Music

Music

A new year, same old Morrissey: Just days into 2026, the former Smiths singer is already back at his favorite pastime, canceling a pair of upcoming concerts in Rancho Mirage and San Diego. According to a post on the website for Agua Caliente Casinos in Rancho Mirage, where Morrissey was supposed to play on Saturday night, his show has been postponed indefinitely due to an adverse reaction to a prescription medication.

Ahead of his time, Bowie spoke of post-apocalyptic landscapes, of isolation, of the technological journey beyond the human realm posing the great question of our time: Is the planet going to survive? He talked of dynamiting binarism and making room for different notions of identity, while forging a deep and warm bond between those who listened to him.

"Oh, gosh, I've got tons of stuff," he responded (as transcribed by Blabbermouth)."Since we finished the last Sabbath show [at 'Back to the Beginning' in July], I've just been going through all the stuff that I've written since the '80s onwards and updating everything. And what held me back before, I didn't have a singer when I'm at home, but AI came along. [laughs] So all my songs now, I've updated them all and I'm using an AI singer to bring all the lyrics out."

I have been thinking about the future and how we might respond to it. We are sliding into a period of transition like no other, most likely triggered in three waves; AI, quantum computing and the brain computer interface. Artists have a role to look into the mists and, when they catch sight of something, to hold up a mirror.

There's a lot to be said for spontaneity. That's how Ed and I did a lot of things together in the studio. He would just play, and we would just take snippets of it, and then you elaborate on little ideas and make a song out of it.

Mr Joseph's allegations concerning my client are false, baseless, and reckless. They are categorically denied, and we will use all legal means available to address these claims and to ensure that the truth is brought to light.

Can you explain how you fall in love? asks Erica Azim. In a certain way it's an impossible question. Yet it's a conundrum the Berkeley native has contemplated for half a century, every time she's asked about her abiding passion for mbira, which is both the traditional music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe and the thumb piano-like instrument that's the primary medium for their celebrations and ceremonies.

Since its inception five years ago, hello82 has emerged as a bridge between K-pop artists and fans, hosting immersive live experiences at its event spaces in Los Angeles and Atlanta. In May, the independent label unveiled a new flagship location in SoHo, where musical juggernauts including ATEEZ, LE SSERAFIM, AMPERS&ONE, A2O MAY, WONHO, and P1Harmony have already made appearances. It was the ongoing partnership between hello82 and P1Harmony, however, that enabled the company to take its next major step in expanding its global footprint.

It is late October and, 10 kilometres from the frontline in Donetsk, east Ukraine, the inhabitants of a reconditioned ambulance are completely lost. While opening your phone and logging on to a maps app might appear the obvious solution, this would be extremely unwise here: Russian drones are overhead and hunting for any signals. Inside the van are a motley crew: an 81-year-old Irish music industry veteran; a 72-year-old Texas rocker; an Australian keyboardist; a Ukrainian saxophonist; and three twenty-something musicians from Carlisle, Cumbria.

It's hard to imagine anyone's heart not being lifted a little by Right Back Where We Started From: the euphoric rush of new love rendered into three minutes of cod-northern soul (performed, unexpectedly, by various ex members of ELO, the Animals and 60s soft-poppers Honeybus). Avoid the 80s cover by Sinitta at all costs. A song about fresh starts for anyone who's made a new year resolution with no intention of sticking to it.

Of our 20 predictions for this past year, only two have definitively come true: one great ( Beyoncé won album of the year !) and one terrible (a Jared Leto exposé finally dropped -not that it appears to have really affected him at all ). A couple of others remain possibly true ( Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have been seen together a number of times in recent months); some were obviously wishful thinking ( Marcello Hernández movie vehicle when??); and some were flat-out wrong ( Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco didn't break up, they got married!).

Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) is best remembered now as a hugely influential teacher, who spread the gospel of neoclassicism through several generations of composers on both sides of the Atlantic. She was also a conductor and organist, and at the beginning of her career, at least, had ambitions as a composer in her own right, which she largely abandoned in the early 1920s some years after the deaths of both her enormously talented younger sister Lili, and her mentor, the pianist and composer Raoul Pugno.

I'm a year-round listener of "Auld Lang Syne," the Scottish folk song about distanced friends catching up over a few pints, so the countdown to the new year is my time to shine. When the clocks strike midnight on Wednesday, I hope millions more will also be belting this New Year's Eve anthem at the top of our lungs, from beginning to end (or at least the pieces you can remember and/or pronounce). But I also need everyone to know

Seventeen years on from the release of her debut single, Florence Welch finds herself in an intriguingly strong position: while most of her early 00s indie peers are forgotten or in reduced circumstances, she is a major influence on pop, from Ethel Cain to the Last Dinner Party to Chappell Roan. Her recent album Everybody Scream was a strong restatement of her theatrical approach with more light and shade than you might expect but it's on stage that she really comes into her own.

Role Model went viral for his song, "Sally, When the Wine Runs Out," largely because of its earworm bridge during which he screams to the crowd, "Where's my Sally tonight?!" and brings a fan onstage to dance around with him. As the song blew up over the summer, Sally became less a fan moment and more a celebrity guest appearance moment, with Natalie Portman, Hilary Duff, Bowen Yang, Olivia Rodrigo, Lewis Capaldi, Charli xcx, and Kate Hudson, among others, all getting a moment to be "Sally".

The prehistory of drone music begins with the recognition of sound as a temporal event. In ritual, chant and natural acoustics, drones mark ambience and continuity. Ancient instruments such as horns and bells produce extended vibrations that transform time into a perceptual field, and this stretching of temporal experience is as much social as musical. These instruments and others have proliferated into the rhythms of the human world.

Every playoff game should be played every single weekend until you finish the season. Even if it means we start Week 0 or you eliminate a bye, the season ends Jan. 1, and then the portal opens, then coaches that have to move on to their next opportunities get to move to their next opportunities.

Despite the fact that she was wearing a helmet, Amy was knocked unconscious for 10 minutes. It left her with memory loss and also caused a cyst in her throat that she hadn't known about to go into "hypergrowth," she says. The singer, who will perform at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast next month and whose hits include Simple Things, Takes A Little Time and Lucky One, later had five-hour surgery to have the cyst removed, during which doctors cut open her throat.

At 13, I was like, if I could ever hang out with Skrillex, my life would be complete, he says, sipping a pilsner on an icy day in Washington DC. Then by 15, I'm doing it. Enticed by the sugar rush of America's booming EDM scene, and armed with little more than a Soundcloud account, a knack for knocking out zeitgeisty bootlegs and a little teenage bravado, this kid from Bethesda a comfy suburb north-west of the US capital was suddenly opening for Diplo.

Locals are invited to relive and reload on the glory daze of 2010-2020 dance floor bangers, when "woke" still meant being on the right side of the fight. A throwback hip hop, rap tribute dance party. DJ Romeo and friends will be dropping tracks from Beyonce (before she went country), Kanye (before he went anti-woke), and Rihanna (when she was still a best-selling artist).

Podcasts have devastated my relationship to music. Confirmation of that sad fact came earlier this month in the form of my Spotify "Wrapped," the streaming service's personalized report of what I listened to this year, including a playlist of my top songs. In the past, this annual playlist supplied a loop of sonic pleasure, propelling me through workouts, dinner preps, and hours-long commutes. This year, I haven't even opened it.