Music news

• Hardcore rap soundtracking Lego and crisps ... and other mismatched advert soundtracks

  14-05-2017 18:00
  
  Recent ads for Sky and Walkers have been scored by MOP’s gangster anthem Ante Up – but it’s not the most inappropriate song ever used to sell something
  Keen-eared advert-watchers may have noticed that the music soundtracking the recent Sky TV Lego Batman promo, and the latest Walkers crisps advert, is the same song. Musical repetition in the ad world is nothing new – five years ago, you couldn’t go five minutes without happening upon the godawful cod-funk of How Ya&
  
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• Accusations Fly That Tyga Was 'Using' Kylie Jenner - Just As Her Romance With Travis Scott Heats Up

  14-05-2017 16:10
  
  Time to start Keeping Up With a new romance
  
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• Taylor Swift Sent Hand Written Note To A Fan Who Asked Her To Join Her Graduation Party

  14-05-2017 14:32
  
  The Swift has proved yet again that she has impeccable manners
  
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• Don Carlo review – Hytner’s blood-red horror hampers Verdi’s dark vision

  14-05-2017 14:29
  
  Royal Opera House, London
  Nicholas Hytner’s production yields variable results as glorious singing and fine individual achievements don’t cohere into a satisfactory wholeSixteenth-century Spain resembles a prison or a madhouse in Nicholas Hytner’s Royal Opera production of Don Carlo, first seen in 2008, now on its third revival. Though it has its flaws, it reminds us of the innate bleakness of Verdi’s vision, with its irresolvable clashes between church and state, liberal
  
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• Harry Styles review – a slow start before a true star emerges for hysterical fans

  14-05-2017 14:22
  
  The Garage, LondonStyles’ rebranding from boyband frontman to solo artist is well under way, with some caveats that would sit well on a One Direction albumHarry Styles’ emancipation from the X Factor-created, boy band juggernaut that is/was (they’re on “hiatus”) One Direction has been a masterclass in earnest repositioning. Last September he was interviewed by Paul McCartney for the high-end fashion magazine Another Man, while Cameron Crowe – whose 2000 film,
  
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• Miley Cyrus Says She Has No Regrets About That Time She And Liam Hemsworth Broke Up

  14-05-2017 14:04
  
  The pair got together in 2009, split in 2012, but got back together in 2016
  
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• Heartbroken George Shelley Posts Emotional Tribute To His Sister Who Died Last Week

  14-05-2017 13:47
  
  The ex-Union J star has been devastated by the loss of his sister Harriet
  
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• Is Louis Tomlinson Going To Replace Mel B On America's Got Talent?

  14-05-2017 13:26
  
  The One Direction heartthrob is being lined up as a replacement judge - according to reports
  
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• Liam Payne Has Revealed Why His Baby Son Is Called Bear

  14-05-2017 12:58
  
  It seems calling his son Bear was not Liam's idea
  
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• New Mum Cheryl Is Already Working On Her Comeback Album

  14-05-2017 12:40
  
  Chezza gave birth in March - but has already marched into music meetings
  
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• Things You Need To Know About Phobias

  14-05-2017 12:12
  
  It's not just being creeped out by spiders.
  
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• Harry Styles Says He Wishes He Had Helped Zayn Malik Fight His Eating Disorder

  14-05-2017 11:53
  
  Zayn struggled when he was in One Direction for five years
  
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• Noga Erez: ‘I get told by people not to talk about what is happening in Israel’

  14-05-2017 10:30
  
  With songs that deal with sexual assault and the tensions in her homeland, the 27-year-old from Tel Aviv is Israel’s most defiant starSurveillance states, manipulative media, sexual assault and social media storms – these are natural headlines for any news programme in 2017; less so the themes of an album by a rising pop artist. For Tel Aviv-based musician Noga Erez, however, songs are her way to “process the issues that bother me about the world”. Her music is clattering
  
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• TLC review – crazy, sexy, cool… and still relevant

