On the cover of Loraine James’ latest album, For You And I, the past and the present blur as the London-born producer holds up a photo from 2006 of the high rise block of flats she grew up in against a picture of the flats as they are now. On the newer picture, there are three towers – one blue, one green and one purple – the latter being the one where James grew up. On the older photo, a fourth, yellow building is missing...

Beck and Pharrell first discussed the idea of working together in 1999, but it’s taken almost 20 years to finally bring the two together. Speaking to NME recently, Beck revealed that Pharrell asked him to initially work on the new N.E.R.D. record; from there, the two began sharing songs and, soon, a body of work emerged. A full collaboration ensued and ‘Hyperspace’, Beck’s 14th album, was born. Elsewhere, the record sees guest appearances from Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Sky Ferreira, Paul Epworth and Greg Kurstin on what is Beck’s most collaborative work for years.

“It’s remorseless,” Ken Loach says with a weary sigh, as talks about the poverty besieging the UK that he and Paul Laverty, his long-term writing partner, witnessed whilst researching his latest film. Sorry We Missed You is the follow-up to 2016’s I, Daniel Blake, and sees the veteran director return to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to document the plight of low-paid workers on zero-hour contracts. What he and Laverty discovered, he says, rivalled the shocking conditions he first documented 53 years ago in the game-changing Cathy Come Home.

“I’ve always said, even when I was a young woman, I said I don’t worry about the variety of roles available for women on screen. I worry about roles for women in real life. As we see women enter into major roles in real life, drama will follow. There are still not enough roles yet, but they’re coming. The unfairness and the prejudice of the lack of roles for women has always driven me crazy, it’s enraging. But things are slowly changing.”

“The only support tonight in London ... will be emotional!” Tegan and Sara deadpanned on social media, hours before their appearance in London at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. There may have been no support act, but there was indeed plenty of emotional support from an audience captivated by this unique, intimate and deeply personal show. The identical twin sisters created an immersive gig experience from the offset. Phones and cameras weren’t allowed until close to the end, meaning fans were inve

Kele Okereke is no stranger to politics. He recently wrote music to accompany the anti-Brexit play Leave to Remain, and this extremely outspoken new album follows suit. Where its predecessor, 2017’s ‘Fatherland’, saw the Bloc Party singer anticipating becoming a father for the first time. Here Okereke has gone back to his fierce experimental roots; the folk leanings of ‘Fatherland’ feel like a distant echo. The assured sonics on ‘2042’ mirror the commanding social commentary, as he scrutinises the fractured world his children (he has a second on the way) will inherit. Okereke explores what it means to be black, British and gay in 2019.

Looking ahead even as he evokes the work of greats as such as Bill Withers and Gil Scott-Heron, Michael Kiwanuka's bravura self-titled record sees him fiercely reclaim his identity “Are you really giving up? Are you really going to stop right now?” Michael Kiwanuka asks on new track ‘Living in Denial’, the lyrics from his self-titled latest feeling like pages from his diary five years ago. An artist well known for his struggles with self-confidence, Kiwanuka may well have spoken those words to

“I’m 73, what’s your grandma doing tonight?” a beaming Cher bellowed to the O2 Arena last night, moments after a career-spanning montage reminded the audience of her extraordinary 50 years in showbusiness. With multiple costume changes and a fearsome energy many younger performers would struggle to match, Cher commanded the sold-out audience throughout with a breathless, hit-filled set. Her candid political views emerged early on too after she termed Donald Trump an “asshole”, before adding to loud cheers: “Boris isn’t much better.”

An extraordinary, unsettling film that will stay with you long after the final credits Stories of humanity raging against the elements (and going a little mad with it) have long dotted film and literature – Melville’s Moby Dick, Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Coleridge’s The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner to name a few. Now, via The Witch director Robert Eggers, there is another, The Lighthouse, in which William Dafoe and Robert Pattinson battle nature as its most ferocious and wild. Playing two li

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

The sold-out audience at BBC Radio 2’s Festival in a Day were surprised yesterday as an Indian summer unexpectedly descended, basking Hyde Park in glorious sunshine. Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall came more prepared than most during his opening set of the day, clad in a short-sleeved shirt and shades and armed with a host of summer-tinged hits. The joy progressed with Bananarama whose mix of breathless Eighties disco and warm humour brought buckets of fun to the afternoon.

In a recent interview with Zane Lowe, Jaden Smith — son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, brother to Willow — said his two albums to date had opposing personalities: one explored a heavenly side, the other a hellish one. “Syre is the nice one … the more sensitive one,” Smith explained. “Erys,” he said of his latest release, “doesn’t really care at all.” From the outset of his show at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town last night, the 21-year-old segued these two identities...

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...