The Rolling Stones have announced a new 'best of' compilation called Honk, set for release via Polydor on April 19.
Honk features 36 of the band's best-known songs from 1971 onwards. Deluxe editions (3xCD and 4xLP) also include a bonus disc of live tracks, culled from The Rolling Stones' last three...
The Rolling Stones have announced a new ‘best of’ compilation called Honk, set for release via Polydor on April 19.
Honk features 36 of the band’s best-known songs from 1971 onwards. Deluxe editions (3xCD and 4xLP) also include a bonus disc of live tracks, culled from The Rolling Stones’ last three tours. This ventures further back into their career, including versions of “Get Off My Cloud”, “She’s A Rainbow” and “Wild Horses” (featuring Florence Welch).
Pre-order Honkhere and peruse the tracklisting for the 3xCD deluxe edition below:
Disc 1
Start Me Up
Brown Sugar
Rocks Off
Miss You
Tumbling Dice
Just Your Fool
Wild Horses
Fool To Cry
Angie
Beast Of Burden
Hot Stuff
It’s Only Rock’n’Roll (But I Like It)
Rock And A Hard Place
Doom And Gloom
Love Is Strong
Mixed Emotions
Don’t Stop
Ride ‘Em On Down
Disc 2
Bitch
Harlem Shuffle
Hate To See You Go
Rough Justice
Happy
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
One More Shot
Respectable
You Got Me Rocking
Rain Fall Down
Dancing With Mr D
Undercover (Of The Night)
Emotional Rescue
Waiting On A Friend
Saint Of Me
Out Of Control
Streets Of Love
Out Of Tears
Disc 3 – Live Tracks
Get off My Cloud
Dancing With Mr D
Beast Of Burden (with Ed Sheeran)
She’s A Rainbow
Wild Horses (with Florence Welch)
Let’s Spend The Night Together
Dead Flowers (with Brad Paisley)
Shine A Light
Under My Thumb
Bitch (with Dave Grohl)
The line-up for this year's Glastonbury Festival, taking place at Somerset's Worthy Farm from June 26-30, has been announced.
The Cure will headline the Pyramid Stage on the Sunday night, The Killers will headline on Saturday, and the previously announced Stormzy will headline on the Friday.
Order...
The line-up for this year’s Glastonbury Festival, taking place at Somerset’s Worthy Farm from June 26-30, has been announced.
The Cure will headline the Pyramid Stage on the Sunday night, The Killers will headline on Saturday, and the previously announced Stormzy will headline on the Friday.
Other acts on the bill include Tame Impala, Vampire Weekend, Liam Gallagher, Cat Power, Wu-Tang Clan, Kamasi Washington, Janelle Monáe and many more. See the poster below for a list of all the acts announced so far.
Here is the first Glastonbury Festival 2019 line-up poster, which includes our final two Pyramid Stage headliners: @TheKillers (Saturday) and @TheCure (Sunday). Many more acts and attractions still to be announced. pic.twitter.com/jYOoTQQurf
All tickets are currently sold out, but a resale for unwanted tickets will take place on Sunday April 28. Read more about how to get tickets in the resale here.
To launch his European tour, which kicks off today, Steve Gunn has released a new acoustic video for his song "Vagabond" from recent album The Unseen In Between.
It was filmed in London's Cecil Court, home to several antiquarian bookshops. Watch the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L_...
To launch his European tour, which kicks off today, Steve Gunn has released a new acoustic video for his song “Vagabond” from recent album The Unseen In Between.
It was filmed in London’s Cecil Court, home to several antiquarian bookshops. Watch the video below:
As the star embarks on his farewell tour, here’s the Ultimate Music Guide to one of rock’s greatest and best-loved entertainers: ELTON JOHN!
From Dick James to Sherlock Gnomes! From Pinner to LA! From Reg Kenneth Dwight to Elton Hercules John!
Featuring outrageous archive interviews, enlighten...
As the star embarks on his farewell tour, here’s the Ultimate Music Guide to one of rock’s greatest and best-loved entertainers: ELTON JOHN!
From Dick James to Sherlock Gnomes! From Pinner to LA! From Reg Kenneth Dwight to Elton Hercules John!
Featuring outrageous archive interviews, enlightening new reviews, even the lowdown on his new film: Rocketman.
All round, it’s your Ultimate Guide to Captain Fantastic!
When Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour began last September, it marked the closure of one chapter in a long and remarkable career stretching back over 50 years. The tour reaches the UK in June and to mark this momentous occasion, we’re delighted to unveil Elton John: The Ultimate Musi...
When Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour began last September, it marked the closure of one chapter in a long and remarkable career stretching back over 50 years. The tour reaches the UK in June and to mark this momentous occasion, we’re delighted to unveil Elton John: The Ultimate Music Guide. Inside, you’ll find outrageous archive interviews from Melody Maker and NME, new reviews of every studio album and even a behind-the-scenes peek at his biopic, Rocketman.
Elton John: The Ultimate Music Guide is on sale from Thursday (March 14) but you can order it now from our online store by clicking here.
To whet your appetite, here’s an excerpt from the introduction by Elton’s musical director and stalwart guitarist Davey Johnstone…
“I first heard about Bernie and Elton’s work through Gus Dudgeon, who’d become a good friend of mine when I came down from Edinburgh to London. I was part of the folk scene, jamming with Billy Connolly, doing the rounds up and down the country in an afghan coat and somehow avoiding abuse from skinheads. Gus said, ‘This guy Reg, he’s starting to get some action in America and his lyricist is doing a poetry album, would you like to play on it?’ It was a riot, we were listening to Cheech And Chong, it was where I first met Nigel, he was there rolling joints. Bernie was a sweet guy from Lincolnshire and seemed a bit bemused by all the attention they were getting. I was very moved by Bernie’s lyrics and that led to somebody suggesting that I play on Madman Across The Water.
“When I met Elton in the studio he was a quiet, shy guy, very nervous, wouldn’t say boo to a goose. The first time I played together with Dee and Nigel in the studio, it was instantly magical. When Elton asked me to join the band everyone around him was saying ‘You’re fucking mad, this guy’s a folkie.’ Elton said, ‘I can see something that’s gonna work for me’. I loved his songs, his playing, his singing, for me it was a no-brainer.
“The big breakthrough blew us all away. We could feel this vibe from the audiences, especially in the US. But it was album-tour-album-tour so we didn’t have time to realise what was going on. It almost became a little bit blasé. We were selling all these records it was ridiculous, you could turn on the radio in your limo and you’d hear Jimi Hendrix, then Joni Mitchell, then Led Zeppelin, then us, then The Beatles.”
In the current issue of Uncut – in shops now and available to buy online by clicking here – we take a trip to Helmsdale in the far north-east of Scotland, home for the last five years to Edywn Collins.
Speaking to Michael Odell, the one-time Orange Juice frontman looks back fondly yet unsentime...
In the current issue of Uncut – in shops now and available to buy online by clicking here – we take a trip to Helmsdale in the far north-east of Scotland, home for the last five years to Edywn Collins.
Speaking to Michael Odell, the one-time Orange Juice frontman looks back fondly yet unsentimentally over his career, and forward to the imminent release of his 10th solo album, Badbea, named after an abandoned clifftop settlement nearby.
“It’s an incredibly haunting place,” says Collins. “I first came here aged eight. Usually, I am only concerned with right now and what’s happening tomorrow. The past for me is done. But this record does look back a little more than I’m used to doing.”
It was while walking on nearby Brora beach in 1977 that Collins had a vision for the jangly, witty yet subversive music he wanted to make. After what he calls a “terrible apprenticeship” with his first bands, Onyx and then Nu-Sonics, he went back to Glasgow and formulated Orange Juice with self-styled music svengali Alan Horne.
“I still remember that walk on the beach,” smiles Collins. “It felt like a real ‘now or never’ moment.” Orange Juice disbanded in 1985. But not before Collins had made a reputation for himself by goading and challenging his frustrated paymasters. “You had to show these bastards you meant it,” he says.
“You form a band in a creative bubble and you have your own ideas of integrity. Then suddenly you’re on Top Of The Pops and you confront the machine. They wanted us to perform with dancers, doing a ripping up paper dance [along to “Rip It Up”]. We said no. They insisted. Drugs and alcohol were involved in our backstage preparations and, unfortunately, once our performance started, David McClymont fell off the stage. That caused us a lot of problems afterwards. It was deemed unprofessional by the BBC and by our paymasters at the record company.
“The Head of International at Polydor told me: ‘The bottom line, Edwyn, is if you don’t play the game you’re not going to have a career.’ I leant over the table and said, ‘Don’t you fucking bottom line me, mate.’ I used to attend meetings carrying a brolly and attaché case and I’d enter the building and say to reception staff, ‘Good morning, ladies. What have you been doing to advance the prospects of my group Orange Juice this fine day?’ I was arrogant as fuck. Some people at the record company found it funny, but most didn’t. Most of them were macho, stupid people and they needed the piss taken out of them.”
Collins suffered two strokes in 2005 and had to learn to speak, read and walk again. Was he daunted? “There were frustrations. I felt like a moron for six months – all I could say was four things: ‘Yes’, ‘No’, ‘Grace Maxwell’ and ‘The possibilities are endless’. But to be honest, I felt lucky to still be here… I wouldn’t change anything. Never harbour regrets. You have to come near to your own end to truly value life.”
