Album: Justin Adams & Mauro Durante - Still Moving

★★★ JUSTIN ADAMS & MAURO DURANTE - STILL MOVING Genre-crossing duo on breakout set

A genre-crossing duo combine the blues, African and Taranta vibes on a breakout set

Adams has long been Robert Plant’s guitarist in bands including the Sensational Space Shifters, as well as working with fellow Space Shifter Juldeh Camara in the band JuJu. He is steeped in American Blues as well as its West African and Desert Blues roots, having worked as a producer for Rachid Taha and on some of Tinariwen’s finest albums.

Album: Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit - Georgia Blue

★★★ JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT: GEORGIA BLUE Feted southern US singer fires out an often tasty fund-raiser of cover versions

Feted southern US singer fires out an often tasty fund-raiser of cover versions

Jason Isbell is a bigger noise on the other side of the Atlantic than he is in the UK but his last three albums have, nonetheless, bothered the middle-regions of the British album charts. He’s built a critically lauded career with his band The 400 Unit since leaving Drive-By Truckers a decade-and-a-half ago, merging country with rock and various southern US styles.

Album: Elbow - Flying Dream 1

★★★★ ELBOW - FLYING DREAM 1 Guy Garvey and co have staged a revolution

Eschewing big-arena balladeering, Guy Garvey and co have staged a revolution for no 9

A poet I know once went to a boarding school to deliver an open class on poetry. Part of the day consisted of the children producing poems of their own, which their guest teacher then looked over and discussed with them. Almost every one was about flight, or escape into vast, open swathes of nature. These weren’t poems, he realised, these were the yearning, silent screams of perpetual prisoners.

The Jesus and Mary Chain, Barrowland, Glasgow review - Scottish siblings still the loudest gang in town

The East Kilbride brothers at their most thrilling when blasting out more obscure material

There is unquestionably a more mellow side to the Jesus and Mary Chain these days, even when reviving their most ferocious glories from the past. Prior to launching this two-halved set, comprising their 1987 classic Darklands to begin with and a mixture of singles, B-sides and obscurities for after, vocalist Jim Reid took time out to politely explain the format.

Album: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raise the Roof

Brilliant formula still makes for gold

The collaboration of Robert Plant, Alison Krauss and producer T-Bone Burnett produced a masterpiece Raising Sand in 2011. Once again, and in spite of rumours about the artists falling out, they have returned with the same winning formula.

Album: Rod Stewart - The Tears of Hercules

★ ROD STEWART - THE TEARS OF HERCULES They can smell these stadium whiffers on Mars

They can smell Rod's latest set of stadium whiffers on Mars

Amid the spume of insults at the close of the song “The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle” by Malcolm McLaren’s Rotten-less, end-game version of the Sex Pistols, Rod Stewart is a prime target. Sandwiched between abuse for David Bowie and Elton John, Rod is accused of having “a luggage label tied to his tonsils”. It’s hardly a cutting verbal blow but the point is he’s amongst those the Pistols were supposedly rendering irrelevant. Over four decades later, though, his musical output remains relatively prolific and his albums massive hits. This new one will be.

The Choir Of Man, Arts Theatre review - old school hits in an old school pub

★★ THE CHOIR OF MAN, ARTS THEATRE Decent blokes sing old school hits in an old school pub

Lots of songs and lots of sugary sentimentality

Like a previous occupant of this venue, Six, The Choir Of Man started life as a quirky Edinburgh show and has gone on to be staged around the world to adoring audiences, tapping into a vibe that’s as much about participation as viewing, the show as much a gig as a musical.

Album: Idles - Crawler

Fourth album from Bristol alt-rock pummellers lets the shade bleed through

Perhaps surprisingly for a band famed for the raw, tightly wrought, balled-up fury of their music, the most affecting moments of Idles’ fourth album are slower numbers. Chief among these is “Progress”, whose looping, repeated lyrics may reflect singer Joe Talbot’s ongoing reflections on putting drug addiction behind him. Lines such as “I don’t wanna feel myself come down” are given added potency by a threatening shroud of tunefully warped, loping band underpinning.

Black String, Grand Junction review – storm-force intensity

★★★★ BLACK STRING, GRAND JUNCTION The otherworldly sound of Korea’s finest quartet

Immerse yourself in the defibrillating, otherworldly sound of Korea’s finest quartet

If you were looking for a word to describe Black String in performance at Grand Junction in Paddington, before the high altar of the church of St Mary Magdalene, itself a pinnacle of Victorian neo-Gothic bravura, then that word would be “intense”. Intensely intense. More intense than a blooming bank of Intensia.

Sports Team, SWG3, Glasgow review - entertaining, but not always original

★★★ SPORTS TEAM, SWG3, GLASGOW Entertaining, but not always original

The six-piece were at their best when their songs were as frantic as possible

It may go against rock n’ roll cliché, but occasionally there is merit to good time keeping for a band. Lucia and the Best Boys saw their support slot in their home town of Glasgow reach an ignominious ending when they were cut off a song early, vocalist Lucia Fairfull’s chat having seen the glam synth pop group go over their allocated slot.