features & interviews
theartsdesk |

Pop music and politics, fiction and fact, debut novels and posthumous publications: TAD’s reviewers reveal their best reads of 2025.

theartsdesk |

SASKIA BARON
1 One Battle After Another
2. Sinners
3 It was Just an Accident
4  Palestine 36
5  Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
6  April
7 Motherboard
8 Holy Cow
9 The Brutalist
10 Pillion
 

Kerem Hasan
There is a scene in the second act of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking in which the man condemned to death, Joseph De Rocher, with…
David Nice
Georges Bizet was born on this day in 1838. He died at the tragically early age of 36, 150 years ago, and the anniversary year has brought forth for…
Oliver Pashley
“Why the name?” and “Why the instruments?” are the two most common things we get asked about our group. As a member of The Hermes Experiment, a…

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Clara Marshall Cawley
Five days of free events with all sorts of audiences around Manchester starts tomorrow
James Saynor
The star was more admired within the screen trade than by the critics
ALA.NI
She usually sings about affairs of the heart - 'TIEF' is different, explains the star
Rachel Halliburton
Music Director Julián Vat and pianist Matias Feigin compare notes on Piazzolla
Mark Kidel
Remembering an artist with a gift for the transcendent
Hugh Barnes
In search of love and the meaning of life on the boho surf trail
Tami Neilson
The Canadian-born, New Zealand-based artist on how women have empowered her career
Mark Kidel
A master of feeling and intellect
Guy Oddy
Experimental rock titan on never retiring, meeting his idols and Swans’ new album
Graham Fuller
The band's legendary track from 1971 resurfaces not once, but twice
Zlatomir Fung
Fresh takes on Janáček's 'Jenůfa' and Bizet's 'Carmen' are on the menu
Amelia Coburn
The Middlesbrough singer-songwriter on the background story to her latest single
Christopher Gray
A showcase for contemporary choral works appropriate to this time
David Gray
One of this century's most successful British singers still finds magic in the act of creation
Matt Wolf
'Anora' creator Sean Baker wins four trophies in a night full of firsts - and a second trophy for Adrien Brody
Lauren Mooney
Kandinsky Theatre co-creator on a new play tethering technology to existence
Nick Hasted
The director, who has died aged 78, rewired cinema with nightmare logic, an underground ethos and weird, wondrous innocence
theartsdesk
As 2024 comes to an end, we look back at the books that have thrilled and enthralled us
theartsdesk
theartsdesk's movie critics pick their favourites from the last 12 months
Matthew Barley
Conceived a year ago, a short but intense musical journey
Sam Amidon
Michael Keegan-Dolan’s mind-boggling total work of art arrives at Sadlers Wells this week
Alec Frank-Gemmill
On ignoring the composer's 'Basta, basta!' above the part for the original soloist
Irène Duval
On the centenary of the great French composer's death, a fine interpreter pays homage
Saskia Baron
A close look at insightful new non-fiction films about single motherhood, visionary photographers, scam artists, legacies of colonialism, and more

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