You can read much more from Edwyn Collins in the current issue of Uncut, out now with John Lennon on the cover.
In 1971, Joni Mitchell hand-produced 100 copies of a book called Morning Glory On The Vine as a holiday gift for friends. The book contained handwritten lyrics and poems, accompanied by more than thirty full-colour illustrations and paintings.
As part of Mitchell's 75th birthday celebrations, Can...
In 1971, Joni Mitchell hand-produced 100 copies of a book called Morning Glory On The Vine as a holiday gift for friends. The book contained handwritten lyrics and poems, accompanied by more than thirty full-colour illustrations and paintings.
As part of Mitchell’s 75th birthday celebrations, Canongate will publish a facsimile edition this autumn. It will contain the book’s complete original content, plus a new introduction written by Joni and a number of her additional paintings, made at the time of the book’s creation, that were not included in the 1971 edition.
Legendary rock and pop drummer Hal Blaine has died, aged 90.
Blaine was a key member of the elite cabal of LA backroom musicians who came to be known as the Wrecking Crew. He played on a staggering number of epochal '60s pop hits, including The Ronettes' "Be My Baby", "Can’t Help Falling In Love...
Legendary rock and pop drummer Hal Blaine has died, aged 90.
Blaine was a key member of the elite cabal of LA backroom musicians who came to be known as the Wrecking Crew. He played on a staggering number of epochal ’60s pop hits, including The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby”, “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis Presley, “I Got You Babe” by Sonny & Cher and “Mr Tambourine Man” by The Byrds, as well The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album and many of Simon & Garfunkel’s best-known songs.
Blaine, along with the rest of the Wrecking Crew, was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2000. They calculated that he “played on more hit records than any drummer in the rock era, including 40 No. 1 singles and 150 that made the Top 10”.
Brian Wilson paid tribute, tweeting that “Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success – he was the greatest drummer ever.”
The Monkees’ Mickey Dolenz wrote that “Hal played drums on the soundtrack of our lives for many of us”, while Ringo Starr hailed him as “an incredible musician”.
I’m so sad, I don’t know what to say. Hal Blaine was such a great musician and friend that I can’t put it into words. Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success – he was the greatest drummer ever. We also laughed an awful lot. Love, Brian pic.twitter.com/vLOX3RIKc6
I am deeply saddened about the passing of drummer, Hal Blaine. Hal played drums on the soundtrack of our lives for many of us… Worth reading: An Interview with Hal Blaine | Modern Drummer Magazine https://t.co/1FWoi0bOw2
Busy finishing an issue right now – more on that next week – but for now here’s this week’s Playlist. A lot of returning favourites – The National, The Black Keys, The Chemical Brothers – as well as some newer faces like Faye Webster. Plenty to enjoy, anyway.
1.
THE NATIONAL
“You Had ...
Busy finishing an issue right now – more on that next week – but for now here’s this week’s Playlist. A lot of returning favourites – The National, The Black Keys, The Chemical Brothers – as well as some newer faces like Faye Webster. Plenty to enjoy, anyway.
1. THE NATIONAL
“You Had Your Soul With You”
(4AD)
BMG has announced the release of a 6xLP Popol Vuh box set, The Essential Album Collection Vol. 1, for April 26.
It contains five of their 1970s albums – Affenstunde, Hosianna Mantra, Einsjäger & Siebenjäger, Aguirre and Nosferatu – remastered and pressed to 180g vinyl, along with bonus tr...
BMG has announced the release of a 6xLP Popol Vuh box set, The Essential Album Collection Vol. 1, for April 26.
It contains five of their 1970s albums – Affenstunde, Hosianna Mantra, Einsjäger & Siebenjäger, Aguirre and Nosferatu – remastered and pressed to 180g vinyl, along with bonus tracks, detailed liner notes and three original posters.
The albums will also be reissued as individual CD digipaks.
