thu 11/09/2025

New Music Reviews

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, BBC iPlayer - an intimate, insider's account of his life and music

Tim Cumming

Miles – where to begin? Some 21st century revisionists find his art fatally tainted by his personal life, and his violent behaviour in relationships.

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Sinatra: All Or Nothing At All, Netflix review - epic two-parter on pop's first superstar

Thomas H Green

Coming in at around four hours, in two parts, this 2015 documentary is ostensibly about Ol’ Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra, but really, via the prism of his existence, it’s as much about America’s journey through the first two thirds of the 20th century.

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Slipknot Unmasked: All Out Life, BBC iPlayer – masked metalheads reveal all

Guy Oddy

There aren’t many metal bands like Slipknot. For a start, the nine-piece line-up consists of the standard vocalist, two guitars, bass and drums – but then there are also two percussionists, sampler and decks. Their music is consistently ferocious, with a hardcore, high-speed, ragging thump and semi-comprehensible lyrics that leaves no room for chart-friendly power ballads.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: A Slight Disturbance In My Mind

Kieron Tyler

Two of the 84 tracks on A Slight Disturbance In My Mind: The British Proto-Psychedelic Sounds of 1966 are covers of songs from Revolver.

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The Indigo Girls, Facebook Live review - lightening the blues

Liz Thomson

Like all other performers, the Indigo Girls were forced to make the “heart-breaking decision” to cancel their spring tour. And in that moment, “we knew we wanted to play a free livestream show,” Amy Ray and Emily Saliers said in a statement.  “People are feeling scared, isolated, uncertain, and unmoored.

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Morrissey, Wembley Arena review - reminders of greatness

Nick Hasted

“I’d like you to know that you can breathe as heavy as you like,” Morrissey declares, somewhat against government advice. “It really doesn’t matter.

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Reg Meuross and David Massengill, Green Note, Camden review - master craftsmen at work

Liz Thomson

When all around you is chaos and depression, an afternoon spent listening to acoustic music in a small club is as cleansing and restorative as a warm bath.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Matt Monro - Stranger In Paradise

Kieron Tyler

Two years before he took on The Beatles, George Martin was working with another artiste who would go on to have success in America. Martin first encountered Matt Monro in 1960 when he signed him to the label he ran, Parlophone. The “Portrait of my Love” single charted later in the year. In summer 1961, “My Kind of Girl” hit America’s single’s charts. His 1965 version of ”Yesterday” had a Martin arrangement....

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Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Eventim Apollo review - and the band played on

Liz Thomson

Elvis Costello is arguably – perhaps unarguably – the most enduring and genuine talent to emerge from the mid-Seventies pub and punk scenes, and his two-hour set on Friday night demonstrated that he’s still a compelling performer, full of energy and passion.

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Kate Tempest, BBC 6 Music Festival review - more personal than political

Katie Colombus

For those wondering if performance poet Kate Tempest would be upstaged or introduced by either pandemic panic or International Women’s Day – know that a) she’s fearless and b) she practices equality always. As such, there’s no pre-amble, other than a hope that her gig will “resonate into the night and the days to come”.

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