A winged victory for the sullen

Dry The River, A Winged Victory For The Sullen and Perfume Genius are among the bands confirmed to play sets at The Great Escape this year. The Brighton festival, which takes place between May 10 and 12 at various venues in the city, has announced its first set of artists, with many more to be confirmed in the coming weeks. Also among the first acts announced for the festival are Zulu Winter, Django Django, Grimes, Spector and Howler.

22 selections that have helped us through the week

Hey, here are my 154 favourite albums of 2014. As usual, I haven't aimed for a fixed number; just listed everything, in a loose order, that I've enjoyed these past 12 months.

Last week, just as I was finishing off the 25th playlist of the year, the new Steve Gunn album arrived. This week, the last-minute radical guitar hero is Chris Forsyth, whose first studio album with the Solar Motel Band is absolutely killing it as I type.

One of those weeks when the office playlist is taken to a whole new level at the very last moment, thanks to the arrival this morning of the new Steve Gunn album. A couple of previously redacted records can now be revealed, too, as the new efforts by Ryan Adams and Goat…

Lots to dig into this week, not least a song to sample from the Hiss Golden Messenger album that I’ve been alluding to for so long. Strong Ronnie Lane vibes there, perhaps. Among some biggish new entries here, some lesser known names to check out, too: Jennifer Castle; 75 Dollar Bill’s weird adaptation of desert blues; the new Blonde Redhead album that increasingly feels like their strongest in an age; and Hurray For The Riff Raff, magnificent on Letterman.

For a while this week, it looked like I might be able to post a playlist entirely consisting of new entries, at least until I got dragged back into playing the Ryley Walker. But hey, look at all this, not least the clip of Shirley Collins’ first live performance in 30 years, which just showed up.

If you’re feeling withdrawal symptoms after the glut of end-of-year charts last month, I cooked this up for the latest edition of Uncut…

EMA, Willy Mason and Toy will head up the line-up on the Uncut Stage at the The Great Escape this year.