fri 08/11/2024

New Music reviews, news & interviews

Tucker Zimmerman, The Lexington, London review - undersung old-timer airs songwriting excellence

Thomas H Green

Tucker Zimmerman is singing a number called “Don’t Go Crazy (Go in Peace)”. At 83, he performs sitting down. Surrounded by support band Iji, who act as his pick-up, he approaches the song in a whispery, affable voice. At the start of his set he was assisted to his seat but, knees aside, he’s not frail. He’s just laid back, a Sixties original, strumming gently.

Album: Primal Scream - Come Ahead

Guy Oddy

In many ways, Primal Scream have had a strikingly similar career path to the Rolling Stones – despite them forming some 20 years after Mick and Keith’s odyssey began and it not throwing up quite the same level of financial rewards. That said, while drugs and death may have haunted both bands, they never seemed to sap Primal Scream’s creatively in quite the same way as it did the Stones.

Album: Alley Cat - The Widow Project

Joe Muggs

If the names Pinch, Vex’d, Burial, Digital Mystikz, The Bug mean anything to you, stop reading now and buy or stream this album. Seriously, go. Go...

Bob Vylan, O2 Institute, Birmingham review - self...

Guy Oddy

More than once during their barnstorming performance this weekend, Bobby Vylan, vocalist with Bob Vylan proclaimed from the stage of Birmingham’s O2...

Album: Møster! - Springs

Kieron Tyler

Springs begins cooking with “Spaced Out Invaders - Part I Quirks,” its fourth track. A spindly, rotating guitar figure interweaves with clattering...

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

Music Reissues Weekly: Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Singles

Kieron Tyler

Plugging a gap in the story of the soul giant

Album: Chuck Prophet - Wake the Dead

Nick Hasted

Rock'n'roll master dances past the graveyard with cumbia rhythms and quizzically cocked eyebrow

Album: Willie Nelson - Last Leaf on the Tree

Tim Cumming

The 91-year-old’s 153rd album is more than a farewell to arms – it’s a late-career classic

Album: The Cure - Songs of a Lost World

Joe Muggs

Sadness and finality have rarely felt so life-affirming

Album: Peter Perrett - The Cleansing

Guy Oddy

Depth, humour and bucket loads of cool from the former Only One

Book Extract: Where Songs Come From - The Lyrics and Origin Stories of 150 Solo and Carter USM Songs by Jim Bob

Jim Bob

Jim Bob introduces a chapter from his new book, a combined autobiography, lyrical overview and love letter to London

Album: Pixies - The Night The Zombies Came

Ellie Roberts

Quirky indie with a Halloween twist from legends of the genre Pixies

Music Reissues Weekly: Gerry and the Pacemakers - I Like It! Anthology 1963-1966

Kieron Tyler

How the key Merseybeat hitmakers were left behind as pop moved on

Album: Halsey - The Great Impersonator

Thomas H Green

The US star muses on mortality via channelling her musical heroines

Album: Underworld - Strawberry Hotel

Mark Kidel

Contagiously joyous rollercoaster from Smith and Hyde

Album: Bastille - &

Thomas H Green

Dan Smith attempts to pare back to less bombast but doesn't always succeed

Isabel LaRosa, Saint Luke's and the Winged Ox, Glasgow review - TikTok pop and a school disco atmosphere

Jonathan Geddes

The up-and-coming pop star was lively but one-dimensional

Album: Amyl and the Sniffers - Cartoon Darkness

Guy Oddy

Australian pub rockers are a riot

Since Yesterday review - championing a neglected female music scene

India Lewis

A chronological journey through the unjustly underrated world of Scotland's women bands

Album: Tess Parks - Pomegranate

Kieron Tyler

With the Brian Jonestown Massacre association concluded, psychedelic auteur reintegrates with the wider world

Music Reissues Weekly: Rain - Tomorrow Never Comes: The NYC Sessions 1967-1968

Kieron Tyler

The final chapter in the story of Merseybeat pioneers The Undertakers

Public Service Broadcasting, Barrowland, Glasgow review - history given euphoric life

Jonathan Geddes

From Ameila Earhart to the space race, the quartet were as creative as ever

Album: Laura Marling - Patterns in Repeat

Katie Colombus

An intimate ode to the miracle of life

Album: Kylie Minogue - Tension II

Joe Muggs

Kylie's relentless energy never fails to impress but are we hearing the law of diminishing returns in action?

