The news is out! Chosen by a team of esteemed judges (including one-time Forty-Five legend Sophie Williams), the Mercury Music Prize shortlist for 2024 has been confirmed, announced live on BBC 6Music this morning. As usual, it’s an eclectic...
Glastonbury is over for another year and my gosh, did we have a nice time. While we count down the days until we can do it again, have a read of the best sets and goings on that The...
Amongst a landscape of diss tracks and beefs, petty feuds and vicious undercutting, this week Charli XCX and Lorde checkmated their peers with the ultimate in classy moves: a response remix that chose vulnerability over venom, startling honesty over...
After what has felt like a very long winter, spring is here and we can almost smell the cider on the wind. In 2024, we plan to cram in as many festivals as our wallets can afford and our...
When fans line up for an Olivia Rodrigo concert, many will be anticipating a life-changing experience. In giving so many young women the opportunity to scream, take up space and be their excitable, exuberant selves, Ol-Rod knows the power...
If we’ve learnt anything from the beloved sitcom of the same name, it’s that friends can come in many different forms but – at their finest – they can occupy the absolute best spaces in our lives. From the...
Choosing an album of the year is never an easy task. We are lucky here at The Forty-Five, to have a community of music writers all with disparate tastes and opinions – but sweet lord, does that make compiling...
If boygenius were releasing their debut album 20 years ago, a litany of high school alt kids would be changing their AIM and MSN Messenger statuses to lyrics from ‘the record’. Technology might have changed, but our urge to...
Sophie Ellis-Bextor is sitting in her kitchen, the very spot where she and her family held their popular Kitchen Disco series during lockdown. The live streams became a safe space for fans old and new, as people tuned in...
When people refer to the “golden age” of hip-hop, they’re often speaking about a period roughly between the mid-80s and the mid-90s, where innovation and experimentation was rife as artists continually made attempts to reinvent the genre. But by...