Music news

• Jarvis Cocker and Chilly Gonzales: Room 29 review – nuanced portrait of murky morals

  23-03-2017 23:30
  
  (Deutsche Grammophon)Jarvis Cocker bleeds Sheffield, but it’s hard to imagine an artist better suited to slithering around the Chateau Marmont after Hollywood skeletons. On Room 29, a song-cycle about the fabled LA hotel, Cocker’s knack for pinpointing nihilism’s abiding allure finds a match in Chilly Gonzales’s eerily elegant piano. While it’s easy to condemn or romanticise the Chateau, the duo mostly offer a nuanced portrait of its murky morals. “This whole
  
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• Soulwax: From Deewee review – impressive, seamless art experiment

  23-03-2017 23:15
  
  (Play It Again Sam)Hearing that Soulwax’s latest was recorded in one take – a process that must, then, have taken them a whopping 49 minutes and 5 seconds – makes you wonder what took them so long. It has been more than a decade since the last Soulwax studio album (2005’s Nite Versions). Then again, the Belgian duo – with their 2manydjs DJ sets, remix duties and various alter-ego bands – are no slouches, and so it transpires that the one-take rule was installe
  
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• James Blunt: The Afterlove review – slightly desperate and actively risible

  23-03-2017 23:00
  
  (Atlantic)Since reinventing himself as a Twitter banter lord a few years ago, James Blunt has proved he can do more than just mewl about pretty women and give cockney rhyming slang a new lease of life. But can he carry the genuinely entertaining Blunt 2.0 over into his songcraft? Will he even try? Judging by the album’s opening seconds, in which he moans humourlessly that “people say the meanest things” through a mouthful of whistling sibilance, the answer would seem to be: not
  
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• Me and That Man: Songs of Love and Death review – melodramatic, sandblasted Americana

  23-03-2017 22:45
  
  (Cooking Vinyl)Long-time fans of Polish death metal crew Behemoth are unlikely to be surprised by frontman Nergal’s decision to make a record such as Songs of Love and Death. A stripped-down exercise in melodramatic, sandblasted Americana, his collaboration with folk stalwart John Porter draws from many of the same thematic sources that Behemoth have plundered at breakneck speed and excruciating volume over the years. The difference is that this is firmly in acoustic territory, where blues
  
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• Craig Finn: We All Want the Same Things review – master storyteller gets personal

  23-03-2017 22:30
  
  (Partisan Records)Craig Finn loves filling his music with stories. So much so, you suspect that if the Hold Steady vocalist ever tried his hand at a minimalist techno album he’d still manage to cram the thing full of themes, characters and slowly unfolding plots. As it is, his third solo album, We All Want the Same Things, sticks to the earthy indie of the rest of his non-Hold Steady output, lacking some of his main band’s last-orders rumbustiousness but sharing the same spirit of bl
  
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• The Jesus and Mary Chain: Damage and Joy review – a decent but self-sabotaging return

  23-03-2017 22:15
  
  (ADA/Warner) Related: The Jesus and Mary Chain – 10 of the best The first Mary Chain album in 19 years kicks off in fine fettle: Amputation grumbles along on a William Reid riff that’s half biker rock, half pure 60s pop, before his brother Jim’s opening line sets out the challenge facing the pair: “Try to win your interest back / But you ain’t having none of that.” When they follow it with War on Peace, a splendid ballad that overcomes its debt to the Velvet U
  
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• The Moonlandingz: Interplanetary Class Classics review – gleefully untamed pop

  23-03-2017 22:00
  
  (Transgressive)
  As an increasingly homogenised pop landscape reaches peak Sheeran, this collaboration between part of the Fat White Family and Sheffield electronic oddballs Eccentronic Research Council adopts a gleefully untamed, bull-in-a-record-shop approach. It’s an inspired mish-mash of Glitter Band tribal drumming, a howling wolf, tuneless saxophone squawking, heavy breathing and at least one narrative about castration; a sort of Cramps-meet-B-52s Hammer horror-rock monster. Guests ra
  
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• Readers recommend: share your songs with proverbs and idioms

  23-03-2017 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 27 March This week we’re looking for your nominations of songs that feature or allude to proverbs or idioms in their lyrics or titles. For more on the theme, keep an eye on the comments below.
  You have until 11pm on Monday 27 March to post your nomination and make your justification. Regular RR contributor who posts as attwilightlarks in the comments w
  
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• Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang: Build Music review – strange but compelling

  23-03-2017 20:00
  
  (Luaka Bop)Janka Nabay’s songs are an edgy blend of ancient African styles and modern technology that reflect his own uneven career. In the 90s, he became a star in Sierra Leone by recording cassettes of updated bubu music, reworking traditional songs that were used in Islamic ceremonies by using keyboards, drum machines and multitracking. He fled to the US at the end of the civil war and worked in a fried chicken restaurant before reviving his career with help from David Byrne’s Lua
  
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• Macca’s banjo, Mellotron and a Monkee: the story of George Harrison’s Wonderwall Music

