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Music
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Inspired by her father’s release from prison, Annie Clark’s new album asks where to run when ‘the outlaw’s inside you’. She discusses his incarceration, the delusions of love – and why she remains as perverse as ever
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Brown, a noted Covid sceptic, has withdrawn from the Neighbourhood Weekender festival in Warrington in September
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Band will sell a $50 limited-edition deluxe version of When You See Yourself, as well as six special NFTs -
Morgan Carey says passages in The Meaning of Mariah Carey that characterise him as violent are ‘false and defamatory’ -
Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian take a spin down memory lane, from California’s Redwoods to Nepal via the mean streets of south London
Best music of 2020
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Our countdown is complete, topped by a mercurial work of sprawling invention by a woman who has dug deep to survive. Taken as a whole, these choices contain drama, solace, poetry and fire, a fitting selection for a turbulent year -
In an unusual year that’s kept us most of us away from live music venues, Guardian writers pick the songs that deserve to have made more impact -
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The singer, 36, on not going raving, her inspirational mum – and being licked by Dave Chappelle -
When the shock-rocker returned to the place of his birth in the 60s, he found a raw paradise of unsegregated rock’n’roll. As Cooper releases an album celebrating the city, he and his peers relive one of the US’s greatest music scenes -
The Norwegian group are so close that they write songs from their bandmate’s perspective. ‘It feels like a secret diary,’ they say -
As she releases her third album, the US indie rocker reminisces about waffles, hardcore Christian punk and her terrible skateboarding
Best music reviews
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4 out of 5 stars.
Alexis Petridis's album of the week Nick Cave and Warren Ellis: Carnage – vivid visions of apocalypse and absolution
4 out of 5 stars.Cave’s rich writing and Ellis’s dense beat-free sounds form a reliably vivid picture of locked-down end-times and the fantasy of redemption -
5 out of 5 stars.
Kitty Empire's album of the week Nick Cave and Warren Ellis: Carnage review – the firebrand returns
5 out of 5 stars.The grief remains, but Cave’s hunger for retribution is back too, heightened at every turn by Ellis’s strings, on this wild, writerly masterpiece -
Obituaries
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His inspired technique made toasting into an international phenomenon, yet he was endearingly modest to the end -
‘The originator’ of toasting on record helped revolutionise soundsystem culture in Jamaica – and inspire the birth of hip-hop -
The Fania All-Stars player and record label-impresario worked with Latin music giants including Celia Cruz and fostered a more intense, political salsa sound -
The late audio engineer revolutionised recording with an innovative EQ design, his innovations used by everyone from the Queen to Dave Grohl
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Twelve years after Kirsty MacColl's untimely death, Michael Hann talks to her friends and family as the singer-songwriter's first four albums are re-released
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By genre
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The German metal band’s outrageous antics unsettled my parents, but they opened my mind to a continent and a culture -
The Rotherham electronic musician is using his skills to tackle dementia, teach children and collaborate across the globe – and dreams of a club where the dancers play the drum machines -
For our fandom series, Tara Joshi describes the childhood thrills – and dubious tonsorial choices – inspired by Beyoncé and co
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4 out of 5 stars.
Indie Julien Baker: Little Oblivions review – unsparing tales of shame
4 out of 5 stars.Merciless self-criticism is largely contained within the bounds of indie rock on Baker’s out-there third album -
Each month we add 20 new songs to our Spotify playlist. Read about 10 of our favourites here – and subscribe on Spotify, which updates with the full list at the start of each month -
A real-life inspiration for Jack Black’s School of Rock, the Melbourne institution became the Kings Cross Conservatorium – but its ethos of equality remains
You may have missed
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The rapper’s arrest shows Spain has a problem with freedom of ideology. But people shouldn’t be scared to write songs that stand up to power -
Skrillex, Erol Alkan and those close to the French duo chart how they went from being industry outsiders to defining the trajectory of dance music -
The first digital-native superstar has far more music industry power than her pop predecessors, but she still faces toxic levels of scrutiny
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They hung themselves from meat hooks, pelted their audience with offal – and blazed a trail for radical queer performance in Australia -
For a teenager steeped in Welsh choir music, Michael Stipe’s kaleidoscope of artistic influences – and mega-success – were too irresistible not to follow -
After the Bauer Media music title’s pandemic-triggered demise last July, Q’s former staff are launching a weekly direct-to-inbox publication
Most viewed
Alexis Petridis's album of the week Jane Weaver: Flock – triumphantly twisting pop music to her own ends
4 out of 5 stars.