Music news

• Manchester Orchestra: A Black Mile to the Surface review – grownup indie rock

  27-07-2017 23:15
  (Loma Vista Recordings)Manchester Orchestra’s latest album, 2014’s Cope, pulsed with angst and searing grunge and emo rock. Now, frontman Andy Hull, 30 years old and a first-time father, has found his pained inspiration muted by the pram in the hall. After a brief sojourn scoring weirdo indie film Swiss Army Man, the group from Atlanta, Georgia, returned to their original project, determined to fuse this newly acquired cinematic scope to their trademark turbo-emotion.Rather than crea
  
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• The Fall: New Facts Emerge review – bright pop riffs lift the eerie drama

  27-07-2017 23:00
  (Cherry Red Records)The tracklist for the Fall’s 32nd album made headlines when it was first announced, thanks to a song called Victoria Train Station Massacre – a title which had unfortunate, accidental, parallels to the Manchester terror attack. The song itself turns out not to require that additional allusion to deliver something disturbing, with its chilling refrain of “I crave drama” and a midway flip into reverse – a style that has long enjoyed satanic connota
  
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• Alice Cooper: Paranormal review – bringing urgency to weird rock'n'roll

  27-07-2017 22:45
  (earMusic)Alice Cooper made headlines recently when he unearthed a priceless Andy Warhol print in a storage unit, forgotten since the heady days of socialising with the pop-art icon. Whether or not it was a PR stunt for his 27th studio release, it reminded the world that the gravel-tongued shock-rocker can be relied on to bring some rock’n’roll weirdness to proceedings. That’s what the bonus disc of Paranormal shows, too, featuring exuberant live recordings of his greatest hits
  
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• Vic Mensa: The Autobiography review – candid rapper falls short

  27-07-2017 22:30
  (Roc Nation)Three years after his breakthrough with hip-house anthem Down on My Luck, Vic Mensa has apparently scrapped one album on the way to this debut – clearly aiming for the kind of grand rap statement that, a la Kendrick, unites the old and new schools. His candour about depression and drug addiction is arresting, as on the Pharrell track Wings, where pills turn him into “an armoured truck riding the rink”; woman trouble is amusingly, vividly rendered on Gorgeous, as he
  
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• Chronixx: Chronology review – joyous reggae: forget your troubles and skank

  27-07-2017 22:30
  (Virgin EMI) Although reggae is not as ubiquitous in the charts as it was in the 1970s and 80s, recently it’s enjoyed an upsurge as an element of mainstream pop. And 24-year-old Kingston singer Jamar McNaughton – Chronixx – is making it a chart force again by itself. Already a US smash, his long-awaited debut fuses old-school roots and lover’s rock with contemporary dancehall, rap, R&B and EDM, but this is essentially a celebratory pop album. The likes of Big Bad Soun
  
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• Katy Perry Will Host The 2017 MTV VMAs (Amazing)

  27-07-2017 20:04
  The Witness chart-topper will host and perform at the 2017 Video Music Awards...
  
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• Songdog: Joy Street review – Dylan pastiche smothered by smut

  27-07-2017 20:00
  (Junkyard Records)If tortured folk troubadours are your bag, meet Welsh singer-songwriter Lyndon Morgans, AKA Songdog, who has been peddling his dark romanticism since the last century. His is a meticulously painted, boozy world of psychedelic encounters with loose women, narrated by showy, misunderstood men who could have been contenders, set to music that aims for the might of Bob Dylan, but often lapses into the lag of Del Amitri. There are several affecting moments on his seventh album, howe
  
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• Dialysis funding could have prevented Dr G Yunupingu's death, says doctor

  27-07-2017 20:00
  Musician’s doctor says his premature death would have been prevented if he could have been cared for on his home islandThe premature death of Dr G Yunupingu could have been prevented if recommended funding models for dialysis services were already in place, his doctor has said.
  With a new funding model to increase the service in remote communities currently under consideration, Dr Paul Lawton urged swift government action to assist in Yunupingu leaving a legacy. Continue reading...
  
