Music news

• Fleetwood Mac: Mirage box set review – high-calibre songs that outshine the imitators

  15-12-2016 23:00
  
  (Warners)This ultra-shiny remastering of Fleetwood Mac’s Mirage – clearly someone out there thought the band just didn’t sound cokey enough – gives us a chance to reappraise what has become an unfairly overlooked Mac album. After the wilful experimentation of Tusk and with the band branching out into solo projects and drug despair, Mirage probably seemed like a half-arsed statement at the time – a return to the band’s AOR pop songwriting days that didn’t
  
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• The Who: My Generation super deluxe box set review – contains buried treasure

  15-12-2016 22:45
  
  (Universal)The Who’s first album is an oddity, because it doesn’t capture the breathless pace of the band’s development through 1965. It excluded I Can’t Explain and Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere, their thrilling debut and its light-years-jump of a follow-up – as well as Substitute, which came out in 1966, even as My Generation was still being plundered for singles. This successor to 2002’s deluxe edition (which restores the original mix ditched from that version)
  
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• Big Star: Complete Third box set review – definitive version of cult masterpiece

  15-12-2016 22:30
  
  (Omnivore Recordings)Related: Mike Mills: why I love Big Star Big Star’s cult masterpiece is the sound of disintegration, of things falling apart – and of Alex Chilton’s drug-fuelled lurch away from the powerpop of Big Star’s first two albums. Recorded in 1974 but unreleased until 1978, Third/Sister Lovers has since been reissued sporadically under a variety of titles and with different track listings – so there has never been a definitive version until now. Omnivor
  
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• Led Zeppelin: Compete BBC Sessions box set review – in their glorious ascent

  15-12-2016 22:15
  
  (Rhino)With nine more tracks than the original 1997 release, this remastered collection of Zeppelin’s recordings for the BBC captures their glorious ascent between 1969 and 1971, before superstardom and unfettered hedonism started to affect their musicianship and edge. With Robert Plant at his wailing, libidinous best and Jimmy Page wreaking all manner of noise and havoc with his guitar, the various live and session takes of material from their stellar first four albums document a steamrol
  
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• Blonde Redhead: Masculin Féminin box set review – art-rock trio's impetuous beginnings

  15-12-2016 22:00
  
  (Numero Group)The early recordings of this trio, formed in New York in 1993 by Italian twins Amedeo and Simone Pace and Japanese singer Kazu Makino, are as cosmopolitan as you’d expect. They sucked up the literate post-grunge angst of Pavement – and how decadent that irony and self-regard sounds in the Trump era! – but, a little like Stereolab or The Sea and Cake, gave it a real shimmy by hinting at bossa nova amid the garage rock. The band’s first two albums are col
  
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• Readers recommend: share your songs about nightmares

  15-12-2016 21:00
  
  Make your nomination in the comments and a reader will pick the best eligible tracks for a playlist next week – you have until Monday 19 December We had readers recommend songs about dreams back in 2006 but, in the words of this week’s guru, who will select the new, darker list, they were “all a bit nicey-nicey”. Related: Readers recommend playlist: your songs about finishingContinue reading...
  
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• Q&A: The-Dream on new EP, Kanye-Trump meeting, and Grammys

  15-12-2016 20:34
  
  ATLANTA (AP) — The-Dream is reaping the benefits of a stellar music career inside his lavish Atlanta home in an area where the singer dreamt of living when he worked a few blocks away more than decade ago.
  
