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Noel Gallagher announces new album Council Skies, shares single “Easy Now”

Tom Skinner
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Noel Gallagher announces new album Council Skies, shares single “Easy Now”

Noel Gallagher has announced a new album called Council Skies – listen to the single "Easy Now" below. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut The former Oasis singer-songwriter is due to release his fourth studio record with the High Flying Birds on June 2 ...

Noel Gallagher has announced a new album called Council Skies – listen to the single “Easy Now” below.

The former Oasis singer-songwriter is due to release his fourth studio record with the High Flying Birds on June 2 via Sour Mash. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.

Following on from 2017’s Who Built The Moon?, the full-length project sees Gallagher reclaiming his past and paying homage to his Mancunian roots. Council Skies is described as the musician’s “most varied and accomplished solo record to date”.

“It’s going back to the beginning. Daydreaming, looking up at the sky and wondering about what life could be … that’s as true to me now as it was in the early ’90s,” Gallagher explained of the upcoming album.

“When I was growing up in poverty and unemployment, music took me out of that. Top Of The Pops on TV transformed your Thursday night into this fantasy world, and that’s what I think music should be. I want my music to be elevating and transforming in some way.”

Gallagher has previewed the LP with the psychedelia-inspired single “Easy Now”, which is accompanied by a Colin Solal Cardo-directed official video. Milly Alcock (House Of The Dragon) stars in the visuals, while Gallagher makes a cameo appearance. Tune in above.

Council Skies was recorded at the singer’s own Lone Star Sound Recording Studios in London, while its string parts were recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studio.

Produced by Gallagher with long-time collaborator Paul ‘Strangeboy’ Stacey, the album also features performances from Johnny Marr on three tracks, including recent single ‘Pretty Boy’.

Additionally, the deluxe edition of Council Skies boasts remixes by The Cure frontman Robert Smith (“Pretty Boy”), Pet Shop Boys (“Think Of A Number”) as well as various live recordings and instrumentals.

Gallagher teased his new era last week by sharing a behind-the-scenes video on social media.

He previously said that his next solo album would have a largely “orchestral” sound. “There is a track on the album called “Dead To The World”, which is one of the best songs I have ever written,” Gallagher explained.

Other songs set to feature on Council Skies include “I’m Not Giving Up Tonight”, “Trying To Find A World That’s Been And Gone” and “Love Is A Rich Man”. Check out the full tracklist and cover artwork below.

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds 'Council Skies' official album artwork
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – ‘Council Skies’ official cover artwork. CREDIT: Press

1. “I’m Not Giving Up Tonight”
2. “Pretty Boy”
3. “Dead To The World”
4. “Open The Door, See What You Find”
5. “Trying To Find A World That’s Been And Gone”
6. “Easy Now”
7. “Council Skies”
8. “There She Blows!”
9. “Love Is A Rich Man”
10. “Think Of A Number”
11. “We’re Gonna Get There In The End” (bonus track)

Deluxe album – disc two

1. “Don’t Stop…”
2. “We’re Gonna Get There In The End”
3. “Mind Games”
4. “Pretty Boy” (Instrumental)
5. “Dead To The World” (Instrumental)
6. “Council Skies” (Instrumental)
7. “Think Of A Number” (Instrumental)
8. “I’m Not Giving Up Tonight” (David Holmes Remix)
9. “Think Of A Number” (Pet Shop Boys Magic Eye 12” Remix)
10. “Pretty Boy” (Robert Smith Remix)
11. “Council Skies” (The Reflex Revision)
12. “Flying On The Ground” (Radio 2 Session, 08.09.21)
13. “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” (Radio 2 Session, 08.09.21)
14. “Live Forever” (Radio 2 Session, 08.09.21)

Gallagher is scheduled to play several outdoor headline gigs this summer in support of Council Skies with a variety of support acts, including Feeder, Goldie Lookin Chain, The Zutons, Tom Meighan, Primal Scream and Future Islands. You can see the full itinerary below and purchase tickets here.

JULY
21 – PennFest, Buckinghamshire
28 – London, Crystal Palace Bowl

AUGUST
5 – Essex, Audley End House and Gardens (with The Zutons and Tom Meighan)
19 – Monmouth, Caldicot Castle (with Feeder and Goldie Lookin’ Chain)
20 – Hardwick Festival, Sedgefield, Country Durham
26 – Manchester, Wythenshawe Park (with Primal Scream and Future Islands)

Introducing the Ultimate Music Guide to Elvis Presley

John Robinson
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Introducing the Ultimate Music Guide to Elvis Presley

BUY THE ELVIS PRESLEY DELUXE ULTIMATE MUSIC GUIDE HERE When Elvis died in 1977 it was big news all round the world – with the notable exception of my primary school. During a morning assembly in the new school year, my headteacher addressed a hall of cross-legged children with the solemn news t...

BUY THE ELVIS PRESLEY DELUXE ULTIMATE MUSIC GUIDE HERE

When Elvis died in 1977 it was big news all round the world – with the notable exception of my primary school. During a morning assembly in the new school year, my headteacher addressed a hall of cross-legged children with the solemn news that a very famous singer had recently died. “Does anyone know who that was?” she asked. We, all only familiar the recent TV news coverage about Elvis, thought the question was probably rhetorical.

“That’s right,” she said. “I’m talking about Bing Crosby.”

John Lennon famously said that before Elvis there was nothing, but that wasn’t strictly the case. As you’ll read in this latest Ultimate Music Guide, there was a whole previous generation of pop singers, and Bing – so beloved on my headteacher – was the guy routinely quizzed about Elvis’s rise. What did he think? Would it last? Bing – not engaging with the rock revolution per se – observed that perhaps Elvis would do well to try some different styles of song. Good advice, as it turned out.

Bing wasn’t the only one to help the writers of NME and Melody Maker register the impact of this new singer, and his new sound. Among the manufactured rivalries (“Elvis v Pat Boone”; “Elvis v Johnnie Ray” “No Presley without Haley”) created at the time by a British press struggling for information in an enormous world, Johnnie Ray makes the wise observation that Elvis is a force helping to make the world smaller. Such is the demand for Elvis’s music, Ray notes, his records are being released at the same time in the USA and England.

The NME isn’t slow to pick up on the fact that Elvis isn’t just a singer, but a force which portends far more. He has “swarthy good looks” and “sex appeal”, and it’s this which gives him the power to unsettle parents. And in so doing, they imply, sow the seeds for something remarkable and generational to follow.

What comes next for Elvis, and for the world, you can read in this comprehensive guide, in a selection of gems from our archive of historic Elvis writing. We’ve also done what you might have thought impossible: we’ve mase sense of Elvis’s many hundreds of recordings, finding our way through a baffling profusion of budget compilations, indifferent film soundtracks and outtakes to bring you a definitive guide to the absolute pick of Elvis’s extraordinary catalogue. The landmark early sessions. The religious ones. The decent film soundtracks. The comeback records and the late classics. You’ll find it all inside.

