CD: Tegan & Sara - Hey I'm Just Like You

The twins revisit high school

There comes a time for reflection in everyone’s lives – perhaps for Canadian indie-pop duo Tegan & Sara this is it. Harking back to the 1990s, they have found and re-worked tracks written in their teenage years, taking grains of truth from their own once lost lyrics and melodies, trussing them up with fancy production values and a new wave retro-pop sound.

George Ezra, Royal Albert Hall review - a thumping good time

★★★★ GEORGE EZRA, ROYAL ALBERT HALL A thumping good time

The affable young singer from the Home Counties is in a party mood

"The reason why it's so special to be here," says Ezra halfway through the show, "is because this is where I saw so many of my heroes". Tonight is the 26-year-old's debut at the Royal Albert Hall and the look on Ezra's face says he can't quite believe where he's standing. He holds his hands up with a shrug, stares out at the crowd, and smiles a Cheshire Cat grin.

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.

Edinburgh International Festival 2019: JARV IS review - Britpop legend still delivers

★★★★ EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL 2019: JARV IS Britpop legend still delivers

Pulp frontman brings expertly crafted songs and a tight, talented band to Leith Theatre

”Cunts Are Still”. Well, that got your attention, didn’t it? Not my words, merely the title of one of JARV IS’s new tracks. In case you didn’t get it, JARV IS is a play on words and the name of given to Pulp frontman and founder Jarvis Cocker’s latest outfit. Cocker still is releasing new material. He still is an exuberant and energetic performer. He still is wearing those glasses. And still is very good.

CD: Taylor Swift - Lover

★★★★ TAYLOR SWIFT - LOVER 18 earnestly epic tracks from America's loved-up sweetheard

18 earnestly epic tracks from America's loved-up sweetheart

If there's a central motif to the sprawling, 18-track opus that is Taylor Swift’s seventh release - and it’s an album that references both Drake and Springsteen, so it's hard to pin down - it first emerges in track three, the title track. Stripped of pop theatrics, “Lover” trades in what Swift does best: hyper-specific details made universal enough for every first dance, delivered with enough earnestness to rehabilitate a word pulled straight from the headlines of a tabloid magazine.

Wilderness Festival 2019 review - marvellous misbehaviour

★★★★★ WILDERNESS FESTIVAL Luxury lifestyle festival full of jolly good shows

A luxury lifestyle festival full of jolly good shows

The thing about Wilderness is that it’s just so jolly decent. Acres of decadence, sprawled safely over the yawning magnificence of Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, combine to create a scintillating country fair reverie – a heady mix of good music, high end food, luxury outdoorsyness and companionable folk.

Burt Bacharach Together with Joss Stone, Eventim Apollo review - an evening of timeless classics

★★★★ BURT BACHARACH TOGETHER WITH JOSS STONE, EVENTIM APOLLO An evening of timeless classics

Anyone who has a heart is unable to resist the pop maestro

Whatever age you are, in whatever era you grew up – wherever you grew up – you will know, perhaps unknowingly, a large handful of songs by Burt Bacharach, almost all written with lyricist Hal David. The two men met in 1957 in New York’s celebrated Brill Building, where the creative talents positively jostled for attention.

Florence + the Machine, BST Hyde Park review - mastering the matriarchy

★★★★ FLORENCE + THE MACHINE, BST HYDE PARK Mastering the matriarchy

Florence Welch delivers the perfect set for London's biggest summer festival

It’s a rare thing that musicians sound better live than they do on Spotify. But Florence Welch sings a note perfect set – even when jumping up and down like a pogo stick, whirling and spinning, or sprinting along the front of the stage to meet fans.

CD: Molly - All That Ever Could Have Been

★★★★ MOLLY - ALL THAT EVER COULD HAVE BEEN Fragile nostalgia on a grand scale

The Austrian duo's debut is a testament to fragile nostalgia on a grand scale

The first thing you notice when listening to the debut album from Austrian duo Molly (Lars Andersson and Phillip Dornauer) is that it is a collection lit with the glow of confidence. Introducing themselves with a delicately paced 15-minute Mogadon-prog epic denotes a certain slow-burning swagger, but it is surrounded by a sense of grandeur rather than the grandiose.