Hit Singles
Echo & The Bunnymen 2021 reissues
In late 1985, Echo & The Bunnymen released a singles compilation, Songs To Learn & Sing. The album provided a glorious summary of the band’s fertile early years: anthemic choruses, haunting vocals, big hair. But Songs To Learn & Sing also included one new song, “Bring On The Dancing Horses”, whose shimmering but static synthesiser lines hinted at something else: creative paralysis. By 1985, the Bunnymen had nothing left to give. The trajectory of the band’s previous five years had been uphill and steep: having described 1984’s grand Ocean Rain as “the greatest album ever made”, they’d set themselves...
Linda Fredriksson Juniper
One encouraging by-product of the recent jazz resurgence is the number of singer-songwriters who have recruited more adventurous musicians to open up their sound. Listen to the saxophones billowing all over The Weather Station’s “Ignorance” or Cassandra Jenkins’ “An Overview Of Phenomenal Nature”, to name two of this year’s finest – not to mention Modern Nature’s gradual co-option of the entire British free jazz scene. The idea of combining confessional songwriting with jazz freedoms is hardly a new phenomenon – Van, Tim and Joni, among others, might have something to say about that – but it’s certainly unusual to...
Margo Cilker Pohorylle
Margo Cilker’s Bandcamp bio may be unorthodox, but it does appear to sum up her peripatetic outlook. “I once Google-searched the definition of ‘pine’ and the example provided was this: ‘Some people pine for the return of the monarchy,’” she writes. “I’m left to pine for other things, like Basque wine, moonlight and cowboys.” Reared in California, she’s spent the best part of the last decade on the move, variously setting up camp in places like South Carolina, Montana, the Basque Country or her current home of Enterprise, Oregon, where she lives with husband and fellow singer-songwriter, Forrest Van...
Richard Dawson & Circle Henki
When Richard Dawson picked his favourite records for Uncut in 2017, his choices provided an unusually deep insight into his music. Mix Éliane Radigue, Orchestra Baobab and Sun Ra and you may, if you’re as talented and hard-working as the Newcastle songwriter, end up with records as special as Peasant or its 2019 follow-up, 2020. ORDER NOW: Bruce Springsteen and the review of 2021 feature in the latest issue of Uncut Dawson’s first choice for that list, however, his earliest mind-blowing moment, was Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut. Their influence has always been present in his music, from his bellows and...
The Beatles Let It Be Special Deluxe Edition
When the album and film that shared the title Let It Be appeared in the spring of 1970, they were not greeted with the usual warmth. As the arrival of a new decade consigned the ’60s to history, they seemed an unwanted reminder that an era responsible for so much pleasure had ended badly. It felt like these final Beatle documents had been sanctioned by people who no longer recalled nor cared what had been on their minds when they got together in the film studios at Twickenham at the beginning of the previous year, even then unsure whether...
Discover Alexis Kings’ Vibrant Single “Surrender”
Alexis Kings is a highly acclaimed alternative rock band that has been on the rise with their lovely releases. “Surrender” is one of their hit singles that has gathered tens of thousands of streams. It has some impressive fiery percussion adorned with a distinctly 80’s vibe. At the same time, Alexis Kings set a futuristic mood, incorporating elements of various styles. Stunning vocals, mood-making beats and powerful music — everything comes together in harmony, allowing the listener to sit back and enjoy the art. Brendan Aherne and Fabio Bocca are the band’s talented members who draw inspiration from soul,...
The Beatles: Get Back
Peter Jackson is a transformative film director. He’s turned New Zealand into Tolkien’s Middle Earth, and (in his exceptional documentary They Shall Not Grow Old), remade the jerky, unrelatable figures in murky newsreel footage into the very real human combatants in the First World War. ORDER NOW: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE REVIEW OF 2021 FEATURE IN THE LATEST ISSUE OF UNCUT If we were to have believed the teaser trailer for his Beatles documentary, which arrived to cheer the world in high pandemic times, his latest project had done something similar: turned notoriously fraught Beatles sessions into a feelgood movie,...
Yasmin Williams: “I wanted to imagine things getting better”
It’s a chilly September night in Nashville and Yasmin Williams is sitting alone on stage at 6th & Peabody – an outdoor venue attached to a touristy moonshine bar and a gourmet hot dog stand. Behind her is a giant banner for AmericanaFest, the annual roots music gathering. There are a handful of people seated at picnic tables and Adirondack chairs arrayed around the stage, all them watching closely as she rips through one guitar instrumental after another, most of them taken from her second full-length album, Urban Driftwood. When she plays, she plays with her whole body –...
Dean Wareham I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of LA
Consistency can be a curse. Now into his fourth decade in action, Dean Wareham has a catalogue that contains unimpeachable masterpieces – Galaxie 500’s “On Fire” and the one-two mid-1990s punch of Luna’s “Bewitched” and “Penthouse” among them. But truth be told, he has yet to make a bad record. Luna’s less-ballyhooed later albums are understated but sparkling gems, and Dean’s duo records with his longtime partner Britta Phillips update the Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra template to marvellous effect. He’s nothing if not reliable. But that steadiness means that, at this stage, even longtime fans might be guilty...Recent Posts
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