The new issue of Uncut arrives in UK shops this Thursday – though, if you’re a subscriber, you might receive your copy a little earlier. Morrissey, as you’ll see, is on the cover, and David Cavanagh’s ostensibly picked up the plot where Autobiography left off, uncovering the inside story on what has turned out to be a very weird year indeed for the singer.
Inside, we also have a lengthy and entertaining new interview in which My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields answers questions submitted by Uncut readers (we’re kind of amazed this piece happened after some fairly predictable, but nonetheless nerve-wracking, prevarications and cancellations). Lou Reed is fondly memorialised by his old drinking partner, Uncut editor Allan Jones. We turn the festive spotlight on a mostly neglected part of the Beatles’ story – their unhinged Christmas singles. The Who, Nick Lowe, Can, The Coen Brothers, Billy Childish, Michael Head, Parquet Courts and Matthew E White are also interviewed. And Tom Waits, Neil Young, The Cure, Nick Cave, Rosanne Cash, Al Green, Ry Cooder and Robert Plant turn up in our Reviews section.
There is also the small matter of our Review Of 2013. This year, we’ve decided to present our extensive Best-Of lists as another separate magazine, free with every copy of what just happens to be – no big deal – our 200th issue. Obviously, I’m not going to spoil things by revealing the contents of our Top 80 Albums Of The Year list, but it might be indicative of 2013’s unusually rich selection that some auspicious albums – including at least one by a former winner, The Flaming Lips – surprisingly didn’t make the cut when the votes of the 47 Uncut staffers and writers were added up.
For instance, in 87th place…
87 Eels, “Wonderful, Glorious”
93 Deerhunter, “Monomania”
96 Van Dyke Parks, “Songs Cycled”
107 Elvis Costello & The Roots, “Wise Up Ghost”
160 Villagers, “Awayland”
161 Volcano Choir, “Repave”
174 Mark Mulcahy, “Dear Mark J. Mulcahy, I Love You”
188 The Strypes, “Snapshot”
207 Queens Of The Stone Age, “…Like Clockwork”
234 Black Sabbath, “13”
242 Midlake, “Antiphon”
271 The Flaming Lips, “The Terror”
272 Steve Earle, “The Low Highway”
358 Savages, “Silence Yourself”
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