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Paul McCartney announces Got Back US tour dates

Damian Jones
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Paul McCartney announces Got Back US tour dates
Paul McCartney has announced his plans for a tour of North America in the spring. The legendary Beatle will hit the road for 14 dates, kicking off in Washington on April 28. His tour will call at Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston and Baltimore before wrapping in East Rutherford in New Jersey on June 1...

Paul McCartney has announced his plans for a tour of North America in the spring.

The legendary Beatle will hit the road for 14 dates, kicking off in Washington on April 28. His tour will call at Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston and Baltimore before wrapping in East Rutherford in New Jersey on June 16.

Pre-sale tickets for the jaunt go on sale on Tuesday (February 22) at 12pm local time, before they go on general next Friday (25th) at 10am local time. You can purchase tickets here.

The Got Back tour will be McCartney’s first since his FRESHEN UP tour wrapped up in July 2019.

“I said at the end of the last tour that I’d see you next time. I said I was going to get back to you. Well, I got back!” he said of Got Back.

Elsewhere, an NFT of McCartney’s handwritten notes for “Hey Jude” recently sold for over $76,000 (£56,136).

Six Beatles-related NFTs sold for a combined $158,720 (£117,236), with McCartney’s personal “Hey Jude” notes coming in as the biggest-seller.

The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” arrived as a standalone single in August 1968 ahead of the group releasing their classic White Album later that year. The track remains a staple of McCartney’s solo concerts.

In other news, The Beatles’ legendary 1969 rooftop performance from Get Back was recently released as a live album on major streaming platforms for the first time.

The unannounced gig took place on top of Apple Corps’ headquarters on Savile Row in London, marking the Fab Four’s final public performance of their career.

Dallas Good, founder of Canadian rockers The Sadies, has died aged 48

Will Richards
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Dallas Good, founder of Canadian rockers The Sadies, has died aged 48
Dallas Good, founder of Canadian rockers The Sadies, has died aged 48. The band's label in the United States, Yep Roc, confirmed the news that Good died “of natural causes while under doctor’s care for a coronary illness discovered earlier this week.” The label's full statement read: "We...

Dallas Good, founder of Canadian rockers The Sadies, has died aged 48.

The band’s label in the United States, Yep Roc, confirmed the news that Good died “of natural causes while under doctor’s care for a coronary illness discovered earlier this week.”

The label’s full statement read: “We are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of our dear friend, Dallas Good, of the Sadies. He died on Thursday, February 17 of natural causes while under doctor’s care for a coronary illness discovered earlier this week. He was 48 years old.

“Dallas was such a special individual who is in one of my favourite bands of all time,” said Glenn Dicker, co-owner of Yep Roc Records. “We’ve lost a cornerstone of the label. The Sadies have always been the band to watch and hear out there for me. I am grateful to you, Dallas, for so many great shows, spine shaking music and good times. I’ll never stop listening.”

“Since their formation in 1994, Sadies have developed, even perfected, a style of music that is uniquely their own. Their first record with Yep Roc was 2002’s Stories Often Told and over the past 20 years on the label, they’ve released six studio albums, a live record, a soundtrack and collaborations with both Andre Williams and John Doe. Last month, the band shared their latest single, “Message to Belial”, produced by Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire.

“We send our love + condolences to Dallas’ family, friends and fans during this devastating time. The stage is dark today with the all too soon passing of one of music’s brightest lights.

“We love you, Dallas. Rest In Peace.”

The Sadies were founded by Good and his brother Travis in 1994, releasing debut album Precious Moments in 1998. The band emerged as frontrunners of the alt-country scene of the early to mid 2000s. Across their career, they collaborated with Kurt Vile, Neil Young, Neko Case and more.

In the wake of the news of Good’s death, tributes have poured in across social media. Legendary producer Steve Albini wrote: “Just got word of Dallas Good of the Sadies passing. He was a beautiful guy and naturally gifted musician. Opened every conversation laughing, a warm, unpretentious soul. Everybody who knew him feels like they lost a brother. Requiescat.”

He added: “I had the pleasure of recording the Sadies several times, and the down time was as memorable as the sessions. Dallas and his brother Travis two peas in a pod, speaking the pidgin English native to Canada. Bottlers, Peameal, pylon…

“Less anthropologic than fraternally generous, they let me in and as much as I feel the loss I retain the warmth of their company and am grateful. Good man down.”

Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham added: “I got to play, blaze and become friends with a god. Trying to live in those good memories. I love you Dallas. RIP.”

See other tributes to Dallas Good from Ron Sexsmith, members of Arcade Fire and more, below.

John McLaughlin: “I need structure in order to leave structure”

John Lewis
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John McLaughlin: “I need structure in order to leave structure”
On January 4, John McLaughlin celebrated his 80th birthday – but he shows no sign of slowing down. “I will not pass the day without meditation and yoga,” he tells Uncut. “It’s like eating breakfast. It’s as stimulating for me as working with Herbie or Miles.” McLaughlin is speaking to ...

On January 4, John McLaughlin celebrated his 80th birthday – but he shows no sign of slowing down. “I will not pass the day without meditation and yoga,” he tells Uncut. “It’s like eating breakfast. It’s as stimulating for me as working with Herbie or Miles.” McLaughlin is speaking to Uncut on Zoom from his home in Monaco, where he has lived since the 1980s, and where he still practises the guitar every day. “For me, playing electric guitar is like riding a motorbike – it comes easily. But the acoustic guitar, that’s like riding a pushbike in the Tour de France. It’s hard, physical work and I need to keep myself in shape. Since Covid, I’ve barely been able to play live, and I feel like an athlete preparing for a race that’s never happening. But I’ll keep on doing it.”

McLaughlin was born in Doncaster, although, having lived around the world for more than 50 years, he has long lost any traces of Yorkshire from his speech. As a teenager, he relocated to London where – by the time he was 25 – had assembled the kind of CV that most rock musicians would kill for. He’d played guitar with everyone from the Stones and Tom Jones to Georgie Fame and The Four Tops, and worked with top-flight producers including George Martin, Burt Bacharach and Tony Visconti. But despite these substantive achievements, something wasn’t right.

“The problem is that, as a session player, you had no autonomy,” McLaughlin says. “You were told exactly what to play. For a creative musician, this is torture.” So, in mid-1967, McLaughlin jacked in his lucrative session career to concentrate on his first love – jazz. Only 18 months later he found himself flying out to New York where, within a few days, he was recording with some of his jazz heroes and helping to create a brand new genre: jazz rock. McLaughlin became the first-choice guitarist for every jazzer who wanted to plug in and connect with the world of rock’n’roll, and for every rocker who wanted some jazz intensity. In 1969, he kicked off a friendship with Miles Davis, one that would
last until Miles’ death in 1991. He fronted the pioneering Lifetime, with fellow Miles alumni Tony Williams on drums, and formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra, a jazz-rock supergroup that could pack arenas around the world.

