pop music
Janelle Monae, SSE Wembley Arena review - strong in both sound and sentimentThursday, 04 July 2019
Janelle Monae says her show is all about making memories. She tells the crowd: “I hope that I can become a memory for you that you access when you’re feeling down – a memory that’s rooted in love and freedom.”Themes of #loveislove, courage to... Read more... |
Carrie Underwood, SSE Hydro, Glasgow review - country cliches brought to lifeWednesday, 03 July 2019
“We didn’t come all the way from Nashville, Tennessee with just one fiddle,” says Carrie Underwood, halfway through her Glasgow show. The onetime American Idol turned multiple Grammy award-winning country superstar isn’t one for doing things by... Read more... |
Yesterday review - Beatlemania in a parallel universeThursday, 27 June 2019
The price of fame and the value of artistic truth are among the topics probed in Danny Boyle’s irresistible comedy, a beguiling magical mystery tour of an upside-down world where The Beatles suddenly never existed. Richard Curtis’s screenplay... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 50: Depeche Mode, Black Midi, Primal Scream, U2, Nazareth, Quantic and moreWednesday, 26 June 2019
So theartsdesk on Vinyl reaches its 50th edition. That’s at least a novels’ worth of words. Maybe two! But we’re not stopping yet. The heat of the summer has arrived but the vinyl deluge hasn’t dried up, so check in for everything from Germanic... Read more... |
CD: Ingrid Michaelson - Stranger SongsWednesday, 26 June 2019
Eight albums in, you can imagine why a singer-songwriter in the confessional vein of Ingrid Michaelson might be ready to look elsewhere for inspiration - and inspiration for new album Stranger Songs came from a curious place. Each of the album’s 11... Read more... |
P!nk, Principality Stadium, Cardiff review - stunning theatrics astoundFriday, 21 June 2019
“I want to be just like P!nk,” a little girl screams as the lights begin to dim and the introductory music grows louder. It’s no wonder this leg of the Beautiful Trauma World Tour sold out in under 15 minutes. The whole stadium is packed full of... Read more... |
CD: Hot Chip - A Bath Full of EcstasyWednesday, 19 June 2019
Nineteen years, seven albums and untold side projects into their career, Hot Chip have for the first time enlisted outside producers: Rodaidh McDonald and French disco/house don Philippe Zdar. And it's worked. Over the course of the previous albums... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: R.E.M.Sunday, 16 June 2019
In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003 was issued by Warner Bros. in October 2003. Hitting shops in time for Christmas, it mixed hits like “Everybody Hurts”, “Man on the Moon” and “Orange Crush” with album and soundtrack cuts, and a couple of... Read more... |
Backstreet Boys, SSE Hydro, Glasgow review - 90s boyband showcase grown-up new materialSaturday, 15 June 2019
They showed up with a 30+ song setlist, four costume changes and a floating platform, but the strongest moment of the Backstreet Boys’ tour was when they dispensed with all of that for an a cappella version of “Breathe”, from new album DNA.“Like we... Read more... |
CD: Madonna - Madame XThursday, 13 June 2019
Madonna is the queen of reinvention and Madame X, her 14th studio album, marks another new brilliant, bonkers chapter in her 37-year career. The 13-track CD (15 on the deluxe version) was inspired by a recent spell living in Lisbon, where she... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Marty WildeSunday, 09 June 2019
Although Marty Wilde will forever be inextricably linked with the late 1950s British rock ‘n’ roll wave he rode, his career did not peter out as musical styles transformed. While he didn’t have the high-profile mutability of Cliff Richard or claim a... Read more... |
CD: Avicii - TIMThursday, 06 June 2019
Sadness abounds in Avicii's posthumous third album. In context, even the plaintive single syllable of the title is full of pathos. It reminds of the real person, the Swede Tim Bergling who as a teenager discovered he had an unerring ability to hit... Read more... |
