Hit Singles

Hit Singles

The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World

Dignity and despair go hand-in-hand on Songs Of A Lost World, as Robert Smith stands on the precipice of life and wonders what lies beyond. We have always known that this album would be imbued with sadness following the deaths of his parents and brother within a few years. Throughout Songs Of A Lost World, the writing is very much on the wall. Smith takes account of his life and career, asking what’s been the point of it all. “Where did it go?” he asks on stately opener “Alone” as he ponders his youthful hopes and dreams. Seven songs later, he answers that question on closing number “Endsong”. “It’s all gone”, he sings, “left alone with nothing, the end of every song”. The last word of the last song? “Nothing”. THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE “Alone” and “Endsong” are bound together in theme and sound – huge, dark clouds of synth and piano, a razor blade guitar and thunderous drums that are placed high in the mix like a heartbeat through a stethoscope. Few bands do atmosphere as well as The Cure,… Read More →

Hit Singles

Laura Marling – Patterns In Repeat

In 2020, Laura Marling released Song For Our Daughter, a metaphoric discourse with, and about, her fictional offspring. “I drew pictures of you/Long before I met you/Just a fragment of my mind,” she sang on the wistful “For You”. And so it went on: “Now that I have you/I will not forget/What a miracle you are.” THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE Conceptually at least, it was slightly out of step with her previous albums, which tended to map the emotional chorography of her journey from teenage nu-folk ingénue to singer-songwriter of serious repute. Yet there was more at play than pure imagination. For all its acoustic delicacy and gentle percussive touches, Song For Our Daughter ran deep and dark. Advertisement Marling referenced the trials of making her way in a male-dominated industry that had once encouraged her to ditch the guitar and be a ‘proper’ frontwoman instead. The same industry where factions of the press often sought to diminish and define her presence by picking over her early romantic relationships with fellow musicians. Song For Our Daughter addressed it all in abstract… Read More →

Hit Singles

Tributes paid to Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh

Phil Lesh has died aged 84. The official Instagram account for the bassist and co-founder of The Grateful Dead, said he “passed peacefully this morning” [October 25, 2024]. “He was surrounded by his family and full of love.” THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE Advertisement Lesh, who was born on March 15, 1940 in Berkeley, California, was invited to join pre-Dead band The Warlocks by his friend Jerry Garcia in 1965. When The Warlocks became The Grateful Dead, Lesh’s bass playing became critical in the evolution of the band through their many sonic adventures. After Gacia’s death in 1995, played with several touring iterations of the band – including the Other Ones, the Dead and Furthur. Advertisement In 2015, the four surviving core members of the Dead – Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir – performed together in a series of concerts, Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead. Following the news of his death, Hart, Kreutzmann and Weir paid tribute to their fallen bandmate. Today we lost a brother. Our hearts and love go out to Jill… Read More →

Hit Singles

Watch Kate Bush’s short film, Little Shrew (Snowflake)

Kate Bush has written and directed a short animation film called Little Shrew (Snowflake). THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE The film, just over 4 minutes long, depicts a little shrew searching for hope as she makes her way across a bombed-out city. Advertisement The music for the short film is a new 2024 radio edit of the track “Snowflake“, which originally appeared on Bush’s 2011 album, 50 Words For Snow. [embedded content] The film has been made in collaboration with the charity, War Child. “I started working on it a couple of years ago, it was not long after the Ukrainian war broke out, and I think it was such a shock for all of us,” Bush explained on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier today [October 25]. Advertisement Photo: press “It’s been such a long period of peace we’d all been living through. And I just felt I wanted to make a little animation that would feature, originally, a little girl. It was really the idea of children caught up in war. I wanted to draw attention to how horrific it is… Read More →

Hit Singles

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory announce debut album

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory have announced details of their self-titled debut album, which is released on February 7 via Jagjaguwar. You can hear “Afterlife” from the album below. THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE [embedded content] The album was written and recorded by Van Etten, Jorge Balbi (drums, machines), Devra Hoff (bass, vocals), and Teeny Lieberson (synth, piano, guitar, vocals) and produced by Marta Salogni. Advertisement The tracklisting for Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is: Live Forever Afterlife Advertisement Idiot Box Trouble Indio I Can’t Imagine (Why You Feel This Way) Somethin’ Ain’t Right Southern Life (What It Must Be Like) Fading Beauty I Want You Here They have also announced a string of tour dates: Friday, February 28 – Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller * Saturday, March 1 – Stockholm, SE @ Fållan * Sunday, March 2 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega * Tuesday, March 4 – Berlin, DE @ Astra Kulturhaus * Thursday, March 6 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon * Friday, March 7 – Antwerp, BE @ De Roma * Saturday, March 8 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso * Monday,… Read More →

Hit Singles

What’s up, doc?

