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Peter Capaldi – My Life In Music

Sam Richards
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Peter Capaldi – My Life In Music

The post-punk Time Lord on the albums that shaped his universe: “Heard once, it stays forever”

The post-punk Time Lord on the albums that shaped his universe: “Heard once, it stays forever”

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

FRANK SINATRA
That’s Life
REPRISE, 1966
I don’t really remember my parents ever going out to buy a record, but somehow there was a collection of battered albums under the record player. They would often have nights when drink was taken and fun was had, and this album would always go on. You’d never describe an album of Sinatra’s as lacklustre, but every song is compact, like they want to get it over with. But when he hits the groove of “That’s Life”, he’s kind of unbeatable. If “My Way” is about imposing your will upon life, “That’s Life” is a hymn to how powerless you are to deal with whatever fate throws at you, so the best thing is just to get on with it and have a laugh when you can. It’s the best shrug in popular music.

DAVID BOWIE
David Live
RCA, 1974
Like many things in life, I was quite late into David Bowie. In order to dig into his back catalogue, I bought this double album, which appeared to contain many of his hits. But of course, a lot of them are reworked and don’t really fly. I’ve subsequently discovered that they’d just had a big fight in the dressing room because the musicians didn’t know they were recording a live album. But I love all that angst. I love Earl Slick, who rips the whole thing up. But ultimately for me, it’s Bowie’s voice. There’s a kind of terror in it. The version of “Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide” on Ziggy… is a bit Judy Garland, but on this one you really believe he’s not going to make it to the end.

SIMPLE MINDS
Life In A Day
ZOOM, 1979
I like a lot of Glasgow bands – that first Blue Nile album was great. And I used to really like Simple Minds. I actually like their first album that <they> don’t like. You can see a theme here: I like the albums that don’t seem to be very successful. I saw them in Glasgow at that time, in a tiny little place called The Mars Bar. They weren’t doing blues, they weren’t doing Status Quo, they were doing some weird arthouse stuff, and they had a great song called “Life In A Day”. It’s the first time I’d really seen a band that excited me, and also where I thought, ‘It’s possible to do that.’ Because they’re all just guys from Glasgow, although the world they were evoking was very different.

TALKING HEADS
Fear Of Music
SIRE, 1979
This album got me through a lot of all-nighters at art school, when I wasn’t as attentive to my studies as I should have been. It’s Talking Heads exploring a lot of the stuff that will become more finessed and polished later on. It confounded my expectations of what a song could be, because the narratives are so strange, but they’re not dislocated. The band are very concerned about making sure the songs have an engaging structure and that there’s a chorus that will work for you, but the narrative is shifting all the time. The songs are inventive and funny, but they’re also a bit scary. You’re never quite sure whether or not you’d be happy if David Byrne showed up at your door.

CRAIG ARMSTRONG
It’s Nearly Tomorrow
BMG CHRYSALIS, 2014
A lot of actors use music to help them get into the zone. For instance, when I was doing Malcolm Tucker, I would have “Scary Monsters” playing, because it’s quite jagged and hard to relax to. And It’s Nearly Tomorrow is the one that did it for me in relation to the rather well-known character of Doctor Who. I was keen to try and bring some kind of melancholy to the role, I guess because I was older, and this album provided a way into that. It seems to be about time, loss, humanity, love, confusion and fate. The music is infused with this dark, relentless power, like the forces at work in the universe, so it would help me think about how to be a strange, alien Time Lord.

ENNIO MORRICONE
The Mission OST
VIRGIN, 1986
It’s often said of Ennio Morricone that you know it’s him from the first note, and that’s absolutely true of this album. The film is about the European incursion into Latin America and how the Jesuit priests would set up missionaries in the jungle to try and convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity, which all goes terribly wrong, as you might imagine. Morricone illustrates that story by combining his typically heartbreaking European, classical, choral sound with these indigenous rhythms and voices. So it’s a little bit like world music, but not quite. He’s a master composer of soundtracks, so he evokes this whole thing for us in a very beautiful way. He’s the greatest film composer – apart from Bernard Herrman – because he infuses his material with so much emotion.

WILLIE NELSON
A Song For You
HALLMARK, 1983
Willie Nelson was huge in the ’80s, but I did have a fear that getting into him meant going the full Ken Bruce, and that easy listening would take me over like the fungal virus in The Last Of Us. So I dug deeper into Willie’s back catalogue looking for purer country stuff. There was plenty, and it sounded great. But so did the standards. I finally accepted this when we found the album <A Song For You>. My partner Elaine and I played it all the time on a battered cassette as our life together unfolded. His versions of these standards have everything – they’re moving, frank, wise and for the ages, all culminating in his version of Kris Kristofferson’s “Loving Her Was Easier”, the song that we danced to at our wedding.

JAN GARBAREK & THE HILLIARD ENSEMBLE
Officium
ECM, 1994
In 2004, I went to make a film in Iceland. It’s one of the strangest and most haunting places I have ever been, and I loved it. The film was low-budget so I was not put up in a hotel, but lodged in the Reykjavik basement of a fabulous bohemian couple named Sverrir and Eda. They left me a CD player and a number of CDs. This was the first one I put on. The Hilliard Ensemble is a vocal quartet devoted to early music; Jan Garbarek is a Norwegian jazz sax and clarinet player. The combined sound is haunting, medieval, yet kind of jazzy. The track “Parce Mihi Domine” plays like the theme music to some lost Icelandic noir movie. Heard once, it stays forever.

Peter Capaldi’s new album Sweet Illusions is out now on Last Night From Glasgow

Köln you dig it?

John Lewis
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Köln you dig it?

Plenty of music biopics are unable to use songs by the artists they depict. Some, like the 2020 Bowie-related movie Stardust, struggle as a result; others, like Backbeat or Nowhere Boy, find ways to tell a more introspective tale. “For me, it was a beautiful obstacle to overcome,” says Ido Fluk, the Israeli writer and director of Köln 75, which dramatises the events surrounding Keith Jarrett’s famous Köln Concert without being able to feature a single note of his music. “It’s about this legendary concert where a pianist has to improvise for an hour on a broken piano. As artists, the creative process is often about dealing with obstructions and obstacles. Telling this story without using any of the original music was our broken piano.”

