Reviews
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and support
Friday, 14 November 2025
We are bowled over!
Music Reissues Weekly: Robyn - Robyn 20th-Anniversary Edition
Sunday, 14 September 2025
Sometimes, record labels don’t like what those on their roster have recorded. Such was the case with BMG Sweden and Robin Carlsson who, as Robyn, had made three albums with varying success and a raft of home-country hit singles for the label from the mid-Nineties to 2002.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale review - an...
Saturday, 13 September 2025
It can be a hostage to fortune to title anything “grand”, and so it proves with the last gasp of Julian Fellowes’s everyday story of posh folk at the...
BBC Proms: Ehnes, Sinfonia of London, Wilson...
Saturday, 13 September 2025
Critics (including this one) casually refer to John Wilson’s Sinfonia of London as an all-star outfit, an army made up of generals. This week I was...
Presteigne Festival 2025 review - new music is...
Friday, 12 September 2025
If you were a devotee of Dmitri Shostakovich whose only opportunity to attend some live performances marking this year’s 50th anniversary of his...
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Islands review - sunshine noir serves an ace
Sam Riley is the holiday resort tennis pro in over his head |
A Single Man, Linbury Theatre review - an anatomy of melancholy, with breaks in the clouds
Ed Watson and Jonathan Goddard are extraordinary in Jonathan Watkins' dance theatre adaptation of Isherwood's novel |
Cow | Deer, Royal Court review - paradox-rich account of non-human life
Experimental work about nature led by Katie Mitchell is both extraordinary and banal |
Lammermuir Festival 2025 review - music with soul from the heart of East Lothian
Baroque splendour, and chamber-ensemble drama, amid history-haunted lands |
Album: Yasmine Hamdan - I Remember I Forget بنسى وبتذكر
Paris-based Lebanese electronica stylist reacts to current-day world affairs |
BBC Proms: Steinbacher, RPO, Petrenko / Sternath, BBCSO, Oramo review - double-bill mixed bag
Young pianist shines in Grieg but Bliss’s portentous cantata disappoints |
Honey Don’t! review - film noir in the bright sun
A Coen brother with a blood-simple gumshoe caper |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 92: Marianne Faithful, Crayola Lectern, UK Subs, Black Lips, Stax, Dennis Bovell and more
The biggest, best record reviews in the known universe |
Blondshell, Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow review - woozy rock with an air of nonchalance
The singer's set dripped with cool, if not always individuality |
Ganavya, Barbican review - low-key spirituality
Communion and intimacy with diminishing returns |
Music Reissues Weekly: Chiswick Records 1975-1982 - Seven Years at 45 RPM
Triple-album 50th-anniversary celebration of the mould-breaking British independent label |
I Fought the Law, ITVX review - how an 800-year-old law was challenged and changed
Sheridan Smith's raw performance dominates ITV's new docudrama about injustice |
theartsdesk at the Lahti Sibelius Festival - early epics by the Finnish master in context
Finnish heroes meet their Austro-German counterparts in breathtaking interpretations |
Deaf Republic, Royal Court review - beautiful images, shame about the words
Staging of Ukrainian-American Ilya Kaminsky’s anti-war poems is too meta-theatrical |
Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares, Underbelly Boulevard Soho review - Tony winner makes charming, cheeky London debut
Broadway's acclaimed Cinderella, Louise, and Amalia reaches Soho for a welcome one-night stand |
Waley-Cohen, Manchester Camerata, Pether, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester review - premiere of no ordinary violin concerto
Images of maternal care inspired by Hepworth and played in a gallery setting |
The Courageous review - Ophélia Kolb excels as a single mother on the edge
Jasmin Gordon's directorial debut features strong performances but leaves too much unexplained |
The Paper, Sky Max review - a spinoff of the US Office worth waiting 20 years for
Perfectly judged recycling of the original's key elements, with a star turn at its heart |
Edinburgh Psych Fest 2025 review - eclectic and experimental
Underground gems and established acts in this multi-genre, multi-venue day long festival |
The Pitchfork Disney, King's Head Theatre review - blazing with dark energy
Thrilling revival of Philip Ridley’s cult classic confirms its legendary status |
Supersonic Festival 2025, Birmingham review - a deep dive into the spectacularly weird and very wonderful
Festival season comes to an end with a celebration of the freakiest of the musical underground |
The Guest, BBC One review - be careful what you wish for
A terrific Eve Myles stars in addictive Welsh mystery |
Born with Teeth, Wyndham's Theatre review - electric sparring match between Shakespeare and Marlowe
Rival Elizabethan playwrights in an up-to-the-minute encounter |
Album: Saint Etienne - International
British pop institution’s final communiqué is an unalloyed winner |
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