Emmylou Harris, RAYE's magical tour and the original Good Vibrations

01:34 |

Friday 20 February

I was at a big gig this week, at RAYE's first night of her UK tour at the Co-Op Live in Manchester. Absolutely brilliant, as always – I love the big band bombast of it all, the playfulness between her and her audience… Anyway, my five-star review is here if you care to take a read.

More gigs: our chief culture writer Patrick Smith was blown away by Florence and the Machine's show at the O2 Arena in London, so much that he wrote this excellent piece on the moment she insisted fans put their phones away and enjoy the communal experience – really the whole point of music, right?

Other coverage this week has included Mark Beaumont's fantastic deepdive into the making of one of the most expensive songs of all time, "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys, speaking to Mike Love and biographer Peter Doggett about Brian Wilson's all-consuming ambition.

Also: Bookmark Louis Chilton's Saturday cover interview with the legendary Emmylou Harris for your weekend reads – he spoke with her about her farewell European tour, mortality, and being part of the "greatest era of music".

Some more Good Vibrations filming this week with the wonderful new country star Zach Top, who just won a Grammy for Best Traditional Country Album (for his third record, Ain't In It For My Health). You'll be able to hear that episode ahead of his headline performance at C2C Festival on 13 March at the O2 Arena in London.

We're really blasting through February aren't we? I can't believe it's the Brit Awards next weekend, and we've got some big gigs coming up after that from Lily Allen, Harry Styles…

The best new music out this week includes Lana Del Rey's spine-tingly "White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter, Megan Moroney's "Medicine" from her new album Cloud 9, and "Good Flirts" from Baby Keem with Kendrick Lamar and Momo Boyd. I love Thundercat with the late Mac Miller on "She Knows Too Much", Jorja Smith on "Don't Leave" and Jessie Ware's spaghetti western disco on "Ride".

More bits: The Peaches album No Lube, So Rude, and producer Leroy Clampitt (Lily Allen, Madison Beer, Sabrina Carpenter) with his debut solo track, "I'm Going to Die", which is brilliant, and Temples on "Jet Stream Heart". The extraordinary debut album from Absolutely - who I just saw opening for her big sister RAYE in Manchester - is out now. It really is fantastic, a swirling concoction of dream-dark pop; favourite tracks include "Prototype" (a stone-cold banger that needs to be the next single, please), "Helium", "No Furniture" and new single "Paracosm". Spend some time with it and thank me later.

Final run: Grian Chatten's Peaky Blinders contribution, "Puppet", an ominous rumbling of bass and distorted guitars, Chatten singing in his weariest sighs. "Half Immune" from Ellie O'Neill, from her upcoming album Time of Fallow, is lovely, as is the folky strum of "Holding Up the Heavens" from Lily Lyons. Plus a sublime live version of "The Luck You Had" by French alternative band Paerish, recorded at L'Ancienne Abbaye Saint-Léger.

Thanks as always for reading, have a fab weekend everybody!

Roisin x

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Songwriter Chloe Angelides to The Independent - December 2025

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Tracks of the week

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1. "Prototype" - Absolutely

2. "She Knows Too Much" - Thundercat, Mac Miller

3. "Puppet" - Grian Chatten

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Q&A

Spotlight on... Gianna

Hello! Tell me about yourself

I'm an artist on a journey toward clarity and safety, though i sometimes arrive there through slightly unguarded metaphors and observations. i like to use off-beat figures of speech as a kind of disguise not because i don't know what i feel, but i like the idea of guiding people toward their own internal world instead of handing them mine.

What are the inspirations and influences behind your music?

I like music that gives me room to control or explore my feelings and that usually means music that was around me growing up that i didn't consciously pay much attention to. that is the stuff that developed the way I operate when I create. Lots of Eighties ballads in the car on heart radio, and Albanian folk songs playing on the TV that my family listened to . so its mostly that subconscious information that i find myself fusing with interesting brain tickling programmy sounds from music i discover more presently .

What do you have lined up for 2026?

2026 marks the release of my first project, made up of my favourite songs from the past few years. it captures different phases i've moved through, that dovetail into one continuous voice. in turn, i'm preparing performances, visual elements, and other honest, creative ways to service the music the way it deserves .