Auto-Tune Baby? Bad songs by brilliant artists

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Hello and welcome to another summer edition of the IndyArts – I mean, Independent Culture – email! It's been a great month for culture so far, and I'm not just saying that because I went to Primavera Sound. You can check out my review of the Barcelona festival, headlined by pop music's holy trinity (aka Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan), here. 

Speaking of Sabrina Carpenter, the reigning princess of pop has ruffled a few feathers with the artwork for her newly announced record Man's Best Friend, which sees the singer sitting submissively like, well, a dog. Quick, someone inform the church elders! It's not as if Carpenter, a master of the cutting putdown and innuendo, has made a career out of subverting expectations. Helen Coffey digs into the drama here. 

Elsewhere, Van Morrison is back with a new album, which my colleague Louis Chilton was sort of taken with – though that could be because the Northern Irish musician's recent output has been so bad, for so long, in comparison.

And speaking of brilliant artists doing average work – for this week's countdown Kevin E G Perry had the unenviable task of cataloguing the worst songs by great musicians. "Revolution 9" by The Beatles? "Jamaica Jerk-Off" by Elton John? I guess not everything can be a winner. 

In other music news, Brian Wilson died at the age of 82. I'd highly recommend reading Fiona Sturges's wonderful tribute to the Beach Boys visionary, in which she recounts their memorable encounter. 

Very briefly, it's not been a banner week for the screen: our film critic wasn't fond of the new live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon, and Jamie Oliver's dyslexia documentary failed to deliver any meaningful answers to the shocking statistics. The Gold is back, but it's lost a bit of its original shine. 

More below, including a spotlight on Netflix's new film Frankenstein in Xan Brooks's Inside Film.

Written by Annabel Nugent

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