Hit Singles

Hit Singles

Ezra Feinberg – Soft Power

Every so often, an ageing agit-rocker will crawl out of the woodwork to bemoan that the abject state of our governments is not being met with suitable ire from the current generation of songwriters. Where are our Bob Dylans, our Joe Strummers, our Rage Against The Machines? Obviously this is a load of old cobblers: pop is as diverse and engaged as it’s ever been, with young musicians at the vanguard of campaigns for racial equality, social justice and a ceasefire in Gaza. You don’t need to literally write a song about it. JONI MITCHELL IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! This clamour for old-fashioned punk dissent overlooks the fact that it’s also the job of music to create utopias; that the quest for bliss is also an act of resistance. Hence the current yearning for ambient and New Age atmospheres that has united musicians from the fields of jazz, folk, electronica, neo-classical and, in this case, psychedelic rock. This mass retreat to calmer terrain is more than mere escapism – it’s an attempt to dream a better world based on principles of compassion, contemplation and consideration of beauty. Advertisement As with most… Read More →

Hit Singles

Paul Weller interviewed: “I do think the world has lost its way”

Paul Weller talks to Uncut about his new album, 66. Read the full review of the Modfather’s latest gem in the new issue of Uncut. Paul Weller is a composer who has always tended to write alone. With The Jam he recorded around 140 songs, all of which – apart from a few covers and a handful of Bruce Foxton originals – were written solely by him. His years with the Style Council might have been full of interesting collaborations and guest vocalists, but nearly all of the 100-plus songs they recorded – some Mick Talbot instrumentals aside – are credited to P Weller, as were his first decade and a half of solo albums. Since the career rebirth of 22 Dreams in 2008 (an album partly co-written with producer Simon Dine), Weller seems to have gleefully embraced the professional collaboration. Advertisement Noel, Bobby Gillespie, Suggs and others help out on the Modfather’s collab-happy birthday LP… UNCUT: You told Uncut in 2007 that you used to be very self-conscious about co-writing. PAUL WELLER: Yeah, that would have been after working with Graham Coxon. I think that experience showed me that it could be done without two blokes sitting in a… Read More →

Hit Singles

Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs Special – The Complete Transcripts!

In Uncut Take 138 [dated November 2008], we celebrated the release of The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs, Bob Dylan’s astonishing collection of unreleased material from 1989 – 2006. For this epic cover story, we spoke to the musicians, producers and crew who worked with Dylan during this period. At the time, we ran the full, unedited transcripts of those interviews on Uncut.co.uk. Since then, though, they’ve fallen down the back of the internet, become hard to find or some of the links have since broken. Advertisement So we’ve decided to round them all up into one place. Here, then, are the working links to all 13 transcripts in our Tell Tale Signs interviews – plus founding editor Allan Jones’ original review of the collection itself. Interviews originally conducted by Damien Love and Alastair McKay Advertisement Part 1: MICAJAH RYAN: engineer, Good As I’ve Been To You and World Gone Wrong Part 2: MALCOLM BURN: engineer, Oh Mercy Part 3: MARK HOWARD: engineer, Oh Mercy and Time Out Of Mind Part 4: DON WAS: producer Under The Red Sky Part 5: ROBBEN FORD: guitarist Under The Red Sky Part 6: DAVID LINDLEY: guitarist Under The Red Sky Part 7: AUGIE MYERS:… Read More →

Hit Singles

Inside Bob Dylan’s Masked And Anonymous

Originally published in Uncut Take 85 [June 2004] It’s 1964, and the singer is alone on the stage of New York’s Philharmonic Hall, talking to the darkness: “It’s just Halloween. I have my Bob Dylan mask on. I’m masquerading.” It’s 1965, and the singer is in a black and white Britain, reading about himself in a newspaper: “God, I’m glad I’m not me.” Advertisement It’s 1972, and the singer stands in the dust in Durango, saying his name: “Alias anything you please.” It’s 1975, and the stage lights go up to reveal the singer is hiding his face behind a transparent Richard Nixon mask. Now it’s 2003, and the singer is wearing a blonde wig and a woolly hat at the Sundance Film Festival, watching a movie he wrote under the alias Sergei Petrov. In the film he plays a singer who looks like him but calls himself Jack Fate. He’s called the movie Masked And Anonymous. Advertisement The film is stuffed with more stars than any since Robert Altman‘s The Player. Despite – or maybe because – of this, the screening becomes one of the most infamous premieres in Sundance history, provoking walkouts and a firestorm of negative reviews…. Read More →

