New Music Reviews
Music Reissues Weekly: Rupert’s People - Dream In My MindSunday, 29 June 2025
Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” was an instant phenomenon. Recorded in April 1967 and issued as a single on 12 May after pre-release play on pirate station Radio London, it topped the UK charts four weeks later. Globally, it hit big on most pop markets and was integral to launching the classical music/pop hybrid which evolved into prog rock. Read more... |
Brad Mehldau Trio, St George's Bristol review - exquisite intelligenceWednesday, 25 June 2025
There's something luminous about the Brad Mehldau Trio. The music they create with such joy shines with a special clarity, in which ever-changing forms constantly reveal lines of shared thought, explicitly, yet purveying an abiding sense of wonder. Intellect – and there is plenty of that – is matched here with the fire of inspiration and the thrill of constant surprise. Read more... |
Ian Leslie: John and Paul - A Love Story in Songs review - help!Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Do we need any more Beatles books? The answer is: that’s the wrong question. What we need is more Beatles books that are worth reading. As the musician and music historian Bob Stanley pointed out, in his 2007 review of Jonathan Gould’s Can’t Buy Me Love, probably the best biography of The Beatles to date, “the subject is pretty much inexhaustible if the writer is good enough.” Read more... |
Album: BC Camplight - A Sober ConversationWednesday, 25 June 2025
A Sober Conversation is the work of a master songwriter, one who knows how to achieve their goals. As the album’s nine tracks pour from the speakers, comparisons come to mind: 20/20 and Smiley Smile-era Beach Boys, Lindsey Buckingham, the early solo years of Todd Rundgren. Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 91: Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, Tropical Fuck Storm, Sparks, The Sisters of Mercy and moreTuesday, 24 June 2025
VINYL OF THE MONTH Frank From Blue Velvet I Am Frank (Property of the Lost) + Column258 Interloper (The Workshop Sessions, Volume One) (Property of the Lost) Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: The Sonics - High TimeSunday, 22 June 2025
“Theirs is truly rock in extremis, a précis of the youthful impetuosity and cathartic chaos at the heart of real rock ’n roll.” Read more... |
Album: Benson Boone - American HeartSunday, 22 June 2025
I first had a conversation about Benson Boone without realizing it was him we were talking about. It went something like: “Did you see that horrifying moment at Coachella when Brian May got onstage with some American guy, and no one knew who he was? HOW DO THEY NOT KNOW?!” We berated youth culture, blinked – and suddenly, Boone had released a second album. Read more... |
Patrick Wolf, Rough Trade East review - the Kent-based bard refashions his new album ‘Crying the Neck’Friday, 20 June 2025
After the evening’s second song “The Last of England,” Patrick Wolf cautions “I’ve got nothing left to say.” During the shows leading up to this outing promoting his new album Crying the Neck, he says he felt “like I’ve been drag-queen story hour” and, in Kingston, “a preacher.” He’s talked out. All that there is to say has been said. Read more... |
Bonnie Raitt, Brighton Dome review - a top night with a characterful, very American blues rock queenWednesday, 18 June 2025
If you walked into a bar in the US, say in one of the southern states, and Bonnie Raitt and her band were playing, you’d have the best night of your life. They are the kind of purely American rhythm’n’blues experience, tempered with FM radio balladry, that somehow works best, and perhaps only, on those endless highways and dusty plains. Read more... |
Hidden Door Festival 2025 review - the transformative Edinburgh event's most site-specific festival yetWednesday, 18 June 2025
"When I was your age, I worked in a corrugated cardboard factory!" is a phrase my father was fond of telling me as a teenager, presumably in an attempt to extol the virtues of a good Presbyterian work ethic. Read more... |
Pages
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
latest in today
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages...
...
Music Reissues Weekly: Rupert’s People - Dream In My Mind
Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” was an instant phenomenon. Recorded in April 1967 and issued as a single on 12 May after pre-release play...
Fidelio, Garsington Opera review - a battle of sunshine and...
Sometimes, as the first act of Beethoven’s Fidelio closes, the chorus of prisoners discreetly fade away backstage as their brief taste of...
Intimate Apparel, Donmar Warehouse review - stirring story o...
The corset is an unlikely star of the latest Lynn Nottage play to arrive at the...
theartsdesk Q&A: director Andreas Dresen on his anti-Naz...
Andreas Dresen directs socially engaged realist films that invariably relay personal and political messages; the result can be tough but is...
Hercules, Theatre Royal Drury Lane review - new Disney stage...
Many years ago, reviewing pantomime for the first time, I recall looking around in the stalls. My brain was saying, “This is...
Alfred Brendel 1931-2025 - a personal tribute
Alfred Brendel’s death earlier this month came as a shock, but it wasn’t unexpected. His health had gradually deteriorated over the last year or...
Chicken Town review - sluggish rural comedy with few laughs...
Fans of the character comedian Graham Fellows will possibly turn up for this British film starring the man who created the punk parody...
Album: Lorde - Virgin
Lorde’s trajectory is continually fascinating. From the minimalist, sparse electropop of Pure Heroine to the similar but more grandiose...