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Tracey Thorn released an album in 2010 titled Love and Its Opposite. When it comes to songwriting, it's the 'opposite' that tends to throw up the more compelling discourse. The [...]

Hamish Hawk Usher Hall, Edinburgh I am a regular attendee at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh's most ornate and venerable concert venue. On more than one occasion recentlyI have seen Hamish [...]

Celtic Connections: Glasgow 850 Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow Celtic Connections: Blue Rose Code and Rhona MacFarlane Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow Is it possible to find a common thread running through the [...]

Ringo Starr: Look Up UMe The Weather Station: Humanhood Fat Possum For artists lacking any obvious feel for the style, 'going country', similar to mainstream white artists dabbling in reggae [...]

Lana Del Rey Bramham Park, Leeds As the American superstar starts singing another slow, sad, rather beautiful song, my mind begins to drift. I'm thinking that our appreciation of music [...]

Jack White: No Name Third Man Records The ploy of releasing an album without any advance warning comes into play when an artist feels they are being paid either too [...]

Bob Dylan Usher Hall, Edinburgh Finally, a taste of the authentic Bob Dylan live experience. On the two previous occasions that I've seen Dylan, in the early 2000s and again […]

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds OVO Hydro, Glasgow, and touring until 15 November Primal Scream: Come Ahead BMG A few years ago, I received an early morning phone call [...]

The Pretenders Usher Hall, Edinburgh, and touring until 1 November Fairground Attraction Usher Hall, Edinburgh A few hours before the doors opened for the Pretenders' Edinburgh concert, Chrissie Hynde posted [...]

Before each show on the recent The The tour --reviewed in these pages last week--the pre-recorded voice of singer Matt Johnson politely asked the audience to refrain from using mobile [...]

Willie Nelson: The Border Legacy Recordings Many years ago, I wrote a book about Willie Nelson. At its conclusion, I reached for an elegiac, valedictory tone. In 2006, when The [...]

'At the record company meeting/ On their hands--at last!--a dead star!' Back when Morrissey was more concerned with writing a decent lyric than sour internet tirades, 'Paint a Vulgar Picture' [...]

Elvis Costello & Steve Nieve Theatre Royal, Glasgow, and touring until 25 September Song for song, line by line, blow for blow, Elvis Costello remains the most consistently fascinating songwriter [...]

Declan McKenna Edinburgh Playhouse Chilly Gonzales Usher Hall, Edinburgh Towards the end of Declan McKenna's snappy, enjoyable 90-minute set at the Edinburgh International Festival, something quite powerful occurs. The English [...]

Garbage Usher Hall, Edinburgh Fergus McCreadie Octet Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, George Square Spiegeltent There's nothing quite like the drama of a prodigal's return. 'I've been singing in this [...]

Camila Cabello: C,XOXO Geffen/Interscope Marc Almond: I'm Not Anyone BMG It is always interesting to observe the ways in which pop stars try to negotiate first growing up, and then [...]

'A working class hero is something to be.' Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer must have missed the conflicted, sardonic edge to John Lennon's lyric, from his 1970 song 'Working Class [...]

Brighde Chaimbeul Old Lab, Summerhall, Edinburgh, touring until 20 September Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand Perth Theatre, touring until 31 May The hip end of the folk spectrum is in [...]

Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department Republic Records How to explain the supercharged star power of Taylor Swift? An undeniably gifted artist, Swift's albums 1989, Folklore and Evermore, in particular, [...]

Underworld Usher Hall, Edinburgh On the same night Underworld played the second of two shows at the Usher Hall, next door at the Traverse Theatre, This is Memorial Device was [...]

Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert Domino Recording Company Dolenz Sings R.E.M. 7A Records In May 1966, Bob Dylan toured the UK with The Band, minus [...]

In 2012, Jeff Lynne released Mr Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra. Except it wasn't. It was 11 new re-recordings of classic ELO songs--which isn't the same [...]

We join Shane MacGowan, much like a character from one of his songs, in a world where prosaic, often harsh realities vie with feverish flights of fancy. The former Pogue [...]

Lankum The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh Mariza Festival Theatre, Edinburgh In a few days, Lankum will most likely win the 2023 Mercury Music Prize for their fourth album False Lankum--but don't [...]

'We all secretly want to be rock stars,' the 2022 Booker Prize-winning author Shehan Karunatilaka said recently. By 'we' he meant novelists, and he was more or less right. Most [...]

The Black Crowes: Happiness Bastards Silver Arrow Kacey Musgraves: Deeper Well MCA Nashville/Interscope Leonard Cohen used to speak self-deprecatingly about his sole 'chop' - that mesmeric, circular minor-key guitar pattern [...]

Slowdive The Liquid Room, Edinburgh Hamish Hawk Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, and touring until 5 May Rachel Goswell, one of Slowdive's two singers, has cool hair. It is dyed half black [...]

Idles: Tangk Partisan Records Katherine Priddy: The Pendulum Swing Cooking Vinyl I never had Idles down as a great Bristol band, I confess. In fact, I never had them down [...]

Celtic Connections: Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with Maeve Gilchrist, Lau, Paul Buchanan and Aoife O'Donovan Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow Sometimes I think, in the end, only the voice truly matters. Dress [...]

Green Day: Saviors Reprise Records Eliza McLamb: Going Through It Royal Mountain Of their many cultural quirks, Americans retain a slightly ridiculous and yet rather touching belief in the power [...]

Bob Dylan is heading into the new year with a reduced property portfolio, having sold his Scottish bolthole, Aultmore House in Speyside, for a shade over four million quid. Though [...]

Ed Sheeran: - Atlantic Alison Goldfrapp: The Love Intention Skint Whether by accident or design, the mathematical theme of Ed Sheeran's previous album titles (+, *, * and = respectively) [...]

Peter Gabriel: i/o Real World Peter Gabriel is terribly fond of a Big Idea. With Genesis he would sing in character as a lawnmower, a fox and as 'Slipperman'. His [...]

Ben Folds Usher Hall, Edinburgh Jah Wobble & the Invaders of the Heart La Belle Angele, Edinburgh, and touring until 9 December Choose your weapon. Artists are closely defined in [...]

Mitski Queen's Hall, Edinburgh New Order OVO Hydro, Glasgow The intimate acoustic show can denote many things for an established artist. One is that, in the infamous euphemism coined by [...]

There's a case to be made for John Cale being the most daring ex-member of the Velvet Underground. Lou Reed redefined the transgressive possibilities of literate three-chord rock'n'roll. Cale, arguably, [...]

Connect Festival; Paolo Nutini Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh As the sun sets on another too-long summer festival season, let us take a moment to reflect on the Festival Song. This [...]

Kathryn Joseph The Dissection Room, Summerhall, Edinburgh I have always been fascinated by artists who bounce between tonal extremes when performing, particularly the ones who serve their songs sad and [...]