As this year’s Doc’n Roll Film Festival unveils a new season of revelatory music films, festival co-founder Colm Forde picks out some highlights… THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE [embedded content] GODDESS OF SLIDE: THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF ELLEN McILWAINE Advertisement (Dir. Alfonso Maiorana) Ellen’s story was a revelation for me. She passed away in 2021 and had many, many lives. Born in Nashville but raised in Japan, she worked with Hendrix in New York in the ’60s, and built a huge cult following in Australia in the ’80s. Her version of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” was sampled by Fatboy Slim on “Song For Lindy”, so she was revived in the mid-’90s. Such a rich life with so many ups and downs. Pure passion, doggedness and perseverance – from the artist and the filmmakers. At the festival we feel such an affinity for that. [embedded content] THE 9 LIVES OF BARBARA DANE Advertisement (Dir. Maureen Gosling) Talking about sacrificing everything for her beliefs! Barbara Dane was a white folk and blues singer with an incredibly powerful voice. She came up through Bob Dylan’s… Read More →

Hit Singles

Bright Eyes – Five Dice, All Threes

If you’ve never understood or attempted the Yahtzee-adjacent dice game Threes, the first 100 seconds of Five Dice, All Threes should see you more or less right. This opening fanfare, the near-title track “Five Dice”, consists of a clearly experienced Threes player explaining it to some new mark: in the background, radio static punctuates the flicking of channels between opera, rock, old-timey music and old-school radio dramas. The suspicious listener may, by this point, already be forming concerns to the effect that Five Dice, All Threes is some sort of concept album. THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE Such misgivings are likely to be both reinforced and ameliorated as Five Dice, All Threes proceeds. This preamble is not the last we hear of clattering dice. There are, also, recurrent samples from the 1954 noir flick Suddenly!, in which Frank Sinatra plays a psychotic assassin with designs on the life of the US president. The conceit is not oversold, however: if there is a coherent theme underpinning Five Dice, All Threes, it is a certain anxious bewilderment about how we got here and what… Read More →

Hit Singles

Bob Dylan And The Band – The 1974 Live Recordings

In Toronto’s Maple Leaf Stadium on January 9, 1974, Bob Dylan and The Band delivered a concert including a brutally ugly “Lay Lady Lay” and a version of “Like A Rolling Stone” that didn’t so much end as collapse in a heap. Barely a week after making a solid and warmly received start to their reunion tour of 21 US cities, they had arrived in Canada, the birthplace of four members of The Band, and perhaps celebrated the homecoming not wisely but too well. At the next concert, in Montreal two nights later, Dylan was halfway through the first verse of “The Times They Are A-Changin’” when he forgot the words. THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE At that point the tour’s promoter, the legendary Bill Graham, may have had a quiet word. Those listening to the new 27-disc boxset of soundboard and multitrack recordings from the tour in strict sequence will notice that two nights later, during an afternoon show in Boston, discipline has been restored, particularly in a pin-sharp five-song solo acoustic set featuring exquisite harmonica solos, each number – including… Read More →