Whether it’s through the music, or a fantastic new film like Baz Luhrmann’s current biopic, new people are always having their heads turned by Elvis. Hopefully we can help you navigate your way through his kingdom.

Enjoy the issue.

Buy a copy of the magazine here. Missed one in the series? Bundles are available at the same location…

Elvis Presley – Ultimate Music Guide

Uncut
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Elvis Presley – Ultimate Music Guide

Joining celebrations for what would have been his 88th birthday (and with his new biopic nominated at the 2023 Oscars), we present the Ultimate Music Guide to Elvis Presley. Telling the story of how Elvis became The King – and finding a way through all the records, to bring you a guide to his very...

Joining celebrations for what would have been his 88th birthday (and with his new biopic nominated at the 2023 Oscars), we present the Ultimate Music Guide to Elvis Presley. Telling the story of how Elvis became The King – and finding a way through all the records, to bring you a guide to his very best music. “Because I love you too much, baby…”

Buy a copy of the magazine here. Missed one in the series? Bundles are available at the same location…

50 years of AC/DC – It’s a long way to the top

John Robinson
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50 years of AC/DC – It’s a long way to the top

IT’S A LONG WAY TO THE TOP …if you want to be the biggest hard rock band in the world. With AC/DC on the point of their 50th anniversary, Uncut charts their first steps. You join us in Sydney, Australia, where a major 1960s pop star is signing up new talent: including his younger brothers. From ...

IT’S A LONG WAY TO THE TOP …if you want to be the biggest hard rock band in the world. With AC/DC on the point of their 50th anniversary, Uncut charts their first steps. You join us in Sydney, Australia, where a major 1960s pop star is signing up new talent: including his younger brothers. From their dabblings in glam, to their first classic lineup, we learn how AC/DC’s audaciously simple sound was hewn from the rock, and their true leader emerged. “Malcolm had no ego,” one former member tells John Robinson. “He knew what he wanted. He wanted a great band,” in the latest issue of Uncut magazine – in UK shops from Thursday, January 12 and available to buy from our online store.

The photographs suggest he’s wearing a surgical gown and a top hat, but the drummer claims to have been in costume as a jester. The bass player has on a crash helmet, for he has come as a motorcycle cop. One of the guitarists is jump-suited and platform-booted.

Most strikingly, the lead guitarist is wearing a liberal interpretation of a school uniform, which has been made by his sister from velvet. It might not all sound like much, considering the cannons, bells and airborne women of their stage presentations since, but this – in April 1974, a support gig, staged on a swimming pool roof – is the first breakthrough moment in the history of AC/DC.

“We looked so colourful,” remembers Dave Evans (red striped jacket, cropped vest top), singer in the band’s original lineup. “At that time Australia was still in the hippy hangover, tie-dyed shirts and beards and so on. George Young, who was our producer, had a mind for what was going on in England and he had seen Slade. We had a big show coming up, and he asked us to have outfits made.”

So you embraced glam rock?

“Fuck off!” says Dave, down the line from the home of his Argentinian promoter. “No-one called it ‘glam’. It was a new and contemporary look. They wanted us to look modern, and like a British band. People wore those clothes when they went out on a Friday and Saturday night.”

This contrasted with the headline act for the event in Sydney’s Victoria Park: Flake. “We were a jeans band,” says Robert Bailey, Flake’s bass player. “Angus and Malcolm were in costume. The drummer was dressed like a wizard, the bass player like a biker. They were into that kind of thing: Gary Glitter, Marc Bolan, all that sort of stuff was rating well in Australia.”

As Dave Evans recalls it, the effect of AC/DC’s changed appearance was instantaneous. The band had been playing live since the start of 1974 and those among their following who made it to the park’s natural amphitheatre were impressed with AC/DC’s vibrant appearance. The real change, however, was in their lead guitarist.

“Something transformed in him,” says Dave. “Dressed as a schoolboy he wasn’t Angus Young any more; he was a character. He ripped it up! He ran across the stage, rolled on his back. We were looking at him, like “What?” All of a sudden he had an alter ego. The schoolboy outfit was the catalyst.”

PICK UP THE NEW ISSUE OF UNCUT TO READ THE FULL STORY

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ Hanging Rock gig shared as Kingdom In The Sky documentary

Will Richards
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Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ Hanging Rock gig shared as Kingdom In The Sky documentary

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have shared footage of their recent gig at the iconic Hanging Rock as a TV special – watch Kingdom In The Sky below. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut The pair played the legendary venue as part of their 2022 Australian tour ...

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have shared footage of their recent gig at the iconic Hanging Rock as a TV special – watch Kingdom In The Sky below.

The pair played the legendary venue as part of their 2022 Australian tour behind collaborative album Carnage.

Now, it has been immortalised in a TV special from ABC, which features a host of tracks from the performance as well as interview snippets with fans discussing their relationship to Cave and Ellis’ music.

Watch Kingdom In The Sky below.

As promised by Cave, after the Australian tour he began work on a new album with the Bad Seeds, sharing some early lyric ideas with fans last week.

Last year, Cave said he was planning on writing a new album once his touring commitments had wrapped up, and last week confirmed that the album-writing process is underway.

Responding to a question from Fred about his plans for 2023, Cave wrote on his blog, The Red Hand Files: “My plan for this year is to make a new record with the Bad Seeds. This is both good news and bad news. Good news because who doesn’t want a new Bad Seeds record? Bad news because I’ve got to write the bloody thing.”

He went on to reveal the he started the process at 9am on New Year’s Day. “It is now January 6. Nearly a week has passed and I’ve written a few things but they aren’t very good, or maybe they are, it’s difficult to tell,” he said.

Nick Cave’s last album with The Bad Seeds, Ghosteen, came out in 2019.

Yellow Magic Orchestra drummer Yukihiro Takahashi has died, aged 70

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Yellow Magic Orchestra drummer Yukihiro Takahashi has died, aged 70

Yellow Magic Orchestra drummer Yukihiro Takahashi has died, aged 70. The influential musician's death was first reported in The Japan Times following a statement released last week. While a cause of death wasn't shared in the statement, reports from Japanese media outlet Sponichi suggested he ...

Yellow Magic Orchestra drummer Yukihiro Takahashi has died, aged 70.

The influential musician’s death was first reported in The Japan Times following a statement released last week.

While a cause of death wasn’t shared in the statement, reports from Japanese media outlet Sponichi suggested he caught pneumonia in early January, which worsened.

The musician underwent surgery to remove a brain tumour in 2020. He later tweeted that he was expecting to undergo more treatment following his surgery after revealing that he had additional health problems.

Born on June 6 1952, Takahashi took to music from a young age, following the influence of his older brother. He learned how to play the drums by playing with college musicians while still in high school.

By the time he was just 16, Takahashi was already a studio drummer and had started to pick up work both as a drummer in various bands and playing drum parts for television commercials.

