Features

Here, for your consideration, is Uncut's list of the 20 Best Films Of 2014. If you're interested in the administrative aspect of this list, it was voted for by a shadowy cabal of Uncut staffers, writers and a few trusted confidants. It broadly dovetails with my own personal Top 20, though I think the film that's stuck with me most throughout the year is the wonderfully strange Under The Skin. But I won't detain you further. Have a great Christmas and New Year, by the way: see you in 2015.

Sorry I didn't manage to post a playlist last week; a combination of germs, deadlines and various other professional/seasonal distractions meant that I ran out of time.

"Most people turn a corner, Neil ricochets," says the Crazy Horse guitarist

Lake and collaborators on the creation of a very unlikely festive hit…

When Thom Yorke sneaked out his new solo album a few months back, I managed to hold out for 66 hours before writing a review of "Tomorrow's Modern Boxes". Since waking up early yesterday morning to a lot of very excited Americans on my Twitter timeline, I've been playing D'Angelo's "Black Messiah" many times: another rich and complex album that seems fundamentally ill-suited to any kind of snap judgment reviewing.

From Gish and Mellon Collie to Oceania, Billy Corgan reveals all about his torturous journey to stardom

The tales behind every one of the band’s historic 45s, including "All Or Nothing", "Itchycoo Park" and "Lazy Sunday"

I reviewed The Velvet Underground: 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition for new issue of Uncut. It's a comprehensive, six-disc set compiling the band's third album in an assortment of mixes, plus 1969 demos and a live recording from The Matrix in San Francisco. Of course, it marks the first album the band recorded after John Cale had left, with Doug Yule assuming bass and (some) vocal duties. I was fortunate enough to speak to both Yule and Mo Tucker for a Q&A to accompany my review.

First off, thanks for all your kind and indulgent comments about my 154 best albums of 2014 blog; I'm genuinely grateful and touched by the feedback.

Tuesday night, I went to see the War On Drugs guy again. I mention this, in relation to Mark Kozelek and Sun Kil Moon's Hackney show, because Kozelek doesn't stop mentioning it himself for much of the two and a half hour show; a show which, by the by, is one of the very best and certainly most surprising I've ever seen him play.