In the last 50 years McLaughlin has immersed himself in dozens of genres – North and South Indian classical music, heavy-duty fusion, Hammond funk, flamenco, contemporary orchestral music and straight-ahead jazz. Much of it is compiled in his latest album, a collection of live performances that McLaughlin has played at the Montreux Jazz Festival over the last half century. “I think I’ve played Montreux 21 times with more than 50 different musicians,” he says. “The eight tracks on this album are something of a greatest hits for me.”

What’s your first memory of the Montreux Jazz Festival?

I first went in 1971. It was already well established, but it would soon become the most important jazz festival on the planet. I’ve been playing there since the mid-’70s, it’s such a beautiful part of the world. I always loved the late Claude Nobs, who founded the festival in 1967. He was actually a chef but he was so passionate about jazz and soul that he started this festival for the Montreux Tourist Office. One man’s passion changed the entire economy of Switzerland!

Inside Uncut’s new visionary folk CD

Tom Pinnock
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Inside Uncut’s new visionary folk CD
The new issue of Uncut, dated April 2022 and available now, comes with a free CD comprising tracks from 15 new folk visionaries: Blackwaterside. CLICK HERE TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED DIRECT TO YOUR DOOR Subtitled Sounds Of The New Weird Albion, the compilation features songs from the lik...

The new issue of Uncut, dated April 2022 and available now, comes with a free CD comprising tracks from 15 new folk visionaries: Blackwaterside.

Subtitled Sounds Of The New Weird Albion, the compilation features songs from the likes of Jim Ghedi, Sam Lee, Michael Tanner, Modern Nature, Waterless Hills and more.

1 MICHAEL TANNER
Ecce Quadragesimo Tertio
We begin our exploration into the wild margins of modern British folk with this hushed, twilit piece from Lewes-based musician Tanner. It’s the opening track to his recent Vespers album, the rest of which was recorded live in his local graveyard at dusk.

2 THE LEFT OUTSIDES
As Night Falls
Are You Sure I Was There? is the latest long-playing transmission from the London duo of Alison Cotton and Mark Nicholas. “As Night Falls” is one of its glowering highlights, with nods to The Velvet Underground and Low.

3 CATH & PHIL TYLER
The Old Churchyard
This traditional tune gets a sympathetic, sparse reworking from the Newcastle-based pair, harmonies beautifully intertwining over a sole picked guitar. Originally released on the Tylers’ To The Dust EP, in aid of East London’s Café OTO.

4 HENRY PARKER
The Brisk Lad
Mike Waterson and Richard Dawson have both performed a cappella versions of this dark tale of desperation and sheep-rustling, while on 2021’s Lammas Fair, Parker electrifies and extends it. The result is a slow-building epic that blossoms into some stunning duelling guitar solos.

5 ROB ST JOHN
Surface Tension
Recently reissued on vinyl by Blackford Hill, here’s a taster of the Lancashire musician’s experimental suite. A conceptual piece examining London’s River Lea, it mixes plaintive melodies, piano and picked guitars with Basinski-esque loops degraded in the waterway’s polluted channels.

6 BURD ELLEN
The High Priestess And The Hierophant
This new, limited single finds the questing Glasgow duo of Debbie Armour and Gayle Brogan pairing a minor-key trad lament with ambient sweeps of sound that only serve to underscore the mournful tale.

7 WATERLESS HILLS
The Garden Of The Tribe
This Brit quartet mixed trad folk with Eastern modes and free exploration on their beguiling debut, 2020’s The Great Mountain. Here’s a short, sweet and uptempo track, recorded live. As with the rest of the LP, its title was inspired by pioneering traveller Freya Stark.

8 MODERN NATURE
Blackwaterside
While Jack Cooper’s jazz influences have come to the fore on Modern Nature’s latest album Island Of Noise, there’s always been a deep and timeless folk current running through his subtle, filigreed music. This take on the trad classic, most memorably recorded by Bert Jansch, originally appeared on 2019’s Nature EP.

9 LAURA CANNELL
Memory And Desire
2020’s The Earth With Her Crowns found the Norfolk-based musician recording inside East London’s Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. She also sings and plays wind instruments, but it’s on the violin that she really excels, sounding here like a cross between John Cale and Dave Swarbrick.

10 SAM LEE FEATURING ELIZABETH FRASER
The Moon Shines Bright
A fervent collector of folk songs, Lee placed the traditional music he loved into smoother, richer settings on 2019’s Old Wow. As if Bernard Butler’s production wasn’t sumptuous enough, here he welcomes Elizabeth Fraser as a sublime guest vocalist.

11 AMY MAY ELLIS
A Fresh Drone
Raised on the North Yorkshire Moors, Ellis has retained some of that wildness in her music. Harmonising against herself on this pensive original from her recent EP, When In The Wind, she’s also accompanied by distant field recordings for a dreamlike edge.

12 DUNCAN MARQUISS
Minor History
Marquiss’ debut solo album, Wires Turned Sideways In Time is a fine mix of the modern and the traditional, with picked acoustic guitar meditations, kosmische lead guitar and washes of processed sound. The LP closer, “Minor History” starts in one place and ends up in another.

13 JON WILKS
John Riley
Like Cath & Phil Tyler, writer and musician Jon Wilks takes a sparse, unvarnished approach to traditional folk. Here’s a highlight from 2021’s Up The Cut, his third solo LP, an impressive set of rediscovered folk songs originally from Birmingham and the Midlands.

14 JIM GHEDI
Lamentations Of Round Oak Waters
Ghedi made his name as a guitarist, but last year’s In The Furrows Of Common Place documented the finding of his striking, unruly voice. “Lamentations…”, driven by a harmonium drone, finds the songwriter repurposing a piece by Northamptonshire poet John Clare (currently having quite the moment as a songwriting inspiration, 158 years after his death).

15 ARIANNE CHURCHMAN & BENEDICT DREW
The Branched Body To A Maypole
Two mixed-media artists with an interest in folklore and weird customs, Churchman and Drew released their two-track LP, May, on the latter’s Thanet Tape Centre label in 2020. Mixing traditional song with all manner of cut-up sounds and drones, the result is thrillingly reminiscent of Broadcast & The Focus Group, White Noise and The Wicker Man soundtrack.

Modern Studies – We Are There

Graeme Thomson
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Modern Studies – We Are There
Perhaps it is the awareness, inescapable of late, that life is both precious and fragile, but the fourth album by Modern Studies exhibits a toughening of sinew, a quickening of intent. The sense of urgency marks a small but significant evolution from their last record, The Weight Of The Sun, release...

Perhaps it is the awareness, inescapable of late, that life is both precious and fragile, but the fourth album by Modern Studies exhibits a toughening of sinew, a quickening of intent. The sense of urgency marks a small but significant evolution from their last record, The Weight Of The Sun, released in early summer 2020.