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• Cándido Fabré: Carretero review – impressively varied set from hoarse-voiced salsa favourite

  15-12-2016 20:00
  
  (Tumi Music)Cándido Fabré is one of Cuba’s great soneros, a prolific singer-songwriter famed for his distinctive hoarse voice and ability to improvise lyrics. He first came to notice in the early 80s, and soon became a favourite with salsa dancers, with his songs covered by many leading Cuban musicians. The new album shows that he’s still a great writer, mixing slinky son rhythms with bachata and other styles in an impressively varied set. There are songs praising Cuba
  
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• Guillermo Velázquez y Los Leones de la Sierra: Serrano de Corazón review – New Year slam energy

  15-12-2016 19:45
  
  (Smithsonian Folkways/Discovery)Xichú is a little town in the mountains of Guanajuato state, Mexico, and the location for the extraordinary all-night New Year topada, in which rival teams of poets and their musicians battle for hours, cheered on by thousands of spectators before a winner is declared. The style is known as huapango arribeño and the folk poet and singer Guillermo Velázquez is a specialist. He describes the event in The Poets’ Topada, a remarkable 20-minu
  
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• Can Matt Terry Match 1D & Little Mix X Factor Success? "This Is My Chance & I'm Gonna Take It"

  15-12-2016 19:37
  
  We chat to this year's winner about Louis, Little Mix, his winner's single and what he *really* thinks of Honey G...
  
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• Duke Ellington: The DukeBox 2 review – a trove of fascinating Ellingtonia

  15-12-2016 19:30
  
  (Storyville)After transforming the sound palette of a jazz orchestra for more than two decades, Duke Ellington came close to being sidelined in the early 1950s, with the big bands in economic and artistic retreat and rock’n’roll imminent. But his comeback was spectacular, and this Storyville collection of music from the US and Europe from the 50s to the 70s begins with a disorderly but sparky 1952 broadcast from New York’s Birdland, including classics such as Take the A Train a
  
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• Duncan Lamont Big Band/Kenny Wheeler: As If By Magic review – vibrant, vivacious Mr Benn

  15-12-2016 19:15
  
  (Jellymould)In December 2011, the prolific British composer and saxophonist Duncan Lamont (he celebrated his 85th last June) assembled a generation-bridging UK orchestra, that included the late Kenny Wheeler on inimitably plaintive flugelhorn, to revisit his scores for the children’s TV series Mr Benn 40 years before. Out now on CD, some of it sounds composed for cartoon action, but Lamont’s springily witty writing gives it independent life, and fine soloists including trumpeter Mart
  
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• Rise above: will Donald Trump's America trigger a punk protest renaissance?

  15-12-2016 19:01
  
  Many view rock as a dated genre, but some bands are hoping to channel their punk predecessors and embody the US’s collective sense of post-election unrestSince the election, the Kominas have been getting the same curious request. The east coast punk band keeps being asked, by film-makers and documentarians, for a Donald Trump protest song. “People just assume we have an anti-Trump song already recorded,” says Basim Usmani, the group’s bassist. Related: Moving the needle:
  
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• Solstice: Alimentation review – fierce, wild and smoky jazz originals

  15-12-2016 19:00
  
  (Two Rivers)
  Walthamstow’s E17 music collective houses some of the UK’s most creative jazz players, and the Solstice sextet – which includes imaginative multilingual vocalist Brigitte Beraha and the copiously inventive Tori Freestone on saxes – confirm just that on this set of lyrically fresh originals, plus one cover in bassist Dave Manington’s arrangement of Björk’s The Anchor Song. On Brazilian-influenced pieces, the Jobim-devoted Beraha’s vaporo
  
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• And the 2016 #MTVStars Results Are In!

  15-12-2016 19:00
  
  Who's the winner then...?
  
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• Jay Z’s got 99 problems, but fighting Andrew Lloyd Webber for Rihanna wasn’t one

  15-12-2016 17:16
  
  The West End impresario says he discovered the pop superstar while on holiday on Barbados – but he had no idea what he’d do with her when he got home
  If, like me, you enjoyed Andrew Lloyd Webber’s recent observation that the theatre is “hideously white”, you will have loved his turn on breakfast telly this week, where he mentioned that he’d almost discovered Rihanna “about 12 years ago”.As it goes, it was almost exactly 12 years ago that Rihanna wa
  
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• How To Do Christmas The Celebrity Way

  15-12-2016 16:03
  
  This isn't just any Christmas, this is a Kim Kardashian Christmas.
  
