013’s Nomad, Tuareg musician Bombino teamed up with Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, finding common ground in the overlap of his western guitar-influenced desert blues and Auerbach’s rootsy southern rock. This time, his choice of collaborator seems more intriguing; Dave Longstreth, of Brooklyn art rockers Dirty Projectors, has a reputation for framing African pop influences in unexpected ways. But the results are less surprising than you might imagine.
  
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• All Saints: Red Flag review – a sassy and soulful return to form

  10-04-2016 08:59
  
  (London Records) Related: All Saints: ‘We’re more confident now’ Ten years after their last comeback, the 90s’ coolest girl band are at it again. While their 2006 album, Studio 1, suffered from a pronounced identity crisis, Red Flag recalls the potent mix of strength and vulnerability showcased on classic singles Never Ever and Pure Shores. So, pensive opener One Strike intricately dissects sudden emotional devastation, while the lovely Fear and Pieces are hymn-like odes
  
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• Brahms: String Quartet No 1; Piano Quintet CD review – a robust approach

  10-04-2016 08:45
  
  Brodsky Quartet, Natacha Kudritskaya (piano)
  (Chandos)The Brodsky Quartet started young and, with a couple of changes of leader during their lifetime, celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2012. Great musical ambassadors, they excel in a wide range of repertoire, and this performance of the Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor Op 34, with the Ukrainian pianist Natacha Kudritskaya, is big-boned, impassioned and, especially in the Andante, warm and lyrical. The String Quartet in C minor Op 51 No 1
  
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• 2016 MTV Movie Awards: First Looks At Baywatch, Valerian & Kong: Skull Island

  10-04-2016 04:54
  
  The MTV Movie Awards pre-show gave us our first glimpse at some of the biggest blockbusters coming our way...
  
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• The Best Dressed Celebs On The MTV Movie Awards 2016 Red Carpet!

  10-04-2016 00:07
  
  SLAY QUEENS, SLAY.
  
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• Guns N' Roses reunion review: show makes Las Vegas paradise city for fans

  10-04-2016 00:02
  
  Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan thrill in first show together since 1993 despite fractured past, frontman’s foot injury … and songs from Chinese DemocracyFrom the moment the long-rumoured Guns N’ Roses reunion was confirmed in January with the release of the Coachella line-up – for a sum reports have estimated at $8m – veteran fans openly wondered how the famously tempestuous Los Angeles rockers could eff it up this time.Related: So Guns N’ Roses will reunit
  
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