Music news

• Amy Winehouse could belt out a tune – her naff hologram can’t | Barbara Ellen

  24-02-2019 06:59 via theguardian.com
  Thank heavens the curtains have fallen on what would have been a grim and tasteless spectacleThe Amy Winehouse hologram tour has been postponed after running into difficulties. Good. While Winehouse’s family consented to the show (to benefit her charitable foundation), Amy hasn’t for obvious reasons. A mere seven years after her tragic death, isn’t it grim and tasteless to send her hologram off on some naff tour?Touring holograms are going to be big business. Already the late R
  
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• Thank you for the music: Abba members get Swedish knighthoods

  31-05-2024 19:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Anni-Frid become first Swedes to be knighted by their monarch for almost 50 yearsAbba have received one of the most prestigious Swedish knighthoods after being awarded an order of chivalry last handed out almost 50 years ago.The pop legends were recognised by King Carl XVI Gustaf on Friday for their cultural impact, which has taken Swedish pop music to a huge global audience. Continue reading...
  
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• Ayra Starr: The Year I Turned 21 review – magnetic Afrobeats

  31-05-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The Beninese-Nigerian singer-songwriter puts her big voice to work on a set of songs that are over all too soonBeninese-Nigerian singer-songwriter Ayra Starr has fast become one of the biggest musicians to come out of west Africa. Her debut, 19 and Dangerous, was gutsy, but there’s a noticeable jump in maturity in her latest, The Year I Turned 21. Here, she puts that big voice to work and experiments with more sounds and cadences.Alt-R&B pop track Birds Sing of Money is a statement ope
  
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• ‘Your defence is terrified!’: how Freed from Desire became a football, darts and protest anthem

  31-05-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Gala’s 1996 song has gone from forgotten rave classic to football terrace anthem – and was even used to protest against Rishi Sunak. The song’s creator and fans explain an unlikely revivalGala’s jubilant pop-dance banger Freed from Desire was a massive hit across Europe in the peak stadium-rave summer of 1996. But the story of the track was only just beginning. More than a decade later, it would become one of those rare pop songs to transcend its origins. Beginning a new
  
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• Richard Thompson: Ship to Shore review – another collection of beautifully gruelling material

  31-05-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  (New West)
  Life gives more grist to the mill of the veteran singer-songwriter, whose guitar playing remains as eloquent as everIs there a surer pair of hands than Richard Thompson’s? Leading light of the 1960s folk-rock boom, solo troubadour since, his 18th solo album proffers 12 new songs resonating with oaky assurance even as they gnash and churn through the human experience, Thompson’s customary thumb to the wound.His containers, polished by his band, are never less than beautiful
  
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• Madonna sued for ‘pornography without warning’ at LA concert performance

  31-05-2024 11:32 via theguardian.com
  
  Lawsuit also alleges a late start for the 7 March concert, and claims the singer refused to allow the air-conditioning system to be usedMadonna has been sued by a concertgoer at her Celebration world tour, who alleges that Madonna produced “pornography without warning” and he “was forced to watch topless women on stage simulating sex acts”.In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles and seen by the Guardian, the plaintiff, Justen Lipeles, makes a series of allegation
  
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• Thou: Umbilical review – one of the finest metal albums of the past decade

  31-05-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  (Sacred Bones)
  Huge riffs, guttural vocals and fearsome intent create a formidable wall of sound in the US band’s maximalist, in-your-face sixth albumA caustically intense mainstay of the US underground, Thou combine cavernously sludgy riffs with raw punk energy. Theirs is a sound of stifling humidity, a near hallucinatory heaviosity. Indeed, the narcotic heat of Louisiana – the band are from Baton Rouge – seeps through every sickly pore, wedding itself to the circling riffs, l
  
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• ‘Rapper’s Delight planted a seed for the rest of my life’: Questlove on hoarding, capturing hip-hop history and the Kendrick-Drake beef