Plenty of music biopics are unable to use songs by the artists they depict. Some, like the 2020 Bowie-related movie Stardust, struggle as a result; others, like Backbeat or Nowhere Boy, find ways to tell a more introspective tale. “For me, it was a beautiful obstacle to overcome,” says Ido Fluk, the Israeli writer and director of Köln 75, which dramatises the events surrounding Keith Jarrett’s famous Köln Concert without being able to feature a single note of his music. “It’s about this legendary concert where a pianist has to improvise for an hour on a broken piano. As artists, the creative process is often about dealing with obstructions and obstacles. Telling this story without using any of the original music was our broken piano.”

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

Fifty years ago, the American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett turned up to play a solo gig at the Cologne Opera House and, instead of the 10ft-long, half-ton Bösendorfer concert grand that he was expecting, he was given a weedy, 6ft rehearsal piano with broken pedals. A furious Jarrett wanted to cancel but ended up reluctantly playing the gig, using the instrument’s limitations to improvise in a completely different way. Against the odds, a live recording of the show ended up shifting more than four million copies, becoming the biggest-selling solo piano album in history and turning Jarrett into a star.

Köln 75 explores the chaotic events leading up the concert, with John Magaro playing a spiky Keith Jarrett and Mala Emde playing Vera Brandes, the feisty teenage promoter who ultimately talked him into playing the show. Fluk says that his aim was to “move the focus away from Jarrett, the brooding artist, and instead look at the people who help to facilitate art. Vera Brandes was 16 when she started booking concerts. She’s a legend in Germany, and her story is as important to the Köln Concert as Jarrett’s. When I decided to make the film, I tracked her down and found her living in Greece. She said she’d been waiting 50 years for someone to tell her story!”

Switching between English and German dialogue, Köln 75 often breaks the fourth wall and uses an elliptical narrative approach that goes off on entertaining tangents. “Many music biopics are very formulaic,” argues Fluk. “The origin story, the tortured genius, the excesses of addiction, the triumphant comeback concert, etcetera. I wanted something more freewheeling. My spirit guide was Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People: fast, energetic and fun.”

The famously reclusive Keith Jarrett had no input into the film, but his brother Chris – also a renowned pianist – was a script advisor. “We wanted to make sure we got our portrayal of Keith right,” says Fluk. Help also came from the film’s producer Oren Moverman, who co-wrote two of the more impressively unorthodox music biopics of recent times, I’m Not There and Love & Mercy.

The Köln Concert is the subject of another upcoming film called Lost In Köln, a documentary that forensically interviews dozens of people involved in the show. Brandes was involved in both projects, and Fluk sees them as complementary. “But my film certainly isn’t a documentary,” he emphasise. “I also didn’t really want it to be a jazz film, just as The Köln Concert isn’t really a ‘jazz’ album – it’s as much a piece of country-rock, blues and classical music. I wanted to make something similarly genre-free, something that wasn’t gatekeepy, something accessible to everyone.”

Köln 75 will be released in the UK later this year

We’re New Here: Florist

Lisa-Marie Ferla
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We’re New Here: Florist

“Every day I wake, wait for the tragedy.” The lyric with which Emily Sprague has chosen to open Florist’s latest album Jellywish could easily be read as melodramatic, were it not for her understated delivery: softly-spoken and matter-of-fact, an unfiltered early-morning thought over gently fingerpicked acoustic guitar. “The album starts that way because it’s important to call attention to the fact that we’re dysfunctional as humans on earth,” says Sprague, Florist’s vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter. “We’re not really symbiotically living on this planet and with each other. We get stuck in these ways of believing what we think is true. But it doesn’t have to be so narrow.”

Buy Jellywish on vinyl here

“Every day I wake, wait for the tragedy.” The lyric with which Emily Sprague has chosen to open Florist’s latest album Jellywish could easily be read as melodramatic, were it not for her understated delivery: softly-spoken and matter-of-fact, an unfiltered early-morning thought over gently fingerpicked acoustic guitar. “The album starts that way because it’s important to call attention to the fact that we’re dysfunctional as humans on earth,” says Sprague, Florist’s vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter. “We’re not really symbiotically living on this planet and with each other. We get stuck in these ways of believing what we think is true. But it doesn’t have to be so narrow.”

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

The band formed 12 years ago in Albany, New York. Originally they were a trio, with Rick Spataro on bass and Jonnie Baker on additional guitar and keyboard, playing house shows with songs that Sprague had written to perform under her own name. “But it felt like the three of us were doing something more than just them playing as my band,” says Sprague. “It was really this friendship between us that was so much of what the music was about.” Drummer Felix Walworth joined shortly after Florist self-released their first EP We Have Been This Way Forever in the spring of 2013, and since then, that collaboration has been “growing, changing and going through all kinds of different life chapters together.”

Jellywish is more succinct and song-driven than its self-titled 19-track predecessor of 2022. It finds the band juxtaposing their exploration of modern anxieties – technology, ageing, loss, climate catastrophe – with quietly joyful melodies, like an otherworldly version of fellow East Coast indie-folkers Big Thief. While acoustic guitar, softly-brushed cymbals and resonant harmonies do much of the work, regular flashes of understated electronics add textures that call back to the band’s more experimental beginnings, as well as the modular ambient compositions Sprague has released under her own name; witness the ethereal squall from which “Our Hearts In A Room” emerges, or the undulating, music-box sound that peppers “Jellyfish”.

While Sprague has always written alone, it’s once she takes the material to the rest of the band that the “alchemy” that transforms them into Florist songs begins. “We’ve recorded every album ourselves, as Rick is a professional recording engineer with his own studio,” explains Sprague. “A huge part of what makes Florist recordings sound the way that they do is that it’s the four of us together in a house somewhere, hanging out and having ideas and committing them to tape.” Gradually, over the course of the band’s existence, Sprague has become “more comfortable writing in the same space that we’re recording. I don’t feel as nervous, or as much pressure, about it as I used to.”

