Music news

• ‘Climate change is going to cull us as a species’: folk hero Peggy Seeger on Bob Dylan, the ultimate love song and touring at 90

  15-05-2025 14:00 via theguardian.com
  The musician and activist answers your questions about her marriage to Ewan MacColl, being the inspiration for The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, and her mother’s legacyTouring at 90 is amazing. What was a career highlight? Nicens_boi
  When I was 60 the thought of touring when I was 70 was anathema and the thought of touring at 90 seemed dreadful! The hardest part is sitting in the car. We’re gonna be away six weeks and I’m a walking hospital case. I have meds, a step stool so
  
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• ‘Witness (1 Hope) by Roots Manuva gives me some bad girl energy’: Eliza Rose’s honest playlist

  07-12-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  The DJ, producer and singer likes the kind of dancehall her dad disapproves of, and her funk to be electronic. But whose songs make her feel bougie?The first single I ever boughtAaliyah, Rock the Boat. My nan sent me and my cousin to pick up some bits in Dalston and there was some change left over so I went into HMV and bought this CD for £1.99. I shouldn’t have been stealing my nan’s change but I felt so grownup. If my Jamaican dad had found out, he wouldn’t have been ha
  
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• Nick Cave’s Veiled World: the starry tale of how sometimes the devil doesn’t have the best tunes

  06-12-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  This documentary on the musician interviews everyone from Flea to … Rowan Williams. It’s a thoughtful take on his songs and ChristianityDevouring the new Nick Cave documentary on Sky, I am reminded how critics go wild for arty musicians who constantly change direction and dabble in everything. This is its own kind of myth. I know plenty of artists who keep moving – one week they’re sewing fish scales on to jackets, the next they’re painting mirrors or putting seaho
  
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• Kendrick Lamar review – with Doechii revving up the crowd, this is an extraordinary show for the ages

  06-12-2025 00:00 via theguardian.com
  AAMI Park, Melbourne
  Rap’s ‘swamp princess’ had the audience in the palm of her hand before Lamar dazzled with pyrotechnics and Drake dissesAside from the immediate delight that comes from seeing two of the biggest names in rap in one show, there is a pleasing asymmetry in Doechii and Kendrick Lamar performing together. Fame is still new enough for Doechii, rap’s “swamp princess” and most rapidly ascending star, that her rapid-fire lyrics mostly revel in the p
  
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• Five of the best music books of 2025

  05-12-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  From an enraging indictment of Spotify to Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie’s account of Parkinson’s and a compelling biography of Tupac Shakur, here are five titles that strike a chordMood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect PlaylistLiz Pelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
  Enraging, thoroughly depressing, but entirely necessary, Mood Music offers a timely, forensically researched demolition of Spotify. In Pelly’s account, the music streaming giant views music a
  
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• Laura Cannell: Brightly Shone the Moon review | Jude Rogers' folk album of the month

  05-12-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  (Brawl)
  The violinist sets out on her darkest exploration of yuletide yet, giving a murky and melancholy twist on familiar Christmas standardsTraditional music finds its popular, cosy home in the carol, despite the uncanniness that surrounds the nativity story, and the fraying thread back to the past that each winter brings. A veteran explorer of the season (in 2020’s sparkling Winter Rituals EP with cellist Kate Ellis, and 2022’s starker New Christmas Rituals, with amplified fiddle-
  
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• This Is Lorelei: Holo Boy review – sweet-sad songs from a new pearl of the US alt scene

  05-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  (Double Double Whammy)
  One half of Water From Your Eyes re-records songs from the back catalogue of his other band, resulting in acoustic fare touched with regret and darknessAs one half of Brooklyn-based duo Water From Your Eyes, Nate Amos makes left-field pop that feels hypermodern: wry, memey lyricism; post-ironic genre-hopping; the kind of jilted chaos and tonal jumble that characterises a social media feed. Yet the band had actually been plugging away for seven years before their 2023 break
  
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• ‘Constant stimulation, dopamine overload’: how EsDeeKid and UK underground rap exploded on a global scale

  05-12-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  With an experimental and maxed-out sound, bold new MCs are emerging from all corners of the UK – and with US rap in the doldrums, the time is ripe for another British InvasionIt’s early November and London’s Electric Ballroom is heaving. The warm-up DJ drops Fetty Wap’s 2014 smash Trap Queen, and the young crowd, a fair portion of whom were in primary school when the tune first came out, roar every word. They’re clad in baggy skatewear, with distressed, monochromati
  
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• The 20 best songs of 2025

  03-12-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  This year’s outstanding tracks – from post-punk rap to indie-disco and operatic pop – as voted for by 30 Guardian music writers***20 Continue reading...
  
