To hope for the impossible is a favourite pastime of anyone who ever loved The Wrens. True believers have remained steadfast through the New Jersey band’s decades-long saga. Yet the near-misses, bad luck and self-sabotage that fill this history make it absurd to keep dreaming they’ll ever get the love they’re due. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut That’s why the very existence of Aeon Station’s Observatory – the first solo album by Wrens bassist and vocalist Kevin Whelan, and ostensibly the band’s first new music in 18 years – may prompt...
Fifty years on from its initial release, Marvin Gaye’s masterpiece still sounds like an argument wrapped in a dream. Structurally, it has the shape and logic of a sermon, sounding both urgent and relevant to the turmoil of the moment. At the same time, its rhythms, and the timbre of Gaye’s voice, reach for something universal; a kind of peace, the reassurance of timelessness. The album is a religious thing, but also an inquiry into the notion of faith. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut Gaye had a lot of questions in...
Almost a decade has passed since Pye Corner Audio made its debut on Ghost Box. At the time, the label was vaunted as the epicentre of something called “hauntology”. The term, borrowed from the philosopher Jacques Derrida, had come to refer to a distinctly English aesthetic sensibility – a kind of stillborn futurism that instead of looking forwards, harked back to the quotidian dread of ’70s public information films and the blurry, saturated sound and visuals of VHS technology. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut No-one talks that much about hauntology anymore....
More than 50 years after “After The Gold Rush”, Neil Young still feels like getting high – Rocky Mountain high, that is. Barn, his latest album with Crazy Horse, was recorded way up in the Telluride, Colorado, area, 2,667 meters (8,750 feet) above sea level. Of course, the 10-song LP’s sessions took place in a restored 19th-century barn, pictured on Daryl Hannah’s evocative cover photo. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut The Rockies and the latterday Crazy Horse (now consisting of stalwart rhythm section Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot, plus multi-instrumentalist Nils...
The Rolling Stones paid tribute to late drummer Charlie Watts on Monday (6 December) in an intimate show held in Ronnie Scott’s in London’s Soho. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: How Charlie Watts turned the Rollin’ Stones into The Rolling Stones: “We all thought he was a God-given drummer” Frontman Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, as well as former bassist Bill Wyman were in attendance at the gig, along with friends and family members of Watts. Jools Holland led a house band consisting of Ben Waters,...
Robbie Shakespeare has died. He was 68 years old. It’s been reported by The Jamaica Gleaner that Shakespeare had recently undergone surgery related to his kidneys. The Jamaican artist was hospitalised in Florida. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut Shakespeare, an iconic bassist, formed Sly and Robbie with drummer Sly Dunbar in the mid-70s after having both worked separately in other bands. After bonding over an affinity for reggae production, they went to work producing for other artists, with their breakout credit being Mighty Diamonds‘ 1976 album Right Time. Advertisement Their production work...
As All Things Must Pass receives a deluxe anniversary release, The Ultimate Music Guide to one of the world’s best-loved musicians. Never mind “the quiet one”. Meet the other George Harrisons: Sonic innovator! Spiritual adventurer! Film producer! Buy a copy here!
BUY THE GEORGE HARRISON ULTIMATE MUSIC GUIDE HERE When I last talked to anyone who knew George Harrison, it was about how he played the guitar. In the early 1960s, Brian Griffiths (“Griff”) along with his pals John Gustafson (“Gus”) and John Hutchinson (“Hutch”) was a member of The Big Three. Favourites at the Cavern, (where they recorded their debut EP) and in Hamburg, the band knew the Beatles before there was much screaming. Gus told me about how he once met a sheepish George in Liverpool, shortly after his having been deported from Hamburg. George told Gus that...
HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME Paul Weller, Eagles, Elvis Costello, Big Thief, Margo Cilker, William Bell, Cluster, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Robert Fripp, and Lenny Kaye all feature in the new Uncut, dated February 2022 and in UK shops from December 9 or available to buy online now. As always, the issue comes with a free CD, comprising 15 tracks of the month’s best new music. PAUL WELLER: As Paul Weller plays his first live shows in over two years, Uncut visits the guv’nor and his band during tour rehearsals in South London, for fish and chip...
Country music has always been partial to a concept album, from Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash through to Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris and beyond. But sci-fi concept works are thinner on the ground, a rare recent example being Sturgill Simpson’s imperious Metamodern Sounds In Country Music. Best associated with the Red Dirt scene of Oklahoma and Texas, Jason Boland is the latest to pick up the challenge. ORDER NOW: Bruce Springsteen and the review of 2021 feature in the latest issue of Uncut Tenth album The Light Saw Me traces the interstellar journey of a Texan cowboy abducted by aliens...
