Bob Dylan’s on the cover of the new Uncut, which goes on sale tomorrow, July 31. The occasion? The release of The Bootleg Series, Volume 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969 – 1971) a typically fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of the Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait and New Morning sessions.
One of the projects we have just finished working on for the next issue of Uncut, on sale next week, was a special promotional feature we have produced in association with hmv, which is newly returned to robust high street health after recent rough times.
Taking my cue from John's round-up of the best albums of 2013 so far, I thought I'd compile a similar list of the best films released between the start of January and the end of June this year.
Around this time in 2012, I came up with 40 records, released between January and June, that I liked enough to include in a six-month Best-Of list. Either I’m being more diligent, or less discerning, or else 2013 is shaping up to be a better year: as you can see, I’ve managed 67 here.
Although I’m currently watching films due for release in July – which will take us over halfway through 2013 – I’m conscious that there’s a lot of great stuff still to come during the rest of the year.
It’s Record Store Day on Saturday; a kind of weird, but necessary I guess, annual event that’s become a critical point in release schedules. I’ve been going through the lists of releases at recordstoreday.com and thought it might be worth picking out a few things that are worth looking out for.
Increasingly, a fair amount of the day’s business is built on canny catalogue management aimed at collectors (especially vinyl fetishists), and there are a bunch of things here that fall roughly into that sector:
While rolling out my Top 112 albums list last week, a couple of people understandably asked what some of those records actually sounded like. Maybe this’ll help: ten of my favourite tracks of 2012…
The last 25, then. A few of you have asked for some help as to what these records sound like. I’ll try and put some links into these lists over the next few days, and also a blog of favourite track clips that might help a bit. See you what you think, anyhow…
Previously: 112-76Previously: 75-51Previously: 50-26
