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.

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”…
The Telegraph •

Julia Jacklin ‘Pre Pleasure’ Album Review

On her excellent second album, Crushing, Julia Jacklin poured over a series of failed relationships with critical self-examination. Three years later with Pre Pleasure, Jacklin is taking a gentler approach. “Am I gonna lose myself again? / I quite like the person that I am”, she sings on standout song I Was Neon, considering whether a new relationship is worth it. Her previous work has explored female desire and guilt as women view themselves sexually through patriarchal lenses. Here, those lenses are joyfully smashed…
Evening Standard •

Sopé Dìrísù: the star on his new period drama Mr Malcolm’s List

His role is a far cry from the one he’s best known for, as undercover cop Elliot Finch in Sky Atlantic’s hit crime drama Gangs of London (season two of which will launch later this year), who lives on a knife edge working as a trusted enforcer for the Wallace crime family, always at risk of discovery. Mr Malcolm, by some considerable contrast, is a rigid, set-in-his-ways bachelor in Regency London, who puts together a list of attributes he wants in a wife…
NME •

Joe Keery: "I want my stage persona to surprise people"

It’s a roasting hot July day at Lollapalooza festival, Chicago, and Joe Keery is strutting confidently about the Bud Light Seltzer stage, electric guitar in hand. “What’s going on?!” he shouts to the sweaty crowd, “Y’all staying cool?” Some replying screams suggest they are, but Keery must be boiling. He’s sporting head-to-toe white overalls (as are the other touring members of his psych-rock outfit Djo), blocky sunglasses and a shoulder-length brown wig…
NME •

'Uncoupled' review: Neil Patrick Harris goes dating

It’s a big year for the gay romcom. In September, there’s the arrival of Billy Eicher’s Bros, the first romantic comedy from a major studio featuring two gay men in leading roles, plus a principal cast made up of entirely LGBTQ+ actors. Now, there’s also Netflix’s new Neil Patrick Harris-starring Uncoupled – a show about a gay man called Michael who is thrown into dating turmoil in his mid-40s after his partner of 17 years leaves him...
Evening Standard •

Adele marks emotional return home with dazzling performance

Her first public UK gig in over five years, the musician was visibly teary as the 65,000 strong crowd sang her hit back en masse. “I’m so happy to be here,” she enthused half-way through the song. “I’m back home.” As ever, despite being one of the biggest musicians on the planet (stars like Tom Cruise were watching from the VIP area), Adele retained her familial relatability with the audience from the get-go...
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