Album opener “Levitate” – with that striking first line – was one of the songs that came together during those recording sessions, a month overlapping the April 2024 solar eclipse which the band spent together in a house in the Catskill Mountains. Time apart from the world allowed the band to “deep dive” into the music, developing their own shorthand. “We used the word ‘jellyfish’ a lot: like, ‘Let’s give this song a jellyfish vibe’, this sort of undulating, watery feel,” says Sprague.

The band has a heavy tour schedule over the coming months, and Sprague is excited to see how these songs land outside of that room. “In the early days, I used to be more worried about whether people would like the music,” she admits. “But now? I’m proud of this whole record. I’m proud of us.”

Jellywish is out on April 4 via Double Double Whammy

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Yusuf/Cat Stevens unveils his official autobiography

Sam Richards
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Yusuf/Cat Stevens unveils his official autobiography

Yusuf/Cat Stevens has announced that his long-awaited memoir, Cat On The Road To Findout, will be published in the UK on September 18, and in North America on October 7.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

The book is billed as “an extraordinary soul-baring journey through the triumphs, trials, and transcendental quest of one of music’s most enigmatic figures of our time” that will reveal “the intimate story of his deeply emotive transformation… from his folk-troubadour beginnings, to the glamorous chaos of 60s pop stardom, to his 70s reign as a generational voice [to] his unexpected departure from superstardom, embracing Islam.”

Says Stevens: “I’ve been on an amazing journey, which began in the narrow streets of London, and led me through the most iconic cities, to perform upon the great stage of Western culture, ascending the dizzying heights of wealth, recognition and artistic pinnacles; freely exploring vast ranges of religions and philosophies, wandering through churches, temples, all the way to the Holy abode in Jerusalem — ignoring myths and warnings — and crossing the foreboded, desert heartlands, to arrive at the House of One God in Abrahamic Arabia. What finally elevated my perspective was a luminous Book that perfectly alchemized my thoughts, beliefs, with human nature. It taught me Oneness, and my place and purpose within the universe.”

Cat On The Road To Findout will be published in hardback, ebook and audiobook format (narrated by the author). You can pre-order the book and join the presale for Stevens’ upcoming book tour here.

Queens Of The Stone Age announce Alive In The Catacombs

Sam Richards
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Queens Of The Stone Age announce Alive In The Catacombs

Queens Of The Stone Age have revealed details of their new stripped-down concert film, recorded live in the Paris catacombs in July 2024.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

Alive In The Catacombs features songs from across the Queens Of The Stone Age back catalogue, performed largely acoustically – save for an electric piano connected to a car battery – and augmented by a small string section. Watch the trailer below:

Queens Of The Stone Age are the first band to receive official permission to play in the catacombs, a set of tunnels beneath the surface of Paris, where millions of bodies were buried in the 1700s – “the biggest audience we’ve ever played for,” notes Josh Homme.

“If you’re ever going to be haunted, surrounded by several million dead people is the place,” Homme continues. “It would be ridiculous to try to rock there…That space dictates everything, it’s in charge. You do what you’re told when you’re in there.”

Queens Of The Stone Age: Alive In The Catacombs was produced by La Blogothèque and directed by Thomas Rames. The film will be available to rent or purchase via qotsa.com from June 7 – pre-order now to receive exclusive access to behind-the-scenes footage. An audio-only version will be announced in the coming weeks. 

You can read more from Josh Homme talking exclusively to us about his “near-life experience” in the Paris catacombs in the next issue of Uncut, due out on May 23. Check back here next week for full details of the new issue.

Steve Albini’s archive collections are being sold

Michael Bonner
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Steve Albini’s archive collections are being sold

Steve Albini's personal collection of records, books, fanzines, clothing and other memorabilia is being made available in weekly online sales.

Steve Albini‘s personal collection of records, books, fanzines, clothing and other memorabilia is being made available in weekly online sales.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

They will be sold on Steve Albini’s Closet, a website launched a year after the engineer’s death, which describes itself as an “entity created to distribute the treasures amassed by the late polymath.”

Between 100 and 200 new items will be uploaded to the site each Friday, with proceeds going to benefit Albini’s estate. “Somewhere in the stacks, about 4,000 pieces wait their turn, plus a corner for the smaller curiosities.”

The collection includes albums, CDs, books, cassettes, singles, alongside zines, shirts, posters, flyers and original art.

Robert Fripp is recovering after emergency heart surgery

Michael Bonner
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Robert Fripp is recovering after emergency heart surgery

Robert Fripp has undergone two bouts of heart surgery after he unwittingly suffered a heart attack in early April while traveling to Italy.

Robert Fripp has undergone two bouts of heart surgery after he unwittingly suffered a heart attack in early April while traveling to Italy.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

Fripp initially believed his symptoms were related to acid reflux. “I’d been suffering what I considered to be acid reflux for a couple of weeks,” he explained in a YouTube video posted with his wife Toyah Willcox, on May 11. “On the Saturday morning I flew, it felt a little bit more.”

Fripp was due to perform at an Orchestra Of Crafty Guitarists event at Castione della Presolana in Bergamo. But after landing in Bergamo on April 6, Fripp was taken directly to a cardiac hospital, where doctors discovered dangerously elevated troponin levels, a protein that indicates damage to the heart.

“I was in A+E not quite knowing what was going on other than I knew they were going to do something, and an orderly came along and shaved my balls,” he continued. Fripp went on to say that he was diagnosed with a trifurcated artery and had a pair of stents inserted during two operations. He is on medication for the rest of his life.

Fripp also said that, less than a week after his surgery, he was able to direct the Guitar Circle show at Castione della Presolana.

“It was stunning. The audience were prepped with orchestral manoeuvres and it really was a magical event for me,” Fripp added.

Introducing…The History Of Rock: 1968!

John Robinson
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Introducing…The History Of Rock: 1968!

With Pete Townshend announcing The Who’s farewell US tour, now seems a good time to remind ourselves of when the band made one of their earliest trips to the continent. You can read all about it in The History Of Rock: 1968, the latest in our series of premium magazines curated from the archives of NME and Melody Maker.

