‘Spend time going down rabbit holes’: how the Avalanches created their wildest album yet

The Aussie trio explain creating their new record sampling kids’ science shows and Tunisian music – and their surreal film with Haley Joel Osment

‘You think you’re invincible, and you’re not’: Gretta Ray on sickness, surviving and finding her new sound

After a life-threatening infection, the Australian singer-songwriter has rebuilt her relationship with music – and her third album ‘sounds nothing like the last’

Freddie Jackson, romantic US singer with 10 R&B chart-toppers, dies aged 70

Celebrated for his earnest, dextrous voice, Jackson crossed into the pop charts with the hits Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake) and You Are My Lady

‘Men are a scam!’ The trials of Danielle Ponder, the lawyer turned singer rooting for a better world

After representing society’s dispossessed, Ponder started a music career in her 40s – then faced miscarriage, anxiety and more. She explains her survival instinct

The west has a blinkered view of African music – and it’s hurting the whole continent’s culture

The term Afrobeats is applied to all sorts of genres, flattening them into one. Artists, media and the music industry must do better at showing off the richness of African pop

Olivia Dean review – a powerful, affirming night with a pop star at the height of her powers

The singer’s first stop on her Australia and New Zealand tour is a fun but sincere demonstration of the power of pop to get at what love’s all about

Metallica review – metal titans on fine form in spectacular rarities-focused show

The first night of a new residency is an immersive plunge into the band’s visual world that showcases the depth of their catalog

Sass Jordan, Canadian rock singer-songwriter, dies aged 65

Musician who had hit albums with Racine and Rats later became a judge on six seasons of Canadian Idol

The Undertones review – silver-haired fans get Teenage Kicks once more

Derry’s answer to the Ramones play 30 songs in a breakneck and breathless ride through the punk humour and new-wave surrealism of their repertoire

‘I can’t listen to Pink Floyd – I find their music dreary’: Elvis Costello’s honest playlist

The singer-songwriter owes a lot to Georgie Fame and likes the romantic side of Jimi Hendrix – but which ringtone song can put him in a bad mood?

Ella Hooper: ‘Most embarrassing celebrity encounter? I said the classic thing you don’t ever say to Billy Bragg’

The Australian singer-songwriter on misheard Killing Heidi lyrics, going solo after a chat with Stevie Nicks, and being a shit secret keeper

‘My hips can’t help but move’: readers on the songs that always get them dancing

From Northern soul and 90s bangers to disco classics and indie anthems, readers share the floorfillers that never fail to start the party

Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall review – Paul Thomas Anderson’s sumptuous recording is an immediate classic

The Geese frontman mesmerizes in a concert film that is both swoony and austere

No one could terrify like Cronos, the black metal innovator who reignited rock’s hellraising attitude

As frontman of Venom, Conrad Lant made an impact on metal to rival Black Sabbath, inspiring a whole new subgenre with his diabolical grandstanding, unruly spirit and heretic noise

‘It’s a deep soul connection’: Erasure on how 40 years of friendship got them through grief – and why Vince Clarke has quit touring

Returning for a 20th album of sumptuous synthpop, Andy Bell and Clarke open up about supporting one another through bereavement, being happily uncool and battling the resurgence of homophobia