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.

Louis Cole, Roundhouse review - nothing is everything

★★★★★ LOUIS COLE, ROUNDHOUSE Telepathic grooves and Mahlerian beauty collide in Camden

Telepathic grooves and Mahlerian beauty collide in Camden

London's iconic Roundhouse, packed to the rafters, provided the perfect setting for the UK premiere of Louis Cole's groundbreaking album nothing – his fifth album and third on Brainfeeder. This one-night-only performance, featuring Cole on drums and keys with an orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley, delivered electrifying musicianship, fascinating stylistic mash-ups, and melodies that imprinted themselves on your consciousness.

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. 

'Classic-era prog’s Olympian pinnacle': Pink Floyd's 'Echoes' returns in their restored Pompeii concert film and as Nick Mason's band's vinyl hit

CLASSIC-ERA PROG'S OLYMPIAN PINNACLE Pink Floyd's 'Echoes' returns

The band's legendary track from 1971 resurfaces not once, but twice

Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”, the ineffable progressive rock epic that occupies side two of 1971’s Meddle, is having a moment. Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets released a sensational one-sided 12-inch vinyl version of the track on Record Store Day, April 12. Recorded at the Centennial Hall in Frankfurt last August, the 23.04-minutes single – which plays from the centre outwards – reached number six in the vinyl chart, dropped, and is rising again.

Album: Sleep Token - Even In Arcadia

★★★ SLEEP TOKEN - EVEN IN ARCADIA Breathlessly inventive and demonstrates well-earned reputation

The anonymous UK metallers' fourth album is breathlessly inventive and emotive

It has never been an exact science understanding when something will capture lightning in a bottle and go viral. Even less expected is for an anonymous metal band to become a social media sensation, but in early 2023 that's exactly what happened for Sleep Token.

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: PinkPantheress - Fancy That

Hot rising pop star's new mixtape lacks tunes and dynamism

There’s plenty of noise out there about 24-year-old Kentish musician Victoria Walker, AKA PinkPantheress. Since being acclaimed BBC Sound of 2022, the spotlight has been on her. She supported Halsey and Olivia Rodrigo on tour, worked with Beabadoobee, Skrillex, and K-Pop sensations Le SSerafim, and had a song on the Barbie soundtrack. It’s a lot. Perhaps, judging from this mixtape – a 20-minute filler release we might once have called an EP – she’s spreading herself too thin.

Shack, Union Chapel review - the surprise return of the Liverpool legends does not run to plan

★★★ SHACK, UNION CHAPEL The surprise return of the Liverpool legends does not run to plan

A celebration with a sting in its tail

After kicking off with the psychedelia-tinged “Sgt. Major,” they keep coming. A string of songs as Sixties-influenced as they are edgy and propulsive. The tempo may not be speedy but there is always forward motion, even in a song where different sections unite in a portmanteau structure.

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.

Music Reissues Weekly: John McKay - Sixes and Sevens

JOHN MCKAY - SIXES AND SEVENS Former Siouxsie & the Banshees guitarist digs through archive

The former Siouxsie and the Banshees guitarist digs through his archive and finds treasure

Sixes and Sevens is a surprise. A big one. Since leaving Siouxsie and the Banshees in September 1979, John McKay has largely been a mystery. On record, the only suggestion this influential guitarist had continued with music was the EP his post-Banshees band Zor Gabor issued in 1987. Otherwise – nothing.