Pop
I’m not sure they ever reached a fourth chord: Spiritualized, at the Roundhouse, reviewed
Every so often, Jason Pierce drifts into focus. It happened at the end of the 1980s, when his then group…
A joy – mostly: Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, at Usher Hall, reviewed
Drummers are patient chaps, in the main. Think of Ringo in Peter Jackson’s recent Beatles docuseries, Get Back. Lolling around…
The perfect pop star: Dua Lipa at the O2 Arena reviewed
Dua Lipa’s second album, Future Nostalgia, was released at the least promising moment possible: 27 March 2020, the day after…
I would be surprised if his next tour included arenas: Louis Tomlinson at Wembley reviewed
You don’t need to be a historian of pop to realise that having been part of a huge manufactured group…
‘I came, I saw, I scribbled’: Shane MacGowan on Bob Dylan, angels and his lifelong love of art
Graeme Thomson talks to former Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan about his first art folio
He is now a family entertainer: Stormzy at the O2 Arena reviewed
Stormzy occupies a curious place in British pop culture right now. He’s the darling of liberals for all his good…
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…
Felt like being caught on the moors in a storm: Keeley Forsyth, at the Barbican, reviewed
It took a moment to realise Keeley Forsyth was there. There were already three musicians, faint figures on a dark…
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…
The buzz band of 2022 sound like they're from 1982: Yard Act, at Village Underground reviewed
One of the curiosities of modern pop’s landscape is that no one knows any longer how to measure success. An…
Expectations were met and then exceeded: Arooj Aftab, at Celtic Connections, reviewed
We gathered on a freezing Sunday night, inside a barrel-vaulted church designed in the 1890s by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, to…
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…
One of the most exciting hours I’ve spent in ages: Turnstile at O2 Forum Kentish Town
Even leaving aside its origins as prison slang, punk has always meant different things on either side of the Atlantic.…
Triumphant: Idles at the O2 Brixton Academy reviewed
The single thing you don’t want when you are beginning a run of four shows in a prestige venue, with…
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…
More mesmerising than it should be – Disney+'s The Beatles: Get Back reviewed
My late friend Alexander Nekrassov loathed the Beatles, which I used to think was a wantonly contrary position akin to…
A soulful man with a blistering voice: Sipho, at Studio 9294, reviewed
When I were a lad — back when you could buy the entire back catalogue of the Fall for thruppence…
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…
One of many soul acts looking back 50 years and doing very good business: Black Pumas, at the Roundhouse, reviewed
No musician ever went bust overestimating the public desire to hear classic soul. Slapping on a Motown backbeat has revived…
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…
The sound of a hunch coming good
Graeme Thomson talks to the cult singer Joan Wasser about the robotic nature of pop, finding salvation in songwriting and Tony Allen
