Music news

• The Corrs: Jupiter Calling review – melodious Celtic soft rockers return

  09-11-2017 23:45
  (East West)The Corrs had a very good 1990s. The Irish family band’s fusion of Celtic folk and soppy soft rock led to them producing the bestselling album of 1998, winning a Brit award and enjoying a string of Top 10 singles. But even in their hey-day, the Corrs felt staid – two decades later, their melodious output feels positively antique. Having staged a comeback in 2015 with White Light, which saw them fold upbeat dance influences into their Radio 2-friendly fare, this seventh alb
  
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• Spinning Coin: Permo review – out-of-time pastoral indie

  09-11-2017 23:30
  (Geographic/Domino)It’s no surprise that this debut from Glaswegian quintet Spinning Coin is released on the Pastels’ Geographic imprint: this is indie music from its bowl haircuts to its dirty Converses. The two songwriters in the band have their different strengths. Jack Mellin draws more from the spikier end of things, with Tin sounding like a slightly less ramshackle Josef K song, while Sean Armstrong tends towards the more straightforwardly melancholic end of indie – Money
  
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• Shed Seven: Instant Pleasures review – anthemic flowering from Britpop quintet

  09-11-2017 23:15
  (BMG)Despite 15 Top 40 singles in the Britpop years, York’s finest never escaped the slipstream of Blur and Oasis. However, they did win hearts, and since re-forming in 2007 have become a hot live ticket. Sensibly, they haven’t rushed into the studio, but waited until they had the songs to match their back catalogue. For their first album in 16 years, producer Youth has brought bells, whistles, trumpets, female backing vocals, strings and presumably the studio kitchen sink to embelli
  
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• Call Super: Arpo review – outstanding after-hours techno

  09-11-2017 23:00
  (Houndstooth)Behind the decks, Joe Seaton, AKA Call Super, mixes up a cosmopolitan blend of techno and house, but his own productions are pitched at those dissonant, poignant moments after the night has ended, when you’re wandering home past people off to Parkrun and Sainsbury’s. There are pulses, but they shift on their foundations; No Wonder We Go Under has a Larry Heard-style house bassline, but the lack of a heavy onbeat sends it drifting into the beyond. Frequent appearances of
  
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• Readers recommend: share your songs about slowing down

  09-11-2017 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 13 November We’re looking to reduce the pace this week and asking readers to take your time over nominations. For more on how to interpret the theme, keep an eye on the comments.
  You have until 11pm on Monday 13 November to post your nomination and make your justification. Regular RR contributor Scott Blair, who posts as misterbadexample below the line
  
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• Ellen Andrea Wang: Blank Out review – jazz fusion with staying power

  09-11-2017 20:00
  (Jazzland)Norway’s classy young double bassist and vocalist Ellen Andrea Wang has a burgeoning singer-songwriting life, as well as a role as leader of the ambient-jazz quartet Pixel and working on a side project with drums star Manu Katché. Jazz listeners might balk at seven vocal tracks – but Wang’s captivating voice (she has been compared to singers as different as Rickie Lee Jones and Swedish pop-folk sisters First Aid Kit; Kate Bush or Joanna Newsom could also join t
  
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• Christian McBride Big Band: Bringin' It review – bassist's deft touch adds orchestral swagger

  09-11-2017 19:45
  (Mack Avenue)
  Christian McBride has been one of the best bassists in jazz since his emergence as a teenage marvel at the end of the 1980s. Nowadays, he adds a deft arranger’s touch, multiple bandleading, and artistic directorship of the Newport jazz festival. McBride’s exciting big band is the perfect festival draw – steeped in old-school swing, Latin jazz, funk and Ray Charlesian soul-blues, bristling with hotshot soloists. The opening Gettin’ to It (the title of his 199
  
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• Kirsty Merryn: She & I review – bold debut of an adventurous folk voice

  09-11-2017 19:30
  (Self-released)Folk debuts often arrive gingerly, shyly; Kirsty Merryn’s set of ambitious originals arrives bold and fully-formed. Part-funded by the English Folk Dance and Song Society and produced by Gerry Diver (Lisa Knapp, Sam Lee), She & I is a set of vivid, piano-deepened songs that uncover the stories of real women’s lives. They’re a diverse bunch. Take An Evening at Home in Spiritual Séance, about Victorian spiritualist Georgiana Houghton; here, Merryn’
  
