Hit Singles

Hit Singles

Hear new Bright Eyes’ track, “Bells & Whistles”

Bright Eyes have shared a track “Bells & Whistles” from their forthcoming album, Five Dice, All Threes. You can hear the track below. THE NEW UNCUT COMES WITH A FREE, ULTRA-COLLECTABLE JOHN LENNON CD – ORDER A COPY HERE Five Dice, All Threes is released on September 20 via Dead Oceans. Advertisement [embedded content] Of the track, Conor Oberst says, “This is a song about the many little details in life that can seem insignificant or frivolous or temporary at the time but eventually end up forming your destiny. And it’s also kind of a whistle while you work scenario.” Comprised of Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, Five Dice, All Threes is the band’s 10th studio album and features guest performances from Cat Power, The National’s Matt Berninger and The So So Glos’ Alex Orange Drink. The tracklisting for the album is: Advertisement Five Dice Bells and Whistles El Capitan Bas Jan Ader Tiny Suicides All Threes Rainbow Overpass Hate Real Feel 105° Spun Out Trains Still Run On Time The Time I Have Left Tin Soldier Boy The band also tour the UK and EU: 10th November – Wolverhampton, UK – Wulfrun Hall 11th November – London, UK – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire 12th November – Nijmegen, Netherlands – Doornroosje… Read More →

Hit Singles

The Best Of 2024 – Halftime Report

First off, a gentle reminder that our excellent new issue of Uncut is in the shops now, featuring a free John Lennon CD and an Ultimate Music Guide sampler to all Lennon’s solo albums. Inside, there’s a ton of typically great stuff, including Blondie, Steve Marriott, Love, Linda Thompson, Irma Thomas, Rich Ruth and Joanna Newsom. Anyway full details about the new Uncut are here, in case you missed them. As is tradition abound now, I rounded up my favourite albums from so far; specifically releases from January 1 until June 30. I’ve listed them here in order of release – just to be painfully clear, this is very much my personal choice and is in no way representative of the Uncut writers in general… Advertisement TAROTPLANE Improvisations For Echo Guitar (Bandcamp) LISTEN | BUY Advertisement BILL RYDER-JONES Iechyd Da (Domino) LISTEN | BUY BROWN HORSE Reservoir (Loose) LISTEN | BUY GRUFF RHYS Sadness Sets Me Free (Rough Trade) LISTEN | BUY THE SMILE Wall Of Eyes (XL) LISTEN | BUY ARIEL KALMA, JEREMIAH CHIU & MARTA SOFIA HONER The Closest Thing To Silence (International Anthem) LISTEN | BUY ITASCA Imitation Of War (Paradise Of Bachelors) LISTEN | BUY BRITTANY HOWARD What Now… Read More →

Hit Singles

Read Bob Dylan’s set list for the Outlaw Festival

Bob Dylan opened his run of shows as part of this year’s Outlaw Festival last night (June 21) at the Ameris Bank Amphitheatre, in Alpharetta, Georgia. THE NEW UNCUT COMES WITH A FREE, ULTRA-COLLECTABLE JOHN LENNON CD – ORDER A COPY HERE Dylan played a totally different set to the Rough And Rowdy Ways Tour. Jim Keltner joined the band on drums. Advertisement Meanwhile, Willie Nelson will miss the first three dates of the touring festival on doctor’s orders. His son Lukas Nelson and the Family Band will perform a special set featuring some of his songs. Here’s the set-list for Dylan, courtesy of Boblinks. Alpharetta, GeorgiaAmeris Bank Amphitheatre, June 21, 2024 1. My Babe (Bob on piano) (song by Little Walter) 2. Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ (Bob on piano) 3. Simple Twist Of Fate (Bob on piano) 4. Little Queenie (Bob on piano) (song by Chuck Berry) 5. Mr. Blue (Bob on piano) (song written by DeWayne Blackwell) 6. Pay In Blood (Bob on piano) 7. Cold Cold Heart (Bob on piano) (song written by Hank Williams) 8. Early Roman Kings (Bob on piano) 9. Under The Red Sky (Bob on piano) 10. Things Have Changed (Bob on piano) 11. The Fool (Bob on piano) (song written by Naomi Ford… Read More →

