The Must-Sees of 2016: Rock and Pop from Manic Street Preachers to David Bowie

The critics’ guide to the hottest tickets of the year ahead

James Dean Bradfield of the Manic Street Preachers perform at the 20th Anniversary Tour For "The Holy Bible" (Getty Images)

ROCK AND POP

David Bowie, Blackstar

The first notable music event of the year is surely Bowie’s follow-up to The Next Day, which will be released on his 69th birthday. Like that album’s career-reviving qualities, Blackstar pioneers new ground It’s the most extreme album of his career, sketching a bleak soundscape awash with miasmic strings, brooding horns and banshee sax improvisation.

8 January, Columbia

Jesu/Sun Kil Moon Jesu/Sun Kil Moon

Having engaged in a mutual love-in for several years, Sun Kil Moon (the vehicle for singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek’s long, ruminative ballads) and Jesu (the British post-rock band fronted by Justin Broadrick) finally get to collaborate on this intriguing new album. With Will Oldham and members of Low, Sonic Youth, Slowdive and Modest Mouse also contributing, one imagines Kozelek’s dour, intimate naturalism awash in dreamy waves of shoe-gazey guitar textures.

22 January, Caldo Verde

Lucinda Williams, The Ghosts Of Highway 20

Lucinda Williams’ 12th album focuses on the stretch of highway running from Georgia to Texas after which she named her own label. Most of the 14 songs are about experiences linked to that road, with Williams’ trademark careworn delivery allied to unusually experimental arrangements featuring guitar texturalists Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz.

22 January, Highway 20

Underworld Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future

Having spent recent years reissuing expanded editions of their back catalogue albums, directing the music for the London Olympics opening ceremony and taking time out for Karl Hyde’s collaborations with Eno, Underworld finally return to the fray with their first new album in six years, supported by a European tour including two nights at London’s Roundhouse on 24 and 25 March.

18 March, Caroline International

Primal Scream at The London Palladium

Is this a joke? That’s the immediate reaction when one notes the date, but this show is apparently for real, the obvious highlight of the band’s tour in support of their new Chaosmosis album (Ignition, March 16), which starts 29 March in Aberdeen. Maybe the finale will feature them waving farewell from the rotating stage turntable, as in Sunday Night at the London Palladium? I do hope so.

1 April, London Palladium

GZA Dark Matter

Little has been heard of the reclusive Wu-Tang Clan genius in seven years, so expectations are high for the return of the creator of the iconic Liquid Swords (frequently cited as one of the greatest rap albums of all time). Interest was piqued by a recent collaboration with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, and reached fever pitch when he posted a photo of himself online, working with Blade Runner composer and prog legend Vangelis.

TBC

Manic Street Preachers, Everything Must Go Tour

Lungs will surely be strained, and tear-ducts drained, when the Manics play their most successful and beloved album in its entirety on their upcoming tour. The prize date to attend is surely the 28 May show in Swansea, where they’ll be supported by art-pop synthesists Public Service Broadcasting and fellow Welsh legends Super Furry Animals.

From May 13, Liverpool

James Blake, Radio Silence

If it continues the great leaps made between his debut and Overgrown, James Blake’s hotly-anticipated Radio Silence should be one of 2016’s most rewarding albums. Extending their influence on its predecessor, it is claimed to feature contributions from Kanye West and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, along with guitar by New Zealand oddball Connan Mockasin.

TBC, Polydor