His work first rose to prominence in Japan when drumming in Sadistic Mika Band and then later via the release of his 1977 debut album, Saravah!

In 1978, he became one of the founders of Yellow Magic Orchestra and their self-titled debit album cemented Takahashi as one of the best drummers of his era, as well as one of the founders of synthpop.

Their debut album sold over 250,000 copies in Japan and entered both the Billboard 200 and Billboard R&B charts. In the UK, Computer Game/Firecracker entered the Top 20.

The band went on to release seven albums in total and alongside this, Takahashi released an abundance of his own material too, making twenty solo albums in total.

Recently, Takahashi’s solo work was reissued on vinyl. His debut Saravah! was reissued in 2019 via We Want Sounds, and Neuromantic was reissued for the first time in over 40 years in 2021.

He was also a member of the electropop group Metafive, a collective he formed with Keigo Oyamada, Yoshinori Sunahara, Towa Tei, Tomohiko Gondo, and Leo Imai after they worked together as Takahashi’s backing band on his 2014 tour.

Tributes from across the music world have come in for Takahashi.

Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takahashi’s bandmate in Yellow Magic Orchestra, shared a single grey square on social media shortly after the news broke.

The band Sparks wrote: “Saddened to hear about the passing of Yukihiro Takahashi of Yellow Magic Orchestra and beyond. It was an honour to cross paths on occasion throughout the years.”

Erol Alkan tweeted: “RIP…Yukihiro’s version of “Drip Dry Eyes” was a personal obsession of mine over lockdown.”

You can read some more of the many tributes below:

This is a developing story – more to follow

Watch John Cale’s video for new song “Noise Of You”

Will Richards
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Watch John Cale’s video for new song “Noise Of You”

John Cale has shared a brand new song and video from his upcoming solo album Mercy – watch "Noise Of You" below. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: The Velvet Underground review The founding Velvet Underground member will release Mercy, ...

John Cale has shared a brand new song and video from his upcoming solo album Mercy – watch “Noise Of You” below.

The founding Velvet Underground member will release Mercy, his first solo album in a decade, on January 20 via Domino.

“Noise Of You” follows Weyes Blood collaboration “Story Of Blood” in previewing the album, and Cale said of it: “I don’t tend to romanticise the idea of love. It represents ‘need’ and that’s not something I’m particularly comfortable with.

“When it gets ahold of you though – don’t let go – no matter how many times you mess it up!”

Of its official video, director Pepi Ginsberg added: “I was so inspired by John’s relationship to process and collaboration and wanted to mirror his approach to art in this video for “NOISE OF YOU,” which John describes as a love song.

“Setting out to make a ‘moving’ portrait of John, we have mapped images and video of John’s life over his former home of New York City, creating a conversation between past and present, reflecting the way that distant, and sometimes dissonant, voices can reach across divides of space and time to speak their own language of love.”

Watch the “Noise Of You” video below.

The collaboration-heavy new album also features turns from Animal Collective, Fat White Family, Sylvan Esso, Laurel Halo, Tei Shi, Actress and more.

The first preview of Mercy was released back in August in the form of the single “Night Crawling”, which came with an animated video that saw Cale hitting the streets of New York in the 1970s with David Bowie.

The songs are his first new music since his 2020 single “Lazy Day” and his collaboration with Kelly Lee Owens on “Corner Of My Sky”.

A rescheduled UK tour is also set to begin next month. See the dates below:

FEBRUARY 2023
6 – Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall
8 – London, The Palladium
10 – Bexhill-On-The-Sea, De La Warr Pavilion
11 – Birmingham, Town Hall
12 – Cambridge, Corn Exchange

The Strokes share early version of “The Modern Age” from new box set

Damian Jones
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The Strokes share early version of “The Modern Age” from new box set

The Strokes have shared an early version of "The Modern Age" from their forthcoming box set The Singles - Volume 01. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut Entitled "The Modern Age (Rough Trade Version)", this version was first issued on an EP of the same nam...

The Strokes have shared an early version of “The Modern Age” from their forthcoming box set The Singles – Volume 01.

Entitled “The Modern Age (Rough Trade Version)”, this version was first issued on an EP of the same name through Rough Trade in January 2001, six months ahead of the release of their debut album ‘Is This It’. You can listen to it below.

It also opens their new box set which is set to drop on February 24, 2023 via RCA Records/Legacy Recordings.

The collection features every 7 inch single from their debut, 2003 follow-up Room On Fire and 2006’s First Impressions of Earth as well as rare B-sides from the original single releases.

All ten singles will be pressed on black vinyl, with the artwork from each original release replicated in the package. It is available to pre-order here now.

Videos for all ten A-sides, including “Hard To Explain”, “Last Nite”, “Reptilia”, “Juicebox” and “Heart In A Cage”, were also recently released in high definition.

Meanwhile, guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. recently discussed the “magical” experience of working with Rick Rubin on the band’s upcoming new album.

The Strokes’ ‘The Singles – Volume 01’ box set. Image: Colin Lane

The Strokes recently completed a recording session with the legendary producer in the mountains of Costa Rica.

“I don’t think if I told you what it looked like and what it was, you’d fully understand the ‘magical-ness’ of where we were and how it was to record like that,” he said.

“It felt really touching that one of his favourite recording experiences was this one he just had right now.”

Of the band’s future, Hammond added: “I really think what excites me about wanting to play music and continue doing it is, I don’t think we’ve written our best songs yet. I really feel that in my gut.”

The band are set to support Red Hot Chili Peppers for their forthcoming tour of North America which kicks off in March.

The Strokes will also headline Kilby Block Party that same month alongside Pavement, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Pixies. Any remaining tickets can be bought here.

John Fogerty regains ownership of Creedence Clearwater Revival catalogue after 50-year battle

Greta Brereton
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John Fogerty regains ownership of Creedence Clearwater Revival catalogue after 50-year battle

After 50 years of fighting for his songs, John Fogerty has finally regained ownership of Creedence Clearwater Revival's discography. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut As per Billboard (via Variety), founding member Fogerty has bought a majority interest ...

After 50 years of fighting for his songs, John Fogerty has finally regained ownership of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s discography.

As per Billboard (via Variety), founding member Fogerty has bought a majority interest in the global publishing rights to his extensive Creedence Clearwater Revival catalogue from Concord Records.

Concord acquired the band’s discography in 2004 — when they bought out Fantasy Records, owned by the late music and film mogul, Saul Zaentz — and restored CCR royalties to Fogerty in good faith that same year.

The 77-year-old would have soon had some US publishing rights restored to him under a US law that caps copyright on intellectual property at 56 years maximum, however, he and his wife Julie decided to leverage for majority control of worldwide rights too.

Speaking to Billboard about the acquisition, Fogerty said: “The happiest way to look at it is, yeah, it isn’t everything. It’s not a 100% win for me, but it’s sure better than it was. I’m really kind of still in shock. I haven’t allowed my brain to really, actually, start feeling it yet.”

