Bob Dylan, London Palladium - busy painting his masterpiece

★★★★★ BOB DYLAN, LONDON PALLADIUM A night of concentrated spirits

A night of concentrated spirits as Dylan's 'Rough and Rowdy Ways' tour comes to town

It’s the second night of a four-night run at the London Palladium of the Rough and Rowdy Ways World Tour – no other Dylan jaunt has taken an album for its title – and it begins with a blast of symphonic violence from the first movement of Beethoven’s Ninth. The house lights fade to black, the symphony segues into a modal tune-up on stage, Dylan and his four-piece – second guitarist Bob Britt is not here tonight – barely visible in silhouette.

Album: Simple Minds - Direction of the Heart

★★★ SIMPLE MINDS - DIRECTION OF THE HEART  Uneven, but still a cause for celebration 

The Scottish rock band's 18th album might be uneven, but it's still a cause for celebration

You’d be within your rights to imagine that Direction of the Heart, the follow-up to 2018’s patchy-but-decent Walk Between Worlds, would see the Simple Minds twin engine of Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill pull on billowing white shirts and head for the nearest massive windswept stadium, filling it to the brim with widescreen synths, anthemic singalong choruses and a staggering extravagance of emotion.

Beabadoobee, Barrowland, Glasgow review - teenage kicks provide a familiar feeling

Bea Laus given an ecstatic reception on her biggest tour yet

Rarely will the bar staff at the Glasgow Barrowland have had an easier night. The crowd for Beabadoobee was so youthful that the vibe felt more like a school disco at times, right down to clusters of parents at the back and on the sidelines alternating between keeping a wary eye on proceedings and burying themselves in their phones. Their offspring, meanwhile, were racing to the front eagerly, leaving the usually busy bar areas deserted.

Album: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Return of the Dream Canteen

★★★★ RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - RETURN OF THE DREAM CANTEEN Stadium rock old-timers summon up a feast of West Coast guitar pop

Stadium rock old-timers summon up a feast of West Coast guitar pop

Does the world need to hear more from Red Hot Chili Peppers? Outside the bouncin’ bro’ fanbase, a regular consensus is that, despite being one of the biggest bands in the world, doing their global stadium rock thing – with free added funk! – achieving the highest level of commercial success, they're not of actual interest.

Machine Gun Kelly, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - fire and fury from pop punk convert

The Texan was on bombastic form, but lacked substance

If ever a moment summed up the spirit of a gig perfectly, then it is the segment in this arena showcase where Machine Gun Kelly is confronted by the internet, represented by what appears to be a blow up statue with a monitor for a head. As it demands the American rap rocker should be pigeonholed into one genre, he strikes on a solution which involves a helicopter flying in to shoot it. That was a defining trait of this relentlessly bombastic show, of going loud and direct as often as possible.

Album: Brian Eno - Foreverandevernomore

★ BRIAN ENO - FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE Eno's ambient approach to climate emergency

Eno's ambient approach to the climate emergency

“Our only hope of saving our planet is if we begin to have different feelings about it,” Brian Eno writes in introduction to his new album in five years, Foreverandevernomore (the first featuring his own vocals since 2005’s Another Day on Earth).

“Perhaps if we became re-enchanted by the amazing improbability of life; perhaps if we suffered regret and even shame at what we’ve already lost; perhaps if we felt exhilarated by the challenges we face and what might yet become possible.”

Album: Broken Bells - Into the Blue

BROKEN BELLS - INTO THE BLUE Danger Mouse & The Shins' James Mercer plunder past

Danger Mouse and The Shins' James Mercer plunder the past with panache

Not content with having released one of the best hip-hop albums in recent memory (Cheat Codes, alongside Black Thought), producer Brian Burton has rekindled his partnership with The Shins’ James Mercer for the first Broken Bells album in almost a decade.

Into the Blue is described as “an ode to the pair’s shared musical influences”, a phrase that can, let’s be honest, raise eyebrows and alarm bells. However, far from being a lengthy synonym for painful pastiche, the pair manage to plunder the past with remarkable panache.

Album: The Cult - Under the Midnight Sun

★★★ THE CULT - UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN Astbury and Duffy still rock, just not so forcefully

Astbury and Duffy still rock, just not so forcefully

It’s fair to say that The Cult have taken on a number of identities since their mid-80s’ transformation from Goth also-rans the Death Cult to the chest-beating rockers we've come to know. They’ve been the Native American-influenced post punks of Dreamtime, the neo-hippies of Love, and the Rawk Gods of Sonic Temple, to name but a few.

Album: The Bobby Lees - Bellevue

★★★★★ THE BOBBY LEES - BELLEVUE A very welcome rock’n’roll pick-me-up from Woodstock NY

A very welcome rock’n’roll pick-me-up arrives straight out of Woodstock NY

Unless you’re one of the infamous 1%, you might be forgiven for recently spending a bit of time searching for a booster to reinvigorate your mojo before a seriously difficult winter kicks in. Well, assuming that your electricity supply hasn’t already been cut off by profiteering greed heads, the Bobby Lees’ new album might just do the trick.

Album: Slipknot - The End, So Far

★★★ SLIPKNOT - THE END, SO FAR Energy and sheer gutsy punch

To describe it as business-as-usual would be to undersell the masked metallers's energy and sheer gutsy punch

Make no mistake about it, Slipknot are massive. 23 years after their recording debut, they’ve had 8.5 billion streams, their sixth album, 2019’s We Are Not Your Kind, hit the top of the charts in 12 countries, including the US and the UK, and their spectacular shows are a global phenomenon. In fact, it’s live that this writer really embraces Slipknot but their last album demonstrated they still had the chutzpah to knock a longplayer out of the park. The new one almost hits the same peaks.