Hit Singles

Kim Gordon, Arooj Aftab and Prince Jammy for Le Guess Who? festival

The first names have been revealed for this year’s Le Guess Who? festival, taking place in Utrecht, The Netherlands, on November 7-10. JONI MITCHELL IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! Guest curators include Arooj Aftab, Bo Ningen, Darkside and Mabe Fratti. They will all perform at the festival, alongside Kim Gordon, Theo Parrish, Meshell Ndegeocello, King Jammy, Wadada Leo Smith, Tropical Fuckstorm, Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto and many other names from across the globe. Peruse the full line-up announcement here. A limited amount of four-day passes and individual day tickets will go on sale on Tuesday May 28, at 10AM BST here. You can read a candid, in-depth interview with Arooj Aftab in the brand new issue of Uncut, out today with Joni Mitchell on the cover – order your copy here!

Hit Singles

DYLI Delivers an Energetic New Single With “London Bridge”

Lodi’s fast-rising pop sensation DYLI is back with new single “London Bridge,” full of bright energy and glowing hooks. The sweltering new release revives the fact that she can blend influences creatively to make sounds sure to shine light on an audience wide and far. “London Bridge” is a catchy pop record that displays the power of DYLI‘s vocal range and songwriting capabilities. With the original inspiration stemming from Fergie’s hit single of the same track, DYLI injects her uniqueness onto the track with a playful blend of lyrics over a rather pulsating, energetic beat. With the line “London Bridge is falling down, Big Ben turn them hundreds into pounds” on the hook, one hears it for the first time and knows it’s one of those songs that calls for a repeat. This was a back-and-forth process with her producer Ruwanaga Samath. When she got sent the beat, the title in itself, “London Bridge,” made DYLI think of Fergie’s “Fergalicious.” How she could emulate that same feel and attitude with references to the UK and make it her own, she mused. Phrases like “What’s tea? Lemme tell you.” add just the contemporary edge to make the song relatable and fresh…. Read More →

Hit Singles

Catching Fire: The Story Of Anita Pallenberg

In an interview with The Observer in 2008, Anita Pallenberg explained why, despite many offers, she would never write an autobiography: “The publishers want to hear only about the Stones and more dirt on Mick Jagger and I’m just not interested.” JONI MITCHELL IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! Pallenberg, however, learned early the value of never giving away her whole truth – her exact date and place of birth long lay unresolved, with both 1942 and 1944, Rome and Hamburg, being suggested; perhaps a deliberate blur from a child born into a haughty German-Italian family when those nations were on the wrong side of history – and, as it happens, by the time she revealed why she’d never contemplate writing a memoir, she had already started doing just that. Advertisement After her death in 2017, the unpublished, unfinished manuscript was discovered by Marlon, her son with Keith Richards. Among the other things he found was a cache of home movies shot during her years with Keith in the 1960s and 70s, at home and on the run from Peru to Switzerland, London to Villefranche-sur-Mer; fragile, poignant, mundane, stunning Super-8 moments from a… Read More →

Hit Singles

I’m New Here – Mabe Fratti

Mabe Fratti is ready for her close-up. “My music is like when you see yourself in a really good mirror and you see all the pores in your skin – I love that,” says the in-demand Guatemalan cellist and singer, from her home in Mexico City. “Not sure I would want a picture of me like that, but I like that in my sound.” JONI MITCHELL IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! Fratti’s most recent solo album fits that description. Released a year ago, Se Ve Desde Aqui (It Is Seen From Here) uses cello, voice and synthesiser to give a gracefully gnarly account of Fratti pushing herself In a new direction after two earlier albums of more ethereal work. “I’m not a royal academy cellist or whatever, so given my technical limitations, I try to be very raw with the sound. I like the dirtiness… it’s who I am.” Advertisement As an artist, Fratti is hard to pigeonhole. Avant-garde but accessible, the 31-year-old straddles the worlds of classical, jazz and experimental music. As such, she’s spent much of this year on tour, travelling to Australia and across Europe, including a two-day residency… Read More →