He also took to Twitter on January 12 to share the news, writing: “As of this January, I own my songs again.”

“This is something I thought would never be a possibility,” he said. “After 50 years, I am finally reunited with my songs. I also have a say in where and how my songs are used. Up until this year, that is something I have never been able to do.”

Fogerty, his rhythm guitarist brother Tom, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford started Creedence Clearwater Revival in El Cerrito, California, in 1959. The band released a number of hit singles during their career, including “Proud Mary”, “Fortunate Son”, “Bad Moon Rising”, “Up Around The Bend” and “Have You Ever Seen The Rain”, before disbanding in 1972.

They signed to Zaentz’s Fantasy Records in 1968 under an onerous contract. In 1980, Fogerty chose to relinquish all rights to the band’s music to Zaentz in an effort to get out of it, sparking a long and bitter legal battle between the two.

This included a failed plagiarism lawsuit filed by Zaentz against Fogerty over one of the latter’s own songs that he no longer held rights for, and striking a publishing deal that eventually fell through.

Zaentz funded much of his film production career from Creedence royalties, producing 1975’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, 1984’s Amadeus and 1996’s The English Patient, which all won awards at the Oscars. He died from complications from Alzheimer’s disease in 2014.

H.C. McEntire – Every Acre

Stephen Deusner
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H.C. McEntire – Every Acre

“Shadows”, a standout on H.C. McEntire’s new album, ends with a muted chorus of frogs and crickets and other Carolina wildlife. It’s a stark yet vivid cacophony of natural sounds, which the singer-songwriter recorded near her former home in North Carolina. It arrives like quiet punctuation a...

“Shadows”, a standout on H.C. McEntire’s new album, ends with a muted chorus of frogs and crickets and other Carolina wildlife. It’s a stark yet vivid cacophony of natural sounds, which the singer-songwriter recorded near her former home in North Carolina. It arrives like quiet punctuation at the end of that gently despairing song, the “amen” after a prayer – yet you’d swear you could hear those noises throughout Every Acre, perhaps even on every album she’s ever made. In her solo career and stretching back even to her work with the bands Bellafea and the great Mount Moriah, McEntire has always found inspiration in the Tarheel countryside and in its long musical history: she has turned the state’s forests and hollers and rivers and snakes and deer into songs that pay no attention to the boundary fences between gospel and country and folk and psychedelic rock.

Eclectic and immersive and unabashedly beautiful, Every Acre is the culmination of McEntire’s long collaboration with North Carolina. Every one of these songs includes a line like “cattails catching all the copperheads” or “yield is rich with yellow pine” and “steady picking out bobcat skulls”. She’s in love with these sights, but she also loves the way those words sound, the way “vidalias” falls off a Southern tongue: vih-day-lee-uhs, that last syllable a long and molasses-slow breath. Listening to this album, you get the sense that these songs are specific not just to the Tarheel State, but to those acres on the Eno River, just a few miles from Durham but a world away from any city, where she lived for a decade before relocating last year.

Even as she’s tethered to the terrain around her home, McEntire branches out musically on Every Acre. When Mount Moriah disbanded and she went solo with 2018’s Lionheart, her music was rooted in a muddy strain of country and folk, with clear inspiration from acts like Indigo Girls and Lucinda Williams as well as Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette. On that album and especially on songs like “Baby’s Got The Blues” and “Red Silo”, the music allowed her to evoke her upbringing in the western end of the state, revelling in the details of an outdoor childhood. Her 2019 cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Houses Of The Holy” signalled a shift toward psychedelic rock on 2020’s Eno Axis. (In a wink, though, she recited the lyrics to “Stand By Your Man” during the outro on that cover, as though such disparate songs emanated from the same human urge.)

Every Acre picks up that psych-rock thread, as McEntire gives her band a little more freedom to cut loose. Bassist Casey Toll and drummer Daniel Faust have been playing with her for years, yet they sound more inventive here, rooting “Rows Of Clover” and “Soft Crook” in intricate Crazy Horse rhythms. She and guitarist/co-producer Luke Norton make space for rumbling guitar licks and even a lengthy solo at the end of “Turpentine” (which features backing vocals from Indigo Girl Amy Ray). The droning sitar on “Big Love” evokes a bucolic trippiness, as does the forest ambience that undergirds closer “Gospel Of A Certain Kind”: more wind and rain and another chorus of frogs. At times Every Acre sounds like Pink Floyd if they’d started out in rural Appalachia rather than the UFO Club.

“Dovetail” is a straightforward hymn, complete with churchly piano and a melody that owes as much to 19th-century poet and composer Fanny J Crosby as to North Carolina old-time icon Alice Gerrard. The lyrics conjure a parade of different women and their shared yet often unspoken desires: churchgoing wives who “eat only after they pray” and others, more reckless, who “chase their whiskey with wine”. Toward each and every one of them McEntire displays a landslide of compassion, partly because she sees a little of herself in their cautions and traumas and wants. Every one of these songs is a big-hearted meditation on love and sex and faith and especially healing, as though what roots us to our own lands is loss and grief and recovery.

With its steady gallop and funereal piano, “Rows Of Clover” could be McEntire’s dreamy reimagining of Zeppelin’s “No Quarter”, but it reveals a grieving, sobbing heart, as she buries a “steadfast hound” in the yard: “It ain’t the easy kind of healing”, she declares, “when you’re down on your knees, clawing at the garden”. There’s a similar tragedy, a similar grave, on every acre, and while healing is never easy, it’s the hardship that makes everything so much sweeter.

Whitehorse – I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying

Rob Hughes
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Whitehorse – I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying

Prior to forming Whitehorse in 2010, married couple Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet had each made a string of singer-songwriterly albums that followed all manner of musical directions. Both also had a shared history in Sarah McLachlan’s band, while Doucet was, for a time, leader of Vancouver in...

Prior to forming Whitehorse in 2010, married couple Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet had each made a string of singer-songwriterly albums that followed all manner of musical directions. Both also had a shared history in Sarah McLachlan’s band, while Doucet was, for a time, leader of Vancouver indie-rock types Veal. The varied stylistic elements of their work seemed to find an ideal home in the fluid sensibility of Whitehorse, whose first few releases veered from tape-loop folk to roots-rock to a bluesy kind of cinematic noir.

Eight albums in, Whitehorse now prove themselves masterful exponents of timeless country. I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying is an album that follows a lineage that runs from the likes of George Jones and Melba Montgomery to Emmylou and Gram, from Johnny and June through to My Darling Clementine. Like fellow Canadian Daniel Romano, Whitehorse adopt and transmute genres in a way that feels convincing rather than contrived, as if blessed with a deeper understanding of the art of country dynamics. Harmonies are key here, their voices either blending to aching perfection on heartbreak ballads or else finding urgent motion on rockabilly-ish songs like “Manitoba Bound”, which rattles along at a fair lick.

