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
Geese: Getting Killed review – Cameron Winter and co’s surreal, swaggering spectacular
Opaque but brilliant, the Brooklyn indie-rock band’s fourth album is full of the dread and dark absurdity of our current moment
Olivia Dean: The Art of Loving review – British pop’s biggest new star sheds the neo-soul cliches to really shine
Already dominating the charts and seemingly inspired by 70s LA, this exceptionally well-made record is full of diaristic detail and sweetly understated vocals
Chappell Roan review – pop’s patient princess triumphantly takes the throne in New York
The star claims she wasn’t ‘feeling 100’ for her Queens stadium show but it was hard to see any fatigue as she carried the crowd through her dazzling setlist