Like C.S. Lewis’ 'A Grief Observed', this devastating album is the work of an artist attempting to make sense of loss. "Peace will come," Nick Cave assures us, although it never really does The last few years have seen Nick Cave engage with fans more directly and openly than ever before. “You can ask me anything,” was the simple and direct message he posted to fans on the launch of his Red Hand Files website. Over the past 12 months, Cave answered questions from fans on everything from the bana

As album titles go, naming your latest after a classical symphony that redefined the entirety of Western music is, well, ballsy. “I think it’s audacious and sincere,” singer Jeff Tweedy said of Wilco’s choice to borrow the title of their eleventh studio album from Ludwig van Beethoven’s 1824 ‘Ode to Joy’...

Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke opens up about Brexit Britain, Brandon Flowers' comments on Morrissey, the artists failing to fight far right rhetoric, and his ambitious new album '2042' On the face of it, Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke has a lot to celebrate. He’s soon to become a father for the second time, his anti-Brexit soundtrack and play ‘Leave to Remain‘ premiered to rave reviews earlier this year, and the first two single releases from his upcoming fourth solo album ‘2042’ have been praised as em

Shura hasn’t had much sleep when our interview begins. Just a few hours earlier, she’d arrived at a deserted Heathrow Airport in the early hours of the morning after her flight from Sweden – where she’d been appearing at Way Out West festival – was delayed. After landing in London, Shura and her band were delayed further when they couldn’t exit the plane...

“People think of beauty as a blessing, but I think for Nico it was definitely a curse,” Maxine Peake says, a few weeks before she’s due to start rehearsals for a play she’s co-created about the German musician, model and muse. The Nico Project, which is currently showing at Manchester’s International Festival, focuses on Nico’s solo work as a musician...

“Don’t quiz me on which thirteen records I picked because I can’t remember,” Buzz Osborne of Melvins tells me, moments before we’re due to begin our chat about his thirteen favourite records. “Sometimes, it changes hourly,” he adds. I explain that I have a list of choices he sent over a few weeks ago. “Phew, that’s alright then! I might change my mind though.”

For Norwich post-punk dance duo Sink Ya Teeth, performing in front of a 2000-strong crowd at Pohoda festival last weekend was one of their biggest audiences to date. Formed in 2015 by Gemma Cullingford and Maria Uzor, both musicians were excited to be appearing at the Slovakian festival for the first time and smashed their set over on the Europa stage last Friday afternoon (July 12).

“It was nerve-wracking releasing anything after my first album being as big as it was, “Bay says. “But trying to live up to it was also still exciting. I chose to follow my heart and do something different which felt right at the same time. I didn’t just want to reinterpret the same thing in the same way – that didn’t feel like the most honest move.” Bay wanted his record to reflect the new influences he was discovering at the time, even if that meant gambling on the change in direction...

Somewhere between shoegaze and synth-pop, tackling frustration, anxiety and confusion, this powerful debut shows it's never too late to follow your dreams. The Soft Cavalry’s eponymous debut is borne out of an old-fashioned love-story. Until 2014, Steve Clarke – the group’s mastermind, lead vocalist and guitarist – was working as a jobbing musician, providing backing vocals for various musicians whilst also balancing work as a tour manager. In 2014, Clarke was asked to work with the newly reformed Slowdive...

Sunday at Glastonbury got off to the brightest of starts thanks to the enduring good weather and a surprise appearance from Sir David Attenborough on the Pyramid Stage. Receiving a welcome normally reserved for rock stars, the 93-year-old praised Glastonbury for its decision to go plastic-free just days after Extinct Rebellion led a procession of 20,000 through the festival’s fields to raise awareness of climate change. Attenborough’s appearance was brief but powerful and the pinnacle of the gr

Thom Yorke’s third solo album feels like it begins where Radiohead’s OK Computer left off: “Goddamned machinery, why don’t you speak to me? / One day I am gonna take an axe to you,” he torments on new offering The Axe. Where OK Computer was the warning, Anima is the reality: technology has taken over and our true inner selves, our “animas”, are lost. In Yorke’s new world, humans are devoid of self, walking around in a limbo state somewhere between dreams and foggy realities. His falsetto haunts

Politics in 2019 has once again excelled itself at being a cross between The Thick of It and Brass Eye. If you’re well and truly fed up of Theresa’s tears, Boris’ buses and Jeremy *unt, then it’s time to take yourself to Glastonbury’s Left Field where they’re aiming to ‘Recharge Your Activism’ via a series of brilliant speakers and debates. All the important issues of the day are up for discussion. At ‘The Hostile Environment – Who’s Responsible?’ the UK’s treatment of refugees is explored with

Their strongest offering in years, where dance is an act of defiance Friends for 27 years, bandmates for 19, Alex Taylor and Joe Goddard officially formed Hot Chip in 2000, releasing a handful of EPs as a duo. Add in Al Doyle, Felix Martin and Owen Clarke a few years later and Hot Chip were born proper, the bulk of their best material coming between 2006’s ‘Boy From School’ and 2010’s ‘One Life Stand.’

When the new season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia airs, the beloved show will officially become the joint-longest running live-action sitcom in American television history, equalling 1950s and 60s show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Against the odds, Dennis, Mac, Charlie, Dee and Frank have already made it to a mammoth 13 seasons after 14 years on the air. Season 14 is now on the way – and there are plans for a 15th season, too...

The last time Janelle Monáe visited Manchester, in Sep- tember 2018, the 33-year-old Prince protege delivered a powerful statement of intent: “We all need to embrace who we are, even if it makes others feel uncomfortable.” Celebrating difference via flesh-and-blood humanity, Monáe dispensed with the flawless futurism of her fiction- al android alter ego, Cindi Mayweather – a Bowie-like per- sona who’d graced her music since her Fritz Lang-inspired 2007 debut, Metropolis...

Over in the Greenpeace Field, a huge new installation called BEAM is bringing nature and music together like never before. Created by English artist Wolfgang Buttress, BEAM measures the activity of Michael Eavis’ black bee colony on Worthy Farm and turns the energy of their buzzing (via some fancy algorithms) into music. Cool, huh?

Now that we’ve got a great big, Game of Thrones-shaped hole in our lives, it’s time we had some new and exciting TV to fill it with. Happily, there are plenty of options this summer with the return of some old favourites and some intriguing debut seasons. Here’s our pick of the best.

Brooklyn-based dancer Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray never imagined that a street dance style he invented during his lunchtimes at school would go on to become a global craze. Used by Madonna, Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj, to name a few, Gray’s “flexing” dance became a phenomenon thanks to the audacity of its moves – many of which look physically impossible – and its powerful political comment.

It’s one of the most extraordinary stories of Radiohead’s career. In early June, fans started talking about the theft of scores of the band’s private 1995-1998 recordings, many of which ended up on 1997’s classic ‘OK Computer’. Not only that, the thieves were demanding $150,000 for the recordings to be returned...

Coming 36 years after her self-titled debut, Madonna’s Madame X might just be one of the most exciting, baffling and bold albums of her career. Influenced by her life in Lisbon, London, New York and LA, Madame X is dizzying in its range of influences. There’s Latin pop, house, disco, reggaeton, trap, even classical snatches of Tchaikovsky. Many moments impress, mostly because of how much they surprise: Madonna, below, revels, as always, in being unpredictable...