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Squeeze: Trixies review – finally completed first album proves teenage dreams are hard to beat

Squeeze’s first new album in nearly a decade is based on material written when they were teenagers. It’s endearing but callow

10cc review – 70s legends reprise a dazzling string of pop classics

50 years since the band fractured with the departure of Godley and Creme, songs from Donna to I’m Not in Love are in prime condition on what is billed as ‘another bloody greatest hits tour’

Harry Styles: Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally review – nice all the time. Good, occasionally

The music on Styles’s new album is muted, subtle and pleasant – but from the title downwards, he has a real problem with words

David Byrne review – in life during wartime, this show will restore your faith in humanity

Byrne again reimagines the possibilities of the live gig, creating a vision of egalitarianism backed by elastic bass and polyrhythms

Lily Allen review – pop star makes much-anticipated comeback – but where is the West End Girl?

Allen isn’t in the first act of her own show, only coming on after 45 minutes of a string ensemble to stiffly deliver her acclaimed album in full

Morrissey review – classic Smiths songs meet GB News-style talking points

Morrissey is in impressive voice and the old songs still retain their power, but the conspiracy theorising and nationalist rhetoric are miserable in all the worst ways

Grace Jones review – chaos, nudity and endless costume changes: the disco legend’s show has it all

The 77-year-old is one of our greatest living performers, doing sit-ups, hula-hooping and even flashing the audience – but her rich voice is the true revelation

Cruz Beckham review – son of David and Victoria transcends nepo-baby tag with intriguing psych-pop

His music is still all over the place, lurching from landfill indie to solipsistic ballads, but the youngest Beckham son can certainly play guitar

Bruno Mars: The Romantic review – you’re better off listening to the songs he’s blatantly imitating

(Atlantic)Harking back to Oye Como Va, Move On Up and other 20th-century classics, Mars’s homages are beautifully performed but bereft of new ideas

Lala Lala: Heaven 2 review – brooding alt-popper fights the urge to run

Lillie West’s fourth album is a hazy, mid-tempo meditation on escape that gets stuck in a numbing mid-tempo mode – though there is a gorgeous moment of release

Gorillaz: The Mountain review – a late career peak haunted by ghosts yet glowing with life

Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s cartoon band mark 25 years with an album inspired by India and shaped by loss, featuring collaborators living and dead

Hen Ogledd: Discombobulated review – a manifesto for collective action from Richard Dawson’s folk-rockers

Featuring taunts in Welsh, ‘bard rap’ and spirited jigs, the British quartet’s ragged, rich music underpins their vision for change

The Streets review – semi-theatrical staging of A Grand Don’t Come for Free resurrects a British classic

Deadpan recital of the era-defining album of downbeat English rap suits the full-album format, presented with a formidable band

Mitski: Nothing’s About to Happen to Me review – mordant, melodic melancholy from the best songwriter of her generation

The US singer-songwriter’s latest album flits deftly from horror to humour, with threads of melancholy and desperate unhappiness binding the tracks

U2: Days of Ash review – six new tracks reaffirm the band as a vital political voice

On their first collection of new songs since 2017, the quartet have a crispness that has been lacking in their 21st-century material, as they nimbly react to shocking news stories

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← Older posts
  • Squeeze: Trixies review – finally completed first album proves teenage dreams are hard to beat
  • Lise Davidsen and James Baillieu: Live at the Met album review – electrifying renditions make the momentous intimate
  • 10cc review – 70s legends reprise a dazzling string of pop classics
  • Dave review – prodigiously skilled rapper conjures thrilling intimacy on a grand scale
  • Harry Styles: Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally review – nice all the time. Good, occasionally
  • David Byrne review – in life during wartime, this show will restore your faith in humanity
  • Lily Allen review – pop star makes much-anticipated comeback – but where is the West End Girl?
  • Philharmonia/ Schwarz/ Ólafsson review – a masterclass in pianissimo
  • LSO/ Wang/ Peltokoski review – Yuja Wang’s ferocious Rautavaara meets Peltokoski’s passionate Wagner
  • Morrissey review – classic Smiths songs meet GB News-style talking points
  • Sinfonia Cymru / Laura van de Heijden review – quiet authority and effortless grace inspire
  • Grace Jones review – chaos, nudity and endless costume changes: the disco legend’s show has it all
  • Cruz Beckham review – son of David and Victoria transcends nepo-baby tag with intriguing psych-pop
  • RPO/Edusei/Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha review – the makings of a classic Strauss
  • The Hallé Presents … Jonny Greenwood review – everything in its right place, almost
  • Bruno Mars: The Romantic review – you’re better off listening to the songs he’s blatantly imitating
  • Lala Lala: Heaven 2 review – brooding alt-popper fights the urge to run
  • Tomeka Reid: Dance! Skip! Hop! review – an early contender for jazz album of the year
  • Harnoncourt: Mendelssohn, Wagner, Schumann album review – revelatory readings from the late revolutionary
  • Pekka Kuusisto: Willows album review – luminous, inventive and penetrating
  • Gorillaz: The Mountain review – a late career peak haunted by ghosts yet glowing with life
  • Bath BachFest review – joyous and mesmerising music making
  • BBC Total Immersion: Icelandic Chill review – ambience, flowerpots and drones in varied day of new music
  • Sacconi Quartet review – new Freya Waley-Cohen work reveals ensemble at their finest
  • Tamara Stefanovich review – inspired and insightful programme celebrates Kurtág at 100
  • Hedera: Hedera review – Cornwall, Georgia and Bali combine on joyful debut
  • Hen Ogledd: Discombobulated review – a manifesto for collective action from Richard Dawson’s folk-rockers
  • HK Gruber: Short Stories from the Vienna Woods album review – still quirky after all these years
  • Johann Ludwig Bach: The Leipzig Cantatas album review – this distant cousin’s music is a remarkable discovery
  • Saul review – Purves didn’t just chew the scenery, he swallowed it whole

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