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Uncut August 2025

CLICK HERE TO GET THE NEW ISSUE OF UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

CLICK HERE TO GET THE NEW ISSUE OF UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

EVERY PRINT EDITION OF THIS ISSUE OF UNCUT COMES WITH A COPY OF HOPES AND DREAMS – 15 TRACKS OF THE MONTH’S BEST NEW MUSIC FEATURING GWENNO, ALICE COOPER, US GIRLS, GINA BIRCH, GOLOMB AND MORE!

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: To celebrate the release of Tracks II: The Lost Albums, Uncut takes a revelatory trip inside the archives of Bruce Springsteen – with help from collaborators, confidants and the Boss himself. “If you want to understand how Springsteen works, he’s never shown you more of his cards than he does here…”

NEIL YOUNG: Zuma at 50! Crazy Horse tell all. Plus Neil heads – including Evan Dando, MJ Landerman and Blake Mills – go deep on the album’s musical marvels. “It is the arrival of an band that would anchor an era and influence generations…”

SLY STONE: Uncut looks back on life of an inspirational rock’n’soul icon.

WET LEG: The Isle of Wight noisemakers return – emboldened by love and new sounds: “It’s nice to live in the space somewhere between fantasy and reality…”

BOOKER T: The teenage prodigy who helped shape the sound of Stax on his path from “Green Onions” to Drive-By Truckers. “You have to be able to speak through your instrument…”

SCOTT WALKER: Thirty years after the startling experiments of Tilt defined Walker’s latter-day career, we uncover his transition from teen idol to avant garde hero. “It was a rejection of his past…”

CAROLINE: South-east London’s confoundingly brilliant eight-piece, fusing choral folk with fractured post-rock. “There has to be a vulnerability of some sort. Or what’s the point?”

BILLY IDOL: The Bromley veteran on Television, Siouxsie & The Banshees and Terminator 2.

SADE: How punk attitude and minimalist soul grooves took the smooth operator from London’s club scene to global success.

WAR: The ground-breaking LA band’s triumphant passage through rock, soul, jazz, funk and beyond.

REVIEWED: New albums by Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band, Mark Stewart, The New Eves, Ben LaMar Gay, Rebecca Shiffman, Murry Hammond, Shelley Burgon, His Lordship, Mike Polizze; archive releases by The B-52s, Jackie O Motherfucker, Mickey Newbury and Miles Davis; Iggy Pop live; David Cronenberg and Wes Anderson on Screen; Genesis P Orridge on Screen Extra and Budgie and The Beatles in books.

PLUS: Blondie unseen; John Fogerty reclaims; Wilko Johnson – the play; Geoff Barrow x Jason Williamson; Dave Davies‘ favourite albums… and meet the effortless three-part harmonies of Folk Bitch Trio.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE NEW ISSUE OF UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

Introducing the new Uncut: Springsteen, Sly Stone, Neil Young, Wet Leg, Scott Walker and more

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The news broke of Sly Stone's death hours before this issue of Uncut was due at the printers, so huge thanks to the team for some frantic but ultimately successful work remaking the issue to honour his memory.

The news broke of Sly Stone‘s death hours before this issue of Uncut was due at the printers, so huge thanks to the team for some frantic but ultimately successful work remaking the issue to honour his memory.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE NEW ISSUE OF UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

What constitutes a ‘lost’ album? It’s a question we routinely ask ourselves, as record companies empty their cupboards of old tapes in the hope of finding unreleased gold. As countless Uncut features attest, Neil Young has been steadily releasing caches from his fabled repository of ‘lost’ albums – the most recent, Oceanside Countryside, arrived in March. Now Bruce Springsteen has opened his vault to unveil unreleased full-length records of his own. For this issue’s cover story, Peter Watts’ research and interviews reveal the unexpected nature of Springsteen’s shadow discography: for an artist so closely associated with a specific band, it’s fascinating how much of this music has either been recorded solo or in the company of musicians other than his doughty lieutenants in the E Street Band. Critically, though, while Young’s ‘lost’ records have been the subject of intense speculation for decades, it transpires that the contents and extent of Springsteen’s archival motherlode were largely unknown, even among the most die-hard Bruce Tramps.

Did I mention Neil? Not long after this issue of Uncut goes on sale, he is due to begin his first European tour since 2019, including stopoffs at Glastonbury and Hyde Park. Meanwhile, we take a trip back to 1975 to celebrate Zuma, his first album with the new lineup of Crazy Horse. Elsewhere, we discover the secrets of Scott Walker, War, Booker T and Sade; untangle a bumper month of albums that includes releases from Wet Leg, Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band, Marianne Faithfull, Mark Stewart, The New Eves, the B-52s and Mickey Newbury; witness Iggy Pop live; discover all about the Wilko Johnson play; meet Caroline, Folk Bitch Trio and plenty more.

Incidentally, if you’re going to see Neil over the summer, we’ll see you there.

Nick Cave turned down Morrissey’s invitation to perform “anti-woke screed” on new track

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Writing in the latest instalment of his Red Hand Files newsletter, Nick Cave has revealed that he turned down an invitation from Morrissey to perform “slightly silly anti-woke screed” on new track.

Writing in the latest instalment of his Red Hand Files newsletter, Nick Cave has revealed that he turned down an invitation from Morrissey to perform “slightly silly anti-woke screed” on new track.

THE JULY 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING NICK DRAKE, A 15-TRACK NEW MUSIC CD, THE WHO, BLACK SABBATH, BRIAN ENO, MATT BERNINGER, PULP, BOB WEIR AND MORE

“We had a few pleasant email exchanges last year in which Morrissey asked if I’d sing on a new song he had written.

“I would have been happy to do so, however, while the song he sent was quite lovely, it began with a lengthy and entirely irrelevant Greek bouzouki intro.

“It also seemed that he didn’t want me to actually sing on the song, but deliver, over the top of the bouzouki, an unnecessarily provocative and slightly silly anti-woke screed he had written.

“Although I suppose I agreed with the sentiment on some level, it just wasn’t my thing. I try to keep politics, cultural or otherwise, out of the music I am involved with. I find that it has a diminishing effect and is antithetical to whatever it is I am trying to achieve.

“So… I politely declined. I said no.”

More positively, Cave also wrote that “Morrissey is probably the best lyricist of his generation – certainly the strangest, funniest, most sophisticated, and most subtle.”

Cass McCombs announces new album, Interior Live Oak

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Cass McCombs has today announced that his new album Interior Live Oak will be released by Domino on August 15.

THE JULY 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING NICK DRAKE, A 15-TRACK NEW MUSIC CD, THE WHO, BLACK SABBATH, BRIAN ENO, MATT BERNINGER, PULP, BOB WEIR AND MORE

Watch a video for latest single “Peace” below:

Other musicians on the record include early Bay Area cohorts Jason Quever (Papercuts) and Chris Cohen, as well as regular collaborators Matt Sweeney and Mike Bones.

You can pre-order Interior Live Oak here and peruse the tracklisting below:

  1. Priestess
  2. Peace
  3. Missionary Bell
  4. Miss Mabee
  5. Home At Last
  6. I’m Not Ashamed
  7. Who Removed The Cellar Door?
  8. A Girl Named Dogie
  9. Asphodel
  10. I Never Dream About Trains
  11. Van Wyck Expressway
  12. Lola Montez Danced The Spider Dance
  13. Juvenile
  14. Diamonds In The Mine
  15. Strawberry Moon
  16. Interior Live Oak

Cass McCombs will cross the Atlantic for some live shows later in the summer. Check out his updated tour itinerary below and grab tickets here.

