Marianne Fauthfull was a towering artist

 

Marianne Faithfull was a towering artist, not just the muse she was painted as

Alexis Petridis

30 January 2025

It is difficult to think of a moment in pop history less receptive to a 1960s icon relaunching their career than in 1979. At that point, British rock and pop resolutely inhabited a world shaped by punk: it was the year of 2-Tone and Tubeway Army’s Are ‘Friends’ Electric?, of Ian Dury at No 1 and Blondie releasing the bestselling album of the year. And it was a central tenet of punk that the 1960s and their attendant “culture freaks” were, as Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren put it: “fucking disgusting … vampiric … the most narcissistic generation there has ever been,” and that the decade’s famous names should no longer be afforded the kind of awed reverence they had enjoyed for most of the 70s. “No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones,” as the Clash had sung.

 

Sinéad O'Connor
by Philip Burke

Controversy never drowned out the astonishing songcraft of Sinéad O’Connor

As well as being a fearless interpreter of others’ work, the late singer adapted to a seemingly endless array of styles, marking her out as a bold and utterly singular artist

Alexis Petridis
Wednesday 26 July 2023

Almost from the moment Sinéad O’Connor appeared in the mass public consciousness, she created controversy: her first release, a song called Heroine co-written with U2’s guitarist the Edge for the soundtrack to a largely forgotten 1986 film called Captive, was swiftly followed by the singer causing a furore by expressing her support for the IRA. Years later, she described her comments as “bollocks”, but further uproar would surround O’Connor on a regular basis: about her conversion to Islam (she called non-Muslims “disgusting”); about Prince, the author of her biggest hit, 1990’s Nothing Compares 2 U, whom she accused of physical abuse; and, most notably, about sexual abuse in the Catholic church, a subject which she took up long before it became a mainstream talking point.

Adele / 30 review / The defining voice of heartbreak returns

 

Mind-boggling levels of success … Adele. Photograph: Simon Emmett

Adele: 30 review – the defining voice of heartbreak returns

(Columbia)
While the topic of her divorce is all-consuming, the singer seems to be pushing gently at the boundaries of what people expect of her

ALEXIS PETRIDIS
17 November 2021

T

here is a sense in which 2021’s biggest single – 84.9m streams in a week on one platform alone; straight to No 1 in 25 countries; a song that received more first-week plays on US radio than any other song ever – wasn’t so much a comeback as an act of global reassurance. The world may recently have lurched from one unimaginable crisis to another, but Adele’s Easy on Me brought with it the message that at least one thing hasn’t changed: Adele Adkins is still heartbroken and belting it out over a gentle piano and tasteful orchestration.

Bob Dylan's manuscript

Pop lyrics aren't literature? Tell that to Nobel prize winner Bob Dylan

BOB DYLAN'S BIOGRAPHY

Yes, lyrics usually work better when set to music – but 60 years of rock and pop have produced words that stand on their own as poetry

Alexis Petridis
Thursday 13 October 2016 15.05 BST

The permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Sara Danius struck a slightly curious note as she announced that Bob Dylan had been awarded the 2016 Nobel prize in literature. It wasn’t apologetic, exactly, but she certainly seemed to be qualifying the committee’s decision in a way that you suspect she wouldn’t have felt the need to had the award gone to Haruki Murakami or Don DeLillo, writers also rumoured to be in the frame. She even offered the press a brief guide on how to approach Dylan’s work, advising them to start with 1966’s Blonde on Blonde, as if afraid people might not have come across it before, a slightly weird way to address one of the most celebrated albums in rock history. It’s hard not to wonder if she would have done the same thing had Ngugi wa Thiong’o got the nod instead.

My favourite album: the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack

Alexis Petridis
Tuesday 2 August 2011 19.03 BST

In the latter part of their career, the Bee Gees became known for walking out of interviews at the slightest provocation, but one sure-fire way to get rid of them was to mention the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, with particular comic reference to medallions, chest hair etc. It's perhaps incumbent upon multi-millionaire superstars to laugh at themselves occasionally: nevertheless, if people kept mocking you for releasing an era-defining, implausibly successful album packed with consummate pop songwriting, you might be inclined to get a bit chippy as well.