Playlists

After the Best Albums Of 2014: Halftime Report business earlier in the week, it’s good to push on today with a bunch of very fine new arrivals, many of which you can hear at least tracks from below.

A few headline comebacks in this week’s playlist, and if you scroll down you should be able to hear strong new music from the likes of Jeff Tweedy, Caribou, David Kilgour and, though perhaps ‘new’ music might be a misnomer, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Emotional times, as this is Allan’s last day as editor of Uncut. Before we get down to that, though, here are the records we’ve been playing in the office this week.

A new office this week, although a good few crates remain. These, though, are the tunes that’ve sensitively assisted our transition. Special props to Bob Carpenter’s rediscovered album from ’74, very much kin to “No Other”; to the Mauritanian desert rock of Noura Mint Seymali; to the reissue of an old Imaginary Softwoods ambient set from John Elliott, ex of Emeralds; and to the enduring usefulness of Pye Corner Audio and Girma Yifrashewa.

Scene of some devastation this morning, as we’re surrounded by crates, packing for a move to new offices on the floor below. In haste, then: this has been the soundtrack for throwing out a load of old shit these past few days. Special attention, please, to the tremendous new Pye Corner Audio business…

So much good here this time out, after missing a playlist last week for various reasons. Where to start?

Beyond the Ebay landfill mountains of luminous “Ghostbusters” singles, there were a weird few days this week when it seemed as if no-one had actually located a copy of Neil Young’s “A Letter Home” on Record Store Day. After everything, did it actually exist? Had Neil, in his current capricious mood, personally had it removed it from the stockrooms of record stores on Friday night?

One of the books I’ve enjoyed most in the past couple of years is “Pulphead”, a collection of John Jeremiah Sullivan’s longform, creative and not always entirely reliable journalism.

Bit of a rush in the face of deadlines this morning, but a strange list – not all of it recommended, really – with a notable discovery in Mike Cooper, whose early ‘70s albums work well as companion pieces to those of Michael Chapman. Anyone who knows his work, and knows more, drop me a line.

Some highlights to see/hear this week: Neil Young playing “Thrasher” for the first time (technically, second time I think) in 36 years; well over an hour of amazing Can footage from 1970; the new Jack White track; and Olga Bell’s album, which seems to suggest that I prefer the Dirty Projectors, or at least their spin-offs, when the singing is in Russian.