13 Aug – Porto, PT @ Paredes de Coura ^
17 Aug – Crickhowell @ Green Man Festival ^
19 Aug – Bristol @ Lantern Hall ^
20 Aug – London @ Bush Hall ^
21 Aug – Manchester @ YES ^
23 Aug – Galway, IE @ Leisureland * %
24 Aug – Dublin, IE @ Wider Than Pictures Festival * %
25 Aug – Belfast, IE @ Ulster Hall * %
26 Aug – Cork, IE @ City Hall * %
28 Aug – Glasgow, SCT @ Barrowland * %
29 Aug – Glasgow, SCT @ Barrowland * %
10 Sep – San Diego, CA @The Casbah ^
11 Sep – Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Expo Hall & ^
12 Sep – Riverside, CA @Farmhouse ^

* with Father John Misty
& with MJ Lenderman, Nap Eyes
% Solo
^ Full Band Performance

The Who’s 20 greatest songs… as chosen by Roger Daltrey

In this feature from Uncut's January 2003 issue [Take 68], Roger Daltrey reviews his side of The Who's story, providing track-by-track commentary on the band's most explosive singles... _______________________ A miserable October day in London, 2002. Roger Daltrey is staring out of the window at t...

In this feature from Uncut’s January 2003 issue [Take 68], Roger Daltrey reviews his side of The Who’s story, providing track-by-track commentary on the band’s most explosive singles…

_______________________

A miserable October day in London, 2002. Roger Daltrey is staring out of the window at the colourless metropolitan sky, looking smart but sombre in a dark pin-stripe suit. Ominously, Uncut’s interview with The Who’s vocal powerhouse comes the afternoon following a memorial service for bassist John Entwistle, who died on June 27 this year; on the eve of a scheduled tour of America which they valiantly honoured (roping in Pino Paladino as an emergency replacement for ‘the Ox’).

Twenty-four years after the death of drummer Keith Moon in September 1978, Entwistle’s passing now means that Daltrey and guitarist/songwriting genius Pete Townshend are the last men standing in England’s other great surviving rock band.

Lest we forget, back in the ’60s The Who were the only British combo who proved themselves worthy of ranking alongside The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, turning the hierarchy of UK pop from a dynamic duo into a holy trinity. Beginning as a pop-art explosion of R’n’B feedback and mod frustration, by the end of the decade, along with Jimi Hendrix (who was already indebted to the unorthodox musicianship of early Townshend), on a purely sonic level The Who had permanently transformed the molecular structure of rock’n’roll. Be it patenting the modern ‘rock opera’ with 1969’s behemoth Tommy, setting the sound levels for the next decade of headbanging metal-heads with 1970’s Live At Leeds or the technological ambition inherent in the synthesized sheen of 1971’s Who’s Next, The Who broke barriers, moulds and eardrums at virtually every turn. The secret of their success?

“Two things,” considers Daltrey. “One, Pete wrote fucking great songs. And two, he had such incredible individual people to play them. I mean, talk about icing on the cake! Pete had a good cake, but he also had the same thickness of icing on top.”

The new Who CD, The Ultimate Collection, is partly in memoriam for Entwistle and partly for those who need reminding of The Who’s matchless contribution to the rock acropolis. Though at the height of their powers The Who prided (and possibly over-indulged) themselves on their albums, it was always the 45rpm pop single that provided the greatest thrills, from the brusqueness of 1965’s “I Can’t Explain” through to 1981’s Moon-less curtain call “You Better, You Bet”. Where their ’60s counterparts either split (The Beatles), struggled (The Kinks) or, in the case of The Stones, stopped caring about singles, the “’Orrible ’Oo” continued to churn out provocatively original A-sides well into the ’70s, regardless of whatever ambitious (and often abortive) rock opera Townshend may have had up his sleeve at the time.

As Townshend wrote himself in a 1971 review of their own Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy singles collection for Rolling Stone magazine, The Who’s earliest mandate was a religious belief in the 45 format and little else: “We, I repeat, believed only in singles.”

Thirty years on, Roger Daltrey, too, has plenty to say about the purity of the singles aesthetic in the age of Pop Idol. “I made some rude remarks recently about Simon Cowell in an interview,” he guffaws, “but I’ve changed my opinion of him because you need to have a bland period so that all these young groups will get pissed off and start coming through. You can see it happening now with a lot of the new groups, The Coral and all that lot: they’re saying, ‘We’ve had enough of this shit, let’s get out and make some noise!’ So thank you very much, Simon Cowell, you did it, mate! Make no bones about it, shit like Pop Idol and American Idol will lead to the creation of the next punk. The seeds are already out there. It’s great!”

Young men going out and making noise was exactly how one might describe The Who’s raison d’être when they first formed as The Detours in Shepherd’s Bush, west London, in 1962. Youth, in all its arrogance, was a vital ingredient in those early days, an attitude crystallised three years later on “My Generation” in which they unwittingly provided their future critics with a well-worn taunt in the infamous decree of “hope I die before I get old”. For a man now fast approaching 60, Daltrey’s healthy pallor is a terrific advertisement for the merits of four decades of the rock’n’roll lifestyle; a shockingly well-preserved yin to the dilapidated yang of his peers (there’s only four months between them, but he looks a decade or two younger than, say, Keith Richards). All the same, even today, one broaches the “My Generation” conundrum with Daltrey at one’s peril.

“I find it incredibly tedious when people bring that against us now,” he glares. “For me, age has nothing to do with it. It’s a state of mind.”

Of his own mortality, and the question mark that hangs over the future of The Who – wherever he and Townshend decide to step on from here – Daltrey is quite confident.

“It can’t be the same because John Entwistle was a genius at his style, there’ll never be another like him,” he says, unruffled. “But that’s not to say we can’t go on. As soon as you start playing that music, John is alive again, just the same as Keith’s always been alive whenever we play. That’s the great thing about music, it transcends this life. We never know when we’re gonna pop our clogs, we’re all in the drop-zone at our age, but life goes on and music will certainly go on. The Who’s music will go on long after I’m gone and Pete’s gone, and that’s everything I believe in. Right now, I’m very optimistic about our future.

“I mean we have been incredibly lucky,” Daltrey concludes. “I wake up every morning thinking, ‘Gawd – what a life!’ When you think about the great bands of all time, there’s only a handful like the Stones or The Who who’ve gone on for as long as we have. And you think – why us? It’s an extraordinary life we’ve had. Why we should come together and make that noise and create that extraordinary thing? God knows. Life is weird.”

A case of “I Can’t Explain”?

“Ha!” laughs Daltrey, rolling forward in his seat, “Exactly! I can’t explain!”

Reviewed! Pulp, The O2, London, June 13, 2025

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Tonight, Jarvis Cocker tells the audience, is a “high pressure evening”. It’s Pulp’s first time playing The O2 – capacity: 20,000 – and the third night of their arena tour in support of new album More; the gig is also being filmed; and, perhaps most importantly, it’s Cocker's wedding anniversary and his wife is in the audience.

