Elizabeth Aubrey

Freelance arts and culture journalist/lecturer. My work is regularly found in NME, Evening Standard, The Guardian, Empire, The Quietus, GQ, The Independent, MixMag, Crack and more.

NME •

Nightbus: Manchester trio making eerie indie to soundtrack late night tales

When Nightbus, a new Manchester-based trio made up of Olive Rees, Zac Melrose and Jake Cottier, play the city’s famous Band On The Wall venue in the bohemian Northern Quarter in February, they deliver with the experience of a band well beyond their years. As they take to the stage to play their much-hyped debut single ‘Way Past Three’, they have a gripped audience in the palm of their hands; whispers among the crowd compare them to Joy Division and The xx…
Evening Standard •

The reinvention of Jeff Goldblum: I’d always try to slip piano playing into my movies

“Isn’t it all just crazy?!” Jeff Goldblum says with a bemused smile, hands aloft in disbelief, as he reflects on what he describes as his recent “growth spurt”. He’s not referring to a sudden change in his already imposing height (he is six foot four) but to the fact that now, aged 70, he has managed to carve out an incredible second career as an acclaimed jazz musician alongside being a Hollywood actor. “Isn’t it really something?!”
Evening Standard •

Ellie Goulding on her new album, anxiety and taking acting lessons

Her fifth studio album, Higher Than Heaven, came out of those sessions, and there’s not a ballad in earshot. It’s bright, cutting electro-pop that’s dancefloor ready and feels reminiscent of Swedish pop sensation Robyn in places. “I think it was an almost direct reaction to the pandemic and not being able to do the thing that I love, which is performing, and the fact none of us could go and dance with our friends,” she says…
The Telegraph •

The week’s best albums - Miley Cyrus, Sleaford Mods and more

Few bands have captured the political despair of the last decade as singularly as Nottingham duo Sleaford Mods. Their 2007 breakthrough Austerity Dogs was a bleak tableau of life below the poverty line, while 2011’s Eton Alive questioned the lack of empathy of those in power. Lockdown smash Spare Ribs (2021) was a piercing take-down of the government’s handling of the pandemic while their latest, UK Grim, now takes aim at the cost-of-living crisis...
whynow •

Sleaford Mods: ‘The working-class experience is too brutal for people. They don’t want to hear it’

“It’s a gallery of bellends”, Jason Williamson, singer and lyricist with Nottingham electro-punk duo Sleaford Mods says of the video that accompanies the title track from their latest album, UK Grim. Created by artist Coldwar Steve (known for his surreal dystopian creations about all that’s crap in Britain), it’s a rogue’s gallery of MPs who have made politics a misery over the last decade, as well as some celebrities who have made it just a bit (more) embarrassing to be British of late...
Evening Standard •

Popstar Mimi Webb: ‘Harry Styles told me I was smashing it’

Webb can be forgiven for being tired. Two days earlier, she was at the BRITs for the first time after being nominated for Best New Artist. The day after, she flew out to Cologne for a whirlwind promotional tour of her upcoming new album, Amelia, and now, she’s in a hotel in Berlin for more press before she travels further across Germany. She’s also getting ready for a headline tour this spring...
The Quietus •

Features | A Quietus Interview | Use Your Days: An Interview With Gina Birch

“I tend not to censor myself,” Gina Birch – post punk icon and founding member of The Raincoats – tells tQ from her home in London, reflecting on her 45 year career. “If something excites me, I just go with it and I don’t worry about what anyone else thinks,” she smiles, punk’s anarchistic spirit still running strongly through her veins. Birch is discussing her new, debut solo album, I Play My Bass Loud – a work made up of thrilling new songs as well as several older compositions mined from her…
NME •

Slow Horses season 2 review: TV's best spy show hits new heights

Gary Oldman’s cranky spy Jackson Lamb is back, and he’s as scruffy, sarcastic and sweary as ever. “I wanna know who this fucker is and where he fackin’ went!” he roars to his weary team of MI5 rejects in Slow Horses season two, hair uncombed, teeth uncleaned and Columbo-mac very much unwashed. “Yeah, sorry about that, it lingered,” he tells an MI5 admin assistant later on, his farts causing just as much trouble now as they did in season one...
Flaunt Magazine •

Paul Mescal | Let's Pull the Rug Out, Shall We? —

Paul Mescal is taking things in stride as he speaks to Flaunt over an early morning video call from LA, despite a hectic schedule that’s seen him traveling thousands of miles over just a few days. He’s running his fingers through his messy hair and dressed simply in a dark t-shirt and jeans. He’s just got back from the Telluride Film Festival, but there’s little time for rest: in just a few hours, he’s flying to Toronto for the film festival there in support of his two new movies, Carmen…
Evening Standard •

‘Like opening up a magic box’: Inside the making of Moonage Daydream

The resulting film is an immersive journey into the creative mind of Bowie, rather than a factual blow-by-blow account of his life. It’s told entirely using the voice of late musician, using archival footage from interviews and films. There are previously unseen performances and concert clips, as well as vignettes of some of Bowie’s rarely showcased work in the wider artistic fields of art, dance, television and film...
NME •

Marcus Mumford – '(self-titled)' review: well-crafted catharsis and collaborations

The opening lines of Marcus Mumford’s solo outing make for a crushing listen. “I can still taste you and I hate it / That wasn’t a choice in the mind of a child and you knew it,” he intones on ‘Cannibal’, revealing – for the first time publicly – that he was sexually abused as a child. The album’s emotive second track, ‘Grace’, is about the moment he told his mother. Until hearing her son rehearse ‘Cannibal’ during lockdown, she had no idea what he’d experienced...
NME •

Marcus Mumford on solo album '(self-titled)': "I've never felt so fulfilled around a project"

When Marcus Mumford recalls mixing his upcoming debut solo album ‘(self-titled)’ with producer Blake Mills, he gets emotional at the memories of his final day in the studio: “‘Cannibal’ was the last song we were mixing… We were coming into the last 10 minutes of mixing this thing and I’m listening to the lyrics over and over again: “Help me know how to begin again…”
The Telegraph •

The week’s best albums - Reviews

“I’m in love again / And tomorrow I’ll be sad,” blubs Yungblud on his latest single, Tissues. As a soundbite, it offers a fair summation of the 25-year-old Yorkshire pop-punk singer-songwriter’s entire oeuvre. Set to a shamelessly borrowed Cure riff (from 1985’s Close to Me) and a slappy 1980s beat that would make A-Ha blush, Tissues is delivered with the snarly angst of someone who positively revels in his own and other people’s misery...
The Quietus •

Features | Escape Velocity | Beyond The Bubble: An Interview With Aasthma

Aasthma is the new project from techno masterminds Pär Grindvik and Peder Mannerfelt. The Swedish duo have been friends for more than 15 years and have collaborated on numerous projects together in the past. Now, the pair have finally decided to collaborate on an album together, Arrival. It’s a bold step away from each of their musical pasts, and comes with one hell of a description; when asked what it sounds like, Grindvik is clear: “It’s Justin Bieber meeting up with Rotterdam Terror Corps to do an ABBA cover at the Grand Ole Opry”…
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