Hit Singles

Willie Vlautin interviewed: “When my life got bad, I disappeared into records”

When Willy Vlautin says The Horse is his most autobiographical book, it’s a cause for alarm. As a novelist and songwriter with The Delines and Richmond Fontaine, Vlautin has always mined a deep seam of melancholy. But The Horse’s embrace of bleakness is startling. The story centres on Al, a jobbing songwriter living alone in the high desert in winter, whose depressive isolation is punctured when a blind horse appears outside his shack. THE NEW UNCUT COMES WITH A FREE, ULTRA-COLLECTABLE JOHN LENNON CD – ORDER A COPY HERE It was inspired by the time Vlautin went camping in central Nevada. “My friend and I were driving out in the middle of nowhere, near a salt flat,” he explains. “There were no trees, not even sagebrush, no water for 20-50 miles, and suddenly there’s this blind horse. It stopped me in my tracks. A couple of days later we came across an old mining claim, and this old shack that you could tell somebody lived in for a while. I was feeling pretty rough anyway. I was like, ‘Man, I think I’m gonna stay here and call it a life.’ My friend laughed at me. That’s where the book started,… Read More →

Hit Singles

We’re New Here – Landless

If traditional music from Dublin seems to be having its moment in the spotlight – most notably as a result of Lankum’s recent critical and commercial success – it’s only because the world is starting to pay attention. Lily Power, Méabh Meir, Ruth Clinton and Sinéad Lynch have been performing together as Landless for more than a decade, their paths crossing in college, through Dublin’s Sacred Harp traditional singing community and in the clubs that hosted the likes of Lankum and Lisa O’Neill in the early 2010s. THE NEW UNCUT COMES WITH A FREE, ULTRA-COLLECTABLE JOHN LENNON CD – ORDER A COPY HERE In 2018, they released their debut album Bleaching Bones, an extraordinary, entirely unaccompanied collection of traditional songs, helmed by False Lankum producer John “Spud” Murphy (you may have heard their stunning version of “The Well Below The Valley” on the recent Uncut covermount CD, The Planet That You’re On). Forthcoming follow-up Lúireach, again produced by Murphy, is no less extraordinary, with its careful use of instruments – pump organ, shruti box, fiddle and banjo from Lankum’s Cormac MacDiarmada, plus Alex Borwick’s trombone on album opener “The Newry Highwayman” – augmenting the four-part harmonies that remain the heart… Read More →

Hit Singles

The Beach Boys

“It’s miraculous that we’ve lasted 60 years,” says Mike Love at the start of Disney +’s new Beach Boys documentary. “But the reason we’ve lasted so long is because we’re family.” By my estimation this is the eighth or ninth attempt to bring the group’s story to the screen. It’s hard to say that any of them have been entirely successful. But you possibly need some unholy combination of Paul and Wes Anderson, David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino to really capture the innocence, glee, wonder, grandeur, goofiness, trauma, madness, horror, squalor and grief of this particular peculiar American saga. THE NEW UNCUT COMES WITH A FREE, ULTRA-COLLECTABLE JOHN LENNON CD – ORDER A COPY HERE With the best of intentions, most recent attempts have joined in the construction of The Holy Cathedral of Brian Wilson. I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times (1995), Endless Harmony (1998), Beautiful Dreamer (2004), Love & Mercy (2014) and Long Promised Road (2021) have each in their own way been dedicated to the sainted psychedelic savant. As Don Was (one of the few insightful talking heads lined up here) says: Phil Spector’s productions felt like they were in black and white, but Brian took pop… Read More →