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• Cameron Winter review – Geese wunderkind whittles confident rearrangements in an intimate show

  01-12-2025 11:47 via theguardian.com
  Albert Hall, ManchesterWith two of the most-feted albums of the past 12 months under his belt, the New York singer-songwriter puts fresh spins on songs from his solo debutHearing Cameron Winter croon of God, Jesus and the devil in the former Methodist chapel of Manchester’s Albert Hall may seem appropriate, but this superficial link belies the 23-year-old’s talent for the secular and absurd. Winter works primarily in contrasts: poppy instrumentation with off-kilter song structures; l
  
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• Wolf Alice review – indie chameleons sparkle on a glam-rock bender

  30-11-2025 12:14 via theguardian.com
  Manchester Arena
  With 70s rock references, tinselly backdrop and some full-on cabaret-theatre vibes, the four-piece have undergone their most fun and complete reinvention yet‘If I want to wear my sparkly knickers, I will!” Ellie Rowsell giggles into the mic as she struts into The Sofa, a stylish 70s slow-burner about making guilt-free decisions and watching “reruns on the TV” without judgment. Tonight there is no sign of a settee-induced slumber, as the sparkling singer w
  
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• ‘I sang karaoke with Novak Djokovic – a surreal experience’: Jacob Collier’s honest playlist

  30-11-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  The musical prodigy discovered Stevie Wonder aged two and danced to Brazilian jazz at a Grammys afterparty. But what song does he think is the best in the world?The first song I fell in love with
  So many songs hit me as a child, they were like windows opening up new worlds. But the first I truly loved was Did I Hear You Say You Love Me, by Stevie Wonder, which I remember clearly when I was around two years old.The first single I bought
  I bought an iTunes single by Take 6 when I was 13. They are
  
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• ‘It has made me live life more’: Jessie J on cancer, comebacks and cracking China

  29-11-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, suicide and gaslighting … they are all laid bare on the singer-writer’s new album. But just as she finished recording it, she got a shock diagnosis. She explains why it’s made her determined to be in the momentYou couldn’t make it up, Jessie J says. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her newish partner, and finally the mother of a toddler having struggled to conce
  
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• ‘An engineering feat’: the 26-year-old Australian making costumes for Lady Gaga

  28-11-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Samuel Lewis had to push his limits for the pop star’s global tour, set to hit his home town Melbourne next weekGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailIt starts in a flood of red: a red-curtained stage, red flashing lights. It’s Lady Gaga, so theatrics are par for the course. As the lights go up it becomes clear she’s not standing on a giant stage but, in fact, wearing it.A militaristic bodice extends into the swooping velvet drapes of a 7.5-metre-high gown. “It&rsquo
  
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• Add to playlist: Storefront Church’s cinematic baroque pop and the week’s best new tracks

  28-11-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Californian singer-songwriter Lukas Frank is picking up rave reviews for his second album’s epic choruses and lush orchestrationsFrom Los Angeles
  Recommended if you like John Grant, Scott Walker, Father John Misty
  Up next A cover of Duran Duran’s The Chauffeur is out now, with another single due in FebruaryAfter several years of perseverance, things are happening for Storefront Church. The audience at this month’s sellout gig at St Pancras Old Church in London included Perfume
  
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• Ikonika: Sad review – vocal-led new direction is a hit for the Hyperdub veteran

