On Pop
Lady Gaga’s new album is a blast
Until now, she’s never been as much fun as she was in the noughties
Roy Orbison in Blue Velvet
A pop song can be transformed by use, or it can split the world open
Play Misty for me
Father John Misty has faked his way into a kind of blazing honesty
When I talked over Franz Ferdinand
The only band I’ve seen and wish I’d been paying attention to
Charli’s carefree bratitude
This is music for people who are tired of being careful
One of the greats
Bathos, fatalism, heartbreak: these are the pillars of a MacColl song
Oasis: the good boys of rock and roll
For guitar bands since punk, there’s been a tension between credibility and success
Beef stew
Drake might be literally alive, but in terms of reputation, this was a murder
Thriller vs filler
The album is back and music is better for it
Whole lotta Love
She makes your average rapper look like a Quaker
Most Read
American strategy in Iran is wiser than it seems
President Trump’s intervention will leave the world safer than it was
Saint Nicola
Nicola Sturgeon wants sympathy for her husband’s crimes—but after years spent avoiding awkward questions, her latest reinvention may be the hardest sell yet.
The lonely death of Henry Nowak
We must draw lessons from a horrendous and disgraceful case
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
The establishment is still living in an immigration fantasy land
It is influential left-wingers, not the broader public, who have deluded themselves on mass migration
Most of the world thinks differently to us
Universalism is based on irrational ideas about human nature
Homes for Ukraine — and everywhere else
Why were some non-Ukrainians far more likely to enter Britain under a scheme meant for Ukrainians?
Quinlan Terry
He kept the flame of classicism alive at a time when it burnt very low
The Bible in the dock
Free speech for Christians is still under assault
We need to make a better case against Magic Monetary Theory
Simplistic rebuttals help MMT endure. We need better arguments
We need a pro-natal culture
Changing our demographic future will require a new attitude towards having children
Vapid slogans for the hard of thinking
Every modern university, it seems, needs a “mission statement”
Don’t kowtow to cry-bullies
Why Kezia Dugdale can’t apologise enough
Lost railway art
Art should matter in all its guises, above and below ground
The costs of telling the truth too late
The girl guiding decision is causing pain — so why do activists seek to prolong it?
The sacrifice that changed Naipaul
The humiliation of his father, forced to slaughter a goat to atone for
angering Hindus, made the writer wary of insulting religion