Kate Mossman
Kate Mossman is arts editor of the New Statesman and previously worked on music monthly The Word alongside Mark Ellen and David Hepworth. She appears regularly as a critic on BBC radio and television and presented the BBC Four music documentaries Girl In A Band and When Pop Ruled My Life: A Fan's Story. She also writes for The Guardian and The Observer and is a judge for the Mercury Music Prize.
89 articles
List of articles in the library
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss: Raising Sand
Review by Kate Mossman, The Word, November 2007
SEVEN YEARS AGO, Robert Plant rang country music superstar Alison Krauss and one imagines, toying casually with the telephone cord, said something like, "Hey, we ...
Amy Winehouse: Life Imitating Art...
Comment by Kate Mossman, The Word, January 2008
...imitating life. When did Amy Winehouse start to inhabit her songs, wonders KATE MOSSMAN. ...
Kevin Ayers: Exile On Mean Street
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, October 2008
Rumpled romantic, booze-fuelled philanderer, gifted golden boy of art-rock, Kevin Ayers fled abroad 40 years ago and now lives a strange, impecunious life wrestling with ...
Jeff Moris Tepper: Moris Tepper: Stingray In The Heart
Review by Kate Mossman, The Word, December 2008
Give up the dayjob! He was once a loyal session man for Captain Beefheart, now he's an abstract painter. And Moris Tepper's new solo album ...
Muse: Dystopian Rhapsody: Muse's The Resistance
Review by Kate Mossman, The Word, October 2009
Queen-like symphonies, "thought police", a nameless evil... Muse are wrestling with Something Very Important — that never quite arrives. ...
David McAlmont, Michael Nyman: This Just In: David McAlmont and Michael Nyman
Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, December 2009
A bizarre collaboration between David McAlmont and Michael Nyman revives the dying art of the topical news story in song. ...
Taylor Swift: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Kate Mossman, The Word, 10 February 2010
Taylor Swift's conquest of the teenage-girl market is so controlling it's creepy. In the front stalls: Kate Mossman. ...
Review by Kate Mossman, The Word, January 2011
Now in new hands, Rounder Records looks back after four decades of progressive signings in country, blues and folk. ...
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, April 2011
IT'S PRONOUNCED "hommy", rhymes with "mommy". Everyone gets it wrong, but Homme seems more fitting anyway for this great big tank of manhood, the Queens ...
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, May 2011
PAPARAZZI CAME to the Baglioni Hotel at Hyde Park Gate this morning to catch Debbie Harry, who's staying in Room Four. They went into bonus ...
Goldie, Pat Metheny: When Goldie Met Metheny
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, August 2011
Obsessed drum'n'bass muscle writes daily letters to jazz wizard (and to Beethoven and Elgar). Eventually he posts one. Word arranges a summit ...
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, September 2011
CHILDLIKE VOICE, murder ballads with a dark country shuffle... Amy Lavere thinks of her songs as "mini-movies". ...
Queen, Roger Taylor: Queen: Bismillah! We Will Not Let You Go!
Retrospective and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, October 2011
At the age of 11, Kate Mossman began a manic seven-year obsession with the baroque fantasies of Queen – but thought she'd now made a ...
Elbow: Guy Garvey: Elbow ambassador; Joni Mitchell torch-carrier
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, January 2012
ANY WOMAN interviewing guy GARVEY will inevitably drift to thoughts of what he would be like to live with. This is because every anecdote that ...
Ren Harvieu, Lana Del Rey: Far from Dusty: Ren Harvieu and Lana Del Rey
Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 23 January 2012
TWO GUYS ON a streetcar in 1940: "Say, have you heard about that horn player Louis Armstrong? He's so authentic! His mother was a prostitute, you ...
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, March 2012
Moon pies, Brylcreem, Elvis... Why has Chris Isaak been stuck in the '50s since the 1960s? ...
Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 6 March 2012
SHE HAS A STOCK answer for it now. American news anchor Cynthia McFadden recently questioned Madonna about the uncanny resemblance between her 1989 hit 'Express ...
Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, April 2012
The Sandy Denny tribute show is expanding, a long-running fight to "give her songs a future". ...
Jack White: What's Jack White made of?
Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 2 May 2012
White never stops working and everything he works with turns to gold. ...
Gotye, Kimbra, Janelle Monáe: Right on the Monáe: Janelle Monáe, Gotye, Kimbra
Report by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 18 July 2012
THE FIRST RULE for writers – apply seat of pants to chair – works for musicians, too. Thirty years ago, the hairbrush and the bedroom mirror ...