Since forming in 2015, the music created by this collaborative quartet has tended towards shiver, shimmer and murmur. Modern Studies blend into an unclassifiable whole elements of hazy, pastoral psych-folk and the slips and sighs of analogue electronica, alongside pickings from krautrock, Brubeckian jazz, blissed-out Cali canyon harmonies and the sweet tang of chamber pop.

Instruments seemingly named after decommissioned weaponry or tools of torture (sub 37, ms10, clock gong, saw) bubble beneath the contrasting voices of the group’s two songwriters, Emily Scott and Rob St John. The former is cool, clear and unsentimental, with echoes of the some of the great English stylists, from Sandy Denny to Jacqui McShee. The latter is rich and deep, near-gothic. Working in tandem, singing over and under each other, the effect is of a stiff, freshening breeze blowing through the embers of a good, strong fire.

All the familiar elements remain on the fourth Modern Studies record, yet they have undergone a spring clean; the cobwebby aura of old meets a more focused quest for direct connection. Opener “Sink Into” begins with an aural sleight of hand that nods towards this shift in priorities: a miasma of ghostly strings quickly dissipates, giving way to a crunchy rhythmic riff. The verses glisten, bursting out, fulfilling the promise in the lyric of the “summer sky that splintered blue”.

Not for the last time, the music edges towards the skew-whiff pop of This Is The Kit. These songs are twisty, awkwardly rhythmic, odd but accessible, featuring thrilling swoops of strings over Pete Harvey’s motoring bass pulse and Joe Smillie’s drums.

The lopsided motifs and leaping time signatures of “Won’t Be Long” recall the Kate Bush of “Suspended In Gaffa” and “Sat In Your Lap”. The influence surfaces again on “Two Swimmers”, where the connection to tidal rhythms and the cycles of sunrise and sunset suggest an affinity with Bush’s Aerial. Beginning with a savage drum tattoo and falling into a kind of campfire chant, the song depicts humanity at one with nature yet lacking a sufficiently sweeping perspective to view the full picture. “You should see yourself”, sings Scott. “Light A Fire” is closer to ’80s Fleetwood Mac and the REM of “Texarkana”, a keening synth line and ringing guitar arpeggios skipping over warm beats, low strings and Scott’s imploration to “let that magic come to me”. “Mothlight”, written by St John, is zonked-out synth-pop, dancefloor-friendly, sleek and slinky.

There are pop songs here, certainly, but a beguiling weirdness remains. The oblique closing track, “Winter Springs”, begins with isolated reverbed piano notes framed by the rock and rattle of found sounds. It feels like a song at sea, a corrupted nursery rhyme, Scott spooked yet elevated: “I feel the child in me”.

Of St John’s two other compositions, “Open Face” is the more gentle, a sad, sighing love song in waltz time. “Wild Ocean”, meanwhile, is an outstanding summation of the expansive psych folk of previous Modern Studies records. Over a drone building from spidery guitar lines and punctuating drum rolls, Scott and St John sing in devotional unison: “All keeps turning…” The dynamics mimic the drift and swell of the sea; near the end, the currents fall still before cresting to a magnificent wave.

Though the range is wider and more varied than before, these songs are bound together by the unifying interplay of voices, instrumentation and, above all, a powerful sense of connection to nature. Modern Studies remain poets of the senses; words such as “selvedge” and “telluric” don’t tend to feature heavily in the standard pop lexicon. We Are There strives to honour the wildness, and childlike wonder, of our existence.

The overarching concern of these 10 tracks is to maintain the bonds of magic and heightened sensory experience through an awareness of our interactions – however fleetingly experienced – with a cosmic vastness. On “Comfort Me”, Scott beckons the land as a lover. The song rides a slow, heavy beat, thick as treacle, guided by doleful piano chords, as the singer chases “some low sound far beyond the edges of the trees”.

It’s as fitting a metaphor for this record as any. Modern Studies are still in pursuit of the unknowable – and the signal is getting stronger.

Brian Wilson – Long Promised Road

Stephen Troussé
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Brian Wilson – Long Promised Road
Near the start of Brent Wilson’s modest, elliptical, ultimately desperately moving new documentary, the director sits Brian Wilson at a piano in his lambent Beverly Hills mansion and tosses him a few questions about his unexpectedly productive third act. “You’ve been working non-stop since you...

Near the start of Brent Wilson’s modest, elliptical, ultimately desperately moving new documentary, the director sits Brian Wilson at a piano in his lambent Beverly Hills mansion and tosses him a few questions about his unexpectedly productive third act. “You’ve been working non-stop since your late fifties. Where did this sudden surge of creativity come from?” “Well,” says Brian, looking about as comfortable as a Californian black bear asked to explain exactly what goes on in the woods, “it starts from my brain, works its way out into the piano and then into the speakers in the studio.” “Is that something you can explain?” the director enquires, hopefully. “No,” responds Brian firmly, “I can’t.”

At this stage another film about Brian Wilson may seem less than necessary. After I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times (1995), Endless Harmony (1998), Beautiful Dreamer (2004) and 2014’s biopic Love & Mercy, it’s a story that Uncut readers will know better than most: the California childhood overshadowed by a brutally domineering father, the Beach Boys riding early-’60s surfmania into international acclaim, how Pet Sounds became Brian’s own sonic Sagrada Família before LSD shattered his beautiful mind. And then his long, dark 1970s of the soul.

Long Promised Road pitches itself as a kind of sequel to Love & Mercy, hoping to understand how, with the love of a good woman, Brian bounced back to finish SMiLE, reform the Beach Boys and enjoy an extended victory lap. Wilson the director has a background in TV documentaries, and initially Long Promised Road feels as formulaic as a lifetime achievement reel, with the great and the good enlisted to pay homage. Springsteen and Elton both talk touchingly of the seductions of Brian’s imaginary California, while Don Was is on hand to fade up the individual channels of “Good Vibrations” with a beatific smile. But Linda Perry, Nick Jonas and the Foo Fighters’ drummer add little insight.

The film really gets going with the arrival of Rolling Stone writer Jason Fine, something of a confidant because of his calming, supportive presence. The two cruise around California through a landscape Wilson immortalised in song, from Hawthorne, through Paradise Cove and on to the Hollywood Bowl.

It’s Carpool Karaoke meets Twin Peaks: The Return. Brian, it quickly becomes clear, is still in a very fragile emotional state. As an intertitle briefly states, he has experienced auditory hallucinations since his early twenties – hearing violent and abusive voices – and in later life has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. He seems to move through life on a precipice of panic and terror.

If nothing else, Eugene Landy’s cruel and punishing years of exploitation therapy did at least wean Brian off cigarettes, alcohol and cocaine – but now it seems he self-medicates with music. “Play “It’s OK” from 15 Big Ones,” he urgently requests every time they pass a childhood home or old haunt, and he seems overwhelmed by memories. Van Dyke Parks (one of a few key characters not involved this time round – Mike Love is also notably absent) memorably described Wilson’s music as “teenage symphonies to God”, but it’s clear they are also elaborate, fortified stain-glass structures designed
to keep the darkness out.

