Latest music features

<p>Yoko Ono and John Lennon in Paris</p>

What Yoko Ono really thought about John Lennon leaving The Beatles

As a box set celebrating the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album is released, Craig McLean talks to bassist Klaus Voormann and The Beatles’ press assistant Richard DiLello, and recalls his meeting with Yoko Ono in 2009, when she spoke about her reaction to one of the most important moments in pop history

DMX was a rap juggernaut who preached faith and resilience

Flyte interview: ‘It takes a seismic shift to make you look inwards’

Taylor Swift’s re-recorded album prove her songs were written to last

Interviews

Holly Humberstone Holly Humberstone: ‘My house became the inspiration’

All is full of love: The gospel according to serpentwithfeet

Ben Howard: ‘I played the sincere, miserable singer-songwriter’

First Aid Kit: ‘We’re not innocent sisters – we’re feminist bitches’

On Trend

Why Kings of Leon think NFTs are the future of the music industry

How indie music is tackling grief in the age of Covid

How live music crews are coping during the pandemic

In search of the Black disco queens

How the women of the Jazz Age are finally getting their dues

How ASMR crossed over into pop music

Album reviews

Swift chooses not to rewrite history on Fearless (Taylor’s Version)

Swift’s re-recorded versions of her 2008 album is a timely reminder of some of the best pop songs committed to record

Album reviews: Brockhampton and Flyte

Brockhampton’s first of their two final albums suggests a band filled with uncertainty, while Flyte excel with a Seventies-inspired gem

Michael Church Classical reviews: Ligeti and various chants

Demi Lovato embraces independence on her confessional new album

Album reviews: Ben Howard and serpentwithfeet

Lana Del Rey’s new album is damn-near impossible to resist

Justin Bieber returns with a career-best on his new album Justice

Sting’s album Duets is a generous reminder of his incalculable range

Retrospectives

10 years ago, Katy B’s On a Mission bridged club culture and pop

Celebratory, emotive, relentlessly cheesy: Daft Punk’s Discovery at 20

‘It’s the Sgt Pepper’s of hip-hop’: 2Pac’s All Eyez On Me at 25

The myth and mayhem of Jim Morrison’s disastrous final show

On the Record

Lorde’s Melodrama captures the second adolescence of being queer

Dan Smith on Lauryn Hill’s beautiful, complicated ‘Miseducation’

Tim Burgess on the brilliant Dexys Midnight Runners album, Too-Rye-Ay

How 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields helped me through heartbreak

News

The Countdown

Paul McCartney’s 20 best post-Beatles songs

Miley Cyrus’s 10 best songs, ranked

The 15 greatest guitar riffs, from Back in Black to Johnny B Goode

Live music

Biden’s inauguration was a safe, soothing tribute to anti-fascism

A Bowie Celebration captured the Starman’s chameleonic spirit

Now Hear This

Music Box sessions

Singer Robert Vincent concludes Music Box series six

Marika Hackman gives a broody performance for her Music Box session

Music Box sessions – Irish pop-rock band Picture This