Laura Marling’s songs of experience
As the singer showcased her new album Patterns in Repeat at Hackney Church, the parallels across her work – and…
ByAlbum reviews
Read all the latest album reviews from the New Statesman here.
Jennifer Lopez’s beautifully unhinged visual album
This Is Me... Now is a bizarre but poetic record of her rekindled love for Ben Affleck.
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The paradoxical moods of Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark
Released 50 years ago, the singer’s commercial breakthrough is a masterwork of ambivalence.
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Dolly Parton’s Rockstar is a cheesy, moving, joyful covers album
It’s too long, and unavoidably corny. But this is such a fun endeavour that it’s hard to resist.
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REM’s soundtrack to the end of history
The album Up captured the dehumanisation and sexless ennui that defined the late Nineties.
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Britain is scared of jazz
Ezra Collective is the first ever jazz band to win the Mercury Prize – lifting a curse on a genre…
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The Ballad of Darren is one of Blur’s best records
The band’s new album, like all their greatest work, is suffused with melancholy.
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Joe Dunthorne on Black Sunday by Cypress Hill: “My favourite way to get blazed”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
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Heavy Heavy by Young Fathers: a revolutionary adventure in rhythm
On their fourth album, the Mercury Award-winning band fuse avant-garde pop and hip hop to create a truly exhilarating sound.
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The high-art cabaret of Christine and the Queens’ Redcar
At a circus venue in Paris the next evolution in the musician’s theatrical pop shows how real life seeps into…
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How Arctic Monkeys succumbed to solipsism
On The Car, Alex Turner sounds increasingly like a man who doesn’t need his band any more. The resulting record is…
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Are the 1975 geniuses, or simply mediocre?
The band’s new album is full of their signature contradictions. It is uplifting and ironic; ultra-modern yet nostalgic. Take it…
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Sheku Kanneh-Mason: “The cello is a part of you”
The 23-year-old has already played for the royals and tackled the Elgar Cello Concerto. Where does he go from here?
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Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind: best served tepid
Drake used to be our Prince Hamlet – but on his underpowered new album he is a journeyman extra offering…
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George Ezra’s Gold Rush Kid: the irresistible return of the barbecue troubadour
Ezra’s sun-soaked new album shows off his gap-year vibes and big wicket-keeper energy.
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Angel Olsen’s Big Time is a sensitive record about grief, loss and coming out
On her new album the 35-year-old turns to country music to come to terms with her sexuality and the death…
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Liam Gallagher’s new album is a soporific wade through the swampy waste of Britpop
Recycled choruses, vapid lyrics and meat-and-two-veg guitar: C’mon You Know could only achieve profundity if you were four pints deep…
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Harry Styles’ new album is a summery, Eighties-infused poolside record
The best songs on Harry’s House feel like a brief tickle of cool air on a warm, lazy day.
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Kendrick Lamar’s Mr Morale and the Big Steppers first listen: a brutally honest record
On his new album, the American rapper explores therapy, grief and masculinity.
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Florence and the Machine’s Dance Fever is a timeless, euphoric record
This is an immersive, cathartic new album of stadium-filling songs.
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