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ALBUM OF THE DAY

19 APRIL 2026

Live In London! (BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall)

ST. VINCENT, JULES BUCKLEY

Released 20 March 2026

Total Pleasure Records / BBC Studios

****-

A bold and meticulously reimagined orchestral performance that transforms St. Vincent’s art-rock catalogue into something cinematic, theatrical and unexpectedly intimate.

St. Vincent (Annie Clark) has built a career on reinvention, moving from angular indie rock to sleek art-pop and increasingly theatrical presentations. Her work has always balanced intellect and emotion, often pushing against the boundaries of genre and performance.

For this BBC Proms collaboration, she partners with Jules Buckley, an English arranger, conductor, composer and broadcaster. One of the foremost figures in contemporary orchestral music, Buckley has made a career of bridging classical ensembles with modern artists, working across jazz, electronic and pop contexts while prioritising reinterpretation over ornamentation and nostalgia.

Together, they revisit Clark’s catalogue with a creative mindset, reshaping familiar material through orchestral colour, dynamic contrast and new emotional framing. Buckley’s arrangements are central to this formation of a setlist that leans heavily on deep cuts rather than obvious hits, allowing material to be reshaped without expectation.

Rather than placing strings behind existing songs, he and his collaborators rebuild them from the inside out, shifting emphasis, expanding harmonic space and introducing new textures. Critics consistently noted that the aim was “not just to slap an orchestral wallpaper” over the music, but to find genuinely new interpretations.

The result is striking. Tracks like “Black Rainbow” and “Digital Witness” take on a cinematic quality, while quieter moments such as “Candy Darling”, reveal a more fragile, stripped-back emotional core.

Clark’s performance remains the anchor. Her guitar work cuts through the orchestral density when required, while her voice moves fluidly between restraint and intensity, from “haunting" to "triumphant.”

Despite the live album's lush production and polite audience, an underlying tension is derived from the setting itself. The formality of the Proms occasionally tempers the raw energy of Clark's music, trading volatility for poise. Yet this restraint also reveals new dimensions - in clarity, space and compositional depth.

Live In London! ultimately succeeds as reinterpretation rather than spectacle: a reminder that great songs will survive and even thrive under transformation.

CLIPPED!

Yesterday Massive Attack shared their collaboration with Tom Waits, "Boots on the Ground." And sadly for all, their song is never more urgent and timely. The song chronicles the madness and rabid abandonment of mankind to the commands of "The Masters of War” as Dylan put it. It marks Massive Attack's first new music since 2020 and Waits’s first new recording since the 2011 album, Bad As Me.
The song is available today on streaming platforms, and will be followed by a 12" vinyl release. The 12” edition features "Boots on the Ground" on Side A, with an exclusively Waits B-side titled "The Fly” - a track featuring Waits’s trademark droll and sardonic spoken word.

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