They also happen to be highly capable players, slipping readily between picked guitar, bottleneck slide and pedal steel. Above all, they’re very fine singers in their own right, interchanging leads throughout. McClelland just about shades it with the wonderful “If The Loneliness Don’t Kill Me” and “The Road”, the latter an expansive hymn to winding curves, motel curtains and flashing neon: “Reading signs / Chasing yellow lines / Tracing fingers over gas station maps”. And while she goes full ’70s Dolly on “Bet The Farm”, Doucet evokes the boozy Bakersfield country of Gram Parsons on the despairing “I Might Get Over This (But I Won’t Stop Loving You)”, its protagonist in the kitchen at last call, surrounded by leftovers and wine. Sometimes playful, sometimes poignant, Whitehorse may have just found their ideal territory.

Curtis Mayfield, Sounds Of The New West Vol 6, Bob Dylan: inside the new Uncut

Michael Bonner
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Curtis Mayfield, Sounds Of The New West Vol 6, Bob Dylan: inside the new Uncut

In August, 2016, I spent the afternoon with Terry Hall in London’s St Pancras Hotel for an Uncut cover story about The Specials’ miraculous comeback. Hall – sharp, dryly humorous – considered how, as the youngest member of the band, he had handled their rise to fame during the late ’70s. ...

In August, 2016, I spent the afternoon with Terry Hall in London’s St Pancras Hotel for an Uncut cover story about The Specials’ miraculous comeback. Hall – sharp, dryly humorous – considered how, as the youngest member of the band, he had handled their rise to fame during the late ’70s.

“It was weird and happened in a very short space of time,” he told me. “Our first retainer was £70 a week or something. It was four times what I had been earning. I just bought sweets, drugs, whatever. It was very hard. It wasn’t for one second in my head to be a success and sell records. It was about being in a band. Then suddenly people start to listen to what you’re saying when nobody’s listened to you – at school, family – before. That’s fantastic, but there is a big cost, mentally. It is weird when you’re treated like shit and then people adore you.”

The death of Hall – just two days before this issue of Uncut went to press – robbed us of one of the great frontmen of the past 40 years – a magnetic, impassive figure who proved to be remarkably resilient outside The Specials, with Fun Boy Three, The Colourfield and in numerous collaborations. But it’s impossible to underscore the influence and legacy of Hall and The Specials – and how that magnificent reunion reasserted their importance in the 21st century. You’ll find a more fulsome tribute from John Lewis in this month’s issue.

Our cover story finds us celebrating another major artist who helped combat discrimination, injustice and inequality in his music: Curtis Mayfield. “He was a history maker, one of the pioneers,” says The Temptations’ Ron Tyson, who wrote with Mayfield in the ’70s. “When you think about what’s going on in the world today, Curtis was writing about these things years ago! He wrote songs with meaning that still mean something today. When you write great songs they live on and on.”

Another artist who continues to write great songs, of course, is Bob Dylan. Damien Love has undertaken a typically forensic deep dive into Dylan’s latest archival treasures – aka Fragments – Time Out Of Mind Sessions: Bootleg Series Vol. 17. There’s also Tom Tom Club, Yo La Tengo, Linda Thompson, Killing Joke and much more.

We’re committed to new music – some of which, we hope, will also enjoy the lengthy afterlife of Mayfield and The Specials. Within these pages, you can read about Spencer Cullum, Sunny War, Mary Elizabeth Remington and many more fresh-faced and exciting discoveries. You can also hear some of these upstarts on this month’s free CD – the sixth volume of our Sounds Of The New West series. After such a lot of work – most notably by Tom and Marc – I’m thrilled and relieved it’s worked out so well.

As ever, let us know what you think.

A look into the pioneering works of Curtis Mayfield

Graeme Thomson
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A look into the pioneering works of Curtis Mayfield

Sixty years on from The Impressions’ pioneering debut album, Uncut salutes the gentle genius of CURTIS MAYFIELD. Friends, family and famous fans join us to celebrate the soul superstar’s finest moments as band leader, solo artist, songwriter, producer, guitarist and label manager. Stand by for m...

Sixty years on from The Impressions’ pioneering debut album, Uncut salutes the gentle genius of CURTIS MAYFIELD. Friends, family and famous fans join us to celebrate the soul superstar’s finest moments as band leader, solo artist, songwriter, producer, guitarist and label manager. Stand by for music filled with righteous anger, spirituality and a profound desire to tell hard truths with depth, empathy and humanity. “It’s one classic after another,” hears Graeme Thomson, in the latest issue of Uncut magazine – in UK shops from Thursday, January 12 and available to buy from our online store.

The Impressions took a while to pick up speed. Having formed in 1958 as Jerry Butler & The Impressions, the vocal group only truly hit their stride in 1962, following Butler’s departure, when their teenage singer, songwriter, guitarist and all-round creative dynamo took the reins. A clutch of classic 45s – “Gypsy Woman”, “I’m So Proud”, “People Get Ready” – announced a talent for the ages. From there, Curtis Mayfield just kept on pushing.

In a career spanning almost four decades, Mayfield made his mark as a uniquely productive, prescient and powerful artist. Creatively, he covered the waterfront. With a sweet, supple voice he imparted unswerving social comment. His songs had both groove and melody; lush arrangements vied with funky jams. He was as comfortable singing love songs as gritty ghetto anthems. He could scold, but rarely failed to uplift. He was brave, too. Following an onstage accident in August 1990 which left him paralysed, he worked tirelessly to produce a courageous swan song.

Ron Tyson of The Temptations wrote with Mayfield in the ’70s. “He was a history maker, one of the pioneers,” he says. “When you think about what’s going on in the world today, Curtis was writing about these things years ago! He wrote songs with meaning that still mean something today. When you write great songs they live on and on.”

It’s 60 years since The Impressions released their self-titled debut album. To commemorate the landmark, Uncut has convened a stellar cast of friends, family, contemporaries, collaborators, co-writers and admirers. Collectively, they lift the curtain on Mayfield’s myriad incarnations: band leader, solo artist, songwriter, producer, guitarist and label manager, not to mention a Rolls-Royce-owning father and mentor who loved a Big Mac – no onions.

“He was a genius,” says Paul Weller, who covered “Move On Up” with The Jam and worked with Mayfield in the ’80s. “A lot of the things he was talking about back then are still relevant now. Racism, inequality, ecology, corporate takeover. I think of him as a prophet, but he’s a beautiful romantic writer as well. He covers the whole spectrum. Those solo records in the early 1970s, it’s just one classic after the other. Curtis, Super Fly, There’s No Place Like America Today. It was a golden run, and a golden time. Even the later albums, there are two or three really great tunes on each one.”

My Morning Jacket have also been known to rip through “Move On Up”. “There’s just so many ways that Curtis makes you feel happy and proud for who you are,” says Jim James. “A lot of his stuff was born in the civil rights movement, he’s talking to black America and letting them know: ‘You’re beautiful, you’re perfect, you need to love yourself.’ That message translates to everybody on Earth. I think his music is going to be useful until
the end of time for helping people get over not only racism and hatred towards others, but hatred toward themselves. He was an angel messenger with so much to share.”