Pete in 1968 is a big fan of America. Amazing microphone systems. Great groups like Moby Grape. Their own bus, “equipped with all modern conveniences like scotch and beer”.  Even the fact that they’re staying in poky hotels hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm. As we follow the group deeper into the year we find them developing some challenging new work, the rock opera Tommy, at this stage provisionally entitled “Dead Dumb And Blind Boy”.

Our other favourite groups are changing too. After 1967’s colourful revelations and occasionally grandiose musical experimentation, 1968 has its feet more firmly planted on the ground. The gurus and the hallucinogens of the past twelve months have imparted their knowledge, and The Beatles are for the most part slightly more suspicious of whim and fancy.

No-one precisely says this is their plan (although Paul McCartney has been murmuring about “getting back” for a while), but there is a palpable swing away from the head trips of the studio and towards the heart: to early inspirations, live music. Later in the year, the double album released by the Beatles will contain strong flavours of blues and rock ‘n’ roll, the year’s two principal revivals. Does this now mean the Beatles are taking a step backwards? As Ringo Starr philosophically remarks: “It’s not forwards or backwards. It’s just a step.”

Bob Dylan also sets an anomalous tempo, established early in the year with the bucolic minimalism of John Wesley Harding. Dylan’s continued absence from the promotional scene allows him to move with a freedom not permitted his British contemporaries, and his absence creates a vacuum that myth, and under-the-counter recordings, step in to fill. Elsewhere in the mag you’ll find John Peel, Aretha Franklin, Cream…even George Best!

This is the world of The History Of Rock, a monthly magazine which reaps the benefits of their reporting for the reader decades later, one year at a time. Inside, you will find verbatim articles from frontline staffers, compiled into long and illuminating reads. You can catch up on any you’ve missed here. Enjoy!

The Who announce farewell North American tour

Sam Richards
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The Who announce farewell North American tour

The Who have revealed that their upcoming North American tour will be their last. At a press conference today (May 8) at London’s Iconic Gallery, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend announced details of The Song Is Over: The North American Farewell Tour, which kicks off in Florida on August 16, ending in Las Vegas on September 28.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

“Well, all good things must come to an end,” said Pete Townshend. “It is a poignant time. For me, playing to American audiences and those in Canada has always been incredible… Roger and I are in a good place, despite our age, eager to throw our weight behind this fond farewell to all our faithful fans, and hopefully to new ones who might jump in to see what they have been missing for the last 57 years. This tour will be about fond memories, love and laughter.”

“To me, America has always been great,” added Roger Daltrey. “The cultural differences had a huge impact on me, this was the land of the possible. It’s not easy to end the big part of my life that touring with The Who has been. Thanks for being there for us and look forward to seeing you one last time.”

Asked about the possibility of a similar farewell tour in the UK, Daltrey simply said: “Let’s see if we survive this one…”

Peruse the North American tourdates below:

Aug 16 – Sunrise, FL – Amerant Bank Arena
Aug 19 – Newark, NJ – Prudential Center
Aug 21 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
Aug 23 – Atlantic City, NJ – Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall
Aug 26 – Boston, MA – Fenway Park
Aug 28 – Wantagh, NY – Northwell at Jones Beach Theater
Aug 30 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
Sep 2 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
Sep 4 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
Sep 7 – Chicago, IL – United Center
Sep 17 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl
Sep 19 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl
Sep 21 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
Sep 23 – Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena|
Sep 25 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena
Sep 28 – Las Vegas, NV – MGM Grand Garden Arena

Tickets go on general sale on Friday, May 16 at 10am local time from here. There is a pre-sale for Citi cardmembers and Whooligan Fan Club members.

Read more from The Who’s press conference in the next issue of Uncut.

Salif Keita – So Kono

John Lewis
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Salif Keita – So Kono

Mali might be one of Africa’s poorest nations, but it remains a musical superpower. The centre of the medieval Mande empire has been the breeding ground for dozens of global success stories, including the likes of Toumani Diabate, Ali Farka Toure, Rokia Traore, Oumou Sangare, Fatoumata Diawara, Boubacar Traore, Afel Bocoum, Bassekou Kouyate and Amadou & Mariam – not to mention Tuareg rockers like Tinariwen, Tamikrest and Songhoy Blues.

Mali might be one of Africa’s poorest nations, but it remains a musical superpower. The centre of the medieval Mande empire has been the breeding ground for dozens of global success stories, including the likes of Toumani Diabate, Ali Farka Toure, Rokia Traore, Oumou Sangare, Fatoumata Diawara, Boubacar Traore, Afel Bocoum, Bassekou Kouyate and Amadou & Mariam – not to mention Tuareg rockers like Tinariwen, Tamikrest and Songhoy Blues.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

Salif Keita might be the most famous of them all, but he was always the odd one out. Not only was he an albino in a society that regarded albinos as cursed, but he was an outcast from a minor royal family, competing with storytelling griots who tended to come from an ancestral lineage of musicians. It helped that he was blessed with an extraordinary voice. Keita can turn a jerky, conversational, arhythmic lyric into something that flows perfectly; making any amount of syllables fit into whatever space he has, improvising like a jazz singer, adding bluesy flourishes and grace notes, often leaping up an octave or more into a spine-tingling register.

It’s a voice that has worked across multiple genres. He started out in 1970, singing Afro-Cuban son and Congolese soukous with the Rail Band; a few years later he was performing rumbas, foxtrots, French ballads and Senegalese wolof songs with Les Ambassadeurs. In 1987 his breakthrough solo album Soro heralded the birth of the digital griot, setting Keita’s voice against a Peter Gabriel-ish backdrop of sampled koras and digi-drums. Since then he’s collaborated extensively – albums produced by Joe Zawinul, Vernon Reid and Wally Badarou; duets with the likes of Carlos Santana, Wayne Shorter, Grace Jones, Esperanza Spalding, Bobby McFerrin, Roots Manuva, Richard Bona and Cesaria Evora. In 2018 he released Un Autre Blanc – a heavily synthesized, elaborately orchestrated studio album featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Angelique Kidjo and Alpha Blondy – and announced in interviews that, approaching his 70th birthday, it would be his last LP.

