Album: Two Door Cinema Club - Keep On Smiling

★★★ TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB - KEEP ON SMILING An uneven return, but a passing grade for the electronic-infused indie trio

An uneven return, but a passing grade for the electronic-infused indie trio

Three and a half years on from 2019’s False Alarm, Keep On Smiling comes album number five from Northern Ireland trio, Two Door Cinema Club. Known for having more bounce to the ounce than your average band, their brand of guitar-flecked electro pop has won hearts, minds and sales in roughly equal measure.

Album: Beyoncé - Renaissance

★★★★★ BEYONCE - RENAISSANCE Musical life begins at 40: Beyoncé meets highest expectations

Musical life begins at 40 as Beyoncé lives up to the highest expectations

There’s polarising discourse and there’s polarising discourse, and then there’s Beyoncé discourse. On the one hand, there’s “the Bey Hive”: the very model of a furious modern fandom who will boost her and monster her critics at a microsecond’s notice. There are the commentators for whom everything she does is by definition profound, moral and important, regardless of any hypercapitalist excesses and hanging out with dicators’ offspring.

Bloc Party, Barrowland, Glasgow review - falling back on past glories brings a jubilant response

★★★ BLOC PARTY, BARROWLAND Falling back on past glories brings a jubilant response

The indie veterans took time to warm up

As Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke noted at one point in this gig, his band have now been visiting Glasgow for nearly two decades. Yet few of the shows played in that 18 year span, which have touched upon nearly all of the city’s main music venues, have been as contrasting as this one. By the night’s end, when the band blasted out a rare outing of their very early single “Little Thoughts”, the audience were a jubilant and sweaty throng, but it was hard work getting there.

Album: Neneh Cherry - The Versions

★★★ NENEH CHERRY - THE VERSIONS Esoteric set of multi-artist cover versions from the singer's back catalogue

Esoteric set of multi-artist cover versions from the singer's back catalogue

Initially, the weird thing about this is it’s being released as a Neneh Cherry album rather than a compilation of artists doing Neneh Cherry covers, which is what it is. That said, awareness slowly grows of a kindred sensibility to recent Neneh Cherry output, the esoteric jazzual spirit that’s imbued her last couple of albums.

MØ, Heaven, London review - snappy, sexy and energised

★★★★ MØ, HEAVEN The Danish pop star plays a tight set to a devoted partisan crowd

Danish pop star plays a tight set to a devoted partisan crowd

“I live to survive another heartache/I live to survive another mistake,” roars a sold-out Heaven. It’s a new song but everyone seems to know it. It’s not MØ’s most famous song but is the bluntest monster banger of the night, crunching four-to-the-floor club-pop that brooks no argument. It’s the last of the set (prior to an encore) and MØ is now a perspiring ball of energy.

Album: Everything Everything - Raw Data Feel

★★★★★ EVERYTHING EVERYTHING - RAW DATA FEEL Manchester indie art-rockers experiment successfully with musical AI

Manchester indie art-rockers experiment successfully with musical AI

Since their 2010 debut, Man Alive, Everything Everything have dissected the various structures of human relationships, from socio-political to interpersonal, but all in their own experimental art-rock sound.

The Great Escape 2022, Brighton review - sunshine, queues, and thrilling new bands

★★★★ THE GREAT ESCAPE, BRIGHTON Sunshine, queues, and thrilling new bands

theartsdesk's intrepid duo spend a day trawling the multi-venue seaside festival for musical kicks

My friend George claims to have nightmares about The Great Escape. In them he’s standing in an endless queue, never reaching the front, never entering the venue, and never seeing the band he wants to see. That was his experience the only time he attended, and he consequently reckons The Great Escape is rubbish.

“I’ve been going for years and that’s never happened to me,” I said to him.

“Yeah, well, you’re press, aren’t you,” he responded, with only a smidgeon of bitterness.

“I s’pose so,” I replied, with only a smidgeon of smugness.

Transgressive Records showcase, The Great Escape, Brighton review - five acts offer intriguing pop alternatives

★★★ TRANSGRESSIVE RECORDS SHOWCASE, THE GREAT ESCAPE, BRIGHTON Let's Eat Grandma, The Waeve, Mykki Blanco and more set the south coast a-buzz

Let's Eat Grandma, The Waeve, Mykki Blanco and more set the south coast a-buzz

Onstage at The Old Market in Hove, New York’s Mykki Blanco has been waving around a knot of garlic bulbs as if it were a wand or occult aspergillum. At some point during Blanco’s punchy rendition of 2016 single “Loner”, or possibly the dizzier “Summer Fling”, they transfer it to the flies of their trousers, let it hang there, all mischief. They explain that this is the result of the band becoming obsessed with “a mad coven of witches in Italy”.

Album: Dubstar - Two

★★★ DUBSTAR - TWO 1990s pop duo return with a lush exercise in likeable, wistful melancholy

1990s pop duo return with a lush exercise in likeable, wistful melancholy

Dubstar didn’t really fit the niche where the 1990s put them. Signed to Food Records, original home of Blur, they were lumped in with Britpop but their music was always closer to the thoughtful electronic pop of Saint Etienne, and they also had – and have – something in common with Pet Shop Boys.