Check out the tracklistings below and pre-order The Essential Album Collection Vol. 1here:
Affenstunde
1. Ich mache einen Spiegel (Dream Part 4) 8:51
2. Ich mache einen Spiegel (Dream Part 5) 4:36
3. Ich mache einen Spiegel (Dream Part 49) 7:42
4. Affenstunde 18:35
5. Train Through Time (Bonus Track) 10:31
Hosianna Mantra
1. Ah! 4:48
2. Kyrie 5:23
3. Hosianna – Mantra 10:11
4. Das 5. Buch Mose:
– Abschied 3:16
– Segnung 6:07
– Andacht Pt. 1 0:47
– Nicht hoch im Himmel 6:18
– Andacht Pt. 2 0:46
– Maria (Bonus Track) 4:29
Einsjäger & Siebenjäger
1. Kleiner Krieger 1:08
2. King Minos 4:26
3. Morgengruß 2:56
4. Würfelspiel 3:08
5. Gutes Land 5:14
6. Einsjäger & Siebenjäger 19:24
7. King Minos II (Bonus Track) 1:55
8. Wo bist du? (Bonus Track) 5:42
Aguirre
1. Aguirre I 7:24
2. Morgengruss II 2:58
3. Aguirre II 6:13
4. Agnus Dei 3:07
5. Vergegenwaertigung 16:47
6. Aguirre III (Bonus Track) 7:17
Nosferatu (2xLP)
1. Brüder des Schattens 5:45
2. Höre, der du wagst 6:00
3. Das Schloss des Irrtums 5:37
4. Die Umkehr 5:57
5. Mantra I 6:15
6. Morning sun 3:21
7. Venus principle 4:41
8. Mantra II 5:23
9. Die Nacht der Himmel 5:03
10. Der Ruf der Rohrflöte 3:39
11. To a little way 2:33
12. Through pains to heaven 3:47
13. On the way 4:05
14. Zwiesprache der Rohrflöte 3:26
“I don’t know if we’ll ever repeat this,” says Paul Weller at the beginning of Other Aspects, interviewed during a break in rehearsals. “We’ve got to make it as special as possible – and that’s it.” He tends to be a forward-facing fellow, but you can see why Weller would want a per...
“I don’t know if we’ll ever repeat this,” says Paul Weller at the beginning of Other Aspects, interviewed during a break in rehearsals. “We’ve got to make it as special as possible – and that’s it.” He tends to be a forward-facing fellow, but you can see why Weller would want a permanent record of the two concerts he played at the Southbank last October. Performing a career-spanning set with his band and the London Metropolitan Orchestra, alongside a number of guest artists, the shows were the fulfilment of a long-cherished ambition to put himself entirely at the service of beauty.
The second night at the RFH was not only recorded for a live LP but filmed by Joe O’Connor for this two-hour concert film. Other Aspects finds Weller in “a more reflective space” – as well as in a smart pair of dress trousers and a ruinously expensive-looking jumper – as he tackles 25 songs spanning 40 years.
In terms of musical mood, the show takes its readings from his latest album, True Meanings, a low-key collection of largely acoustic songs burnished with strings and horns. As she does on the record, Hannah Peel handles the arrangements, and conducts the LMO. Though she makes terrific use of the tools at her disposal, enriching the songs and often radically altering them, Peel also knows when to stay out of the way. “Aspects” and “Where’er Ye Go” – a lovely ballad from 22 Dreams – are all the more affecting for their simple, pared-down settings.
It also helps that Weller forgoes a greatest hits set instead to go roving through his back pages. Perhaps recognising that the world may not be ready for an orchestral version of “Eton Rifles”, his forays into The Jam, Style Council and his solo songbook rarely lead where you might expect, with the emphasis on rejuvenation and reinvention. Of the three Jam selections, “Boy About Town” strolls soulfully where it used to strut, while the night’s prize-winning leftfield pick, “Private Hell”, gains a dramatic new suit of clothes.
“Tales From The Riverbank” bends a little more readily to the bucolic mood, as does “You Do Something To Me”, a rare populist choice. When it comes to solo work, Weller leans towards his first two albums. “Country” is both pastoral and vaguely trippy, John Martyn meets The Velvet Underground’s “The Ocean”, while “Wild Wood” sweeps and swoons. Digging into his 1992 debut, he works up a fine head of steam on “Amongst Butterflies” and the prowling throwback funk of “Strange Museum”.
Throughout, the past is very much at the service of the present. Almost all of True Meanings is performed, enabling Weller to forge connections across eras. “The Soul Searchers” makes a soothing companion to a swinging “Have You Ever Had It Blue?”; the bluesy “Mayfly” finds a sparring partner in the punchy “Man Of Great Promise”. Elsewhere, the detailed arrangements tease out the diversity of the new material, highlighting jewel-like intricacies in “Glide” and “What Would He Say?”, a lovely Bacharach-gone-country lilt. “Books” is radically altered by the contributions of vocalist Lucy Rose and Sheema Mukherjee, Kamalbir Nandra and Tofail Ahmed, joining Weller on sitar, tanpura and Indian violin.
Given that Other Aspects is also available as a double live album, it’s worth considering what the visuals offer that the audio can’t. Weller’s never had much truck with slick patter or dazzling theatrics, and doesn’t deviate from form here. This is in most respects a workmanlike concert film, without flash or frills, placing its faith in the performances. Even so, O’Connor wisely cuts away from the show now and again, returning to the rehearsal room for a through-the-keyhole peek at ‘the process’. As Weller lays out his reasons for pursuing this venture, it’s instructive to see him – fag constantly on the go – and his band getting to grips with the rigorous discipline of playing with an orchestra.