Hit Singles

Oasis to release 30th anniversary edition of Definitely Maybe

Oasis are to release a 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of their debut album, Definitely Maybe. JONI MITCHELL IS ON THE COVER OF THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER YOUR COPY HERE! Featuring unheard Monnow Valley versions and Sawmills Studios outtakes, including an unreleased demo of “Sad Song” featuring Liam Gallagher’s vocal. Advertisement it’s available on deluxe 4LP, 2CD, coloured vinyl, cassette and digitally with new artwork and sleeve notes on August 30 via Big Brother. Pre-order here. The tracklisting for Definitely Maybe (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) is Volume 1 Advertisement Rock ‘n’ Roll Star (Remastered) Shakermaker (Remastered) Live Forever (Remastered) Up In The Sky (Remastered) Columbia (Remastered) Supersonic (Remastered) Bring It On Down (Remastered) Cigarettes & Alcohol (Remastered) Digsy’s Dinner (Remastered) Slide Away (Remastered) Married With Children (Remastered) Volume 2 Rock ‘n’ Roll Star (Monnow Valley Version) Shakermaker (Monnow Valley Version) Live Forever (Monnow Valley Version) Up In The Sky (Monnow Valley Version) Columbia (Monnow Valley Version) Bring It On Down (Monnow Valley Version) Cigarettes & Alcohol (Monnow Valley Version) Digsy’s Dinner (Monnow Valley Version) Rock ‘n’ Roll Star (Sawmills Outtake) Up In The Sky (Sawmills Outtake) Columbia (Sawmills Outtake) Bring It On Down (Sawmills Outtake) Cigarettes & Alcohol (Sawmills Outtake) Digsy’s Dinner (Sawmills Outtake) Slide Away (Sawmills Outtake) Sad Song (Mauldeth Road… Read More →

Hit Singles

Introducing the new Uncut: Joni Mitchell, Paul Weller, Kraftwerk, Stevie Nicks and more

AT the time of writing, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and The Rolling Stones are all on tour, either in Europe or America. As you can read from various reports on these outings in this issue, the artists continue to go about their business with commendable vigour, delivering performances that spectacularly reaffirm music’s unifying power. After seeing the Stones’ opening show in Houston, Stephen Conn – one of our subscribers – emailed to me to say: “In a world where Paul McCartney is still revising a Beatles saga that wrapped up decades ago and we now spend most of our lives trapped in a 16-year-old’s diary on Planet Taylor, that old totems like the Stones are still capable of ecstatic musical transcendence like this is a remarkable thing.” HAVE A COPY SENT DIRECT TO YOUR DOOR The road figures a lot in this new issue of Uncut, in one form or another. To the Grateful Dead, it was a place where songs reinvented themselves, every night for 30 years. To Kraftwerk, it signified functional elegance. And to our cover star Joni Mitchell, it was a place to escape. In all three instances, the road is also a place of transformation. “The refuge… Read More →

