Joe Chester: Lucia - Expansive study of mental illnessMusical exploration of troubled life of Joyce’s daughter is deft and well-consideredFri Jan 27 2023 - 05:02
John Cale: Mercy – Raging against the dying of the lightCale is on fierce form as his voice, rich and commanding, weaves around well-chosen collaboratorsFri Jan 13 2023 - 05:30
Paul Spring: Thunderhead – Richly realised songs with deft lyrics and considered sensibilityGalway musician’s choral influences and electronic elements are combed through a sense of the Irish traditionFri Dec 30 2022 - 05:00
Aoife Nessa Frances - Protector review: Deeply rich second albumArtist successfully delivers her beautiful, assured visionFri Oct 28 2022 - 05:00
Zaska — A Better Way review: Notes of pure optimism in a future-soul spaceMax Zaska radiantly reshapes familiar themes while showcasing talent from Ireland’s Direct Provision systemFri Oct 21 2022 - 05:00
Dry Cleaning: Stumpwork — freshly laundered second album with surprising warmth at its core Quartet reunite with John Parish at Rockfield Studios for this new collection of songs showcasing their playful, disarming potencyFri Oct 21 2022 - 05:00
Columbia Mills: Heart of a Nation - Uptempo post-pandemic dance vision Group’s third album is preoccupied with injustice in its jangly, electropop, funk stylingsFri Oct 14 2022 - 05:00
Roe: That’s When the Panic Sets In - Navigating the currents of anxietyDebut album from Roisin Donald is underpinned by self-interrogation and neat elements of brass and pianoFri Sept 23 2022 - 05:00
Hour of the Ox review: Katie Kim offers light and darknessFifth album is an exercise in balanceFri Sept 09 2022 - 05:00
The Amazons: How will I Know if Heaven will Find Me? - Indie pop joyJim Abbiss-produced album originated during lockdown but the final result is expansiveFri Sept 02 2022 - 05:00
Julia Jacklin: Pre Pleasure — Ripples with a sense of discomfortThe singer-songwriter’s third album acknowledges shifting personal politics and how we have to walk ourselves into the answersFri Aug 26 2022 - 05:00
Sylvan Esso: No Rules Sandy — clear-eyed reminder of essential impulses that keep time in this worldFourth record from Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn full of wild strangeness and romance, with full pockets of joy and weirdnessFri Aug 12 2022 - 05:00
Jack White: Entering Heaven Alive — Possibly White’s best record to dateTree on Fire From Within is a particular highlight, it seems to return the singer back to himselfFri Jul 22 2022 - 06:00
Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler: For All Our Days That Tear the Heart - magical and mysteriousThe singer-actor and the ex-Suede guitarist have come up with a compelling collaboration that confronts pain and heartbreakFri Jun 17 2022 - 06:00
Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris: Essays exploring preoccupations of our timeAuthor’s brilliance lies in his ability to both disrupt and comfort. We are lucky to have himSun Jun 12 2022 - 06:00
Just Mustard: Heart Under – Atmospheric sensualityIrish band’s new album speaks to power of resilienceMon May 30 2022 - 15:39
I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys reviewMiranda Seymour offers exhaustive ride around idea and reality of contrarian writerSat May 14 2022 - 06:00
Father John Misty: Chloë and the Next 20th Century – nostalgia with an edgeThere’s a sense of restraint in Josh Tillman’s musical reaction to the horrors of the worldFri Apr 08 2022 - 00:00
Midlake – For the Sake of Bethel Woods album review: A dream come trueAmerican band have have found a different kind of voice on their fifth albumFri Mar 18 2022 - 05:00
Pierce Turner: Terrible Good review – seeking majesty in the mundaneHope is part of Turner’s philosophy, along with an everyday kind of romanceFri Feb 25 2022 - 05:00
Inni-K: Iníon – A fresh take on a sean-nós traditionThe singer goes back to her childhood and the songs from her parents’ record collectionFri Feb 18 2022 - 05:00
Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You – Charming and disarmingAn expansive, restless road trip around Adrianne Lenker’s songwriting DNAFri Feb 11 2022 - 12:00
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis: La Panthère Des Neiges – Naturally wonderfulAn elegant, layered and affecting collaboration celebrating the natural worldFri Dec 17 2021 - 05:00
