Religious dissidents and juvenile delinquents, Greenwich Village and Potsdamer Platz, doomed soldiers and vacuous celebrities... David Cavanagh files the epic, definitive review of The Next Day. From Uncut's April 2013 (Take 191) issue._______________
This month’s issue of Uncut, as you may have seen, comes with a free supplement showcasing our extensive end-of-year charts. We’ve decided, though, to post our 80 Best Albums Of 2013 list here.
You can read new assessments of these albums in the booklet. But in the meantime, click on the links to read the original Uncut reviews. A reminder, too, that Uncut staffers have been posting their individual 2013 lists:
A collection of The Beatles' rarities and bootlegs will be released exclusively through iTunes next week.
The band, whose music only arrived on iTunes in 2010 following lengthy legal negotiations, will release 59 tracks, which some reports suggest will be titled The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963. A spokesperson for the band confirmed that songs recorded live for the BBC as well as studio outtakes will feature on the release, but could not confirm a release date. A verified tracklist can be seen below.
Primal Scream are touring the UK next week, beginning their trip at Manchester’s Apollo (December 10) – a fitting time, then, to revisit this piece from Uncut’s June 2006 issue (Take 109), in which frontman Bobby Gillespie answers questions from fans and famous admirers, discusses E, regrets, rock’n’roll and The Jesus And Mary Chain. Interview: Nick Hasted
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.
There have been plenty of surprises and revelations in music during the last twelve months. Admittedly, perhaps not all of them have had the same impact as the sudden arrival of records by David Bowie or My Bloody Valentine; nevertheless, a Tweet on June 3 from Edwyn Collins’ label AED carried its own quietly momentous piece of breaking news. “A new @RoddyFrame record in the wind, on AED, early 2014. It’s a lovely thing, just wait til you hear it. Watch this space, popsters.”
There’s a scene in Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country For Old Men, where sheriff Ed Tom Bell and his deputy arrive at the site of a particularly grisly murder. “It’s a mess, ain’t it sheriff?” asks the deputy. Surveying the corpses and the wreck of a burned out SUV, Bell replies, “If it ain’t, it’ll do till a mess gets here.”
Pixies are back with new material and a world tour – but back in August 2006’s issue (Take 111), our forum of Uncut readers and famous fans were interrogating Frank Black about pissing off the band, his relationship with Kim Deal and why he went into therapy. Words: Nick Hasted
With Arcade Fire’s new album, Reflektor, due for release on October 28, this week’s archive feature looks back to December 2005, when Uncut awards Album Of The Year to Arcade Fire’s debut, Funeral. Adored by everyone from David Bowie and David Byrne to Chris Martin and Bono, Funeral is a spectacular word-of-mouth success, and suggests whole new futures for rock music. Stephen Troussé meets the band on the eve of their Riviera Theatre set in Chicago…
