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Why Blue Ruin is one of the best films of the year…

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There is something to be said for the shoe-string budget movie. Recent films like Locke (Tom Hardy having a meltdown while travelling in a car from Birmingham to London) proved to be a refreshing and inventive corrective to the seasonal trudge of blockbusters. Blue Ruin is a similarly impressive low-budget affair, showcasing two emergent talents: writer/director Jeremy Saulnier and lead actor Macon Blair. Saulnier's first film, 2007's Murder Party, was a slasher comedy about a group of art students in the New York hipster enclave of Williamsburg who plan to commit a murder as a piece of art to secure a grant. Although Murder Party was success on the festival circuit, Saulnier nevertheless ended up funding Blue Ruin himself, using his credit card and a Kickstarter campaign. It appears to have paid off: Blue Ruin is one of the best cult movies I've seen in a long while, a bracing example of ingenuity and economy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0XGOxFnm9A Saulnier's chief accomplice is Macon Blair, who also appeared in Murder Party. His Dwight is not the kind of man you would immediately have pegged as an avenging assassin. When we first meet him, he is living homeless, crashing in an elderly blue Pontiac on the Virginia coast - the Blue Ruin of the title. He has found himself reduced to these circumstances following the murder of his parents, and now drags his gaunt, haggard frame round the beach hunting for junk to sell on. Learning that the man who killed his parents, Wade Cleland, is being released from jail, Dwight cleans himself up and heads off for revenge, something he achieves remarkably quickly: what follows is the tense, darkly comic escalation of violence between Dwight and the rest of the Clelands. Saulnier makes good use of Blair’s hangdog looks – Dwight is an unusual anti-hero, stumbling as he clumsily executes his revenge strategy. Indeed, much of the strength of Blue Ruin is the way it upends expectations of what a revenge film should be. There are moments where the bloodlust is sated – a knife in the head in a toilet, a nasty incident with a crossbow bolt through the leg, some exploding heads – but Saulnier isn’t aiming for a superior kind of Rambo-style wish fulfilment. Saulnier makes moments of horror out of Dwight’s slip ups – where are his sister’s kids? When the violence comes, it is unexpected and gruesome, yes, but tinged with a sad inevitability. In fact, this is a quieter, darker film than you might expect. Convenient reference points would the Coens, in particular the mordant humour of Blood Simple; but also No Country For Old Men, another film about a protagonist who gets bad breaks and is in too far above his head for his own good. Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

There is something to be said for the shoe-string budget movie. Recent films like Locke (Tom Hardy having a meltdown while travelling in a car from Birmingham to London) proved to be a refreshing and inventive corrective to the seasonal trudge of blockbusters. Blue Ruin is a similarly impressive low-budget affair, showcasing two emergent talents: writer/director Jeremy Saulnier and lead actor Macon Blair.

Saulnier’s first film, 2007’s Murder Party, was a slasher comedy about a group of art students in the New York hipster enclave of Williamsburg who plan to commit a murder as a piece of art to secure a grant. Although Murder Party was success on the festival circuit, Saulnier nevertheless ended up funding Blue Ruin himself, using his credit card and a Kickstarter campaign. It appears to have paid off: Blue Ruin is one of the best cult movies I’ve seen in a long while, a bracing example of ingenuity and economy.

Saulnier’s chief accomplice is Macon Blair, who also appeared in Murder Party. His Dwight is not the kind of man you would immediately have pegged as an avenging assassin. When we first meet him, he is living homeless, crashing in an elderly blue Pontiac on the Virginia coast – the Blue Ruin of the title. He has found himself reduced to these circumstances following the murder of his parents, and now drags his gaunt, haggard frame round the beach hunting for junk to sell on. Learning that the man who killed his parents, Wade Cleland, is being released from jail, Dwight cleans himself up and heads off for revenge, something he achieves remarkably quickly: what follows is the tense, darkly comic escalation of violence between Dwight and the rest of the Clelands.