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• Uh Huh [Explicit]

  27-07-2017 19:49 via mtv.co.uk
  Uh Huh
  
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• Monoswezi: A Je review – Scandinavian-African band exploring the world

  27-07-2017 19:45
  (Riverboat Records)Cool sonic explorations from a Scandinavian-African fusion band who specialise in unexpected instrumentation. They call themselves Monoswezi because the founding members came from Mozambique, Norway, Sweden and Zimbabwe, but the musical range on their third album has expanded to include influences from West Africa, America and Asia. Many of the songs are based around insistent, minimalist riffs, matched against laid-back harmony vocals and gently driving percussion. But to thi
  
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• Feldman: For Bunita Marcus CD review – immaculate care with colour and nuance

  27-07-2017 19:45
  Marc-André Hamelin
  (Hyperion)Composed in 1985, two years before Morton Feldman’s death, For Bunita Marcus has become one of the most frequently recorded of all his works, and one of the few of his pieces that shows signs of moving beyond the exclusive territory of new-music specialists and into the mainstream piano repertory. It also provides a perfect and, at around 80 minutes, a relatively concise introduction to the timeless, pared-down world of late Feldman, with its webs of rep
  
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• Stephen Wilkinson: Songs CD review – highly persuasive English lyricism

  27-07-2017 19:30
  Lawson/Wilkinson/Gilchrist/Brook/Markland/Buckle
  (Signum)This CD, titled The Sunlight on the Garden, is a worthwhile labour of love from mezzo-soprano Clare Wilkinson. Her father, Stephen – formerly conductor of the BBC Northern Singers, among much else – turned 98 in the spring, and he has a body of compositions spanning more than eight decades; many of the two dozen songs recorded here, setting words by Yeats, Brooke, Shakespeare, MacNeice and others, were written well after he had
  
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• Colin Steele Quartet: Diving for Pearls review – glistening jazz reboots of indie pop

  27-07-2017 19:30
  (Marina Records)This project – a tribute to an obscure Glaswegian indie band by an equally obscure Edinburgh jazz musician – is an oddly satisfying exercise in wilful Caledonian obscurity. The Pearlfishers, led by David Scott of the BMX Bandits, have been recording dreamy, elegant, adult-oriented pop since the early 90s, pitched somewhere between Brian Wilson, Steely Dan and Prefab Sprout. Colin Steele, the self-taught trumpeter behind his own Scottish-accented modern jazz quintet an
  
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• Sun Comes Up (Ft. James Arthur) (Stripped Version)

  27-07-2017 19:20 via mtv.co.uk
  Sun Comes Up (feat. James Arthur)
  
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• Jada Pinkett Smith Plays Never Have I Ever!

  27-07-2017 18:49
  The 'Girls Trip' star reveals all about skinny dipping, accidental tattoos and more in a hilarious game of Never Have I Ever!
  
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• 14 Easy Peasy Festival Outfit Ideas

  27-07-2017 18:30
  Because who wants to try and think of yet another outfit to wear in a field?
  
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• Panic Attacks 101: What Are They And Why Do I Get Them?

  27-07-2017 18:25
  What you need to know.
  
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• This was it: how the Strokes and New York rock ripped up British music

  27-07-2017 17:55
  In 2001, the Strokes arrived in Britain on a wave of hype that would help launch the careers of Interpol, Kings of Leon, the Rapture and the Libertines. Here, those bands recount the feverish impact of the Manhattanites’ arrival in the UKKelly Kiley (manager of Rough Trade Records): “I’ve never known a band to get security so quickly.”Laura Young (blogger): “The first time I ever saw the Strokes, in the middle of the show, Julian started staring off into the distanc
  
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• Teen Mom UK's New Girl Sassi Simmonds CLAPS BACK At Haters After Premiere Episode

  27-07-2017 17:46
  Sassi by name sassy by nature.
  
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• Bond 25 Gets An Official Release Date

  27-07-2017 17:28
  Here's when you'll be able to watch the next James Bond movie.
  
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• Get to Know: Cherée

  27-07-2017 17:17
  We caught up with the rising star to find out a little bit more about her and her music...
  
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• Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Is A Two-Player Game Now

  27-07-2017 16:50
  Exploring Hyrule co-op with your BFF sounds freakin' awesome.
  
