Plus Phosophorescent, Julia Holter, John Fahey, Mud, a free 15-track CD!

Talking Heads’ reunion last September, for a brief press tour to support the re-release of Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense concert film, was one of music’s most unlikely comebacks. Here, after all, were a band who’d not just split acrimoniously – as recently as 2020, while promoting his Remain In Love memoir, Chris Frantz snipped at former bandmate David Byrne, “He can’t imagine that anyone else would be important” – but who had also moved creatively into very different spaces. Yet, coming together to celebrate their landmark movie, being in one another’s company for a period clearly found them reaching an accord. “We didn’t hate each other,” Tina Weymouth confides to Sam Richards in this month’s cover story. “We were just annoyed!”

TALKING HEADS ARE ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME

So as Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Weymouth and Frantz reveal their plans for the next phase in their band’s unexpected afterlife, we celebrate the 30 greatest songs by these pioneering outsiders – from the twitchy minimalism of their early records to the Technicolour blowouts of their commercial peak. It’s their first Uncut cover story, so we’re especially proud of this one.

What else? 2024 is shaping up to be another strong year for new music. I’ve got on repeat play new albums by Adrianne Lenker, Julia Holter and Phosphorescent – all of whom you can read about in this issue (with more on Adrianne to come next month) – along with relative upstarts Rosali and Arushi Jain, who have both been on our radar for a few years and we’re delighted to finally cover properly in the magazine.

There are some familiar faces in this issue, too – we have Tom Pinnock’s peerless piece on John Fahey, plus new interviews with Mike Scott, Kim Gordon, J Mascis, Mud, Dion and (I’m particularly pleased with this) Michael Moorcock.

As ever, we hope there’s a lot in here for you to enjoy.

Until next month, then…