Saulnier makes good use of Blair’s hangdog looks – Dwight is an unusual anti-hero, stumbling as he clumsily executes his revenge strategy. Indeed, much of the strength of Blue Ruin is the way it upends expectations of what a revenge film should be. There are moments where the bloodlust is sated – a knife in the head in a toilet, a nasty incident with a crossbow bolt through the leg, some exploding heads – but Saulnier isn’t aiming for a superior kind of Rambo-style wish fulfilment. Saulnier makes moments of horror out of Dwight’s slip ups – where are his sister’s kids? When the violence comes, it is unexpected and gruesome, yes, but tinged with a sad inevitability. In fact, this is a quieter, darker film than you might expect. Convenient reference points would the Coens, in particular the mordant humour of Blood Simple; but also No Country For Old Men, another film about a protagonist who gets bad breaks and is in too far above his head for his own good.

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

Echo And The Bunnymen, Thee Oh Sees, Roddy Frame, Chuck E Weiss, Wry Oak on the new Uncut CD

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The new issue of Uncut went on sale late last week, with a cover story on Arctic Monkeys and features on Warren Zevon, Kate Bush, Isaac Hayes, Toumani and Sidiki Diabate, The Handsome Family, plus a quick word with Neil Young about what he’s currently up to, which as usual is a lot. This month’s free CD, meanwhile, features tracks from new albums by Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires, es & The Dirt Dubers, Wye Oak,, Smoke Fairies, The Baseball Poject, Lake Street Dive, Liz Green, Chuck E Weiss, Wooden Wand, Toumani & Sidiki Diabate, Roddy Frame, Jessca Hoop, Hamilton Leithauser, Echo And The Bunnymen and Thee Oh Sees. Here’s a taster for the CD. Hope you enjoy it and have a good week. LEE BAINES III & THE GLORY FIRES The Company Man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YucWOXSCa4U WYE OAK Glory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNYHjOjEMus LAKE STREET DIVE You Go Down Smooth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfOkqLxjaMI CHUCK E WEISS Bomb The Tracks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miGQEIqv6Kk RODDY FRAME Forty days Of Rain http://soundcloud.com/aedrecords/forty-days-of-rain01-wav ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN Burn It Down http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXyt0Glq-wQ THEE OH SEES Encrypted Bounce http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wwi9-WVdiI

The new issue of Uncut went on sale late last week, with a cover story on Arctic Monkeys and features on Warren Zevon, Kate Bush, Isaac Hayes, Toumani and Sidiki Diabate, The Handsome Family, plus a quick word with Neil Young about what he’s currently up to, which as usual is a lot.

This month’s free CD, meanwhile, features tracks from new albums by Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires, es & The Dirt Dubers, Wye Oak,, Smoke Fairies, The Baseball Poject, Lake Street Dive, Liz Green, Chuck E Weiss, Wooden Wand, Toumani & Sidiki Diabate, Roddy Frame, Jessca Hoop, Hamilton Leithauser, Echo And The Bunnymen and Thee Oh Sees.

Here’s a taster for the CD. Hope you enjoy it and have a good week.

LEE BAINES III & THE GLORY FIRES

The Company Man

WYE OAK

Glory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNYHjOjEMus

LAKE STREET DIVE

You Go Down Smooth

CHUCK E WEISS

Bomb The Tracks

RODDY FRAME

Forty days Of Rain

ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN

Burn It Down

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXyt0Glq-wQ

THEE OH SEES

Encrypted Bounce

Watch Neil Young address protest march: “Make a statement for world history.”

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Neil Young was among thousands of people who took to the streets in Washington, D.C. on Saturday [April 26], urging the Obama administration to reject a proposed pipeline. Scroll down to watch him address the march. The rally was a culmination of a five-day "Reject and Protect" protest against the ...

Neil Young was among thousands of people who took to the streets in Washington, D.C. on Saturday [April 26], urging the Obama administration to reject a proposed pipeline. Scroll down to watch him address the march.

The rally was a culmination of a five-day “Reject and Protect” protest against the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project, which would bring diluted bitumen from Alberta to refineries in the Gulf Coast.

Earlier this year, Young played four shows in Canada under the banner “Honor The Treaties“, which supported a Native Canadian group that are battling oil companies over proposed development in the Albertan tar sands.

‘We need to end the age of fossil fuels and move on to something better,’ Neil Young told the crowd on Saturday.

The march was the latest protest by the ‘Cowboy and Indian Alliance’, a group of First Nations people, farmers and ranchers living along the pipeline route. The group has been protesting all week in the American capital.