Back on stage, with 24 musicians involved there’s plenty of business to cover. O’Connor succeeds in capturing the intense interaction between the participants, as well as the depth of emotion they all invest in this passion project. Weller, meanwhile, is clearly relishing a profoundly satisfying career moment. “It’s the closest thing to flying, really,” he mutters. Other Aspects offers a welcome opportunity to watch him gently soar.
The Flaming Lips will commemorate the 20th anniversary of their classic album The Soft Bulletin with a short run of UK shows in September, at which they'll play the album in full:
September 5 – Usher Hall, Edinburgh
September 6 – Manchester Academy, Manchester
September 7 – Brixton Academy, L...
The Flaming Lips will commemorate the 20th anniversary of their classic album The Soft Bulletin with a short run of UK shows in September, at which they’ll play the album in full:
September 5 – Usher Hall, Edinburgh
September 6 – Manchester Academy, Manchester
September 7 – Brixton Academy, London
Tickets are on sale now for the three dates from here.
The Flaming Lips will release a new album called King’s Mouth on Record Store Day (April 13). Featuring extensive narration from The Clash’s Mick Jones, The the album comes accompanied by a book called King’s Mouth: Immerse Heap Trip Fantasy Experience.
It will initially be released on gold vinyl in a limited edition of 4000 from participating Record Store Day outlets, before getting a wider release in July.
Collapsing major-label deals, a disintegrating marriage, a quantity of drugs that would make Hunter S Thompson demur – Royal Trux have been through things that would have killed many bands stone dead. To be fair, it did knock them out of commission for a little over 15 years. But in the years foll...
Collapsing major-label deals, a disintegrating marriage, a quantity of drugs that would make Hunter S Thompson demur – Royal Trux have been through things that would have killed many bands stone dead. To be fair, it did knock them out of commission for a little over 15 years. But in the years following their 2000 swansong Pound For Pound, there was the lingering sense that Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema never quite put thoughts of their former group behind them. Herrema’s subsequent band RTX – later renamed Black Bananas – channelled more than a little of Trux’s dissolute hard-rock energy. Hagerty’s work under the name The Howling Hex, meanwhile, felt firmly rooted more in Trux’s more haywire, experimental side.
In 2012, Hagerty was planning a live re-enactment of Royal Trux’s notoriously out-there 1990 double LP Twin Infinitives when Herrema got wind. Instead of getting mad, she got in touch, the pair got to talking – and in 2015 they made their live return at California’s Beserktown Festival. Royal Trux were officially back on the road.
Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!
White Stuff – the first studio album since Royal Trux’s reformation – is a reaffirmation of the group’s core values: the raw thrill of rock’n’roll, and the realisation that trash, when looked at the right way, can appear a kind of treasure. Weirdly recorded, weirdly mixed, their take on rock music feels mutant, radioactive – the equivalent of that three-eyed fish from The Simpsons. Hagerty’s guitars chunter and wail, sometimes echoing classic rock moves, other times wandering off on weird melodic tangents inspired by Ornette Coleman’s philosophy of harmolodics, the jazz saxophonist’s attempt to break free of conventional musical notation into new realms of raw expression. “Year Of The Dog” and “Under Ice” feature translucent keyboard washes and distorted electronics that arc across the frame. And firing through everything is the pair’s unmistakable chorus, Hagerty’s stoner drawl and Herrema’s wildcat yowl weaving in and around each other like a pair of drunks on the dodgems.
It goes without saying that this is a pretty singular brew. Royal Trux are kind of like The Fall in the respect that it’s hard to get a handle on what any given song might be about – they speak a language that’s all their own – but great lines pop up over and over, like bugs splatting on a windscreen. “I got a baseball bat and a handful of nails!” the pair holler on “Under Ice”. “South Californian drivers are the 19th wonder of the world!” goes “Purple Audacity #1”, a simmering funk excursion that finds Hagerty whipping up wild peals of guitar feedback. Someone called “Whopper Dave” winds up with a donut to the head. “Suburban Junkie Lady”, meanwhile, is a character sketch that’s sung with genuine warmth. “You’ve got nickels in your dimes/It happens all the time,” they chorus, sweetly.
Has anything changed in Truxland in the last decade and a half? The Kool Keith-featuring “Get Used To It”, released last October but not included here, appears to have been a little bit of a red herring, promising a new rap-boogie direction that never quite arrived. “Sic Em Slow”, with its ringing chimes and hand-drum percussion, gestures to the influence of Japanese ambient music – although Hagerty takes care to chain it to one of the album’s best, ugliest riffs.