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• Namvula: Quiet Revolutions review – world music fusion with finesse

  09-11-2017 19:15
  (NMR Records)Namvula Rennie is a cool, thoughtful singer-songwriter whose distinctive fusion style reflects her history. Born in Zambia, with a Zambian mother and Scottish father, she lived in Kenya, Switzerland and the US before settling in London, while taking regular trips back to Africa. Her second album shows how she has developed as a confident, soulful performer who can switch effortessly between from African and European influences. So Nalile (Little Sorrow) starts as a Zambian tradition
  
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• Laura Perrudin: Poisons & Antidotes review – compelling R&B and soul from maverick harpist

  09-11-2017 19:00
  (Volatine/Wrasse)It will be intriguing to see how this maverick French musician re-creates her extraordinary second album at a London jazz festival event on 19 November. Perrudin makes every sound here, using her voice and a custom-made chromatic harp: her vocals are often multi-layered into audacious harmonies, while the harp can sound like any number of instruments. On Inks and Auguries of Innocence, she bangs it with a mallet to create junkyard hip-hop beats; on Diurnal Fireflies and Ghosts,
  
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• Taylor Swift’s reputation: will her new album silence her critics?

  09-11-2017 18:56
  From spats over white privilege to her failure to speak out against Trump, the singer’s position as peerless pop princess has been seriously damaged in recent years. Will this be the week she wins back her detractors?
  Taylor Swift producer Jack Antonoff: ‘I’m drawn to female artists who are brutally honest’In August, Taylor Swift released Look What You Made Me Do, the first single from her new album, Reputation, which finally emerges from its shroud of secrecy tomorrow. T
  
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• Nick Jonas and Shania Twain Have A Christmas Duet Coming

  09-11-2017 18:38
  The country legend got the collaboration she wanted...
  
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• Marnie Simpson Goes Into Detail About Her First Sexual Experience With A Girl

  09-11-2017 18:32
  The Geordie Shore lass gets candid about being bisexual on Single AF date.
  
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• Drake Performs New Song Live In New Zealand

  09-11-2017 17:50
  The 'Passionfruit' rapper told fans new music is in the works...
  
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• Prince's sound engineer, Susan Rogers: 'He needed to be the alpha male to get things done'

  09-11-2017 17:45
  One of a tiny number of female recording engineers, Rogers was there at birth of some of pop’s classics, including When Doves Cry. She recalls the man she knew – and shares her theory about why he loved working with womenBetween 1983 and 1987, Susan Rogers didn’t really sleep. She’d work late into the night at a recording studio, then just three or four hours later would be woken up to head back in again, year after year – always at the beck and call of Prince as he
  
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• Bernstein at 100 review – Alsop and the LSO honour an irresistible force whose genius still blazes bright

  09-11-2017 17:08
  Barbican, London
  Marin Alsop and the London Symphony begin a centenary tribute to the great composer, conductor and educator with an eloquent examination of his questioning symphoniesFew great musicians of the 20th century crossed more musical boundaries, or managed to engage a more diverse audience, than Leonard Bernstein. For five decades he was an irresistible force in American music, as a composer whose extraordinarily varied list of works included perhaps the greatest of all musicals; a con
  
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• Taylor Swift producer Jack Antonoff: 'I'm drawn to female artists who are brutally honest'

  09-11-2017 17:03
  Taylor Swift, Lorde, St Vincent and Pink have all benefited from collaborating with the songwriter, producer and Bleachers frontman – and that’s just this year. So what is the driving force for this one-man pop factory?In a cramped London hotel room, Jack Antonoff is gleefully reminiscing about the release of Look What You Made Me Do, the staggeringly successful song he produced and co-wrote with Taylor Swift. “I knew that was going to be a really intense moment,” he grin
  
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• The Rock Could Join Suicide Squad 2

  09-11-2017 17:02
  The Rock could debut as Black Adam in the Suicide Squad sequel.
  
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• In Dulci Jubilo CD review – as classy as Christmas albums come

  09-11-2017 17:00
  Theatre of Voices/Hillier
  (Dacapo)Apologies for the advance seasonal selection, but this is as classy as Christmas albums come: music from an important Swedish archive of northern European baroque music (the Düben collection at Uppsala University), delivered with razor-sharp clarity by Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices and on luminous period instruments. Works are grouped thematically (Advent, Shepherds, Nativity, Epiphany) with images of light, dark and wonder underpinning all of them
  
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• 12 Celebrities That Taylor Swift Has Written Songs For: From The Salty To The Sweet

  09-11-2017 16:45
  Let's face it, they're mostly diss tracks...
  
