‘We’ve got to release the dead hand of the past’: how Ireland created the world’s best alternative music scene

Irish indie acts used to be ignored, even on Irish radio. But songs confronting the Troubles, poverty and oppression are now going global – and changing how Ireland sees itself

Not Mariah again! New music playlists for the Christmas party season

Whether it’s vibe-setting dance and rap for house parties or soothing dream-pop for when you’re contemplating the clear-up, reach for these ready-made playlists

Amyl and the Sniffers dominate 2025 Arias with four wins: ‘Probably won’t have to work at IGA ever again’

Rock band take home album of the year while electronic breakthrough Ninajirachi wins best solo artist from a leading eight nominations

Danny Brown: Stardust review – hyperpop-rap powered up with post-rehab positivity

The Detroit rapper feared his music would get dull after he went sober, but no-one could be bored by this guest-stuffed, chaotically swaggering new album

Sudan Archives: ‘My favourite fact? I’m 100% that bitch’

The violin-playing sonic experimentalist on gadgets, guilty pleasures, and her most controversial pop culture opinion

‘They said I didn’t belong here’: rap star Knucks on his uprooted childhood – and why he records bus conductors

For the follow-up to his Mobo-winner Alpha Place, the UK rapper revisited Nigeria, drawing inspiration from bygone days of school bullies and washing his clothes by hand

Dave: The Boy Who Played the Harp review – ​it’s clearer than ever what a stunningly skilled rapper he is

Returning with his first album in four years, the arena-filling UK rapper is still such a smart, sharp lyricist as he explores a series of existential crises

Huey Morgan looks back: ‘My father left when I was seven. Music was a way to derail those feelings of not being good enough’

The musician on dealing with PTSD, his angry TV outburst, and why one radio station refused to play anything by Fun Lovin’ Criminals

Fridayz Live Sydney review – Mariah Carey is impeccable but Pitbull steals the show

Dual headliners capped a R&B festival with fever-dream energy, including self-help sermons and Pitbull cosplayers everywhere you looked

Stormzy elected honorary fellow of Jesus College Cambridge

Musician and philanthropist was nominated in recognition of scholarship programme at the university

Little Simz review – hip-hop visionary radiates joy and Gallagher-level swagger

Switching from full-arena singalongs to horn-blaring funk to sweaty Detroit techno club vibes, the rapper is at the very top of her game

Drake’s defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group dismissed

Rapper had claimed UMG helped to damage his reputation by distributing Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us

I judged this year’s Welsh music prize – and Don Leisure’s winning album sums up the nation’s eclectic spirit

Desert blues, transcendental electronica and a concept album about a mill powered by music­ – this year’s shortlisted albums were stunningly diverse, none more so than the crate-digging on the triumphant Tyrchu Sain

‘I want to hear harmonica in the strip club!’: the bold ideas and bleak visions of British musician Klein

Drone albums, vampire plays, Charlotte Church duets … the Londoner has an inspiringly odd CV. She explains how the disrupted experience of Black daily life fills her work

Baker Boy on naming his album for his grandmother: ‘She was the reason that I fell in love with hip-hop’

The new music from the Aria-winning Yolngu rapper is his most politically charged yet. ‘I want to show you the anger, the vulnerability,’ he says