1 Julia Holter
The LA musician’s shows can be spellbinding affairs, leaning more towards her painterly pop side than her avant-garde tendencies. This week’s dates represent the singer-songwriter’s biggest UK gigs yet – and quite possibly the most sizeable for any artist who’s ever transformed a 1920s recipe book into music.
London, Mon; Manchester, Tue; Gateshead, Wed; Glasgow, Thu; touring to 21 Nov
2 Keaton Henson
London singer-songwriter Henson’s live shows are not common affairs due to his struggles with anxiety. But this introversion is one of the things that makes his fragile guitar and piano compositions so adored by those in the know.
3 Teenage Fanclub
Middle-aged men, pints of warm ale and the sound of the clock being wound back to the 1970s might be the first things to come to mind when you think of a Teenage Fanclub gig, but have no fear – this is no Brexiteers convention. Instead, their latest album Here’s gentle indie rock is full of warmth, empathy and other things we probably need a bit more of right now.
Inverness, Tue; Whitley, Wed; Sheffield, Thu; Manchester, Fri; touring to 4 Dec
4 Desiigner
2016 has been eventful for Brooklyn’s Desiigner. His single Panda topped the US charts, he was sampled by Kanye West and became embroiled in controversy after he was accused of ripping off fellow rapper Future. That’s not bad going for your first release – hopefully this brief visit to the UK will be similarly action-packed.
5 Laura Mvula
When she first emerged Laura Mvula was wrongly pigeonholed as an MOR soul singer in the post-Adele mould. This year’s The Dreaming Room hopefully put paid to such misconceptions, a multicoloured record full of shifting choral backdrops and inventive rhythms; expect this UK tour to be similarly compelling.
Gateshead, Mon; Glasgow, Tue; Manchester, Wed; Nottingham, Thu; touring to 26 Nov