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• Riverdale ‘When A Stranger Calls’ Recap: Betty Cooper Is The Black Hood’s Very Own Puppet

  09-11-2017 16:41
  Betty and the Black Hood are fast becoming BFFs but in the worst way possible...
  
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• Colin Riley: Shenanigans CD review – wry, understated and slightly bonkers

  09-11-2017 16:40
  Various artists
  (NMC)This portrait album of composer Colin Riley is a charmer: fun name, fun cover art, opening track a taut and wonky disco called Purl. But it’s more than that, too, and there’s something very endearing (and possibly very British?) about the way Riley deflects the beauty and sincerity at the heart of his pieces by giving them names such as Bob or A Cool Carfuffle, and framing his serious moments with music that fools around. Inspirations include Genesis, John Martyn
  
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• Piazzolla: Maria de Buenos Aires CD review – sizzling, seductive tango opera

  09-11-2017 16:20
  Mr McFall’s Chamber
  (Delphian)Astor Piazzolla’s tango opera is fierce and hot-blooded thing, with its swirling text by Horacio Ferrer and deft mashup of fugue, milonga, cabaret, even 1960s psychedelia. The drama inhabits bars and brothels where characters are ultra-vivid but mysterious and a bit supernatural – if Maria represents the city, the bandoneon (played with superb poise by Victor Villena) brings out her most seductive and destructive sides. Edinburgh ensemble Mr McFall
  
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• 'It was cool to be misogynist': At the Drive-In on fights, drugs and the dark days of nu-metal

  09-11-2017 16:01
  The post-hardcore band lampooned bro culture, freaked out Robbie Williams and electrified the 00s – before imploding. Now they’re back – and determined to fulfil their potentialIn the backstage area of the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, At the Drive-In singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala is casting his mind back to a dark time. Not the untimely breakup of his band (more on that in a minute), but the golden age of nu-metal. “You’ve got to put it in context: we
  
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• Yung Lean: Stranger review – sad songs by a hip-hop enigma | Alexis Petridis' album of the week

  09-11-2017 16:00
  Is the deeply strange Swedish rapper a parody or a homage? Either way, his third album is full of addictive tunesFew artists seem as likely to reduce unsuspecting listeners to a profound state of WTF? as Jonatan Leandoer Håstad, better known as Yung Lean. A baby-faced 21-year-old rapper from Stockholm, who rose to prominence aged 16 thanks to a viral YouTube video, his lyrical shtick, delivered in a voice that veers between Nordic and faux-American, is based on a combination of drizzly Dra
  
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• The MTV EMA Nominees Incredible Transformations Since Their First Time At The Awards

  09-11-2017 15:41
  Look at those EM-Azing baby faces!
  
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• 2017 EMA: All The Ways To Watch On MTV!

  09-11-2017 15:34
  Wherever you are, there’s a way to see what’s going down at the SSE Arena, Wembley this Sunday…
  
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• MTV Presents Trafalgar Square All You Need To Know Event Information

  09-11-2017 15:20
  If you're coming to the show on Saturday 11th November, read this essential info...
  
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• Eminem Teases New Single 'Walk On Water'

  09-11-2017 14:53
  The first 'Revival' single could drop any day now...
  
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• Sonel Skeete Remixes PnkForest’s ‘Stay Close’

  09-11-2017 14:44
  Following the release of PnkForest’s track ‘Stay Close’, Birmingham native Sonel Skeete unleashes his rendition of the track…
  
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• Abi Ocia Releases Breathtaking New Track ‘Expo’

  09-11-2017 14:34
  Following on from her absolutely incredible previous releases ‘Running’ and ‘Konfyt’, London based songstress Abi Ocia returns with her latest offering ‘Expo’.
  
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• ICYMI: Skrapz Reveals Visuals For 'High Spec' With Chip

  09-11-2017 14:24
  Taken from the album 'Different Cloth', Skrapz is back with a brand new video for 'High Spec' featuring Chip, which is already a favourite amongst supporters.
  
