WORTH A LOOK?: ****
OUT: now
Both Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga have enjoyed rapturously received returns to releasing music in 2020 during a curious pandemic period when their euphoric and uplifting dance albums have proved just the tonic that the world is looking for.
We awarded 14 monstas for the best pop, theatre, TV and film of 2019 in December – and here we look at the cream of 2020 so far and what’s to come. Temple, Oddshaped Balls, The Ferryman, The Inheritance and Appropriate are previous winners in this category.
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2
OUT: now
TRACKLIST: Save The Whale; Must I Evolve?; Am I Missing Something?; House Music All Night Long; Sometimes I Am Pharaoh; Swanky Modes; Children Of The Echo
The first Pulp album we fell in love with (His’n’Hers) contains a track that pinpoints the exact moment when summer dies (David’s Last Summer), ‘the whole sound of summer packing its bags and preparing to leave town’.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2
OUT: now
We saw Little Boots (pictured above) twice in May 2012 (once headlining at XOYO and once supporting the Scissor Sisters at 02 Shepherds Bush Empire) and since that happy fortnight we’ve not seen her perform live again.
We awarded 14 monstas for the best pop, theatre, TV and film of 2019 in December – and here we look at the cream of 2020 so far and what’s to come. Funny Girl, Groundhog Day, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Eugenius and Vulvarine: A New Musical are previous winners in this category.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
OUT: now
‘I’ve known Youth for 20 years or so. We live up in the same mountain here in southern Spain in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. I’m not mad on industrial, metal dub and trance so it seemed only right and proper that, at weird times like this, I would do something unthinkable, like work together with Youth’, says Blow Monkeys frontman Dr Robert.
We awarded 14 monstas for the best pop, theatre, TV and film of 2019 in December – and here we look at the cream of 2020 so far and what’s to come. Sheridan Smith, Jade Anouka, Imelda Staunton, Sharon D. Clarke and Monica Dolan are previous winners in this category.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
OUT: now
If debut Hurts album Happiness was about love and loss and its follow up (Exile) about sex and death, then the new material we’ve heard from fifth album Faith (out 4/9/20) feels like a return to the lyrical themes that made their name.
We awarded 14 monstas for the best pop, theatre, TV and film of 2019 in December – and here we look at the cream of 2020 so far and what’s to come. Shakespeare Trilogy (Donmar), Follies (National Theatre), Company (Gielgud Theatre) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bridge Theatre) are previous winners in this category.
We awarded 14 monstas for the best pop, theatre, TV and film of 2019 in December – and here we look at the cream of 2020 so far and what’s to come. James McAvoy, George MacKay, Andrew Scott, Arinzé Kene and Daniel Monks are previous winners in this category.
