Where Duff’s early work traded in fairytale optimism, Luck…or Something leans into emotional realism. The production still carries flashes of sunlit, early-2000s pop — buoyant hooks, polished synths, melodies that feel instantly familiar — but there’s a lived-in quality to both the songwriting and her delivery. She sounds grounded. The voice that once narrated teenage longing now moves through marriage, motherhood and self-doubt with steadier footing.

On Julia, Ásgeir reaches a quiet but significant turning point. Now on his fifth studio album, the Icelandic folktronica artist steps out from the long shadow of his father, Einar Georg Einarsson, whose poetry shaped much of Ásgeir’s earlier catalogue (often translated into English by collaborators such as John Grant)

After celebrating 25 years of animated genre-hopping with anniversary celebrations, Gorillaz could have opted for caution. Instead, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett have made something reflective and quietly ambitious. The album is shaped by personal loss—Albarn's father passed away, as did members of Hewlett’s family—and its emotional core is filtered through Indian musical traditions and spiritual ideas. Albarn’s trip to Varanasi to scatter his father’s ashes hangs over the record, giving it a searching, inward pull.

On 28 November in Belgrade, on a film set in the winter cold, everything changed for Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. They were in Serbia shooting a video when Albarn received the call: his mother-in-law had suffered a stroke in Jaipur and fallen into a coma.

Francis Dunnery is a man of many talents: musician, storyteller, astrologist, and charity organiser. He is probably best known for being the frontman, guitarist, and main songwriter in the band It Bites, whose biggest hit, Calling All the Heroes, is still played on the radio today, forty years after the song was released.

Ends At my end of the earth the Atlantic began. On good days trawlers were flecks far out, at night the green waves were luminous. Gulls were the birds that gobbled my crusts and the air in my bedroom was salty. For two weeks once a whale decayed on the pale beach while no one swam. It was gelignite that cleared the air. The uses of village carpenters were many.

Some places have our hearts for all sorts of reasons; the sea has mine even though I no longer live near to it and I have never even been able to swim. We’re an island after all and, Northumberland to Cornwall, the coastal views are magnificent.

Neither composer enjoys the recognition they merit in British concert halls, but Järvi makes an eloquent case for both. The Gothenburg Symphony plays with conviction and considerable beauty in tone throughout. Warmly recommended.

From March 2026, the world premiere of Northern Ballet’s new full-length ballet – Gentleman Jack – is set to captivate Yorkshire audiences as part of a nationwide tour, with performances in Leeds (7-14 March 2026), Sheffield (31 March – 4 April) and Bradford (3-5 September).