  31-05-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The drummer, DJ and Oscar-winning director is a key custodian of Black culture, with 200,000 records to prove it. So why does he think he’s getting too old for rap music?With a sigh, Ahmir Thompson – better known as Questlove – turns his laptop around, so I can see the inside of his apartment, rather than the beautiful view of the New York skyline through the window behind him. It is a chaos of overflowing boxes and furniture covered with papers. “An ex-publicist of mine
  
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• Janelle Monáe: ‘I have to feel a film role in my pubic hairs. They have to vibrate’

  30-05-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As she prepares for a UK tour – including Glastonbury – the singer and actor answers your questions on Prince, what makes her blush, and why we shouldn’t ostracise AIYou always look immaculate. Who are your style icons? 12monkeys
  That’s very nice of you to say. I wish you could see me right now – I look like I just came out of a dirty dishwasher. I think maybe my style icons are the different versions of myself: I live in different realms, so the version of me that
  
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• Aespa: Armageddon review | Alexis Petridis’s album of the week

  30-05-2024 12:15 via theguardian.com
  
  (SM Entertainment)
  Cutesy melodies, dubstep basslines, pop-punk and disco on the K-pop foursome’s debut album are outshone by their intriguing world-building, with interdimensional rifts and alien popcornIf you doubt that the world of South Korean manufactured pop is significantly different from its western counterpart, then a description of female quartet Aespa – or rather the world around them – should put you right.Their name may sound like an upmarket brand of air-freshener
  
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• Darius Rucker on country music, race and drugs: ‘I don’t think anyone went harder than us’

  30-05-2024 10:06 via theguardian.com
  
  The singer’s memoir recounts a life of ups and downs, with record-breaking success accompanied by critical snobbery and racial biasDarius Rucker will be the first to admit his memory can be hazy – he says on page one of his memoir that his years as the lead singer of the American rock band Hootie & the Blowfish were a blur of fame, drugs and his “close personal friend Jim Beam” – but he’s still armed with numbers. There’s the wild success of the band
  
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• ‘I did a 90-minute workout at 2am!’: Lenny Kravitz on sex, spliffs and staying gorgeous at 60

  30-05-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The musician has embraced clean living, even if it sometimes means wearing leather trousers to the gym. He discusses celibacy, discipline, his new music – and why he hasn’t been in a serious relationship for nine yearsNobody does rock star like Lenny Kravitz. He pads into the recording studio like a tranquillised tiger. It’s dark in here, but he is wearing shades. He’s got on a leather jacket, skinny black jeans, a T-shirt made from metallic shards. His dreadlocks reach w
  
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• Sony Music reportedly in talks to buy Queen’s music catalogue for $1bn

  29-05-2024 19:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Publisher said to be working with another investor in sale that would be largest of its kind, according to BloombergSony Music is in talks to buy Queen’s music catalogue, which includes songs such as Bohemian Rhapsody and Radio Gaga, in a potential $1bn (£800m) deal, according to Bloomberg.Sony is said to be working with another investor on the transaction that would be the largest sale of its kind and include merchandising and other business opportunities, according to the Bloomberg
  
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• ‘I just let it rip!’: jumbo amateur rock band bangs the drum for Brum

  29-05-2024 15:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Brum Rocks, born out of community musical groups, will bring together dozens of performers to play a new anthem for BirminghamWhen Steve Groome started learning to play guitar after retiring, he never expected he would end up in a band.“At 66, I’m not going to get a phone call from Mark Knopfler or Eric Clapton. I might not even get in an averagely rubbish covers band,” he said. “But I don’t need to with this, we have fun. I just let rip.” Continue reading...
  
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• ‘I’m confident we will be adequately bejewelled’: readers on how they’re preparing for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour

  29-05-2024 15:45 via theguardian.com
  
  With Eras coming to the UK in June, Swifties tell us about their giddy excitement – even if they don’t actually have ticketsWith Taylor Swift’s Eras tour set to arrive in the UK this summer, fans of the pop superstar are busy preparing for the big event.For some, it is simply a case of coordinating a sparkly outfit with their best friend to wear on the night, while others are making friendship bracelets to trade with other Swifties. Continue reading...
  