PICK UP THE NEW ISSUE OF UNCUT TO READ THE FULL STORY

Jeff Beck has died, aged 78

Rhian Daly
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Jeff Beck has died, aged 78

Jeff Beck has died suddenly at the age of 78, a statement from his representatives has confirmed. “On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing,” the statement read. “After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefu...

Jeff Beck has died suddenly at the age of 78, a statement from his representatives has confirmed.

“On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing,” the statement read. “After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss.”

Beck rose to fame with The Yardbirds, whom he joined in 1965, replacing Eric Clapton. Although he remained in the band for only 20 months, the band recorded most of their Top 40 hits with the guitarist, including “Over Under Sideways Down” and “Shapes Of Things”.

After making one album with the outfit – 1966’s Roger The Engineer – Beck was sacked after consistently going AWOL on tour in the US. After being fired, he formed the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and more.

Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck in 1976. Image: Watal Asanuma / Shinko Music / Getty Images

The Jeff Beck Group released four albums – Truth in 1968, Beck-Ola in 1969, Rough And Ready in 1971, and 1972’s Jeff Beck Group – before disbanding in the early ‘70s. However, Stewart and Wood were only present for the first two records and quit the band in 1970 to join what became theFaces. Beck took a break from the band after being injured in a car accident, but revived it with a new line-up for the last two albums. In 2019, Beck and Stewart reunited on stage at the Hollywood Bowl for what was billed as “their most in-depth concert in over 35 years”.

In 1975, he went solo, recording his first album Blow By Blow with The Beatles’ producer George Martin. The record went on to chart in the Top 10 in the US.

Prior to joining The Yardbirds, he also made appearances in bands such as Screaming Lord Sutch And The Savages and Nightshift. Later years saw him collaborate with everyone from Nile Rodgers to Mick Jagger, appearing on the latter’s 1987 solo album Primitive Cool. Since then, he worked with Roger Waters, Jon Bon Jovi, Imogen Heap, and Ozzy Osbourne. In the 2013, he embarked on a joint tour with the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson with whom he had planned to make an album with, but never materialised.

Beck is often referred to as one of the greatest guitarists of all time and insured his fingers and thumbs for £7million.

Beck was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame twice in his career – once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again as a solo artist in 2009. Speaking at the latter ceremony, he said: “I play the way I do because it allows me to come up with the sickest sounds possible. That’s the point now, isn’t it? I don’t care about the rules.

“In fact, if I don’t break the rules at least 10 times in every song, then I’m not doing my job properly.”

His 2009 induction was done by Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, who had originally recommended him to join the Yardbirds. “You’d listen to Jeff along the way and you’d say, ‘Wow, he’s getting really good, Jeff’,” Page reflected at the time. “Then you’d listen to him a few years later and he’d just keep getting better and better and better, and he still has all the way through.

“He leaves us mere mortals just wondering and having so much respect for him. Jeff’s whole guitar style is totally unorthodox to the way that anyone was taught and he’s just really developed a whole style of expanding the electric guitar and making it into something with sounds and techniques that are totally unheard of before. That’s just an amazing feat, believe me.”

Page concluded: “He’s done so much for rock and roll, and he always will.”

Over his career, he collected eight Grammys, winning his first in 1985 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for “Escape” and his last three in 2010 for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for “Imagine”, Best Pop Instrumental Performance for “Nessun Dorma”, and Best Rock Instrumental Performance for “Hammerhead”.

Most recently, Beck had embarked on a US tour with Johnny Depp following the pair releasing a collaborative album, 18, in July 2022.

Tributes have begun flooding in to Beck following the news of his death. Jimmy Page shared a heartfelt message on Twitter, writing: “The six-stringed Warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions. Jeff could channel music from the ethereal.

“His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless. Jeff I will miss you along with your millions of fans. Jeff Beck Rest in Peace.”

“I can’t express how saddened I am to hear of @JeffBeckMusic’s passing,” Ozzy Osbourne wrote. What a terrible loss for his family, friends & his many fans. It was such an honor to have known Jeff & an incredible honor to have had him play on my most recent album #PatientNumber9.”

KISS’ Gene Simmons called Beck’s death “heartbreaking”, adding: “No one played guitar like Jeff. Please get ahold of the first two Jeff Beck Group albums and behold greatness. RIP.”

See more tributes below.

 

This is a developing story and will be updated

Listen to Bob Dylan’s “Not Dark Yet (Version 1)”

Michael Bonner
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Listen to Bob Dylan’s “Not Dark Yet (Version 1)”

A new video accompanying Bob Dylan's "Not Dark Yet (Version 1)" has been released. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut The track features on the upcoming Fragments - Time Out Of Mind Sessions: Bootleg Series Vol. 17, which is released on January 27 by Colu...

A new video accompanying Bob Dylan‘s “Not Dark Yet (Version 1)” has been released.

The track features on the upcoming Fragments – Time Out Of Mind Sessions: Bootleg Series Vol. 17, which is released on January 27 by Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings.

Fragments – Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996 – 1997): The Bootleg Series Vol. 17 features a 2022 remix of the album alongside previously unreleased recordings including studio outtakes, alternate versions and live performances from 1997 – 2001.

You can read our definitive review on Bootleg 17 in the March 2023 issue of Uncut – available in shops and to buy online direct from us.

Neil Young on songwriting and his favourite songs

Will Richards
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Neil Young on songwriting and his favourite songs

Neil Young has given an extensive new interview with Conan O'Brien, in which he reveals his favourite songs and discusses songwriting. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Neil Young: “Have you secured your load correctly?” Young sat down ...

Neil Young has given an extensive new interview with Conan O’Brien, in which he reveals his favourite songs and discusses songwriting.

Young sat down for a two-hour chat for Team Coco Radio, also discussing appearing on TV in the 1960s.

On appearing on The Johnny Cash Show in 1971, he told O’Brien: “You gotta realise, I’m 23-years-old, and I’m going on a television show.

“I was petrified. I was thinking about the song I was going to sing and whether I was going to screw up or not. That’s all I thought about. I don’t really remember much else about it.”

He also discussed appearing as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live in 1989 where O’Brien was a cast member, with Conan saying: “Lorne Michaels has a saying that ‘television is the worst way to experience music’.

“I think he’s usually right, except something happened that night. It was transcendent and punched through the television. I’m on the floor at 8-H. I’m a kid. I’m in my twenties. I’m watching you do that. The place, you just melted it. I think there was structural damage to 30 Rock. It’s never been quite repaired.”

Listen to the full two-hour interview here and watch segments below.

Late last year, Young said that he will only go on tour again in the future if it can be done completely sustainably.

Earlier this year the singer indicated that he’s not yet ready to play concerts, saying that he doesn’t think it is safe amid the ongoing COVID pandemic.

