Music

Patti Smith in her prime

Fifty years after the release of her wild and swaggering record, Horses, the spirited singer has more gravitas than ever

Reviews: The Necks, Cheikh Lô, Jay Som, Charles Lloyd

The trio’s 20th album, Disquiet, is three hours long – a maximal, mantric work that stands out in the modern attention economy

Misogyny and misinformation in a 21st-century Handel

Mob rule and a marauding bear feature in sparkling revivals of two of the composer’s lesser-known gems. Plus, a masterclass in high-speed Rossini

Lady Gaga’s fever dream

Showcasing her latest album, Mayhem, the US star unleashes an extravaganza of camp absurdity, then strips it all away

Geese, Richard Ashcroft, Marta, Jacob Collier

Geese’s Getting Killed is a knockout full of swagger and tunes you can sing along to

Is Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl her happiest album yet?

The star follows her lovelorn previous album with a set of punchy, clear-eyed odes to joy

Robert Plant with Suzi Dian, Cardi B, Cate Le Bon, Joy Crookes, Ala.Ni

Saving Grace is an engrossing excavation of musical roots

Jim Legxacy – the rise of an unconventional rapper

At 26, Legxacy is three mixtapes and the same number of live gigs into a fresh, fidgety body of work that draws on his south-east London upbringing and personal tragedy

Garland – a horse, a car park, and a night of pure imagination

The young composer’s inventive new work at Peckham’s Bold Tendencies is unlike anything but itself. Plus, an epic Verdi boasts a starry cast

Albums of the week: Kieran Hebden and William Tyler, Kojey Radical, Wednesday and L’Antidote

Hebden, aka Four Tet, and Tyler reunite on an elegant, undefinable record that up-ends expectations

Anna Netrebko electrifies in a controversial Tosca

Music and politics meet in a stripped-back Puccini in Jakub Hrůsä’s ROH debut

How a musical generation is rallying behind Palestine

Musicians, activists and attendees at a landmark protest gig unite for a cause that is becoming difficult to ignore

Jade, Ed Sheeran, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Mulatu Astatke

The former Little Mix star’s new album shimmers with her post-Simon Cowell pop nous and vocal range

Anton Bruckner’s divisive legacy

A capacity Albert Hall crowd made their way through tube strike London to see the composer's unfinished Symphony No 9

The Tubs – an indie band for a post-indie landscape

The Welsh rock band operate on a shoestring, making brilliant, life-enhancing music without a publicity machine

Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District – satire at the opera

Cue poisoned mushrooms and fierce satire as the BBC Phil and ENO join forces in Shostakovich’s denounced opera

Albums of the week: David Byrne, Sabrina Carpenter, SL, Harold López-Nussa

The former Talking Heads frontman’s latest solo effort finds him with an eyebrow arched, revelling in life’s absurdities

Gorillaz stun in star-studded show of lush visuals and borderless music

Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett revisit their 2010 album Plastic Beach to mark 25 years of their virtual band