That was until 2023, when he was invited to play an unplugged set at a festival in Japan: just voice and acoustic guitar, with occasional accompaniment on the ngoni (a kind of harp-like banjo) and percussion. Keita loved the setting, realising that it brought out a side of him that had been hidden across his five-decade career, and he transformed his hotel suite into an impromptu studio to record this album. 

So Kono – which translates as “inside the chamber” in the Mande language – is Keita’s most spartan LP yet. He has always said that he feels self-conscious about his guitar playing, seeing it purely as a tool for songwriting, but here it takes centre stage – hypnotic, complex, repetitive patterns, played clawhammer style, plucked with the flesh at the tips of his fingers, like a medieval lute player, usually with a capo high on the fretboard.

Some of these songs rework older compositions. “Laban”, a piece of desert rock on his 2005 album M’Bemba, is turned into a wonderfully baroque miniature, featuring a Martin Carthy-like guitar pattern. The already quite spartan “Tu Vas Me Manquer” (‘I will miss you’) sounds even more beautifully heartbroken, while “Tassi”, a piece of bubblegum Latin pop from his 2012 LP Talé, is turned into a hypnotic meditation. Occasionally, Keita’s metrical, minimalist guitar patterns are set against the florid, tumbling ngoni flourishes of Badié Tounkara, like on the gentle minor-key waltz “Awa”, which translates as Eve, and serves as Keita’s tribute to womankind; the yearning declaration of love “Cherie”, which also features accompaniment on cello and talking drum; or “Soundiata”, a mesmeric tribute to his royal ancestors.

There are tributes to friends. “Kanté Manfila” is dedicated to a late bandmate of the same name who was in Les Ambassadeurs, while “Aboubakrin” is named after a successful politician. One is a eulogy, the other a joyful song of praise, but both have the same mood – trance-like guitar patterns and soaring vocals that sound a muezzin’s call to prayer.

Most startling of all is the final track “Proud”. Here, instead of playing acoustic guitar, Keita switches to a simbi, a Malian harp-lute, with a bulbous calabash body. He plays a metallic, jangling riff while howling the lyrics – partly in English – at the upper end of his vocal register, half ancient bluesman, half Pakistani qawaali singer. “I’m African, I’m proud,” he howls. “I’m albino, I’m proud/ I’m different, I’m proud.” It’s a fitting summation of a remarkable career.

One To One: John & Yoko

Stephen Troussé
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One To One: John & Yoko

“I just like TV,” says John Lennon to an interviewer, somewhere at the heart of Kevin Macdonald’s scintillating, crackling, livewire documentary about John and Yoko Ono’s first year in New York. “It replaced the fireplace when I was a child. They took the fire away, they put a TV in and I got hooked.”

“I just like TV,” says John Lennon to an interviewer, somewhere at the heart of Kevin Macdonald’s scintillating, crackling, livewire documentary about John and Yoko Ono’s first year in New York. “It replaced the fireplace when I was a child. They took the fire away, they put a TV in and I got hooked.”

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

Half a century after their demise we are certainly hooked on Beatles content. After all this time you might rightfully wonder if we need another John Lennon documentary. Particularly one that revisits a period already exhaustively covered in the 2006 The US vs John Lennon. But Macdonald and his team don’t just meticulously recreate the couple’s tiny West Village bedsit on Bank Street – a few guitars, a typewriter and a black and white TV set at foot of the small double bed. They also vividly recreate the electronic maelstrom that they plugged and plunged into, like Alice through the Looking Glass, via the TV and the telephone.

While the 2006 film was an overfamiliar, lionising grind of 21st century talking heads self-righteously proclaiming the wisdom of hindsight, Macdonald brings 1971 to vivid, lurid life. Adam Curtis is an obvious comparison, but Macdonald works some of his hallucinatory cathode alchemy, cutting together news reports from Attica and Vietnam, TV commercials for Clorox, the campaign trails of Nixon, George Wallace and Shirley Chisholm, gameshows, chat shows and the chaotic counterforce of Jerry Rubin, Allen Ginsberg and John Sinclair, watching the sparks fly.

Perhaps even more revelatory are the audio of the phone calls John and Yoko carefully recorded, quite rightly anticipating some future bust and deportation. You hear the enthusiasm of John on the phone to Allen Klein, trying to convince him of his plans for some righteous Jesse James tour through America, freeing the prisoners. You hear Yoko and her assistants’ laborious attempts to secure a supply of 200 flies for her MoMA exhibition. Eventually, you hear John’s growing disillusionment with Rubin’s plan to call half a million a kids to face the cops at the 1972 Republican convention in Miami.

The film is centred around beautifully restored footage from the benefit show John and Yoko performed for the Willowbrook special needs school at Madison Square Gardens in August 1972 – what would turn out to be John’s only full-length post-Beatles concert. But though there’s a fab performance of “Come Together”, an almost unbearable rendition of “Mother” and a version of “Imagine” – cut to footage of Willowbrook kids playing in Central Park, that redeems the song – the real revelation of this film is hearing John’s voice, at the absolute dark heart of 20th century celebrity, madness and violence, sounding suddenly like the sanest man in New York, saying he’s not going to call children to a riot. “They’re all men,” he says, despairing of the would be heroes of the counterculture. “Where are the women? Where’s Mrs Hoffman?”

Terry Reid announces tour dates

Michael Bonner
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Terry Reid announces tour dates

Terry Reid will play his first Irish, Scottish and Welsh shows in more than six years this autumn, alongside new UK dates that include a return to London's Jazz Café.

Terry Reid will play his first Irish, Scottish and Welsh shows in more than six years this autumn, alongside new UK dates that include a return to London’s Jazz Café.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

Reid was recently featured in the Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary, with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page discussing him being considered as the first singer in the band before turning them down as he just signed a solo deal. It was Reid who suggested to Page that he try and check out another young singer who had just supported him named Robert Plant…

Tickets are available here.

