State of grace

Hook, Sumner, Morris – and Cunningham – return revived and reinspired in their 25th year

Fifth album from soft-rock maestro: a bittersweet farewell to his hometown

The follow-up to 2001's All Is Dream.

Southern-boy sensations experience growing pains on difficult second album

Ed Hamell – aka one-man folk-punk-poet-rock’n’roll protest singer Hamell On Trial and Uncut’s man in NYC – on the Republicans in New York and wild scenes in Alaska.

Athenian trio deliver alternative state of the union address on sombre 14th album

Birth of the Chinese empire, with jaw-dropping visuals

It's an odd time to evaluate Paul Simon's solo career in light of his successful 2004 reunion tour with Art Garfunkel. But maybe all that boomer nostalgia needs a little levity, and the sweep of his solo work proves Simon has never dwelled on the past. The Studio Recordings 1972-2000 is that rare bird—an attempt to collect an artist's entire oeuvre.

Texan noiseniks battle big beards and beer monsters to find life in the old rock yet

K7! Given her wonderfully insolent and vital contributions to Matthew Herbert's previous musical endeavours (most notably on 2001's Bodily Functions), this debut album from singer Dani Siciliano is long overdue. Indeed, the record has taken some three years to come together, Siciliano having invested in a basic home studio and learnt from scratch how to assemble the 11 performances featured here. And how do they sound?