Hit Singles

The Dorm’s “Don’t Start”: A Hypnotic Fusion of Energy and Emotion in House Music

Swedish electronic duo The Dorm, comprised of Jonas Svensson and Linus “Lente” Johansson, continues to redefine the boundaries of electronic music with their latest release, “Don’t Start“. Known for their inventive production and emotionally driven storytelling, The Dorm delivers two dynamic tracks that demonstrate both their mastery of sound and their evolving artistic vision. “Don’t Start”, an uplifting house track, highlights The Dorm’s ability to create infectious, feel-good music while still exploring deeper emotional themes. The track opens with an electrifying beat that immediately sets a celebratory tone, drawing listeners in with its vibrant energy. The duo expertly blends catchy rhythms with soulful vocals, creating a composition that feels equally at home on the dance floor and in a more reflective listening space. With each layer, from the intricate melodies to the pulsating rhythms, The Dorm’s attention to detail shines through, showcasing their talent for crafting music that resonates on multiple levels. Thematically, “Don’t Start” taps into the tension between vulnerability and hesitation. The lyrics reflect the emotional push-and-pull often experienced in relationships. Despite the upbeat tempo, the track’s emotional undercurrent gives it a depth that elevates it beyond a typical house anthem. It’s this balance of energy and introspection… Read More →

Hit Singles

Exclusive! Stevie Van Zandt and Jon Landau on Bruce Springsteen’s Road Diary

As they sit side-by-side in a hotel room in Mayfair, Stevie Van Zandt and Jon Landau are a study in contrasts. These are Bruce Springsteen’s two right-hand men – his Will Scarlett and Little John – and they are dressed for their part. Van Zandt is head-to-toe in puce, with a paisley patterned shirt, silk trousers and red-pointed Chelsea boots, while Landau, Springsteen’s long-time manager, is in a fitted black T-shirt, looking more like the CEO of a tech company on dress-down Friday. THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE But the odd duo make a great double act, as they talk exclusively to Uncut about Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen And The E-Street Band, Thom Zimny’s new Disney+ documentary capturing the Boss and his band on tour through America and Europe in 2023 and 2024. The film shows the band getting back on the road after six years, starting with rehearsal and then travelling through US and Europe as they deliver a set focussed around Springsteen’s 2020 album Letter To You, balancing a theme of mortality with the vitality expected from an E-Street concert…. Read More →

Hit Singles

Brian Eno announces new book, What Art Does

Brian Eno has revealed details of a new book called What Art Does, created in collaboration with Dutch artist Bette A. THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE According to the press release, What Art Does “examines the function of fictional worlds – such as pop songs, detective novels, soap operas, shoe tassels and the hidden language of haircuts – and suggests a new theory of art. Why do we do it? How does it help us? And how does it hold us all together?” Advertisement What Art Does is a full colour illustrated hardback book, initially available in a limited edition of 777 signed copies, each coming with its own unique slipcase hand-painted by Eno and Bette A. This limited edition will be available exclusively from the Enoshop and shipped on December 3 – pre-order here. A black and white PDF will be available for £1 for seven days from initial release of the limited edition. All profits from the limited edition and PDF go to the charities Earth Percent and The Heroines! Movement. Hardback and ebook editions will be available on general… Read More →

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Jeff Lynne’s ELO to play farewell show at BST Hyde Park in July

BST Hyde Park have announced their first headliner for 2025 in the shape of Jeff Lynne’s ELO, who will play their final ever show at the London outdoor concert series on Sunday July 13. THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE “My return to touring began at Hyde Park in 2014,” explains Jeff Lynne. “It seems like the perfect place to do our final show. We couldn’t be more excited to share this special night in London with our UK fans. As the song goes, ‘We’re gonna do it One More Time!’” Tickets go on general sale at 9am BST on Friday (October 25), although there is also an Amex pre-sale from 10am BST today (October 21). The full line-up for the ELO show – along with BST Hyde Park’s other headliners – will be announced in due course.

Hit Singles

City To City: Introducing Gallus

In partnership with Marshall As they bicker genially over afternoon pints in a Glasgow beer garden, Gallus can agree on one thing. “We want to have fun,” says singer Barry Dolan. “That’s the goal for us. The best thing about live music is seeing a band having the time of their lives. We want people to come and forget their problems and let off steam for 45 minutes.” And the old friends go back to happily squabbling about which member originally wanted to name them The Alphabets, whether Frank Sinatra played Celtic Park or Ibrox, and how many songs they managed to get through at their debut gig before running out of material. THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE Advertisement The Glasgow five-piece were founded by cousins Eamon Ewins (guitar) and drummer Paul Ewins after they left university and realised they needed to find something to do. They recruited Dolan, a pal they hung out with at Gallus, the bar near Kelvingrove Park that ultimately supplied their name – it’s a Scottish word for bold or confident. Although Dolan had never sung before,… Read More →