September 11  WOLVERHAMPTON The Robin
September 13  DUBLIN (IE) Arthur’s Blues & Jazz
September 14  DUBLIN (IE) Arthur’s Blues & Jazz
September 16  HASTINGS White Rock Theatre
September 17  PORTSMOUTH Guildhall
September 18  ST IVES Theatre
September 19  CARDIFF The Gate
September 21  HEBDEN BRIDGE Trades Club
September 22  SHEFFIELD Greystones
September 24  NEWCASTLE The Cluny
September 25  GLASGOW Cottiers
September 26  POCKLINGTON Arts Centre
September 28  MALVERN Cube
September 30  LONDON Half Moon, Putney
September 1  LONDON The Jazz Cafe
September 3  CAMBRIDGE Portland Arms

Listen to Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke’s new single, “The Spirit”

Michael Bonner
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Listen to Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke’s new single, “The Spirit”

Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke have shared a new single, “The Spirit”, taken from their upcoming collaborative album, Tall Tales - which is released on May 9 from Warp Records.

Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke have shared a new single, “The Spirit”, taken from their upcoming collaborative album, Tall Tales – which is released on May 9 from Warp Records.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

The video for “The Spirit” has been directed by visual artist Jonathan Zawada.

“The Spirit” arrives the same day as a special global cinema event, in which fans will be able to hear Tall Tales alongside its accompanying feature film, directed by Zawada, a day ahead of release – although dates may vary for certain locations.

More info and tickets are available from here.

The album is released tomorrow. As well as digitally, the album will be available in a standard black vinyl 2LP gatefold edition and as a limited special black vinyl 2LP edition including a 36-page booklet featuring images from the project and lyrics to all the tracks, designed by Jonathan Zawada.

There will also be both a standard CD edition and a limited special CD accompanied by the 36-page booklet.

Natalie Merchant: “R.E.M. was atmospheric yet urgent, new yet mindful of tradition”

Michael Bonner
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Natalie Merchant: “R.E.M. was atmospheric yet urgent, new yet mindful of tradition”

Uncut interviewed Natalie Merchant for this month's cover story on R.E.M. Merchant first struck up a friendship with Michael Stipe, that continues to this day, during her time with 10,000 Maniacs, which included supporting R.E.M. on tour in 1985 and again in 1987.

Uncut interviewed Natalie Merchant for this month’s cover story on R.E.M. Merchant first struck up a friendship with Michael Stipe, that continues to this day, during her time with 10,000 Maniacs, which included supporting R.E.M. on tour in 1985 and again in 1987.

We didn’t have enough space for Natalie’s answers in the cover story, so here’s the email interview with her in full below.

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UNCUT: You famously first met Michael at a house party in Athens; what were your first impressions of him?
NATALIE MERCHANT: I met Michael in early 1984 after a show that R.E.M. had played in a club in Atlanta, GA. Murmur had been out for a year and I can clearly remember the first time I heard it, and how it really floored me. I felt an instant kinship with the band and felt Michael and I were supposed to meet and become fast comrades. So, that first meeting carried a lot of weight in my mind. But as fate had it, we didn’t really get off to a great start. I had a vintage candy tin full of good luck charms that I carried in my shoulder bag and was showing Michael and explaining their meanings. He must have thought I was pretty tedious because he handed me a paper bag with his stuff in it and disappeared into another room — forever. The longer I waited, the more absurd I felt. Eventually, I put the bag on the floor outside the closed door and left the party. But a couple months later, I tried the mission again in Buffalo, NY. I took the bus to the city and showed up in the parking lot of the theater they were playing around soundcheck time. I knew where the vegetarian restaurant was and offered to show Michael. And instead of my box of trinkets, I impressed him with my juggling and penny whistle skills. I was only twenty and he was three years older. I can’t believe how long ago that was, that we’ve been friends for over 40 years. Jesus.

And what about the rest of REM; why do you think those early records are so important?
After the chaotic nihilism of punk and robotic synth nonsense that followed it was soul-restoring to hear the unpolished organic sound of this band. They were a four-piece that made a very distinct music due to their individual characters, their strengths and limitations. R.E.M. was a balance and sum of Peter’s jangly guitar loops, Mike’s driving bass riffs and irrepressibly poppy harmonies, Bill’s no-nonsense drumming, and Michael’s inscrutable yet meaningful gravely musings and mumblings. R.E.M. was atmospheric yet urgent, new yet mindful of tradition, there was something rural, out of the way, idiomatic, sort of southern gothic in the music they made. Their songs had echoes of a strange lost America while still sounding so contemporary. Their aesthetic was original (credit Stipe for that). They used creeping kudzu and outsider art in their cover designs. On stage, Peter would wear a corduroy Future Farmers of America jacket, and Michael, a crumpled baggy old brown suit in which he danced like a possessed Baptist preacher. I suppose they were original without being radical.

How do you characterise Michael’s development as a songwriter from Murmur through to Fables Of The Reconstruction?
In my view, Michael made a bigger leap as a songwriter between Fables and Life’s Rich Pageant. In Murmur and Fables, he was blending his voice into the mix more as a textural instrument. He stepped out of the shadows with the vocals on Pageant, he suddenly seemed to want to clarify his message, to be heard. That seemed to be the trend going forward with Document and Green, Out Of Time, Automatic For The People.

Are you a fan of Fables; if so, what qualities do you most admire about it?
My associations with Fables are unique and impossible to separate from my experience of listening to it (or any of those early R.E.M. records, for that matter). By coincidence, we had contacted Joe Boyd at the same time as REM to ask if he would produce our first major label album. Joe had been primarily focused on his label Hannibal, and producing world music for a decade but he agreed to do both our albums and booked our projects back-to-back. We arrived in London March of ’85 just as R.E.M. was finishing Fables. They vacated the studio and we started The Wishing Chair the next day, same studio, producer and engineers. We were all so young, the music makes me nostalgic and brings memories to the surface. It was a different world then, in so many ways.

What was the nature of the relationship between REM and 10,000 Maniacs?
R.E.M. was always ahead of us in their experience and in their popularity but they were always so supportive and kind to our band. They, and their management always gave us the best advice. In my friendship with Michael, I found someone I could talk about songwriting and performing, and all the pros and cons of a life spent on the road. I’m nothing but grateful for the association.