Ultimately, perhaps the track that sums up Royal Trux 2.0 is White Stuff’s title track. It’s a voracious anthem to tour life with triumphalist chorus: “This is the way it’s supposed to be/Push me on a cart through the duty free/ Hanging and playin’ all across the land/Tellin’ everybody we’re the greatest band…” But there might be a note of caution buried in there too – a warning about chemical excess from a band that have certainly lived it. Arguably, other groups have taken up their baton in their absence – think Ariel Pink’s damaged rock deconstructions, or new-wave garage sorts like The Kills, who borrow the style, if not the substance. But Royal Trux remain unique, one of a kind: still going wrong like a hydrogen bomb.
Julia Jacklin’s 2016 debut, Don’t Let The Kids Win, captured the Australian songwriter in a sort of existential no man’s land; as she approached her mid-twenties, she felt like everyone had a life plan except her. She worked on a factory production line, writing music in her free time. She’d...
Julia Jacklin’s 2016 debut, Don’t Let The Kids Win, captured the Australian songwriter in a sort of existential no man’s land; as she approached her mid-twenties, she felt like everyone had a life plan except her. She worked on a factory production line, writing music in her free time. She’d long contemplated pursuing a career as a social worker. Instead, motivated by her love of Aldous Harding’s sound, she spent her savings on a month in a Christchurch studio with Harding’s collaborator Ben Edwards, and the very act of sharing those songs that fretted about her future plotted her a new course.
If Jacklin was looking for a kind of certainty, then she got it – almost two years of solid touring ensued. The parallel to that was that her romantic relationship was crumbling. Instead of the tentative questioning of its predecessor, then, Crushing is most definitely about one core theme – recovery from savage heartbreak. And it is breathtakingly raw.
The process may be familiar, but the way Jacklin journeys through the stages with stark vulnerability means it feels wholly fresh: from the explosive separation to a determined acceptance, via all the emotional turbulence in between. But it’s also about healing, Jacklin gradually reknitting together the gap between her body and mind that had grown to be so cavernous.
The pure detail means it’s not a standard break-up collection, but rather one so intimately relayed that the listener practically wears the experience with her. It’s right there in the opening song, “Body”, built on a simple, shadowy guitar line. The story of a man-child pulled up for smoking in the toilets on a short-haul flight, ruining a weekend away. “There on the Sydney tarmac/I threw my luggage down/I said I’m gonna leave you/I’m not a good woman when you’re around,” she sings, as the subject later threatens to weaponise a private image. “Naked on your bed looking straight at ya/Do you still have that photograph?/Would you use it to hurt me?” The repeated outro line of “I guess it’s just my life/And it’s just my body” ramming home the subject’s manipulation.
The Angel Olsen-esque “Head Alone” was written on the road, where Jacklin spent hours staring out of tourvan windows. The song bleeds like a fresh cut, a demand from the singer for psychological and physical space in a notoriously claustrophobic touring environment. “I don’t want to be touched all the time,” she asserts. “I raised my body up to be mine.” The more pacy garage rock of “Pressure To Party” follows, and marks the beginning of the rebuild – the loaded choice between ‘getting back out there’ to meet someone new, versus the familiar comfort of an old flame. “I’ve locked myself in my room/But I’ll open up the door and try to love again soon,” she decides in that moment.
Jacklin does this time and time again, puts herself through the wringer, preserving and processing the hurt. “Don’t Know How To Keep Loving You” is a tender country-folk ballad – in the vein of past tourmates Whitney – while “When The Family Flies In”, just Jacklin accompanied by a piano, is the album’s lowest point, in both tempo and frame of mind. Finger-picked acoustic number “Convention” is a sarcastic swipe at strangers who impart uninvited ‘advice’, and “Good Guy” evokes the loneliness of the rebound. “Tell me I’m the love of your life/Just for a night even if you don’t feel it,” she trills.
Things reach a visceral apex on the penultimate “Turn Me Down”, a track so exposed that recording it left Jacklin emotionally “ruined”. When she finally got it taped – the cracks and quivers in her voice are audible, the production defiantly un-airbrushed – she was lying on the vocal booth floor, which led to an “awkward moment” when a 16-year-old studio intern came in to check she was still OK. It’s a genuine relief to hear Jacklin sing, “I’ll be OK, I’ll be alright, I’ll get well soon, sleep through the night,” as closing track “Comfort” fades away.
It’s a moment that brings full circle a family of songs that are strikingly evocative, but never overwrought. Were Crushing soundtracking a film visualising the story it might have audiences battling an urge to reach through the cinema screen to console the protagonist. But that might not help – after all, heartbreak is lonely, unpredictable and personal, and no two experiences of it are identical. Here’s Jacklin’s, a powerful take on the oldest inspiration of them all.
