Music news

• Blondie: Pollinator review – hooks, drums, evocative lyrics: an atomic return

  04-05-2017 23:45
  
  (BMG)It doesn’t bode well when formerly prolific bands reach for outside songwriters, but a cast stretching from Johnny Marr to Sia to Charli XCX and the Strokes’ Nick Valensi have helped recreate Blondie’s classic late-1970s band sound, albeit with a modern sheen. Clem Burke’s trademark machine-gun drumming propels songs with teasingly familiar big hooks and earworm choruses.Four writers – including TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek – collaborate on Fun&rsqu
  
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• Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: Best Troubador review – Will Oldham covers Merle Haggard

  04-05-2017 23:30
  
  (Domino)Will Oldham’s covers of the Everly Brothers, Bill Withers and even R Kelly are some of the most satisfying curios in his massive catalogue, and he continues here with an album of songs by the late Merle Haggard. Oldham’s reaffirmation of country as a spartan, romantic, existentially troubled music is a trick he perhaps learned from Haggard himself, but he strays further still from country’s core sound, replacing the pedal steel and banjo with flutes, saxophones and acou
  
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• Pond: The Weather review – Australian psych-rockers take a musical leap

  04-05-2017 23:15
  
  (Marathon Artists)Few discussions about Perth outfit Pond are likely to pass without at least a nod to Kevin Parker’s Tame Impala. Not only have the two bands shared multiple members over the years, including Parker himself, but they’ve also evolved in what has seemed like musical parallel, with Pond providing a wilder, sun-scorched take on Parker’s poppy psych-rock. It’s unsurprising, then, that in the wake of Parker’s decision to largely ditch guitars for syntheti
  
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• Mac DeMarco: This Old Dog review – serious themes, stoned demeanour

  04-05-2017 23:00
  
  (Captured Tracks) Related: If I’m going in, I’m goin’ in hard When it comes to his relationship with his father, Mac DeMarco has decided not to sit on the fence: “He’s kind of a piece of shit,” was one recent verdict on the man who walked out on him when he was four. But his musical take on their relationship – which dominates his third full-length album – is more nuanced. Opening track My Old Man expresses his growing fear, over acoustic guitar an
  
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• Kasabian: For Crying Out Loud review – crowdpleasing if blokey indie euphoria

  04-05-2017 22:45
  
  (Columbia Records)Clearly confident that people were still into chugging indie with a side of glib mental-health references, Kasabian heralded their sixth album with You’re in Love with a Psycho, a track whose dopey asylum-set video simply gurned in the face of progress. It’s not the first time the indie survivors have prized silly blokeyness over appropriate content – in 2009 they released an album called West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum – and to be fair it’s clear
  
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• At the Drive-In: Inter Alia review – 00s post-hardcore heroes' thrilling return

  04-05-2017 22:30
  
  (Rise)Listen to El Paso post-hardcore band At the Drive-In’s new album and it might feel as if time has stood still. In 2000, the band released the no-holds-barred Relationship of Command; they were at the height of their popularity, but broke up just a year later. There have been two reunion tours since then, and now a fourth album manages to pick up where they left off. The time signatures are just as dizzying, the lyrics just as nihilistic and philosophical, and the songs just as drench
  
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• Will Stratton: Rosewood Almanac review – lost-summer beauty from a New Jersey native

  04-05-2017 20:00
  
  (Bella Union)This is the sound of lost summers, dangling one foot in the waters where Midlake and Iron & Wine have spent time, another in the depths of Nick Drake and Bert Jansch, where folk guitar figures circle like whirlpools. Stratton is a 30-year-old Californian-born, New Jersey native with a story to summon myths: son of a travelling preacher and a cancer survivor, his music was found by Bella Union boss Simon Raymonde during a night-time online search. These 10 songs feel fittingly, c
  
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• Antheil: Symphonies Nos 4 and 5 review – noisy, cutesy, vacuous and trite

  04-05-2017 19:45
  
  BBC Philharmonic/Storgårds
  (Chandos)George Antheil may have styled himself the “bad boy of music” – the title of his autobiography – but he’s mostly remembered for a single work from his time in Paris in the 1920s, the Ballet Mécanique, which was intended to accompany a film by the artist Fernand Léger. In those days, Antheil had tagged along with the surrealists and futurists, but bad boys become less interesting as they grow up, and when he ret
  
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• Geordie Shore 14: With Thanks To...

  04-05-2017 18:09
  
  Don't miss brand new Geordie Shore: New Radgie Rampage, Tuesdays at 10pm - only on MTV!
  
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• Check Out 20 Exclusive Behind The Scenes Shots From Sean Paul's 'Body' Video

  04-05-2017 18:02
  
  Check out these exclusive shots from behind the scenes of Sean Paul's 'Body' music video, featuring jet skis, cars and Migos!
  
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• Nick Cave: ‘I have turned a corner and wandered on to a vast landscape’

  04-05-2017 17:42
  
  In a rare interview since the death of his 15-year-old son, the singer reveals his struggle to write and reconnect with the world after the tragedyNick Cave and I are cruising down a highway north of Sydney towards a show with his band the Bad Seeds in the coastal steel-town of Newcastle, when he turns to me and says: “We’re going to have to talk about Arthur for this, aren’t we?”It’s late January, and tonight’s show is part of an Australian tour that marks Ca
  
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• Woody Allen's jazz band to play the Royal Albert Hall in July

  04-05-2017 17:11
  
  A rare London appearance by the director-musician’s New Orleans Jazz Band will feature a collection of improvisations – and no playlistWoody Allen and the New Orleans Jazz Band will perform a one-off show at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 2 July.According to the venue’s website, the performance will be “an energetic collection of improvisations”, adding that there is no “playlist, nor do the musicians know what song Allen, in collaboration with band directo
  
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• Ex On The Beach Moments That'll Make You Say 'Me In A Relationship'

  04-05-2017 17:01
  
  If you relate to Ex On The Beach, here's a load of moments that are literally you in a relationship, over at MTV.co.uk.
  