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• Lou Reed: The RCA and Arista Albums box set review – a long and winding road

  15-12-2016 16:00
  
  This 17-CD set gathers together a hefty chunk of Reed’s solo output, from 1972’s Lou Reed to 1986’s Mistrial. It tells quite a taleLou Reed liked to tell people that his recorded output was not unlike a book. “Every record a chapter … Listen to it in order, there’s my great American novel,” he once remarked: a quote reprinted in the book that accompanies The RCA and Arista Album Collection, a box set compiling virtually everything he made between 1972 a
  
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• 15 Of The Most Dramatic Reality Star Make-overs Ever From Chloe Ferry to Kylie Jenner

  15-12-2016 15:55
  
  Can you guess who these even are?
  
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• Seth Lakeman review – gutsy honesty and virtuosity

  15-12-2016 14:38
  
  Union Chapel, London
  Forgoing the grandstand set pieces for a more nuanced sound with Wildwood Kin trio and a compact band, Lakeman shows there’s life after populist frenzy It’s 11 years since Seth Lakeman was shortlisted for the Mercury music prize, triggering countless “poster boy of folk” features, a major label deal, and the sort of intense marketing and promotion usually associated with Planet Cowell. In addition there were rock festivals a-go-go, and an invitation t
  
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• 10 Of The Coolest Christmas Decorations You Can DIY

  15-12-2016 14:11
  
  Cheap and chic af.
  
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• Schoolboy Q review – LA gangsta heavyweight fires a blank

  15-12-2016 14:07
  
  Brixton Academy, London
  Kendrick Lamar’s labelmate struggles to translate the charisma of his records to the stage in a gig with frequent dips of energyWhen LA’s Schoolboy Q first entered the hip-hop community’s consciousness, it was as part of the Black Hippy rap collective, alongside Kendrick Lamar. These days, Q can claim to be the crew’s second-best-known artist: his 2014 album Oxymoron was nominated for a Grammy and produced massive singles such as Studio, Collard Gr
  
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• Get To Know: Leo Kalyan

  15-12-2016 14:06
  
  Check out this week's featured artist...
  
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• Teen Mom OG's Amber Portwood And Farrah Abraham Fight Over 'Paedophile' Comments On Uncut Finale Special

  15-12-2016 14:00
  
  Teen Mom OG: Reunion With Dr Drew Part 2 (Uncut Special) airs tonight, Thursday 15th December, at 10pm - only on MTV.
  
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• Zayn Malik Hints At Fifty Shades Sex Life With Gigi Hadid

  15-12-2016 13:37
  
  Oh Zayn.
  
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• Elijah Blake Debuts Mini Movie For ‘Forget You: Voices In My Head’

  15-12-2016 12:51
  
  Hot on the heels of his ‘Blueberry Vapors’ project earlier this year, singer/songwriter maestro Elijah Blake tops off 2016 with the visual for ‘Forget You: Voices In My Head’.
  
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• EarlGréy Gets Into The Festive Spirit With An ‘EarlGréy Xmas’

  15-12-2016 12:41
  
  Following the internet success of his first two releases, ‘Pulldown’ and ‘Overdue’, NYC native EarlGréy returns with a re-release of his 2015 Christmas track ‘EarlGréy Xmas’.
  
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• Haula - Good To You

  15-12-2016 12:34
  
  Raw talent always prevails and a true testament of that notion is Ugandan-born singer and producer Haula...
  
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• Afro District: Introducing Luci Monet

  15-12-2016 12:28
  
  With the year wrapping up and the countdown to 2017 starting, it's only right we start talking about our ones to watch for the next year...
  
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• The Pretty Little Liars Season 7B Trailer Is Here Bitches! Here’s 7 Things We've Learned...

  15-12-2016 12:19
  
  Did you manage to spot the person EVERYONE has been talking about?
  
