The new issue of Uncut will be on sale from Friday. Subscribers, of course, those sensibly organised people who plan ahead and have their lives in probably perfect order, may already have started receiving their copies. Lucky them! We’re actually still waiting for ours, but not yet fretting that they’ve been re-routed, sent via some staging post on a distant tundra where passing yaks may end up feasting upon them, the chomp-chomp-chomp of their distracted munching the only sound in that vast space, the hairy ruminants quite indifferent, of course, to what’s actually in the issue. Which is a lot, and includes in the grand annual tradition of these things, our review of the year, a 30-page special, featuring our Top 75 Albums Of 2012, plus the best reissues and box sets, films, DVDs and books, as voted for by over 40 Uncut contributors.
We also have Bruce Springsteen in the issue. He’s our Man Of The Year and Andy Gill flew out to Pittsburgh to catch up with the Wrecking Ball tour as it entered its final triumphant stretch. After a barnstorming concert at the Consol Energy Centre, Andy was left wondering: “Have I seen a better show than this? Not just this year, but ever?” It may come as no surprise to anyone who’s been keeping a close eye on such things that garage rock wunderkind, Ty Segall, serially lauded in Uncut throughout 2012, is our New Artist Of The Year. Fans of ‘fuzz-addled havoc’, rejoice! We also announce in the new issue the winner of this year’s Uncut Music Award.
The 2012 long-list of nominated albums featured some heavyweight names – Springsteen, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Paul Weller, Kate Bush and Dr John among them. The safe money, I imagine, would have been on one of these as the winner. Our judges, however, may have had other ideas…
Elsewhere, we have An Audience With Bryan Ferry, The Black Keys talk us through their back catalogue in an Album By Album special, Paul Weller stars in My Life In Music, and we revisit the enigmatic world of The Blue Nile, look forward to much looming red-nosed celebration with Slade, who tell us about the making of “Merry Xmas Everybody”, and get excited about the return of The Replacements. There are reviews aplenty, too – with new albums from Beck and Bryan Ferry, Joni Mitchell’s first 10 albums repackaged, a three-CD Gil Scott-Heron compilation of his trailblazing early work, a deluxe edition of The Damned’s explosive debut album, plus The House Of Love, Aztec Camera and Sufjan Stevens.
As ever, let me know what you think of the issue – and also, we’d love to hear what your own favourite albums of the year have been. Drop me a line at the usual address.
Finally, the next in our Ultimate Music Guide series is on sale from November 28 and it’s dedicated to The Kinks and features new reviews of all their albums, classic interviews from the archives of NME and Melody Maker, plus a revealing new introduction by Ray Davies.
Have a good week.