Tonight, Jarvis Cocker tells the audience, is a “high pressure evening”. It’s Pulp’s first time playing The O2 – capacity: 20,000 – and the third night of their arena tour in support of new album More; the gig is also being filmed; and, perhaps most importantly, it’s Cocker’s wedding anniversary and his wife is in the audience.

Why, then, does Jarvis seem so relaxed in front of the thousands filling the floor and lining the walls of this huge space? Perhaps it’s the number one album they’ve just bagged today, or perhaps it’s the fact that More has been a bigger success with fans and critics alike than anyone would have imagined, even the band. After all, it’s been 24 years since Pulp last released an LP – 2001’s excellent but awkward We Love Life – and it’s been a long time since their stock was this high. In 2002, for instance, their Hits album reached the giddy heights of #72 in the UK.

I saw Pulp for the first time almost 27 years ago, on December 5, 1998, on the last night of the This Is Hardcore tour at another arena, the Bournemouth International Centre. Things were very different then: they had just two extra musicians onstage, including Richard Hawley, plus Gareth Dickinson, a Jarvis impersonator from Stars In Their Eyes, who came on for the opening “The Fear” and sang a closing cover of Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. There’s no such messing about tonight: Pulp, augmented by an army of additional players, are performing two sets on this tour, with an intermission, all the better to be able to fit in all the hits, quite a few deep cuts and a bunch of new songs.

As on the rest of the tour so far, they start with two energetic More tracks, “Spike Island” and “Grown Ups”, and those seated immediately get up and remain on their feet for most of the night. Their live returns in 2011/12 and 2023/24 didn’t come with any new material (aside from a James Murphy-produced single, “About You”), but the Pulp that we see in 2025 are no nostalgia act. Such is the love for More, it’s as if they’ve just carried on directly from where they left off; or to be exact, from just before their commercial appeal started to wane, a year or so before I saw them in Bournemouth.

“Slow Jam”, prefaced with a photo of Sheffield’s Limit nightclub, where Cocker and the band would go “before 10pm, as it was free”, is a slow-burning delight, but Pulp’s supreme confidence is shown by sticking “Sorted For Es & Wizz” and “Disco 2000” as the fourth and fifth songs of the night. The crowd gasp at Cocker’s sheer gall, and all that. They’re playing these old songs in their original keys too, unlike a fair few bands of their vintage and older, and it adds something. Or perhaps it’s the opposite, that messing with the keys takes some magic away, and our ears can sense that something’s not quite right. Here, Cocker has to work to reach the notes, but he’s spot on.

The string section are a welcome addition to the musicians onstage, and they also provide backing vocals, clap on “Disco 2000” and play shakers, whistles and horns on “Sorted…”, all while clad in ravey bucket hats on the latter. Also excellent are the five additional band members joining the core quartet onstage, with a besequinned Emma Smith particularly brilliant as she covers former member Russell Senior’s guitar and atmospheric violin parts. With so many great contributors onstage, covering all kinds of instrumentation, it feels like Pulp could genuinely pull off anything from their back catalogue, and they cover a wide range tonight: from the gothic synth disco of “OU (Gone Gone)” to the pulsating “Do You Remember The First Time?” to the ornate folk-country of “A Sunset”.

“FEELINGCALLEDLOVE” and “Party Hard” (played for the first time since 2012, and the winner in a fan vote against “Seconds”) – are a little ramshackle and tentative, though, perhaps due to the mix, but no-one minds. Pulp have never been super-slick, after all, and these slightly raw moments are a welcome counterpoint to the showbiz elements tonight: giant screens, VT/CGI backdrops courtesy of director Garth Jennings (also filming tonight) and light-up disco steps for Jarvis to frolic on.

Stronger is “This Is Hardcore”, which begins with a queasy new violin intro, Cocker moodily lounging on a leather chair at the top of the steps, sipping a coffee. For all its sleazy imagery and grubby lust, it’s probably the most complex, cinematic moment in their catalogue, and its crushed velvet, Bond-esque grandeur is well suited to this expanded lineup and a venue of this size. Hardcore’s “Help The Aged” is also a triumph, and seems to be more beloved than it was at the time. The epic “Sunrise”, too, which closes the first set, garners a warmer reception than it did on release as We Love Life’s first single alongside “The Trees”. It’s the only track from that album we hear tonight.

The second set begins with just Cocker, Mark Webber, Candida Doyle and Nick Banks playing an acoustic version of the beautiful “Something Changed”, which the entire crowd seem to sing along with. Compare its profound, funny lyrics about the magic of chance meetings and fate to “This Is Hardcore”’s horny “that goes in there, and that goes in there, and that goes in there” for Cocker’s range.

As this is an arena show we get a costume change from the man himself for the second set – pinstripe jacket and denim shirt swapped for a velvet jacket and checked shirt – and the arrival of two glittering backing singers for “The Fear” onwards. Soon we’re into a finely tuned run of favourites to finish: “Do You Remember The First Time?”, “Mis-Shapes”, “Got To Have Love” (a More track that’s already become a classic), “Babies” (on which Jarvis shows off his lead guitar skills for the only time) and “Common People”.

Perverse as it may sound, “Common People” wasn’t a song I was looking forward to, but the band tackle it with such energy that it shrugs off the shackles of overfamiliarity and sounds fresh again, as brilliant as it did in 1995. What we loved about it all those years ago is brought to the surface again, and I’m struck by lyrics I’ve heard a thousand times, especially the furious and still relevant: “You will never understand how it feels to live your life/With no meaning or control/And with nowhere left to go…

It would be hard for anyone – from casual fan to diehard – to argue too much with the setlist, but it’s tantalising to think of what else they could have played: “Glory Days”, “Bad Cover Version”, “I Spy”, “Underwear”, “Dishes” (performed in Dublin a few days ago), “Joyriders” and many more… and from the new album, “My Sex” and “Background Noise” would have been welcome.

But, assuming the huge success of More inspires Pulp to carry on, there’ll be other times. While they’ve come back for live work over the years, making a new album has changed everything about this band. Pulp have caught the zeitgeist in a way no-one could quite have predicted, and their return has not only given us a clutch of great new songs, but made their old songs seem more vital than they have in years. Tonight Pulp feel alive again. What a hell of a show.

Van Morrison – Remembering Now

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Let’s go back. Let’s go way, way, way back – to the mystic avenue and the ancient highway; to the days when the rains came and the days of blooming wonder; to Orangefield, Hyndford Street and the Church of Ireland where the Sunday six bells chime. To the days before dodgy anti-lockdown sermonising and endless albums of duets and re-recordings, skiffle, R&B and blues covers. To the time, one might argue, when Van Morrison took his unique and vaulting talents seriously.

Let’s go back. Let’s go way, way, way back – to the mystic avenue and the ancient highway; to the days when the rains came and the days of blooming wonder; to Orangefield, Hyndford Street and the Church of Ireland where the Sunday six bells chime. To the days before dodgy anti-lockdown sermonising and endless albums of duets and re-recordings, skiffle, R&B and blues covers. To the time, one might argue, when Van Morrison took his unique and vaulting talents seriously.