Jeff Bridges plays annual Lebowski Fest in Los Angeles

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Jeff Bridges and his band took to the stage to play a 30-minute set at Lebowski Fest in Los Angeles on Friday (April 25). As reported by Associated Press, the actor, who played Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski in the 1998 Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski, performed songs from his 2009 film Crazy ...

Jeff Bridges and his band took to the stage to play a 30-minute set at Lebowski Fest in Los Angeles on Friday (April 25).

As reported by Associated Press, the actor, who played Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski in the 1998 Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski, performed songs from his 2009 film Crazy Heart among others.

Kyle Gass, best known as one half of Tenacious D alongside Jack Black, opened the night with a set of songs drawn from The Big Lebowski itself.

The event took place at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. It has been staged around the USA since 2002. The two-day festival continued on Saturday with a costumed bowling party.

Jeff Bridges released a self-titled album in 2011. The record was produced by T Bone Burnett, who had been behind the soundtrack to Crazy Heart, for which Bridges won an Oscar.

Musicians on the album included guitarist Mark Ribot, bassist Dennis Crouch, pedal steel guitarist Russ Pahl, keyboardist Keefus Ciancia and drummer Jay Bellerose. It featured guest vocals by Rosanne Cash and Sam Phillips.

Paul McCartney to perform at the site of The Beatles’ final official show

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Paul McCartney has announced two new American tour dates, including the last ever show at Candlestick Park on August 14 - the site of The Beatles' final full concert on August 29, 1966. He has also announced he will play Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium a few days earlier on August 10. Candlestick Pa...

Paul McCartney has announced two new American tour dates, including the last ever show at Candlestick Park on August 14 – the site of The Beatles‘ final full concert on August 29, 1966.

He has also announced he will play Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium a few days earlier on August 10.

Candlestick Park is the former stadium of American football team the San Francisco 49ers. McCartney’s show is being billed as “Farewell to Candlestick: The Final Concert“.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the city’s Mayor Ed Lee said: “Sir Paul McCartney is a class act, and I am very grateful that he’s coming back to Candlestick to help us give this iconic landmark the goodbye it deserves.”

He added: “To add a concert like this, one that’s not only just great on a purely entertainment level, but one that is rooted in the city’s history and musical history, is truly a once-in-a-lifetime event.”

The Beatles had not announced prior to their 1966 show that it would be their final concert date. They played ‘Rock And Roll Music’, ‘She’s A Woman’, ‘If I Needed Someone’, ‘Day Tripper’, ‘Baby’s In Black’, ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘Yesterday’, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, ‘Nowhere Man’, ‘Paperback Writer’, and ‘Long Tall Sally’.

Willie Nelson inducted into Austin City Limits Hall of Fame

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Willie Nelson was among the inaugural inductees to the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame on Saturday night [April 26]. As reported by Associated Press, Matthew McConaughey, who last month won the Academy Award for best actor, inducted Nelson with the words: "There would be no Austin City Limits witho...

Willie Nelson was among the inaugural inductees to the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame on Saturday night [April 26].

As reported by Associated Press, Matthew McConaughey, who last month won the Academy Award for best actor, inducted Nelson with the words: “There would be no Austin City Limits without Willie Nelson.”

Nelson, who will turn 81 next week, was the first Austin City Limits performer in 1974 on what is now the longest-running television music program in America.

Nelson said: “It means a lot. It’s Austin City Limits and Austin – the music capital of the world.”

Accompanied by Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett, the 81 year-old Nelson took the stage at the University of Texas at Austin, the original home of Austin City Limits, and played a set that included “On The Road Again” and “Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die”. He also closed the evening with Buddy Guy and Kenny Wayne Shepherd playing “Texas Flood”.

Also inducted were Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, longterm show producer Bill Arhos and former University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal, whose “pickin’ parties” with songwriters after games helped inspire the show.

Blur – Album By Album, by Stephen Street, William Orbit and Ben Hillier

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As Damon Albarn prepares to release his debut solo album, Everyday Robots, on Monday, and 20 years since the release of Parklife is celebrated, we delve back into the Uncut archive (July 2009, Take 146) and go behind the scenes of the sessions that produced Blur’s classic albums and reveal the con...

