Mike Pinder obituary

Singer, songwriter and pioneer of the Mellotron keyboard who was a founder member of the original Moody Blues

‘I wasn’t worried about what gringos wanted!’ Ludmilla, Brazil’s next pop superstar

Already the most listened-to Black artist in Brazil and a favourite of Beyoncé, Ludmilla has a whole new audience after her viral Coachella show. She discusses the racism and homophobia she’s had to face getting this far

‘Bowie told me it’s OK to be messy’: the starry life and strife of singer-songwriter Lawrence Rothman

They’ve played with everyone from Lucinda Williams to a pre-fame Billie Eilish. Now, on their intensely personal new album, they confront the trauma of being pistol-whipped and dealing with an eating disorder

Everyone Knows That: internet music mystery solved via 1986 adult movie

The search for song that has consumed thousands of Reddit users is over, with discovery that it was written for pornographic film

‘The song I wish I’d written? Wonderwall’: Gabrielle’s honest playlist

The solo artist sings along privately to Oasis and to Bruce Springsteen in public. But what song is her classic Dreams based on?

Mitski review – unusual, enigmatic and utterly compelling

The indie artist deploys her songs like controlled explosions as she turns the stage into a cabaret, a circus, a cage

Billy Bragg: ‘There’s nothing like going out there singing your truth. That ain’t changed’

The activist singer-songwriter on fighting for trans rights, his 40 years in the music business and his forthcoming tour with his son

Paraorchestra: Death Songbook live review – bittersweet ballads with Brett Anderson and friends

Charles Hazlewood’s boundary-breaking ensemble guide the Suede singer and special guests through an elegiac evening grown out of the pandemic

St Vincent: All Born Screaming review – magnificently dark, heavy and loud

Recreating the noises in her head, Annie Clark’s first fully self-produced album ranges across styles and emotions, and is her most direct yet

Taylor Swift equals Madonna’s record of 12 UK No 1 albums

Swift now has joint highest number of chart-toppers for a female artist, as The Tortured Poets Department earns biggest opening week in seven years

Take That review – oddly packaged pop still packs a wallop

There’s some magic amid the cheese as the trio revisit a stacked catalogue of hits – and gamely give their old choreography a go

Olivia Dean review – pop-soul singer proves she was born for big stages

Delicately sipping a Red Stripe and accompanied by a seven-piece band, the Brit School grad loosens up her Mercury prize-nominated album with radiant star power

Aya Nakamura thanks fans for support over Olympics racism as she wins awards

French singer dedicates top prizes at Les Flammes ‘to all black women’ after backlash over rumoured Paris show

Pet Shop Boys: Nonetheless review – a great, fan-pleasing album

The duo’s first LP in four years finds them refining and updating their late-80s heyday sound, with a new producer in tow

‘People think I hate pop’: super-producer AG Cook on working with Beyoncé and honouring his friend Sophie

As the boss of PC Music, the godfather of hyperpop confounded critics but won over Beyoncé and Charli XCX. Now, with a supersized new solo album, he’s continuing his mission to make pop more unpredictable