Hit Singles

Joana Serrat – Big Wave

Big Wave starts with a big bang. A track called “The Cord” that in a little over three pummelling minutes upends most available notions of what to expect from a Joana Serrat record, the song ending with its chorus repeated by a voice like something lifted from the soundtrack of a low-budget ’80s horror film involving demonic possession or a field recording of a voodoo exorcism. Disconcerting isn’t quite the word, but it will have to do. THE NEW UNCUT COMES WITH A FREE, ULTRA-COLLECTABLE JOHN LENNON CD – ORDER A COPY HERE The precocious Catalan singer-songwriter’s first couple of albums – The Relief Sessions (2012) and Dear Grand Canyon (2014) – mostly mixed handsome fingerpicking folk and country rock. Tracks like “Flowers On The Hillside”, “The Blizzard” and “So Clear” meanwhile essayed a kind of dreampop that recalled quintessential shoegazers Slowdive, whose Neil Halstead was a guest on 2016’s Cross The Verge, produced like Dear Grand Canyon by early Arcade Fire member Howard Bilerman, who’d been impressed by a demo tape Serrat sent him. Advertisement For her next album, she wanted a more expansive sound and found it in Texas, at Israel Nash’s Plum Creek Studios, where she recorded… Read More →

Hit Singles

Introducing Uncut’s exclusive, ultra-collectible John Lennon CD

The August 2024 issue of Uncut is packed full of goodies for the discerning John Lennon fan. As well as our cover story – a deep dive into Lennon’s creative but turbulent 1973/’74 – there’s a stunning Collector’s Cover, a mini Ultimate Music Guide to all Lennon’s solo albums and a unique, ultra-collective CD featuring new mixes, outtakes and more from the upcoming Mind Games deluxe edition box set. Now read on… THE NEW UNCUT COMES WITH A FREE, ULTRA-COLLECTABLE JOHN LENNON CD – ORDER A COPY HERE This month’s Uncut CD is rather special. Compiled exclusively for us by the John Lennon estate, it features nine songs taken from the deluxe Mind Games boxset. Why nine, you may ask? Nine was Lennon’s favourite number – present in songs like “One After 909” to “Revolution 9” and “#9 Dream” – and Mind Games was recorded during a period when Lennon and Yoko Ono were re-engaging with their interests in esoteric subjects, exploring everything from palmistry to numerology. Advertisement The deluxe Mind Games boxset includes brand new mixes, outtakes and audio documentaries that explore the evolution of each song, from piano demos recorded at Lennon’s home in Surrey through recording sessions… Read More →

Hit Singles

Introducing the Ultimate Music Guide: Fleetwood Mac

Gold dust! The 172-page, Definitive Edition Decades before Beyoncé, Fleetwood Mac were taking relationship lemons, and serving them up to the world as lemonade. Whether it was maintaining continuity against unlikely odds after the departure of their original guiding light Peter Green or turning their personal intrigues into melodic gold with Rumours, the band’s coping strategy became a key marketing point – as the band crested each vicissitude with an outpouring of new songs. Still, even a band which doesn’t shy away from motivational affirmations (see: “Don’t Stop!” “On With The Show”) might have to acknowledge that the passing of Christine McVie in 2022 likely spells an end to any subsequent reformations of Fleetwood Mac, a band that created spellbinding music for its reliably enormous audiences for over 50 years. Even Mr Resilient himself, Mick Fleetwood, admits these days it would be “a tall order” to do anything as Fleetwood Mac. “…But stranger things have happened.” Advertisement It’s the band’s incredible legacy that we celebrate in this 172-page definitive edition of our Ultimate Music Guide to Fleetwood Mac. From our curated selection of classic interviews, you can enjoy a vivid inside track on the band’s saga, its key players and… Read More →

Hit Singles

‘Lost’ Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan album to be released