THE JULY 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING NICK DRAKE, A 15-TRACK NEW MUSIC CD, THE WHO, BLACK SABBATH, BRIAN ENO, MATT BERNINGER, PULP, BOB WEIR AND MORE

Without wishing to oversell it, the best of Remembering Now – at least half of the 14 tracks – finds Morrison on his finest form since the late ’80s and early ’90s. The title refers not only to the recurring lyrical theme of a man in his eightieth year simultaneously inhabiting both his past and present, but the rich sense of musical retrieval, too.

Throughout, Morrison consciously invokes key moments from across his six-decade recording career, most frequently the lushly meditative landscape of albums such as Poetic Champion’s Compose, Avalon Sunset and Enlightenment, but also the expansive explorations of Veedon Fleece, Into The Music and Common One. As they were on the first of those two groups of records, Fiachra Trench’s simpatico string arrangements are a prominent texture, alongside horns, Hammond organ, Seth Lakeman’s fiddle and warm, gospel-infused backing vocals. What truly stands out, however, is Morrison’s renewed commitment to making (almost) every song count: musically, vocally and emotionally.

“The concept of the flow is beyond thought, beyond analysis,” he said of writing songs for this record and, indeed, it sounds very much as though he has resumed a dialogue with the inarticulate speech of the heart. There is ample evidence of spiritual curiosity being reawakened. The words to the easefully swinging “Love, Lover And Beloved” are taken from a book by Michael Beckwith, leader of Agape, an LA-based spiritual centre. The song ends with a burbling testimony to “my precious one”, Morrison once again trysting at the point where earthly and heavenly love connect. The becalmed contemplation of “Haven’t Lost My Sense Of Wonder”, meanwhile, provides proof of the holy magic Morrison can conjure with just three chords and an ache for the “green fields of summer”.

Remembering Now is not always so thrillingly airborne, but even at cruising altitude it offers a pleasing variety of styles and approaches. “Down To Joy”, which first appeared in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, makes for a solidly soulful opener in the mould of “Tore Down A La Rimbaud” and “Real Real Gone”. The lithe, jaunty “Back To Writing Love Songs” boasts the closest thing to a pop hook Morrison has produced in many years. “The Only Love I Ever Need Is Yours” is a miniature chamber piece, and one of three songs with lyrics written by Don Black, Morrison’s occasional collaborator in recent years. Black’s words on “Once In A Lifetime Feelings” skew towards bland, but the song itself is lovely, graced by Lakeman’s campfire violin and Morrison’s bluesy guitar picking.

At its midpoint, Remembering Now starts pushing from the foothills towards transcendence. “Stomping Ground” is a wondrous litany of significant Belfast landmarks, its simple elegance crowned by a glorious string arrangement blossoming into Morrison’s heartfelt saxophone solo. He walks the same haunted hometown streets on the snappy, noirish R&B of the title track, in which our man is trapped between all that then and all this now, rapping with a mantra-like intensity. Here, the need feels urgent: “This is who I am!” The stately “Memories And Visions” finds him more composed, back on higher ground, communing serenely with the spirit. Though the energy levels are a tad sluggish, Morrison pushes through to the revelation that “that ain’t all there is…

When The Rains Came” is a sparse, stilled folk-blues, a masterful exercise in suspense and atmosphere unspooling over six and a half minutes. While the title references the opening lines of “Brown Eyed Girl”, during the closing moments Morrison is utterly lost in the kind of rapturous incantation – “take my hand, child, walk with me” – which briefly evokes the farthest reaches of “When Heart Is Open” from Common One.

Remembering Now is too long. It could do without “If It Wasn’t For Ray”, a throwaway patchwork of offhand rhymes and rote melody, and the blandly pedestrian “Cutting Corners”. The painfully punning “Colourblind”, meanwhile, has no business breaking the spell Morrison conjures on the album’s home stretch, which peaks with the magnificent closer, “Stretching Out”.

Fulfilling the promise of the title, it’s a nine-minute tour de force which revisits the pulsing musical landscape of “You Don’t Pull No Punches, But You Don’t Push The River” from Veedon Fleece. Morrison fixates on the locale of “Shady Lane”, which one fancies is the totemic magnetic north of his youth, Cyprus Avenue, viewed through the lens of his older self. It’s almost impossibly thrilling, the kind of song you longed for him to write again but never quite believed he would.

Do I know you from way back?” he keens, wonderstruck all over again. Remembering Now is the deeply heartening sound of an artist recognising himself.

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Paul McCartney and The Beach Boys pay tribute to Brian Wilson

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Brian Wilson has died, the BBC reports.

Brian Wilson has died, the BBC reports.

THE JULY 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING NICK DRAKE, A 15-TRACK NEW MUSIC CD, THE WHO, BLACK SABBATH, BRIAN ENO, MATT BERNINGER, PULP, BOB WEIR AND MORE

“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away,” his family said in a statement shared online.

“We are at a loss for words right now.”

“Please respect our privacy at this time as our family grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world.”

Born in 1942 and raised in Hawthorne, California, Wilson formed The Beach Boys in 1961, with his younger brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine.

In February 2024, it was revealed Wilson had dementia.

Paul McCartney and The Beach Boys have led tributes to Wilson.

On his website, McCartney wrote: “Brian had that mysterious sense of musical genius that made his songs so achingly special. The notes he heard in his head and passed to us were simple and brilliant at the same time. I loved him, and was privileged to be around his bright shining light for a little while. How we will continue without Brian Wilson, ‘God Only Knows’.

Thank you, Brian. – Paul”

While The Beach Boys posted this message on their social media accounts.

“The world mourns a genius today, and we grieve for the loss of our cousin, our friend, and our partner in a great musical adventure. Brian Wilson wasn’t just the heart of The Beach Boys—he was the soul of our sound. The melodies he dreamed up and the emotions he poured into every note changed the course of music forever. His unparalleled talent and unique spirit created the soundtrack of so many lives around the globe, including our own. Together, we gave the world the American dream of optimism, joy, and a sense of freedom—music that made people feel good, made them believe in summer and endless possibilities.

“We are heartbroken by his passing. We will continue to cherish the timeless music we made together and the joy he brought to millions over the decades. And while we will miss him deeply, his legacy will live on through his songs and in our memories.

“Our hearts go out to Brian’s family and his loved ones during this difficult time.”

This is a developing story…

Hear Mavis Staples’ cover Frank Ocean’s “Godspeed”

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Mavis Staples has recorded a new cover of Frank Ocean's "Godspeed", from his 2016 album, Blonde.

Mavis Staples has recorded a new cover of Frank Ocean‘s “Godspeed“, from his 2016 album, Blonde.

You can hear her version below.

THE JULY 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING NICK DRAKE, A 15-TRACK NEW MUSIC CD, THE WHO, BLACK SABBATH, BRIAN ENO, MATT BERNINGER, PULP, BOB WEIR AND MORE

“Godspeed” was produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, Nathaniel Rateliff) and features spoken word vocals by songwriter and Youth Poet Laureate, Kara Jackson.

Channel Orange was my first introduction to Frank Ocean and I was just amazed at the writing and soulfulness coming from his voice,” says Staples. “And I loved Blonde when that record came out. That first line in ‘Godspeed‘ of “I will always love you” just crushes me every time I hear it… or sing it. It’s just such a beautiful song and he sounds amazing on it so I was a little nervous if we could pull it off. I was honoured to sing his words.”

Staples is also going our on tour, including a handful of European dates.