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• Grime MC Bugzy Malone: 'When you're from outside London, you'd better be special'

  27-07-2017 16:13
  After an impoverished youth and a spell in jail, Bugzy Malone found an outlet in grime, giving Manchester a voice in a hitherto London-dominated scene. But, he says, the self-doubt is never far awayIn the six years since he started releasing mix tapes and EPs, Bugzy Malone has established himself as one of grime’s brightest stars – and its leading voice from outside London. The Manchester MC’s last two EPs, both self-released, reached the Top 10 in the UK album chart, and his l
  
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• Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg review – riveting restaging puts Wagner on trial

  27-07-2017 16:06
  Bayreuth festival
  Barrie Kosky’s mind-boggling production uses a giant puppet and the Nuremberg trials as a backdrop to ask: how far does the composer’s antisemitism taint his art?Richard Wagner is directly responsible for two important buildings in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth. The first is the Festspielhaus theatre, to which Wagner devotees and the German elite flock each summer for the Bayreuth festival. The second is Haus Wahnfried, in which the composer and his family lived (an
  
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• Teen Mom UK Girls Defend Love Island Stars Having Sex On TV: 'Each To Their Own'

  27-07-2017 16:00
  'Do whatever you want to do'
  
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• Is Ferne McCann Getting Her Own Reality Show Documenting Her Pregnancy And Birth?

  27-07-2017 15:54
  The former TOWIE star could reportedly bank a cool £250,000 for the reality show.
  
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• 10 Hacks For Keeping Cool When It's Hot As Balls Outside

  27-07-2017 15:29
  The sweat is real.
  
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• La Clemenza di Tito review – a magical, maddening return to Glyndebourne

  27-07-2017 15:09
  Glyndebourne, Lewes
  Alice Coote and Anna Stéphany give exceptional performances in Claus Guth’s intense new production of Mozart’s curious Roman tragedyThe Roman Empire becomes a soulless modern bureaucracy in Claus Guth’s new production of La Clemenza di Tito, the first time Mozart’s last opera has been seen at Glyndebourne since 1999. It is a curiously divided piece of music-theatre, insightful and intransigent, maddening and admirable in equal measure. Guth begi
  
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• BBC Scottish Symphony/Volkov review – a beguiling odyssey into sea, song and Czech water wells

  27-07-2017 15:08
  Royal Albert Hall, London
  Julian Anderson’s new piano concerto brought seascapes and countryside to the Albert Hall in a diffuse but vividly delivered Proms showTwo years ago, the starting point for Julian Anderson‘s first foray into concerto writing, the violin and orchestra piece In Lieblicher Bläue, was a late poem by Hölderlin. But for his new piano concerto The Imaginary Museum – commissioned by the BBC for this year’s Proms and given its first performance
  
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• Don Letts webchat – post your questions now

  27-07-2017 15:02
  Whether it’s punk rock or reggae, Don Letts has lived his life through music ... and has the film footage to prove it. He’ll be in the Guardian office on Tuesday 1 August from 3pm UK time to answer all your questions 1.50pm BSTNobody could dispute Don Letts’ punk credentials. He’s made videos for Public Image Ltd and the Clash, managed the Slits, DJ’d at London’s Roxy Club and played in Big Audio Dynamite with Mick Jones. It was Letts who put together The Punk
  
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• Nidia Góngora: the singer bringing the sound of rural Colombia to the world

  27-07-2017 14:00
  She grew up singing the traditional music of Pacific coast goldpanners, and is finding new fans with her collaboration with British producer QuanticAs many as 20 million people in developing nations make a living hunting for gold. Small-scale and independent of big corporations, artisanal mining is a world where men, women and children pan for the precious flakes, predominantly using hand tools. On the Pacific coast of Colombia, home to most of its 5 million Afro-Colombians – direct descen
  
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• Nidia Góngora: the Afro-Colombian singer confronting macho music culture

  27-07-2017 14:00
  She grew up singing the traditional music of Pacific coast goldpanners, where women reign supreme – and is finding new fans with her collaboration with British producer QuanticAs many as 20 million people in developing nations make a living hunting for gold. Small-scale and independent of big corporations, artisanal mining is a world in which men, women and children pan for the precious flakes, predominantly using hand tools. On the Pacific coast of Colombia, home to most of its 5 million
  
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• Arcade Fire: Everything Now review – sixth-form satire to a disco beat

  27-07-2017 14:00
  The fake reviews, shouty anti-consumerism and mock promos may belie insecurity about their progressive new sound, but this album is often gorgeous
  Last week, Arcade Fire took the unusual step of posting a fake review of their fifth album. On a webpage mocked up to look like US music blog Stereogum, the Canadian sextet attempted to second-guess the critical response to Everything Now: dance-influenced tracks will be compared “favorably but slightly dismissively to LCD Soundsystem”; th
  
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• Lucky Blue Smith And Stormi Bree Welcome Baby Girl And Give Her Quite The Unusual Name

  27-07-2017 13:54
  Because who wants a name that you can find in a baby book?
  
