Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Alexis Petridis

Creator

Alexis Petridis

Guest Author

An artist with vision: FKA Twigs has produced an album that stands out in an overcrowded market.

FKA Twigs: A mystery that’s worth solving

Another supposedly mysterious pop star turns out to be a pretty normal human being – but with songs this good, who cares?

No itch unscratched: Lou Reed had a 55-year recording career that transformed the rock genre with a host of innovative albums. (Alessia Pierdomenico, Reuters)

A career of being contrary

The streetwise, tough image was matched by songs of real tenderness and fragility. Lou Reed always did the opposite of what he was expected to do.

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Keeping up with Mr Jones: Where’s David Bowie Now?

Listening to his latest album makes you hope it’s not a one-off, that musician David Bowie’s return continues apace.

Nick Cave believes that retirement is the ‘greatest feat of artistic integrity’ but he hasn’t arrived at the finishing line.

He predicts the end but can’t stop working

Nick Cave’s output is more prolific than ever. He talks to Alexis Petridis about his new album — and why he would like to retire.

Then and now: David Bowie is back with a new album after a
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Bowie on top of the pops again

In an era of gossip websites and Twitter rumours, one of the world’s biggest stars can still surprise … by doing nothing more than making an album.

Bobby Womack was born in Cleveland

Bobby Womack: From soul survivor to the bravest man in the universe

Bobby Womack is so proud of his magnificent new album that nothing will stop him talking about it.

Winehouse posthumously polished up for Christmas market

Winehouse posthumously polished up for Christmas market

<em>Lioness: Hidden Treasures</em> tells you a lot about Winehouse, albeit sometimes unwittingly.

You get what you need

You get what you need

Never one to give ’em what they want, Robert Plant goes his own way again and <b>Alexis Petridis</b> approves.

Ageing (dis)gracefully

Among the rock stars recently given another chance is Grace Jones, promoting her first new album in 19 years.

Flawed but not futile

Badly Drawn Boy: <i>Have You Fed the Fish?</i><p> By Alexis Petridis.

Return of the death rattler

The competition to see who can slather Bob Dylan’s 32nd studio album with the most deranged praise known to man is hotting up, writes Alexis Petridis.

Dead serious

Boney M could turn almost anything into a disco hit but, asks Alexis Petridis, will their surreal songs make sense as a musical?

Super troupers

Thirty years ago, the idea that Abba might be worthy not just of serious consideration, but of a nine-CD, two-DVD box set collecting their every studio recording and video, would…

A 50 Cent sideshow

CD OF THE WEEK: 50 Cent’s last album, The Massacre, sounds like the work of someone for whom music is merely a sideline, a distraction from the serious business of perpetuating a…

Moving melodrama

Everything that once made critics snigger at U2 is back on their latest album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, but this time no one is going to be laughing, writes Alexis…

Streets ahead

A Grand Don’t Come for Free is witty, cocky and self-deprecating, and it wins you over at a stroke. Alexis Petridis puts The Streets’s new album in her player for a while.

Rise of the ring tone

Until recently, your average record company executive probably reacted to the sound of a cellphone blaring out its ring tone with the same weary resignation as the rest of us.…

Not so complicated

Nearly everyone under the age of 15 appears to have swallowed the official line on Avril Lavigne: that she is an authentic symbol of punk rebellion, an antidote to manufactured…

The never fading Beatles

Another new year and another new Beatles release. This may come as a bit of a shock, but the Beatles split up in 1970. Alexis Petridis on the mighty machine behind the band that…

Why female R&B stars owe their success to Barry White

It’s a sad but incontestable fact that women have a rough time in the world of rock and pop, but in R&B women currently reign unchallenged, writes Alexis Petridis in London.