Music news

• Lupe Fiasco: Droga's Light review – skill shines through in a seesaw comeback

  09-02-2017 23:15
  
  (1st & 15th/Thirty Tigers)Two months ago, Lupe Fiasco had retired. After posting a freestyle on Soundcloud in which he ranted against music industry executives in terms that were described as offensive by the Anti Defamation League, Fiasco first tried to put the remarks in a considerate context (“I’ve been in the Ghettos of Warsaw. I’ve seen [systemic] genocide”) then stormed off in a huff into retirement. Now, here we are with the first part of what is described as a
  
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• Froth: Outside (Briefly) review – shoegaze revivalists make fuzz with precision

  09-02-2017 22:45
  
  (Wichita)As anyone familiar with the work of Cheatahs, DIIV or Nothing will know, we’re not exactly short of shoegaze revivalists these days, and the dangers of getting lost amid a sea of similarly minded artists are manifold. But with their third album, Froth manage to breathe new life into a sometimes stale genre. Outside (Briefly) sees the LA four-piece marry the bleary soundscapes of My Bloody Valentine with something closer to Spoon’s metronomically tight art-rock. It’s a
  
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• Sinkane: Life & Livin’ It review – sunny-side-up sing-alongs and slinky rhythms

  09-02-2017 22:30
  
  (City Slang)Cult Nigerian electro-funkster William Onyeabor, whose 70s and 80s music experienced a renaissance in recent years, sadly died last month, but he has a spiritual successor in Ahmed Gallab, AKA Sinkane. Gallab’s time leading the Atomic Bomb! Band – in which he and guest members such as Damon Albarn and David Byrne reinterpreted Onyeabor’s music for a world tour – has had a clear influence on this, his sixth record. The Brooklyn native was always a purveyor of s
  
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• Jens Lekman: Life Will See You Now review – mordant but joyous indiepop

  09-02-2017 22:15
  
  (Secretly Canadian)It’s been more than four years since the last Jens Lekman album, years in which, by his own account, he struggled to make music that seemed worthwhile. His muse was rekindled in 2015, when he decided to write a song for each week, and it’s burning brightly on his fourth, brilliant full-length. Like Orange Juice did decades ago, he’s made the journey from spindly, insular indiepop to glorious, primary-coloured music, explicitly referencing 80s chart hits, soul
  
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• Rag'n'Bone Man: Human review – like Joe Cocker singing over Moby

  09-02-2017 22:00
  
  (Columbia)Related: ‘The music industry is brutal’: Rag’n’Bone Man and RAY BLK on being 2017’s most hotly tipped This year’s Brits critics’ choice winner Rag’n’Bone Man, AKA Rory Graham, has already scored a No 2 smash with the grittily soulful Human, which pairs his urban blues holler with a fat, bass-driven groove that reflects his time served in DIY hip-hop. The heartfelt, anthemic Skin is similarly big-lunged, while Be the Man and As You A
  
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• Readers recommend: share your songs about forests and woodlands

  09-02-2017 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 13 February You’ll have to see the woods from the trees for your songs on the theme this week – readers recommend published a playlist specifically about the latter (along with grass and flowers) in 2006.You have until 11pm on Monday 13 February to post your nomination and make your justification. Regular RR contributor Pairubu will select from y
  
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• Are You Fitter Than A Caveman?

  09-02-2017 20:08
  
  This is the workout of a King/Queen (or someone who doesn't spend all day sat on Tumblr eating biscuits)...
  
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• To get a deep bass, space out the grooves | Letters

  09-02-2017 20:01
  
  Ned Newitt (Letters, 7 February) is correct. If we are going to get technical about vinyl record reproduction (Letters, 8 February), the output of a moving coil or moving magnet cartridge is proportional to the velocity of the needle, not its position. So high frequencies produce a greater output than low frequencies and the phono amp needs to boost the bass to produce a flat frequency response. But amplifying the bass also amplifies other low-frequency components such as rumble from the turntab
  
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• Kurt Rosenwinkel: Caipi review – sincere but dinner-jazzy autobiographical songs

  09-02-2017 20:00
  
  (Razdaz/Heartcore)As a jazz guitarist with leanings toward Pat Metheny’s song-rooted openness, Kurt Rosenwinkel has long been a discreetly creative presence in other people’s music, as well as a creative leader of fine bands. But he’s long nurtured an urge towards more vocals-oriented music, that could include his rather fervent reflections on the human condition. It was hinted at on 2003’s Verve release Heartcore, on which he sang and played most of the parts, and revisi
  
