Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft review – could have hit even harder

An impeccable mix of haunted earworms, zinging lyrics and dancefloor delights that end too soon, the American superstar’s third album seems to pull back from tantalising new horizons

Richard Hawley: ‘If I stopped what I’m doing the songs would still come’

On a tour of his home city that begins ‘at the crack of midday’, the singer discusses his new album, how his musical, Standing at the Sky’s Edge, has hit a nerve, and his main hope for Keir Starmer

One to watch: Myles Smith

A passionate purveyor of anthemic folk-pop with an alt-country vibe, everything this Luton singer-songwriter has released so far sounds like a hit

Stoneage Romeos at 40: no other Australian album brings a smile like the Hoodoo Gurus’ legendary debut

The LP turned junk culture into high art – but the band could only capture that innocence and purity once

Shaznay Lewis: Pages review – All Saints star returns with polished second solo album

Twenty years after her solo debut, Lewis delivers a mostly sumptuous set of turn-of-the-millennium-style pop

Zayn: Room Under the Stairs review – Nashville-produced minimalism suits him

The former One Direction singer continues to intrigue with an introspective, acoustic-leaning set with more highs than lows

Beth Gibbons: Lives Outgrown review – the Portishead singer’s solo debut elegantly contemplates mortality

‘We all know what’s coming,’ sings Gibbons on an elegiac, folk-imbued record that’s been 10 years in the making

Arooj Aftab: Night Reign review – all the heat and mystery of nocturnal life

Mercurial and moody soundscapes are infused with wistful romance in one of the Grammy-winning singer and composer’s most spirited records to date

‘World domination is a big thing for me’: pop superstar Becky Hill on raving to the top – and her new album’s dark past

She’s won two Brits and rivalled Dua Lipa and Adele for streams, but the public is still getting to know the ex-reality TV singer. She explains why snobbery has held her back, but trauma won’t

Everyone’s Getting Involved review – tepid all-star Talking Heads tribute

Cult film company A24’s tie-in merch to the seminal documentary Stop Making Sense sounds either like karaoke or is wildly disconnected from the source material

Billy Idol: ‘I stole the master tapes for Rebel Yell – and gave them to my heroin dealer’

The Generation X punk turned arena rocker answers your questions on near-misses in Hollywood, his overlooked electronic period and how Marc Bolan helped launch his career

Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft review – still the great outlier of American pop

On this deeply involving third album, Eilish once again breaks the rules for arena-filling artists: it’s subtle and understated, yet jars the listener with eerie show tunes and explosive noise

Beth Gibbons: Lives Outgrown review – long-awaited solo debut is a gripping study of ageing and loss

In the Portishead singer’s singular, astonishing soundworld, these songs sit in autumnal gloom but are occasionally dappled with warmth and light

Brian Bethell obituary

Other lives: Musician who worked in the UK and Australia with bands including Nine Below Zero and the Blow Monkeys

From Megadeth to Japanese make-up tutorials: the bizarre life of guitarist Marty Friedman

The US musician went from homelessness to multiplatinum success with the thrash metallers – and then became a pop cultural icon in Japan. He explains the weirdest portfolio career in rock