Eventually, after many hours on the road together, and some intriguing hints of anecdotes – Little Richard and Sly Stone visiting the Wilson compound in the mid-’70s – Fine mentions Pacific Ocean Blue, Dennis’ great, yearning 1977 solo album. Incredibly, Brian says he has never heard it. This revelation – he’s seen eyes closed, rocking back in his chair in pleasure as he listens for the first time – along with the belated news of the death of Beach Boys manager and co-writer Jack Rieley, seems to mark some emotional breakthrough for Brian. If the past has often seemed a locked room, too painful for him to enter, he’s now overwhelmed with sudden memories of love – the months in Holland, free of his father, recording fairy tales in Utrecht…

The journey comes to a conclusion at Carl Wilson’s old house and Brian can’t leave the car – “It’s just too sentimental for me.” The cameras keep rolling though – Brian alone, staring bewildered at the car stereo as it plays “Long Promised Road”, biting his lips, his eyes welling. It’s a beautiful, intrusive moment of intimacy that justifies the film: Brian’s face a rolling symphony of turmoil as he communes with his dead brothers in ancient, immortal harmonies.

Licorice Pizza

Jonathan Romney
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Licorice Pizza
Ever since Paul Thomas Anderson reinvented himself as the new dark genius of American cinema, he’s been disinclined to let his hair down. Films like There Will Be Blood, The Master and Phantom Thread are works of formidable brilliance – but they’re not what you’d call insouciant. So Licorice...

Ever since Paul Thomas Anderson reinvented himself as the new dark genius of American cinema, he’s been disinclined to let his hair down. Films like There Will Be Blood, The Master and Phantom Thread are works of formidable brilliance – but they’re not what you’d call insouciant. So Licorice Pizza comes as a surprise, and a delight.

A coming-of-age comedy set in Encino, Los Angeles in the mid-’70s, it stars newcomer Cooper Hoffman – son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman – as Gary, a 15-year-old former child actor branching out bullishly into entrepreneurship, while falling for Alana, a woman 10 years or so his senior. He basically sales-talks her into becoming his friend and companion, and while maintaining a platonic relationship, they sail together through a series of comic misadventures – a waterbed franchise, political campaigning, run-ins with Hollywood crazies (Sean Penn as a macho actor, Bradley Cooper deranged as Barbra Streisand’s hairdresser-turned-mogul boyfriend Jon Peters, Tom Waits basically just Waitsing to the hilt).

It’s a film crammed with surprises, not least in the casting. Hoffman uncannily echoes his dad’s nervy heft, but adds a hucksterish ebullience mixed with wide-eyed gaucheness. Then, as Alana, there’s Alana Haim, one third of the music trio whose videos Anderson has recently directed. Her real-life sisters Danielle and Este play Alana’s sisters, with their parents played by the real Haim seniors. The ploy works, not least because Alana is a phenomenal discovery – creating a character at once neurotic, vampish and belligerently abrasive, with an irresistibly casual comic timing.

One of the joys of Licorice Pizza is the way that things just happen – bizarre incidents that seem to go nowhere, elaborate set-ups for punchlines that never come – yet they leave you hooked from start to finish. Anderson depicts ’70s Californian suburbia as the last hurrah of ’60s naivety, and the soundtrack – Taj Mahal, Wings, yet another sublimely counter-intuitive Jonny Greenwood score – adds to the sometimes perplexing magic. It’s a joy, and the sort of film that like a great LP – it’s named after a Californian record store – you’ll want to play over and over.

Beach House – Once Twice Melody

Jason Anderson
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Beach House – Once Twice Melody
There are moments in Beach House’s eighth album so full of texture and detail, the effect can be overwhelming. In “Pink Funeral” – one of many songs on Once Twice Melody in which the Baltimore duo make startling use of arrangements by Beck and Adele collaborator David Campbell – that pheno...

There are moments in Beach House’s eighth album so full of texture and detail, the effect can be overwhelming. In “Pink Funeral” – one of many songs on Once Twice Melody in which the Baltimore duo make startling use of arrangements by Beck and Adele collaborator David Campbell – that phenomenon begins to happen even before the strings kick in, adding scope and drama to music that may already seem improbably huge. “How sweet the sound,” Victoria Legrand coos ever so aptly as her voice enters the song and adds a further layer of sumptuousness.

The first of Beach House’s albums to incorporate a live string ensemble as well as the first produced by themselves, Once Twice Melody is their biggest effort in more ways than one. Yet it’s not as if the band were ever hesitant about granting their music a degree of grandeur. Even in the earliest songs of Legrand and Alex Scally’s fruitful partnership, there was the sense that what they were creating was fuller and stranger than the constituent parts would normally allow. Of course, as any practitioner of dreampop’s dark arts knows, an arsenal of reverb and delay pedals lends girth to just about anything. But there was another alchemy at work in the most bewitching passages of Devotion in 2008 and 2010’s Teen Dream as Legrand’s plangent vocals wended their way through the duo’s dreamy thicket of gauzy guitar and vintage organ and synth sounds.

With that template in place, Beach House were free to dial the intensity up or down as circumstances demanded. And whether their songs required the softer edges of Bloom in 2012 or the more muscular sensibility that producer Peter “Sonic Boom” Kember helped bring to 7 in 2018, that alchemy’s enduring potency meant Beach House always sounded too voluminous to ever be mistaken for wispier peers.

Nevertheless, Once Twice Melody dwarfs what’s come before. For one thing, it’s their longest album at 18 tracks. Though a few songs date back before recording began in 2018, most are newly written, Legrand and Scally being evidently as productive during the lockdowns as they were during the period that yielded both Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars in 2015. Such a bounty is a lot to absorb, which is why the album is wisely presented as a series of four chapters. The first quartet of songs is the headiest, lushest music here. Like “Pink Funeral”, Once Twice Melody’s title track, “Superstar” and “Through Me” are stunning demonstrations of their flair for the cinematic. Though the candy-coated menace of Angelo Badalamenti’s scores for David Lynch has long been discernible in Beach House’s aesthetic wheelhouse, the addition of strings adds a swoony romanticism well-suited to the reveries of love, longing and night-time stargazing that fill Legrand’s lyrics.

That same richness distinguishes second-chapter standouts like “ESP”. But by Once Twice Melody’s midpoint, it’s clear how the more unexpected elements are key to keeping these displays of grandeur and glamour from becoming sickly sweet. One counterbalance is the flickers of acid-rock guitar that pierce through the densest passages. And with its combination of swirly synth arpeggios and burlier beats, “New Romance” is one of many songs that eschew shoegaze’s easy raptures for a chillier intensity. Indeed, however large Cocteau Twins may loom in Beach House’s pantheon of ’80s-vintage inspirations, the darkly beguiling “Over And Over” and the eerie electro of “Masquerade” suggest Once Twice Melody’s dark heart truly belongs to Chris & Cosey.