In a new interview with The New Yorker, Young also said that he’s “not sure I want to” tour again full stop but if he were to change his mind it would have to be a with a completely environmentally sustainable plan.

“I have a plan,” Young said. “I’ve been working on it with a couple of my friends for about seven or eight months. We’re trying to figure out how to do a self-sustaining, renewable tour. Everything that moves our vehicles around, the stage, the lights, the sound, everything that powers it is clean. Nothing dirty with us. We set it up; we do this everywhere we go.

“This is something that’s very important to me, if I’m ever going to go out again… and I’m not sure I want to, I’m still feeling that out. But if I’m ever going to do it, I want to make sure that everything is clean.”

Neutral Milk Hotel share previously unreleased track from career-spanning box set

Alex Gallagher
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Neutral Milk Hotel share previously unreleased track from career-spanning box set

Neutral Milk Hotel have announced a career-spanning vinyl box set, compiling both of their studio albums along with a wide range of rarities. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel will arrive February 24 via Merge, a...

Neutral Milk Hotel have announced a career-spanning vinyl box set, compiling both of their studio albums along with a wide range of rarities.

The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel will arrive February 24 via Merge, and contains both the band’s 1996 debut On Avery Island along with its acclaimed follow-up, 1998’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

In addition, the box set will include the band’s Everything Is and Ferris Wheel on Fire EPs, as well as a live album recorded during a performance at Athens, Georgia venue Jittery Joe’s in 1997. Also included are the Holland 1945/Engine seven-inch on black vinyl and alternate versions of songs such as “You’ve Passed” and “Where You’ll Find Me Now”. See an image of the box set and its tracklist below. Pre-orders are available now.

The compilation will also include previously unreleased track “Little Birds”, which has been released digitally for the first time today. According to a press release, Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum wrote the song on a day in 1998, performing it live later that day at a friend’s party.

Mangum wrote “Little Birds” after “a confrontation with a street preacher in downtown Athens, who was spewing hatred towards LGBTQ people”. The resulting song is “about many things, including how conservative Christianity too often imbues so-called believers with an utterly warped sense of morality”. Listen below to both a live version and early demo of the song:

Forming in 1989, Neutral Milk Hotel broke up for the first time in 1998, the same year the band released In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. With the rise of the internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s, they developed a cult online following, with the album exploding in popularity despite the band’s prolonged inactivity.

In 2013, Mangum reunited Neutral Milk Hotel for an extensive world tour that ran up until mid-2015, when the band went on hiatus once again. When announcing the tour’s final leg, the band said it would be their last shows “for the foreseeable future”, telling fans “we love you, but it’s time to say goodbye”.

'The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel' vinyl box set
‘The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel’ vinyl box set. Image: Merge Records

The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel tracklist is:

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
1. “King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1”
2. “King of Carrot Flowers Pts. 2 & 3”
3. “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”
4. “Two-Headed Boy”
5. “Fool”
6. “Holland, 1945”
7. “Communist Daughter”
8. “Oh Comely”
9. “Ghost”
10. “[untitled]”
11. “Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2”

On Avery Island
1. “Song Against Sex”
2. “You’ve Passed”
3. “Someone Is Waiting”
4. “A Baby for Pree”
5. “Marching Theme”
6. “Where You’ll Find Me Now”
7. “Avery Island/April 1st”
8. “Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone”
9. “Three Peaches”
10. “Naomi”
11. “April 8th”
12. “Pree-Sisters Swallowing a Donkey’s Eye”

Ferris Wheel on Fire
1. “Oh Sister” (1995)
2. “Ferris Wheel On Fire”(1993)
3. “Home” (1992)
4. “April 8th” (1992)
5. “I Will Bury You in Time” (1994)
6. “Engine” (1993)
7. “A Baby for Pree/Glow Into You” (1995)
8. “My Dream Girl Don’t Exist” (Live) [1992]

Everything Is
1. “Everything Is”
2. “Here We Are (For W. Cullen Hart)”
3. “Unborn”
4. “Tuesday Moon”
5. “Ruby Bulb”
6. “Snow Song”
7. “Aunt Eggma Blow Torch”

Little Birds
1. “Little Birds” (Live) [1998]
2. “Little Birds” (Studio Demo) [1998]

You’ve Passed / Where You’ll Find Me Now
1. “You’ve Passed” (Alternate Version)
2. “Where You’ll Find Me Now” (Alternate Version)

Live at Jittery Joe’s
1. “Intro”
2. “A Baby for Pree”
3. “Two-Headed Boy”
4. “I Will Bury You in Time”
5. “Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone”
6. “Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2”
7. “I Love How You Love Me”
8. “Engine”
9. “Naomi”
10. “King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 2”
11. “King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 3”
12. “Oh Comely”

The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner to release new album with Complete Mountain Almanac

Rhian Daly
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The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner to release new album with Complete Mountain Almanac

The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner are set to release a new album as part of the band Complete Mountain Almanac, the brothers have announced. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: The National: How we made “Bloodbuzz Ohio” The pair jo...

The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner are set to release a new album as part of the band Complete Mountain Almanac, the brothers have announced.

The pair join their sister Jessica Dessner and composer Rebekka Karijord in the new group, who shared their first track late last year.

Complete Mountain Almanac will release their self-titled debut album on January 27, via Bella Union. The record will feature 12 songs, with each one named after a month of the year. May arrived last October, while the album announcement is accompanied by the release of ‘February’.

Shortly after work on the album started, Jessica was diagnosed with breast cancer – an experience that fed into “February”. ““February” is a song that began as a reckoning with the profound physical changes wrought by breast cancer and how they threaten to dismantle every aspect of life, and yet, somehow the spirit rises, remains constant, immutable, a force, like nature,” she said in a press release.

Karijord added: “To me, “February” is like an ancient myth. A road trip dance, moving between vulnerability and resilience. It journeys through layers of odd meters, restlessness and mystery, and then lands in a musical landscape of acceptance and clarity.”

‘Complete Mountain Almanac’ is described as “cycl[ing] through folk, classical, chamber music and everything in between, creating a cocoon-like atmosphere that draws the listener into a stand-alone universe”. You can pre-order the record here now.

U2 announce album of “reimagined and re-recorded” tracks, Songs Of Surrender

Rhian Daly
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U2 announce album of “reimagined and re-recorded” tracks, Songs Of Surrender

U2 have announced a new compilation album of “reimagined and re-recorded” tracks, called Songs Of Surrender. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: U2 – The Joshua Tree 
30th Anniversary Edition review The announcement follows fans being...

U2 have announced a new compilation album of “reimagined and re-recorded” tracks, called Songs Of Surrender.

The announcement follows fans being sent letters from the band’s guitarist The Edge teasing the new project.

In the letters, the musician told fans: “When a song becomes well known, it’s always associated with a particular voice. I can’t imagine “Tangled Up In Blue” without the reedy timbre of Bob Dylan or “All The Time In The World” without the unique voice of Louis Armstrong. So what happens when a voice develops and experience and maturity give it additional resonance?”

