Music news

• Faith Evans and Notorious BIG: The King & I review – an unmistakably juicy revival

  18-05-2017 23:15
  
  (Rhino)From Kurt Cobain’s basement tapes to Amy Winehouse’s leftovers, a posthumous release poses ethical problems at the best of times. Even more so when said release is a duet, which may feel ill-judged at worst, weird at best (see: Justin Timberlake teaming up with Michael Jackson). It’s a challenge Faith Evans tackles with class on this 22-track album featuring her late husband’s unmistakable flow – not always nimble but dominating and wry. With vocals smoother
  
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• PWR BTTM release new statement to 'strongly contest' sexual abuse allegations

  18-05-2017 23:09
  
  The punk band has lost support of their label and management after member Ben Hopkins was accused of misconduct Up-and-coming punk duo PWR BTTM has responded to allegations of sexual misconduct against band member Ben Hopkins in a new statement. Related: PWR BTTM lose opening bands and touring members after sexual abuse claimsContinue reading...
  
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• Aldous Harding: Party review – an eerie carnival of passion and paranoia

  18-05-2017 23:00
  
  (4AD)Judging by the spellbinding songs on Aldous Harding’s second album, the party of the title isn’t a right old knees-up with jelly and ice cream – more likely she’s party to a crime of passion. These songs are full of worried wonderings and torrid, erotic declarations – “My mouth is wet / Don’t you forget it” – sung in an extraordinarily dextrous and perhaps divisive voice that ranges from Josephine Foster’s warble to Nico’s so
  
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• (Sandy) Alex G: Rocket review – a fierce and frenzied bid for stardom

  18-05-2017 22:45
  
  (Domino)Amid the many major names on Frank Ocean’s Blonde – the Beatles, Jonny Greenwood, Beyoncé – one credit stuck out as conspicuously low-key: Philadelphian 24-year-old Alex G, now with his (Sandy) prefix, was a natural fit for the album’s introverted, explorative textures. His eighth record is as dysfunctional as the R&B star’s album, establishing him as a truly dexterous songwriter: there are echoes of Lilys, Battles, Death Grips, grunge and soft ro
  
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• The Mountain Goats: Goths review – songwriting master makes a magnetic return

  18-05-2017 22:15
  
  (Merge) The New Yorker once called the Mountain Goats’ frontman John Darnielle “America’s best non-hip-hop lyricist”. Here, the 50-year-old sometime novelist is in masterly form, reappraising his teenage goth years. The hints of Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds in opener Rain in Soho aside, piano, woozy sax and sumptuous Prefab Sprout AOR combine with lyrics about Portuguese goth metal, an unlikely juxtaposition that emphasises the songs’ mix of wry insight and black hum
  
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• Stevie Parker: The Cure review – an icily restrained pop debut

  18-05-2017 22:00
  
  (Virgin)If you’re a young British woman with a haunting vocal style, a penchant for stripped-back pop and no record deal, then you’re probably the only one. This icy, strangely monochrome-sounding take on pop is enjoying a purple patch, and Stevie Parker is the latest to throw her tasteful and understated hat in the ring. Her debut is an incredibly restrained album, nodding to the driving, infectious melodies and rousing choruses of the chart without ever getting that near to reprodu
  
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• Soundgarden's Chris Cornell killed himself, coroner says

  18-05-2017 21:15
  
  Singer who was one of founders of Seattle grunge scene was found dead in a hotel room in DetroitSoundgarden frontman Chris Cornell died after hanging himself, a US coroner said on Thursday.Cornell, 52, was found dead in a bathroom in his room at the MGM Grand Detroit hotel on Wednesday night after performing in the city with the grunge band. Continue reading...
  
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• Readers recommend: share your songs about earth, soil, mud and dirt

  18-05-2017 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 22 May This week we’re looking for songs that somehow reference that which lies beneath our feet – be it fertile earth, glorious mud or just plain old dirt. For more on how readers are interpreting the theme, keep an eye on the comments.You have until 11pm on Monday 22 May to post your nomination and make your justification. Continue reading...
  
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• Skepta wins songwriter of the year at Ivor Novello awards

  18-05-2017 20:28
  
  Star also won best contemporary song as rise of grime was seen at ceremony previously dominated by white artists Grime’s grip on the music industry was reaffirmed at this year’s Ivor Novello awards as Skepta won two of the biggest accolades.Related: #grime4Corbyn – why British MCs are uniting behind the Labour leaderContinue reading...
  