As Damon Albarn prepares to release his debut solo album, Everyday Robots, on Monday, and 20 years since the release of Parklife is celebrated, we delve back into the Uncut archive (July 2009, Take 146) and go behind the scenes of the sessions that produced Blur’s classic albums and reveal the conflicts that nearly destroyed the band… Interviews: Nick Hasted

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When Blur headline this year’s Glastonbury for the first of their summer reunion shows, it will be nearly a decade since the original lineup last appeared together onstage.

The occasion will offer not just a chance to hear once again the songs that made Blur one of the best-loved British bands of their generation, but more crucially also mark a very public reconciliation between singer Damon Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon, who famously walked out on the band during the sessions for their final studio album, Think Tank.

When that split finally came – with Coxon battling alcoholism and the rest of the band increasingly disillusioned with their roles as the Pearly Kings of Britpop – it seemed irrevocable. By then, the festering acrimony that had soured their last days together had become unmanageable, as we discover via the candid accounts of Stephen Street, William Orbit and Ben Hillier, the producers of their classic albums, who were often astonished eye-witnesses to the creative tensions, tears, tantrums, drugs and wild living that inspired much great music and simultaneously tore them apart, creating a rift that has only now been healed.

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LEISURE

Released August 26, 1991

Highest UK chart position: 7

Passing through the hands of no less than four producers, Blur’s debut, for Food Records, is patchy. On one hand, “There’s No Other Way” is a blatantly contrived indie-dance anthem, while the eerie, six-minute “Sing” at least suggests Blur are capable of better, more substantial work. Former Smiths producer Stephen Street guides us through the story…

STEPHEN STREET: I first went into the studio with Blur in early January 1991, at Maison Rouge Studios in Fulham. We did “There’s No Other Way” – that was the start of what turned out to be a very long working relationship. They’d sent this demo down to Food’s office, and I went down there to meet them. I remember Graham was quite shy. When we were in the studio, he wouldn’t play in the control room, he’d sit bunched up in the corner by his amp, put his headphones on and play. But he perked up every now again. Graham could say things just by the mood he throws. He wouldn’t be as vocal as Damon, ever, but he could still get his point over. Damon, on the other hand, was an extrovert, always going for it. If there’d been two of either of them, it would’ve been a disaster. What struck me then about Damon – and it’s really always been the case, even now – is how driven he is. He wanted to be a pop star, but he was insecure about his voice back then. He always wanted to double-track it and have reverb, like Lennon – in both cases, they didn’t start off as confident as they became later on in life. A man with a plan who didn’t know what it was? Yes, you could say that. They’d had a lot of problems with an old manager in the early days, and so because Dave Rowntree was a little bit older and more mature than the others, he was more in charge of business decisions.

I used to try and keep decent working hours with the boys, there weren’t any all-night sessions. It was nice to finish about 10, go for a beer and unwind, discuss the day, and the one ahead. Graham was interested in that shoegazing scene, and I remember going to Syndrome, that basement club in Oxford Street where all the Creation and 4AD bands hung out. It was like Goldsmiths Students Union bar [where Coxon and Alex James had met], transferred to central London. I went down there with Alex, who was about 21 years old at the time, to have a beer. Alex already had that certain coolness – I guess you could say he was a little like the John Taylor of the band. Was Graham propping up the bar with Kevin Shields? I can’t remember that, but Graham was more introverted, you could usually find him sitting in the corner, smoking and talking.

They were definitely under the thumb at Food. There was no freedom to do what they wanted, and that rankled. Bit by bit, they managed to find their independence, but that was a way off from here. And things weren’t always antagonistic between them and [Food label bosses] Dave Balfe and Andy Ross. I think, to some degree, they were grateful for the chance they were given.

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MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH

Released May 10, 1993

Highest UK chart position: 15

As a response to grunge, Modern Life… showcases Blur’s new aesthetic: an evocation of modern British life that forms the template for their next three albums. Behind a sleeve depicting a Mallard locomotive, Albarn sings about being lost on the Westway, Sunday roasts and shopping in Portobello Road market.

STEPHEN STREET: When we started doing Modern Life…, it felt as if the band were very much on their last legs. “Popscene” had came out as a single [March 30, 1992] between the two albums, but it failed. They had to come into the studio to get per diems every day, to get money to eat. There’d been a horrendous experience playing around America, when they were constantly being asked what part of Manchester they came from. So, as a reaction, they suddenly kicked back against American music, which was huge at the time. They tied their colours to the English flag and I remember Damon saying, “This is the way it’s going to be now. We’ve learned from our mistakes. We’ve been to America and done our touring. Now we’re going to do things our own way.” It was the necessary step they had to take, of course, to get to Parklife. But, funnily enough, Damon didn’t dwell on the idea of Englishness in the studio. He simply felt it was all there in the music.

