Pop and rock
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It’s nearly a decade since Steve Brookstein became the first winner of The X Factor – not that you’d remember. His new memoir details the miseries of fleeting reality TV fame, and the Cowell-Clifford conspiracy that he believes killed his career
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This week’s best band were forced to get date-specific in their name, but it just adds a nostalgic glaze to masterful Scandinavian indie songcraft
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While much pop music this year felt drearily uniform, Trouble in Paradise stood out as a classy affair that allowed its songs time and space to breathe
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The rapper says he committed to the tour because he had to ‘support certain things’, and only customised jumpsuits made it interesting
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She may look like a pile of pixels but Miku is a lot more, including the world’s first open-source singer
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New management should be allowed to take over the Soho venue rather than allowing gentrification, say campaigners
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Review The Grates: Dream Team review – grown up garage rock that's missing its female drummer
3 / 5 starsMuscly bloke drumming, and a few plodders impairs an otherwise decent album from the Brisbane three piece -
Most of the eight mashups and collaborations here feel fresh, even urgent, writes Caroline Sullivan
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Review Smashing Pumpkins: Monuments to An Elegy review – recalling, if not matching, early glories
3 / 5 starsBilly Corgan is the only original member left, but this comeback record shows he still has a knack for melancholy alt-rocking, writes Dave Simpson -
Review Malcolm Middleton and David Shrigley: Music and Words review – eclectic, engaging and sometimes surreal
3 / 5 starsThe former Arab Strab member and the Turner prize-nominated artist have written the prettiest song about a badger you’ll hear this year, writes Tim Jonze -
Passionate endings, fond farewells, sad separations or stimulating solitude, name songs that capture or reflect on a moment when two or more people are parted, says Peter Kimpton
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The R&B group still know how to layer a gorgeous harmony, even if their latest lacks musical focus, writes Tshepo Mokoena
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Dorian Lynskey: Native American artists rocked as hard as their 60s and 70s musical heroes but we’re only getting to hear them now thanks to a new compilation of buried treasures. The stars explain how music gave them a voice
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Keyboard player whose evocative playing became part of the fabric of rock’n’roll history
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Priya Elan: Gabrielle Drake’s insights and reminiscences of her brother Nick made fascinating and poignant listening for his fans
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Watch the annual concert in aid of Save the Children here, with the music beginning at 7pm
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Alexis Petridis: After the death of their drummer Jon Brookes, the Charlatans thought their gig at the Royal Albert Hall last year could be their last, but their new album, Modern Nature, finds them in surprisingly euphoric form
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The DJ’s annual United State of Pop track shows that pop in 2014 was moody, self-interested and ultimately all about doing whatever you want
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Music blog Enter Santa! Metallica, Ed Sheeran and One Direction compete to be on your Christmas shopping list
What better way to celebrate the birth of Jesus than with a limited edition 1D gift set, Metallica ornament, or ‘Merry Trismas’ jumper from the Vamps, asks Jeremy Allen -
When you’ve had to listen to Let It Go in 41 different languages, Return to Hot Chicken will return you to sanity
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We appraise some of this year’s more ‘interesting’ festive musical releases: the bad, the worse, and the really quite odd
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Review Einstürzende Neubauten: Lament review – the weirdest first world war commemoration of all
4 / 5 starsAlexis Petridis: Einstürzende Neubauten’s album is painstakingly researched, utterly bizarre and surprisingly compelling -
Christmas has come early for Manic fans – lifted from their Holy Bible reissue, here’s a previously unreleased version of their second single from the record
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Former Arcade Fire sideman finds beauty in a blizzard of sound, veering from forceful kraut-prog to serene/brutal violin-playing, writes Kate Hutchinson
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Billy Bragg remembers a bandmate who could make you cry with laughter one minute and dazzle you with his playing the next – all while looking impossibly dapper
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Which way to go? From the Mighty Diamonds to Elvis, using hands, brain or feet, RR veteran sonofwebcore goes decisively with a songlist from last week’s topic
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For their latest project, Cornershop have remade their first album Hold On It Hurts in an orchestral, cinematic style – you can hear two tracks here
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Frustrated by the lack of lyricism in hip-hop, El-P and Killer Mike returned – ahead of schedule – with an album that was as brutal as it was inventive
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According to the Foo Fighters’ frontman, Bowie and Grohl were going to work together but it ‘didn’t pan out’, while Prince simply ‘never called’
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As the singer is a subject in the film, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck director explains that Love handed over ‘the keys to this kingdom and final cut of the film’
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Gravelly voiced singer-songwriter from Hertfordshire beats George the Poet and Years & Years to the first award of the season
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London-born musician also brought his Hammond and Wurlitzer sound to acts including Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Chuck Berry
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The keyboard player of the Small Faces and the Faces was a man who could bring whatever colour a song needed, and make it soar
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Saxophone player for many of the greats of rock’n’roll, including the Rolling Stones
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Spanning 19 cities in Europe and north America, new gigs will take place in a series of indoor arenas rather than the massive stadiums favoured on 360° tour