fri 15/08/2025

New Music Reviews

Reg Meuross and David Massengill, Green Note, Camden review - master craftsmen at work

Liz Thomson

When all around you is chaos and depression, an afternoon spent listening to acoustic music in a small club is as cleansing and restorative as a warm bath.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Matt Monro - Stranger In Paradise

Kieron Tyler

Two years before he took on The Beatles, George Martin was working with another artiste who would go on to have success in America. Martin first encountered Matt Monro in 1960 when he signed him to the label he ran, Parlophone. The “Portrait of my Love” single charted later in the year. In summer 1961, “My Kind of Girl” hit America’s single’s charts. His 1965 version of ”Yesterday” had a Martin arrangement....

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Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Eventim Apollo review - and the band played on

Liz Thomson

Elvis Costello is arguably – perhaps unarguably – the most enduring and genuine talent to emerge from the mid-Seventies pub and punk scenes, and his two-hour set on Friday night demonstrated that he’s still a compelling performer, full of energy and passion.

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Kate Tempest, BBC 6 Music Festival review - more personal than political

Katie Colombus

For those wondering if performance poet Kate Tempest would be upstaged or introduced by either pandemic panic or International Women’s Day – know that a) she’s fearless and b) she practices equality always. As such, there’s no pre-amble, other than a hope that her gig will “resonate into the night and the days to come”.

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Halsey, SSE Hydro, Glasgow review - a pop star with plenty of personality

Jonathan Geddes

There is something enjoyably spikey about Halsey, even when she is adhering to pop convention. At one stage she told the crowd how good they looked, before dryly adding it was praise they wouldn’t have heard before. These are brave words when playing to a Glasgow audience.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Cream - Goodbye Tour Live 1968

Kieron Tyler

Through previous archive releases or bootlegs, deep-digging Cream fans will already be familiar with much of what’s on Goodbye Tour – Live 1968. The legitimate 1969 album Goodbye Cream included three tracks from the 19 October 1968 Los Angeles Forum show, heard here in full.

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Lewis Capaldi, SSE Hydro, Glasgow review - triumphant homecoming from Brit-conquering hero

Lisa-Marie Ferla

Critical and commercial success haven’t gone to the head of Lewis Capaldi. The 23-year-old opened his first of two sold-out nights at Glasgow’s 14,000-capacity enormodrome – booked when he was yet to release his debut album – with a video montage poking fun of his po-faced reaction to Billie Eilish beating him to Song of the Year at the Grammys in January.

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Album: Baxter Dury - The Night Chancers

Barney Harsent

“I’m not your fucking friend,” intones Baxter Dury as recent single “I’m Not Your Dog” begins. As opening salvos go, it’s right up there with the best of them, full of sneering hostility and fiery intent. As an introduction, it’s a writer’s hook – pushing us away while drawing us in.

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Max Raabe, Palast-Orchester, Cadogan Hall review - escapism with irony

Sebastian Scotney

Escapism sometimes feels not just useful but necessary. To be carried back, for an evening, to the world of the 1920s/1930s dance band, with foxtrots, pasodobles, crisp starched collars and secco endings, of slick hair and even slicker arrangements, does have a lot to recommend it.

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Stereophonics, Brighton Centre review - can't buy a thrill

Nick Hasted

Stereophonics climbed out of Cwmaman in the South Wales valleys minus charisma, musical originality or excitement. They make rock music that is conservative and unriotous, offering comfort not commotion.

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