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• Lil Yachty: ‘Older hip-hop people don't understand evolution – or don't want it’

  18-05-2017 20:01
  
  Atlanta’s 19-year-old Lil Yachty is at the vanguard of a new wave of anything-goes rap – and he’s broken all the rules to get there. He talks about pickpocketing social media, creating a cartoon character and his love of ColdplayLil Yachty is not happy. Last night, the 19-year-old rapper played a sold-out London show with Migos, but feels that the crowd favoured the wildly hyped hip-hop trio over him. “I just didn’t get the energy,” he sighs, a little melodram
  
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• Tony Allen: A Tribute to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers review – pulsating hard-bop homage

  18-05-2017 20:00
  
  (Blue Note)Whether he’s playing with Fela Kuti or Damon Albarn, the Nigerian drummer Tony Allen rarely compromises. “I don’t play funk or jazz,” he says. “I play Afrobeat.” This 25-minute mini-album, his first release for Blue Note, ostensibly pays tribute to one of the great hard-bop bandleaders, but Allen still refuses to deviate from his own personal pulse – a jittery, back-to-front pattern that sounds like he’s constantly soloing. Allen doesn&r
  
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• Tchaikovsky: The Seasons; Grand Sonata CD review – clarity, insight and dazzling attack

  18-05-2017 19:45
  
  Nikolai Lugansky
  (Naïve)Surprisingly, Nikolai Lugansky hasn’t played much of Tchaikovsky’s solo piano music for the past 20 years. Now he has renewed the acquaintance, let’s hope it continues. Lugansky pairs the massive Grand Sonata with the 12 descriptive miniatures that form The Seasons, and his interpretations are insightful and mature. There are huge spans to be shaped in the two first movements of the Sonata; if sometimes one fleetingly wishes for a little more expans
  
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• Darren Hayman: Thankful Villages Vol 2 review – intriguing picture of rural life

  18-05-2017 19:45
  
  (Rivertones)If folk music is meant to pass on stories that have shaped and haunted communities, then Darren Hayman’s Thankful Villages records are their delicate cousins. The former Hefner frontman has been making esoteric solo concept albums for years, but this ongoing project sees him visit every British village where all first world war soldiers returned alive, painting an intriguing picture of modern-day rural life. Its moods are wide. There are strains of folk tunes on Tellisford, ret
  
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• Ysaӱe: Sonatas for Solo Violin CD review – many moods in one coherent whole

  18-05-2017 19:30
  
  Giovanni Guzzo
  (Rubicon)We haven’t been short of recordings of Eugène Ysaӱe’s six sonatas lately, but this one, by Venezuelan violinist Giovanni Guzzo, deserves extra attention. Ysaӱe wrote each sonata with one of his fellow virtuosi in mind. Guzzo brings to No 1 a thoughtfulness and rigour that Joseph Szigeti would have applauded; No 2 has the grace of Jaques Thibaud, and the often-repeated Dies Irae figure really does recall plainchant in the haunting smoothness
  
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• Youn Sun Nah: She Moves On review – jazz improv edges towards mainstream

  18-05-2017 19:30
  
  (ACT)On a stunning gig in London last September, the South Korean singer Youn Sun Nah showed how seamlessly she could move between impressionistic high drama, abstract improv, or a folk artist’s candid simplicity. This New York set takes her closer to the mainstream with a band including keyboardist-producer Jamie Saft and the inventive Marc Ribot alongside her regular guitarist Ulf Wakenius. She delectably catches the dreamy poetry of Joni Mitchell’s The Dawntreader and the tenderne
  
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• Chris Cornell obituary

  18-05-2017 19:29
  
  Lead singer of rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, and one of the trailblazers of Seattle’s grunge sceneAs the lead singer of the Seattle-based band Soundgarden, Chris Cornell, who has died suddenly aged 52, had been one of the trailblazers of the city’s grunge movement in the late 1980s and 90s. Having achieved stardom with that band, he went on to further great success with Audioslave in the new millennium, while also developing a flourishing solo career. At the time of his deat
  
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• David Bowie: 1970s photos taken by friend to be auctioned in June

  18-05-2017 19:14
  
  Six signed photographs taken by travelling companion Geoff MacCormack will go under the hammer in Bonhams saleAfter a night drinking cheap Riesling and beer with soldiers, David Bowie is unsurprisingly in bed fast asleep, unaware that his friend Geoff MacCormack is photographing him on the Trans-Siberian railway.The poignant image is one of six signed photographs to be auctioned at an entertainment memorabilia sale at Bonhams in Knightsbridge, central London. Continue reading...
  
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• How The 2017 General Election Could Affect LGBT+ Rights

  18-05-2017 19:00
  
  Make good choices...
  
