albums
Humour, sweetness and sincerity: Father John Misty's Chloë and the Next Twentieth Century reviewed
Grade: A– In which Josh Tillman reimagines the whole back catalogue of 20th-century American pop music (except for rock), tilting…
The awfulness of the Red Hot Chili Peppers has always felt weirdly personal
Squaring up to the prospect of a new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, I’m reminded of a vintage quote by…
No one should be doing indie rock at 43: Band of Horses's Things Are Great reviewed
Grade: B That thing, ‘indie rock’, is so well played and produced these days, so pristine and flawless, that it…
See this Russian hip hop star before they arrest him: Oxxxymiron's Beauty & Ugliness reviewed
Grade: A+ I was going to review hyperpop chanteuse Charli XCX’s album this week, but it was such boring, meretricious,…
Fabulously boring: Weather Station's How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars reviewed
Grade: C– Anyone remember that TV advert for Canada from the 1980s – a succession of colourful images, including a…
Too neat but it has hooks aplenty: Avril Lavigne's Love Sux reviewed
Grade: B Yay, life just gets better and better. World War Three and now this. More petulant popcorn pre-school punk…
Pretty astonishing: Black Country, New Road's Ants From Up There reviewed
Grade: A+ It is not true, fellow boomers, that there is nothing new under the sun nor no good new…
Has the whiff of Spinal Tap: Jethro Tull's The Zealot Gene reviewed
Grade: C+ I bought the ‘seminal’ Jethro Tull double album Thick as a Brickfrom a secondhand shop when I…
A story of reflection and self-discovery: Anaïs Mitchell's new album reviewed
Any artist who has habitually written or performed in character — from David Bowie to Lady Gaga — eventually arrives…
Lovely and wistful: Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Barn reviewed
Grade: A I have persisted in buying everything Neil Young releases since I first heard On the Beach as a…
In praise of seasonal chart fodder
Christmas: the most vulnerable time of the year. I heard ‘A Winter’s Tale’ by David Essex on the radio the…
Truly godawful: Ed Sheeran's = (Christmas edition)
Grade: C= My wife’s ill with Covid and demanding inexhaustible libations and difficult meals, which she will leave uneaten. The…
Reprehensible – but fun: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's Complete DG Recordings reviewed
Grade: B It must have been an interesting day in the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s press office when Blair Tindall’s memoir…
The quiet radicalism of the Chieftains
Pop quiz time: which act was named Melody MakerGroup of the Year in 1975? The answer is not, as you…
It was cheap schlock then, and it's expensive schlock now: Adele's 30 reviewed
Grade: C The problem I have is that I thought she was pretty awful before — when she was just…
Decent dream pop: Beach House’s Once Twice Melody reviewed
Grade: B+ Everything these days devolves to prog — and not always very good prog. Where once synths were vastly…
Oh dear, Abba’s new album is a bit of a dog: Voyage reviewed
Time has been very kind to Abba. No one back in the 1970s thought of them as geniuses. But they've even lost the talent for writing memorable tunes
The death of the live album
Next week The The release The Comeback Special, a 24-track live album documenting the band’s concert at the Royal Albert…
The best recordings of the Goldberg Variations
I sometimes think the classical record industry would collapse if it weren’t for the Goldberg Variations. Every month brings more…
Hugely unmemorable: Billie Eilish's Happier Than Ever reviewed
Grade: C+ Time to get the razor out again — Billie’s back. The slurred and affected can’t-be-arsed-to-get-out-of-bed vocals. The relentless,…
When musical collaborations go right – and when they go horribly wrong
Big Red Machine release their second album later this month. It’s a fine name for ten tonnes of agricultural apparatus…
Is there anyone more irritating and stupid than Bobby Gillespie?
Grade: B– Is there anyone in rock music more irritating and stupid than Bobby Gillespie? The rawk’n’roll leather-jacketed self-mythologiser. The…
Whiny, polite and beautiful: Kings of Convenience's Peace or Love reviewed
Grade: A– The problem with Norwegians is that they are so relentlessly, mind-numbingly pleasant. Well, OK, not Knut Hamsun or…
How Trojan Records conquered the world
When Trojan Records attempted to break into the United States music market in the early 1970s, it hit an insurmountable…
A new recording throws fresh light on Mahler's puzzling Tenth Symphony
There are many Symphonies No. 10 by Gustav Mahler, or none. The situation is rare, if not unique, in the…