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• Richard Thompson review – a showcase for decades of exquisite craft

  29-05-2024 13:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Barbican, York
  In a sublime concert full of banter, storytelling and guitar virtuosity, the 75-year-old surrenders himself completely to each momentThere’s something surprisingly exhilarating about a band simply striding on stage without a speck of fanfare. But then it’s a walk that Richard Thompson has completed countless times, and his affiliation has always been with the song.Tonight, the revered folk-rocker – complete with red Fender Stratocaster and customary jet-black ber
  
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• ‘It’s a hallucinatory experience!’: musicians on the awesome creative power of motherhood

  29-05-2024 11:40 via theguardian.com
  
  Much has been made of the struggles musicians face when they become mothers – but what about the inspiration? Bat for Lashes, Logic1000 and others discuss the radical energy unleashed by the ultimate collaborationThe year my son was born, I spent a lot of time walking laps of my small ground-floor flat in a milky, slightly hysterical state of sleep deprivation, listening to a set of instrumental albums by Raymond Scott from 1962 called Soothing Sounds for Baby. YouTube helpfully let me put
  
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• Dua Lipa denounces ‘Israeli genocide’ in Instagram post

  29-05-2024 11:38 via theguardian.com
  
  Singer calls for 88 million followers to ‘show your solidarity with Gaza’ following Israeli attack on RafahPop singer Dua Lipa has condemned the military operations in Gaza, describing them as “Israeli genocide” in an Instagram post to her 88 million followers.Reposting a graphic from the group Artists4Ceasefire, along with the hashtag #AllEyesOnRafah that has trended in the days following Israel’s bombing of the Palestinian city, she wrote: “Burning children
  
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• Tell us: what do you spend on music in a typical month?

  29-05-2024 11:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Following on from our coverage of the financial difficulties faced by musicians and venues in 2024, we’d like to hear about your music spending habitsFollowing on from our coverage of the financial difficulties faced by musicians and venues in 2024, we want to know about your music spending habits.What do you spend on music – records, streaming, tickets, merch, anything else – in a typical month? Has that increased or decreased over time? What motivates you to splash out on mus
  
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• Duster review – indie rockers impress amid unlikely TikTok renaissance

  28-05-2024 16:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Albert Hall, Manchester
  Now streaming in huge numbers long after their mid-90s years, the Californians’ nuanced yet forceful delivery punches in all the right placesAfter a near 20-year hiatus, Duster returned seemingly from nowhere in the late 2010s as newly proclaimed cult heroes. The relatively obscure Californian band who were active between 1996 and 2001 and blended indie, slowcore, and space rock, had struck a nerve with a new generation, racking up hundreds of millions of Spotify an
  
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• Jane’s Addiction review – original lineup, same thrilling riff-driven thrashers

  28-05-2024 14:27 via theguardian.com
  
  Roundhouse, London
  A feral Perry Farrell, a prowling Eric Avery and Dave Navarro making his guitar sound like a chainsaw – the alt-rock band flex their rediscovered mojoThe spectre of wasted potential has long hung over Jane’s Addiction. The Los Angelenos helped define alternative rock in the late 80s with two albums of cosmic, bohemian funk-metal, driven by mysticism, debauchery and loss, but were quickly undone by exhaustion, heroin and frontman Perry Farrell’s new role as Lo
  
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• ‘Collaboration lifts up the field, electrifying it’: musician Carlos Niño on jams with André 3000 and more

  28-05-2024 12:15 via theguardian.com
  
  The multi-hyphenate LA artist explains how he facilitates journeys into the ‘eternal depths’ – and why his new album is all about pregnancy and birthCarlos Niño’s calm baritone echoes through the space of his Topanga, California, home, and when filtered through my internet connection and iPhone speaker, it begins to feel like a transmission from the outer reaches. He speaks in unhurried, spiralling paragraphs as if untangling a knot, pulling overlapping ideas free
  
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• Post your questions for Janelle Monáe

