Reinvented as Chris, the randy protagonist of her second album of the same name, Christine And The Queens’ Héloïse Lettisier has embraced '80s funk and pan-sexuality to five-star effect (see our review). But, the morning after a Brief Encounter-style moment at a London train station, she’s got romance on the brain too, finds Emma Madden
Retirement? Pfeh. At 76, Paul McCartney – greatest living songwriter, all-round good guy and former member of the bloody Beatles – is about to embark on yet another world tour in support of new album ‘Egypt Station’. Dan Stubbs meets him in London to talk about Lennon, Manson, global warming, ageing and, er, fuh-ing.
Over the past year, Pale Waves have set themselves up as the UK’s premier makers of heartbreak pop. As they prepare to unleash their debut album ‘My Mind Makes Noises’, Thomas Smith meets them in the spiritual home state of the lovelorn teen movie, Illinois, to hear about how their passion for each other translates to their music – and why Heather Baron-Gracie would die for her bandmates.
With next week’s second album ‘Joy As An Act Of Resistance’, Bristol pirate punks Idles have provided a modern manifesto for living based on love, tolerance and mindfulness and informed by personal demons and tragedy. They are also, finds Jordan Bassett, as he joins them in Hebden Bridge, a right laugh.
Once a hugely successful teen YouTuber, South Africa-born, Australia-raised Troye Sivan fought hard to be taken seriously as a pop star. The game-changing moment came this year with ’My My My’, an uproarious pop song about two gay lovers seducing each other. Its attendant full-length ‘Bloom’, he tells Douglas Greenwood, “feels like the album of [his] lifetime”
With ‘Ordinary Corrupt Human Love’, California’s Deafheaven have released one of the most acclaimed albums of the year, a record that makes non-metal fans sit back and think, ‘Wait, do I like metal?’ Tom Connick finds them –surfing, no less – on the day of the album’s release.
After the hedonistic excess of touring the latest Last Shadow Puppets with his best pal Alex Turner, Miles Kane roped in Lana Del Rey and Jamie T to knock out his third solo record, ‘Coup De Grace’. A glam-punk collection shaped by his love of wrestling, its character is all his own: sneering, snarling and hard to pin down, finds Jordan Bassett
Enjoying “the battle” of winning over the European festival circuit on a hot, sticky night in Madrid, Serge Pizzorno tells Kevin EG Perry how the “healing power of being on tour” is helping Tom Meighan’s get over his personal annus horribilis and how “the world at the moment is a pretty slippery character…”
As The National celebrate the most successful year of their career with a run of summer festivals, Andrew Trendell joins the band of brothers on the road in Spain and the UK for a few rounds of tequila and to talk about anxiety, musicals, shopping, Playmobil figures, Queen, The Strokes, family, failure, their eighth album and why they’re still obsessed with “sex, death and losing”.
When ‘Lean On’ became the most streamed song of all time, offbeat singer-songwriter MØ suddenly found herself in the record-breaking league of her idols, The Spice Girls. Stardom and superstar collaborators derailed plans for album number two but, as she releases new single ‘Sun In Our Eyes’, she’s ready to show the world she’s far more than a one-hit-wonder, finds Larry Bartleet