  14-05-2017 10:00
  
  Koko, London
  Ahead of next month’s comeback album, 90s R&B stars TLC are on brilliant form for their first ever UK showOutside, tickets for TLC’s first-ever UK show are changing hands for £100 a pop. In watering holes near the venue, there are women dressed to the nines wearing one stripe of eye black under their eyes. Most often seen on American football players, the glare-reducing smear on the cheekbone was glamorised by the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, the rap
  
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• Harry Styles: Harry Styles review – a diverting new direction

  14-05-2017 10:00
  
  MOR tunes feature heavily on the One Direction man’s first solo venture, but there are some surprises lurking…Who is Harry Styles, anyway? At the prow of the dreadnought that was One Direction, the now 23-year-old mouthed words and cavorted to pop music that was most often not of his own making. Styles – overexposed, yet unknowable – was always a staunch defender of the brand, particularly when 1D escapee Zayn Malik voiced his discomfort at the disconnect between the mus
  
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• The Afghan Whigs: In Spades review – back with some of the old swagger

  14-05-2017 09:00
  
  (Sub Pop)A mastery of soul influences and Greg Dulli’s twin lyrical themes of obsessive lust and simmering anger made the Afghan Whigs stand out from the mid-90s alt-rock herd. Their 2014 comeback Do to the Beast – featuring just Dulli and bassist John Curley from the original line-up - was a little underwhelming, but its follow-up finds them rewinding the years more successfully. The bruising Arabian Heights has real swing and swagger, while Toy Automatic and lead single Demon in Pr
  
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• Preservation Hall Jazz Band: So It Is review – brash echo of past glories

  14-05-2017 09:00
  
  (Sony Legacy)Preservation Hall is a New Orleans venue, founded in 1961 to help keep alive the city’s unique musical culture. To anyone familiar with the simple, fragile, sepia-tinted jazz of the veterans who used to play there, this album will come as something of a shock. Loud, funky and brash, it’s enough to blow the roof off the old place. There’s no denying that it reflects the purposefully dynamic spirit of post-Katrina New Orleans. The insistent grooves and catchy riffs w
  
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• Paul Weller: A Kind Revolution review – rich in warmth and optimism

  14-05-2017 09:00
  
  (Parlophone)Paul Weller has been in a relentlessly innovative purple patch since 2008’s 22 Dreams, which is still surprising given the workmanlike nature of his previous decade’s output. A Kind Revolution is less startling than its immediate predecessors, in part because it reins in the genre-hopping. Although some of the magic is lost in the process, it consequently comes across as a more cohesive album, one that’s suffused with warmth and optimism, giving equal weight to rock
  
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• Paramore: After Laughter review – one of the year’s best pop albums?

  14-05-2017 09:00
  
  (Fueled By Ramen)Every Paramore record unloads a fresh heap of inter-band strife – this time, their bassist quit and ex-drummer rejoined. It feels unfair that discontent dominates their narrative (the feminist emo band that made a platinum pop crossover), but it also inspires great catharsis. Throughout, Hayley Williams doesn’t sugarcoat her frustrations with false idols, futile optimism or anxiety, while reshuffling has kept Paramore nimble, abandoning rock for Tom Tom Club and Bow
  
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• Oumou Sangaré: Mogoya review – a tight, focused return

  14-05-2017 09:00
  
  (No Format!)The Malian singer Oumou Sangaré has provided a template for a generation of African women; feminist but sensuous, rooted in tradition but open to fresh influences. Her first album in eight years finds Parisian production collective Albert giving her sound a tasteful update with a cleanly recorded but more minimal set of backings for her agile vocals. N’goni harps and massed choruses still chime and ring, but there’s more emphasis on rhythm. Minata Waraba, a tribute
  
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• Mac DeMarco: This Old Dog review – thoughtful, tender third album

  14-05-2017 09:00
  
  (Captured Tracks)The LA-based singer-songwriter steps away from his Beavis and Butthead onstage persona to make a thoughtful, tender and musically tight third album. DeMarco has always worn his talent lightly, but finally he sounds focused, reflecting on relationships like a millennial Cat Stevens, particularly those with his absent father and his long-term girlfriend. The 27-year-old still sings in languid, unadorned tones over the sun-dappled disco shuffle of For the First Time, but there&rsqu
  
