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Latest music features

<p>‘They were just kids that were going out clubbing in London seven nights a week,’ says Martin Kelly of Heavenly Recordings </p>

Playback

Flowered Up were brilliant – but they were headed for tragedy

The 18-minute film accompanying their classic single ‘Weekender’ has been called a ‘mini-masterpiece’. Craig McLean salutes a double re-release of the band’s music and traces their story

<p>Taylor Swift releases ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ on 19 April 2024 </p>

Taylor Swift’s country-hued tales of relationships are irresistible

Taylor Swift live: Pop star releases The Tortured Poets Department

<p>The sound of strength in numbers: Idles, front left to right: Jon Beavis, Mark Bowen, Joe Talbot, Adam Devonshire, Lee Kiernan </p>

interview

Idles: ‘Our old lyrics were not the words of a healthy man’

<p>Taylor Swift releases ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ on 19 April </p>

THE COUNTDOWN

Taylor Swift’s 10 greatest breakup songs, ranked

Interviews

<p>Girl in Red (aka Marie Ulven Ringheim) shot to fame after her lovesick tune ‘i wanna be your girlfriend’ was discovered on Soundcloud </p>

interview

Norway’s Girl in Red: ‘One journalist asked me what meds I’m on’

<p>MGMT rose to fame with their seminal 2007 debut album ‘Oracular Spectacular’ </p>

Interview

MGMT are all grown up: ‘This sounds whack to say, but drugs are bad’

<p>Sheryl Crow: ‘I didn’t mean to make a record’ </p>

Interview

Sheryl Crow: ‘I’m saying the same thing about guns, 30 years later’

<p>The Mary Wallopers: (From left to right) Róisín Barrett, Ken Mooney, Andrew Hendy, Sean McKenna, Charles Hendy, and Finnian O’Connor </p>

interview

Irish folk group The Mary Wallopers: ‘U2 pretended not to be Irish’

Music Box

Watch Dylan John Thomas perform his single ‘Fever’ on Music Box

Watch the beautiful performance of ‘the author’ by Luz on Music Box

Damian Lewis sings ‘Down On The Bowery’ for Music Box

On Trend

New Sensations

<p>Motley blue: the band have a formidable live reputation </p>

interview

Blue Bendy’s Arthur Nolan: ‘I see a lot of myself in Kendall Roy’

<p>‘When I think about Madonna, Lady Gaga, Janet Jackson, Britney and Gwen Stefani, I think my album has the same fundamental pop cues that those albums have had,’ says 29-year-old pop star Amaarae </p>

interview

Pop star Amaarae: ‘African artists are all lumped under one umbrella’

<p>NewDad released their Pixies-indebted debut album ‘Madra’ last month</p>

interview

Irish alt-rock band NewDad: ‘It’s no wonder bands don’t always last’

Reviews

<p>The alt-rock legends have been around since 1990 </p>

Pearl Jam offer something timeless with their catchiest music in years

Musically, this album is some of the band’s catchiest and punchiest material in years

<p>Maggie Rogers releases her third album ‘Don’t Forget Me’ </p>

Maggie Rogers escapes into the windows-down soft rock of her new album

Romantic love is not the endgame on this album full of fleeting moments and giddy flights

Live music

Roger Daltrey bows out from Teenage Cancer Trust with a worthy goodbye

Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Paul Weller and more accompany Daltrey as he takes his final bow as curator of the annual charity shows

<p>Their generation: the two remaining band members saw off Roger Daltrey’s 24 years organising the yearly charity gigs with a bang only they could deliver </p>

The Who remain the punchiest act of their vintage at Royal Albert Hall

Fumbled microphone twirls and malfunctioning hearing aids only add to the charm of a momentous, turbo-charged set for the Teenage Cancer Trust

Retrospectives

<p>New fans are discovering the music of Oakland musician Judee Sill </p>

The tragic life of Judee Sill, folk-rock’s forgotten star

<p>Those early Nirvana shows were experienced by fans as deeply communal and endlessly relatable</p>

Inside Nirvana’s final show: Kurt Cobain and a prophetic declaration

<p>Before he was famous: A young Cillian Murphy chats to Ireland’s RTE about his band, Sons of Mr Green Genes</p>

Features

How the 1990s Cork music scene helped make Cillian Murphy a star

<p>‘We were all trying to make this thing a success, and we actually did’: The seminal British pop group Girls Aloud in 2004</p>

Features

‘We had nothing to lose’: How Girls Aloud made a British pop classic

News