Album: Elephant9 with Terje Rypdal - Catching Fire

Kieron Tyler

Thrilling union of prodigious Norwegians

Album: Mystery Tiime - Maudlin Tales of Grief and Love

Joe Muggs

Cold, crisp, bleak reality in a sad set of post-punk sketches

theartsdesk on Vinyl 86: Molly Tuttle, Depeche Mode, Pharoah Sanders, Seefeel, Hinds, Sofi Tukker and more

Thomas H Green

Britain's premier vinyl record reviews

Album: MC5 - Heavy Lifting

Guy Oddy

Partial final reformation by proto-punk greats is a mixed bag

Music Reissues Weekly: Arvo Pärt - Tabula Rasa

Kieron Tyler

A foundational album returns

Footnote: a brief history of new music in Britain

New music has swung fruitfully between US and UK influences for half a century. The British charts began in 1952, initially populated by crooners and light jazz. American rock'n'roll livened things up, followed by British imitators such as Lonnie Donegan and Cliff Richard. However, it wasn't until The Beatles combined rock'n'roll's energy with folk melodies and Motown sweetness that British pop found a modern identity outside light entertainment. The Rolling Stones, amping up US blues, weren't far behind, with The Who and The Kinks also adding a unique Englishness. In the mid-Sixties the drugs hit - LSD sent pop looking for meaning. Pastoral psychedelia bloomed. Such utopianism couldn't last and prog rock alongside Led Zeppelin's steroid riffing defined the early Seventies. Those who wanted it less blokey turned to glam, from T Rex to androgynous alien David Bowie.

sex_pistolsA sea change arrived with punk and its totemic band, The Sex Pistols, a reaction to pop's blandness and much else. Punk encouraged inventiveness and imagination on the cheap but, while reggae made inroads, the most notable beneficiary was synth pop, The Human League et al. This, when combined with glam styling, produced the New Romantic scene and bands such as Duran Duran sold multi-millions and conquered the US.

By the mid-Eighties, despite U2's rise, the British charts were sterile until acid house/ rave culture kicked the doors down for electronica, launching acts such as the Chemical Brothers. The media, however, latched onto indie bands with big tunes and bigger mouths, notably Oasis and Blur – Britpop was born.

By the millennium, both scenes had fizzled, replaced by level-headed pop-rockers who abhorred ostentation in favour of homogenous emotionality. Coldplay were the biggest. Big news, however, lurked in underground UK hip hop where artists adapted styles such as grime, dubstep and drum & bass into new pop forms, creating breakout stars Dizzee Rascal and, more recently, Tinie Tempah. The Arts Desk's wide-ranging new music critics bring you overnight reviews of every kind of music, from pop to unusual world sounds, daily reviews of new releases and downloads, and unique in-depth interviews with celebrated musicians and DJs, plus the quickest ticket booking links. Our writers include Peter Culshaw, Joe Muggs, Howard Male, Thomas H Green, Graeme Thomson, Kieron Tyler, Russ Coffey, Bruce Dessau, David Cheal & Peter Quinn

Close Footnote

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters

latest in today

Help to give theartsdesk a future!

It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

It followed some...

The Day of the Jackal, Sky Atlantic review - Frederick Forsy...

Fred Zinnemann’s 1973 film The Day of the Jackal was successful thanks to its lean, almost documentary-like treatment of its story of a...

L’Addition, BAC review – top billing for physical comedy duo

Can experimental theatre survive the decades? This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Forced Entertainment theatre company, whose mission is...

Tucker Zimmerman, The Lexington, London review - undersung o...

Tucker Zimmerman is singing a number called “Don’t Go Crazy (Go in Peace)”. At 83, he performs sitting down. Surrounded by support band Iji, who...

Album: Primal Scream - Come Ahead

In many ways, Primal Scream have had a strikingly similar career path to the Rolling Stones – despite them forming some 20 years after Mick and...

Fauré Centenary Concert 5, Wigmore Hall review - a final fli...

As Steven Isserlis announced just before the final work, in more senses than one, of a five-day revelation, the 79 year old Fauré...

Barcelona, Duke of York's Theatre review - Lily Collins...

The Catalan capital has given its name to a famous number in the Stephen Sondheim musical, Company. And here it is lending geographical...

Album: Alley Cat - The Widow Project

If the names Pinch, Vex’d, Burial, Digital Mystikz, The Bug mean anything to you, stop reading now and buy or stream this album. Seriously, go. Go...