TOUR DATES
June 21 – Ottawa, ON @ Ottawa Jazz Festival
June 23 – Toronto, Canada @ Toronto Jazz Festival
June 26 – Montreal, Canada @ Montreal Jazz Festival
June 28 – Knoxville, TN @ Bijou Theatre
June 29 – Brevard, NC @ Brevard Music Center
July 5 – Sioux City, IA @ Saturday in the Park
July 13 – Winnipeg, MB @ Winnipeg Folk Festvial
July 18 – Detroit, MI @ Concert of Colors
July 20 – Columbus, OH @ Jazz & Rib Fest
July 22 – Cincinnati, OH @ Memorial Hall
Aug 2 – Notodden, Norway @ Notodden Blues Festival
Aug 5 – Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg
Aug 7 – Gothenburg, Västra Götaland County @ Way Out West
Aug 10 – San Jose, CA @ San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 
Aug 22 – Winston-Salem, NC @ The Ramkat
Aug 23 – Rocky Mount, VA @ Harvester Performance Center
Aug 25 – Ocean City, NJ @ Ocean City Music Pier
Sept 11 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
Sept 13 – Napa, CA @ Blue Note Summer Sessions
Oct 4 – Memphis, TN @ Mempho Fest
Oct 9 – Tucson, AZ @ Fox Theatre
Oct 12 – Chandler, AZ @ Chandler Center for the Arts

Pete Shelley – Homosapien/XL-1 (reissues, 1981, ’83)

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When Pete Shelley returned to Genetic Studios in leafy Berkshire in February 1981, the plan had been to sketch out songs for the fourth Buzzcocks album with the band’s trusted producer Martin Rushent. Trouble was, neither Shelley nor Rushent could face working on Buzzcocks material. That ship had sailed: 1980 was not a vintage year for the band whose effervescent power-pop had shown that punk could be fun and vulnerable, whose run of blistering singles from ’77 to ’79 meant so much to so many, and the way Shelley was withholding his new ideas from the rest of the group suggested that something was up. Other warning signs, noted by bandmate Steve Diggle in his book Harmony In My Head, included Shelley moaning to the press about how unhappy he was and how restricted he felt in the band, telling journalists, “Punk is dead”, and saying how he wanted to explore the possibilities of electronic music. 

When Pete Shelley returned to Genetic Studios in leafy Berkshire in February 1981, the plan had been to sketch out songs for the fourth Buzzcocks album with the band’s trusted producer Martin Rushent. Trouble was, neither Shelley nor Rushent could face working on Buzzcocks material. That ship had sailed: 1980 was not a vintage year for the band whose effervescent power-pop had shown that punk could be fun and vulnerable, whose run of blistering singles from ’77 to ’79 meant so much to so many, and the way Shelley was withholding his new ideas from the rest of the group suggested that something was up. Other warning signs, noted by bandmate Steve Diggle in his book Harmony In My Head, included Shelley moaning to the press about how unhappy he was and how restricted he felt in the band, telling journalists, “Punk is dead”, and saying how he wanted to explore the possibilities of electronic music. 

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Buzzcocks formally split in March ’81 and by then Shelley and Rushent were certainly testing the limits of the new technology recently acquired for Genetic, Rushent’s plush Thameside HQ. “The computer or synthesizer is the great leveller. It is no longer necessary to be a virtuoso to make good things,” Rushent told Rolling Stone in July ’82. Shelley had arrived with a 12-string guitar but was soon immersed in electronic sound – Genetic had a rare Fairlight CMI, banks of modules and a full range of analogue synths, including a Roland Microcomposer, which the pair got to grips with as Shelley assembled older songs such as “Homosapien”, “Love In Vain” and “Maxine” from his first band Jets Of Air, and wrote the likes of “Witness The Change” and “I Don’t Know What It Is”: familiar Buzzcocks titles for atmospheric tracks built up from programmed rhythms and basslines. Genetic also had an arrangement with Island and offered Shelley a solo deal. 

Shelley, who died in December 2018 aged 63, will be remembered for his pithy and poignant Buzzcocks songs which he seemingly dashed off at will in his teens and early twenties. But he loved electronic music too: from Can, Tangerine Dream and Neu! to more wayward experimental gear, he was intrigued by sound, and its strange immediacy suited his impulsive nature. In 1980, he released his solo debut Sky Yen – two 20-minute blasts of wild oscillations recorded in 1974 – on his own Groovy label, which Drag City reissued in 2011 alongside LPs by his ramshackle industrial acts Free Agents and Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners. His 2002 reunion with Howard Devoto for Buzzkunst used synth-driven post-punk to make its tongue-in-cheek point. 

In many ways, writing for himself and arranging his ideas on computer allowed Shelley to express himself more freely, in bolder, funkier, even saucier terms. His bisexuality and queerness – there if you look for it in the Buzzcocks’ hits – surfaced quite naturally on Homosapien and inevitably colours perception of the record and its follow-up XL-1. “Homosapien” and Rushent’s groundbreaking 10-minute “Elongated Dancepartydubmix” of it were hits on the radio and in the club, even though the BBC banned the song for its “explicit reference to gay sex” – the “Homosuperior, in my interior” line – not quite appreciating Shelley’s self-deprecating humour: “I’m the cruiser, you’re the loser”; more Rising Damp than Are You Being Served?. Eagle-eyed admirers might’ve spotted the green carnation in the lapel of Shelley’s white suit on the album cover and in the video for “Homosapien”, a symbol for gay men, once used by Oscar Wilde.

Homosapien is an exciting record but not necessarily a great album. With “Homosapien” becoming a sizeable hit across the pond, the Americans, to their credit, replaced the weaker ballads “Keats Song” and “It’s Hard Enough Knowing” with the strident “Witness The Change” and poppier “Love In Vain” on the US version, releasing this in October ’81, three months before the pushed-back UK release in January ’82. By then, the Human League’s Dare – an album programmed and produced by Rushent immediately after Homosapien, using the same machines – had already topped the charts, giving the impression that Shelley’s effort was somehow inferior or lacked that elusive X factor.

In their arrangement, the way they burst into life, Shelley’s “Qu’est-ce Que C’est Que Ça” and “Yesterday’s Not Here” could be demos for Dare. Equally fruitful for Rushent was his prescient decision to cut and splice certain tracks to create extended mixes for the club. The dub of “Witness The Change”/“I Don’t Know What Love Is”, at once tough, hallucinogenic and tuneful, has been a Balearic banger for decades – a portal to Shelley for those who’d never bothered with Buzzcocks. From XL-1, the masterful funk flex of “Many A Time” and a 13-minute album megamix teem with ideas Rushent deployed on his widescreen revamp of Dare for the League Unlimited Orchestra’s Love And Dancing LP the year before.

