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Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition review – fabled album falls short of expectations

Rumours of the existence of E Street versions of Springsteen’s masterpiece have swirled for decades, but the reality doesn’t live up to the hype

Jade review – pop’s quirkiest star transcends manufactured past

Fans sing along to debut album at synth-laden show that showcased the former Little Mix star’s appealing, unvarnished and at times deeply odd shtick

Robbie Williams review – tiny Camden gig offers blinding star wattage – and a surprising new song about Morrissey

Previewing new album Britpop to an audience of 600, the star promises ‘no stadium bravado’ and delivers droll new songs alongside stripped-back oldies

Hannah Frances: Nested in Tangles review – ramshackle arrangements power restless revelations

Wayward tempos and snapping drums break fresh ground in this unruly release from the Vermont musician

Giustino review – sublime, and ridiculous, Handel rarity returns to Covent Garden

Joe Hill-Gibbins’ scaled-down staging is sensitive, and the music beautifully played and sung, but this is an uneven work dramatically

Katy Perry review – ​like being high on Haribo while trapped in a theme park

In a fun but frenetic show, the star hangs off props, wears a glove that shoots pyrotechnics and generally distracts from her own energy and charisma

The Kooks review – a triumphant and touching mass singalong

Playing to the biggest crowds of the careers, the 00s indie stalwarts perform like they’re loving every minute – although there is also raw emotion in Manchester on the night after the synagogue attack

Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl review – lazy big screen cash-in

The megastar’s underwhelming new album gets a suitably sub-par cinematic accompaniment offering very little for even the most devoted of fans

Ethel Cain review – a sublime rejection of pop stardom from the shadows

Bathed in darkness and backed by a formidable band, the Florida singer-songwriter turns her brooding southern gothic into a mesmerising, slow-burn spectacle

Agriculture: The Spiritual Sound review – unabashedly gorgeous noise from ‘ecstatic black metal’ band

The LA group deliver all the power and euphoria of heavy music with imaginative detailing on their second album, which will have you levitating with joy

Taylor Swift: The Life of a Showgirl review – dull razzle-dazzle from a star who seems frazzled

Far from the Max Martin-assisted pop juggernaut fans expected, this soft-rock paean to domestic bliss is slight on tunes and still seethes with grievance. And the less said about her fiance’s ‘magic wand’, the better

Sigur Rós and the London Contemporary Orchestra review – crashing waves of refined harmony

Perhaps the band that can best justify a mid-career gig with classical backing, the extra heft of the orchestra adds power to the Icelanders’ beautiful crescendos

Lady Gaga review – from skeletons to sexy plague doctors, this is a glorious, ridiculous spectacle

Move over Chappell Roan – Gaga’s eighth world tour is a full-blooded return to OTT camp, with a Nietzschean nemesis and a zombified crowd of fans driven berserk with glee

Doja Cat: Vie review – master pop provocateur splits the difference between sugar and spice

On her fifth album, the Californian tempers the bite of 2023’s Scarlet with glossy, lovestruck sounds – but never loses her instinct for mischief

Various Artists – Pasé Bél Tan: Francophonies and Creolities in Louisiana review – foot-stomping joy

Influenced by jazz and early blues, this collection of largely African American folk music from the 50s to the 80s spans poignant lyricism to full-throated celebration

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  • 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
  • The Streets review – semi-theatrical staging of A Grand Don’t Come for Free resurrects a British classic
  • Mitski: Nothing’s About to Happen to Me review – mordant, melodic melancholy from the best songwriter of her generation
  • U2: Days of Ash review – six new tracks reaffirm the band as a vital political voice
  • Raye review – dazzling display of range from old-school Vegas to Euro-dance
  • Cardi B review – ambitious spectacle and sizzling choreography
  • Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny review – big and brash staging for Brecht and Weill’s whisky-soaked dystopia
  • Gillian Welch and David Rawlings review – phenomenal duo put on an exquisite show
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  • Deftones review – alt-metal veterans sound exceptionally fresh 38 years on
  • The Great Wave review – Hokusai opera sounds and looks beautiful but skimps on drama
  • Charli xcx: Wuthering Heights review – atonal, amorous anthems that more than stand apart from the film
  • Fred Again review – guest-heavy homecoming for the golden boy of UK dance is an eclectic triumph
  • Converge: Love Is Not Enough review – metalcore veterans’ rage remains fresh and furious
  • Joshua Chuquimia Crampton: Anata review – an ear-splitting haze that heals as it hurts
  • Ensemble Intercontemporain: Unsuk Chin album review – rich and strange music of kaleidoscopic colours
  • Handel: Sosarme album review – Marco Angioloni makes the case for this little-known work
  • LPO/Benjamin review – music of crystalline clarity and hedonistic pleasure
  • Hemlocke Springs: The Apple Tree Under the Sea review – a DayGlo DIY triumph in an era of risk-averse pop
  • The Beach Boys: We Gotta Groove review – box set of lost 70s music has all of Brian Wilson’s turmoil and talent

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