Peter Perrett: The Cleansing review – a late-career triumph that dances in the face of death
Despite its themes of decline and mortality, the 72-year-old former Only Ones frontman is full of joie de vivre on this wise and empathetic record
Mk.gee review – is this the world’s most exciting young guitarist?
Amid a big breakout moment, the New Jersey musician slips past definition with his blend of 80s pop and Americana, his wild screams matched by the audience
Laura Marling review – gently transcendent songs of motherhood and domesticity
She may confess to impostor syndrome, but these tender studies of the latest stage in her life show a remarkable artist in full bloom
Tyler, the Creator: Chromakopia review – early midlife crisis triggers a freaked-out psychodrama
Full of switchback turns, the rapper’s unsettled and unsettling seventh album zaps from Beach Boys harmonies to G-funk synths – and from boasts to self-loathing
Iron & Wine review – shadow puppets and folk-pop combine in singular gig
Emmy award-winning puppeteers Manual Cinema occasionally pull focus from Sam Beam’s rich songwriting, but mostly enhance it with eerie and intricate staging
Sum 41 review – hugs and lasers as emotional pop-punks go out with a bang
Gleefully raucous anthems give way to heartfelt goodbyes on the Canadian band’s triumphant farewell tour
The Cure: Songs of a Lost World review – as promised, ‘very, very doom and gloom’
The band’s first album in 16 years finds Robert Smith and co on reliably melancholy form – with the exception of one out-and-out pop banger
Lady Gaga: Disease review – a return to form, and to her classic sound
After a run of power ballads and jazz standards – plus the mega-flop Joker sequel – this synthpop single is a reminder of the Gaga of old, while still fitting into Brat-era pop
Kate Bush: Little Shrew review – this devastating film will make you weep at war’s violence against children
Written, directed and soundtracked by Bush, built up from sketches she drew herself, this four-minute animation is suffused with both love and horror
Laura Marling: Patterns in Repeat review – a tender love letter to motherhood
Domestic contentment radiates through the singer-songwriter’s eighth album celebrating the circle of life
Fievel Is Glauque: Rong Weicknes review – teetering song-towers that never quite topple
Brilliant melodies, poetic lyrics and quick-change time signatures elevate this quirky jazz-pop release to a level all its own
The Cult review – hard rock survivors blast through a beefy 40th birthday party
Displaying the lean mean belligerence of artists half their age the band bring a brutish level of distortion and energy to a tight 90 minute set of classics
Joni Mitchell review – a triumphant star-studded Hollywood show
The star delivered a transcendent, career-spanning retrospective, surrounded by famous faces including Elton John and Meryl Streep
Kylie: Tension II review – more of the same is much, much less
Kylie Minogue’s follow-up to 2023’s euphoric Tension – and smash hit Padam Padam – fluctuates between sparkle and self-doubt, generic pap and two stone-cold bangers
Thelma Plum: I’m Sorry, Now Say It Back review – anthems of care and conviction
The Gamilaraay musician’s second album is filled with light and shade, resilience and humour – though it doesn’t quite match the highs of her debut