Released in May ’83, XL-1 was shaped by the same machines but had more human involvement (Barry Adamson joined on bass and “ideas”, Genetic’s session player Jim Russell drummed) and was carried, like Homosapien, by its opening track, in this case “Telephone Operator”. The sole remaining unrecorded original song from Shelley’s Jets Of Air days – YouTube footage shows them playing it in 1973 – it became another cult club hit, but the album’s lack of traction could come down to the fact that as a leading man, Shelley’s coy, happy-go-lucky demeanour didn’t command the same attention as characters like Boy George, Kevin Rowland or George Michael

Suitably for Shelley, XL-1 is a mixed-up affair (not helped, perhaps, by the revelation in Adamson’s autobiography that he came on to Shelley during the sessions). There are beautifully restrained songs (“Twilight”, “What Was Heaven”), sprightly cuts that sound like Buzzcocks (“You Know Better Than I Know”, “XL1”) and head-spinning electro-funk (“Many A Time”, “If You Ask Me (I Won’t Say No)”). It also came with its own ZX Spectrum program so that computer users could experience the album onscreen as a kind of 8-bit karaoke, which gives you a sense of Shelley’s enthusiasm for technology. This program was designed by Shelley’s longtime pal Joey Headen who would go on to work on video games in the US, including Call Of Duty and a Pac-Man reboot.

Taken together, Homosapien and XL-1 paint a portrait of a young man in the full bloom of life, creating and coming of age on his own terms, with little regard to how it might be perceived. It wouldn’t last, of course, and a few years later Shelley’s next album, the Stephen Hague-produced Heaven And The Sea, fared even worse than XL-1. These Domino reissues – available on vinyl for the first time since their original release – arrive just six years after the two albums were included in Shelley’s The Genetic Years boxset. Both also feature all the dub mixes and extra tracks, and there are no new or unreleased surprises here. But this is more than enough to reflect again on the genius of Shelley, whose hot streak from 1977 to ’83 is still underappreciated. These reissues should go some way to setting that record straight – though straight was never the right word for Shelley.

David Byrne announces new album, Who Is The Sky?

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Talking Heads fans were left disappointed last week when (admittedly very spurious) rumours of a reunion turned out to herald nothing more than a new video for “Psycho Killer”.

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But there is a silver lining. Today, David Byrne has unveiled details of his first solo album since 2018’s American Utopia.

Who Is The Sky? will be released by Matador on September 5, and you can watch a video for lead-off single “Everybody Laughs” below:

“Everybody lives, dies, laughs, cries, sleeps and stares at the ceiling,” says Byrne. “Everybody’s wearing everybody else’s shoes, which not everybody does, but I have done. I tried to sing about these things that could be seen as negative in a way balanced by an uplifting feeling from the groove and the melody, especially at the end… Music can do that – hold opposites simultaneously. I realised that when singing with Robyn earlier this year. Her songs are often sad, but the music is joyous.”

The album was produced by Kid Harpoon and arranged by the members of New York-based chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra. It features guest appearances from St Vincent, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, The Smile drummer Tom Skinner and American Utopia percussionist Mauro Refosco.

Peruse the tracklisting for Who Is The Sky? below and pre-order the album on various formats here, including a limited cantaloupe orange / strawberry pink vinyl featuring a lenticular cover.

  1. Everybody Laughs
  2. When We Are Singing
  3. My Apartment Is My Friend
  4. A Door Called No
  5. What Is the Reason for It?
  6. I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party
  7. Don’t Be Like That
  8. The Avant Garde
  9. Moisturizing Thing
  10. I’m an Outsider
  11. She Explains Things to Me
  12. The Truth

Byrne will also return to the road with a brand new live show in support of Who Is The Sky? The touring band will comprise 13 musicians, singers and dancers, all of whom will be mobile throughout the set. See the UK/Ireland dates below. Tickets go on sale on Friday (June 13) from here; sign up for the artist pre-sale here.

03/03/2026 – London, UK – Eventim Apollo
03/04/2026 – London, UK – Eventim Apollo
03/06/2026 – Glasgow, UK – SEC Armadillo
03/07/2026 – Glasgow, UK – SEC Armadillo
03/09/2026 – Manchester, UK – o2 Apollo
03/10/2026 – Manchester, UK – o2 Apollo
03/13/2026 – Dublin, Ireland – 3Arena
03/15/2026 – London, UK – Eventim Apollo

Galaxie 500 to release live album, CBGB 12.13.88

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Galaxie 500 have announced details of a live album, CBGB 12.13.88, which is released by Silver Current Records on August 8. Pre-order a copy here.

Galaxie 500 have announced details of a live album, CBGB 12.13.88, which is released by Silver Current Records on August 8. Pre-order a copy here.

Scroll down to hear “Tugboat” and “Parking Lot” from the album.

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The show at New York’s CBGB‘s marked the end of a busy year for the band, who’d released their debut album Today in February. Billed alongside Sonic Youth, B.A.L.L. and Unsane, the CBGB’s show was a benefit for the celebrated East Village ‘zine shop, See Hear.

Much bootlegged, the recording – captured by the band’s producer Kramer and now restored from the analog source by Alan Douches at West West Side Music – is now officially available for the first time on LP, CD, cassette and digital.

Last year, Galaxie 500 released Uncollected Noise New York ’88-’90 on Silver Current.

Tracklisting for CBGB 12.13.88 is:

Tugboat
Oblivious
Parking Lot
Don’t Let Our Youth Go To Waste
Pictures
Flowers
It’s Getting Late
Temperature’s Rising

Send us your questions for Roy Harper!

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Over the course of 22 studio albums, countless tours and several key collaborations, Roy Harper has proved himself to be of these islands’ finest ever singer-songwriters, renowned for his inventive acoustic guitar-playing, vivid lyrical imagery and refusal to play the industry game. As a result, he’s been cited as a major inspiration by artists as diverse as Led Zeppelin, Kate Bush, Johnny Marr and Joanna Newsom.

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Later this month he’ll headline the Acoustic Stage at Glastonbury before embarking on The Final Tour: Part 2 in the autumn, accompanied by his son Nick Harper (dates and ticket info here).

But first up, he’s kindly submitted to a gentle grilling from you, the Uncut readers. So what do you want to ask a British folk-rock titan? Send your questions to audiencewith@uncut.co.uk by Monday (June 16) and Roy will answer the best ones in the next issue of Uncut.

Tributes paid to Sly Stone

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Sly Stone has died aged 82, from chronic pulmonary disease.

Sly Stone has died aged 82, from chronic pulmonary disease.

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In a post on his official website his family wrote, “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved dad, Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone. After a prolonged battle with COPD and other underlying health issues, Sly passed away peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his closest friend, and his extended family. While we mourn his absence, we take solace in knowing that his extraordinary musical legacy will continue to resonate and inspire for generations to come.

“Sly was a monumental figure, a groundbreaking innovator, and a true pioneer who redefined the landscape of pop, funk, and rock music. His iconic songs have left an indelible mark on the world, and his influence remains undeniable. In a testament to his enduring creative spirit, Sly recently completed the screenplay for his life story, a project we are eager to share with the world in due course, which follows a memoir published in 2024.

“We extend our deepest gratitude for the outpouring of love and prayers during this difficult time. We wish peace and harmony to all who were touched by Sly’s life and his iconic music.

“Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your unwavering support.”

Multiple tributes have since been paid by fellow musicians, including Questlove, who directed the documentary Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius). Writing on his Instagram account, The Roots drummer said:

“Sly was a giant — not just for his groundbreaking work with the Family Stone, but for the radical inclusivity and deep human truths he poured into every note,” he began. “His songs weren’t just about fighting injustice; they were about transforming the self to transform the world. He dared to be simple in the most complex ways — using childlike joy, wordless cries, and nursery rhyme cadences to express adult truths.

