New music
Wardruna, Symphony Hall, Birmingham review - Einar Selvik's Norsemen return to Mercia in triumphThursday, 20 March 2025
Wardruna are something of a modern musical phenomenon. Part Scandinavian folk revival, part prog rock epic and part pagan ritual, their wide-screen performances are a beautiful and mesmerising celebration of repurposed ancient traditions, the... Read more... |
Album: Billy Hart Quartet - JustThursday, 20 March 2025
There was a telling remark in Wynton Marsalis’s recent interview with Katty Kay for the BBC show “Influential”. Talking about how jazz functions in real time as a democracy, he said: “Our music requires you to be in balance with other people”,... Read more... |
Album: Greentea Peng - Tell Dem It's SunnyWednesday, 19 March 2025
Going by the sounds of her new album, it wouldn’t unreasonable to assume that Greentea Peng enjoys sucking on a spliff every once in a while. Tell Dem It’s Sunny is certainly Gold Seal gear with a distinctly smoky atmosphere, that’s for sure.Dubby... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Norma Tanega - I Don't Think It Will Hurt If You SmileSunday, 16 March 2025
After scoring a hit in 1966 with the distinctive folk-pop of her jazz-inclined debut single "Walkin' my Cat Named Dog," US singer-songwriter Norma Tanega (1939–2019) seemed to melt away. Three follow-up 45s weren’t hits. Her album wasn’t a strong... Read more... |
Album: The Loft - Everything Changes, Everything Stays The SameSaturday, 15 March 2025
“Sitting on a sofa, cigarettes and beer, ten years disappear…agreeing to agree, just to get along.” By going into the difficulties of resuscitating the past, the lyrics of “Ten Years,” the fourth song on The Loft’s first album, neatly sum-up the... Read more... |
Album: Jason Isbell - Foxes in the SnowFriday, 14 March 2025
America – the pro-wrestling-ass nation, the ultimate society of the spectacle – famously likes things big, and modern country and western music has gone along with that. Big hats, big trucks, big sentiment, big pop production, very big sales indeed... Read more... |
First Person: singer-songwriter David Gray on how the songs on his new album came to himThursday, 13 March 2025
Occasionally, when I pass my own reflection, out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of the likeness of my father, shining out through the bones in my face. In this way his ghost walks with me. Sometimes the making process can feel like... Read more... |
Album: Steven Wilson - The OverviewThursday, 13 March 2025
Steven Wilson’s cinematic concept album The Overview is named for the cognitive shift required of astronauts and others who’ve observed Earth from space and been humbled by both its beauty and its – and their – inconsequentiality. Wilson’s grappling... Read more... |
Album: Coheed and Cambria - The Father of Make BelieveWednesday, 12 March 2025
The Father of Make Believe is the latest instalment in the cinematic fantasy world that Coheed and Cambria have meticulously crafted over the last 30 years. It’s openly more personal in nature than previous albums but The Amory Wars storyline and... Read more... |
Album: Reg Meuross, Fire & Dust: A Woody Guthrie StoryMonday, 10 March 2025
I come to this album from a week or so spent among the denizens of the New York and Boston folk revivals, including a key figure from Tulsa and the Guthrie Center, and a concert (Judy Collins, marking 85 years of music and activism).They were a... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Liverpool Sunset - The City After MerseybeatSunday, 09 March 2025
What happens after the spotlight is directed towards another target? In the case of Liverpool and the Merseybeat boom – which, in terms of chart success, peaked in 1963 – the question is addressed by Liverpool Sunset: The City After Merseybeat 1964–... Read more... |
Album: Lady Gaga - MayhemSaturday, 08 March 2025
Just the other day I overheard one of my kids watching a YouTuber called Nathan Zed and was instantly gripped. It was called “How Trying Became Cool Again,” and focused on pop cultural moments like Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl show, Doechii... Read more... |