The Edge continued to explain that most of U2’s work “was written and recorded when we were a bunch of very young men” and that the songs had changed over the years to “mean something quite different to us now”. “Some have grown with us,” he wrote. “Some we have outgrown, but we have not lost sight of what propelled us to write those songs in the first place. The essence of those songs is still in us. But how to reconnect with that essence when we have moved on and grown so much?”

He added that the band had imagined bringing their old songs into the present day and giving them “a 21st-century reimagining”. “Once we surrendered our reverence for the original version, each song started to open up to a new authentic voice of this time, of the people we are now, and particularly the singer that Bono has become,” he wrote. “I hope you like our new direction.”

The band have now confirmed the new record, Songs Of Surrender, in a post on their social media accounts. It will feature 40 songs from across their career “reimagined and re-recorded” and will be released on March 17, 2023. An accompanying teaser video has also been released, soundtracked by a new version of their 2000 hit single “Beautiful Day”. Watch it below now.

Although a tracklist is yet to be confirmed, the songs U2 have re-recorded could be the same as the tracks included in Bono’s 2022 book Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. The memoir explored the origins of 40 key songs from the band’s discography.

The frontman is also set to embark on a residency at New York’s Beacon Theatre this spring in support of Surrender and described as evenings of “words, music and some mischief”. He previously held a 14-city book tour across the UK, Europe and Ireland.

Introducing Sounds Of The New West Volume 6

Michael Bonner
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Introducing Sounds Of The New West Volume 6

The March 2023 issue of Uncut comes with Sounds Of The New West Volume 6 - the latest, long-awaited instalment in Uncut's acclaimed series featuring 15 tracks of the best gilded roots, spirited alt.country and wide-eyed Cosmic American music. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the la...

The March 2023 issue of Uncut comes with Sounds Of The New West Volume 6 – the latest, long-awaited instalment in Uncut’s acclaimed series featuring 15 tracks of the best gilded roots, spirited alt.country and wide-eyed Cosmic American music.

Some names you may already be familiar with from the pages of Uncut – not least Margo Cilker, Doug Paisley and Allison Russell – and we’re proud to introduce the freshest Americana talents including Kassi Valazza, Sunny War and Setting, a new group formed by Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly and Joe Westerlund who exclusively debut the fruits of their collaboration on this CD.

Meanwhile, in case you missed it last year, you can still pick up copies of our Sounds Of The New West compilation – a double album featuring 18 tracks from the first five volumes in the Sounds Of The New West series, available exclusively from the Uncut store on blue and purple vinyl.

But for now, here’s your handy guide to Sounds Of The New West: Class Of 2023. Dig in…

1
Kassi Valazza
Watching Planes Go By
We open this sixth edition of our occasional (and essential, if we say so ourselves) series with a stunning track from this Arizona-born singer-songwriter. Her fine new album, Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing, is coming in May, but until then, enjoy this slow-burning mix of Americana and Paisley Underground psych.

2
This Lonesome Paradise
Funeral Skies
Enter a reverb-soaked, noirish world with this track from Nightshades, the second album from E Ray Bechard and his group. Recorded using solar power, off the grid in California, “Funeral Skies” is the missing link between Sparklehorse and Calexico.

3
Sunny War
No Reason
Anarchist Gospel is the new album from this troubled but quite incredible, Nashville-based talent. The album features David Rawlings, Allison Russell and a host of infectious, complex blues-rock like this fine track.

4
Doug Paisley
Say What You Like
Five years after Starter Home, this fleet-footed Canadian is back with Say What You Like, crafted from a mountain of songs he’d amassed. Here’s the title track, with Paisley’s country picking floating over a lithe groove.

5
Margo Cilker
Wine In The World
West Coast folk troubadour Cilker is no stranger to these pages, with 2021’s Pohorylle one of our favourite Americana albums of the decade so far. Here’s the album’s stately closer, five and a half minutes of the artist at her best.

6
Hal Cannon
Thirty-Six Miles
Nothin’ Lastin’ is the second solo album from 3hattrio’s singer, guitarist and banjo player. Hailing from southern Utah, Cannon’s also a “cowboy music scholar”, which presumably comes in handy for moody meditations like this; you can almost see the campfire embers and the pinprick stars above.

7
Nikki Lane
Denim & Diamonds
Last September’s Denim & Diamonds album found the Nashville-based songwriter and proprietor of vintage clothes shop High Class Hillbilly teaming up with Josh Homme on guitar, drums and production: the result, as on this title track, is a shimmying, swearing, gloriously bitter hoedown.

8
Kyp Harness
Poverty Line
Canadian singer-songwriter Harness has been around for a while now, mostly under the radar on these shores, but new album Poverty Line is a good place to hitch a ride from, mixing Dylan-esque diatribes with the occasional Velvets chug.

9
Schaefer Llana
The Great Pretender
Here’s the latest single from this Batesville, Mississippi songwriter, a tender, compact ballad that combines Southern soul with the melodic chops of Elliott Smith. At other times she’s rocking and raw, but here the atmosphere is quiet, close and even more powerful.

10
Hermanos Gutiérrez
El Bueno Y El Malo
With Dan Auerbach behind the glass, the duo of Stephan and Daniel Hotz conjured up a cinematic epic with last year’s instrumental electric guitar record El Bueno Y El Malo. Here, the spring reverb is turned up, the sand is hot and the vistas are breathtaking. 

11
Angelica Rockne
Age Of The Voyeur
California-born, Nevada-based songwriter Rockne’s back with a new album, The Rose Society, very soon; before that, here’s the appetite-whetting opener, a tough chamber waltz with Rockne’s crisp, chiming voice tangled with wheeling strings.

12
Plains
Abilene
A recent unexpected delight has been the appearance of Plains, the new duo of Jess Williamson and Katie Crutchfield, and their album I Walked With You A Ways. Here’s a Williamson-penned track, a gorgeous, clever song given even more class by lap steel, mandolin and the pair’s pristine harmonies.

13
Collapsing Stars
Pay Your Last Respects
These Twin Cities folkies, led by singer-songwriter Justin Wayne Nelson, put out the very good Chapter LP a few months back; here’s a windswept (quite literally) highlight, suggesting that Nelson could be the heir to Iron & Wine’s throne.

14
Allison Russell
Nightflyer
Outside Child might have come out in 2021, but this compilation wouldn’t have been complete without a moment from one of the finest Americana talents in recent years, heading out as a solo artist after being part of Our Native Daughters and Birds Of Chicago. On a record about hard times, survival and transcendence, the gospel blues of “Nightflyer” is its redemptive heart.

15
Setting
Night Divers
We end with a very special, exclusive premiere: an introduction to a new experimental group formed by Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly and Joe Westerlund. Their debut album is coming this year on Paradise Of Bachelors, but for now, enjoy this incredible non-LP track, with its whispers of Eno and Lanois, Calexico and the artists on our Ambient Americana compilation.

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