Palma Violets, Savages: Savages/Palma Violets: Liverpool Leaf
Live Review by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 29 July 2012
IT'S A BARGAIN, two for one, a post-punk bogof: the band they're calling the all-girl Joy Division, plus four boys named after perfumed sweets. Both ...
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, August 2012
ANTONY HEGARTY is a very persuasive man. He rarely smiles, he doesn't crack jokes, but there's something about that whisper, which at first sounds cool ...
Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 5 September 2012
DYLAN FANS have invented some amusing parlour games. One is 'Guess That Song' from the strange, incomprehensible soup of his live performance. Another is keeping ...
The xx's Coexist Is An Album To Get You In The Mood For Misery
Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 20 September 2012
Ideal for autumn, the season of mists... ...
Biffy Clyro: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 24 September 2012
TWO SONGS down and there's a fight on — a small whirlpool of boys in the crowd headbutting each other's sternums. As they fall into ...
Mumford & Sons: Mumford and Sons: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 25 September 2012
MARCUS MUMFORD is likely to be found starving, bleeding, dying, sighing, fading, sinning, hopeless, "in the dark" or — as the new song 'Broken Crown' ...
Green Day: Mossman on music: Green Day's musical
Live Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 19 October 2012
The Green Day-inspired musical reviewed. ...
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 14 November 2012
HE'S RIDDEN A DEATH CAB, worked for the Postal Service and ventured into alt-country. Ben Gibbard picks the songs he's written that explain him best. ...
Michael Jackson: The Boy in the Bubble
Retrospective by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 14 November 2012
Released 30 years ago, Michael Jackson's album Thriller was the beginning of his assault on the white pop world. It's so dazzling it makes you ...
Secret Affair: My secret affair
Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 28 November 2012
Why '70s power pop is unfashionably cool again ...
Kylie Minogue: The mysterious popstar who can do no wrong
Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 29 November 2012
As an album of "reimagined" Kylie songs emerges, Kate Mossman goes in search of the singer herself. ...
Björk, Chvrches, Laura Mvula, The Strypes, The Weeknd: Pop in 2013 — Under the influence
Preview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 3 January 2013
What to listen out for this year. ...
Don't blame HMV for its demise
Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 18 January 2013
It's our fault – because we're too lazy to support our shops. ...
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 27 January 2013
The 16-year-old singer-songwriter from Derry SOAK aka Bridie Monds-Watson, releases her second EP in a year ...
Justin Bieber: O2 Arena, London
Live Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 5 March 2013
Dazed and deeply confused. ...
The Kills: Alison Mosshart: "I listened to love songs for 24 hours straight yesterday"
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 10 March 2013
SOME MUSICIANS wear their commitment to rock'n'roll like a series of battle scars. Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme has the place and time ...
Iggy Azalea: One to watch: Iggy Azalea
Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 24 March 2013
IGGY AZALEA has a highly developed sense of the absurd. She saw paparazzi outside her hotel this morning and felt obliged to put on dark ...
Lady Leshurr: Lady Lesshur: "The industry just doesn't know what to do with women"
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 20 April 2013
The Midlands-born MC on morals, inspiration and why the UK needs a female rap star ...
The Strypes: 'We Always Knew That You Had To Practise For Months, Get In A Van And Do 200 Gigs...'
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 28 April 2013
Irish rock'n'rollers the Strypes have gone from playing fêtes to iTunes stardom — and they're all still under 18 ...
Live Review by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 9 May 2013
HIS HOUSE BURNED DOWN, he famously "died" for a few minutes and he already owns his own burial plot: tonight the sticky vinyl letters "Tim" ...
Brian Eno: "How can Alastair Campbell have a TV career?"
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 16 May 2013
THE TOILETS OF the famous are centres of great significance. Liz Taylor was so used to guests snooping in hers, she filled the bathroom cabinet ...
Live Review by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 22 May 2013
SPLIT OPEN the head of Jamie xx and you might expect to find an image of post-industrial sadness – an empty ferris wheel turning in the rain, ...
Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 23 May 2013
Her voice, once so English, has turned into a slip-slidey American lilt, half-speech, half-jazz, frequently yoyoing to a deeper register... In Marling, we're watching an ...
Essay by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 27 June 2013
Six months ago Rihanna looked like she was losing it, and now she looks to be in complete control. ...
Janelle Monáe: "I'm a time traveller. I have been to lots of different places"
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 30 June 2013
She's an android-dating style queen who's been compared to Bowie. Is the R&B singer the saviour of pop? ...