  28-11-2025 09:30 via theguardian.com
  (Hyperdub)
  The dancefloor producer weaves seductive and steely lyrics with their trademark production in a convincing embrace of popSad represents a total reinvention for Ikonika, the producer, songwriter and singer also known as Sara Chen. Putting their own vocals at the forefront of their music for the first time, Chen becomes a charismatic and haunting pop presence. Sometimes, they play the role of warm R&B vocalist (Listen to Your Heart); at other times, such as on the nervy, hypnotic Wh
  
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• HTRK: String of Hearts (Songs of HTRK) review – friends from Liars to Kali Malone rework their noisy gems

  28-11-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  (Ghostly International)
  Sharon Van Etten, Stephen O’Malley, Perila and more transform the duo’s gloomy, sensual songs on an album of covers and remixesHTRK have been making their gloomy, sensual brand of music, at the intersection of electronic pop and noise rock, for 22 years. To mark the milestone comes String of Hearts, a collection of covers and remixes featuring an all-star cast of friends and collaborators, from next-gen underground favourites like Coby Sey to fellow old-school
  
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• Peaches: ‘We need lube to smooth out the friction of the world’

  27-11-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  The Canadian electroclash icon on No Lube So Rude, her first album in a decade, the state of global politics, the ‘punk energy’ of the older generation and her love of ping-pongWhy is your forthcoming album your first in over a decade and who is/are the “you” in comeback single Not in Your Mouth None of Your Business? k4ren123
  I’ve been very busy – touring, working with dance troupes, performance art, sculptures, playing the lead role in a production of Bertol
  
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• The Durutti Column: The Return of the Durutti Column review – fragile classic that echoes far beyond its time

  27-11-2025 15:49 via theguardian.com
  (London)
  The delicate experimentation of the band’s debut may not have chimed with the post-punk 1980s, but its durability makes this deluxe reissue thoroughly deservedThe Durutti Column’s debut album does not have an auspicious origin story. The band whose name it bore had split acrimoniously just before they were supposed to record it. Their guitarist Vini Reilly was so poleaxed by depression that he was virtually unable to leave his house: 12 different attempts were made to sectio
  
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• ‘I watched him doing Fool’s Gold and thought: how’s he playing that?’ New Order’s Peter Hook on his friend Mani

  26-11-2025 12:49 via theguardian.com
  One Mancunian bassist remembers another: Hook pays tribute to the ‘wonderful soul’ Gary Mounfield, the Stone Roses and Primal Scream musician who has died aged 63I first met Mani when the Stone Roses’ manager asked me to produce them. We did Elephant Stone and they were lovely. Then as Manchester turned into Madchester I got to know them really well. I went to the great gig they did in Blackpool; I went to Spike Island. It was a fantastic time to be together and the Haçi
  
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• Doja Cat review – ignore the headlines, this is a pop provocateur at the top of her game

  26-11-2025 06:34 via theguardian.com
  Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
  The US pop-rapper is a ferocious and cheeky stage presence, backed by a fantastically tight band who bring an 80s funk to her biting songsWhen Doja Cat’s Ma Vie world tour kicked off in Auckland last week, some fans immediately complained – not about her voice (pristine) or her band (ferociously funky), but about the lack of costume changes. This is the way of modern pop stardom: spectacle, not music, is what gets phones in the air, with footage that then g
  
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• My Bloody Valentine review – shoegaze pioneers find prettiness in pulverising noise

  25-11-2025 15:03 via theguardian.com
  Aviva Studios, Manchester
  Earplugs safely distributed, the band proceed to rattle ribcages with a two-hour show that showcases their unique ability to mesh the dreamlike with the apocalypticWhen every entrant is handed earplugs it begs the question: why not just turn things down? Lessening their legendary volume, though, would reduce the impact of the My Bloody Valentine live show as a multi-sensorial, physical and musical experience. You wouldn’t experience every bass drum like a heartbea
  
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• Jimmy Cliff’s charisma and fearless creativity expanded the horizons of reggae | Lloyd Bradley

  25-11-2025 14:42 via theguardian.com
  Cliff, who has died aged 81, took every opportunity that he was presented with, and created plenty more himself. It resulted in a career path like no other• Jimmy Cliff: A life in picturesWhen Jimmy Cliff died, reggae and the music world in general lost one of its most accomplished opportunists. The less sympathetic might have called him a chancer, but from the very beginnings there was little he wouldn’t try if he thought it would advance either himself or the music. Over the years I
  