The National have announced that their new album, I Am Easy To Find, will be released by 4AD on May 17.
Listen to a track from it, "You Had Your Soul With You", below. The song features guest vocals from long-time David Bowie collaborator Gail Ann Dorsey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBcVrb-snP...
The National have announced that their new album, I Am Easy To Find, will be released by 4AD on May 17.
Listen to a track from it, “You Had Your Soul With You”, below. The song features guest vocals from long-time David Bowie collaborator Gail Ann Dorsey.
I Am Easy To Find was mostly recorded at Long Pond, Hudson Valley, NY with additional sessions in Paris, Berlin, Cincinnati, Austin, Dublin, Brooklyn and other locations. The album features vocal contributions from Sharon Van Etten, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Lisa Hannigan, Mina Tindle and Kate Stables of This Is The Kit.
“Yes, there are a lot of women singing on this, but it wasn’t because, ‘Oh, let’s have more women’s voices,'” says The National’s frontman Matt Berninger. “It was more, ‘Let’s have more of a fabric of people’s identities.’ It would have been better to have had other male singers, but my ego wouldn’t let that happen.”
A companion short film will accompany the release, directed by Mike Mills (20th Century Women, Beginners) and starring Alicia Vikander. Watch a trailer for that below:
The National have also announced a full world tour to go with the five intimate dates they announced last week. Peruse their full itinerary below:
April 16 – PARIS, FR, Olympia
April 18 – LONDON, GB, Royal Festival Hall
April 22 – NEW YORK, NY, Beacon Theatre
April 24 – TORONTO, ON, Roy Thomson Hall
April 26 – LOS ANGELES, CA, Orpheum Theatre
June 11 – PHILADELPHIA, PA, Mann Center *
June 12 – BROOKLYN, NY, Prospect Park *
June 15 – MANCHESTER, TN, Bonnaroo
June 16 – ATLANTA, GA, Coca-Cola Roxy *
June 17 – ST. AUGUSTINE, FL, St. Augustine Amphitheatre *
June 19 – WASHINGTON, DC, The Anthem *
June 20 – PORTLAND, ME, Thompson’s Point *
June 21 – MONTREAL, QC, Place des Arts
June 22 – HAMILTON, ON, Pier 8 **
June 24 – COLUMBUS, OH, Express Live *
June 25 – ANN ARBOR, MI, Hill Auditorium *
June 26 – INDIANAPOLIS, IN, Lawn at White River *
June 28 – CHICAGO, IL, Northerly Island **
July 10 – MANCHESTER, GB, Castlefield Bowl
July 12 – MADRID, ES, Mad Cool Festival
July 13 – LONDON, GB, British Summer Time @ Hyde Park
July 15 – FRANKFURT, DE, Jahrhunderthalle
July 16 – HAMBURG, DE, Stadtpark
July 18 – RÄTTVIK, SE, Dalhalla
August 4 – WATERFORD, IE, All Together Now
August 6 – GLASGOW, GB, Summer Nights at the Bandstand
August 7 – GLASGOW, GB, Summer Nights at the Bandstand
August 9 – SICILY, IT, Ypsigrock
August 10 – BUDAPEST, HU, Sziget Festival
August 11 – BUFTEA, RO, Summer Well
August 14 – PAREDES DE COURA, PT, Paredes de Coura
August 16 – HASSELT, BE, Pukkelpop
August 16-18 – BIDDINGHUIZEN, NL, Lowlands
August 18 – HASSELT, BE, Pukkelpop
August 28 – VANCOUVER, BC, Deer Lake Park **
August 29 – SEATTLE, WA, Marymoor Park **
August 30 – PORTLAND, OR, Edgefield **
September 1 – STANFORD, CA, Frost Amphitheater **
September 2 – LOS ANGELES, CA, Greek Theatre **
September 3 – PHOENIX, AZ, Comerica Theatre **
September 5 – ODGEN, UT, Ogden Amphitheater **
September 8 – SANTA FE, NM, Santa Fe Opera House **
September 10 – AUSTIN, TX, 360 Amphitheatre **
September 11 – HOUSTON, TX, White Oak Music Hall **
November 25 – WARSAW, PL, Torwar Hall
November 26 – BERLIN, DE, Columbiahalle
November 27 – BERLIN, DE, Columbiahalle
November 29 – COPENHAGEN, DK, Royal Arena
December 1 – BOCHUM, DE, Ruhrcongress
December 2 – COLOGNE, DE, Palladium
December 3 – ZURICH, CH, Samsumg Hall
December 4 – MUNICH, DE, Zenith
December 5 – STUTTGART, DE, Porsche Arena
Following 2016's Killer Road, Patti Smith has teamed up again with experimental duo Soundwalk Collective for a new album called The Peyote Dance.
