Ocean

As the sky threatens to rain, we head into the safety of the Uncut tent to see Alela Diane.

A message that one of the Uncut team, Bud Scoppa, had filed his Top 25 tracks of the last six months inspired me this morning to do something similar.

A couple of records today that I’ve mysteriously failed to write about over the past month or two, both excellent.

I was making some notes on the new Sonic Youth album, “The Eternal”, this morning, when it occurred to me that writing “pop” down again and again was pretty absurd – one of those delusional fallacies that people who don’t listen to too much actual pop have, I guess, when a rock band starts working in a notionally punchy way.

See the 'Farm' track listing here

Read the full transcript from Uncut's Neil Young Archives Cover Story here

First off, an important plug for Allan's blog, where he's posted a preview of the new Bob Dylan album, "Together Through Life". No copy in the Uncut office as yet, but I'll try and write something myself when it turns up.

Read the full transcript from the Uncut cover feature here!

One today that I think might interest a few of you. “Embrace” is the debut album by a Santa Cruz sextet called Sleepy Sun, who you could place as very much part of a new wave of Californian heavy psych. Since we were talking about the area’s titan trees on Friday, this quote from the band stood out: “It comes more from Northern California itself more than any scene or city. There is truly nowhere on Earth like our little corner of the country where the redwoods smother the ocean.”

Biggish news this week, with the arrival of Neil Young’s new album, “Fork In The Road”, Neil’s collaboration with Booker T and The Drive-By Truckers, and the second solo joint by ex-Trucker Jason Isbell, which makes me feel like I’ve been moving in ever decreasing circles for the past couple of days.