Music news

• Sparks: Hippopotamus review – Ron and Russell Mael at their arch-pop best

  07-09-2017 23:15
  (BMG)In their 45-year career, Ron and Russell Mael have pulled off everything from Morrissey-favoured operatic glam rock to Giorgio Moroder-produced electronic disco (the wonderful The Number One Song in Heaven) to the FFS collaboration with Franz Ferdinand. The band’s 23rd studio album surprisingly echoes their stomping guitar/drums heyday, when Russell’s gale-force falsetto and keyboard player Ron’s otherworldly lopsided grins to the Top of the Pops camera caused small childr
  
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• Tori Amos: Native Invader review – calls out society's political and human ills

  07-09-2017 23:00
  (Decca)Tori Amos’s latest record is inspired by her mother’s ailing health and a sense of discontent at US society under Donald Trump (on Up the Creek she speaks of fighting against those “climate blind” with a “militia of the mind”, a far from oblique reference to a certain president’s fake news agenda). Across its 15 tracks, there are moments of greatness: Reindeer King is a swelling piano ballad about grief that boasts an ambient underside, while the
  
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• Mount Kimbie: Love What Survives review – electric wit and wisdom from London synth duo

  07-09-2017 22:30
  (Warp Records)In recent years, London duo Mount Kimbie have shrugged off their post-dubstep past and started to create songs that shepherd synth-heavy post-punk into the present day. On their third album, the band’s instrumentals radiate wit and warmth, like mid-80s New Order sloshing around in a sun-kissed sea – but it’s as a foil to some of Britain’s most idiosyncratic artists that Mount Kimbie really prove their mettle. Marilyn, their collaboration with Micachu, produc
  
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• Vein/Andy Sheppard: Vein Plays Ravel review – shrewd, sophisticated and rhythmic

  07-09-2017 19:45
  (Double Moon/Challenge Records)A second, but markedly different, 2017 release for the sophisticated, classically inspired but viscerally powerful Swiss piano trio Vein, featuring virtuosic siblings Michael and Florian Arbenz on piano and drums, and elegant double bassist Thomas Lähns. This set’s inspiration is Maurice Ravel, and the UK’s Andy Sheppard joins the A-list of Vein-collaborating saxophone stars with a performance of typically throwaway guile – fragile on an intr
  
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• Martin Simpson: Trails and Tribulations review – slick banjo veteran on a musical travelogue

  07-09-2017 19:30
  (Topic)As dab hands go at brooding with a banjo on an album cover, Martin Simpson is your dabbest. On his first album in four years (his 35th or so, if you’re scanning his long, lush career), travel and nature are his subjects, flexing like sinews through his chosen songs. Our guide is a warm and comforting soul, catching a boat with us to England on Jackson C Frank’s Blues Run the Game, stripping away the unease from a journey through town on Emily Portman’s Bones and Feathers
  
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• Dave O'Higgins: It's Always 9.30 in Zog review – masterful post-bop coolly delivered

  07-09-2017 19:30
  (JVG)The expert British post-bop saxophonist Dave O’Higgins has toured with stars from Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles to Cleo Laine, is an eloquent interpreter of Dave Brubeck classics in pianist Darius Brubeck’s quartet and has led a raft of his own album sessions down the years – but with eight originals on the album, this is perhaps his most personal venture, aided by long-term partners Graham Harvey on keys, Geoff Gascoyne on bass and Sebastiaan de Krom on drums. The title t
  
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• Meridian Brothers: ¿Dónde estás María? review – tuneful journey from Argentina to Mexico

  07-09-2017 19:15
  (Soundway Records)When they play live, Meridian Brothers are a five-piece. But in the studio, just one man creates their distinctive sound. Based in Bogotá, Colombia, Eblis Álvarez is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and singer with a highly personal take on the Latin music scene. He describes this easy-going, quirky set as “a kind of journey from Argentina through to Mexico”, and he uses the varied rhythms of Latin America as a starting point. There’s everything
  
