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The Rolling Stones have just made their best album in 48 years |
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Commissioning Editor, Culture
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Hello, and welcome to the weekend!
The Rolling Stones may be in their eighties, but for many people they're still the most pioneering band in the world. On Friday they released their 25th studio album and, according to our writer Dylan Jones, their best since Some Girls in 1978. Producer Andrew Watt has "mixed himself up a big old pan of bespoke Stones gumbo" - but managed to make it all sound fresh, not vintage. Who said rock 'n' roll was dead?
Given the Stones' age, it's hardly surprising that they're rumoured not to be taking the new record on the road (though apparent tensions between the band might also have contributed). But perhaps they should be. "I’ve seen them dozens of times since the Seventies, and the last two gigs – Coventry football club in 2018 and Hyde Park as part of British Summer Time in 2022 – were undoubtedly the best of the lot," writes Dylan. Do you agree that they're getting better, or do you long for the halcyon days of the Seventies? Let me know in the poll below. And you can read the full piece on the album here.
Read on for books to make you laugh, TV to make you cry and Eurovision wunderkind Sam Ryder playing Jesus - which, writes our critic, is surely the role he was born for.
See you next week!
Emily
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Emily Bootle
Commissioning Editor, Culture, The i Paper
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TV has plenty of ways to make us cry (Photo: Lucie Wimetz/The i Paper)
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The 10 best TV tear-jerkers to stream now
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Crying is one of life’s great pleasures – it’s cathartic, liberating, and exhilarating. Unfortunately, it also often goes hand in hand with something bad happening in our lives. That’s why crying at the TV is so wonderful: we get to experience all the emotion of a good cry without having to go through any of the toil ourselves.
There are myriad ways to cry at a TV show, too. Whether it’s from sadness, bittersweet nostalgia, frustration, or even joy, each tear is the hard-won reward of excellent storytelling. And if there’s one thing that all tear-jerkers have in common, it’s their ability to cut through the noise of everyday life – to make their worlds the only thing that matters.
So, from teen romance that has you in floods, to striking miscarriages of justice, to a classic TV death, there are plenty of cry-worthy series worth the tissues. Here are the best TV tear-jerkers streaming now.
Read Emily Baker's recommendations here.
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Candice Carty-Williams picks her favourite reads
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The five best funny novels according to Candice Carty-Williams. The author of the publishing phenomenon 'Queenie' shares the books that have made her laugh and inspired her writing:
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1. Heartburn by Nora Ephron
“I remember first reading this book on a long train journey with the friend who had recommended it to me. She very quickly regretted the recommendation after I ignored her for the rest of the journey, laughing at pretty much every single page from start to finish.
“It is a semi-autobiographical novel following a woman who, seven months pregnant, discovers her husband is in love with someone else. So many writers that I know or meet hold Ephron as one of our biggest influences, and for good reason. You can’t read a book written by the writer behind the film When Harry Met Sally and not laugh out loud.”
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2. Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
“Now, this book has an incredibly special place in my heart. Again, I remember where I was when I first read it (which tells you how important and how funny it was to me). It came free with some sort of teen magazine back when I was 12, and I snapped the plastic wrapping off both and took it to the back of the bus and away from my chatting mum so I could read it in peace.
“From the first page of this book, which chronicles the teenage angst of the hilarious, hapless Georgina Nicholson, I was laughing. And even now, at 36, if I open any page of it, or the nine books that followed in the series, I willl chuckle and shake my head. What a character she is.”
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Sam Ryder makes his theatre debut as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar (Photo: Johan Persson)
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Jesus Christ Superstar, London Palladium
Last summer at the London Palladium it was the Rachel Zegler show, as the American star headlined a phenomenal revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita. So successful was this glossy formula that it has been lightly tweaked and repeated for 2026, with Sam Ryder making his theatre debut in Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar, presented in a scintillating production by Tim Sheader.
Ryder, who went superstellar overnight as he bagged second place for the UK in Eurovision 2022, certainly had the hair – flowing, scruffy – for the part, but could he provide the rest? The answer is a resounding yes.
This sung-through show, about the final days of Jesus’s life and his betrayal by Judas, started life as a concept album in 1970 before opening on Broadway a year later. It proves the perfect fit for Ryder, given that no spoken word acting is required, just incredibly powerful and expressive singing, which he can supply in spades.
Read more of Fiona Mountford's piece here.
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Adam Lambert: ‘I was overcompensating when I first joined Queen’ The singer talks about partying with Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, stepping into Freddie Mercury’s shoes and trading theatricality for introspection on his new album. Read more.
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Lambert's new album 'Adam' is out now. 'I wanted to do something less performative, something moodier... I tend to be a hermit, brooding away,’ he says (Photo: Dana Scruggs)
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Have the Rolling Stones' live shows decreased in quality? |
Click on the poll below to vote.
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Last week we asked: Do you think Madonna behaves inappropriately for her age?
27% yes
55% no
18% not sure
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Have any questions about culture you want answered? Email me at emily.bootle@theipaper.com and I'll try to respond in a future edition of the newsletter.
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