From Clairo to Sugababes, and a bunch of Yeah Yeah Yeahs: autumn 2022’s essential music

Pop, rock, rap and more

Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins Tribute

Taking place in London and Los Angeles, the stadium-sized tributes to the late Foo Fighters drummer boast amazingly varied bills. The Wembley Stadium show features Josh Homme, Liam Gallagher, Nile Rodgers, Mark Ronson, Supergrass, Chrissie Hynde, the surviving members of Rush and Roger Taylor and Brian May of Queen, among others.
• Wembley Stadium, London, 3 September.

Rina Sawayama – Hold the Girl

A fascinatingly eclectic addition to the world of 2020s pop, Rina Sawayama’s second album has already spawned two fantastic singles in Catch Me in the Air and This Hell. Advance reports suggest Hold the Girl offers a stew of glam, alt-rock, electronics and influences ranging from Paramore to the Corrs.
• Released 16 September on Dirty Hit.

Hot Chip

Hot Chip’s eighth album, Freakout/Release, was trailed by the writhing, funky single Down: a perfect example of their longstanding ability to write amazing pop songs, while keeping one eye fixed on the demands of the dancefloor. They’re also reliably fantastic live.
• Tour begins O2 Academy Brixton, 21 September.

Christine and the Queens – Redcar Les Adorables Étoile

A new Christine and the Queens album, another new persona. Redcar – presumably not named after the North Yorkshire seaside town, but who knows? – is a suave, tuxedo-sporting playboy figure, to be unveiled at two September gigs in Paris and London. The accompanying album is, apparently “vast, hopeful and ambitious”.
• Released 23 September on Because Music.

Digga D

Digga D’s most recent mixtape, Noughty By Nature, was an ambitious expansion of his style. Rooted in drill – and subject to controversy and police interest as a result – it diverted into trap, 50 Cent-influenced 2000s hip-hop, even pop ballads. He played his first headlining gig only last year, making the prospect of this tour intriguing.
• Tour begins 02 Ritz Manchester, 28 September,.

Clairo

A YouTube-boosted, lo-fi bedroom pop sensation turned fully fledged critically acclaimed star. Clairo’s most recent album, Sling, was strikingly mature, rooted in the confessional singer-songwriting of the 1970s. How its understated, soft-voiced approach translates live, in front of an excitable young audience, is an interesting question.
• Tour begins 29 September, O2 Academy Birmingham.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Cool It Down

The lauded 00s NYC alt-rock trio never actually split up, but it’s been nine years since their last album, Mosquito. Expectations are understandably high for its belated follow-up, Cool It Down, written during lockdown and boosted by the epic, Perfume Genius-assisted single Spitting Off the Edge of the World.
• Released 30 September on Secretly Canadian.

Kid Cudi – Entergalactic

The rapper’s eighth solo album is the soundtrack to the forthcoming animated TV series of the same name, with a cast boasting Timothée Chalamet, Jaden Smith and Macaulay Culkin. Given the varied and experimental nature of his back catalogue, it could theoretically sound like anything, although Cudi has promised “next level shit only”.
• Released 30 September.

Lindsey Buckingham

Since being ousted from Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham has filed a lawsuit against his former band, undergone open heart surgery and released an acclaimed eponymous solo album, which dabbled in everything from folk to – unexpectedly – trap. His US live dates have mixed his solo oeuvre with a light sprinkling of Mac classics.
• Tour begins London Palladium, 1 October.

Let’s Eat Grandma

A lot of leftfield artists who shift into making more pop flounder – it isn’t as easy as you’d think – but Let’s Eat Grandma haven’t, largely because of the quality of their songwriting. Their third album, Two Ribbons, is one of 2022’s best: a moving examination of loss and of the changing nature of friendship set to neon-hued synths.
• Tour begins Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, 6 October.

Sugababes

The saga of the reformed original lineup of the Sugababes has been tumultuous – involving flop singles (the admittedly amazing Flatline) and a period when they couldn’t even legally call themselves the Sugababes. But given the supersized reception they got at Glastonbury – underlining the strength of their 00s hits – these gigs will be a riot.
• Tour begins SWX, Bristol, 16 October.

Kendrick Lamar

Another triumph in a career littered with them, Lamar’s self-examining double album Mr Morale and the Big Steppers looks like a shoo-in for critics’ best of 2022 lists. Meanwhile, his visually stunning, heavily choreographed Glastonbury performance provided a taster for his forthcoming arena shows.
• Tour begins OVO Hydro, Glasgow, 2 November.

Cat Power

Bob Dylan’s 1966 Royal Albert Hall show remains one of the most famous gigs in rock history, even if some of its fame comes from bootleggers confusing it with his 1966 Manchester gig (of “Judas!” heckle fame). Here, singer-songwriter Chan Marshall recreates the half acoustic, half electric show in full – a brave and fascinating idea.
• Royal Albert Hall, London, 5 November.

Fontaines DC

By some distance the most striking of the current crop of punk/post-punk bands, Fontaines DC’s sound has become slower, more sprawling and more cavernous over the course of three albums. On stage, however, frontman Grian Chatten is a lairy, livewire presence: seeing them is a visceral experience, not a bookish one.
• Tour begins Bonus Arena, Hull, 7 November.

Pitchfork festival

Spread over five days and a selection of north-east London venues, a vast selection of very, well, Pitchfork-y alternative artists: Animal Collective, Courtney Barnett, Jenny Hval; a night devoted to excellent US dance label Italians Do It Better; a dance night headlined by vapourwave producer George Clanton etc. Deserving of at least 8.1 out of 10.
• Various venues, London, 9-13 November.

