Rock

Virgin on the astonishing: Madonna, at The O2, reviewed

21 October 2023 9:00 am

When I was a kid listening obsessively to AC/DC and Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, I despaired of music writers.…

Confounding and fantastic: 100 Gecs, at O2 Forum Kentish Town, reviewed

10 September 2022 9:00 am

Let me introduce you to the two poles in pop and rock. One is marked by authenticity, musicianship, a certain…

The new master of the American Whine: Ezra Furman, at Edinburgh Festival, reviewed

3 September 2022 9:00 am

The American Whine is one of the key vocal registers in rock and roll. You can trace that thin disaffected…

As good, and inventive, as modern rock music gets: Black Midi's Hellfire reviewed

30 July 2022 9:00 am

Grade: A+ The difficult question with Black Midi was always: are you listening to them in order to admire them,…

Only traces of their eerie early spirit remain: Kings of Leon, at OVO Hydro, reviewed

9 July 2022 9:00 am

A few years ago, I spoke to Mick Jagger and asked him which of the (relatively) new crop of rock…

I’m a tourist in my own town

4 June 2022 9:00 am

‘Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in,’ groans a weary Al Pacino in The Godfather…

A joy – mostly: Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, at Usher Hall, reviewed

14 May 2022 9:00 am

Drummers are patient chaps, in the main. Think of Ringo in Peter Jackson’s recent Beatles docuseries, Get Back. Lolling around…

The awfulness of the Red Hot Chili Peppers has always felt weirdly personal

16 April 2022 9:00 am

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

2 April 2022 9:00 am

Grade: B That thing, ‘indie rock’, is so well played and produced these days, so pristine and flawless, that it…

The buzz band of 2022 sound like they're from 1982: Yard Act, at Village Underground reviewed

26 February 2022 9:00 am

One of the curiosities of modern pop’s landscape is that no one knows any longer how to measure success. An…

The quiet radicalism of the Chieftains

27 November 2021 9:00 am

Pop quiz time: which act was named Melody MakerGroup of the Year in 1975? The answer is not, as you…

The death of the live album

23 October 2021 9:00 am

Next week The The release The Comeback Special, a 24-track live album documenting the band’s concert at the Royal Albert…

Banal and profound, bent and beautiful: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis at Edinburgh Playhouse reviewed

2 October 2021 9:00 am

Nick Cave has always been drawn to parable and fable, but more than ever these days he is engaged in…

Good noisy fun: black midi, at the Edinburgh International Festival, reviewed

28 August 2021 9:00 am

This year we must love Edinburgh for her soul rather than her looks. The EIF should be commended for making…

The joys of musical comfort food

26 June 2021 9:00 am

I’ve given up comfort food. I’m trying to shift lockdown pounds that have left me with the physique of the…

'Germans thought we couldn't play': Irmin Schmidt, of Krautrock pioneers Can, interviewed

5 June 2021 9:00 am

Krautrock pioneer Irmin Schmidt talks to Graeme Thomson about taking risks, playing badly and ignoring the Brits

The songs are still as fresh and appetising as a hot loaf: The Lightning Seeds livestream reviewed

10 April 2021 9:00 am

One thing about a streamed festival is that the toilets are better than at the real thing. The other thing,…

The mystery and romance of the cassette tape

20 March 2021 9:00 am

May the gods of Hiss and Compression bless Lou Ottens. As head of new product development at Phillips, the Dutch…

The triumph of bedroom pop

6 March 2021 9:00 am

A short history of lo-fi, by Robert Barry

'I like upsetting people': Steven Wilson interviewed

27 February 2021 9:00 am

Michael Hann talks to the cult rock star Steven Wilson about why it’s harder to write a pop song than prog

Makes me nostalgic for an era when music was more than a click away: Teenage Superstars reviewed

13 February 2021 9:00 am

In Teenage Superstars, a long and slightly exhausting documentary about the Scottish indie scene of the 1980s and ’90s, there…

A criminally underrated songwriter: Matthew Sweet’s Catspaw reviewed

6 February 2021 9:00 am

Grade: A– The early 1990s were a lovely time for rock music: Beck, Sparklehorse, Sugar, Green on Red and Royal…

As pretty as anything he’s written in four decades: McCartney III reviewed

23 January 2021 9:00 am

Grade: A-   The greatest songwriter of the 20th century, or just one of the top two or three? Who…

Virtuosic but slight – always prog’s problem: The Pineapple Thief's latest reviewed

19 September 2020 9:00 am

Grade: B– Of all the various subdivisions in that wheezing and crippled phenomenon that we call rock music, prog has…

There's scarcely a dull track: Deep Purple's Whoosh! reviewed

15 August 2020 9:00 am

Grade: B+ Less deep purple than a pleasant mauve. Ageing headbangers will note a lack of the freneticism that distinguished…