As is typical for an album that comes in such a generous serving, some items on the plate can seem extraneous. An otherwise pretty piece built around Scally’s spangly guitar, “The Bells” is indicative of the thinning supply of fresh ideas in Once Twice Melody’s final two chapters. Thankfully, Legrand and Scally have worked too hard not to finish this out without a flourish worthy of the occasion, following the album’s sparest song, “Many Nights”, with the most sweeping. But just as Campbell and his string players are about to go for the full John Barry in “Modern Love Stories”, Legrand and Scally pull it back to close the album with something more delicate. The moment underscores the possibility that Once Twice Melody’s greatness lies not in its hugeness – it’s in the duo’s ability to create music that possesses the same intimacy regardless of its scope. And that’s a magic trick that never loses its allure.

Listen to The Coral’s remastered version of “Dreaming Of You” to mark its 20th anniversary

Sam Moore
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Listen to The Coral’s remastered version of “Dreaming Of You” to mark its 20th anniversary
The Coral have released a remastered version of their 2002 hit "Dreaming Of You" to mark its 20th anniversary this year. The track is also part of the forthcoming reissue of the band's self-titled 2002 debut album, which is set for release on March 4 via Run On Records in association with Modern ...

The Coral have released a remastered version of their 2002 hit “Dreaming Of You” to mark its 20th anniversary this year.

The track is also part of the forthcoming reissue of the band’s self-titled 2002 debut album, which is set for release on March 4 via Run On Records in association with Modern Sky.

Coral frontman James Skelly said in a press release that “Dreaming Of You” “nearly didn’t make the album” 20 years ago.

“It was a song we hadn’t yet recorded during the main studio sessions, but when [producer Ian] Broudie heard it, he said it had to be on there,” Skelly recalled. “We went back into the studio to get down this angular version that fitted the rest of the album.

“I’d had the song since meeting [Shack founders] Mick and John Head for the first time, and they said they really liked our stuff. We sat and spoke about Love, who we are massively influenced by, as he actually knew Arthur Lee a bit. I just went home from their praccy room, picked up my guitar and ‘Dreaming Of You’ came out of nowhere.”

The original “Dreaming Of You” video has also been remastered, which you can watch above.

The Coral will head out on tour next month to celebrate 20 years of their debut album. You can see details of their support acts here, find tickets here and view the dates of the tour below.

March
3 – The Leadmill, Sheffield
4 – O2 Institute, Birmingham
5 – Albert Hall, Manchester
10 – O2 Forum Kentish Town, London
11 – Marble Factory, Bristol
12 – O2 Academy, Oxford
17 – Students Union, Leeds
18 – The Level, Nottingham
19 – Barrowland, Glasgow
24 – Riverside, Newcastle
25 – The Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool
26 – The Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool

Listen to Fontaines D.C.’s passionate new single “I Love You”

Sam Moore
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Listen to Fontaines D.C.’s passionate new single “I Love You”
Fontaines D.C. have shared their brand new single "I Love You" – listen to the track below. ORDER NOW: Kate Bush is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Fontaines DC: “The most normal things become absolutely terrifying” The song is the latest to be taken from the Du...

Fontaines D.C. have shared their brand new single “I Love You” – listen to the track below.

The song is the latest to be taken from the Dublin band’s upcoming new album Skinty Fia, which is set for release on April 22 via Partisan Records.

The five-piece’s follow-up to the record’s lead single “Jackie Down The Line” was released Thursday (February 17). First aired at a London gig last October, “I Love You” is described by Fontaines frontman Grian Chatten as “the first overtly political song we’ve written”.

Written from the perspective of an Irishman abroad who is “enjoying great personal success and a sense of cultural pride”, the subject “simultaneously metabolises deep disappointment, and swirling anger, at the current political climate as well as the country’s grimmest historical atrocities, such as the decades of tragic brutality at the Tuam Mother and Baby Home in Galway”.

The Sam Taylor-directed video for “I Love You” has also been released, featuring Chatten walking through a candlelit church before he then addresses the camera to deliver the song’s passionate second half.

“It’s standing in the centre of our beloved home country as a multitude of things are brought to tragic ends in an apocalyptic state of affairs,” the singer has explained of this moment in the clip. “That’s how it feels to me, and what I felt when I wrote it.”

Fontaines D.C. will play a number of UK live shows this year including slots at Reading & Leeds Festival, Sam Fender’s Finsbury Park gig and TRNSMT Festival.

The band played an intimate gig in London earlier this month as part of War Child’s BRITs Week.

Elvis Costello & the Imposters unveil new North American tour dates

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Elvis Costello & the Imposters unveil new North American tour dates
Elvis Costello & The Imposters have unveiled details of a new North American tour. ORDER NOW: Kate Bush is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Elvis Costello: “My conscience is clear!” The Imposters are comprised of Steve Nieve (keyboards), Pete Thomas (drums) and...

Elvis Costello & The Imposters have unveiled details of a new North American tour.

The Imposters are comprised of Steve Nieve (keyboards), Pete Thomas (drums) and Davey Faragher (bass/backing vocals). Costello released The Boy Named If – his new album with the group – on January 14 and it features the singles “Farewell, OK”, “Magnificent Hurt” and “Paint The Red Rose Blue”.

The tour will begin in August and end in September and will see support from either Nicole Atkins or Nick Lowe & The Straitjackets.

Check out the full list of dates here:

AUGUST
06 – Huber Heights, Rose Music Center at The Heights
08 – Toronto, Massey Hall
09 – Buffalo, Artpark Amphitheater
11 – New York, The Rooftop at Pier 17
12 – Bensalem, Xcite Center at Parx Casino
13 – Ledyard, Foxwoods Resort Casino
15 – Boston, Leader Bank Pavilion
16 – Northampton, The Pines Theater
18 – Vienna, Wolf Trap
23 – Denver,  Levitt Pavilion
25 – Salt Lake City, Sandy Amphitheater
28 – Thousand Oaks, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza
30 – Anaheim, City National Grove of Anaheim

SEPTEMBER
2 – Paso Robles, Vina Robles Amphitheatre
3 Las Vegas, The Theater at Virgin Hotels

Back in January, Costello stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to deliver a pair of performances including an impromptu medley with The Imposters.

During Costello’s appearance on the US late night chat show, he and the band performed a standalone rendition of “Magnificent Hurt” followed by a surprise medley that combined “Farewell, OK” and his 1978 cover of Nick Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding”.

In addition to the performances, Costello sat down with Colbert for a three-part interview which saw him discuss the new album, working with Paul McCartney, Peter Jackson’s recent Beatles documentary Get Back, defending Olivia Rodrigo and more.