Hit Singles

Live! David Gilmour at the Royal Albert Hall October 9th, 2024

David Gilmour is someone who has made a career by letting his guitar do the talking. Rather than emerging on stage in a blaze of laser light to sing a song everyone knows – that does happen, but much later – he begins his instantly sold-out run of six nights at the Albert Hall with an arguably more characteristic motion. He shuffles slowly backwards in the dark, and plays two back-to-back instrumentals from his two most recent solo albums. If at first it seems odd, there may be more wisdom in this move than is immediately obvious. You might not have a particularly deep relationship with “5AM” and “Black Cat”, but there’s a larger point being made here. Even if those songs are minor, they are instantly recognisable as being built from his sound. And that sound is much as it was in 1971: bright and glassy, a weaponised mellow. As much as his former Pink Floyd bandmate Roger Waters might like to diminish Gilmour as simply being a good guitarist and a nice singer, his remarks really only serve to illustrate Waters’ limitations as a conceptual thinker. Gilmour’s ownership of this sound – to be clear, the classic Pink… Read More →

Hit Singles

Introducing the Ultimate Music Guide: Pink Floyd Solo

The solo works of Syd, David, Roger, Rick and Nick While it began life like a thrilling and improvised space craft, by the time of its most commercially successful work, Pink Floyd was more like a corporation or a rebranded utility company. A highly-organized business with a streamlined visual message, not to mention a phenomenally high turnover. As you’ll read in this new magazine, what this initially meant for the artistic aspirations of the individual members of Pink Floyd told you a lot about the impulse to create. For David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason solo work clearly began as a release: a break from the responsibilities of the day job. Even Roger Waters, who released a weirdly playful and experimental documentary soundtrack called The Body with Ron Geesin in 1970, seems to have enjoyed himself occasionally. Advertisement When Roger Waters quit Pink Floyd in 1983, however, something changed – and solo music which had previously been a pleasing distraction assumed a far more competitive edge. For Waters, the ongoing existence of a Pink Floyd without him stung him into action: if you were in any doubt about his key contributions to the Pink Floyd albums The Wall and… Read More →

Hit Singles

Jeff Tweedy – Bearsville Theater, NY, October 13

It’s been remarkable to watch Jeff Tweedy evolve from wired young country-punk to industrious, avuncular indie-rock vet, performing “Freedom Highway” with Mavis Staples on national television during the Democratic Convention in his Chicago hometown, or presiding over Solid Sound, Wilco’s biennial festival in the Berkshire Mountains. So it’s fitting to see him perform at the Bearsville Theater, on the edges of Woodstock – stomping ground of Dylan and Todd Rundgren, minutes from The Band’s old Big Pink house, in the same room where Rick Danko’s memorial service was held. It’s sacred ground for elder statesmen of song, which is exactly what Tweedy has become. THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE Advertisement Those who follow his Starship Casual Substack, full of spare solo versions of all manner of songs (recent covers include Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place” and Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love A Bad Name”) know how affecting a busker-style storyteller he can be. Those skills are on full display tonight, the finale of a three-night solo run featuring just Tweedy and a few acoustic guitars (a series of US solo dates… Read More →

Hit Singles

Disney+ unveils new Beatles ’64 doc from Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi

Beatles ’64, an all-new documentary from producer Martin Scorsese and director David Tedeschi, will be available to stream on Disney+ from November 29. According to a press release, “The film captures the electrifying moment of The Beatles’ first visit to America. Featuring never-before-seen footage of the band and the legions of young fans who helped fuel their ascendance, the film gives a rare glimpse into when The Beatles became the most influential and beloved band of all time.” THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE Advertisement Beatles ’64 includes rare footage filmed by documentarians Albert and David Maysles, restored in 4K by Park Road Post in New Zealand. Live footage from The Beatles’ first American concert at the Coliseum in Washington, DC has been demixed by WingNut Films and remixed by Giles Martin, along with their appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. The documentary also includes new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as fans whose lives were transformed by The Beatles. In case you missed it, you can read all about The Beatles’ first trip to America – along with… Read More →

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Send us your questions for Joe Boyd!

