thu 16/10/2025

New Music Reviews

Nadine Shah, SWG3, Glasgow review - loudly dancing the night away

Jonathan Geddes

First Nadine Shah raised hopes, then dashed them. “I’ve never had a dance off onstage before,” she observed at one point, impressed by the shapes a crowd member was cutting, before confirming it wouldn’t be happening on this evening either. You’d have backed Shah to triumph too, given how the rest of the gig showcased her skills with style.

Read more...

Orbital, O2 Institute, Birmingham review - the techno titans celebrate their rave years in style

Guy Oddy

On Friday evening, dance veterans Orbital touched down in Birmingham to celebrate two of the most significant and acclaimed albums in rave culture. These discs may both be over 30 years old, but the Brummies were out in force, packed into an overfull O2 Institute, and lapped it up.

Read more...

Album: The Lemon Twigs - A Dream Is All We Know

Kieron Tyler

The Lemon Twigs aren’t shy about telegraphing their inspirations. A Dream is all we Know, their swift follow-up to last May’s Everything Harmony, is stuffed with references. “Sweet Vibration” is rooted in The Left Banke’s “She May Call You up Tonight.” “In the Eyes of the Girl” draws from The Beach Boys’s “Girls on the Beach.” Album opener “My Golden Years” nods to second album Big Star. Todd Rundgren looms large over the album’s title track.

Read more...

Music Reissues Weekly: Warsaw - Middlesbrough 14th September 1977, Joy Division - Manchester 28th September 1979

Kieron Tyler

Edinburgh’s Rezillos were booked to play Middlesbrough’s Rock Garden on Wednesday 14 September 1977. “I Can’t Stand my Baby,” their debut single, had been issued in July and they were on the road subsequent to its release, positive music press reviews and regular spins from John Peel. Their humour-laced, Day-Glo art-punk was making waves.

Read more...

Music Reissues Weekly: Linda Smith - I So Liked Spring, Nothing Else Matters

Kieron Tyler

Three years ago, the release of Till Another Time 1988-1996 generated a thumbs up. A compilation of recordings by the Baltimore and/or New York-based Linda Smith it was, according to this column, “stunning” and “significant.” Until this point, knowledge of Smith had “largely been the province of the do-it-yourself world of music.”

Read more...

The Songs of Joni Mitchell, Roundhouse review - fans (old and new) toast to an icon of our age

Cheri Amour

For most people’s 40th birthday celebrations, they might get a few friends together, rustle up a cake, and toast to another turn around the sun. But when musician Lail Arad realised the stars had aligned with her beloved Joni Mitchell's own 80th birthday, she knew she had to mark the milestone moment with something special.

Read more...

theartsdesk on Vinyl: Record Store Day Special 2024

Thomas H Green

Record Store Day is tomorrow! At theartsdesk on Vinyl we’ve been sent a selection of exclusive RSD goodies. Check out the reviews, then check out your local record shop! See you amongst it.

THEARTSDESK ON VINYL’S CHOICE CUT OF RECORD STORE DAY APRIL 2024

The Near Jazz Experience featuring Mike Garson Character Actor EP (Sartorial)

Read more...

Album: Paraorchestra with Brett Anderson and Charles Hazlewood - Death Songbook

Kieron Tyler

Death Songbook is, says Charles Hazlewood, founder, artistic director and conductor of Paraorchestra, an album of “music which is about death, or the death of love, about loss, about anxiety.” Suede’s Brett Anderson, on board for this endeavour, notes “I've always found dark material more inspiring than upbeat songs. Upbeat songs always make me depressed somehow. I've always liked those songs that deal with the murkier sides of life.”

Read more...

theartsdesk on Vinyl 83: Deep Purple, Annie Anxiety, Ghetts, WHAM!, Kaiser Chiefs, Butthole Surfers and more

Thomas H Green

VINYL OF THE MONTH

London Afrobeat Collective Esengo (Canopy)

Read more...

Music Reissues Weekly: Congo Funk! - Sound Madness from the Shores of the Mighty Congo River

Kieron Tyler

Brazzaville is on the north side of the Congo River. It is the capital of the Republic of the Congo. Kinshasa is on the south side of the Congo. It is capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly known as Zaïre. The cities face each other, about 1.5km apart, divided by the river and being in different nations.

Read more...

Pages

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?

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Ragdoll, Jermyn Street Theatre review – compelling and emoti...

Oh yes, I actually do remember Patty Hearst. She was the American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst’s granddaughter, who, at the age of...

The Last Dinner Party's 'From the Pyre' is as...

Before we get into it, reader, can you accept that The Last Dinner Party are a band born of privilege and high academic study? Of poshness,...

Kempf, Brno Philharmonic, Davies, Bridgewater Hall, Manchest...

Dennis Russell Davies and his musicians from the Czech...

Moroccan Gnawa comes to Manhattan with 'Saha Gnawa...

A mix of tradition and Afrofuturism, acoustic and electronic, east and west fumigating in a cauldron of rhythms, chants, solo explorations and...

Albert Herring, English National Opera review - a great come...

Britten’s Albert Herring is one of the great 20th century comic operas; only Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Barry’s The...

Iron Ladies review - working-class heroines of the Miners...

The enduring image of the 1984-1985 Miners' Strike is that of men standing arm in arm against police and of mass protests devolving into mayhem –...

Blu-ray: The Man in the White Suit

The best Ealing comedies are surely the three...

Solomon, OAE, Butt, QEH review - daft Biblical whitewashing...

Forty years ago, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was born, and I heard Handel’s Solomon in concert for the first time. Charles...