  23-03-2017 19:53
  
  Almost 50 years ago, the Beatle stepped aside from the planet’s biggest band to create the soundtrack to Joe Massot’s movie Wonderwall. With the help of India’s finest musicians, he invented the idea of the world music crossoverLet’s call it the Riddle of the Dark Horse: what do you get if you cross a Monkee, two Beatles, the man they called God, Paul McCartney’s banjo, India’s musical elite and a film about a mad professor spying on a Biba girl called Penny L
  
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• Warsaw Village Band: Sun Celebration review – breaking down musical borders

  23-03-2017 19:45
  
  (Jaro)Global experimentation, Polish-style. Warsaw Village Band are one of the most inventive folk groups in Europe, with an edgy, driving style in which the harsh-edged female-harmony vocals of Magdalena Sobczak-Kotnarowska and Sylwia Świątkowska are matched against violins, percussion, dulcimer and brass. Their compositions are usually based on traditional themes, but the old Polish influences are transformed by a remarkable cast of special guests. From Galicia, Spain, there’s
  
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• Why Working Out On An Empty Stomach Isn’t A Good Idea After All

  23-03-2017 18:50
  
  D'oh.
  
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• This Photographer Showed Us All What We'd Look Like Without Our Phones

  23-03-2017 18:41
  
  #Removed. It's pretty deep.
  
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• 19 Times Scotty T was the Prince Charming of Newcastle

  23-03-2017 18:22
  
  No one does charming chat up lines quite like Geordie Shore's Scott T. See the best ones over at MTV.co.uk.
  
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• The Jesus and Mary Chain: ‘Pop is dreadful. Switch on a radio, I guarantee it’ll be garbage’

  23-03-2017 17:59
  
  Jim and William Reid have been back in the studio for the first time in two decades – and just about survived each other to make new album Damage and Joy. They talk about being trapped in the desert, playing the Haçienda and the horrors of Heart FMTen years ago, the Jesus and Mary Chain reformed. Reunion gigs were announced and sold out: the first, at the Coachella festival in California, featured a guest appearance from Scarlett Johansson, singing backing vocals on their 1985 singl
  
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• You Might Soon Be Able To Use Instagram Offline

  23-03-2017 17:17
  
  Instagram testing new offline feature.
  
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• Selena Gomez’s Reaction To Her Make Up Artist Joking About Justin Bieber Is Incredible

  23-03-2017 16:47
  
  Poor girl!
  
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• Steve Aoki, Tinie Tempah & More Among First Acts Announced For MTV Presents Varna Beach!

  23-03-2017 16:35
  
  The first phase line up was just revealed today...
  
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• A Megan McKenna Facial Expression For Every Stage Of Your Break Up

  23-03-2017 16:34
  
  Break ups can be tough, but luckily Megan McKenna's face is here to help you through it. See them all at MTV.co.uk.
  
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• Fleetwood Mac: Tango in the Night review | Alexis Petridis' album of the week

  23-03-2017 16:00
  
  This 1987 classic is a blend of solid-gold pop and super-slick production, interwoven with the sound of a band sliding into chaos
  The mid-80s were not the kindest time for 60s and 70s rock legends. For every gimlet-eyed operator who successfully navigated an alien and unforgiving landscape of power ballads, crashing snare drums, Fairlight synthesisers and MTV moonmen – the Eagles’ Don Henley and Glenn Frey; Tina Turner – there were scores who seemed utterly lost. It was a world
  
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• Michael Peña and Dax Shepard Reveal Their Funniest Moments BEHIND THE SCENES Of Chips

  23-03-2017 15:42
  
  The stars of the new cop action comedy reveal their biggest LOLs together!
  
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• Megan McKenna Reveals The Weird Topic She And Pete Wicks Argued About The Most

  23-03-2017 15:29
  
  Megan McKenna opens up about her split with Pete Wicks.
  
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• Geordie Shore's Marnie Simpson Reveals She's Been Neckin' On With BFF Chloe Ferry Again - EXCLUSIVE

  23-03-2017 15:00
  
  Don't miss brand new Geordie Shore: New Radgie Rampage, starting Tuesday 28th March at 10pm - only on MTV!
  
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• Charlotte Crosby's GIF Guide To Making Sure It's True Love

  23-03-2017 14:03
  
  Love can be a tricky one to navigate, so here's Charlotte Crosby's top tips for making sure it's the real deal. Read more on MTV.co.uk.
  
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• WTF Ever Happened To The Cast Of The Valleys?

  23-03-2017 14:02
  
  Remember The Valleys? Find out whatever happened to the cast over at MTV.co.uk.
  
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• Michael Peña And Dax Shepard Play Never Have I Ever!

  23-03-2017 13:44
  
  The Chips stars reveal their embarrassing cartoon crushes, dick pic fails and more!
  
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• Little Mix Party Without Jesy Nelson Yet Again As They Admit She’s ‘Preoccupied’

  23-03-2017 13:39
  
  Aww she's so in love.
  
