Every pop star gets his own special power in this delightfully goofy Hong Kong action caper

Make no mistake, this caper-heist comedy from Hong Kong, starring all 12 members of the Cantopop outfit Mirror, is pure nonsense, but deliciously so. Presumably intended to tickle the fancy of Mirror’s many fans all over the world, even viewers who’ve never heard of this massive-selling pop group might be amused by the sheer silliness and unintentional campness of it all. As a plus, it’s practically a lookbook for a number of current menswear fashion brands.

The main conceit is that the lads are all members of a secret crime-busting fraternity called the League of Kaito who apparently, per the subtitles: “Hustle in hush, make everyone’s life better.” Which is nice. They are dispatched on missions by an unseen boss, sort of like Charlie’s Angels but with more tracksuits and (fractionally) less eyeliner. An opening montage introduces each of member of the league in turn, who all happen to have the same first names as the Mirror group members in real life, making it easier for the fans to follow their favourite.

A Michael Jackson jukebox musical has just opened – with no mention of sexual allegations – and a biopic is coming. What makes some celebrities immune to cancel culture? We examine who gets ostracised and who doesn’t

Was a Michael Jackson jukebox musical really such a good idea? When MJ the Musical opened in London last week, it was praised for its gravity-defying dancing and raft of floor-filling megahits. But one glaring oversight was unfailingly remarked upon. “In MJ,” ran the New York Times headline, “no one’s looking at The Man in the Mirror.” The show, it added, told the story of Jackson, “except for the big story”. As Anya Ryan put it in the Guardian’s two-star review : “It is hard to ignore the repeated allegations of child sexual abuse. Yet Lynn Nottage’s script does just that.”

Almost five years after Leaving Neverland, in which two men accused Jackson of sexually abusing them when they were children, it seems not everyone has got the message that the star is “cancelled”. In fact, to all intents and purposes, Jackson is not cancelled at all. That’s certainly what the money suggests, with Sony recently buying half of his back catalogue for a figure believed to be around £500m. Then there’s a forthcoming biopic starring Jackson’s nephew Jaafar in the lead role. According to Billboard, the Jackson estate earns around £60m a year from his music, royalties, theatrical shows and merchandise.

This is the perfect time to make lasting changes – whether embracing exercise, learning a new language, planting seeds or painting your house

Take it from a hopeless dopamine addict, spring is inarguably the best season to get into outdoor exercise. The trick to building the habit – as with any habit, really – is to start small, and reduce friction. Decide what you’re wearing and charge your phone before you go to bed. For your first few sorties, don’t worry about distance, speed or doing a whole workout: just get yourself used to getting up and out of the door. Counterintuitively, it can help to not dress like an athlete: if you go out covered in Lycra, it can feel mortifying to slow to a walk, but if you’re less formally dressed you can stop for a coffee. Keep it playful, and enjoy what your body can do: if that’s some step-ups on a bench or pull-ups on a tree branch, great, but even if it’s just going a little bit faster when a good song kicks in, the endorphin rush is what you’ll remember the next time it’s wet and windy. Oh, and don’t underestimate the value of a well-curated playlist. Many’s the morning I haven’t wanted to go anywhere, only for this Rihanna/Game Of Thrones remix to put a spring back in my step. Joel Snape, fitness writer

Some physical editions lack up to five tracks that come with the digital download, say fans

Fans of Beyoncé have complained after vinyl and CD editions of her album Cowboy Carter were delivered apparently with tracks that featured on the digital release missing.

Beyoncé’s eighth studio album – the second in a planned trilogy that began with her 2022 record Renaissance – was released on Friday and pre-orders for physical editions began to arrive the same day.

Questions surround ownership of demo tapes reportedly left by soul artist as a thank-you to his Ostend hosts

A collection of cassette tapes containing a host of unreleased Marvin Gaye songs has been found in the Belgian city of Ostend.

The collection, thought to contain 66 demo songs, belonged to the musician Charles Dumolin, in whose home Gaye stayed in 1981 as he underwent detox to fight cocaine addiction. When Dumolin died in 2019, the recordings were handed down to his family, along with a cache of Gaye memorabilia.

Readers Hugh Palmer and Alexander Hay respond to Simon Hattenstone’s interview with the singer-songwriter

Nick Cave refuses to be drawn into polarities, a quality lacking in many current discourses ( Nick Cave on love, art and the loss of his sons: ‘It’s against nature to bury your children’, 28 March ). It is encouraging to see a cultural figure take this position; it requires both courage and wisdom to do so.

Cave reminds me of a Blakean figure grappling with the complexities of love, loss, spirituality and materialism. He is aware of some of his own vulnerabilities – and rather that disavow them, has faced and accepted them, which is reminiscent of Jung’s work.

Resorts World Arena, Birmingham
Kennedy’s powerhouse vocals are a perfect match for Slash’s devil-may-care riffs – and it’s mesmerising to watch the legendary guitarist in full flow

A 2011 episode of South Park took playful aim at Slash, parodying the Guns N’ Roses guitarist as a mythical Dutch legend called Vunter Slaush with the ability to perform everywhere at once. There’s truth in every joke.

Between shows in South Korea and the Philippines, Slash made an impromptu appearance at the Academy Awards, flanking Ryan Gosling with a honeyburst Les Paul guitar for a performance of I’m Just Ken from the Oscar-nominated Barbie. While testament to his enduring mainstream appeal, tonight is a more orthodox setting for the legendary, top-hatted guitarist.

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Swerving genre for mood, the LA band glide by on an irresistible swell of chillwave synth and psychedelic funk

Los Angeles trio Chicano Batman are singularly focused on creating music that evokes mood rather than a specific genre. On their self-titled 2010 debut they paired doo-wop grooves with Spanish vocals to create a wistful reimagining of Latino soul, while 2017’s Freedom Is Free leant into social consciousness lyrics and psychedelia, and 2020’s Invisible People riffed on sultry synth-funk. Their fifth album is typically adventurous, channelling reverb-laden electric guitars, euphoric swells of melody and infectious vocal hooks to produce some of the group’s most freewheeling music to date.

Across 12 songs, Notebook Fantasy veers from the chillwave synths of the title track to the sumptuous string orchestrations of Spanish-language ballad Era Primavera, the horn fanfares of The Way You Say It and highlight Lei Lá’s squelchy psychedelic funk. Throughout, the rhythm section is locked in, a propulsive foundation, while vocalist Eduardo Arenas’s keening falsetto brings home the group’s singalong melodies. There is the odd misfire, such as the clumsy Strokes pastiche Losing My Mind, but largely the album manages to effortlessly embrace its wide-ranging songwriting in the service of one musical mood: joy.

New track features lyrics ‘It’s them that don’t like me’ after far-right backlash against idea she could cover Édith Piaf song

The French-Malian superstar Aya Nakamura, who has been subjected to racist abuse after it emerged that she could perform an Édith Piaf song at this summer’s Paris Olympics, has used a new single to hit back at her far-right critics.

In the track Doggy, released on Friday, the 28-year-old musician sings: “I don’t have enemies, me/It’s them that don’t like me,” adding: “A load of enemies but I don’t even know them.”