Burt Bacharach: Royal Festival Hall, London SE1; Anyone Who Had a Heart (Alcourt)
Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 18 July 2013
The effect of seeing Bacharach live at the Royal Festival hall was to be hit by more top-40 songs that you'd think a single act ...
Arctic Monkeys: AM (Domino Records)
Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 5 September 2013
The Arctic Monkeys' fifth album, AM, has changed the sound but not the character of Britain's "Last True Indie Band". ...
Jessie J: 'I'm A Hard Worker. I Want To Be Great At Everything I Do'
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 29 September 2013
Chart-topper, devoted daughter, role model for teenagers... how does Jessie J manage it all? ...
Lou Reed: Why no one wanted to write his obituary
Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 1 November 2013
MOST ROCK STARS are about 70 years old these days, so their departure is a constant possibility and music journalists are mentally prepared to trot ...
Lorde: 'People Have Treated Me Like A Fascinating Toy'
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 24 November 2013
She's the pop phenomenon of 2013, chalking up No. 1s around the world, signing a £1.5m deal and hanging out with Bowie. How does it ...
Neneh Cherry: "People ask me where I've been for 18 years…"
Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 23 February 2014
On the cutting edge of pop in the '80s and '90s, the singer paved the way for today's sassy female stars. Now she's back with her ...
Iggy Azalea: "I Have Never Had Any Musicians Tell Me That I Wasn't Authentic"
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 29 June 2014
The Australian rapper has endured her fair share of controversy in a brief, spectacular career, but seems well equipped to fight her way to the ...
Clean Bandit: New Eyes (Atlantic)
Review by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 1 July 2014
WE'LL PROBABLY look back on this as a golden age of British electronic music, like the first days of disco, as unprepossessing producer types coax ...
The Beach Boys, Amy Winehouse: Mawkish Tabloid Fare: How the Amy Winehouse Film Fails
Film/DVD/TV Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 2 July 2015
This film laments the way Winehouse's life was intruded upon while relying on the same methods to create drama. ...
Terence Trent D'Arby: "I was killed when I was 27": the curious afterlife of Terence Trent D'Arby
Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 9 October 2015
Terence Trent D'Arby's 1987 debut album sold a million copies in three days. The music press went mad for him. Where was there to go ...
Sleater-Kinney: A Riot Grrrl Remembers: Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir by Carrie Brownstein
Book Review by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 29 December 2015
A complex and moving portrait of a coming of age in America ...
Jeff Beck: The £7m fingers: how Jeff Beck became a guitar hero by saying no
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 22 July 2016
Kate Mossman talks to Jeff Beck about escaping Eric Clapton's shadow, dodging fame, and why he can't go and see Pat Metheny. ...
Review by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 28 August 2016
The R&B singer's new album has slow-burn power and poetry enough to raise it beyond its gimmicky release strategy. ...
Björk: In Björk Digital, you become the singer's ex-lover – and there's no looking away
Report by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 9 September 2016
Björk's new experiment takes music of claustrophobic unhappiness and shifts it into a relentless, dynamic world. ...
Jon Bon Jovi on Trump, Bono, Bieber — and the agony of his split with Richie Sambora
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 1 November 2016
IT'S SOMETHING unheard of in the modern PR junket, but Jon Bon Jovi interviews are running early. Breaks have been built into his day but ...
Alicia Keys: "I want to make sure all the issues about race are addressed"
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 6 November 2016
At a hometown launch for her new album, Here, the New York singer-songwriter talks about the US election, Black Lives Matter and modern family life. ...
Glen Campbell: Kate Mossman on extreme pop tourism: who would fly 5,000 miles for a gig?
Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 22 March 2017
Glen Campbell's daughter says, "Dad, she's come 5,000 miles to see you!" I add, "How sad is that?" ...
KISS: What happened when Kiss went to Moscow
Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 18 May 2017
WHEN GENE SIMMONS decided he wanted to be a rock star, he made a deal with his mother: be in a band but show me how ...
Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan: "Why I don't understand my own band"
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 1 June 2017
WHEN NEIL TENNANT of the Pet Shop Boys was the assistant editor of Smash Hits, he made the following observation: ...
Paul Simon: Kate Mossman on Paul Simon's Rhythm of the Saints
Memoir by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 16 December 2017
WHEN I WAS TEN, we entered a raffle at an ice rink and won a holiday to the south of France. ...
Beck: "I miss people. I have a longing for connection and human contact": Life on Planet Beck
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 30 January 2018
THE CHILSTON PARK Hotel in Lenham, Kent, was once owned by Judith and Martin Miller, the antiques stars of the '80s who wrote the Miller's ...