Costello and the band recently announced that they’ll be heading out on a UK tour in support of the new album.

The Boy Named If tour kicks off at the Brighton Dome on June 5, 2022 before wrapping up at London’s Hammersmith Eventim Apollo on June 23. Charlie Sexton will also join Costello and co. on the 13-date tour.

You can see those dates here:

JUNE
Sunday 05 – Brighton Dome
Tuesday 07 – Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Wednesday 08 – Newcastle O2 City Hall
Friday 10 – Liverpool Philharmonic
Saturday 11 – Manchester Opera House
Monday 13 – Birmingham Symphony Hall
Tuesday 14 – Leicester De Montfort Hall
Thursday 16 – Oxford New Theatre
Friday 17 – Bath The Forum
Sunday 19 – Portsmouth Guildhall
Monday 20 – Swansea Arena
Wednesday 22 – Ipswich Regent Theatre
Thursday 23 – London Eventim Apollo

Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein to get statue in Liverpool

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein to get statue in Liverpool
A statue of The Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, has been given planning permission by Liverpool council. ORDER NOW: Kate Bush is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut The statue of the famous manager, who also worked with acts including Cilla Black and Gerry and The Pacemakers, will be p...

A statue of The Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, has been given planning permission by Liverpool council.

The statue of the famous manager, who also worked with acts including Cilla Black and Gerry and The Pacemakers, will be positioned near his family’s former record shop in Whitechapel.

Epstein discovered the Beatles in 1961 after seeing them perform at The Cavern Club. He died at the age of 32 in 1967 following an accidental overdose.

Jane Robbins, one of the statue’s sculptors and Paul McCartney’s cousin, told the BBC: “[Paul] said a few rude words but we were at a family party and I had the photos of the final clay on my phone.”

“I showed him the photograph and he said ‘bleep, bleep, bleep Janie, that’s dead good like’. He spent several minutes looking at it and he was delighted.”

“I don’t know if there was an actual a tear in his eye but he was very moved to see the clay and that, I think, speaks volumes.

“When you get a likeness, people do often cry because that person isn’t around anymore.”

A date for the statue’s installation is expected in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Sara Sugarman, director of films like Vinyl and Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen, was hired to helm an upcoming biopic of Epstein last year.

The project, titled Midas Man, was placed on hiatus last year after it was announced original director Jonas Akerlund was “taking a break” from the film.

As reported by Deadline, Akerlund was replaced by Sugarman, with hopes of it re-entering production as soon as possible.

In a statement issued to the publication, Akerlund said: “I regret that things haven’t turned out as we had planned on Midas Man. I wish Jacob [Fortune-Lloyd] and the team the best with the film.”

Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, who starred in Wolf Hall and The Queen’s Gambit, will play Epstein in the biopic, which will chart the entrepreneur’s huge influence on pop music within the 1960s.

The cast also includes Emily Watson (Chernobyl), Eddie Marsan (The World’s End), Rosie Day (Outlander) and Bill Milner (X-Men: First Class). It’s yet to be revealed who will play the Fab Four themselves.

Filming on the project started late last year in Liverpool.

Watch the video for Jon Spencer & The HITmakers’ “Junk Man”

Michael Bonner
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Watch the video for Jon Spencer & The HITmakers’ “Junk Man”
Jon Spencer returns with a new album, Spencer Gets It Lit. ORDER NOW: Kate Bush is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Neil Young & The Crazy Horse – Barn review Recorded with The HITmakers - aka Sam Coomes (synth and vocal), M. Sord (drums), and Bob Bert (trash) - ...

Jon Spencer returns with a new album, Spencer Gets It Lit.

Recorded with The HITmakers – aka Sam Coomes (synth and vocal), M. Sord (drums), and Bob Bert (trash) – the album has been produced by Bill Skibbe and Spencer.

You can watch the video for “Junk Man” here:

Spencer Gets It Lit is released on April 1 by Bronzerat Records; pre-order here.

Tracklisting is:

Junk Man
Get It Right Now
Death Ray
The Worst Facts
Primary Baby
Worm Town
Bruise
Layabout Trap
Push Comes To Shove
My Hit Parade
Rotting Money
Strike 3
Get Up & Do It
Germ Vs. Jerk*
The Devil’s Ice Age*

*Tracks 14 & 15 are CD only

The life and times of Ronnie Spector

Stephen Troussé
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The life and times of Ronnie Spector
For all the grandiose backing tracks assembled in the Gold Star Studios between 1962 and 1966, there was nothing to match the overwhelming into-the-red chorus of love and reverence that met the passing of Ronnie Spector on January 12, 2022. Who else could unite the full spectrum of the pop pantheon,...

For all the grandiose backing tracks assembled in the Gold Star Studios between 1962 and 1966, there was nothing to match the overwhelming into-the-red chorus of love and reverence that met the passing of Ronnie Spector on January 12, 2022. Who else could unite the full spectrum of the pop pantheon, from the heavenly Brian Wilson to the infernal Keith Richards, from Ariana to Zendaya, not to mention Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Elton John, Joan Jett and Morrissey?

What were we mourning? On the face of it, it seems a slender achievement: a handful of singles across 1963-66, only one of which went Top 10. A solitary album, which barely scraped into the Top 100. A version of “Frosty The Snowman” on a brazenly shameless Christmas compilation. And a series of doggedly hopeful comebacks from the ’70s onwards that never really found an audience.

And yet – let’s put it plainly – if you measure an artist by the strength and depth of the response they provoke, then Ronnie Spector is one of the greatest pop artists of the last 60 years. In fact, it’s a tribute to the era that Ronnie co-founded and defined that it meant a mixed race teenage girl from Washington Heights could make a reasonable claim to immortality armed with not much more than industrial quantities of Cleopatra eyeliner and Aquanet SuperHold, a scrappy, wavering, heartfelt voice born out of a schoolgirl infatuation with Frankie Lymon, a sensational smoulder and shimmy, and a certain indomitable East Harlem defiance.

Pop songs are spells. Most work their magic for a season, borne aloft by passing currents of adolescent spirit and commercial whim and, if they’re lucky, they retain some faded charm for those they once seduced. Seventy years on, so many of the greatest hits of early rock’n’roll now sound antique, like something from the days of horse-drawn carriages, gramophones and daguerreotypes.

But mysteriously, through some uncanny force in their framing and performance, a few slip free of their time. As Ezra Pound almost put it: “A great pop song is news that stays news”. And no pop song has stayed new over six decades as successfully as “Be My Baby”, first released roaring into the summer of 1963, and roaming ever since, like some inexhaustible tropical cyclone – Hurricane Ronnie – across the airwaves, screens and senses of the world.

Kjartan Sveinsson rejoins Sigur Rós after nearly a decade

Rhian Daly
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Kjartan Sveinsson rejoins Sigur Rós after nearly a decade
Kjartan Sveinsson has rejoined Sigur Rós nearly a decade after he left, the band have announced on Instagram. Sveinsson was previously a member of the group from 1998, leaving in 2013 to “do something different”. ORDER NOW: Johnny Marr is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut REA...

