Music news

• ‘I had the Beatles’ Indian period in mind’: how Natasha Bedingfield made Unwritten

  18-03-2024 15:02 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘It’s a very positive song. It’s been used to motivate sports teams and now it’s a TikTok phenomenon’My brother Daniel had three No 1s at the start of the noughties. In every interview, bless him, he’d go: “Listen to my sister – she’s great too!” It helped me get a foot in the door. I got a record deal by singing over some demos I’d done. “We don’t like your songs,” the guy said, “but we like you.” Co
  
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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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• Vieux Farka Touré review – Hendrix of the Sahara goes his own way

  25-05-2024 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Barbican, London
  A surging, festival-ready set from the Malian guitarist straddles desert blues, exotica-rock, tradition – and his superstar father’s legacyIt all starts with the mercurial Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré doing a little black-slope run down some scales, to whoops of anticipation from the crowd. Most of his tracks tonight begin with this offhand prelude, common to west African music – a foretaste of what’s to come. What invariably follows is a daz
  
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• One to watch: Mui Zyu

  25-05-2024 13:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The Belfast-born singer-songwriter mixes the sweet and the surreal on lo-fi pop that draws on her Chinese roots – and the cosmosBorn in Belfast to immigrant parents from Hong Kong, raised in the south of England, singer and producer Eva Liu first emerged in 2017, fronting London/Glasgow art-rock trio Dama Scout. Covid lockdowns put the band’s plans on hold, while rising racism against people of east and south-east Asian heritage during that period led to Liu writing songs to process
  
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• Bring Me the Horizon: Post Human: Nex Gen review – a defining album of our digitally overloaded era

  24-05-2024 17:52 via theguardian.com
  
  (Sony Music)
  Despite losing a key member, the arena-filling pop-metal stars still thrill with their surprise-released new record – a masterpiece of glutted sonic mayhemIn the end, Post Human: Nex Gen – the longest-awaited, most torturously gestated album in mainstream rock today – arrived very suddenly, a gloriously corroded data dump of tens of thousands of points of sonic information dropped last night with just a few hours’ notice.The Sheffield pop-metallers’ Pos
  
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• Yes review – head-spinning intensity, immaculately delivered

  24-05-2024 13:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
  Prog legends go on dizzying adventure through sprawling, occasionally exhausting yet pristine music, with acoustic chugs, glam-like stompers and squealing wig-outsWalking into Bridgewater Hall, you are greeted with a vast stretch of moons, stars, serpents, clouds and elaborate rock formations. The dreamlike fantasy landscapes of Yes’s record covers, designed by Roger Dean, make up an eye-popping gallery in the foyer. Since the band’s 1971 album, Fragile,
  
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• GeeJay: What’s the Sun Without the Rain? review – charming UK jazz-soul

  24-05-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  (Believe UK)
  Melodic grooves and warm vocals unfurl on Gina Jane and Jacob Lobo’s debut album of originals contemplating new parenthood and moreSoulful influences seem to be a staple of the current British jazz scene. Artists ranging from production duo Blue Lab Beats to singer Sofia Grant and saxophonist Laura Misch all draw on soaring melodies, warm vocals and a foundational sense of soul rhythm when it comes to their jazz-referencing compositions. Bournemouth/London duo GeeJay are the l
  
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• Children of Robbie Robertson sue late musician’s widow, alleging elder abuse

  24-05-2024 12:43 via theguardian.com
  
  Lawsuit disputing fate of $6m house alleges that Janet Zuccarini took advantage of Robertson, with her lawyers calling it ‘meritless fiction’The children of the late Robbie Robertson, songwriter and guitarist with the Band, are suing his widow, Janet Zuccarini, over his assets.In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles and seen by the Guardian, Alexandra, Delphine and Sebastian Robertson allege elder abuse, claiming that Zuccarini had Robertson sign documents he was not capable o
  
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• Kelly Rowland alleges racial profiling in Cannes film festival usher incident

  24-05-2024 12:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Destiny’s Child singer confronted usher at Marcello Mio premiere earlier this weekKelly Rowland, the Destiny’s Child singer who has gone on to have a successful acting and solo singing career, has addressed a highly publicised incident at the Cannes film festival where she argued with a festival usher, suggesting she was racially profiled.Rowland was attending the premiere of Catherine Deneuve film Marcello Mio on Tuesday, where she smiled and waved to fans and photographers on the r
  
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• Bess Atwell: Light Sleeper review – poignant, dreamlike miniatures

  24-05-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  (Real Kind)
  This striking English singer-songwriter embraces life in all its complications on her classy third album, produced by the National’s Aaron DessnerBess Atwell has the kind of voice that lands on notes like a pollinator on a pistil: lightly, but with singular purpose. The winsome female singer-songwriter is an overplayed trope, but Brighton-based Atwell – on her third album – manages to combine the hazy languor endemic to the Lana Del Rey era with the left-field preci
  
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• Ezra Feinberg: Soft Power review – trippy, bucolic and playfully minimal

  24-05-2024 09:30 via theguardian.com
  
  (Tonal Union)
  Feinberg has moved from psychedelic rock to a hypnotic romanticism that invites us to share in its gently throbbing pulses and heart-tugging beautyEzra Feinberg came to our attention around 20 years ago as the leader of the San Francisco-based collective Citay, whose woozy, Beach Boys-inspired explorations were central to a psychedelic indie scene that flourished in north California at the time. In recent years he’s moved to the other side of the States and is now a practisin
  
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• ‘He’s never worked a day in his life!’: Paul McCartney honours Bruce Springsteen at Ivor Novello awards

  24-05-2024 09:10 via theguardian.com
  
  Springsteen receives Academy fellowship as Raye named songwriter of the year, and Yussef Dayes, Victoria Canal and Speakers Corner Quartet pick up major awardsBruce Springsteen was the top honouree at the 2024 Ivor Novello awards, given an Academy fellowship – the first international artist to be handed that accolade.Paul McCartney presented him with the award in a playful speech: “I couldn’t think of a more fitting recipient,” he said. “Except maybe Bob Dylan. Or P
  
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• Nathy Peluso: Grasa review – don’t overlook this Latin pop polymath

  24-05-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  (5020)
  The Grammy-nominated Argentine–Spanish singer moves between snarling bombast, acoustic yearning and lavish salsa in her eclectic second albumIn pop’s multilingual landscape, it’s curious that Nathy Peluso isn’t a household name. Huge in Argentina and Spain, her debut album Calambre picked up a Grammy nomination with its blend of neo-soul, Latin trap and 90s hip-hop. Her live performances rival Rosalía, and she has the Instagram-friendly aesthetics of Dua Lip
  
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