Bob Dylan at the Royal Albert Hall: the best he’s been in years
This Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, more theatre piece than rock concert, is marked by a new polish.
ByMusic reviews
Read about the best live performances, contemporary music and classic records here.
The Tallis Scholars at Saffron Hall: sublime and moving
“Mysteries and Miracles” explores several centuries of sacred music.
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How Kraftwerk’s Autobahn remade pop
Half a century ago, the art-rock band introduced the world to the vocoder. Their sound – and pop music –…
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Florence + the Machine at the Proms: a thrilling two hours of pure emotion
This imaginative orchestral reworking of her debut album Lungs was part film score, part pop song, and totally euphoric.
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Fred Again, EDM’s everybro
How did the unassuming producer of polite, emotive dance music become social media’s superstar DJ?
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PJ Harvey’s songs of England
Across her varied discography, the singer-songwriter conjures images of hyper-local folk tales and white Dorset cliffs.
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From the feral to the glamorous at Glastonbury 2024
Little Simz and SZA made Coldplay look bland in a festival full of politics, nostalgia and peeing in cups.
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Inside Blur’s reunion psychodrama
A new film documents the band’s cautious reconciliation at Damon Albarn’s very big house in the country.
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Jack Antonoff’s Bleachers sound more earnest than ever
At the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, the band moved away from Springsteen-inspired belters to focus on gentle synths and…
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Laufey at EartH: woozy and nostalgic love songs
The Chinese-Icelandic singer mixes classical and jazz influences in her old-fashioned take on pop.
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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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Thom Yorke’s late style
For all its themes of cronyism and catastrophe, the Smile’s Wall of Eyes suggests that Yorke has found serenity in…
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“I didn’t want anyone to know it was me”: on being Joni Mitchell’s “Carey”
For 50 years, the “mean old daddy” immortalised in one of Mitchell’s best-loved songs has been an enigma. Now he…
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The fatal flaw in the “final” Beatles song
On “Now and Then”, created using AI, John Lennon’s voice is punchy and crisp. Does that make it a great…
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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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Blur and the strange death of Britpop England
Their gig at Wembley Stadium was their biggest yet. But do the nostalgic guitar sounds of the 1990s have wider…
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The contradictions of Arctic Monkeys
In the run-up to their headline Glastonbury set, the band defied the creative arc of their late career by shutting…
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In the house of Harry Styles
The pop star’s fans have their tricks and traditions to make a stadium gig feel as intimate as possible.
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Elton John is saying goodbye, for one more time
He can no longer hit the high notes and stayed mostly seated at the piano but, even at the age…
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