He was still writing a lot about characters at this point, rather than himself, although “Blue Jeans” was actually him, talking about a day shopping in Portobello Road. I do wonder if it’s about Justine [Frischmann, Elastica’s vocalist/guitarist who Albarn had been dating since early 1991], too. You can hear it in the warmth of the lyric, and Damon’s singing. It conjured up a lazy day with nothing in particular to do in Damon’s life in west London. “It won’t stay this way for ever…” It’s not the best life in the world, but it’s not bad, and he’s happy with that. We had to record so many songs, because back in those days, you had a 7-inch, a 12-inch, and two CDs. I remember sitting down with Damon once and saying: “Do you realise how many songs you’ve published this year?”

One day, Dave Balfe came in for a listen to the album and said, “It’s crap. It’s commercial suicide. It’ll sell to a few NME readers, and that’s it.” They were pretty taken aback by his hostility, but it did make Damon go “Fuck you,” and write two more cracking songs for the record, “Chemical World” and also “For Tomorrow”, which he wrote at his parents’ house in Colchester on Christmas Eve. The album came out, and I remember them playing a lot of these songs at the Reading Festival in 1993, in the Melody Maker tent. The crowd sang everything back to them and I thought: ‘This album’s touched a nerve. And if we can hang on, and make the next album cracking, it’ll do the business.’

They were low, after Leisure and “Popscene”, but they loved being in the studio. There was a lot of positivity, although they were struggling a bit financially. Damon had moved in with Justine in her flat in Notting Hill, so he wasn’t that badly off. There was a general feeling that we’re going somewhere with this, this is good work. There’s life in the old horse yet.

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PARKLIFE

Released April 25, 1994

Highest UK chart position: 1

Working titles originally included ‘Sport’ and ‘Soft Porn’. A perfect balance of brash pop (“Girls And Boys”, “Tracy Jacks”) and melancholic ballads (“To The End”), although Parklife’s highlight is “This Is A Low”, a meteorological-inspired epic as dramatic and changeable as the British weather itself. Britpop’s rallying cry, Parklife is released less than three weeks after Kurt Cobain’s suicide.

STEPHEN STREET: By the end of it, they certainly got to enjoy Parklife’s success. After all those years of struggling – suddenly they found that everybody loved them. They had money coming in, time to buy a property each. They were going off to more parties, especially Alex, who was hanging out with Damien Hirst and Keith Allen. But Graham was very strongly against all of that, and it started a rift between him and Alex.

When we went back into Maison Rouge in August 1993, it felt like we were being allowed one last throw of the dice after Modern Life Is Rubbish. There was a sense they were getting somewhere, they seemed happier, they certainly weren’t as shell-shocked as they had been back when we started Modern Life…

“Parklife” was one of the first tracks we recorded. They’d played it at Reading that summer, and they’d played it at the Astoria [June 4, 1993], too, but they were thoroughly sick of it by now. Damon was trying to do the vocal, but he was very unhappy with it, so they kept dismissing it, putting it to the back of the queue. Anyway, they’d invited Phil Daniels in to recite a poem over this one track, “The Debt Collector”. Both Damon and Graham were huge fans of him in Quadrophenia and Mike Leigh’s Meantime, and they were both very into their Mod culture, too – Graham, particularly, has always been a very sharp-dressed man, in that ’60s sense. In the end, Damon couldn’t come up with anything for “The Debt Collector”, so it stayed an instrumental, but we thought, why don’t we get Phil in here to do “Parklife”? So, Phil came in with a very long, straggly beard and long hair, looking nothing at all like a Mod. But within a few takes, we had it. It suddenly gave the track life again.

