Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour is a vast sci-fi spectacle designed for social media
This retrofuturist extravaganza, like all modern big gigs, is intended to look good on someone’s phone so they can prove…
ByMusic reviews
Read about the best live performances, contemporary music and classic records here.
The National’s First Two Pages of Frankenstein is just too predictable
On their ninth album, the band have collaborated with exciting acts from Taylor Swift to Sufjan Stevens – so it's…
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The pop starlet reinvention wheel
From Madonna to Taylor Swift, the music industry demands that its female artists stay new, young and relevant forever.
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On The Record, Boygenius find new power and purpose
On this propulsive debut album, the voices of Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers are tonally so singular, yet come…
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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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Sam Smith’s Gloria is a bland, contrived pop record
The brilliance of “Unholy” shows up how little originality is to be found on this autotuned, cliché-ridden and inauthentic album.
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First Aid Kit: “We realised constant touring was not a good way to live”
Johanna and Klara Söderberg on making music as sisters, the side effects of ambition, and taking a break from live…
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How the Strokes’ Is This It captured the short-lived optimism of the millennium
Whether or not you believe the band “saved rock music”, it’s difficult to imagine what the 2000s would have looked…
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Not even Taylor Swift can overshadow the 1975
Joined by a special guest at the O2, Matty Healy mused on masculinity as his band paraded their irresistible brand…
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The best albums of 2022
New Statesman staff choose their favourite records of the year.
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Bach’s accidental masterpiece
The keyboard works of The Well-Tempered Clavier sound more novel and luminous 300 years later than in their composer’s day.
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Caitlin Rose: “I’ve never been embarrassed of who I am”
The Nashville-born musician on trauma, getting older and taking nine years away from music.
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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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The Proclaimers are still Britain’s best male rock singers
At a recent gig in Leicester, the duo were just as much a juggernaut as they have always been.
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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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How Morrissey became irrelevant
At a gig in south London, the singer seemed trapped by nostalgia for his early career – and a terminally…
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Nick Cave’s second coming
At 65, the Australian singer-songwriter is more creatively alive than ever before.
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Marcus Mumford lets go of shame
On his first solo album, the Mumford & Sons frontman confronts the sexual abuse he experienced at the age of…
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How Homogenic brought Björk into focus
Twenty-five years after its release, the Icelander’s third album sounds as urgent as ever.
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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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