CD: Foals - Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 2

Intelligent pop with poetry and heart

Foals, the band with a trademark sound characterised by the African-style intricate interplay of rhythm rather than lead guitars, returns with what amounts to the second half of a double album. The first half was released last spring, and this new release might well feel like more of the same. But the band’s powers of invention are well up to creating tracks that shine on their own.

CD: James Arthur - You

Pop delinquent grows up on extended third album

It’s an easy joke to suggest that James Arthur needs an editor. By this point, the 31-year-old singer is almost as famous for his lyrical mis-steps and ill-advised use of Twitter as his 2012 The X Factor victory. You, his third album, seems to have been subject to the longest roll-out in history (first single, “Naked”, was released almost two years ago), and arrives at 17 tracks and over an hour in length.

PP Arnold, Islington Assembly Hall review - joy in a consummate musical setting

★★★★ PP ARNOLD, ISLINGTON ASSEMBLY HALL Joy in a consummate musical setting

The claim of being 'London’s first lady of soul' is shown to be no idle boast

“I had my first inter-racial relationship.” Moments after walking on stage and before the first song, PP Arnold is reminiscing about when she first arrived in Britain in 1966.

CD: The New Pornographers – In the Morse Code of Brake Lights

★★★ CD: THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS In the Morse Code of Brake Lights

Neko Case substantially contributes to more allusive art-pop

New Pornographer-in-chief AC Newman grew up enraptured by how much and how little pop could be: from David Bowie shucking skins to the rush of the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer”, to Pixies' boiling down of a song to three chords and a scream.

Reissue CDs Weekly: The Beatles - Abbey Road

REISSUE CDS WEEKLY: THE BEATLES - ABBEY ROAD Fifty years on, the last album The Fabs recorded is remodelled

Fifty years on, the last album The Fabs recorded is remodelled

Among the issues integral to the final album The Beatles recorded two, though usually low profile, are worth bearing mind. Abbey Road was their first album to be released in stereo only. There was no mono edition. Also, in late 1968, an EMI TG12345 console had been installed in Studio 2 of their label’s Abbey Road studios.

theartsdesk in Hamburg: Reeperbahn Festival 2019 review

Hustle, bustle, Matt Dillon and forehead-slappingly forceful Mancunians in sin city

Hatari’s 10th placing in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest hasn’t done them any harm. Neither did ruffling the feathers of the European Broadcasting Union and host nation Israel with their stance on Palestine. Based on their performance in Hamburg at 2019’s Reeperbahn Festival, Iceland’s favourite BDSM-leaning popsters haven’t smoothed-off their rough edges.

Keane, De La Warr Pavilion review – hometown heartbreak

★★★ KEANE, DE LA WARR PAVILION, BEXHILL Depression disguised by pop bliss

Depression is disguised by pop bliss, as Keane premiere their comeback album

Keane grew up six miles away in Battle, making this night in balmy Bexhill-on-Sea as close as they can practically get to a hometown gig. Prior to their first headline tour in six years, they’re playing new album Cause and Effect in full in an “in-store appearance”, hosted by the Music’s Not Dead record shop within the town’s art deco De La Warr Pavilion, but played in the main auditorium.

CD: Tove Lo - Sunshine Kitty

★★★★ CD: TOVE LO - SUNSHINE KITTY Forthright relationship-centred lyricism

Forthright relationship-centred lyricism combined with elegant electronic pop to winning effect

Swedish singer Tove Lo appeared at a time when female physical sexuality was being used as a raw, blunt weapon in pop, when porno chic reached an apex in music videos. Half a decade ago was the time of Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” and Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball”, thus Lo’s overt displays of sexual bravado seemed part of the same and she had big hits with songs such as “Habits (Stay High)” and “Talking Body”.  Her output since, however, has proved her sensual agenda to be more than a passing foible.

What Girls Are Made Of, Soho Theatre review - euphoric gig-theatre

Cora Bissett recalls the highs and lows of being a teenage Britpop star

It’s now Edinburgh Fringe transfer season in London, but here’s one they made earlier: Cora Bissett’s Fringe First-winning autobiographical play from the 2018 Festival about her time in 1990s indie band Darlingheart. Though the broad shape of this tale is familiar, Bissett’s gig-theatre approach lends it a raw authenticity and engaging confessional quality.

CD: Charli XCX - Charli

Futuristic pop pioneer bares her soul, with a little help from her friends

Charli XCX would make a cracking mixtape. I mean that not in the hip hop culture sense - although she’s knocked out a few of those in the five years since the release of Sucker, her last album proper - but like the mixtapes you used to make for your friends and crushes.