When you write out Joe Boyd’s biography in bullet points, it looks almost unbelievable: production manager when Dylan went electric at Newport; co-founder of London’s UFO club; enabler of Britain’s folk-rock boom; music supervisor for Deliverance and A Clockwork Orange; producer of Nick Drake, Nico and REM; champion of world music via his Hannibal label. THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE All of these experiences and more have fed into his new book, a mightily impressive tome called And The Roots Of Rhythm Remain (after a lyric from Paul Simon’s Graceland). Subtitled A Journey Through Global Music, it explores – in a series of compelling anecdotes – how Western popular music is interwoven with and indebted to cultures from all around the world. Advertisement Boyd has kindly agreed to take some time out from his current book tour to submit to a gentle grilling from you, the Uncut readers. So what do you want to ask this font of all musical knowledge? Send your questions to audiencewith@uncut.co.uk and Joe will answer the best ones in a future issue of Uncut. THE CURE, BRYAN… Read More →

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Introducing the new Uncut CD – curated by Kim Deal!

The new issue of Uncut – in UK shops from today or available to order direct from us by clicking here – comes with a FREE 14-track CD curated by none other than the legendary Pixie, Breeder and now solo artist, Kim Deal. “I don’t know if it’s a driving compilation,” she explains. “But that might be good, because if it’s a real CD then a lot of readers might listen to it in their cars…” Read on for our track-by-track guide… Advertisement 1 Joy DivisionWarsawKim kicks off with the opening track from the Manchester crew’s debut EP, “An Ideal For Living”. Here are Joy Division at their punkiest, with Ian Curtis sneering and Bernard Sumner’s guitar slashing and savage. Stephen Morris’s innovative drum beat points towards their future, though. 2 Th’ Faith HealersThis TimeOne-time support act to The Breeders, this London group were bizarrely called ‘baggy metal’ back in the early ’90s – listening from 2024, though, this track, taken from their 1992 debut Lido, sounds like an impossibly cool and feral collision of Neu! and The Stooges. A rediscovery is definitely overdue. 3 OmertàKremer & BergeretA psychedelic group from the modern-day French underground, Omertà use two bass guitars… Read More →

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Robert Smith: “I thought that was the end of The Cure”

In the new issue of Uncut – in UK shops from today or available to order direct from us by clicking here – Robert Smith reveals how he almost disbanded The Cure upon reaching the group’s 40th anniversary in 2018. “I thought that the Hyde Park show would be it, I thought that was the end of The Cure,” says Smith. “I didn’t plan it, but I had a sneaky feeling that this was going to be it. But it was such a great day and such a great response, I enjoyed it so much and we gota flood of offers to headline every major European festival. ‘Do you want to play Glastonbury?’ So I thought maybe it’s not the right time to stop. “I wasn’t stopping because I didn’t want to do it any more, I just thought it would allow me a few years when I’d still be able to do something else. I wasn’t that bothered, funnily enough. I’d arranged everything to end in 2018, so when we got to 2019, I felt relieved. ‘We did it!’ I’ve had a different outlook to everything since.Pretty much everyone that died that meant something to me died prior to… Read More →

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“I actually have a six-hour cut!”

Alex Gibney is a film director who, as well as making journalistic documentaries on dozens of subjects, has also made inventive films about some key musicians, including James Brown, Fela Kuti, Frank Sinatra and now Paul Simon with In Restless Dreams: The Paul Simon Story. “It was my Sinatra film, All Or Nothing At All, that Paul Simon and his people liked,” says Gibney. “So when they sent out feelers for me to make a film about Paul, of course I was interested. I’m a huge admirer of his work and, as with Sinatra, Paul’s career is like a history of America over a 60-year period. But it got interesting when Paul said, ‘I’m working on a new album, do you wanna watch me work on it?’ So that became the entry point – we move back and forth between the history and the present day. And, as well as being a biography, it becomes an extraordinarily moving story of a great composer struggling with his loss of hearing, making an album that deals with mortality and belief and suffering and spirituality, and allowing us intimate access to his creativity during a vulnerable moment.” THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5,… Read More →