What do you remember about touring with REM in 1985?
The tour started in the western states (Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska) then went through the endless flatlands of the Midwest (Iowa, Indianapolis, Ohio) and ended in the deep south (Louisiana, Alabama). You don’t have to know much about the geography of the U.S.A. to imagine the distance we covered in less than a month. Some of the drives were 10-14 hours long; my band and crew were crammed into one Econoline van. Eventually, Michael took pity on me and let me ride in their tour bus. The tour stands out in my mind because my band was still playing small trashy rock clubs and suddenly we were in landmark theatres and big college gymnasiums with a powerful sound system and lights. The scale of production was so much larger than anything I had yet seen. It was a supremely Cinderella experience. R.E.M. was just beginning to explode, when we toured with them again in ’87 on the Document tour, there were more buses, trucks, speaker’s and lights. It was quite an exciting to witness their assent and we were all so grateful they were sharing their success with lesser-known bands like ours.

Read the full R.E.M. cover story in the latest issue of Uncut – in shops now!

Cover photo: George DuBose

Neil Young And The Chrome Hearts unveil new album, Talkin To The Trees

Sam Richards
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Neil Young And The Chrome Hearts unveil new album, Talkin To The Trees

The debut album from Neil Young And The Chrome Hearts is called Talkin To The Trees, and it will be released by Reprise on June 13.

Pre-order Talkin To The Trees on vinyl

The debut album from Neil Young And The Chrome Hearts is called Talkin To The Trees, and it will be released by Reprise on June 13.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

The album features 10 tracks including the previously released “Big Change”. Watch a video for new single “Let’s Roll Again” below:

The punky song appears to be a call to American car manufacturers to build safer, cleaner vehicles – although he can’t resist laying into Elon Musk along the way: “If you’re a fascist / Then get a Tesla”.

Check out the tracklisting for Talkin To The Trees below:

01 “Family Life”
02 “Dark Mirage”
03 “First Fire Of Winter”
04 “Silver Eagle”
05 “Lets Roll Again”
06 “Big Change”
07 “Talkin To The Trees”
08 “Movin Ahead”
09 “Bottle Of Love”
10 “Thankful”

R.E.M. release “Radio Free Europe 2025”

Michael Bonner
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R.E.M. release “Radio Free Europe 2025”

R.E.M. are honouring 75 years of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty with a special remix of their debut single, "Radio Free Europe".

R.E.M. are honouring 75 years of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty with a special remix of their debut single, “Radio Free Europe“.

You can hear the remix below.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

The track has been remixed by Jacknife Lee, who also produced the R.E.M. albums, Accelerate (2008) and Collapse Into Now (2011)

The new remix is part of a five-track EP, with proceeds from the vinyl pressing to benefit RFE/RL on its 75th anniversary & World Press Freedom Day.

“Whether it’s music or a free press – censorship anywhere is a threat to the truth everywhere. On World Press Freedom Day, I’m sending a shout-out to the brave journalists at Radio Free Europe,” says Michael Stipe.

“Radio Free Europe’s journalists have been pissing off dictators for 75 years. You know you’re doing your job when you make the right enemies. Happy World Press Freedom Day to the ‘OG’ Radio Free Europe,” says Mike Mills.

You can stream or download the track here.

A limited-edition 10-inch orange-vinyl pressing—available for pre-order now exclusively via the official R.E.M. store and independent record stores —lands September 12.

And don’t forget – R.E.M. are on the cover of the new Uncut, revisiting their early, imperial phase around the 40th anniversary of Fables Of The Reconstruction.

Cover photo: George DuBose

The Fourth Uncut New Music Playlist of 2025

Michael Bonner
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The Fourth Uncut New Music Playlist of 2025

A quick one today, to tie in with Bandcamp Friday. A smattering of familiar names - Lee Ranaldo, William Tyler, Garcia Peoples - but hopefully some new discoveries for you, too. I saw Margo Cilker play at the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh earlier this week, who covered "Invisible Stars" by Slow-Motion Cowboys, who I'm ashamed to say I'd not heard before, but are the project of a songwriter called Pete Fields, who dubs himself 'the Buzzard Prince of San Francisco in Exile'. Anyway, I can't now stop playing the track's parent album, Wolf Of St Elmo. I've also included an older track by Mally Smith - another new discovery - who opened for Cilker.

A quick one today, to tie in with Bandcamp Friday. A smattering of familiar names – Lee Ranaldo, William Tyler, Garcia Peoples – but hopefully some new discoveries for you, too. I saw Margo Cilker play at the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh earlier this week, who covered “Invisible Stars” by Slow-Motion Cowboys, who I’m ashamed to say I’d not heard before, but are the project of a songwriter called Pete Fields, who dubs himself ‘the Buzzard Prince of San Francisco in Exile’. Anyway, I can’t now stop playing the track’s parent album, Wolf Of St Elmo. I’ve also included an older track by Mally Smith – another new discovery – who opened for Cilker.

Plus some jams, ambient gubbins etc.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

JOE HARVEY-WHYTE & BOBBY LEE
“Smoke Signals”

SLOW-MOTION COWBOYS
“Invisible Stars”

JERRY DAVID DeCICCA
“Long Distance Runner”

JEFFREY ALEXANDER + HEAVY LIDDERS
“Synchronous Orbit”

PYE CORNER AUDIO
“Galaxies”

ELORI SAXL
“It Will Be Gone”

GOLDEN BROWN
“Beelzebufo”

GOLDMUND
“Darnley”

MALLY SMITH
“Dive In”

GARCIA PEOPLES
“Journey Through The Valley Of O”

WILLIAM TYLER
“Howling At The Second Moon”

LEE RANALDO
“Take Me Up”

MARC RIBOT
“When The World’s On Fire”

ganavya
“Sinathavar Mudikkum”

Bridget St John: “They all had kind hearts”

Tom Pinnock
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Bridget St John: “They all had kind hearts”

A new mini-album celebrates her lost 'brothers': Nick Drake, John Martyn, Kevin Ayers and Michael Chapman. Bridget St John explains all to Uncut...

