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.
ByMusic reviews
Read about the best live performances, contemporary music and classic records here.
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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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…
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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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