A new album of unheard recordings by the Pakistani music icon Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan will be released on September 20, 34 years after they were recorded. The ‘lost album’ — named Chain Of Light — was discovered in the tape archives of Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records, the label that signed Khan in 1989 and released a series of universally acclaimed albums with him throughout the 1990s. THE NEW UNCUT COMES WITH A FREE, ULTRA-COLLECTABLE JOHN LENNON CD – ORDER A COPY HERE You can watch a teaser for the album below: The album is available on CD, standard LP and limited edition LP. You can pre-order the album here. A feature-length documentary film Ustad will premiere in late 2025 Joined by his eight-strong party of singers and musicians, Chain of Light presents four traditional qawwals (Sufi Islamic devotional songs) — including one which has never been heard before. The recording was made at Real World Studios in April 1990, during the same time he worked on Mustt Mustt with Canadian producer Michael Brook.

Hit Singles

Thurston Moore shares new track, “Sans Limites”

Thurston Moore has shared a new track, “Sans Limites“, taken from his new studio album, Flow Critical Lucidity. THE NEW UNCUT COMES WITH A FREE, ULTRA-COLLECTABLE JOHN LENNON CD – ORDER A COPY HERE You can hear “Sans Limites” below. Flow Critical Lucidity will be released on Moore’s Daydream Library Series record label on September 20. The album was arranged at La Becque in Switzerland and recorded at Total Refreshment Studios in London in 2022, and mixed at Hermitage Studios in London with Margo Broom in 2023. The musicians are: Vocals, Guitar: Thurston MooreBass: Deb GoogeElectronics: Jon LeideckerPiano, organ, guitar, glockenspiel: James SedwardsPercussion: Jem DoultonBacking vocals: Laetitia Sadier on “Sans Limites”Lyrics: Radieux Radio, except “Shadow” The tracklisting is: New In TownSans LimitesShadowHypnogramWe Get HighRewildingThe Diver(Bonus Track Included On A Clear Flexi Disc) – “Isadora (Bedazzled Mix)” When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Hit Singles

Uncut – August 2024

HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME John Lennon, Blondie, Steve Marriott, Love, Linda Thompson, Joanna Newsom, Irma Thomas, Sebadoh, The Last Poets, Rich Ruth, Mike Campbell, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Pearl Jam, Sebadoh, Drive-By Truckers, Sex Pistols, Stax, Lambchop and more all feature in Uncut‘s August 2024 issue, in UK shops from June 21 or available to buy online now. All print copies come with a free, ultra-collectable John Lennon CD – featuring nine tracks from the upcoming deluxe Mind Games box set – plus an Ultimate Music Guide sampler to all John Lennon’s solo albums Advertisement INSIDE THIS MONTH’S UNCUT: JOHN LENNON: Amid the turbulence of 1973, the troubled ex-Beatle found creative sustenance in Mind Games – an album steeped in cosmic benevolence, emotional heft, introspection and love. “Its my dad getting back on track,” Sean Ono Lennon tells us BLONDIE: In an exclusive extract from his memoir Under A Rock, Chris Stein remembers a high life and hard times in NYC: 1974 Advertisement LOVE: Talismanic guitarist Johnny Echols and more explore the rich legacy of America’s most mercurial band LINDA THOMPSON: The British folk siren finds new outlets for her creative spirit IRMA THOMAS: The Soul Queen… Read More →

Hit Singles

Introducing the new Uncut… and our ultra-collectable John Lennon CD!

HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME SO the cat’s finally out of the bag. Welcome to the new issue of Uncut, which I guess you’ll have noticed by now, comes with a very special CD. Next month sees the release of Mind Games: The Ultimate Edition – a deep dive into John Lennon’s 1973 album overseen by Sean Ono Lennon. We’re honoured to present an exclusive, ultra-collectable nine-track Mind Games CD, curated for us by the John Lennon Estate, full of new mixes that shine fresh light on Lennon’s working practices. We hope you agree, it’s a great way in to the marvellous work done by Sean and his team. “We’ve really tried to include everything we possibly can and we’re really looking forward to hearing people’s feedback,” Sean confides to us. “I’m very proud of the work we’ve done on an album that has always meant a lot to me personally.” Advertisement HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME You’ll also find an in-depth exploration of all Lennon’s solo albums in our Ultimate Music Guide sampler, and a terrific cover story from Peter Watts. Of course, there’s more than just ex-Beatles in the mix: Tom Pinnock’s… Read More →

Hit Singles

Come and talk to Uncut!

