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Lily Allen review – West End Girl’s marital collapse is superbly evoked at arena scale

Expanding on her recent theatre tour, Allen’s one-woman performance of her zeitgeist-dominating album is full of catharsis and high camp

Ariana Grande review – glittering hits and powerhouse vocals in stunning return to stage

The pop star’s first tour in seven years brought the house down with emotive ballads and clubby bangers delivered with saucy wit

Olivia Rodrigo: You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love review – who’s she singing about? Who cares when the songs are this good

Gossips have rushed to the lyrics for details about her personal life, but the rest of us can just get on with luxuriating in Rodrigo’s funny, Cure-infused craft

Lola Young review – buoyant, brilliant return from British pop’s great oversharer

The Messy hitmaker is back after taking time away from live performance, and this charming, relatable set shows why she is such a gen Z icon

Kelsey Lu: So Help Me God review – strange, graceful songs drifting from pop’s edgelands

Aided by Jack Antonoff, Kim Gordon, Sampha and more, the cello-playing singer-songwriter’s abstracted yet tuneful second album is worth the seven year wait

St Vincent review – majestic orchestral transformations of jagged art-pop

The mercurial artist reworked her catalog with technical mastery – and playful dance moves – accompanied by the Boston Pops orchestra

Taylor Swift: I Knew It, I Knew You review – giddy up! Song for Toy Story cowgirl Jessie is Swift’s best in years

Full of handcrafted care and the rootsy soul of her country origins, this gently elated song is a reminder of what fans love about Swift … and the film series

Zoh Amba: Eyes Full review – raw, rugged country rock also has real tenderness

Better known as a formidable free jazz saxophonist, these thrashing songs about the artist’s Tennessee childhood home share a similar genre-pushing intensity

Gintė Preisaitė: Instruments of Forgetting and the Singing Bone review – atmospheric, unsettling ambience

From birdsong to pool balls, this Lithuanian musician – a graduate of Copenhagen’s buzzy Rhythmic Music Conservatory – mixes beguiling found sounds into left-field pop and modern classical

Lizzo: Bitch review – a spirited star who just can’t rediscover her groove

After scrapping an album and starting anew, Lizzo still sounds lost amid these weak genre-hopping songs. Perhaps the zeitgeist has simply left her behind

Saint Levant review – Palestinian pop star makes Australian debut to an ecstatic, sold-out crowd

Even slight hand gestures elicit screams from his rapturous fans, at a show that brings politics to the party – and ends with a cameo from his father

Take That review – stadium redux of Circus tour has maximal razzle-dazzle

Elephants, clowns, aerialists hanging by their hair … the Big Top concept doesn’t let up at this hugely enjoyable outing for a boy band with hits to spare

Violet Grohl: Be Sweet to Me review – alt-rock arriviste aces the part

The daughter of Foo Fighters’ Dave does a serviceable line in 90s throwback sounds, though the nostalgia is too reverent

Iceage: For Love of Grace & the Hereafter review – Danish punks ace sixth stellar album on the trot

The quintet add shoegaze, country and 50s rock’n’roll to their core indie-punk sound, resulting in songs that offset lyrical bleakness with gleeful, uplifting music

Sugar review – Bob Mould’s reunited band still in a sweet spot between noise and melody

After three unlikely Top 10 albums in the 90s, the trio are back – and on the basis of this rapid-fire set, you hope they’ll stick around

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  • Munich Philharmonic/Lahav Shani/Martha Argerich review – the great pianist gleams
  • Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger review – mammoth tour movie brings the joy and poignancy of reunion
  • Jay-Z 30 tour review – the sheer profusion of nailed-on classics is dizzying
  • Katseye review – petulant hyperpop bops from a girl group in crisis
  • Berlin Philharmonic/ Petrenko/ Hadelich review – flawless musical beauty
  • Sairie: Beneath the Spreading Tree review – exquisite 70s-inflected folk heralds a move into autumn’s chill
  • Chat Pile: Who Loves the Sun review – sludge metallers resurface with a slightly limiting alt-rock rebrand
  • Vista, Saarikoski Songs, Three Preludes album review – Saariaho’s iridescent visions evocatively rendered
  • The Gesualdo Six/Colin Currie Group review – surely the year’s most atmospheric Prom
  • Berlin Philharmonic/Petrenko review – insightful Elgar and Tchaikovsky holds Proms audience in thrall
  • Adéla: Prima review – Slovakian star smashes the fourth wall to bask in pop’s cynicism and seduction
  • The Excursions of Mr Brouček review – Rattle’s illuminating touch lets Janáček’s sozzled antihero soar
  • Reading and Leeds festival review – post-GCSE blowout shows how dominant dance music now is
  • A$AP Rocky review – arena spectacular has plenty of helicopters but little sense of direction
  • Les Siècles/Lehmann La Damnation de Faust review – vivid colour, soaring solos and a sharp-suited demon
  • Daisy Chain Fields review – Olivia Rodrigo’s women-led festival is electric amid extreme heat
  • Oslo Philharmonic/Gražinytė-Tyla/Kopatchinskaja review – weapons-grade charisma and anarchic delight
  • The Waterboys review – Steve Earle joins a gloriously unruly return to Fisherman’s Blues
  • Charli xcx, Reading festival review – Pretentious? Just a bit. But Nietzsche would have loved it
  • BBCSSO/Runnicles review – resplendent recounting of Mahler’s fratricidal fairytale
  • Dahi: Black Boy (Alternative) review – Kendrick producer takes the spotlight for all-star guitar celebration
  • Klara Lewis: Opening review – enigmatic, ecstatic sound sculptures from a Swedish slowburn master
  • Donnacha Dennehy: Limina album review – joyously unfettered music is a thrill in motion
  • Song & Dance album review – Jacques Forestier’s impressive debut has persuasive rhythmic poise
  • Billy Strings: So Much for Goodbyes review – staggering, stirring songs of grief draw the blues out of bluegrass
  • Met Orchestra/Nézet-Séguin review – messy bonbons and a hero’s triumph in a classy all-Strauss lineup
  • Green Man review – Wolf Alice, Shame and secret sets keep the Welsh festival’s flame burning
  • Slayyyter live review – raucous show announces a new princess of sleaze-pop
  • Academy of St Martin in the Fields/Marquise Gilmore review – bassoon earns its spotlight in Thea Musgrave’s Out of the Darkness
  • Chineke!/ Heyward/ Angel Blue review – belated premiere for forgotten Black composer

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