Hit Singles

Uncut – July 2024

HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME Joni Mitchell, Paul Weller, Kraftwerk, Stevie Nicks, Steve Albini, Grateful Dead, Arooj Aftab, John Cale, Warren Ellis, Bonny Light Horseman, Mark E Smith and Inspiral Carpets, Josef K, Beach Boys, The Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young with Crazy Horse and more all feature in Uncut‘s July 2024 issue, in UK shops from May 24 or available to buy online now. All print copies come with a free CD – Coast To Coast, featuring 15 tracks of the month’s best new music by John Cale, The Dirty Three, Linda Thompson, The Folk Implosion, John Grant, Cassandra Jenkins, Eiko Ishibashi, Bill MacKay and more Advertisement INSIDE THIS MONTH’S UNCUT: JONI MITCHELL: Hymning Hejira. A new box set brings Joni’s masterpiece back into focus. Friends and collaborators are on-hand to reveal its secrets while admirers – including The Weather Station, Weyes Blood, Allison Russell and Courtney Marie Andrews – celebrate its enduring magic KRAFTWERK: As Autubahn turns 50, we explore the genesis of the Robots: free jazz, LSD and electronic flutes! Advertisement STEVIE NICKS: With UK shows upcoming, this recently unearthed interview offers rare insights: her fear of computers, Mick Fleetwood’s jewellery and getting a… Read More →

Hit Singles

Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown

In recent times, we have tended to place great faith in late-life albums by revered artists. Johnny Cash’s releases on American Recordings, begun in 1994, perhaps set the course; since then has come, if not an explosion, at least a soft bloom of such records, from David Bowie’s Blackstar to Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker, via Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways and even Tom Jones’s run of recordings with Ethan Johns. These are records we covet for their sense of retrospection and accumulated wisdom, for the light they seem to cast on our callow years. ORDER YOUR COPY OF THE NEW UNCUT, FEATURING AN EXCLUSIVE DAVID GILMOUR INTERVIEW AND A FREE CAN CD! We accord less fanfare to music that addresses the thoughts and sensations of midlife. And this is odd, because midlife can prove a fascinating shift for those once caught up in the hedonism of the music world – they are, in effect, break-up records of the self. Consider Paul Simon’s Graceland, Frank Black’s Honeycomb, Bonnie Raitt’s Nick Of Time; their push away from youth, their sense of recalibration in the face of detour or disappointment, is every bit as compelling as the oak-aged material of… Read More →

Hit Singles

Alice Coltrane – The Carnegie Hall Concert

The John & Alice Coltrane Home, Impulse! and Verve Label Group are calling 2024 the Year Of Alice, but for a growing contingent of jazz fans, it’s been her year for some time now. The stature of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, harpist, pianist, composer, spiritual leader and wife of John, has only increased after her death in 2007 at the age of 69. Her career as a jazz pianist began in her hometown of Detroit in the 1950s, but her life was forever changed when she met Coltrane in 1963. Two years later, they were married and the following year, she replaced McCoy Tyner in his classic quartet. She recorded, performed, started a family, and walked the spiritual path with John until his untimely death in 1967. ORDER YOUR COPY OF THE NEW UNCUT, FEATURING AN EXCLUSIVE DAVID GILMOUR INTERVIEW AND A FREE CAN CD! Her first album as leader, A Monastic Trio, arrived in December 1968, a post-bop spiritual gem that marked the first appearance of her harp and contained the seeds of the devotional music that would come later. Her work began to reflect a burgeoning interest in Hinduism and Indian music, first on Ptah, The El Daoud and… Read More →

Hit Singles

Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Early Daze collection coming in June

On June 28, Reprise will release “a historic collection of early recordings from 1969” by Neil Young with Crazy Horse, entitled Early Daze. ORDER YOUR COPY OF THE NEW UNCUT, FEATURING AN EXCLUSIVE DAVID GILMOUR INTERVIEW AND A FREE CAN CD! It includes early versions of songs that would feature on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and beyond, several of them previously unreleased. Listen to the Early Daze version of “Everybody’s Alone” below: Pre-order Early Daze here and investigate the tracklisting below: Side One ‘Dance Dance Dance’ (included on ‘Archives Vol. I’) ‘Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown’ (unreleased version) ‘Winterlong’ (unreleased version) ‘Everybody’s Alone’ (different mix included on ‘Archives Vol. 1’) ‘Wonderin’’ (unreleased version) Side Two ‘Cinnamon Girl’ (original 7” mono mix, released April 20th, 1970. Included a guitar outro not on the LP version) ‘Look At All The Things’ (unreleased version) ‘Helpless’ (unreleased version) ‘Birds’ (unreleased stereo mix – a mono mix was released as the b-side to ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’) ‘Down By The River’ (unreleased version with alternate vocals) When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Hit Singles

