Swirl

A few nice things arrived in the Uncut office today. One was a big compilation of Finnish psychedelic music from the late '60s and early '70s, which I can't wait to investigate properly. The second was another lavish raid on the Elektra catalogue, this time a 2CD set called "There Is A River" which collects the first three albums (plus outtakes) of David Ackles.

Conor Oberst makes great, Dylanesque, leap forward

I suspect few records released in 2007 are going to provoke as much argument as this second Arcade Fire album, "Neon Bible". A week before the official release date, you can already feel it coming, as inexorable as the tidal waves and imprecations of doom that fill Win Butler's lyrics.

You’ll have to excuse me if I sound as hoarse as a hacksaw this morning and seem more than a little rough around the edges, but I am in slow recovery from an extraordinary night in the company of The Hold Steady, who for today at least are officially the best rock’n’roll band on the planet.

Delicate mini-album from Idaho minstrel

And She's Got Tarnation In Tow

Uncut reviews Ang Lee's 'gay western' - as it's been dubbed.

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

As a rule of thumb, most of those vertigo albums that didn't sell in the early '70s now go for silly money on eBay. The reason they didn't sell is that most of them were crap. Jade Warrior were a cut above. True, they couldn't make up their minds whether they wanted to be Cream or Jethro Tull, so they settled for a drum-free combination of both. The swirling flutes and abrasive guitars bring a certain restless beauty to "Dragonfly Day", "Psychiatric Sergeant" and "Sundial Song", although the carefully crafted textures are often let down by mediocre lyrics

Mouthy agit-rock trio trade spiky bombast for mellow elegance