“All of you disciples will be geeked to receive you.”

Also on Instagram, Chaka Khan called Stone “a true innovator and pioneer of funk who reshaped music and culture”. “His work with Sly & the Family Stone broke barriers – bringing together races, genders, and genres with bold sound and unapologetic joy,” she added.

Other tributes came from The WaterboysMike Scott: “Travel on well SLY STONE 1943-2025, singer, songwriter, musical director, producer, frontman, funkster, pioneer, genius. Thankyou for all the inspiration, for breaking ground so others could follow and for being the sassiest, funkiest Being on planet earth.”

Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts – Talkin To The Trees

WHEN Neil Young cut short last summer’s tour with Crazy Horse – owing, it later transpired, to exhaustion – you could have been forgiven for thinking that one of music’s most restless and hyper-productive artists would finally be forced to slow down. As if. Just a few months later, Young unveiled the Chrome Hearts, a new band who perhaps coincidentally share the same initials as their illustrious forebears. Ostensibly pulled together to honour existing commitments at last autumn’s Farm Aid 2024 and Harvest Moon Gathering benefit, the Chrome Hearts have since become Young’s latest creative allies – rescuing him from a period of writer’s block to produce Talkin To The Trees and, soon, his first world tour for six years.

WHEN Neil Young cut short last summer’s tour with Crazy Horse – owing, it later transpired, to exhaustion – you could have been forgiven for thinking that one of music’s most restless and hyper-productive artists would finally be forced to slow down. As if. Just a few months later, Young unveiled the Chrome Hearts, a new band who perhaps coincidentally share the same initials as their illustrious forebears. Ostensibly pulled together to honour existing commitments at last autumn’s Farm Aid 2024 and Harvest Moon Gathering benefit, the Chrome Hearts have since become Young’s latest creative allies – rescuing him from a period of writer’s block to produce Talkin To The Trees and, soon, his first world tour for six years.

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‘New’ band? Well, the Chrome Hearts comprise guitarist Micah Nelson, organist Spooner Oldham, bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony LoGerfo. Oldham, of course, is a veteran of Young’s bands, whose credits include (tellingly, as we shall discover) the Stray Gators lineup who recorded Harvest Moon. As members of Promise Of The Real, meanwhile, Nelson, McCormick and LoGerfo are relative newcomers, having backed Young on 2015’s The Monsanto Years, 2016’s Earth and 2017’s The Visitor.

Those three POTR collaborations were released on the cusp of Donald Trump’s first presidency; Talkin To The Trees arrives early in Trump’s second. The first two tracks released presented Young in full combat mode: “Big Change”, released days before Trump was sworn in as president for the second time, now resembles nothing less than a grim prophesy, howled over banks of roaring guitars; “Let’s Roll Again”, an electric vehicle anthem modelled on Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”, found Young taking aim at Elon Musk: “If you’re a fascist, then get a Tesla”. Further, Young’s recent activities included an appearance at Bernie Sanders’ Anti-Oligarchy LA rally in April, suggesting that this might be one of his pointedly political records.

As it transpires, Talkin To The Trees finds Young largely preoccupied with matters closer to home. “Family Life” begins as an open-hearted acoustic address to his children – until a jarring reference to his grandchildren, “who I can’t see”. He follows this with “Dark Mirage”, a glowering ball of knotted noise, which heavily implies a falling out with his daughter Amber Jean, following the death of her mother Pegi Young in 2019: “Well, I lost my little girl now / To the darkness inside / Her mama is gone now / And there’s nowhere to hide”.

The mood shifts with “First Fire Of Winter”, a hymn to domestic happiness in Colorado with Daryl Hannah and the first of three gorgeous country tracks on the album. Modelled on “Helpless” – to quote Young himself: “It’s all one song,” right? – its rolling, graceful shuffle is cushioned by soothing harmonica notes and gliding pedal steel. His voice sounds terrific, incidentally: warm and mellow. Never one to miss a trick, Young returns to “This Land Is Your Land” for “Silver Eagle”, a love letter to his tourbus, seen recently in Hannah’s on-the-road documentary Coastal, before the rackety two-fingered two-fer of “Let’s Roll Again” and “Big Change”.

Abruptly, the discordance stops with “Talkin To The Trees”, delivered in a kind of hushed wonder about an arboreal amorata glimpsed by Young, while waiting in line at the farmers’ market, “standing there looking for the breeze”. A reference to “Bob” and “all the songs he was singing / All that time he was wanting to say hello” feels like a big moment for the Rusty/Bobcat crossover fanbase. Slightly underused up until now, Spooner Oldham provides a beautiful organ accompaniment to Young’s acoustic reverie.

Oldham shines further on the next two tracks, which are like nothing else in Young’s catalogue. “Movin Ahead” has the cock-eyed rhythms of a Tom Waits song, with Young yelping in full street preacher mode over Oldham’s stabbing organ, Nelson’s jerky guitar riffs and LoGerfo’s clattering percussion.

By contrast, “Bottle Of Love” is faintly amorphous, a jazz-flecked track complete with a vibraphone. “All your tears are saved in a bottle of love”, Young sings at the top end of his range, his voice wavering during the chorus. The album ambles amiably towards its end with “Thankful”, a close cousin to “Harvest Moon”, where Young takes stock: “I’ve been piling on the years / Full of laughter, sometimes tears”.

As “Thankful” fades away in a bucolic glow, how should we understand Talkin To The Trees at this point in Young’s career? Is it a means for him to communicate with those closest to him – and perhaps find some deeper understanding of his personal situation along the way? Is this Young, who turns 80 later this year, giving us his last hurrah? Or is this simply Young doing what he wants right now, with something else coming round the corner? As Young told Uncut in 2012, “You can’t worry about what people think. I never do. I never did, really.”

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Watch Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney cover The Beatles

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Bruce Springsteen was joined by Paul McCartney at Liverpool's Anfield stadium on Saturday [June 7], as part of Springsteen's Land of Hope and Dreams tour.

Bruce Springsteen was joined by Paul McCartney at Liverpool’s Anfield stadium on Saturday [June 7], as part of Springsteen’s Land of Hope and Dreams tour.

The pair performed The Beatles‘ “Can’t Buy Me Love” and the Leiber-Stoller song “Kansas City“, which they recorded for Beatles for Sale.

You can watch the footage below.

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It’s not the first time Springsteen and McCartney have appeared together onstage. McCartney joined Springsteen and The E Street Band in 2012 at London’s Hyde Park to play “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Twist And Shout” – but the PA was switched off as the show had run over curfew.

Springsteen performed with Paul McCartney at Glastonbury in 2022.

Sly & The Family Stone preview ‘unearthed’ 1967 live album

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A rare live recording of Sly & The Family Stone, The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967, is being released on Friday, July 18 on CD, LP and as a digital download.

A rare live recording of Sly & The Family Stone, The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967, is being released on Friday, July 18 on CD, LP and as a digital download.

You can hear “I Gotta Go Now / Funky Broadway” from the album below.

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The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967 is the earliest live recording of the original Family Stone line-up, a full year before their chart breakthrough with “Dance To The Music”.

Sly & The Family Stone served as the house band at Redwood City, CA’s Winchester Cathedral from December 16, 1966, to April 28, 1967.