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• Robert Pattinson Got Expelled From School For Selling Porn Mags

  27-07-2017 13:40
  "We could have been killed. Or worse, EXPELLED."
  
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• Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, The xx and More All Receive 2017 Mercury Prize Nominations

  27-07-2017 13:39
  Sampha, J-Hus and Alt J also feature...
  
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• The Sims 4 Is Coming To Consoles! Here Are All The New Features

  27-07-2017 13:37
  Yaassss! Console owners, prepare to get addicted. Here are all the new features, release date and more.
  
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• Readers recommend playlist: your songs about repression

  27-07-2017 13:29
  This week’s reader-curated playlist on the theme includes songs that take us back a couple of decades from Sonic Youth, Beautiful South and the Cure
  Here is this week’s playlist – songs picked by a reader from hundreds of suggestions on last week’s callout. Thanks for taking part. Read more about how our weekly series works at the end of the piece.It was Sigmund Freud who first popularised the term “repression” and inspired countless dense psychoanalytic treat
  
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• Megan McKenna Declares Her Love For Pete Wicks After Proving Relationship Is Back ON

  27-07-2017 13:29
  It couldn't be more official.
  
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• 2017 Mercury shortlist fails to spotlight truly exciting British music

  27-07-2017 13:04
  While there are strong artists among the latest Mercury nominees, including Stormzy, Kate Tempest, J Hus and Loyle Carner, the eagerness to support stodgy indie rock means visionary albums have been overlookedWhen the Mercury judging panel handed the 2016 prize to Skepta’s Konnichiwa, they offered the faintly patronising caveat that it was what David Bowie would have wanted, as if the panel felt guilty for not dutifully the award to his final album Blackstar. It didn’t need that kind
  
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• Miley Cyrus Just Posted The Cutest Dedication To Liam Hemsworth On Instagram

  27-07-2017 12:44
  The singer wants everyone to know just how in love she is right now.
  
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• Teen Mom UK: Megan Salmon-Ferrari Reveals Sick Trolls Faked Her Sister's Death On Social Media

  27-07-2017 12:43
  The mum-of-two was forced off social media when comments became too much to bear.
  
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• Madonna and twin girls accept damages over Mail Online article

  27-07-2017 12:05
  Website revealed names, ages and other information about girls before star adopted them, causing ‘considerable distress’Madonna and her twin daughters, Stella and Estere, have accepted undisclosed damages from Associated Newspapers over a “serious invasion of privacy”.Madonna, who adopted the four-year-olds in February, brought the case at London’s high court over a January 2017 article which caused her “considerable personal distress and anxiety”, her s
  
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• Ferne McCann Goes Make-Up Free As She Shows Off Growing Baby Bump

  27-07-2017 12:04
  And of course she looks fantastic.
  
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• Mercury prize 2017: Ed Sheeran, Stormzy and the xx feature on shortlist

  27-07-2017 12:00
  The nominees for the prestigious award include hit records from Blossoms, Alt-J and J Hus, but there is room for curveballs such as the Big Moon and DinosaurThe shortlist for the UK’s most prestigious music award, the Mercury prize, has been announced for 2017 and includes arguably the world’s biggest pop star: Ed Sheeran.Sheeran has sold more than 2m copies of ÷ (pronounced “divide”) in the UK alone; its lead single, Shape of You, has been streamed more than 1bn t
  
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• Justin Bieber Hits A Photographer By Accident With His Truck After Church

  27-07-2017 11:46
  The singer was trying to leave the venue when he found himself at the centre of quite the dramatic scenes.
  
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• Joe Jonas, Cameron Dallas, Khalid and More Star in Charli XCX's 'Boys' Video

  27-07-2017 11:44
  Charlie Puth, MNEK and Riz Ahmed also feature...
  
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• Harry Styles Has The World's Most Handsome Chin And Eyes According To Science

  27-07-2017 11:34
  Potentially the least surprising news of all time.
  
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• Zayn Malik Reveals He Slept On Nothing But A Mattress For Six Months As He Addresses His Anxiety Battle

  27-07-2017 11:25
  Minimalist Zayn doesn't believe in bed frames.
  
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• Charlotte Crosby Shares Footage Of Sleeping Stephen Bear On Dubai Break

  27-07-2017 11:11
  His bedtime activity is sort of unusual though.
  
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