Kjartan Sveinsson has rejoined Sigur Rós nearly a decade after he left, the band have announced on Instagram.

Sveinsson was previously a member of the group from 1998, leaving in 2013 to “do something different”.

The multi-instrumentalist was not replaced following his departure, with Jónsi telling Paste that year: “We never thought about getting somebody else to replace him. I think we just wanted to keep on with the three of us.”

Sigur Rós have now shared a screenshot of a video call featuring Jónsi, Georg “Goggi” Holm and Sveinsson. “Two old faces and one new old face,” they captioned the post. “Three of us happy to be back together and doing what we love doing. Exciting times ahead.”

Although keyboard player, guitarist and flautist Sveinsson is back in the line-up, the band remains without a drummer since the departure of Orri Páll Dýrason in 2018. Dýrason was accused of sexual assault by a fan on Instagram that year and stepped down from his position in the group, although he denied the allegations.

Sigur Rós have released one studio album since Sveinsson’s departure, 2013’s Kveikur.

In 2020, they released the collaborative soundtrack album Odin’s Raven Magic with Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Steindór Andersen, Páll Guðmundsson and Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir. The composition originally served as an orchestral score to a poem by Hrafnagaldr Óðins and was created in 2002.

Last year, Jónsi released his latest solo album, Obsidian, alongside a visual art installation of the same name.

The exhibit was on view at New York’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery and featured a plinth encircled by more than 200 speakers, sculptures made from resin and obsidian glass, and a sound installation centred around an armature piece adorned with flower-shaped metal discs.

Introducing the new issue of Uncut

Michael Bonner
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Introducing the new issue of Uncut
One of my favourite things in this issue of Uncut are the recollections from Kate Bush fans, who attended her signing session for The Dreaming at Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street during 1982. As you’d imagine, they’re full of heart-warming detail. The couple in the queue who passed round their ...

One of my favourite things in this issue of Uncut are the recollections from Kate Bush fans, who attended her signing session for The Dreaming at Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street during 1982. As you’d imagine, they’re full of heart-warming detail. The couple in the queue who passed round their Walkman so everyone got a chance to hear The Dreaming, the young fan who gave Kate a fluffy lion as a present, the friendships made on that day that have endured for 40 years… if anything, these stories remind us of the very deep connection we all have with our favourite artists. A reminder of why we do what we do here at Uncut and who we do it for.

I’d hope that this month’s Uncut features a high quotient of your favourite artists, of course. Aside from Peter Watts’ excellent piece on Bush as she pivots into her imperial phase, Graeme Thomson assembles a host of Nick Drake’s collaborators and acolytes to hymn Pink Moon as it turns 50, there’s Stephen Troussé’s peerless tribute to Ronnie Spector, Laura Barton’s deep profile of Fontaines D.C. and Rob Hughes’ valiant attempts to track down the elusive Tom Verlaine. As usual, we endeavour to bring you as eclectic a mix as possible, so within these pages you’ll also find Slint, Cowboy Junkies and Amon Düül II, Shane MacGowan, Aldous Harding and Son House as well as the unveiling of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood’s new band The Smile.

I should also add that Tom has outdone himself with this month’s CD, which rounds up 15 new folk visionaries. We’ve subtitled it Sounds Of The New Weird Albion, which deliberately echoes our Sounds Of The New West compilations. Those CDs helped crystallise a key part of Uncut’s aesthetic: here was new music that existed in a proud cultural tradition; which respected the old ways but simultaneously made fresh currency out of them. The same methodology is shared, I think, by the likes of Jim Ghedi, Sam Lee, Michael Tanner, Modern Nature, Waterless Hills and more – as you’ll discover on our CD.

As ever, please enjoy this issue of Uncut. We’ll see you back here next month for a very special issue…

Kurt Vile announces new album, (watch my moves)

Michael Bonner
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Kurt Vile announces new album, (watch my moves)
Kurt Vile has announced details of a new album, (watch my moves). ORDER NOW: Kate Bush is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut The album is released on April 15 through his new label, Verve Records. You can watch the video for "Like Exploding Stones" here: https://www.youtube.com/...

Kurt Vile has announced details of a new album, (watch my moves).

The album is released on April 15 through his new label, Verve Records.

You can watch the video for “Like Exploding Stones” here:

The album’s fifteen tracks include a cover of Bruce Springsteen‘s “Wages Of Sin”.

The album was recorded at OKV Central— Vile’s newly created home studio in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia — and self-produced along with help from longtime collaborator Rob Schnapf. In addition to Schnapf, Vile’s longtime band, The Violators, the album features special guests including Sun Ra Arkestra’s James Stewart, Cate Le Bon and percussionists Stella Mozgawa and Sarah Jones.

The tracklisting for (watch my moves) is:
Goin on a Plane Today
Flyin (like a fast train)
Palace of OKV in Reverse
Like Exploding Stones
Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone)
Hey Like a Child
Jesus on a Wire
Fo Sho
Cool Water
Chazzy Don’t Mind
(shiny things)
Say the Word
Wages Of Sin
kurt runner
Stuffed Leopard

Neil Young debunks conspiracy theory that Pfizer invested in his music publishing

David James Young
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Neil Young debunks conspiracy theory that Pfizer invested in his music publishing
Neil Young has spoken out over a developing conspiracy theory that his music publishing is overseen by pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer – the company behind one of the most widely-used COVID-19 vaccines. ORDER NOW: Johnny Marr is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Neil Y...

Neil Young has spoken out over a developing conspiracy theory that his music publishing is overseen by pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer – the company behind one of the most widely-used COVID-19 vaccines.

In a since-deleted letter posted to his Neil Young Archives website (as transcribed by Stereogum), Young addressed the circulated belief his views on vaccines were dictated to him by Pfizer – who, according to the conspiracy theory, own Young’s music publishing.

The misunderstanding stems from the fact that a former CEO at Pfizer now serves as a senior advisor for asset manager Blackstone, which currently has a partnership with music publisher Hipgnosis – with whom Young presently works.

Young described the conspiracy theory as “clever but wrong” in the letter, while also quipping “so much for Pharm Aid” – a reference to both the common conspiracy theory trope of “big pharma” and Farm Aid, the annual benefit concert he is a board memebr of.

“The publishing share Hipgnosis has in my copyrights is in the Hipgnosis Songs Fund, that is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange,” Young explained.

“The Blackstone investment went into a separate Hipgnosis Private Fund, and none of that money was used for the Hipgnosis Songs Fund. Pfizer has not invested in Hipgnosis, but a past Pfizer CEO is a senior advisor for Blackstone.”

The conspiracy theory is part of an ongoing conservative backlash against Young – most recently expressed by right-wing American rock musician Ted Nugent, who described Young as a “stoner birdbrain punk” for his recent protest against Spotify and Joe Rogan.

