Pop

The art of the anti-love song

15 February 2025 9:00 am

Tracey Thorn released an album in 2010 titled Love and Its Opposite. When it comes to songwriting, it’s the ‘opposite’…

A cheaper, shinier, more processed Chris Stapleton: Brothers Osborne reviewed

8 February 2025 9:00 am

If you were a frequent viewer of Top Gear in its Clarkson/Hammond/May era, there is a particular laugh you will…

FKA Twigs is the most interesting pop musician we have right now

8 February 2025 9:00 am

Grade: A Hell, there’s a lot not to like, or even to be a little suspicious of, with this young…

The maudlin, magical world of Celtic Connections

1 February 2025 9:00 am

Is it possible to find a common thread running through the finest Scottish music? If pushed, one might identify a…

A new solo album by a former Beatle that – astonishingly – demands repeated plays

18 January 2025 9:00 am

For artists lacking any obvious feel for the style, ‘going country’, similar to mainstream white artists dabbling in reggae in…

The problem with Paul McCartney is he wrote too many good songs

11 January 2025 9:00 am

Don Bradman, the greatest cricketer of all time, was once asked if he reckoned he could have maintained his batting…

We’re wrong to mock Do They Know It’s Christmas?

30 November 2024 9:00 am

‘I hope we passed the audition,’ said an alarmingly youthful Bob Geldof at one point in The Making of Do…

Kneecap are basic but thrilling

30 November 2024 9:00 am

It was Irish week in London, with one group from the north and one from the south. Guinness was sold…

Perfectly imperfect: Evan Dando, at Islington Assembly Hall, reviewed

16 November 2024 9:00 am

‘Can I have a photo with you, please?’ It’s the most embarrassing question you can ask of someone you’re interviewing.…

Goodbye to MC5, the holiest of rock’s holy cows

16 November 2024 9:00 am

Grade: D+ Ah, the original Linkin Park, except even more spavined. MC5 came outta Detroit in the mid 1960s and…

Terrifically good value: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds reviewed

9 November 2024 9:00 am

A few years ago, I received an early morning phone call from Nick Cave’s former PR, berating me for not…

Nick Cave’s right-hand man Warren Ellis on AI, Gorecki and staying young

2 November 2024 9:00 am

In the next few days Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds play Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester and London. There are still…

Chrissie Hynde remains outstanding: the Pretenders, at Usher Hall, reviewed

26 October 2024 9:00 am

A few hours before the doors opened for the Pretenders’ Edinburgh concert, Chrissie Hynde posted a message on her social…

I agree with pop’s war on iPhones – but King Canute might want a word

12 October 2024 9:00 am

Before each show on the recent The The tour – reviewed in these pages last week – the pre-recorded voice…

At Las Vegas’s Sphere I saw the future of live arts

12 October 2024 9:00 am

Does Elon Musk have a good eye for the aesthetic? Earlier this month, the Tesla magnate took a break from…

The world is on fire – yet navel-gazing still reigns in pop

5 October 2024 9:00 am

There is no better cultural weather vane than pop. It’s not that pop singers possess incredible analytical skills – they…

How some of the most derided bands of all time are making a comeback

28 September 2024 9:00 am

The fate of the pop musician – at least the pop musician below the top tier of stardom – has…

The ethics of posthumous pop albums

28 September 2024 9:00 am

‘At the record company meeting/ On their hands – at last! – a dead star!’ Back when Morrissey was more…

The rise of soapy, dead-safe drama: The Band Back Together reviewed

14 September 2024 9:00 am

The Band Back Together is a newish play, written and directed by Barney Norris, which succeeds wildly on its own…

Elvis Costello remains the most fascinating songwriter Britain has produced in the past 50 years

14 September 2024 9:00 am

Song for song, line by line, blow for blow, Elvis Costello remains the most consistently fascinating songwriter Britain has produced…

The unstoppable rise of stage amplification

31 August 2024 9:00 am

Recent acquisition of some insanely expensive hearing aids aimed at helping me out in cacophonous restaurants has set me thinking…

The Ava Gardner of the ketamine age: Lana Del Rey, at Leeds Festival, reviewed

31 August 2024 9:00 am

As the American superstar starts singing another slow, sad, rather beautiful song, my mind begins to drift. I’m thinking that…

Triumphant: Big Thief, at Green Man, reviewed

24 August 2024 9:00 am

One of the first things I learned after seeing Big Thief triumph at Green Man is that some long-time fans…

Fun, frenetic and only a little gauche: Declan McKenna, at the Edinburgh Playhouse, reviewed

17 August 2024 9:00 am

Towards the end of Declan McKenna’s snappy, enjoyable 90-minute set at the Edinburgh International Festival, something quite powerful occurs. The…

Fantastic – and genuinely indie: Personal Trainer, at the Shacklewell Arms, reviewed

10 August 2024 9:00 am

Remember when we all knew what indie meant? Indie was what John Peel played. It was music that was recorded,…