Damon Albarn: The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream FlowsElegies with moments of up-tempo joyFri Nov 12 2021 - 05:00
Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine: A Beginner’s Mind review – exceptional, empathic call to arms for the brokenThis collaborative work uses cinema as a narrative touchstoneFri Sept 24 2021 - 05:00
Saint Etienne: I’ve Been Trying to Tell You review – Emotional time travelTheir first sample-driven album since 1993 is a contemplative, immersive diamondFri Sept 10 2021 - 05:00
Gruff Rhys: Seeking New Gods review – A mountain worth climbingThe Welsh man’s playful, graceful seventh solo album takes Mount Paektu as its themeFri May 21 2021 - 05:00
Tune-Yards: Sketchy review – Fully drawn and highly inventiveThe fifth album returns us to early Tune-YardsFri Mar 26 2021 - 05:00
Julien Baker: Little Oblivions – Solid template for future workA record that celebrates a sense that everything is ephemeral, both good and badFri Feb 26 2021 - 05:00
Dark Mark Does Christmas 2020: Breathing new life into old materialLanegan’s vocals add a weary loveliness to songs that have lived among us for so longFri Dec 04 2020 - 05:15
Keaton Henson: Monument review – A sobering and raw account of griefAn ode to the musician's father manages to memorialise something fundamentalFri Oct 23 2020 - 05:45
Matt Berninger: Serpentine Prison review – National singer’s ‘orphan songs’ find a homeBerninger, with help from Booker T Jones, delivers an album of understated eleganceMon Oct 12 2020 - 10:25
Sufjan Stevens: The Ascension review – Reaching for something to believe inAn ambitious protest record that takes his favourite theme – America – to the next levelFri Sept 25 2020 - 05:30
Susanna: Baudelaire & Piano review – French poet’s essence crystallised in songNorwegian vocalist’s stark arrangements are leavened by flashes of Joni Mitchell feelingFri Sept 11 2020 - 05:00
Tame Impala: The Slow Rush review – A confusing pop palaceKevin Parker is leaving behind his earlier vision of subtle beauty for a pop paradiseFri Feb 14 2020 - 06:00
Destroyer: Have We Met review – Dan Bejar’s return is a revelationDan Bejar has produced something both doomily familiar and refreshingly modernThu Jan 30 2020 - 12:00
Field Music: Making New World review – Clever, illuminating brillianceThe Brewis brothers’album looks at the after-effects of the first World WarFri Jan 10 2020 - 05:30
A Winged Victory for the Sullen: The Undivided Five review – threads between life and death never sounded so beautifulAdam Wiltzie and Dustin O’Halloran deliver a stunning work influenced by Swedish artist Hilma af KlintFri Nov 01 2019 - 10:16
Devonté Hynes and Third Coast Percussion: Fields review – a crystal-clear connectionHynes aka Blood Orange and the Chicago quartet share a love of Philip GlassFri Oct 04 2019 - 07:00
New Order + Liam Gillick: So It Goes review – Euphoric Manchester elegyAmbitious and joyous work to remind us that New Order are best behind the synthesizerFri Jul 12 2019 - 05:00
Björk: ‘Let’s break this curse so it won’t fall on our daughter and her daughter’The Icelandic maverick wants to ‘break the chains of the f***-ups of our fathers’Thu Apr 19 2018 - 05:00
The National review: A little help from friends, a little majesty in CorkThe Brooklyn band open their European tour with a storming set at Sounds from a Safe HarbourSun Sept 17 2017 - 16:00
Run the Jewels on why rap is modern mythologyKiller Mike and El-P on the 'elite poetry' of modern musicWed Apr 19 2017 - 05:00
Ten of the best shows at the Edinburgh festivalsFrom Alan Cumming singing about Liza Minnelli to a heart-stopping play about depression, this year’s festival has had it allMon Aug 29 2016 - 06:00
From barking to Bill Cosby: Hannibal Buress’s never-ending tour on the comedy circuitA routine about Bill Cosby catapulted him up the comedy rankings, but with a host of impressive TV and film credits, and a wealth of experience earned the hard way on the comedy circuit, Hannibal Buress has a rightful claim to the US comedy throneMon Oct 12 2015 - 06:00
Sufjan Stevens at The Helix: a radiant rendering of his seventh studio albumStevens' ability to translate searing personal testimony into something universal strongly resonates in this showSat Aug 29 2015 - 12:21