Young removed his catalogue of albums from Spotify last month to protest the platform having Rogan’s podcast The Joe Rogan Experience as an exclusive to the service. Young believes Rogan is responsible for spreading misinformation regarding COVID-19 vaccines, and has since urged employees of Spotify to quit their jobs over Rogan’s platforming.

“To the workers at Spotify, I say [Spotify CEO] Daniel Ek is your big problem – not Joe Rogan,” he wrote. “Get out of that place before it eats up your soul. The only goals stated by Ek are about numbers – not art, not creativity.”

Uncut – April 2022

Uncut
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Uncut – April 2022
HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME Kate Bush​​, Nick Drake, Ronnie Spector, Fontaines D.C., Television’s Tom Verlaine, John McLaughlin, Slint, Aldous Harding, Cowboy Junkies, The Coral and all feature in the new Uncut, dated April 2022 and in UK shops from February 17 or available to bu...

HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME

Kate Bush​​, Nick Drake, Ronnie Spector, Fontaines D.C., Television’s Tom Verlaine, John McLaughlin, Slint, Aldous Harding, Cowboy Junkies, The Coral and all feature in the new Uncut, dated April 2022 and in UK shops from February 17 or available to buy online now. This issue comes with an exclusive free CD, comprising 15 tracks of the month’s best new music.

KATE BUSH: Donkeys and didgeridoos. Celtic ballads and ethno-pop. Harry Houdini and the Star Wars Cantina theme. Heady experimentation and creative freedom. Welcome to The Dreaming: Kate Bush’s “she’s gone mad” album – and the record that ushered in her imperial phase. “‘Wuthering Heights’ gave Kate licence to do what she wanted,” one eyewitness tells Peter Watts. “With The Dreaming, she took it as far as she could possibly go.”

OUR FREE CD! BLACKWATERSIDE: SOUNDS OF THE WEIRD NEW ALBION: 15 tracks from the 15 best new folk visionaries, including songs by Michael Tanner, The Left Outsides, Cath & Phil Tyler, Henry Parker, Rob St John, Burd Ellen, Waterless Hills and more.

This issue of Uncut is available to buy by clicking here – with FREE delivery to the UK and reduced delivery charges for the rest of the world.

Inside the issue, you’ll find:

NICK DRAKE: Nick Drake’s Pink Moon is 50 this month. To celebrate, Uncut has assembled friends, peers and acolytes – including Richard Thompson, Vashti Bunyan, Mark Eitzel, Joan Shelley and Joe Boyd – to explore favourite songs from the visionary singer-songwriter’s starkly beautiful swansong. Which will you love the best..?

RONNIE SPECTOR: One of the most distinctive voices in pop music fell silent last month – a combination of street toughness and tenderness, a trademark vibrato and raw, unschooled energy. First, Stephen Troussé pays tribute to Ronnie Spector, then – in an unpublished archive interview – Ronnie herself holds forth on her peerless run of 45s, hanging with The Beatles, the Boss and the New York punks and more. Finally, Nedra Talley-Ross, the last surviving Ronette, celebrates the life of her bandmate and cousin: “She was my breath.”

FONTAINES D.C.: From valiant outsiders to rock’n’roll heroes, Fontaines D.C. have learned to be true to themselves. But how will a move away from Dublin, their home city, impact on their long-held camaraderie? “We’re there in the corner, not really fitting in,” they tell Laura Barton.

TOM VERLAINE: Forty-five years on, Marquee Moon remains an unassailable classic. But what of Television’s guiding light, the elusive Tom Verlaine? Drawing on memories of exacting working methods, Froggy The Gremlin and Television’s unfinished fourth studio album, collaborators and bandmates separate fact from friction. “He’s remained true to himself over all the years,” hears Rob Hughes, “He’s following his instincts.”

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN: A virtuoso visionary, John McLaughlin has steered his music into some very heavy places. He gave lessons to Jimmy Page, helped Miles Davis go electric, communed with Alice Coltrane and pioneered a monumental new sound with his own Mahavishnu Orchestra. But what lies behind his tireless quest for transcendence? “I wanted to make music that takes you into the stratosphere,” he tells John Lewis.

SLINT: The making of “Good Morning Captain”.

AMON DÜÜL II: Album by album with the German rock band.

ALDOUS HARDING: A hard act to follow: outsider artist forces the doors of perception.

CLICK TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

In our expansive reviews section, we take a look at new records from Midlake, Judy Collins, Carson McHone, The Weather Station, Andy Bell, Binker & Moses, Duncan Marquiss, and more, and archival releases from Son House, The Coral, Tinariwen, Irma Thomas, Ornette Coleman and others. We catch IDLES and The Smile live; among the films, DVDs and TV programmes reviewed are Paris, 13th District, Flee, The Real Charlie Chaplin, Red Rocket and The Duke; while in books there’s David Bowie and Fat White Family.

Our front section, meanwhile, features Shane MacGowan, Loney Hutchins, Sarah Records, Ano Nobo Quartet and Jeremy Ivey, while, at the end of the magazine, Judy Collins reveals the records that have soundtracked her life.

You can pick up a copy of Uncut in the usual places, where open. But otherwise, readers all over the world can order a copy from here.

CLICK TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

Wilco are in the studio “chipping away at a new record”

Charlotte Krol
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Wilco are in the studio “chipping away at a new record”
Wilco's Jeff Tweedy has said the band are in the studio working on their 12th album. ORDER NOW: Johnny Marr is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Introducing the Ultimate Music Guide to Wilco Tweedy, who revealed the news in his Substack on Friday (February 11), explaine...

Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy has said the band are in the studio working on their 12th album.

Tweedy, who revealed the news in his Substack on Friday (February 11), explained to fans that his correspondence had been more irregular of late owing to the fact that Wilco are making the follow-up to 2019’s Ode To Joy.

“I’ve been in the studio with Wilco making some new music, chipping away at a new record. It’s been very very very fun and exciting. We’re having a great time,” Tweedy said in a time-lapse video that showed the band busy at work.

He also teased that fans might be able to hear new music soon.

Wilco Jeff Tweedy
Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. Image: Erika Goldring / WireImage

“If I can get everybody in he Wilco brain trust on board maybe I’ll share a snippet of a work-in-progress or something like that over the weekend behind the paywall,” he added.

The news follows Wilco announcing recently six shows this April to celebrate 20 years since the release of the band’s acclaimed fourth album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

The shows, announced earlier this month (February 8), will see the band play the album in its entirety every night. The shows have been sub-titled We Are Touring To Break Your Heart, a reference to the album’s opening song, “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart”.

Five shows will take place at the United Palace in New York City, while a further two shows will take place in the band’s native Chicago at the Auditorium Theater. Chicago is also where the band recorded Yankee Hotel Foxtrot itself, at their studio The Loft.

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