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• Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin announces her retirement

  09-02-2017 19:50
  
  Singer to record album with Stevie Wonder before she quits, though she won’t ‘sit down and do nothing’Aretha Franklin, Barack Obama once said, would be one of the musicians whose records would accompany him to a desert island, “for she’ll remind me of my humanity, what’s essential in all of us. And she just sounds so damn good.”
  No other musician, the then-president said, “embodies the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R
  
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• Theo Bleckmann: Elegy review – compelling singing and startling jazz

  09-02-2017 19:45
  
  (ECM)Theo Bleckmann is a fascinating German-born cross-genre singer who has worked with Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass and John Zorn, and recently made a terrific album of Kurt Weill songs (A Clear Midnight) with the jazz pianist Julia Hulsmann. Elegy presents his own compositions, supported by an ideally attuned quartet including guitarist Ben Monder and drummer/composer John Hollenbeck, with the only cover being Sondheim’s Comedy Tonight (“Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight”), c
  
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• Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth: ‘The new album says yes to love’

  09-02-2017 19:45
  
  The band’s latest record is a journey through heartbreak, from anger and grief to despair and liberation. Is it about Longstreth’s split with former bandmate Amber Coffman? It’s a metaphor, he saysDirty Projectors’ David Longstreth has a new beard and wears an old jacket – one of those fashionable blue French worker’s shirts – the same one he wears in the video for Keep Your Name, the strange, sad, machine-made ballad that opens the eighth, self-titled D
  
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• Is It Ever Okay To Date Your Best Friend’s Ex?

  09-02-2017 19:42
  
  Taylor Swift and Kendall Jenner have swapped boyfriends, so can we do it too?
  
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• Would you play for the Nazis? 'Django' movie poses moral dilemma

  09-02-2017 19:35
  By Michelle Martin BERLIN (Reuters) - When the Nazis asked Django Reinhardt to play for troops heading to the Eastern Front, the musician faced a moral dilemma relevant to artists today, the director of a biopic on the jazz guitar pioneer said on Thursday. "Django", which opens the Berlin Film Festival, tells the story of the French guitarist who was courted by the Nazi occupiers to make a morale-boosting performance and counter "negro" jazz music at a time when people of his Romani ethnicity we
  
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• Nicholas Kummert/Lionel Loueke: La Diversité review – enticingly intimate jazz

  09-02-2017 19:30
  
  (Edition)
  The Benin-born guitarist and singer Lionel Loueke’s employers and mentors include jazz stars as big as Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. Jazz and west African traditions mingle in both Loueke’s vocals and his vivid guitar sound. He regularly collaborates with the Belgian saxophonist/composer Nicolas Kummert, an original inspired by both post-bop and African music. This enticing set balances rhythmically limber quartet tracks and six intimate sax/guitar duets, the compositio
  
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• Aretha Franklin – Queen of Soul's career in pictures

  09-02-2017 19:19
  
  Singer Aretha Franklin has announced she will retire – after recording one final album with Stevie Wonder – 61 years on from the release of her first record. The Queen of Soul revealed her plans on a Detroit TV channel, saying: ‘I must tell you, I am retiring this year’ Continue reading...
  
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• Georgia Ruth: Fossil Scale review – synths sometimes scupper pleasant folk

  09-02-2017 19:15
  
  (Navigator) Her debut album, Week of Pines, made Georgia Ruth one of the British folk discoveries of the year, and deservedly won the Welsh music prize in 2013. The follow-up provides further evidence of her fine, cool voice and strength as a highly personal songwriter, but it is a more disappointing affair. She presumably thought she could broaden her appeal by including only one song in Welsh and concentrating on keyboard backing rather than her Bert Jansch-influenced harp playing, but she now
  
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• Jack Harris: The Wide Afternoon review – poetic and powerful folk melodies

  09-02-2017 19:00
  
  (Rootbeat Records)This is the first album in five years from a highly original singer-songwriter. Jack Harris was born in Wales and as a teenager was feted in Texas, where he played the SXSW festival and won the Kerrville festival new folk award, previously awarded to Gillian Welch. He has a deep, commanding voice, and is backed here by his own finger-picked guitar and an assortment of instruments, including fiddle, keyboards and percussion, played by producer Gerry Diver, famed for his work wit
  