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• CMA awards: slick ceremony barely mentions Las Vegas shooting

  09-11-2017 14:10
  A gentle Trump parody aside, the Country Music Association’s annual event dodged burning political issues – including gun control“Maybe next time, he’ll think before he tweets,” sang co-hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood during their opening banter at the 51st annual Country Music Association awards. In terms of political provocation or controversy, the minute-long Trump-baiting parody of Underwood’s hit single, Before He Cheats, was as notable a politica
  
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• MTV Unplugged: Biffy Clyro Take Us Into The Woods For Incredible Stripped Back Set

  09-11-2017 13:49
  The Scottish rockers closed the first night of MTV Music Week with a night we won't forget in a long while...
  
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• Love Island's Camilla Thurlow Looks Totally Different After Dramatic Makeover

  09-11-2017 13:24
  Camilla and her bae Jamie Jewitt introduced Bob at the MTV Staying Alive Gala.
  
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• Selena Gomez Reveals That She Is a Cardi B and Camila Cabello Stan

  09-11-2017 13:12
  The 'Wolves' star opens up in new interview...
  
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• Ed Sheeran Releases Heartbreakingly Sweet ‘Perfect’ Video

  09-11-2017 13:10
  The ‘Shape Of You’ singer’s latest video is a Christmas dream...
  
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• Readers recommend playlist: your songs to end a mixtape

  09-11-2017 13:00
  Echo & the Bunnymen, Jeff Mills, Goldie and the Rolling Stones all feature on a reader-curated list that feels as if it will never end – in a good way
  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.My sincere thanks to all those who nominated a song to end a mixtape and justified its inclusion with a recollection in
  
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• MTV Music Week 2017: Geordie Shore's Chloe Ferry Makes A Shocking Revelation About Her Love For Chicken Nuggets

  09-11-2017 12:39
  This changes everything you thought you knew about Chloe and her chicken nuggets obsession.
  
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• Selena Gomez Performs 'Wolves' and 'It Ain't Me' For The First Time

  09-11-2017 12:22
  The superstar let Instagram watch an acoustic rehearsal and it was amazing...
  
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• Geordie Shore's Abbie Holborn And Her Mum Get Mistaken For Strippers

  09-11-2017 12:08
  Awkard times for the Geordie Shore lass.
  
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• Single AF Spoiler Video: Marnie Simpson Brands Casey Johnson A 'D*ckhead' After He Confesses To Kissing Another Girl On His Date

  09-11-2017 12:00
  Don't miss brand new Single AF at the new time of Monday, 11pm on MTV!
  
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• A Harry Potter Game Just Like Pokemon Go Is Coming

  09-11-2017 11:52
  Yes, it’s true - Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is coming, from the makers of Pokemon Go.
  
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• These Single AF Spoiler Pics From Episode 4 Need To Be Seen RN!

  09-11-2017 11:45
  Don't miss brand new Single AF on Tuesdays at 10pm - only on MTV!
  
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• Facebook Urge Users To Upload Their Nude Photos To Fight Revenge Porn

  09-11-2017 11:36
  This might seem counter-productive but the social-media platform have a pretty good strategy.
  
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• Niall Horan Just Signed With Wilhelmina Model Agency

  09-11-2017 11:28
  The singer is no doubt practicing his walk as we speak after signing on the dotted line.
  
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• Selena Gomez Is Reportedly Giving Justin Bieber Another Chance For This Reason

  09-11-2017 11:05
  "No one ever came close to comparing."
  
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• Jennifer Metcalfe Talks Traumatic Birth Of Her And Geordie Shore Star Greg Lake's Son

  09-11-2017 11:02
  A serious complication arose while she was in labour.
  
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• London jazz festival: this year's must-see gigs

  09-11-2017 10:28
  Singer Zara McFarlane, the festival’s director, and our jazz critic choose their five unmissable concerts from this year’s festival, which begins on 10 November Continue reading...
  
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• Drake review – Boy Meets World tour reflects the tension at the heart of the pop star

  09-11-2017 02:21
  The ubiquitous artist is on a mission to convince the world he is more than just a rapper. But who is Drake in 2017?“This is not the latest screening of Wonder Woman; this is the Drake show!”Drake’s boast, delivered midway through his performance at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena on Tuesday, is aimed at the minority in the crowd who have so far rejected his invitations to get up and dance. Continue reading...
  
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