Album: Van Morrison - Remembering Now

As he approaches 80, a lush new set has an invigorated Van showing his mystical side

When Van Morrison last released an album of original songs, during the Covid pandemic, it didn’t go down well. Indeed for many, 2022’s What’s It Gonna Take squats in Morrison’s catalogue like a toad in a fruit salad.

Album: Miley Cyrus - Something Beautiful

★★★ MILEY CYRUS - SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL Psychedelic soft rock of staggering ambition

Psychedelic soft rock of staggering ambition that so, so nearly hits the brief

A couple of months ago, I wrote here that Lady Gaga was the godmother of the new generation of ostentatiously “theatre kid” pop stars – but actually, perhaps I was wrong and Miley Cyrus deserves that title.

Album: Sports Team - Boys These Days

★★ SPORTS TEAM - BOYS THESE DAYS Genial guitar pop that leans into poshness, boasts smart lyrics, but lacks musical bite

Genial guitar pop that leans into poshness, boasts smart lyrics, but lacks musical bite

How do you solve a problem like Sports Team? Taking them at face value, they’re a living metaphor for the slow music biz relegation of the working class in favour of the privileged, a bunch of snarky ex-Cambridge University students who make smug guitar pop, a Brideshead Revisited version of The Kooks.

The Great Escape Festival 2025, Brighton review - a feast of music from across the world

★★★★ THE GREAT ESCAPE FESTIVAL 2025, BRIGHTON A feast of music from across the world

Hitting Saturday shows by deBasement, Dog Race, Chloe Leigh, Oh Dirty Fingers & more

Photographer Finetime and I have our first pints outside Dalton’s, a bar on Brighton seafront, at almost exactly midday. They are Beavertown Neck Oil IPA at 4.3%. The sun is out, glinting off the sea. Feels like the calm before the storm.

PUP, SWG3, Glasgow review - controlled chaos from Canadian punks

★★★★ PUP, SWG3, GLASGOW Controlled chaos from Canadian punks

A no-frills set demonstrated the Toronto quartet's skill with a chorus and a mosh pit

According to PUP lead singer Stefan Babcock, the Toronto foursome practiced together a grand total of twice before embarking on their current UK and European tour.

Given the band’s well-known habit for disagreements and teetering on the edge of imploding, that might have been a wise decision. It didn’t affect the show itself, for while the group’s history is littered with chaos, this was a lively but controlled display. 

DVD/Blu-ray: Slade in Flame

★★★★★ DVD/BLU-RAY: SLADE IN FLAME One of the great rock movies at 50

One of the great rock movies gets a 50th anniversary revival

Over the years Slade in Flame has been hailed as one of the greatest rock movies (albeit rarely seen or screened), up there with Perfomance and That’ll Be The Day.

Like those films, it has grittiness running through it like barbed wire through a stick of Blackpool rock. It’s raw and dark; very dark. Not glam at all. And wrapped up in its singular brilliance is the grim rather than glam fact that Slade in Flame tanked at the box office and almost tanked the career of the band it – sort of – celebrated.

Supergrass, Barrowland, Glasgow review - nostalgia played with youthful energy

★★★★★ SUPERGRASS, BARROWLAND, GLASGOW The Oxford group's revival of their debut album fizzed with excitement

The Oxford group's revival of their debut album fizzed with excitement

It is a family affair at Supergrass shows these days. There were plenty of parents and offspring filing onto the Barrowland’s famous old dancefloor, and during the encore a pair of excitable, bouncing teenagers turned around and started bellowing for their dad, off on the sidelines, to join in pogoing. He declined, but was singing along with vigour nonetheless.

Album: Peter Doherty - Felt Better Alive

Doherty returns with his first solo album in almost a decade

Following on from an impressive set with the Libertines – last year’s No 1 album All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade – Peter Doherty returns to the fray with his first solo album in nine years. 

Album: Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke - Tall Tales

A toning-down leads to an opening up of new possibilities in a fertile collaboration

I’ve got an admission: I never really got Radiohead, in no small part because of Thom Yorke’s singing. I appreciate his technical abilities and songwriting, and that a lot of people find his anguish cathartic, but the more he goes for it the more I switch off.

Album: Arcade Fire - Pink Elephant

Seventh from Canadian stadium-slayers contains enough juice to convince

20 years on from their first appearance on record, the seventh long-player from Canadian indie-art-rock behemoths Arcade Fire comes off the back of four consecutive UK album chart-toppers.