  27-05-2024 18:07 via theguardian.com
  
  If you want to know what it’s like to be mentored by Prince, act in an Oscar-winning film or collaborate with Grace Jones, now is the time to ask the multi-hyphenate starAfter releasing her fourth studio album The Age of Pleasure last year and appearing in Netflix’s hit mystery film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, vocalist and actor Janelle Monáe has cemented herself as a bona fide pop-cultural force. Ready to embark on a UK tour, she will join us to answer your questions a
  
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• ‘I woke up face down on a Hollywood lawn’: Bran Van 3000 on Drinking in LA

  27-05-2024 16:03 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘After a night of drinking, I came to in the hot sun with the words and melody in my head. The irony of the song later being used for a beer ad was hilarious’My father owned clubs in Montreal, so I was DJing by the time I was 15. And then I started making music videos. Propaganda Films called me to go to work in Los Angeles – which for a young director was like a soul singer being called to Motown. But I would always fly back to the east coast and hit the DJ booth: Drinking In
  
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• Lizzo reacts to South Park storyline on Ozempic: ‘I showed the world how to love yourself’

  27-05-2024 14:46 via theguardian.com
  
  The singer expresses pride in episode in which her music is prescribed as an alternative to weight loss drugsLizzo has expressed pride on seeing a South Park episode dedicated to her, saying: “I really showed the world how to love yourself.”The singer filmed herself watching the episode of the long-running satirical comedy entitled The End of Obesity, which features a storyline in which listening to her music is prescribed as an alternative to expensive new weight-loss drugs such as
  
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• Doug Ingle, frontman of rock band Iron Butterfly, dies aged 78

  27-05-2024 12:09 via theguardian.com
  
  Singer and organist wrote 17-minute classic In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida, taking the album of the same name to four million US salesDoug Ingle, the frontman and organist of US rock band Iron Butterfly who wrote their major hit In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida, has died aged 78.His son Doug Ingle Jr announced the news on social media, writing: “Thank you Dad for being a father, teacher and friend. Cherished loving memories I will carry the rest of my days moving forward in this journey of life.” Continue rea
  
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• Nicki Minaj says sorry to fans as Manchester gig cancelled after arrest

  26-05-2024 15:58 via theguardian.com
  
  US rapper detained in Amsterdam on suspicion of ‘possessing soft drugs’ before being fined by Dutch policeNicki Minaj has offered her “deepest and most sincere apologies” after her Manchester concert was cancelled at the last minute after she was arrested in Amsterdam.The US rapper was detained for hours at Schiphol airport on suspicion of “possessing soft drugs” before being fined by Dutch police and allowed to continue her journey. Continue reading...
  
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• Richard Sherman, songwriter for Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book, dies aged 95

  26-05-2024 15:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Sherman and late brother Robert’s songs remain ‘quintessential lyrical voice of Walt Disney’, says companyRichard Sherman, who with his brother penned songs for films loved by generations of children, including the Jungle Book, Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, has died.Sherman, who was 95, together with his late brother Robert, won two Academy awards for Walt Disney’s 1964 smash Mary Poppins – best score and best song, Chim Chim Cher-ee. They also picked up
  
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• ‘Politicians? They’re mugs, all of them’: Paul Weller on music, style and the state of the nation

  26-05-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  At 66, the Modfather may have mellowed, but he’s lost none of his cool. Paul Weller reveals how he beat his demons, found a new sound – and why he’s still angry with the establishmentIn a roof garden, high above central London, stands Paul Weller, reed-slim in a pale mac, black trousers and shades. Silver hair slicked back, slight smile, lord of all he surveys. He looks so cool, it’s almost funny. Why hasn’t he put on weight? Why hasn’t he lost his hair? How c
  
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• Kaia Kater: Strange Medicine review – Canadian banjo virtuoso packs a powerful punch

  25-05-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  (Free Dirt)The Canadian-Grenadian singer-songwriter’s phenomenal playing underscores strongly personal and political themes on her superb fourth albumBorn in Montreal to a Canadian mother and a Grenadian father, Kaia Kater made her name as a banjo revivalist, much celebrated in folk circles as a teenager, though from the outset her backwoods picking came alongside songs with contemporary themes. Her previous album, 2018’s Grenades, looked at the history of her father’s homeland
  
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