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• Tony Allen: The Source review – drummer's Blue Note debut reframes jazz in his own image

  07-09-2017 19:00
  (Blue Note)Classic Blue Note releases of the 1960s are filled with tracks that exoticise Africa, with names such as Afro Blue, Afrodisia, Ghana, Niger Mambo, Mr Kenyatta, The Man from Tanganyika and so on. Five decades later, Blue Note’s latest signing Tony Allen – the Nigerian drummer who powered Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat – is turning the tables and exoticising Blue Note’s hard-bop. The Source builds on Allen’s recent mini-LP of Art Blakey covers, but this time he
  
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• Liam Payne Opens Up About The Real Reason He And Cheryl Named Their Son Bear

  07-09-2017 18:20
  It's pretty cute actually.
  
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• Dave Has A Hilarious 'Chicken Shop Date'

  07-09-2017 18:02
  Amelia Dimoldenberg returned for another episode of 'Chicken Shop Date' where she takes celebrities on a date...
  
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• Tori Amos: 'Menopause is the hardest teacher I've met. Harder than fame'

  07-09-2017 18:00
  A walk in the Smoky Mountains in the footsteps of her late Cherokee grandfather helped the musician rediscover her muse – and write an album that confronts the US’s rapacious violenceA gargantuan truck fills the driveway of Tori Amos’s Cornwall home. The surrounding countryside is tranquil – verdant hills, stone farm buildings, golden crops swaying in the late August sun – but a throng of activity greets us at the home/recording studio Amos shares with her producer
  
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• Geordie Shore Spoiler Video: Gaz Beadle Drops A Relationship Bombshell On The House As He Finally Returns Following Emma McVey Split

  07-09-2017 17:30
  Don't miss brand new Geordie Shore, Tuesdays at 10pm - only on MTV!
  
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• Love Island's Cara De La Hoyde Confirms That She And Nathan Massey Are Dating Again

  07-09-2017 16:57
  The couple are giving their relationship another shot.
  
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• Miguel Drops New Song Shockandawe

  07-09-2017 16:50
  Fresh off the back of banger RnB Sky Walker feat. Travis Scott, Miguel has dropped his second track in two weeks 'Shockandawe'.
  
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• The Geordie Shore And Love Island Cast Are Set To Go Head-To-Head For This Collaboration

  07-09-2017 16:48
  It's going to be carnage.
  
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• The National: Sleep Well Beast review | Alexis Petridis' album of the week

  07-09-2017 16:15
  Less fury at the dying of the light and more eye-rolling at a life partner, as the National tackle middle age with a novelist’s sense of atmosphere
  Over the decades, artists have made concept albums about everything from the state of Michigan to the life of Gaudí to the Ravenskill Rebel Militia’s revolt against the rule of Emperor Nafaryus of the dystopian Great Northern Empire of the Americas in 2285 (US prog-metal band Dream Theater’s 2016 quadruple album The Astonishi
  
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• Teen Mom UK's Amber Butler Is Heading To University And We Couldn't Be Prouder Of Her

  07-09-2017 16:03
  But what is she going to study?
  
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• The Two Major Events That The Kardashians Wish Were Never Shown On KUWTK

  07-09-2017 15:46
  Both pretty influential moments.
  
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• Ultraviolet

  07-09-2017 15:26 via mtv.co.uk
  Ultraviolet
  
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• Lady Gaga Releases Full Trailer For Documentary, 'Five Foot Two'

  07-09-2017 15:26
  Fans will be able to see 'The Cure' singer's life completely unfiltered with nothing held back...
  
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• Boy In The Picture (Ft. Sian Evans)

  07-09-2017 15:26 via mtv.co.uk
  Boy In The Picture (Ft. Sian Evans)
  
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• Randy Newman: 'I would never not play You've Got a Friend in Me'

  07-09-2017 14:38
  The singer is back with his first album in nine years, complete with songs about Putin and medical research. But he still plays the Toy Story tear-jerkers tooHello Randy. Where are you?I’m in Reno, Nevada. I played here last night. It was fun. Nice people. Continue reading...
  
