Nova Twins: Parasites & Butterflies review – fearless rock duo balance anthems and introspection
Trailblazers Amy Love and Georgia South push the boundaries of their trademark hybrid rock sound while confronting mental health and naysayers
Blood Orange: Essex Honey review – an exquisitely eclectic portrait of grief
Gorgeous melodies ground Dev Hynes’s questing fifth album, via dancefloor rhythms, indie pop and languorous funk – and cameos from Lorde and Zadie Smith
Taylor Swift’s romantic travails were the soundtrack to mine. What does her engagement mean for fans’ love lives?
The singer’s breakups were anthems for emotionally bruised youth. Now she’s happy, I look forward to hearing yet more poundingly relatable lyrics – based on real, lasting love
Thursday briefing: How Taylor Swift, the ultimate pop star, turned her story into our own
In today’s newsletter: Her songs have soundtracked first loves, heartbreaks and coming-of-age moments for millions, and fostered a rare kind of intimacy between artist and audience
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announce engagement on social media
‘Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,’ the couple wrote on Instagram
Lil Nas X speaks out post-arrest: ‘That was terrifying’
Grammy winner posted on Instagram to comment on his arrest after pleading not guilty to attacking police in LA
Will Smith review – post-slap tour has shoutalongs, self-help sermons and a touch of David Brent
His most recent album may have tanked but it works better played live, and Smith is endearing as he continues to get jiggy with it
Everything We Do Is Music by Elizabeth Alker review – how the classics shaped pop
From Stravinsky to Donna Summer, the story of connections that enriched music – in both directions
‘The pope complained about the lyrics!’: the Bluebells and Siobhan Fahey on how they made Young at Heart
‘I had moved down from Glasgow and was sharing a council flat with the girls from Bananarama. We wrote the song after watching the Frank Sinatra film’
Krankenhaus review – Lake District castle has the antithesis to boring corporate music festivals
Featuring steam train trips and guided walks between the bands, organisers Sea Power have made something special in this dung-scented corner of the north
Reading and Leeds festival review – Chappell Roan slays and Bring Me the Horizon power the circle pits
Thousands of post-GCSE teens join acts from pop-poet Antony Szmierek to rap megastar Travis Scott, before Hozier blazes and Wunderhorse go off like a rocket
The Last Dinner Party and Vampire Weekend condemn festival after Mary Wallopers’ set pulled over Palestine flag
Victorious festival organisers apologised for cutting off the Irish band after they led chants to ‘free Palestine’, and said they would donate to humanitarian relief efforts
Angst-filled black metal music became my identity. Until I was persuaded to really listen to the lyrics
My teenage self loved the misanthropic look and sound of these bands, but I was horrified when I learned what they represented, says novelist Ana Schnabl
Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing review – candy-haired popsters put on a show
A garbled story of metaverse musicians based on a mobile game leaves its audience little to grasp hold of
The emblem of modern Ireland? Not fiddles and Guinness but a soulless shopping plaza
The singer CMAT dances around a retail centre in a video for her new album. It is the elegy those of us who grew up in the post-Celtic tiger recession have been craving, says Irish writer Emer McHugh