The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967 was recorded in the early hours of March 26, 1967, by Sly & The Family Stone’s first manager, Rich Romanello.

After signing to Epic Records later that year, Romanello put the 7-inch analog tapes into storage where they sat for thirty-five years. The reels were rediscovered in 2002 by Sly & The Family Stone archivists Edwin and Arno Konings and restored by co-producer Alec Palao for release.

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Cate Le Bon announces new album, Michelangelo Dying

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Cate Le Bon returns with a new studio album, Michelangelo Dying, which is released by Mexican Summer on September 26.

Cate Le Bon returns with a new studio album, Michelangelo Dying, which is released by Mexican Summer on September 26.

You can hear “Heaven is no feeling” below.

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The tracklisting for Michelangelo Dying is:

Jerome
Love Unrehearsed
Mothers of Riches
Is It Worth It (Happy Birthday)?
Pieces of My Heart
About Time
Heaven Is No Feeling
Body As A River
Ride
(feat. John Cale)
I Know What’s Nice 

Cate Le Bon will also tour the album….

Thursday, October 9 – Cardiff, UK @ Llais, Wales Millennium Centre
Friday, October 10 – Manchester, UK @ New Century 
Saturday, October 11 – Leeds, UK @ Howard Assembly Rooms 
Monday, October 13 – Glasgow, UK @ St. Luke’s 
Tuesday, October 14 – York, UK @ The Crescent 
Wednesday, October 15 – Gateshead, UK @ Glasshouse 
Friday, October 17 – Brighton, UK @ Chalk 
Thursday, November 6 – Madrid, ES @ Mon
Friday, November 7 – Barcelona, ES @ Paral·lel 62 
Sunday, November 9 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique 
Monday, November 10 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg 
Wednesday, November 12 -Berlin, DE @ Säälchen 
Thursday, November 13 – Hamburg, DE @ Nochtspeicher 
Friday, November 14 – Cologne, DE @ Gebäude 9 
Sunday, November 16 – Paris, FR @ Cabaret Sauvage 
Tuesday, November 18 – London, UK @ Barbican 
Monday, January 12 – Washington, DC @ The Howard Theatre
Tuesday, January 13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer 
Thursday, January 15 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
Friday, January 16 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
Saturday, January 17 – Hudson, NY @ Basilica Hudson
Monday, January 19 – Montréal, QC @ Le National 
Tuesday, January 20 – Toronto, ON @ The Great Hall 
Thursday, January 22 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall 
Friday, January 23 – Milwaukee, WI @ Vivarium 
Saturday, January 24 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line 
Tuesday, January 27 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
Wednesday, January 28 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
Friday, January 30 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore 
Saturday, January 31 – Los Angeles, CA @The Belasco

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Rock It From The Tombs

As Queens Of The Stone Age release a new stripped-down concert film, Josh Homme recounts his “near-life experience” in the Paris catacombs...

As Queens Of The Stone Age release a new stripped-down concert film, Josh Homme recounts his “near-life experience” in the Paris catacombs…

“About 18 years ago, I was trying to go to the catacombs on a day off in Paris, and the line was three hours long. So the un-humble beginnings [of this performance] was like, ‘How do we cut this line?’ Perhaps the greatest gift of playing in a band is that it gives us access to such incredible locations and situations. There’s no end to the juicy stories about the catacombs. There’s been talk of secret meetings and late night raves, but we’re the first people to legally play there. It feels really good for me to do something legal!

THE JULY 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING NICK DRAKE, A 15-TRACK NEW MUSIC CD, THE WHO, BLACK SABBATH, BRIAN ENO, MATT BERNINGER, PULP, BOB WEIR AND MORE

“The catacombs is the star of the show, so all the decisions we made were about respecting the space. First of all, you can’t plug anything in – we had an electric piano that was hooked to a car battery. The floors were wet in some areas, like you were in this living, breathing thing. It felt like we’re not supposed to roll out the hits, we’re not supposed to play loud.

“The origin story of most of our songs starts by sitting on the edge of the bed, playing acoustic guitar. If something works there, it works everywhere. But I feel that [in this setting] these songs really change their heaviness, they change their intensity. When things are stripped away, lyrics step forward, emotions run much hotter and higher. I’ve always felt that we’re a band that had a lot of emotion on its sleeve, but somehow we’re not as known for our softer side as maybe we should be.

“I could not have enjoyed it more, even though I was in a very tough situation personally. I’ve played with all manner of injuries before, but this was different. I ended up in the hospital in Rome, and by the time I got to Paris, I played with a 102.8 temperature. I couldn’t quite shake it, no matter what medicines they were trying to give me. But if I’m being honest, it actually felt like a gift to feel so terrible, because I got to show what I’m actually capable of.

“I had a cot in there because I needed to lay down between takes. We broke for lunch, but it’s about 130 steps up a spiral staircase so I said, ‘I’m gonna stay down here’. It was just me and six million dead, but I never felt so welcome in my life. The next day I was being emergency-flown to Los Angeles, and three hours after landing I was under the knife. But there’s something about being hit with the kitchen sink that I just love. I’m not interested in dying, but the view from there is fucking amazing. So it was more like a near-life experience than a near-death experience. I think what we ended up with is something as real as it gets.”

The 5th New Music Playlist Of 2025

A lot to dig into here, as usual. The return of Big Thief and Cate Le Bon are both pretty big deals in our world, but there's an unexpected treat from Pavement (which reminded me of an old office conversation about favourite covers of "Whitchitai-To"; I think the Supremes version won...), the Al Jardine x Neil Young hook up, ambient Americana from the Barry Walker Unit, psych jams from Bitch Magnet offshoot We Contain Multitudes... plus more from Uncut office favourites including S.G. Goodman, Case Oats and Eve Adams.

A lot to dig into here, as usual. The return of Big Thief and Cate Le Bon are both pretty big deals in our world, but there’s an unexpected treat from Pavement (which reminded me of an old office conversation about favourite covers of “Whitchitai-To“; I think the Supremes version won…), the Al Jardine x Neil Young hook up, ambient Americana from the Barry Walker Unit, psych jams from Bitch Magnet offshoot We Contain Multitudes… plus more from Uncut office favourites including S.G. Goodman, Case Oats and Eve Adams.

THE JULY 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING NICK DRAKE, A 15-TRACK NEW MUSIC CD, THE WHO, BLACK SABBATH, BRIAN ENO, MATT BERNINGER, PULP, BOB WEIR AND MORE

BIG THIEF
“Incomprehensible”

PAVEMENT
“Whitchitai-To”

CASE OATS
“Bitter Root Lake”

AL JARDINE
“My Plane Leaves Tomorrow (Au Revoir)”

CATE LE BON
“Heaven Is No Feeling”

THOM YORKE
“Dialing In”

BARRY WALKER UNIT
“High In The Hummocks”

MARISSA NADLER
“New Radiations”

EVE ADAMS
“Nowhere Now”

SUPERCHUNK
“Is It Making You Feel Something”

DRUGDEALER + WEYES BLOOD
“Real Thing”

CHAMELEONS
“Saviours Are A Dangerous Thing”

NILÜFER YANYA
“Where To Look”

PATTY GRIFFIN
“Back At The Start”

WE CONTAIN MULTITUDES
“Atkins”

S.G. GOODMAN
“Michael Told Me”