I suspect I wasn’t the only one who, last night, came out of the World Cup rabbit hole to discover that Gerry Goffin had died. As has become a slightly weird but nonetheless heartfelt tradition – a public display of mourning and taste, I suppose – I posted a favourite song onto Twitter: the Byrds’ version of “Goin’ Back”.
OK, I’ve managed to remember 143 albums that came out this year and that I liked. As in previous years, I didn’t see much point in hacking my list down to a Top 100, or Top 50, or whatever. While it’d be a stretch to claim every one is an imperishable classic, I do feel broadly confident recommending them all.
Moving swiftly through another craven plug for our Neil Young Ultimate Music Guide, a mostly decent list this week, with a few strong new entries from Rosanne Cash, Africa Express, Matt Baldwin, and Thee Oh Sees, plus a welcome expanded reissue from Hiss Golden Messenger.
A couple of days late this week, thanks to an epic proofreading job on the next Uncut Ultimate Music Guide; this one’s on the subject of Depeche Mode, and will be in UK shops on the last day of July.
Before we get onto the list, a big thank you to everyone who engaged with the Mumfords/class/hate/Glastonbury 2013/Stones/etc blog yesterday, and a quick plug for the new issue of Uncut, out tomorrow in the UK (Alongside all the marquee stuff, I’ve written a piece about the new Tropicalia doc). As for this week’s new music, I suspect a few of you might be interested in Number Two…
