‘By 18 I was having sex to the music of Brian Eno’: Tim Booth’s honest playlist

The James frontman fell for Leonard Cohen as a child and would do Val Doonican at karaoke. But which singer taught him that ‘music could be medicine’?

How Courtney Barnett Made Her New Album By Retreating to the Desert: ‘It Nearly Drove Me Mad’

After closing her scene-making record label and moving to the US, Barnett decamped to Joshua Tree – where she learned to slow down and make noise again

‘The kinetic energy is palpable’: Manchester embraces its first Brit awards

Event’s first venture outside London aims to recognise geographical diversity of UK’s music talent

From Amarillo to Stockport: 15 of Neil Sedaka’s greatest songs, and their extraordinary stories

From being a writer for hire in the 1950s to his solo pop stardom and emphatic 1970s comeback, the late musician’s catalogue is stuffed with stunning, surprising songcraft

Lala Lala: Heaven 2 review

(Sub Pop)Lillie West’s fourth album is a hazy, mid-tempo meditation on escape that gets stuck in a numbing mid-tempo mode – though there is a gorgeous moment of release

Add to playlist: the cliche-correcting medieval music of Idrîsî Ensemble and the week’s best new tracks

The group reimagines Corsica’s ancient music for modern female voices with fresh spiky arrangements that remain heavy with the pain of the past