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• J Hus: Common Sense review – a rich, zeitgeisty debut

  14-05-2017 09:00
  
  (Black Butter)The humid mishmash of cultures and sounds on J Hus’s debut is London incarnate: bashment, “UK afrobeats”, grime, hip-hop, R&B and garage are all manifest. While Common Sense finds the Stratford singer/rapper going indulgently long at 17 tracks, the quality is undoubtedly consistent – be it the richly produced Bouf Daddy, the dancehall-inflected, hazy Fisherman or the sun-drenched Good Time, featuring Burna Boy. J Hus imbues an admirable introspection to
  
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• Turandot; Russia in the Round; Yuja Wang, Santa Cecilia Orchestra/ Pappano – review

  14-05-2017 08:30
  
  Hull City Hall; Crucible Studio, Sheffield; Royal Festival Hall, London
  Explosive Puccini crowns quite a week for Opera North. And sparks fly with Yuja Wang and Rome’s Santa Cecilia OrchestraSunset in the Forbidden City and another of icy princess Turandot’s victims is about to lose his head. Soldiers, priests and the rabble of Beijing goad and lament in mighty choral union. Gongs and brass add to the clamour. Puccini’s unfinished epic, first performed in 1926, offers little in
  
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• JS Bach: Cantatas for soprano CD review – radiant energy

  14-05-2017 08:25
  
  Carolyn Sampson, Freiburger Barockorchester/Müllejans
  (Harmonia Mundi)Bach was young, his burgeoning family still small, during his time in Weimar, a turning point in his early career. He wrote several fine cantatas there, including Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199, its remorseful, lamenting powers wonderfully expressed here by the English soprano Carolyn Sampson. It’s a tribute to her linguistic as well as bright-voiced musical talents that she is the chosen soloist with the Frei
  
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• Purcell/Kurtág, Mozart/Busoni etc: Fantasias CD review – a wonderful selection

  14-05-2017 08:20
  
  GrauSchumacher Piano Duo
  (Neos)The concept of the fantasia, a free form unleashing the composer’s wildest thoughts, is somewhat contradicted by the wonderful sequence of pieces assembled here, which are full of rigour and logic. Purcell’s contrapuntal essay around a single note (in Kurtág’s soulful arrangement) and Mozart’s inspired fugal construction for a mechanical clock (with Busoni’s whimsical additions) give way to Scriabin’s rare and rather conve
  
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• ‘It’s two hit songs then off’ – artists fight festivals’ shorter sets

  14-05-2017 01:05
  
  Insiders say ‘stack ’em high’ formula of packing as many bands in as possible is driving performers awayMusic festivals are facing an “enormous backlash” as the emerging trend to cram in more bands playing shorter sets is infuriating some musicians, industry experts warn.In the past, what seemed like a nation of fans would tune into Radio 1 to hear festival lineups announced and there was a panicked scramble when tickets went on sale. Now with sets as short as 20 mi
  
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• Harry Styles: teen star turned serious player? | Observer profile

  14-05-2017 01:05
  
  He was boyband One Direction’s most high-profile pin-up. But as his debut solo album proves, behind the marketing lies a smart young manThe biggest pop album of the year came out on Friday and its cover art says a lot about stars in 2017. It doesn’t feature the artist’s beautiful face, but his water-drizzled bare back, his silver neck chains and tattoos, hinting at edginess. Inside, Harry Styles closes his eyes, up to his neck in deep water, around names of songs that play like
  
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• From kitchen composer to Spotify star - Dutch pianist hits big time

  14-05-2017 01:05
  
  Joep Beving put his album online for funA Dutch amateur musician has given up his day job after seeing his self-released recordings streamed online more than 85 million times. Composer and pianist Joep Beving, 41, has become a one-man recording phenomenon, and will give his first concert in Britain this week after a breakthrough into the big time.Beving, who lives in Amsterdam, performed and recorded his “mood music” album, Solipsism, for the enjoyment of his family. Then, partly for
  
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