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• Get To Know: Formation

  23-03-2017 13:11
  
  This week we're throwing a spotlight on London five-piece who pride themselves on being different...
  
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• Steven Osborne review – unflinching and ecstatic Beethoven

  23-03-2017 13:09
  
  Wigmore Hall, London
  Osborne’s recital, in which Beethoven’s final piano sonatas were prefaced with Brahms intermezzos, was consistently thoughtful and sometimes shatteringBeethoven’s last three piano sonatas contain more than enough musical substance to make a satisfying programme just as as they are. But Steven Osborne added one tweak to that standard sequence, prefacing each of the sonatas with one of the intermezzos from Brahms’s Op 117 set, reversing the order of tho
  
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• Pork Soda (MTV Laid Bare Exclusive Commentary)

  23-03-2017 13:05 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Pork Soda (Laid Bare Version)
  
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• Readers recommend playlist: your songs about knowledge

  23-03-2017 13:00
  
  A reader picks a playlist from your suggestions teaching us that knowledge really is power. Talking Heads, Bill Withers and XTC all feature
  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 series works at the end of the piece.Sir Francis Bacon was said to have written scientia potentia est – loosely that “knowledge is power”, the title of the first so
  
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• There's a great singles chart out there – it's just not the one we use as the Top 40

  23-03-2017 12:57
  
  The Official Charts Company’s physical singles chart, based on CD and vinyl sales, paints a very different picture to the ‘real’ Top 40 – and a much more attractive oneWhat a great top 10 singles from the Official Charts Company. A leading solo artist at No 1, a great British group at No 2, Radio 2 favourites at three, three hot young acts, one veteran band propelled there by fanbase sales, one beloved pop institution, and one proper wildcard. Admittedly, that’s nin
  
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• Ex On The Beach Star Chanelle McCleary 'In Talks' To Appear On Celebrity Big Brother?

  23-03-2017 12:54
  
  Chanelle McCleary to appear on CBB?
  
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• Charlotte Crosby Accuses Stephen Bear Of Lying About His Sexual History - EXCLUSIVE

  23-03-2017 12:51
  
  Don’t miss Charlotte and Bear in Just Tattoo Of Us, starting Monday 3rd April at 10pm - only on MTV!
  
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• London's Tube Stations Share Messages Of Unity Following Westminster Terror Attack

  23-03-2017 12:48
  
  "United we stand, divided we fall"
  
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• CHIPS Cast Reveal The X-Rated Sex Scene ‘TOO PERVERTED’ For Cinemas!

  23-03-2017 12:32
  
  WHO KNEW the lives of highway cops were so saucy?!
  
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• Just Tattoo Of Us Host Charlotte Crosby Bans Boyfriend Stephen Bear From Talking About His Secret Sex Tape - EXCLUSIVE

  23-03-2017 12:24
  
  Don't miss brand new Just Tattoo Of Us, starting Monday 3rd April at 10pm - only on MTV!
  
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• Bob Dylan reveals an unsuspected love for Stereophonics

  23-03-2017 11:23
  
  In a long interview discussing his new album, the singer unveils his admiration for the Welsh rockersBob Dylan has revealed that he is a fan of Stereophonics, and also that he cannot imagine his own writing being influenced by his series of albums of American standards, because “these melodies are so structured in musical theory, they’re so tricky with time signatures and shifting melodies, that it’s beyond me”. Related: Bob Dylan and Frank Sinatra: twin titans of America
  
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• Scotty T Trolls Megan McKenna After Ex Jordan Davies ‘Tweets’ That He Still Loves Her

  23-03-2017 09:57
  
  The king of wind ups strikes again.
  
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• John Lydon says he will 'sorely miss' the Queen when she is gone

  23-03-2017 09:46
  
  Man who castigated the monarchy in 1977 single God Save the Queen says he will miss the Queen ‘as a human being’, and that he loves royal pageantryGod Save the Queen – he means it, man. John Lydon has said he will “sorely miss” Britain’s monarch when she dies. The Sex Pistols/Public Image Ltd singer was appearing on the Quietus video hour when conversation turned to the topic of the recently published plans for the death of Queen Elizabeth II.Host John Doran,
  
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• Giants

  23-03-2017 08:19 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Giants (Official Video)
  
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• Weak

  23-03-2017 08:04 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Weak
  
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• You're In Love With A Psycho (Lyric Video)

  23-03-2017 08:03 via mtv.co.uk
  
  You're In Love With A Psycho (Lyric Video)
  
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• Diary (Ft. Tiwa Savage)

  23-03-2017 07:21 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Diary (feat. Tiwa Savage)
  
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• Cold

  23-03-2017 07:21 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Cold
  
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• Ciao Adios

  23-03-2017 07:21 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Ciao Adios
  
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• 7 Things You Need To Know About Mass Effect: Andromeda

  23-03-2017 00:37
  
  How many ways can you make sexy time with aliens? Important questions ANSWERED.
  
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