We would like to get to understand more about what you do, what you like, what music you listen to and more. Complete our reader survey and – to say thank you – you can choose to enter our prize draw for the chance to win one of 3 HMV vouchers worth £100 each. Please click here to take part.

Hit Singles

Foo Fighters – Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, June 15

Opening for a band with a fearsome live reputation in front of 50,000 of their fans could present a challenge as well as an opportunity, but Courtney Barnett strolls on strumming her guitar as if she’s taking everything in her stride. Her slacker cool and sassy, distortion-tinged guitar pop is very well-received by an audience who can surely detect the subtle influence of Foos frontman Dave Grohl’s former band Nirvana. JONI MITCHELL IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! However, the Australian singer is very much her own woman, and she delivers witty songs about asthma attacks while gardening (“Avant Gardener”) or the realities of fame (“Pedestrian At Best”) as if she might be yelling at someone over a garden fence, were it not for her equally entertaining high-kicking and fret-melting extended guitar solos. “Put me on a pedestal and I’ll only disappoint you,” she sings, but in this vast space she lets nobody down. Advertisement It’s only 18 months since Foo Fighters were coming to terms with what a statement called “the most difficult and most tragic year our band has ever known”, but they hit the stage with a venom that suggests… Read More →

Hit Singles

Paul McCartney announces UK dates

Paul McCartney has announced a new batch of dates on his Got Back Tour, including four in the UK. JONI MITCHELL IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! McCartney’s last UK show was at Glastonbury in 2022. Advertisement “I’m excited to be ending my year and 2024 tour dates in the UK,” he says. “It’s always such a special feeling to play shows on our home soil. It’s going to be an amazing end to the year. Let’s get set to party. I can’t wait to see you.” As well as the UK, McCartney has also announced shows in France and Spain, in addition to the tour dates he announced last week for Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru. Here’s the dates… Advertisement Tuesday 1st October – Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, URUGUAY Saturday 5th October – River Plate Stadium, Bueno Aires, ARGENTINA Sunday 6th October – River Plate Stadium, Bueno Aires, ARGENTINA Friday 11th October – Estadio Monumental, Santiago, CHILE Wednesday 23rd October – Mario Alberto Kempes, Cordoba, ARGENTINA Sunday 27th October – Estadio Nacional, Lima, PERU Wednesday 4th December – La Defense Arena, Paris, FRANCE Thursday 5th December – La Defense Arena, Paris, FRANCE Monday 9th December – Wizink Centre, Madrid, SPAIN Tuesday 10th December –… Read More →

Hit Singles

Kaia Kater – Strange Medicine

It’s been a full six years since Kaia Kater’s last album, the exquisite Grenades, but she appears to have spent the time judiciously. Having undertaken a residency at the Canadian Film Centre, she’s broadened an already impressive skill set by composing TV and movie scores, which, in turn, now feed into the soundscapes of Strange Medicine. JONI MITCHELL IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! At the same time, the album finds Kater rediscovering the passion for banjo – she spent years studying Appalachian music in West Virginia – that made 2016’s Nine Pin so distinctive. The instrument foregrounds a number of songs here, though as part of larger arrangements that find space for inventive, jazz-like percussion, strings, loops, low-key brass and a smattering of electronica. The effect is often dizzyingly fresh and satisfyingly rich, as Kater explores influences as diverse as the West African kora and minimalist hero Steve Reich. “Fédon”, for instance, with guest Taj Mahal, stretches outwards from core banjo to bring semi-symphonic soul and jazz-blues into its artfully measured mix. “In Montreal” fuses a clawhammer figure to syncopated beats and a delicious Celtic fiddle break. “Mechanics Of The Mind” is… Read More →