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• Here Are 24 Things You Need To Know About Migos

  18-05-2017 17:43
  
  From growing up in the same small house to inventing The Dab, here are 24 things you need to know about Migos...
  
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• 5 Of Our Favourite Selena Gomez Singles

  18-05-2017 17:28
  
  In honour of ‘Bad Liar’, we celebrate some of Selena’s best music.
  
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• Chris Cornell: 10 definitive songs from Soundgarden to Audioslave

  18-05-2017 17:06
  
  From strutting psychedelia to grief-stricken laments, we run through the career high-points of grunge’s first legendary frontman• Chris Cornell, Soundgarden frontman, dies aged 52Forming from the wreckage of early 80s Seattle punk band the Shemps, Soundgarden (who took their name from a wind sculpture near Seattle’s Magnuson Park) were a heavier proposition, as bassist Kim Thayil shifted to lead guitar and began laying down primal, Sabbath-esque riffage, tempered by a taut post-
  
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• Spring/Summer Beauty Products That Vloggers Are Using RN

  18-05-2017 17:03
  
  Looking for some inspo for your beauty shopping list? Here's the products that vloggers are using and loving right now, over at MTV.co.uk.
  
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• Chris Cornell on stage just hours before his death – video report

  18-05-2017 16:29
  
  Mobile phone footage shows Chris Cornell performing as lead singer of Soundgarden for the last time. Cornell died hours later at a Detroit hotel. Police say the death of the singer is being treated as a possible suicidePhotograph: Chris Cornell performs at Lollapalooza festival, Chicago, in 2010.Chris Cornell, Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman, dies aged 52Continue reading...
  
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• The Kardashians' Favourite Makeup Artist Is Launching A Cosmetics Line

  18-05-2017 16:22
  
  Thank you makeup gods.
  
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• Jane Weaver: Modern Kosmology review – golden age of psych gets warp-speed reboot

  18-05-2017 16:00
  
  The avant garde singer continues a fascinating career with an album that melds cult cornerstones into a lean and thrillingly addictive slice of unearthly popThere is something both odd and immensely cheering about the arc of Jane Weaver’s career. For whatever reason, you don’t get many artists hitting their stride after 22 years and eight albums, particularly with something inspired in equal part by Yoko Ono and Polish film director Andrzej Żuławski. But that’s precis
  
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• Oumou Sangaré review – Malian songbird's musical star soars

  18-05-2017 15:50
  
  Village Underground, London
  Sangaré tackles the most startling themes in the sweetest tones – even as she tears up the stageMaking an entrance comes naturally to Oumou Sangaré. The Malian superstar and businesswoman looks glorious in a flowing dress and coiffured hair as she whirls on stage while her band fire up the vivacious groove of Kounkoun, from her new album, Mogoya. But it is when she opens her mouth that she really dazzles: Sangaré’s voice is a soulful j
  
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• Chris Cornell: rock star who kicked down the boundaries of sound

  18-05-2017 14:46
  
  The Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman, who has died aged 52, was always the black sheep in the grunge family – he drew on soul, R&B, and James Bond to turn hard rock psychedelicIn May 1989, Soundgarden played their first gig outside America at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. They were sandwiched between a minor hardcore punk band called Murphy’s Law and Mudhoney, the latter then widely believed to be the Band Most Likely To from Seattle’s burgeoning
  
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• Listen: Selena Gomez Releases New Talking Heads-Sampling Single ‘Bad Liar’

  18-05-2017 14:12
  
  “Trying to distract myself / Then I see your face / Ooh, you got someone else.”
  
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• Harry Styles Performed An Acoustic Version Of Two Ghosts And We Are Not Okay

  18-05-2017 13:31
  
  What are we supposed to do now?
  
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• Get To Know: J Hus

  18-05-2017 13:16
  
  This week's featured artist is J Hus...
  
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• Readers recommend playlist: songs that say hello

  18-05-2017 13:00
  
  A reader welcomes you into a playlist with greetings from Gorillaz, Shonen Knife and Soft CellHere 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.Hello! HELLO! Is anybody there? Gorillaz open our playlist with a loud hail. A1 M1 may not otherwise be on topic, but I had to open with the word itself – sampled from the Day of the Dead –
  
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• Miley Cyrus Reveals That Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed A Girl’ Is About Her

  18-05-2017 12:59
  
  Is 'I Kissed A Girl' about someone? Nine years later, we finally know the answer...
  
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• Miley Cyrus Reveals Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed A Girl’ Is About Her

  18-05-2017 12:59
  
  Is 'I Kissed A Girl' about someone? Nine years later, we finally know the answer...
  
