T here is a low-level hum that forms the soundtrack to many women’s lives. It’s a conditioning. The silent expectation to be the architect of everyone’s day, managing the moods of daily life. Being th

Inside the US singer-songwriter’s path from early DIY explorations to modern country-folk force

London’s post-punk seismographers pick up more weird vibrations on their third album. By Victoria Segal. Illustration by Cold War Steve.

→ What have been your cultural highlights of 2025? At the David Lean Cinema we’ve been doing All of Us Strangers walks this year. So there is a sort of pilgrimage walk to all the locations. And there’

In 1976, the revolutionary singer-songwriter LAURA NYRO returned from self-imposed exile. But her comeback confounded expectations, shifting away from the impassioned intimacies of her early albums to embrace more radical perspectives. Fifty years on, Nyro’s collaborators revisit her striking second act. “She was a hip American from the Bronx,” one friend and producer tells Rob Hughes. “But her soul was old.”

Finding poignancy in the dread and dislocation of modern living, London four-piece DRY CLEANING have garnered admirers including Nick Cave, Grace Jones and Jeff Tweedy. As new album Secret Love refines their nervy post-punk sprechgesang, the band set their sights on new targets. “Art and humour are our main weapon,” they tell Stephen Troussé