The The announce new studio album, Ensoulment

The The return with Ensoulment, their first new studio album since 2000’s NakedSelf. Ensoulment is set for release through Cineola / earMUSIC on September 6, 2024. You can hear the first single, “Cognitive Dissident“, below. Advertisement [embedded content] Joining Matt Johnson are James Eller (bass), DC Collard (keyboards), Earl Harvin (drums) and Barrie Cadogan (lead guitar) – and co-producer and engineer Warne Livesey, who previously worked on Infected (1986) and Mind Bomb (1989). Additional performances include Gillian Glover (backing vocals), Terry Edwards (horns), Sonya Cullingford (fiddle) and Danny Cummings (percussion). Ensoulment features previously unpublished artwork by Johnson’s late brother Andy, (aka artist Andy Dog). Advertisement The track listing of Ensoulment is: 1. Cognitive Dissident2. Some Days I Drink My Coffee By The Grave Of William Blake3. Zen & The Art Of Dating4. Kissing The Ring Of POTUS5. Life After Life6. I Want To Wake Up With You7. Down By The Frozen River8. Risin’ Above The Need9. Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot10. Where Do We Go When We Die?11. I Hope You Remember (the things I can’t forget)12. A Rainy Day In May The album will be available as a Limited CD Hardcover Mediabook, CD Jewelcase, Black 2LP Gatefold and Ltd. Crystal Clear 2LP Gatefold. Further exclusive formats will be available in the official album store. When you purchase through links on our site, we may… Read More →

Hit Singles

Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Forest Hills Stadium, New York, May 15, 2024

In an outdoor stadium on a stormy spring night, Neil Young and Crazy Horse offered shelter in a sound. Fifty-five years since the words “Crazy Horse” first appeared alongside Young’s name on a record sleeve, his loyal backing band has solidified a minimalist style that feels distinct both within his wide-ranging catalogue and the larger rock canon. For all their iconic work together and their vast influence on generations of grunge and indie rock and beyond, what other band sounds like this? ORDER YOUR COPY OF THE NEW UNCUT, FEATURING AN EXCLUSIVE DAVID GILMOUR INTERVIEW AND A FREE CAN CD! On the Love Earth tour, Young’s first trek with Crazy Horse in 10 years, they remain as raw and elemental as ever. Doughty original members Ralph Molina on drums and Billy Talbot on bass are joined by Promise Of The Real’s Micah Nelson, who accompanies Young on electric guitar, backing vocals and during a pummelling encore of “Like A Hurricane”, on an organ that descended onto the stage from strings and rocked back and forth in the wind as he played. Advertisement The heavenly organ was a rare bit of theatrics for a show that felt as bare bones as… Read More →

Hit Singles

LA Laura Paris Creates a Furor with “Game Over”

Coming out of the bustling music scene in France and Belgium, LA Laura Paris creates a furor with her special brand of electro pop and dance beats. “Game Over” is a last tip-off to a powerful new force in music. The track “Game Over” comes through with high-octane beats and deep basslines that are really smoothed over by the lyrical content. It pretty much narrates the story of breaking free from bad relationships and self-affirmation. With lines such as “I love myself, I respect myself. I eject the jerks of the night,” LA Laura Paris really drives a point home: empowerment through and keeping one’s dignity. Born Laura Pinon-Courtoy, LA Laura Paris began her musical journey at the age of 6. Grown in a home with a pure classical environment, she studied violin and piano at the Royal Academy of Music in Brussels. Her dynamic musical style has come from extensive and multifarious training in various dance forms and the visual arts. Such eclectic influences come through in the music she creates, which is a mix of pop, electro, and dance all rolled into one. Even before breaking into the music scene, LA Laura Paris had also ventured into some… Read More →