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• The tiny town that builds show-stopping sets for Beyoncé, Kanye and Madonna

  09-02-2017 18:58
  
  Deep in Pennsylvania’s Amish country is the unlikely centre of the stadium-tour business, where the props for the greatest shows on earth are designed and madeEvery night during Taylor Swift’s 2015 world tour, the runway sticking out from the stage would take off and rotate like a propeller, carrying Swift and her dancers over the fans’ heads. At the 2016 Oscars, five glittering towers of statuettes loomed behind the host, like skittles made of crystals, then turned into video
  
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• Loads Of Cute Undies To Treat Yo' Self To This Valentine's Day

  09-02-2017 18:32
  
  Because you DESERVE this.
  
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• 21 Cute Dresses To Treat Yourself To For Valentine's Day

  09-02-2017 18:13
  
  The perfect date night outfit.
  
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• Stephen Bear Kisses Three Girls And Asks One ‘For A S**g’ Despite Rumoured Romance With Charlotte Crosby

  09-02-2017 17:32
  
  What's going on?!
  
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• Get To Know: Avelino

  09-02-2017 16:53
  
  This week's featured artist is London rapper, Avelino...
  
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• 12 Reality Stars Who Cheated On Their Other Half With Someone From The SAME Show

  09-02-2017 16:33
  
  Ruthless!
  
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• Aretha Franklin to retire from full time touring

  09-02-2017 16:24
  Soul music legend Aretha Franklin says she plans to retire from full-time touring after she releases a new album in September. "I am retiring this year," the 74-year-old singer told a Detroit TV station in a telephone interview this week. This is it." Known as the "Queen of Soul," Franklin said she planned about a six-month tour to support her upcoming album.
  
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• Jesca Hoop: Memories Are Now review – restlessly strange and full of ideas

  09-02-2017 16:00
  
  (Sub Pop)
  Tom Waits’ former nanny is an exceptionally talented, compellingly unique singer-songwriter who should be more than just a cult concernIn 1970, novelty rocker and politician Screaming Lord Sutch released an album called Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends, a title that deliberately drew attention to the fact that his backing musicians – Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, John Bonham and Noel Redding among them – were much more famous than he was. It was a ploy that backfired in spectacu
  
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• Vogue Accused Of Photoshopping Plus-Size Model In New Shoot Celebrating Beauty Diversity

  09-02-2017 15:55
  
  Oh, the irony.
  
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• CBSO/Collon review – frisson of theatricality for Holst's quiet masterpiece

  09-02-2017 15:35
  
  Symphony Hall, Birmingham
  Yvonne Howard and James Rutherford brought steely power to the mystical chamber opera Sāvitri, though a fierce Planets suite lacked depthSāvitri, Gustav Holst’s half-hour long chamber opera, gets far fewer performances than it deserves. It may seem an unlikely blend of English pastoralism and oriental mysticism – the story of Sāvitri, whose love for her husband convinces death not to take him, comes from an episode in the Mahabharata – b
  
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• Alisa Weilerstein review – a fair assault on Bach's cello Everest

  09-02-2017 15:32
  
  St John’s Smith Square, London
  Weilerstein showed impressive stamina and played beautifully, but the evening lacked a strong sense of purposeIt’s an Everest for cellists, but there has to be a better reason to programme all six of Bach’s cello suites end to end than just because they’re there.Alisa Weilerstein may have taken on the challenge too soon. Her performance showed impressive stamina, but its intensity wavered. Taken as a whole, the evening lacked a strong feelin
  
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• Kaufmann/LSO/Pappano – magnificent, lyrical Wagner

  09-02-2017 15:20
  
  Barbican, LondonJonas Kaufmann and Karita Mattila often mesmerised in this recital of songs and excerpts, in which Eric Halfvarson made a tremendous HundingGiven the centrality of Wagner to his repertory, it’s surprising that Jonas Kaufmann has sung so little of his music in the UK. Fragments and scenes have formed part of his recital programmes over the years, but the only role he has as yet given us complete is Walther in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at a single concert performanc
  
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• Instagram Might Just Be About To Introduce A Game Changing New Feature

  09-02-2017 15:13
  
  Well THIS is exciting.
  
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• Grammy predictions: who will win in the country and Americana categories?

