CD: Saint Saviour – Union

Assured debut from affecting new electropop voice

The moment you reach “I Call This Home”, the third track of Saint Saviour's debut album, it’s obvious this is an album to stick with. A pulsing rhythm beds guitars that reverberate like vintage Cure. The voice is quavering, anguished. Then it opens up. Suddenly driving and tense, the dramatic, shimmering song sounds like an anthem in waiting – albeit one with a maverick sensibility akin to that of Fever Ray, Goldfrapp and Marc Almond. It fits that Saint Saviour has played live with Hurts.

Best Coast, O2 ABC2, Glasgow

BEST COAST: A fuzz-pop trip to the Golden State warms up the drizzliest of Glasgow evenings

A fuzz-pop trip to the Golden State to warm up the drizzliest of evenings

Best Coast has always been the quintessential California band, an identity the duo has embraced so fully that the artwork for their latest album features the bear that is the state’s mascot.

CD: The Beach Boys – That’s Why God Made the Radio

Despite its missteps, this joyless reunion yields a few gems

“We’re back together, easy money”. For anyone feeling a wee bit cynical about The Beach Boys' reunion, that lyric – from “Spring Vacation” – is likely to push them towards full-blown contempt. Although That’s Why God Made the Radio is defined by missteps, it’s worth persevering to the end.

CD: Regina Spektor - What We Saw From The Cheap Seats

Quirky New Yorker's sixth album makes up in loveliness what it lacks in coherency

It's been six years since Regina Spektor released Begin to Hope, a festival-friendly breakthrough album with a poppy sheen that easily loaned itself to mobile phone network marketing campaigns and the like. Six years then since the Moscow-born Bronx-raised artist, a tiny human beatbox with a shock of curls, took the kooky-girl-with-piano shtick into the mainstream. And yet, as this follow-up to 2009's Far makes clear, there's only so much of what makes Regina Spektor, well, Regina that can be major-label sanitised.

Robin Gibb, 1949–2012

Farewell to the distinctive Bee Gee and songwriter, who has died at the age of 62

The death of Robin Gibb was announced last night. He had been diagnosed with cancer following surgery for a blocked intestine in 2010, when it was discovered that he had cancer of the colon. This April, it was announced he had contracted pneumonia. His death leaves brother Barry as the only surviving Bee Gee.

CD: Saint Etienne – Words and Music by Saint Etienne

The pop-loving indie kids return in reflective mode

If you are old enough to recall the heady excitement of running out of breath as you hurtled to the record store to buy a single on the day of release Words and Music by Saint Etienne will strike an instant chord. This deliciously melancholic concept album is a love letter to the manic pop thrill of music and the way it can overshadow everything and offer a means of emotional escape.

10cc, Royal Albert Hall

Celebration of two decades of great British pop with needless distractions

Some things just don’t need saying. “If you know the chorus to this one, please join in” comes the invitation from the stage just before “Dreadlock Holiday”. On the final date of 10cc’s 40th anniversary tour it was unlikely that anyone at the Royal Albert Hall didn’t know the chorus. Actually, it’s unlikely that anyone, anywhere, doesn’t know the chorus.