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• Perfume Genius: No Shape review – confident and melodic, with a rich seam of strange

  04-05-2017 16:00
  
  True to turbulent form, Mike Hadreas jams together moments of euphoric pop beauty with disruptive ugliness in an album of uniformly fantastic tunes“I’m here,” sings Mike Hadreas on the final track of No Shape, the unpromisingly titled Alan. “How weird.” It’s presumably a reference to the change in his personal circumstances. By anyone’s standards, the 35-year-old singer-songwriter has lived a turbulent life: a horrendous-sounding adolescence marked by pr
  
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• Niall Horan Just Dropped New Single ‘Slow Hands’ - Listen Here!

  04-05-2017 15:44
  
  We LIKE it.
  
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• Who Is Sarah Goodhart? Everything You Need To Know About The Geordie Shore And Ex On The Beach Star

  04-05-2017 15:11
  
  All the information.
  
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• Here's What Loads Of Reality Stars Did Before They Were Famous

  04-05-2017 15:04
  
  Ever wondered what reality stars did before they were famous? Find out over at MTV.co.uk.
  
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• This Is The Formula For The Perfect Hotel Stay

  04-05-2017 15:01
  
  We tried it, and it works...
  
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• MTV Presents The Chainsmokers For One Night Only At Ushuaia Ibiza!

  04-05-2017 14:00
  
  It's the ONLY time you can see the 'Closer' chart-toppers on the White Isle this year...
  
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• Zendaya’s Bruno Mars Impersonation On Lip Sync Battle Is Terrifyingly Realistic

  04-05-2017 13:47
  
  IS THAT BRUNO OR ZENDAYA, WE LEGIT CAN'T TELL.
  
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• Born Slippy

  04-05-2017 13:47 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Born Slippy
  
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• Get To Know: James Cherry

  04-05-2017 13:32
  
  This week's featured artist is James Cherry. Check out our interview with him here...
  
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• Blondie review – pop's evergreen enigma conjures the euphoria of old

  04-05-2017 13:01
  
  Roundhouse, London
  Debbie Harry alternated between punk battle cries and mum-dancing in a performance that combined singalong classics with compelling new materialDebbie Harry, an exemplar of downtown Manhattan cool at 71, is in the very “now” position of looking out from the stage and seeing her face on T-shirts, despite many of them being worn by people born decades after Blondie’s run of diamond-bright hits. Some might have even been bought at the pop-up shop in Camden marke
  
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• Readers recommend playlist: your tribute songs

  04-05-2017 13:00
  
  With musicians such as Elvis Costello, John Lennon and Lead Belly paying homage to their heroes, a reader picks from your suggestions
  Here is this week’s playlist of songs picked by a reader from your suggestions, after last week’s callout. Read more about how our weekly readers recommend series works at the end of the piece.There is an air of unabashed friendship to the song that starts our list of tributes. Blossom Dearie wrote Dusty Springfield with Norma Tanega, who had a close r
  
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• Geordie Shore Spoiler Video: OI OI! Scotty T Surprises His Fellow Radgies As He Makes His Return In Tignes

  04-05-2017 13:00
  
  Don't miss brand new Geordie Shore: New Radgie Rampage, Tuesdays at 10pm - only on MTV!
  
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• Jeremy McConnell Hits Out At Stephanie Davis' 'Malicious Lies' As She Admits To A Drinking Problem

  04-05-2017 12:49
  
  Speaking out.
  
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• 18 Chrissy Teigen Clapbacks You Need In Your Life

  04-05-2017 12:31
  
  Chrissy Teigen is officially the queen of clapbacks. See all the proof over at MTV.co.uk.
  
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• You Can Actually Play A Zelda Game In Real-Life

  04-05-2017 12:20
  
  Have you ever played as Link, running around and protecting Hyrule’s shores, and thought to yourself, “I could totally do this irl?”
  
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• Another Life (Ft. Ester Dean)

  04-05-2017 12:18 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Another Life (Ft. Ester Dean)
  
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• Best Of The Culottes Trend For Spring/Summer

  04-05-2017 12:17
  
  Looking for a wardrobe refresh? Shop the best of the culottes trend over at MTV.co.uk.
  
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• This Riverdale Theory About Who Killed Jason Blossom Even Has The Cast Talking

  04-05-2017 10:10
  
  Interesting, very interesting.
  
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• 23 Star Wars Tattoos That Will Make You Feel The Force

  04-05-2017 09:37
  
  Inky inspiration from barely-there designs to full-on Empire sleeves...
  
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• Stay Together [Explicit]

  04-05-2017 09:34 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Stay Together
  
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• Common Sense [Explicit]

  04-05-2017 09:34 via mtv.co.uk
  
  Common Sense
  
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• Watch Ed Sheeran’s Galway Girl Music Video Starring Saoirse Ronan

  04-05-2017 09:30
  
  YAY!
  
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• Gorgon City Are The Latest Act Announced To Crash Plymouth With Club MTV!

  04-05-2017 01:01
  
  This is going to be EPIIIIIIIIC!
  
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