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• Bestival Is Leaving The Isle Of Wight For A New Site

  15-12-2016 11:18
  
  Goodbye Robin County Park :(
  
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• Ashlee Simpson Is Working On New Music And Honestly We're Ecstatic

  15-12-2016 10:34
  
  PIECES OF MEEEE.
  
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• John Legend 'disappointed' with Kanye West for meeting Donald Trump

  15-12-2016 09:49
  
  R&B star says he believes the meeting was just a publicity stunt, and says Trump has been ‘corrosive to the country’John Legend has said he is “disappointed” with Kanye West for his meeting with Donald Trump, which he has described as a “publicity stunt”. West met with the president-elect at Trump Tower in New York and said that he did so in order to discuss “multicultural issues”.Continue reading...
  
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• Kim Kardashian Twerks Her Way Back To Social Media

  15-12-2016 09:46
  
  She's back! Kind of.
  
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• Bestival to leave the Isle of Wight in 2017

  15-12-2016 09:33
  
  The last festival of the season is moving to the Lulworth Estate, the same Dorset site as its sister event Camp BestivalBestival, the fancy dress friendly event that wraps up the UK’s summer festival season, is to move sites. No more will revellers have to contend with queues for ferries to and from the Isle of Wight, because the event’s organisers plan to move it to the Lulworth Estate in Dorset, the home of its sister festival, Camp Bestival.“Hot off the press – yes Bes
  
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• Best albums of 2016: No 2 Blonde by Frank Ocean

  15-12-2016 08:30
  
  The R&B trailblazer’s second record attempted nothing less than living up to the pan-racial, genre-straddling reality of 21st-century youth culture. No wonder we had to resize our imaginations to matchMore of the best albums of 2016More on the best culture of 2016Retromania was rife once more in R&B this year – witness Bruno Mars’ Sexual Healing ripoff Versace on the Floor, say, or Craig David. Praise be, then, for the raft of 2016 albums that showed how progressive the
  
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• Patti Smith explains nerves during her Bob Dylan Nobel prize tribute

  15-12-2016 05:08
  
  In a candid, poetic piece for the New Yorker, Smith says she didn’t forget the words to A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, but was too nervous to sing themWhen Patti Smith stumbled over the lyrics of a Bob Dylan song during the Nobel prize ceremony last week, it was because she was overwhelmed with nerves by the magnitude of the experience, not because she forgot the words to A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.Smith writes in an essay published Wednesday by the New Yorker that after loving th
  
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• Should've Been Me (Ft. Kyla & Popcaan)

  15-12-2016 03:43 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Should've Been Me (Ft. Kyla & Popcaan)
  
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• Set You Free

  15-12-2016 03:43 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Set You Free
  
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• Everglow (Single Version)

  15-12-2016 03:42 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Everglow (Single Version)
  
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• Let's Hurt Tonight

  15-12-2016 02:27 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Let's Hurt Tonight (Collateral Beauty Version)
  
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• September Song

  15-12-2016 01:54 via mtv.co.uk
  
  September Song
  
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• Places (Ft. Ina Wroldsen) [Parental Advisory]

  15-12-2016 01:40 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Places (Ft. Ina Wroldsen)
  
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• Let Me Love You (Ft. Justin Bieber)

  15-12-2016 01:40 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Let Me Love You (Ft. Justin Bieber)
  
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• Cry (Ft. Take That)

  15-12-2016 01:40 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Cry (Ft. Take That)
  
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• Company (Official Video)

  15-12-2016 01:40 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Company
  
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• Colors

  15-12-2016 01:40 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Colors
  
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• What Do You Love (Ft. Jacob Banks)

  15-12-2016 01:26 via mtv.co.uk
  
  What Do You Love (Ft. Jacob Banks)
  
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• Been A Minute

  15-12-2016 01:26 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Been A Minute
  
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• True Disaster [Explicit]

  15-12-2016 01:01 via mtv.co.uk
  
  True Disaster (Part of Fairy Dust)
  
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