Slated for release via Bella Union on May 31, The Peyote Dance is based on Antonin Artaud's book of the same name, chronicling his 1936 travels in Mexico...
Following 2016’s Killer Road, Patti Smith has teamed up again with experimental duo Soundwalk Collective for a new album called The Peyote Dance.
Slated for release via Bella Union on May 31, The Peyote Dance is based on Antonin Artaud’s book of the same name, chronicling his 1936 travels in Mexico and his experiences with the remote Rarámuri tribe.
Hear a track from it, “The New Revelations Of Being”, below:
According to a press release, “The album’s sonic method originates in the idea of retracing Artaud’s steps and returning to the village and cave where he lived. Gathering stones, sand, leaves, and many instruments such as violins and drums that the Rarámuri made themselves, the artists were able to awaken the landscape’s sleeping memories and uncover the space’s sonic grammar.”
Of her vocal contributions, Smith says: “The poets enter the bloodstream, they enter the cells. For a moment, one is Artaud… You can’t ask for it, you can’t buy it, you can’t take drugs for it to be authentic. It just has to happen, you have to be chosen as well as choose… We understand that this work and the artist are not dead, they find life in recording them.”
The Who's Pete Townshend will publish his debut novel, The Age Of Anxiety, via Hachette on November 5.
"Ten years ago I decided to create a magnum opus that would combine opera, art installation and novel," Townshend explains. "Suddenly here I am with a completed novel ready to publish. I am an avi...
The Who’s Pete Townshend will publish his debut novel, The Age Of Anxiety, via Hachette on November 5.
“Ten years ago I decided to create a magnum opus that would combine opera, art installation and novel,” Townshend explains. “Suddenly here I am with a completed novel ready to publish. I am an avid reader and have really enjoyed writing it. I am also happy to say the majority of the music is composed, ready to be polished up for release and performance. It’s tremendously exciting.”
Publisher Mark Booth adds: “The Age of Anxiety is a great rock novel, but that is one of the less important things about it. The narrator is a brilliant creation – cultured, witty and unreliable. The novel captures the craziness of the music business and displays Pete Townshend’s sly sense of humour and sharp ear for dialogue. First conceived as an opera, The Age of Anxiety deals with mythic and operatic themes including a maze, divine madness and long-lost children. Hallucinations and soundscapes haunt this novel, which on one level is an extended meditation on manic genius and the dark art of creativity”.
Details about the accompanying opera, album and art installation will follow in due course.
The Last Bohemians is a new podcast, profiling inspirational female artists, musicians and cultural figures.
Hosted by Guardian/Observer journalist Kate Hutchinson, the first series features interviews with Cosey Fanni Tutti, Pauline Black of The Selecter, Pamela Des Barres, Molly Parkin, Bonnie Gr...
The Last Bohemians is a new podcast, profiling inspirational female artists, musicians and cultural figures.
Hosted by Guardian/Observer journalist Kate Hutchinson, the first series features interviews with Cosey Fanni Tutti, Pauline Black of The Selecter, Pamela Des Barres, Molly Parkin, Bonnie Greer and LSD campaigner Amanda Feilding.
The soundtrack to Andrew Dominik’s 2007 film The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, as written and performed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, is being released on vinyl for the first time on April 19.
It was Cave and Ellis's second soundtrack after scoring Cave's own 2005 film ...
The soundtrack to Andrew Dominik’s 2007 film The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, as written and performed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, is being released on vinyl for the first time on April 19.
It was Cave and Ellis’s second soundtrack after scoring Cave’s own 2005 film The Proposition. They have since gone on to write the music for a number of other films, incluing Dias De Gracia, Lawless, Loin Des Hommes, Hell Or High Water, Wind River and Kings.
The Prodigy's Keith Flint has died, aged 49. Police were called to his home in North End, Essex, this morning (March 4) after concerns for his welfare but Flint was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police stated that the death is not being treated as suspicious.
Order the latest issue of Uncut online...
The Prodigy’s Keith Flint has died, aged 49. Police were called to his home in North End, Essex, this morning (March 4) after concerns for his welfare but Flint was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police stated that the death is not being treated as suspicious.
After meeting producer Liam Howlett at a rave in 1989, Flint initially joined The Prodigy as a dancer. He became the face of the group after taking lead vocals on 1996 No. 1 hits “Firestarter” and “Breathe”.
Flint had recently completed a tour of Australia with The Prodigy and was due to embark on an American tour in May promoting their latest album, 2018’s No Tourists.