Lisa Stansfield: "Some women will shag anything to get anywhere"
Retrospective and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 15 February 2018
She was the biggest British female soul star of the Nineties. At 51, she's back and ready to let loose. ...
Arctic Monkeys: Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 17 May 2018
Space is the place where Alex Turner can let his solipsistic weirdness emerge. ...
Chvrches: "It only takes two seconds to say: I don't agree with white supremacy."
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 20 May 2018
The Glaswegian synth-pop trio rose to fame on the back of relentless touring, even as frontwoman Lauren Mayberry fended off online abuse. Their new album ...
Ariana Grande: How Ariana Grande floated free
Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 29 August 2018
Grande has lifted the weight of the Manchester terror attack with a collection of gloriously oddball, career-changing pop songs. ...
The Cranberries: "She was on a roll": The Cranberries on the last days of Dolores O'Riordan
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 13 September 2018
THE LAST TIME the Cranberries guitarist Noel Hogan saw Dolores O'Riordan was in the Limerick hotel where we are now standing, in November 2017. He ...
Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 10 October 2018
Grant represents a very human set of contradictions. In his songs, horrific experiences are set alongside transcendent ones; cynicism alongside childlike wonder ...
Queen: The cartoon unreality of Bohemian Rhapsody reveals how Queen see themselves
Film/DVD/TV Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 25 October 2018
This is a group who wrote their songs not for personal reasons but with tens of thousands of people in mind. ...
Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 28 November 2018
SHORTLY BEFORE THE end of her gig last week at the Hammersmith Apollo, Héloïse Letissier, in bra and trousers, ran from the upper circle back ...
Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 5 December 2018
She has written hits for Rihanna, Cher and Christina Aguilera — and she's been dropped by a series of major labels. Is it finally time for ...
Sharon Van Etten: Remind Me Tomorrow (Jagjaguwar)
Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 23 January 2019
In Van Etten's new album, life's mess is powerful and holding it all in your arms is a creative act. ...
Review by Kate Mossman, The Observer, 9 March 2019
Solange Knowles's tantalising fourth album conjures fragments and fleeting impressions that get inside your head. ...
Profile and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 10 April 2019
Bell was an openly gay pop star "bubbling up from Boy George and Jimmy Somerville", in an era when pop stars weren't openly gay. ...
Carly Rae Jepsen: "I'm more confident in my weirdness now"
Interview by Kate Mossman, The Guardian, 12 May 2019
WHEN CARLY RAE Jepsen wrote 'Call Me Maybe', Billboard's "greatest chorus of the 21st century", she was aiming for a sense of "childish excitement". It's ...
Lana Del Rey: How the world caught up with Lana Del Rey
Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 9 October 2019
When Lana Del Rey emerged, she was attacked for being inauthentic. But her strange brand of brooding, bruised Americana now seems to fit the times. ...
Memoir by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 19 October 2019
I tell Galen that I found interviewing her father strangely upsetting and she says, "then we are the same." ...
Chick Corea: How Chick Corea shaped a jazz generation
Comment by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 24 February 2021
The pianist, who died in February, was one of the founding fathers of jazz fusion — a deeply misunderstood genre. ...
Joni Mitchell: "I didn't want anyone to know it was me": On being Joni Mitchell's 'Carey'
Retrospective and Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 17 December 2021
For 50 years, the "mean old daddy" immortalised in one of Mitchell's best-loved songs has been an enigma. Now he tells his side of the ...
Sheku Kanneh-Mason: "The cello is a part of you"
Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 7 September 2022
The 23-year-old has already played for the royals and tackled the Elgar Cello Concerto. Where does he go from here? ...
Björk: Greta Thunberg and Björk in conversation
Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 17 October 2022
The world's leading voice for climate action and its most original singer-songwriter discuss greenwashing, fame, Cop27, music and the matriarchy. ...
U2: Bono: Surrender – 40 Songs, One Story
Book Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 2 November 2022
Surrender: praying in the church of Bono In his account of being "saved" by love and religion, the U2 frontman's sincerity overpowers the scorn of his ...
Madonna, William Orbit: William Orbit: "If you confound Madonna, a red mist comes down"
Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 15 November 2022
The producer worked his magic with Britney Spears, All Saints and Blur. In his sixties a drug binge and breakdown forced him to reassess. ...
Nick Cave: "I don't think art should be in the hands of the virtuous"
Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 24 November 2022
The musician on why Morrissey matters, his deepening faith and grieving for his sons. ...
Bruce Springsteen: Hyde Park, London
Live Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 7 July 2023
In his eighth decade, the singer has one eye on mortality — but for now the vigorous physical work of his epic gigs does not ...
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