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• Zayn Is Back With the Incredible 'Dusk Till Dawn' Video Featuring Sia

  07-09-2017 13:45
  The 'Still Got Time' singer dropped the dramatic visual for his massive new single...
  
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• Will Smith Shares The First Picture Of The Aladdin Cast On Set

  07-09-2017 13:41
  Looks like the Genie just granted us our first wish...
  
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• Charlotte Crosby Looks Unrecognisable After Incredible Hair Transformation

  07-09-2017 13:32
  And you can easily recreate the look.
  
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• Readers recommend playlist: songs about persistence

  07-09-2017 13:00
  Reader Scott Blair battles through your suggestions for a playlist full of tenacity – featuring Curtis Mayfield, Andy Williams, the Proclaimers and SkeptaHere is this week’s playlist – songs picked by a reader from hundreds of suggestions in the comments on last week’s callout. Read more about how our weekly series works at the end of the piece.In the interests of transparency, I have to confess that I neglected my RR duties last Saturday and spent several hours traipsing
  
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• Kelly Clarkson Is Back With Two HUGE New Singles 'Love So Soft' and 'Move You'

  07-09-2017 12:59
  The original American Idol is back with an AMAZING new sound...
  
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• Fifth Harmony Take Us Behind the Scenes of Their VMAs Performance in an Incredible 360 Visual

  07-09-2017 12:22
  The girls give us the lowdown on performing at the prestigious awards show...
  
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• Charlotte Crosby Opens Up About What It's Really Like To Work With Stephen Bear

  07-09-2017 12:04
  And she's admitted it can be hard...
  
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• Megan McKenna Gets Candid About Beating Taylor Swift To Number One On iTunes

  07-09-2017 11:57
  She reckons a diss track would be 'a massive compliment'.
  
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• Kim Kardashian Is Now Rocking The Most Striking Shade Of Silver Blonde Hair

  07-09-2017 11:22
  Can us mere mortals pull this off?
  
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• George Michael's New Single Is A Disco Dance Floor 'Fantasy'

  07-09-2017 11:17
  The iconic singer teamed up with Chic's Nile Rodgers for his first posthumous release...
  
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• Just Tattoo of Us Exclusive: NEW ARTIST ALERT! MEET JEN And Hear About The Weirdest Tattoo She’s Ever Inked (It Involves A Bum…)

  07-09-2017 11:16
  Don’t miss brand new Just Tattoo Of Us, starting Monday 2nd October @ 10pm – only on MTV!
  
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• Listen to an exclusive unreleased Smiths song, recorded live in Boston

  07-09-2017 10:59
  The medley of Rubber Ring and What She Said, recorded in 1986, features on a forthcoming deluxe version of The Queen is DeadMuscular, honest, funny – The Queen is Dead has all the most endearing traits of the Smiths dialled up to the max, and is thought of by many as the band’s masterpiece album. With Bigmouth Strikes Again, There is a Light That Never Goes Out and The Boy With the Thorn in His Side, it certainly contains many of their signature songs.It’s now getting the full
  
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• Heatwave

  07-09-2017 10:30 via mtv.co.uk
  Heatwave
  
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• Riverdale’s Cole Sprouse Also Has Thoughts On That “I’m A Weirdo” Jughead Speech

  07-09-2017 10:23
  US TOO, COLE.
  
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• George Michael's new single Fantasy – a rework full of sex, funk and fabulousness

  07-09-2017 10:10
  The first new music since the artist died last year turns out not to be completely new after all – but Nile Rodgers gives pep and freshness to 1990 B-side Fantasy The last time George Michael launched a big new single, it was at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London, where he chose – to the chagrin of many – to perform the deeply middling White Light rather than any number of his solo or Wham!-era classics.There’s rather more poignancy today as another new s
  
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• Liam Payne Just Sang A Classic One Direction Song And We’ve Never Been So Grateful

  07-09-2017 09:33
  It was just like the old days and now we're crying.
  
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