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• Bella Hadid Gropes Emily Ratajkowski And It's Left Us Flustered AF

  18-05-2017 12:59
  
  How do we get that attractive?
  
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• Sigrid review – flag-waving Scandipop with plenty of muscle

  18-05-2017 12:42
  
  Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, LondonA patriotic crowd welcome a Norwegian singer-songwriter who brings complexity and plot twists to the genreThe last 18 months has been dominated by female-led Scandipop, a genre so brimming with sugar-spun vocal perfection that it’s the first port of call for producers seeking “features” for otherwise anonymous tracks. Sigrid Raabe could end up as a featured artist at some point, but she is cut from more characterful cloth than many.The 20-
  
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• Cheryl’s Ex Jean Bernard Was Just Asked If He Has A Message For Her And It Was Awkward AF

  18-05-2017 12:24
  
  We could barely watch.
  
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• Demi Lovato Is ‘Really Proud’ Of Miley Cyrus For Going Sober

  18-05-2017 12:16
  
  We’re proud of ya too, Miley.
  
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• Liam Payne Is LIVID At Cheryl For This One Thing That Happened The First Time They Met

  18-05-2017 12:13
  
  Surely having your kid solves the need to say soz, tbh.
  
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• Harry Styles' Mystery 'Carolina' Girl Has Finally Been Revealed

  18-05-2017 11:29
  
  Not such a mystery anymore, internet.
  
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• Stephen Bear Has Made A Pretty Grim Charlotte Crosby Toilet Confession

  18-05-2017 11:27
  
  TMI.
  
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• Chris Cornell, Soundgarden frontman, dies aged 52

  18-05-2017 11:14
  
  Representative for singer, who helped take the grunge sound of the 1990s into the mainstream, said his death was sudden and unexpectedChris Cornell, lead singer of American hard rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, has died aged 52. Related: Temple of the Dog: Chris Cornell on the return of the 90s grunge supergroupContinue reading...
  
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• You Won't Believe What Stunt Jemma Lucy Has Pulled AGAIN After Getting Major Beef For It Last Time

  18-05-2017 11:13
  
  It's a pretty vintage move by now...
  
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• Chris Cornell, Of Soundgarden & Audioslave Fame Dies Aged 52

  18-05-2017 10:47
  
  The singer died shortly after playing a concert in Detroit on Wednesday night...
  
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• Simon Reynolds meets Jlin: 'I got part of my ideology from Coco Chanel'

  18-05-2017 09:00
  
  The footwork producer has taken influences from across the map to make dance music that sounds like nothing else. Is Jerrilynn Patton the future of electronica?Black Origami, the title of the new album by electronic warrior Jlin (real name Jerrilynn Patton), is a perfect analogy for her creative process. It always begins, she says, with nothing: no formula, no preconceptions, no sampled materials, just the blind urge to make. Origami, similarly, “starts out as a blank sheet of paper”
  
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• Britain's most popular recording artist in 2016? David Bowie

  18-05-2017 08:20
  
  The artist, who died in January 2016 after releasing his album Blackstar, sold more music than chart-toppers Adele and DrakeDavid Bowie was the most popular recording artist in the UK last year, with fans flocking to buy and listen to his music following his death. Bowie, who died two days after his 69th birthday in January 2016 having just released his latest album Blackstar, beat perennial chart-toppers Adele and Canadian artist Drake.Continue reading...
  
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• How to be a DIY pop star: lollipops, kung-fu and other fail-safe strategies

  18-05-2017 07:00
  
  Personalised notes, sponsored tours and celebrity Twitter endorsements are just some of the tactics put into practice by the likes of Dodie, Tom Rosenthal, Paigey Cakey and more, who refuse to lean on the mainstream industryAfter years of upheaval, the music industry is still pulling itself out of the doldrums. News that music revenues grew 5.9% to £12.2bn in 2016 – largely thanks to the continuing evolution of streaming – was met by a howl of discord in many quarters (not leas
  
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• David Bowie named UK's most popular recording artist in 2016

  18-05-2017 01:01
  
  The artist, who died in January 2016 after releasing his album Blackstar, sold more music than chart-toppers Adele and DrakeDavid Bowie was the most popular recording artist in the UK last year, with fans flocking to buy and listen to his music following his death. Bowie, who died two days after his 69th birthday in January 2016 having just released his latest album Blackstar, beat perennial chart-toppers Adele and Canadian artist Drake.Continue reading...
  
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• Busted Were Just Added To The MTV Crashes Plymouth Line Up!

  18-05-2017 01:00
  
  They’ll be joining Sigma, Louisa Johnson and more on 27th July…
  
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