From Cheshire For Anna Come home safe: I think of you driving Over the Runcorn Bridge in our senile car, Its toothless ratchets, arthritic pistons conniving To take me away from wherever you are. Its steering like that old prostitute working a living on Huskisson Street outside our door: Its raggedy brake shoes thin as the wind, giving Nothing but ice to your foot on the floor.

You could make a fair argument that Zach Cregger is a bit of a household name in horror right now, having delivered two of the most talked about horror films in recent memory, and in the space of only five years.

Few composers carry as many contradictions as Dmitri Shostakovich. He could write music of crushing weight and bleak introspection, then turn out a ballet number or a popular song arrangement with a wink and a flourish. Any collection that aims to present him whole has to do justice to both sides. Chandos's eight-CD reissue of Neeme Järvi's recordings with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra does exactly that, and it makes an excellent introduction to the composer for newcomers as well as a rewarding return for those who already know him.

What must it feel like to be hanged, only to wake up four hours later, in your own coffin, and to climb out and walk into your own wake? Ask Maggie Dickson, because in Chapter One of The Mourning Necklace that is precisely what happens to her. The year is 1724 and the place, Edinburgh. Will the honest men of law decide to give her a reprieve or will they choose to hang her again?

There is so much to enjoy here. Above all, Betts-Dean draws out the story in every song, just as folk music should. Picture a group of friends gathered round while one of them spins a tale, and you have the spirit of this disc. It is all achieved through a keen ear for tempo and a finely judged use of dynamics, never through over-egging.

There are albums you listen to, and there are albums that become attached to a particular version of yourself. For me, We Are Scientists' With Love & Squalor belongs firmly in the latter category.

For any lover of English song this is a disc to cherish. At its heart lie the songs of Elizabeth Maconchy and Grace Williams, heard alongside the man who taught them both, Ralph Vaughan Williams. Mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately and pianist William Vann have performed together for several years, and they kept returning to Vaughan Williams's orbit. Above all, they were drawn to the women who wrote the music and verse he knew so well. What emerges is a picture of a teacher, his pupils and his friends, each with a voice entirely their own.

The Nashville singer-songwriter’s third studio album is a significant step forward from his first two records. Across 17 tracks, McNown expands the boundaries of his sound, moving beyond the more straightforward country foundations of his earlier work and into something considerably more fluid: part indie, part folk, part country, with flashes of pop that give the album a broader, more contemporary reach.

There is something nocturnal about the album. Even when the music opens into the wide horizons of Americana, there are clouds gathering at the edges. Country, folk and rock mingle with more elusive textures, but nothing feels neatly contained. The songs drift, shimmer and bruise, carrying the weight of things remembered and things that perhaps cannot be forgotten. Rothman draws from the language of Americana without becoming bound by it, turning its familiar roads and landscapes into something stranger and more inward.

Few violin concertos have been recorded as often as Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor, Op 26. It is a perennial favourite and has more than once topped Classic FM's Hall of Fame, so any new recording has plenty of competition. The Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing's version on Sony Classical, with the Oslo Philharmonic under Gergely Madaras, earns its place.

Twenty-five years on from Stuart Adamson’s death, Big Country returns in a new guise: Big Country Redux. The name is an appropriately reflective one for Eastworld, a ten-track collection that reaches back into the band’s archives to resurrect songs Adamson wrote or co-wrote with Bruce Watson and former bassist Tony Butler. Some will be familiar to long-standing fans through live performances, demos and lesser-known releases; others have spent decades waiting for the treatment they receive here.

For a debut, that is an exciting prospect. Put A Smile On For Me is compelling and refreshing, establishing Keo as a band with huge potential while already delivering enough evidence of that potential in the present. The Nirvana comparisons may have raised expectations before the record even arrived, but Keo have answered them in the best possible way: by sounding like themselves.

Hits Radio Live is back for 2026 — and this year’s line-up is packed with some of the biggest names in pop, dance and banging throwback tunes.

There’s just days to go before Lancaster reverberates to the sounds of one of the country’s biggest city centre music festivals. And even before a single note is played or sung at Lancaster Music Festival, events are taking place to whet the appetite for the main festival which runs from October 8-11.

Mariah Carey, the elusive chanteuse and best-selling female artist of all time, will bring the magic of Christmas to the UK this winter, announcing three spectacular arena shows in Birmingham, London and Manchester.

Fancy Hagood has come a long way from the artist who first arrived on the scene under the name Who Is Fancy.