Features

When the last Om album, “Pilgrimage”, came out, I made some kind of borderline lazy crack about it being virtually indistinguishable from its predecessor. Not much danger of being able to do that with “God Is Good”, this time.

In the world of modern garage rock, Greg Cartwright seems to be a figure on a par with Mick Collins: multiple bands of fluid personnel; labyrinthine career history; general fiery habit of cranking it out and moving on.

After writing yesterday’s blog on Sufjan Stevens and “The BQE” pretty soon after receiving the CD, further listens suggest it might be even better than I made out: a lot of Gershwin in there (and Danny Elfman, someone just said). “Movement II: Sleeping Invader” is sounding, this morning, like one of the best things Stevens has ever done.

Since Sufjan Stevens became the poster boy for a certain kind of American indie fan, there’s been no little speculation about what grand project he’s going to embark on next: which State might be worked over so fastidiously; whether the album about birds might ever come to fruition.

In issue 3 of the unfortunately short-lived UNCUT DVD, we ran a piece called The Curse Of The Mullets. It was a particularly funny account of the scandalous fall from grace of the Brat Pack actors and the whirl of sex-tapes, alcoholism, drug busts and straight-to-video hell that engulfed them following their mid-Eighties peak. As hilarious as the piece was, it feels somehow emblematic of the way these films, and their stars, have become viewed over the last quarter of a century. Which, sadly, detracts from the importance of those films and the achievements of the man behind them – John Hughes, who has just died at the age of 59.

The reunion of Os Mutantes – minus Rita Lee, of course – a couple of years ago was one of the more unexpected in recent years, not least because, as legend has it, Arnaldo Baptista hasn’t been in the best of psychic health since the band originally split in the mid-‘70s.

The singer answers this month's 'Audience With' mailbag...

Frank and funny, Sheffield songwriter talks pop, drugs and reincarnation

A Hard Reindeer's A-Gonna Fall: Can you do better?

A bit late posting this today, as deadlines have meant that my ongoing fascination with the Big Star box set finally had to be transformed into a review for the next issue of Uncut.