L&Q Weekly
Discover Verses GT, Neil Young and pals in Hyde Park, Two Shells' surprise album, Los Campesinos turn down 60k, Trump signs with Chelsea in perfect role
Supported by Studio Njoku
Track of the Week
Verses GT, the collaboration between producers Jacques Greene and Nosaj Thing, has been a going concern for a little while now, but this week they announced their debut full-length album, coming in September via LuckyMe. They've launched the self-titled record with 'Your Light', featuring London artist George Riley. The track cruises along satisfyingly with its Overmono-like cocktail of slinky garage beat and gently-cresting waves of synth, but Riley is the scene-stealer here, her vocals as emotionally charged and expressive as they are driving and insistent, reminding us of the best moments of her excellent 2022 album Running in Waves.
A man in his living room with 65,000 people
NEIL YOUNG, YUSUF/CAT STEVENS and VAN MORRISON, HYDE PARK, LONDON, 11 JULY: “What a world we’ve got, folks,” smirks Neil Young, before hurtling into an encore of his anti-war classic ‘Throw Your Hatred Down’ and ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’, stopped only by a curfew unwilling to hear its fourth outro. His set is total purism. Whilst they look like they’re coming to decorate your house, his new band the Chrome Hearts is every bit as bitingly free and pummelling as Crazy Horse. Young walks around the stage like it’s his living room – stars and stripes flapping from a silver metal boombox perched on a flight case side stage, strange stone angel in the rafters pullied down at one point to offer him a guitar, “Love Earth” backdrop at half-mast for two thirds of the night due to a technical fault that he doesn’t care to correct.
The combined age of tonight’s ticket – Young playing alongside Yusuf/ Cat Stevens and Van Morrison – is 234. There’s a lot of legacy in those years, and a lot to address. “There are two types of people in this world,” wrote journalist Mark Ellen in his autobiography a decade ago, “those who like Van Morrison and those who’ve met him.” But Morrison seems to have put his lockdown controversies behind him, and a riotous ‘Summertime in England’ almost sees him crack a smile as he trades surrealisms about DH Lawrence with his saxophonist. A lot of people are seemingly here for a pleasant day out in thirty-degree sun, which Morrison’s paisley-toned garden music is otherwise amiable to – plastic champagne flutes strewn on the yellowing grass that musters a new shade of dead each time I look at my feet.
Yusuf/Cat Stevens has other ideas, though – the day’s middle third becomes every part the headline act that the ending is. If Young’s set was all heart, there’s a purity, consistency and an artfulness to Yusuf’s music that withstands any of the twee sing-along animations behind him – a human through-line that centres 30 years of the Srebrenica Massacre with an aching performance of ‘Little Ones’, and messages of peace and prayer for the people of Palestine against Israel’s genocide, starting at ‘Where Do The Children Play?’ and persisting for the remainder of the set. This isn’t said to a Glastonbury crowd gathered to cheer the message, either, nor a Fontaines D.C., Amyl and the Sniffers and Kneecap triple bill. Yusuf’s refusal to be silent is a beautiful thing, as he runs over time and refuses to leave the stage before playing ‘Peace Train’ in a stand-off with the sound man – “I’m sure Neil Young can wait a few minutes.” A white-collared dove flies low above him, almost knocking out his band. Yusuf ducks and grins mischievously back at the bird – nice try. Tristan Gatward
The gloss and grit of Alex G's major label debut
Fans were once known to riot when their favourite band moved from indie label to major, but we’re a long way from Bad Religion deserting Epitaph for Atlantic, or Nirvana swapping Sub Pop for Geffen. Outside of an outmoded idea of selling out, a majority of us are well aware of how hard it is to make a living as a musician in 2025; “shill on!” we cheer as artists get a brand hookup that will keep them in business. When a musician has been in the game as long as Alex G has, we feel all the happier for him; a man who’s cut his teeth to the gums over 15 years and 9 previous albums. Continue reading

Jessica Winter's big star energy
There aren’t many pop stars who can tour with Death Grips and Rebecca Black. Who are able to collaborate with a member of experimental LA rap trio clipping and homegrown drag demon Lynks. Who began life in a duo linked to Fat White Family (PREGOBLIN) and is now here presenting her version of Kylie Minogue on a debut album called My First Album. Continue reading
Albums for your diary announced this week
Blood Orange – Essex Honey (29 August, Sony): Dev Hynes’ first album in 7 years as Blood Orange is about his home county of Essex (the best of all of England’s counties) with a chunk of features including Lorde, Caroline Polachek, Turnstile’s Brendan Yates, Tirzah and, singing for the first time on record, author Zadie Smith.
Molly Nilsson – Amateur (29 September, Night School): The always excellent Berlin-based synth pop veteran is reclaiming the word ‘amateur’, taking it back to its latin routes meaning love. And just a one year after her last album.
Poliça – Dreams Go (17 October, Memphis Industries): An album that is likely to get emotional as it marks the band’s final with bassist Chris Bierden before he lost the ability to play following his diagnosis for a type of brain and spinal cord cancer called glioblastoma.
They Are Gutting A Body of Water – Lotto (17 October, ATO): The upstate New York shoegaze/noise band announced their new record with the In Utero-ish ‘Trainers’.
Wrap this up
Mysterious electronic duo Two Shell surprise released a new album this week called IIcons, which they say marks “the end of a chapter”. The act also posted a statement following their Glastonbury set that lamented their decision to remain anonymous artists, leading fans to speculate that their masked era might be coming to an end with this new record of 12 tracks.
It sounds like a headline from The Onion but Stevie Wonder has said that he is blind. Rumours that Wonder isn’t blind have mostly been a bit of a dark lark, but, y’know, not that nice either. So much so that he’s now felt the need to mention it at a concert in Cardiff this week, stating: “I wanna let the world know this… you know, there have been rumors about me seeing and all that. But seriously, you know the truth. The truth is, shortly after my birth I became blind.” So there. The Internet has made a 75 year old blind guy insist upon his disability.
Indie pop cult heroes Los Campesinos have turned down a $60,000 sync deal with AirBnB due to the company’s contribution to housing crises around the world, and their rental of properties in Palestine. The Welsh band stated: “Airbnb continues to make money from stolen Palestinian land and contributes to the housing crisis worldwide. We do not wish to promote or profit from this. Free Palestine. Eat the Rich.”
I bought a lot of Cat Stevens albums in the 70s, but since I heard him say on television in the 90s that, if he saw Salman Rushdie in a restaurant and he had a gun to hand, he wouldn't hesitate to shoot him the albums have remained untouched. It's great that he cares about Palestinian children, as should we all, but to me he'll remain a deeply unpleasant human being.