Music

Fontaines D.C.’s viscerally exciting new album, Romance, can be morose, but it rarely descends into doomsaying or cynicism.

For Brett Dean – internationally acclaimed composer, conductor, musician and mentor – each part of his crowded career feeds the whole.

Teen internet sensation Clairo’s third album, Charm, demonstrates the value of growing up in her own way.

Acclaimed countertenor Iestyn Davies – who tours next month with the Australian Chamber Orchestra – was originally inspired by Rowan Atkinson in Blackadder, and still has a keen sense of the absurd.

Wu-Tang Clan’s seventh studio album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, was originally designed for only one listener – but recently 500 fans had the unique chance to hear it for themselves.

Dirty Three’s first album in more than a decade, Love Changes Everything, is a transcendent reaffirmation of the trio’s refusal to obey the conventions of music.

Adelaide Cabaret Festival is no longer as capricious or anarchic as it once was, but there are still performers who know cabaret is what can be made with an audience on any given night.

With his latest album, John Cale remains as inquisitive and excited about music as he was when he co-founded The Velvet Underground in 1964.

Experimental British musician Tirzah Mastin, on her first Australian tour for the Vivid and Rising festivals, says her work comes almost directly from the subconscious.

Lives Outgrown, Beth Gibbons’s first solo album, takes the listener beyond the unearthly alchemy of Portishead, to a clearer appreciation of her lyricism.