Hit Singles

John Lennon’s Mind Games – The Ultimate Collection revealed

John Lennon‘s 1973 album Mind Games is being celebrated with a suite of completely newly remixed and expanded Ultimate Collection editions, released on July 12 through The John Lennon Estate and Universal Music. Mind Games – The Ultimate Collection will be available as digital and 2CD and 2LP versions, a Deluxe box set featuring 6CDs and 2 Blu-ray discs and a Super Deluxe Edition of only 1,100 copies worldwide. Listen to “Mind Games” (Evolution Documentary) below: Advertisement And watch an unboxing video here: [embedded content] These new editions of Lennon’s fourth solo album have been authorised by Yoko Ono Lennon and produced by Sean Ono Lennon; the Ultimate Collection is from the same audio team that worked on the Imagine and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band Ultimate Collections. This Ultimate Collection explores the album’s 1973 recording sessions at the Record Plant in New York City, through unreleased outtakes, instrumentals, stripped down mixes, studio chatter and more. Advertisement Mind Games – The Ultimate Collection includes six new treatments of the music: Ultimate Mixes, which put Lennon’s vocals front and centre and sonically upgrade the sound; Elements Mixes, which isolate and bring forth certain instruments from the multitrack recordings to highlight playing previously… Read More →

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Paul Weller, Robert Plant, David Gilmour and more oppose “new” Steve Marriott AI recordings

A growing list of musicians have joined Steve Marriott’s children and former bandmates to protest against the release of “new” recordings featuring AI-generated versions of his vocals. As reported by Variety, Cleopatra Records are in discussion with the Marriott estate about completing some of his unfinished demos with the aid of AI technology, though the label ultimately plans to release the recordings in their original form “for now” via three compilations. “The Marriott Estate is due to release an AI solo album of old and new songs of my father, Steve,” said Mollie Marriott in a previously released official statement. “Sadly, the surviving family which comprises just my siblings Lesley, Toby, Tonya, and I, have nothing to do with the Estate as there was no will. It is run by my stepmother who was only with my father for two years prior to his death and has since been re-married. “We, along with his bandmates of Humble Pie and Small Faces are looking to stop this album from happening as it would be a stain on my father’s name. Someone who was known as one of the greatest vocalists of our generation, with such a live and raw vocal, it would absolutely break his… Read More →

Hit Singles

Watch a ‘making of’ video for Nick Cave’s new album, Wild God

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have released a new ‘making of’ video for their upcoming album Wild God, due out on August 30 via Bad Seed in partnership with Play It Again Sam. Filmed by Megan Cullen at Miraval Studios in France, the video shows Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood adding a bass part to one track as Cave and the rest of the Bad Seeds nod their approval. It also reveals some paths (presumably) not taken on the new album. “We could make a couple of hours of ambient yoga music,” suggests Cave to Warren Ellis at one point, before considering “throwing an idea into ChatGPT to knock out some lyrics in the style of Nick Cave.” Watch the video below:

Hit Singles

Roger Corman interviewed: “I had no experience or training”

From Uncut’s archives – 2004 vintage. Roger Corman has assured his place in the history books several times over. As fast and furious director and/or producer of over 300 no-budget exploitation movies since 1955, he remains the most successful independent film-maker Hollywood has ever known. If he’d done nothing but direct his ’60s cycle of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, films that found a perfect balance between haunted elegance and Pop hallucination, he would be remembered. As that turbulent decade wore on, however, Corman responded to currents in the air – and the money burning holes in the pockets of a restless new youth audience – with films that reflected the era in ways major studios couldn’t comprehend. Nihilistic biker films such as The Wild Angels (1966) and head movies like The Trip (1967) led directly to Easy Rider (in whose creation he was instrumental) and the subsequent revolution in ’70s Hollywood. Advertisement ORDER YOUR COPY OF THE NEW UNCUT, FEATURING AN EXCLUSIVE DAVID GILMOUR INTERVIEW AND A FREE CAN CD! His greatest legacy, however, might be the incredible roster of talent he nurtured. Almost all the Easy Riders Raging Bulls players started out working for him. After they had graduated,… Read More →