Lily Allen: West End Girl – a gobsmacking autopsy of marital betrayal

Allen’s first album in seven years traces the fallout from an open relationship, but as well as being cathartic and candid, these stylistically varied songs have melodies that sparkle

‘It’s scary how many St George’s flags there were’: Blood Orange on coming home to Essex and mourning his mother

After grief brought Dev Hynes home, he reconsidered the county that shaped him. The result is a masterful new album – made with a little help from Lorde and Zadie Smith

The Guardian view on live music: a scheme to spread the sound around deserves support

Editorial: More gigs would be a good thing, and a voluntary £1 levy for grassroots venues could help

Dave Ball was not some bloke in the background of Soft Cell – he drove their startling, subversive sound

Far more than a mute foil to Marc Almond, Ball brought his love of northern soul and strange electronics to bear on some of Britain’s most uncompromising pop

Dave Ball, synth-pop hitmaker as one half of Soft Cell, dies aged 66

Synth player and producer had huge success with Tainted Love and other Soft Cell hits, and later returned to UK Top 10 with dance project the Grid

Indie rising stars the Belair Lip Bombs: ‘We don’t want to regret not giving it a proper crack’

The Australian band’s second album, Again, is among the year’s best, put out by Jack White’s Third Man Records. This time, they say, ‘it’s cool being part of a record release where people are going to hear it’

‘At night, his guitar comes into my mind’: Amadou and Mariam’s surviving singer on life after losing her husband and musical partner

As Amadou and Mariam, the blind couple tenaciously carved out a career as one of Africa’s biggest global acts. Now, after Amadou’s death this year, his wife tells the story of their first posthumous album

Post your questions for Mavis Staples

As the 86-year-old music legend prepares to release a new album, she will take on your questions

‘I was working as a cook when it went to No 1’: how Norman Greenbaum made Spirit in the Sky

‘My label said a four-minute single with lyrics about Jesus would never get played on radio. But, in 1969, the song sold two million copies. It’s now been No 1 in three different decades’

The Uncool by Cameron Crowe review – inside rock’s wildest decade

From shadowing a cocaine-addled David Bowie to winning over Joni Mitchell, deliciously readable tales by the director of Almost Famous

‘Everyone seems to be on Zimmers’: after 70 years of hip-shaking thrills, is rock’n’roll dead?

It is now seven decades since Little Richard sang Tutti Frutti – and a rip-roaring new type of music burst out into the world. But is rock’n’roll about to die out? Our writer goes searching for signs of life

King Gizzard’s Stu Mackenzie on leaving Spotify and making all their music free: ‘Sometimes you just forget that you have free will’

Australian band’s decision to remove catalogue in protest of CEO’s military investments an easy one, frontman says, and making music with friends remains ‘top of the triangle’

Limp Bizkit announces death of bassist Sam Rivers aged 48

Nu-metal group says Rivers ‘brought a light and a rhythm that could never be replaced’

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