Can’t take your finger off the Play button? You’ve come to the right place. We sort the wheat from the chaff in all things music for you, bringing you our definitive guide to what’s worth listening to out there, near and far. Trust us, we’ve got this covered.
Villains
Queens of the Stone Age
On Villains the band’s second album since 2007, frontman Josh Homme splices together rock swagger and dance swing into shape shifting songs with the help of an unexpected producer: Mark Ronson, known for pop hits with Amy Winehouse and Bruno Mars. If the album sounds a little looser and more uptempo than their last release, 2013’s …Like Clockwork, a deadly serious Homme explained why in an interview with Rolling Stone, “Frankly, that’s just because I like to dance”.
Give it a spin if you like:
Eagles of Death Metal, Royal Blood, The Dead Weather
Painted Ruins
Grizzly Bear
With their first new album in five years, Painted Ruins, Grizzly Bear keep up their puzzling playfulness, with an embroidered approach to vocals and instrumentation that doesn’t always make for love at first sound. “Given that our albums aren’t necessarily like, you listen to it once and you love it, I always want to give an album at least five listens,” vocalist Droste told online magazine Pitchfork in a recent interview. “Because it unfolds upon you. You keep discovering things.” Which is exactly why we love them.
Give it a spin if you like:
Fleet Foxes, Animal Collective, Deerhunter
Beast Epic
Iron & Wine
Sam Beam’s sixth album as Iron & Wine flows with romantic, Americana-tinged songwriting. The singer-songwriter from South Carolina explains it as “the beauty and pain of growing up after you’ve already grown up”. Beam continues: “The sound of Beast Epic harks back to previous work, in a way, as well. By employing the old discipline of recording everything live and doing minimal overdubbing, I feel like it wears both its achievements and its imperfections on its sleeve.”
Give it a spin if you like:
The Tallest Man On Earth, Andrew Bird, M. Ward
Like it Live ?
Ed Sheeran
4-5 / 11 / 2017, 8p.m.
AsiaWorld-Expo
Cheong Wing Rd
(Hong Kong Intl Airport)
Hong Kong
The Shape of You singer is hitting Hong Kong, along with other major Asian cities including Taipei, Singapore and Toyko as part of his world tour to promote his third studio album Divide, which has topped the charts in 14 countries including the UK and the US.