A new mini-album celebrates her lost ‘brothers’: Nick Drake, John Martyn, Kevin Ayers and Michael Chapman. Bridget St John explains all to Uncut…

UNCUT: On Covering My Brothers, you pay tribute to four artists who were important to you. Did you feel like a sister to them?
BRIDGET ST JOHN: They were my brothers – never lovers! They were people that stayed in my life, other than Nick, who died so young. I saw John Martyn three months before he died, he came to New York [where St John has lived since 1976]. Even though I didn’t see them all the time, the connection was there, like it is with good friends.

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You’ve really put your own stamp on these songs, including an experimental take on Michael Chapman’s 10-minute “Aviator”.
I only cover a song if it has got inside me. I can sing these songs because I relate to them as if I’d written them. “Aviator” was about a personal thing for Michael, a problem with the Inland Revenue, but for me it’s about the world and what’s going on now. So I changed a few words, with his wife Andru’s blessing. Michael’s version is much more aggressive than mine – I think he was really angry when he wrote it!

You cover Nick Drake’s “Fly”, and you knew him back then too – as much as anyone could…
I related to him very strongly because we were both so shy – it’s hard to be so shy and be onstage. I don’t think I was as introverted as him, but I felt he was a kindred spirit.

Yours and Kevin Ayers’ voices worked very well together – almost like male and female versions of each other.
I always loved playing with Kevin. I’m not a perfect singer, I often don’t sing exactly on the beat, and I think we just could feel where the other one was. Here, I play “Jolie Madame”, which we recorded together originally. I can speak French, but Kevin was properly bilingual, so it was completely finished when he played it to me.

The oddity on this EP is your version of John Martyn’s “Head And Heart” – a demo you made for 1974’s Jumblequeen, lost and recently discovered.
John was originally going to produce the album, so I recorded some demos for him. There were six songs, and “Head And Heart” was one of them. I’d totally forgotten doing it until last summer when Mhairi, John’s daughter, got in touch and said, “I have this reel-to-reel.” I really like this version.

John was the first of these four you met, wasn’t he?
I met him in 1967, when I was at Sheffield University, through Robin Frederick who also knew Nick Drake. He was the one who took me to Al Stewart‘s house to record my first demo, which got to John Peel, which led to everything opening up for me. John Martyn helped me buy my first steel-string guitar, because I only had a nylon string. I did several gigs with him, until it became clear that he was so far ahead of his time, with the Echoplex and his way of playing… his audience didn’t relate to me so much, as a quiet singer-songwriter, so we did fewer gigs together, but still some, and sometimes with him and Danny Thompson.

Did you try and keep up with their hell-raising?
No, after two glasses of wine I’d need to go to bed! But all my ‘brothers in music’ had kind hearts. They might have had rough edges, or deeper than rough edges… but I think I’m drawn to the good and the depth of people.

What have you got coming up after this release?
I’ve got a couple of songs I definitely want to put down, so I’ll probably go to the studio upstate, where I recorded “Aviator”, in May or June.

Covering My Brothers is available on 10” vinyl by Shagrat Records

Hear the title track of Bruce Springsteen’s lost film soundtrack, Faithless

Sam Richards
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Hear the title track of Bruce Springsteen’s lost film soundtrack, Faithless

On June 27, Sony Music will release Tracks II: The Lost Albums – a 9-LP or 7-CD collection comprising seven previously unreleased full-length albums by Bruce Springsteen.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

One of those albums is Faithless, a soundtrack recorded in 2005-6 for a movie that was never made. Hear the title track below:

“This was a really unusual collection of songs,” Springsteen remembers. “You could recognise details and maybe a character or two. But for the most part, I just wrote atmospheric music that I thought would fit.” The album was recorded primarily as a solo pursuit, with appearances throughout by producer Ron Aniello, touring members of The E Street Band — Soozie Tyrell, Lisa Lowell, Curtis King Jr, Michelle Moore and Ada Dyer — as well as contributions from Patti Scialfa, Evan Springsteen and Sam Springsteen.

See the full tracklisting and pre-order Tracks II: The Lost Albums here. Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band return to the UK later this month for five more shows, details below:

14th May Manchester Co-op Live
17th May Manchester Co-op Live
20th May Manchester Co-op Live
4th June Liverpool Anfield Stadium
7th June Liverpool Anfield Stadium

Hear an exclusive track from a new live EP by The Saints ’73-’78

Sam Richards
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Hear an exclusive track from a new live EP by The Saints ’73-’78

Last autumn, Ed Kuepper toured Australia with a reconfigured line-up of punk pioneers The Saints, fronted by Mudhoney’s Mark Arm.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

Concentrating on the band’s early material – hence the moniker Saints ’73-’78 – the five-piece added a horn section for their shows at Brisbane’s Princess Theatre, the highlights of which are now being released on a new digital-only EP entitled Nights In Venice Live… Vol. 1, due out tomorrow (May 2). Pre-save here and listen to the title track exclusively below:

The Saints ’73-’78 have also announced an international tour for later this year. Check out the full list of dates below:

Oct 31: Auckland NZ, Powerstation
Nov 1: Wellington NZ, Meow Nui
Nov 5: Los Angeles USA, Teragram Ballroom
Nov 6: San Francisco USA, Great American Music Hall + Hot Lunch
Nov 7: San Francisco USA, Great American Music Hall
Nov 8: Portland USA, Revolution Hall
Nov 9: Seattle USA, The Neptune
Nov 11: Chicago USA, Metro
Nov 13: Toronto Canada, Phoenix Concert Theatre
Nov 15: New York USA, Music Hall of Williamsburg
Nov 16: Philadelphia USA, Union Transfer + Pissed Jeans + Chimers
Nov 17: Washington USA, Union Stage + Des Demonas + Chimers
Nov 20: London UK, BBC 6 radio session with Riley & Coe
Nov 21: Bristol UK, Trinity Centre
Nov 22: Leeds UK, Project House
Nov 23: Glasgow Scotland, Garage
Nov 24: Manchester UK, Academy 2
Nov 26: London UK, Electric Ballroom
Nov 28: Stockholm Sweden, Debaser + The Schizophrenics
Nov 29: Malmo Sweden, Plan B
Nov 30: Berlin Germany, Astra + The Courettes

Special guests all shows Chimers (Australia) except where noted.

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