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Richard Ashcroft review – uplifting epics and rocket-boosted confidence reminiscent of 90s Verve heyday

The perma-sunglassed singer tries to transport himself and the audience to a higher plane, culminating in a cathartic sing-along like a gigantic Last Night of the Proms

The Mountain Goats: Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan review – shipwreck songs from a master storyteller

The latest themed album from John Darnielle’s band – with some help from Lin-Manuel Miranda – takes them on a sumptuously crafted and surprisingly upbeat voyage to a desert island

Paul Kelly: Seventy review – reflections on ageing from a musician bigger than ever

After five decades, the songs are still memorable, warm and a little sex-mad. It’s classic Kelly – and Joe’s back, too

Hatchie: Liquorice review – dizzying dreampop with welcome flashes of depravity

Eschewing the fairyfloss hooks of her earlier work, the Australian’s third album is both more mature and less immediately palatable

Radiohead review – bards of the apocalypse return for a brutal bacchanal

Powered by a pounding rhythm section, the crowd dance to even the tricksiest drum patterns at Radiohead’s first gig in seven years – one that demonstrates the pure joy this band can bring

Rosalía: Lux review – a demanding, distinctive clash of classical and chaos that couldn’t be by anyone else

The Catalan star’s monumental fourth LP features lyrics in 13 languages, references to female saints, the London Symphony Orchestra – and Björk on ‘divine intervention’

Snocaps: Snocaps review – Katie and Allison Crutchfield reunite with a little help from MJ Lenderman

Waxahatchee and her twin sister are joined by Lenderman and Brad Cook for an album of headstrong, tender Americana about chasing integrity and conviction

Florence + the Machine: Everybody Scream review – alt-rock survivor surveys her kingdom with swagger

On her self-deprecating, viscera-flecked sixth record, Florence Welch picks apart the compulsions and contradictions of fame

Anna von Hausswolff: Iconoclasts review – exhilarating, euphoric goth songcraft

The Swedish experimental musician pivots from drones to spectacular pop melodies, with guest spots from Iggy Pop and Ethel Cain

Sananda Maitreya review – the former Terence Trent D’Arby returns in astonishing vocal form

Pop’s lost prodigy returns for the first time in 23 years with a dazzling, genre-hopping show – and a falsetto that still floors the crowd

Jennifer Walton: Daughters review – a stylish and painful debut

Fiction, folk and a devastating diagnosis feature in the producer and DJ’s literary penmanship, her gentle, gothic vocals thick with morbid, magical thinking

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

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

Tame Impala: Deadbeat review – ‘bush doof’ bangers can’t hide how downbeat Kevin Parker seems to be

The producer combines an uneasy marriage of four-four beats with catchy hooks and candid lyrics suggesting his rise to pop’s upper echelons may have come at a cost

The Last Dinner Party: From the Pyre review – baroque’n’roll band’s speedily released second album is overheated

The London five-piece throw the kitchen sink at these dizzyingly dense songs, often crushing their melodic pleasures in the process

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  • Pekka Kuusisto: Willows album review – luminous, inventive and penetrating
  • Gorillaz: The Mountain review – a late career peak haunted by ghosts yet glowing with life
  • Bath BachFest review – joyous and mesmerising music making
  • BBC Total Immersion: Icelandic Chill review – ambience, flowerpots and drones in varied day of new music
  • Sacconi Quartet review – new Freya Waley-Cohen work reveals ensemble at their finest
  • Tamara Stefanovich review – inspired and insightful programme celebrates Kurtág at 100
  • Hedera: Hedera review – Cornwall, Georgia and Bali combine on joyful debut
  • Hen Ogledd: Discombobulated review – a manifesto for collective action from Richard Dawson’s folk-rockers
  • HK Gruber: Short Stories from the Vienna Woods album review – still quirky after all these years
  • Johann Ludwig Bach: The Leipzig Cantatas album review – this distant cousin’s music is a remarkable discovery
  • Saul review – Purves didn’t just chew the scenery, he swallowed it whole
  • The Streets review – semi-theatrical staging of A Grand Don’t Come for Free resurrects a British classic
  • Mitski: Nothing’s About to Happen to Me review – mordant, melodic melancholy from the best songwriter of her generation
  • U2: Days of Ash review – six new tracks reaffirm the band as a vital political voice
  • Raye review – dazzling display of range from old-school Vegas to Euro-dance
  • Cardi B review – ambitious spectacle and sizzling choreography
  • Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny review – big and brash staging for Brecht and Weill’s whisky-soaked dystopia
  • Gillian Welch and David Rawlings review – phenomenal duo put on an exquisite show
  • BBCSO/ Rustioni/ Davóne Tines review – Black-tinged Anthem spins US nationhood
  • Deftones review – alt-metal veterans sound exceptionally fresh 38 years on
  • The Great Wave review – Hokusai opera sounds and looks beautiful but skimps on drama
  • Charli xcx: Wuthering Heights review – atonal, amorous anthems that more than stand apart from the film
  • Fred Again review – guest-heavy homecoming for the golden boy of UK dance is an eclectic triumph
  • Converge: Love Is Not Enough review – metalcore veterans’ rage remains fresh and furious
  • Joshua Chuquimia Crampton: Anata review – an ear-splitting haze that heals as it hurts
  • Ensemble Intercontemporain: Unsuk Chin album review – rich and strange music of kaleidoscopic colours
  • Handel: Sosarme album review – Marco Angioloni makes the case for this little-known work
  • LPO/Benjamin review – music of crystalline clarity and hedonistic pleasure
  • Hemlocke Springs: The Apple Tree Under the Sea review – a DayGlo DIY triumph in an era of risk-averse pop
  • The Beach Boys: We Gotta Groove review – box set of lost 70s music has all of Brian Wilson’s turmoil and talent

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