Nova Twins

Utterly wonderful live, Nova Twins’ fusion of aggressive metal riffs, sharp songwriting, fizzing electronica and hints of everything from hip-hop to the Prodigy to dubstep and R&B marks them out as one of the best rock bands around.
• Tour begins Saint Luke’s, Edinburgh, 10 November.

Lil Nas X

Lil Nas X has been teasing tracks from his second album, which he claims will be “something fun, something for the summertime, something for the girls to get ready and party to”. He has never played a UK headline show before – and recent videos suggest something visually extravagant may be on the cards.
• Eventim Apollo, London, 12 November.

Wet Leg

A band that once appeared to have a distinct whiff of the novelty hit about them turned out to be 2022’s breakout indie stars, their eponymous debut album revealing emotional depth behind the deadpan humour and raging guitars.
• Tour begins UEA, Norwich, 13 November.

The Cure

The Cure are supposed to be releasing their first album in 14 years prior to this autumn’s European tour. Robert Smith also suggested earlier this year that the band would be truncating their famously mammoth sets to a mere two and quarter hours. We shall see.
• Tour begins OVO Hydro, Glasgow, 4 December.

Rosalía

A one-off, stadium-sized UK show from the Spanish superstar (and recent provider of a meme involving her chewing gum on stage). The sound – or rather sounds – of her third album, Motomami, demonstrated how wide-ranging her pop vision is: dembow, flamenco and bachata all have a role to play.
• O2 Arena, London, 15 December.

Jazz and global

Ahmed Fakroun

Benghazi synthpop pioneer Ahmed Fakroun has had a dancefloor resurgence in recent years, thanks to the international reissue of several of his 80s records; think Talking Heads-style art pop with melismatic vocals. Armed with his keyboards and saz, Fakroun makes his UK headline debut with a pair of shows at London’s Jazz Cafe.
• Jazz Cafe, London, 5-6 September.

Denys Baptiste Triumvirate

Tenor saxophonist Denys Baptiste has built a career as an in-demand sideman, playing with the likes of McCoy Tyner and Hugh Masekela. For this Manchester appearance, he leads a new trio featuring veteran bassist Larry Bartley and rising drummer Cassius Cobbson to reinterpret hits from the likes of Bill Withers and Gnarls Barkley.
• Stoller Hall, Manchester, 12 September.

Darbar festival

The South Asian classical music festival returns for a series of shows at London’s Barbican. After a digital edition in 2020, highlights for these in-person performances include sibling child prodigies on sitar and santoor, Sanskrati and Prakrati Wahane, as well as singer Shubha Mudgal performing a selection of ragas.
• Barbican, London, 13-16 October.

Louis Cole – Quality Over Opinion

Perhaps the funkiest drummer around, LA’s Louis Cole has spent the past decade providing lightning-speed polyrhythms to fuel the new west coast jazz scene. His latest album is a 20-track odyssey through thumping grooves, falsetto soul and improvised instrumental freak-outs, featuring a who’s-who of instrumentalists, including saxophonist Sam Gendel, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and keyboardist Jacob Mann.
• Released 14 October.

Ami Dang – The Living World’s Demands

Sitar player Ami Dang’s fourth solo album continues her exploration of the resonances between north Indian classical music and ambient soundscapes. From rearranging 15th-century Sikh religious music to processing her voice through harsh vocoder, Dang builds an enveloping array of electronic and acoustic sounds that soothe the listener, before jolting them with an unexpected turn.
• Released 4 November on Phantom Limb & Leaving Records.

EFG London jazz festival

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, the multi-venue London jazz festival returns with a typically choice lineup of legends, upstarts and curiosities. Filling the legends slot is South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, while saxophonist Binker Golding premieres his new country music-inspired album, and mega-club Printworks hosts a night of jazz and electronics.
• Multiple venues, London, 11-20 November.

Classical

The Makropulos Affair

A new production of Janáček’s exploration of the mysteries and drawbacks of eternal youth, directed by Olivia Fuchs, opens the new season at Welsh National Opera. Conducted by Tomáš Hanus, it features Angeles Blancas Gulin in the central role of the enigmatic Emilia Marty, with Nicky Spence as Gregor and Gustáv Beláček as Dr Kolenaty.
• Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, 16-28 September, then touring to Llandudno, Plymouth, Birmingham, Southampton and Oxford until 2 December.

In This Brief Moment

Commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as part of its centenary celebrations, Brett Dean’s choral celebration of the wonders of evolution, and warning of the threat humanity poses to them, receives its first performance. Conductor Nicholas Collon pairs it with another monumental evocation of the natural world, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.
• Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 24 September.

Last Days

Oliver Leith’s first opera is adapted from Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film, which in turn was based upon the final days of Kurt Cobain. The premiere of this exploration of self destruction is directed by Anna Morrissey and librettist Matt Copson, with the 12 Ensemble and the duo of George Barton, percussion, and Siwan Rhys, keyboards.
• Linbury Theatre, London , 7-11 October.

Ainadamar – Fountain of Tears

Scottish Opera presents the UK stage premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s 2005 music theatre work. Built around the memories of Margarita Xirgu, the muse of Federico García Lorca, it incorporates flamenco and Lorca’s own songs to depict the poet’s life and death. Samantha Hankey takes the trousers role of Lorca in Deborah Colker’s production, with Lauren Fagan as Margarita; Stuart Stratford conducts.
• Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 29 October-5 November; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, 8-12 November.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Vasily Petrenko returns to his former orchestra to conduct Tchaikovsky’s Manfred. He pairs the epic programme symphony with a real Russian rarity, the second cello concerto by Anton Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky’s teacher, in which Alban Gerhardt will be the soloist.
• Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 3 November.