  09-02-2017 15:00
  
  Sturgill Simpson and Miranda Lambert look set to dominate country, with returning veterans such as Robbie Fulks likely winners in the folk categoryGrammy predictions: who will win in the rap and R&B categories?Miranda Lambert made a clear statement about the new direction she was heading in July when she released Vice, a song that was heralded for introducing a new side of feminism to country music. Vice reverses the gender role by portraying the woman as the one stumbling through one-night
  
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• Bella And Gigi Hadid Team Up On The Runway For The Epic Tommyland Show In LA

  09-02-2017 14:06
  
  Gigi Hadid looks insane on the Tommy Hilfiger runway.
  
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• 15 White Lies Every Girl Has Told

  09-02-2017 13:51
  Yep, even you.
  
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• Beyonce faces $20m copyright suit from YouTube star's estate

  09-02-2017 13:08
  
  Anthony Barre’s estate says his voice is featured in Beyonce’s song Formation.
  
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• Readers recommend playlist: your songs about unity

  09-02-2017 13:00
  
  A reader picks playlist that unites the community around a common goal – great music. Primal Scream, Paul McCartney and Ana Tijoux make the list
  Here is this week’s playlist – songs picked by a reader from your suggestions after last week’s callout. Thanks for taking part. Read more about how our weekly Readers Recommend series works at the end of the piece.As a community of folk with diverse musical tastes, who come from far and wide and are all ages, we gather here week
  
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• Gemma Styles: Talking International Condom Day

  09-02-2017 12:58
  
  Great news everyone! It’s almost International Condom Day!
  
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• Charlotte Crosby And Stephen Bear Finally Reveal The Truth Behind Relationship Rumours - EXCLUSIVE

  09-02-2017 12:52
  
  Are Charlotte and Bear really a couple?
  
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• Kim Kardashian’s First Ever Modelling Pics Are Both Incredible And Slightly Cringe

  09-02-2017 12:25
  
  Ah those were the days.
  
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• Demandan a Beyoncé por violación de derechos de autor

  09-02-2017 12:18
  NUEVA ORLEANS (AP) — Los albaceas de una fallecida estrella de YouTube de Nueva Orleans presentaron una demanda por violación de derechos de autor que reclama 20 millones de dólares a Beyoncé por emplear la voz del artista en su canción "Formation".
  
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• Lady Gaga Chats Epic Super Bowl Performance & Reveals New Music Video For ‘John Wayne’

  09-02-2017 12:12
  
  She also chatted about her new movie with Bradley Cooper and her Metallica GRAMMY Awards collaboration...
  
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• This Week In ‘Drake Is Unstoppable’: Drake Named As Earth’s Best-Selling Artist Of 2016

  09-02-2017 12:06
  
  Drake is really good at his job.
  
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• Scotty T Has Some Pre-Valentine's Day Advice For Men

  09-02-2017 11:58
  
  Scotty T has some v-day advice.
  
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• Elton John will help curate new vinyl subscription service

  09-02-2017 11:45
  
  Experience Vinyl will send subscribers the favourite albums of its star curators, including Quincy Jones and Talib KweliElton John is among the curators for a new vinyl subscription service based around the favourite records of the stars. Experience Vinyl, a US-based service, is to launch in April, with Elton John as its first curator, followed by the likes of Quincy Jones, Talib Kweli, George Clinton and Sean Lennon.For a fee of around $30 a month, subscribers will receive one of the curator&rs
  
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• Bestival 2017 Reveals Line-Up & Discounts Tickets For 48 Hours

  09-02-2017 11:29
  
  Bestival's first line-up for its new site in Dorset has been released!
  
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• Selena Gomez Explains The Struggles She Faced Before Admitting Herself To Rehab

  09-02-2017 11:22
  
  And why her new show 13 Reasons Why is so relatable.
  
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• Rationale Premieres The Beautiful 'Tethered' With MTV

  09-02-2017 11:14
  
  Plus we catch up with our former Brand New For 2016 nominee a year on...
  
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• Jason Derulo Calls Out American Airlines For Alleged Racism

  09-02-2017 11:00
  
  Jason Derulo slams American Airlines for being racist.
  
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• Shailene Woodley Has Officially QUIT The Divergent Movies

  09-02-2017 10:53
  
  Say it ain't so!
  
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• Jemma Lucy Claims Stephen Bear Will Cheat On Charlotte Crosby: ‘Serves Her Right For Going After All My Exes!’

  09-02-2017 10:06
  
  CRIPES.
  
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