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• Inseparable, sensuous and confident, the Kessler twins were pioneers of variety show culture

  21-11-2025 14:09 via theguardian.com
  Alice and Ellen Kessler, who died by joint assisted suicide this week, entertained – and occasionally scandalised – Europe with their glitzy and subversive pop music and classically informed dance• The Kessler twins die together aged 89 – newsWhen Dean Martin announced the Kessler sisters’ appearance on his show in 1966, he remarked that he had been desperate to book them not just because the German-born dancer-singers were “so pretty and so talented”, bu
  
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• Mani’s writhing, relentless bass was the Stone Roses’ secret sauce – it taught indie kids how to dance | Alexis Petridis

  20-11-2025 20:07 via theguardian.com
  His love of ‘good northern soul and funk’ was always in evidence and had a lasting impact on alternative musicGary ‘Mani’ Mounfield dies aged 63Mani: a life in picturesBy any metric, the rise of the Stone Roses was a sudden and remarkable thing. It took place over the course of 12 months. At the start of 1989, they were just a local cause of excitement in Manchester, largely ignored by the traditional outlets for alternative rock in Britain. John Peel wasn’t a fan.
  
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• Oneohtrix Point Never: Tranquilizer review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

  20-11-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  (Warp)
  Made using a cache of Y2K sample CDs that Daniel Lopatin salvaged from the internet’s fringes, the kaleidoscopic result speaks to contemporary information overloadIt should come as no surprise that the new album by Oneohtrix Point Never comes with a concept attached. They usually do. When not composing film soundtracks, or producing an eclectic range of other artists – the Weeknd, Anohni, Charli xcx, Soccer Mommy – Daniel Lopatin has released a string of acclaimed works,
  
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• ‘Anastacia is a big inspiration for me – raspy, raw and heartfelt’: Ella Eyre’s honest playlist

  09-11-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  The singer was inspired by her mum’s love for Basement Jaxx and spent 69p on Jamiroquai, but what does she put on when she’s feeling down?The first song I fell in love withThe first song that I remember really feeling inspired by was Good Luck by Basement Jaxx. My mum had all their CDs. Good Luck was the first song I sung for my managers before they took me on board, so I still have a big love for it.The first single I bought
  My mum gave me money to go and buy Feels Just Like It Shou
  
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• Guitar Hero at 20 – how a plastic axe bridged the gap between rock generations

  08-11-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Guitar Hero’s controllers let anyone become astar in their own living room – and made the bands featured in the game household names againIt is 20 years since Guitar Hero was launched in North America, and with it, the tools for the everyday gamer to become a rock star. Not literally of course, but try telling that to someone who has nailed Free Bird’s four-minute guitar solo in front of a packed living-room audience.Developed by Harmonix, published by RedOctane and inspired by
  
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• Grammy awards 2026: Kendrick Lamar leads nominations with nine nods

  07-11-2025 18:53 via theguardian.com
  Rapper receives nominations in all top categories while Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter and Leon Thomas are also major nominees• Grammys 2026: the nominations in all the major categoriesThe Grammys’ love continues for Kendrick Lamar. The rapper, who took home the most trophies at the 2025 music awards with five, leads the nominees for the 2026 awards.Lamar is up for nine awards, including album of the year (for his most recent, GNX), best rap album, record of the year and song
  
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• ‘I was the only out queer guy in rock’: Faith No More’s Roddy Bottum

  07-11-2025 14:13 via theguardian.com
  The keyboard player on his heroin overdose, how Kurt Cobain wanted to be gay and why his memoir will ruin his Christian relatives’ Thanksgiving dinnerWhen Roddy Bottum began work on his remarkable autobiography The Royal We, the Faith No More keyboard-player knew exactly the book he didn’t want to write. “The kind that has pictures in the middle,” he says, via video-call from Oxnard, California, where he’s completing a new album by his group Imperial Teen. “I&
  
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