Hit Singles

Holland-Dozier-Holland – Detroit 1969-1977

Born of Eddie Holland’s conviction that he, his brother Brian and their fellow songwriter and producer Lamont Dozier were not getting a fair share of the proceeds from the global success of Berry Gordy Jr’s Motown company in the 1960s, the Invictus and Hot Wax labels made some glorious music as that decade shaded into the next. JONI MITCHELL IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! The elder Holland set up their labels when the trio were still in dispute with Motown. As Dozier wrote in his autobiography, the lawsuits and countersuits went on for years – “long, complicated and unpleasant”. It was the sourest possible ending to a story that had helped to shape Gordy’s Sound of Young America. Not until 1971, when their contracts expired, were the three free to work for their own company under their own names. Advertisement The more urgent need was to find artists with whom to replicate their Motown success. Edna Wright, Darlene Love’s sister, was brought from LA together with Carolyn Willis and Shelly Clark to become Honey Cone, an update of the Supremes. General Norman Johnson, the former lead singer of the Showmen, whose “It… Read More →

Hit Singles

Watch all four members of R.E.M. perform together for the first time since 2007

Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry reunited for a one-off performance last night (June 14). This was the first time all four members of R.E.M. had performed together in public since their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. You can watch the footage below. JONI MITCHELL IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! Advertisement The occasion was the band’s induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York. The band – who had already appeared together in an interview for CBS Mornings – were introduced by Jason Isbell, who performed a cover of “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)”. Variety reports, Stipe then delivered a speech: “We are four people who very early on decided that we would own our own masters and we would split our royalties and songwriting credits equally — we were all for one and one for all… Some of those song we recorded turned out good, sometimes great, and what a ride it has been. It truly means the world to us to be recognized for that, and tonight we thank you… Read More →

Hit Singles

Watch all four members of R.E.M. perform live together for the first time since 2007

Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry reunited for a one-off performance last night (June 14). This was the first time all four members of R.E.M. had performed together in public since their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. You can watch the footage below. JONI MITCHELL IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! Advertisement The occasion was the band’s induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York. The band – who had already appeared together in an interview for CBS Mornings – were introduced by Jason Isbell, who performed a cover of “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)”. Variety reports, Stipe then delivered a speech: “We are four people who very early on decided that we would own our own masters and we would split our royalties and songwriting credits equally — we were all for one and one for all… Some of those song we recorded turned out good, sometimes great, and what a ride it has been. It truly means the world to us to be recognized for that, and tonight we thank you… Read More →

Hit Singles

Hear Joan As Police Woman’s new single, “Long For Ruin”

Joan Wasser, aka Joan As Police Woman, has shared a new single, “Long For Ruin”. You can hear it below. JONI MITCHELL IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! [embedded content] Wasser says, “This song refers to the human race’s seemingly willful move away from ourselves. Away from our interest in listening, in finding commonalities and compassion, communication and love. We seem intent on destroying ourselves. We seem unwilling to share resources. We seem to have turned away from ourselves and in turn each other.” Advertisement The track is taken from her upcoming studio album, Lemons, Limes & Orchids, which is released on September 20 via PIAS. You can pre-order the album here. Tracklisting for the album is: The Dream Advertisement Full Time-Heist Back Again With Hope In My Breath Long For Ruin Started Off Free Remember The Voice Oh Joan Lemons, Limes and Orchids Tribute To Holding On Safe To Say Help Is On It’s Way Lemons, Limes & Orchids is Wasser’s first album since 2021’s The Solution Is Restless made with Tony Allen and Dave Okumu. Joan As Police Woman also tours from October: ● Thursday October 3rd – Whelans, Dublin ● Friday October 4th – Whelans, Dublin ● Saturday October… Read More →