MGMT, the US psych-pop duo previously fled from success after their monumental debut single. 15 years later, TikTok’s thrust them back to prominence, and they respond with gorgeous yet conflicted ideas.
Despite pandemic-era isolation and a breakup defining its lyrics, the seventh album from Future Islands is another comfort blanket of cosy synths and gorgeous vocals.
Green Day acknowledge a world ransacked by billionaires and corporations on album number 14, but don’t let late-stage capitalism mellow their good-time anthems.
★★★★☆
Following the meticulously-planned political observations of Hope Six Demolition Project, Dorset’s singer-songwriter has gone in the opposite direction, making an ode to inexperience and improvisation.
Honouring 1986’s Somewhere in Time and 2021’s Senjutsu in equal measure, the British metal masters are still finding new ways to integrate decades-old music into a must-see live show.
In the late ’80s, Godflesh used a drum machine and hip hop-inspired beats to make heavy metal even heavier. The sound earned them three decades of acclaim and the approval of Metallica. But – for singer, guitarist and programmer Justin Broadrick – it was moulded by a traumatic childhood in a Birmingham council flat.
With their new album, Blossom, out now, whynow talks to Pupil Slicer as part of our ongoing series spotlighting new, promising artists.
Despite masterpieces by Korn and Deftones, nu metal became a dirty word when it oversaturated the mainstream and failed to emotionally evolve. So what brought the genre back for its renaissance? Metal writer Matt Mills explains.
Live albums once made superstars of Kiss and reignited Johnny Cash’s career. So why are they scarcely released and commercially weak in the 2020s? Matt Mills investigates.
This goth-pop quartet used Ouija boards and seances to write their new debut album. Matt Mills interviews bassist Benjamin Mainwaring and explores the Welshmen’s obsession with the paranormal, as part of our series on emerging acts.
★★★☆☆
Metallica’s eleventh album is 77 minutes of opportunities for you to bang your head and shred your voice. However, the Four Horsemen offer none of the surprises or genre-defying rebellion that made them the biggest metal band in the world.
They’re the biggest metal band on the planet, have spent 11 uninterrupted years in the charts, and have sold more than 125 million albums. With eleventh record 72 Seasons on the horizon, here’s everything you need to know to introduce yourself to Metallica.
As half of soul-pop duo Joseph Lawrence & The Garden, the Ipswich-born Londoner was a rising star signed to a major label. Then he dissolved the band and went solo without any money. Two years later, the musician tells whynow why his upcoming album is worth all the hardship.
★★★★☆
Warming up for their Royal Albert Hall headliner, genre-busting iconoclasts Killing Joke perform their first two albums in sequence to 350 acolytes.
★★★★★
Over nearly two decades, Rolo Tomassi have amassed an ardent following without a modicum of mainstream attention. At their largest show to date, the Sheffielders indulge in the fruits of their labour, welcoming 1,500 loyalists to an evening of immaculate emotion.
★★☆☆☆
You Me At Six take on Ally Pally on Saturday night, in a predictable show that adheres to the “arena rock 101” handbook.
★★★★★
Merely nine months after headlining Alexandra Palace to 10,000 people, Mogwai have returned to the capital for an intimate extravaganza of 600 attendees. However, the shrunken surroundings only add to the triumph and impact of their unexpectedly successful songs.
★★★★★
Toronto rock paragons Metric embraced avant-garde synthpop on 2022’s Formentera. During their supporting tour (and first UK run in half a decade), Emily Haines et al. match the ambition of their album with a two-hour career retrospective stuffed with hooks.
Writer Jeb Stuart’s comeback keeps the killer acting and practical effects yet lacks the action and simplicity that drove his Vikings spinoff’s debut season.
Matt Mills details the biggest pop-cultural powerhouses that owe themselves to the look of Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
23 years before Hammer Studios turned The Woman in Black into a blockbuster, ITV aired a version so scary that it traumatised a generation.
★★★★☆
Heather Baron-Gracie’s synthpop upstarts discovered a punk rock edge on this year’s new album, Unwanted. At the end of their headlining UK tour, the Manchester four-piece double down on their newfound attitude.
Inspired by everyone from Kate Bush to Porcupine Tree, art pop trio Exploring Birdsong are making experimental music as catchy as possible. Their work’s won them the support of countless critics – and one of the Beatles.
After finding fame as part of the mid-’00s post-punk revival, Editors have blossomed into a genre-smashing force. On new album EBM, they’ve teamed with producer extraordinaire Blanck Mass to generate danceable electro-rock. Keyboardist Elliott Williams explains their fearless eclecticism and new, politicised tunes.
A.A. Williams mesmerised with the gothic pop/rock of debut album Forever Blue in summer 2020. Two years, one pandemic and countless concerts later, she’s returning with an even darker, heavier follow-up. The UK’s bleakest singer-songwriter guides whynow through the life behind her sullen songs.
★★★☆☆
Muse condense political tirades into arena rock form on their ninth album. However, their authority is sporadically undermined by hodgepodge songwriting and derivative ideas.
On last year’s Who Am I?, Pale Waves frontwoman Heather Baron-Gracie wrestled with love and her own identity. Now, with the brand-new Unwanted, she’s using pop-punk to take a swing at society’s arseholes. She tells whynow about her newfound confidence and being a gay woman in rock.
Under the pseudonym Max Tundra, Ben Jacobs formulated an all-new genre of music using nothing but a Commodore Amiga. Then he vanished for fourteen years. Now, with hyperpop stars like Charli XCX having shot to fame, the originator’s returning with a slew of remixes and reissues.
Equal parts popcorn flick, meme machine and Vietnam allegory, 1987's Predator remains the apex of ’80s action.
★★★★☆
In 2016, Beyonce reaffirmed her pop culture dominance with the eclectic and overcoming Lemonade. Renaissance picks up in the aftermath of personal rediscovery, exhibiting the R&B titan at her most self-assured.