At that point, Blur had to demo everything to get authorisation from Food to record tracks. Damon had already demoed “Girls And Boys”, and when he heard we’d started work on it, Andy [Ross] was quite adamant, “Sorry, lads, you don’t have permission.” But we were convinced it could be a Top 5 single – and, of course, in the end, it launched Parklife. It was a very bold step doing this, it could so easily have backfired. Graham and Alex are quite vividly fighting against each other on it – Alex is trying to be as funky as possible, and Graham’s playing a great, moronic guitar line. We had such fun making it. All of us in the recording area were shouting: “GIRLS! BOYS!” Damon had to have a chart up, because he got so confused which way round it was – “girls do their boys like their boys…”

The band were pretty much in their own little bubble at this point. Justine came in to do the original vocal for “To The End”; apparently, she also came up with the line “There’s ants in the carpet” at the start of “End Of The Century”, after her and Damon’s flat became infested with them.

“This Is A Low”, though, is what took Parklife to another level. The backing track had been hanging around for quite a while, and we’d been nagging Damon to come up with a lyric for it. Everything else on the album had been mixed by then, this really was the last to go. Alex had bought Damon a present, a handkerchief with a map of all the shipping districts around the UK. Alex told me that when they were on that awful tour of America they’d all listen to the Shipping Forecast on the radio to remind them of home. It just inspired something in Damon, and he came up with this beautiful lyric, I think the night before we recorded it. “This is a low – but it won’t hurt you…” It was literally the last afternoon in the studio: we were mixing the song, and he came in and did the vocal, strumming the guitar very lightly as he sang. He was on his way to hospital to have a hernia operation. He wasn’t actually there to hear it finished, and I got a very weird phone-call about 7pm in the evening from him, post-op, sounding very drowsy: “Has it turned out OK?” It’s taken on a life of its own, this song, because of the way they’ve played it live. There are two or three guitars going off at once near the end. I was always impressed by the way Graham was somehow able to do that live, putting the best bits from every single line and turn it into a solo. I think Damon put off writing that lyric because he knew how good the music was. It’s certainly one of the highlights in Blur’s canon, it’s their “Wonderwall”, if you like.

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THE GREAT ESCAPE

Released September 11, 1995. Highest UK chart position: 1

The last part of the English trilogy, The Great Escape finds Blur in retreat from Parklife’s success. Relationships – both internally and particularly Albarn’s relationship with Justine Frischmann begin to deteriorate. Meanwhile, the Blur vs Oasis “war” becomes national news as “Country House” pips “Roll With It” to the No 1 spot. Any celebrations are short lived.

STEPHEN STREET: After Parklife, there was a lot of pressure to follow it with another hit album, so The Great Escape was made in a rush. We weren’t able to focus in the way we had before. For instance, right in the middle of making it, they had to break off to get their Brits, and they kept going off to collect this or that award as part of this ongoing success of Parklife. But, at least, the band were calling the shots by now, which gave them confidence. Balfe had been a sticking point in the past, but he was out of the picture now [Balfe sold Food to EMI in 1994 and moved to that very big house in the country].

The LP was very much about Damon observing characters – “Charmless Man”, “Mr Robinson’s Quango”, “Country House”, “Dan Abnormal”. He was feeling dislocated by fame, and the knock-on effect of that is that his songwriting became too impersonal on The Great Escape. He told me he’d be walking down the street, and Oasis fans would shout “Wanker!” at him. That said, as a band, they were enjoying their success, things were going good for them, but for Damon, especially, as the frontman, it must have been a bit weird. “Country House” was one of those character songs, and much maligned. What tipped the balance was that inane video. And I hated The Great Escape’s cover, too. There were wrong moves like that being made. I think “Best Days” pretty accurately sum up how Damon felt at the time: “All on their own down Soho, take us home…” This is him thinking, ‘I need to let people know how I feel.’ He was weary of it all by now, the fame and the partying.

When Damon opened up about his feelings, there weren’t many who could match him lyrically. You can see that on “Yuko And Hiro”. It’s about two people who are finding it hard to spend time together “We’re never together – I love you forever”. As soon as we started working on it, I said to Damon, “It’s about you and Justine, isn’t it?” It’s very poignant, which is why I suggested it should be the final track on the album. It’s very apt that the very last song on this trilogy should be about these two people, and the struggle that they were obviously going through.

They were also pretty sick of the competition with Oasis by now, and they didn’t want to have anything to do with Britpop any more. I remember Damon saying, “I tell you what, life’s too short. I don’t want to be remembered for the Blur-Oasis war. It’s bigger than that,” so he completely retreated. We went to the Met Bar and “Some Might Say” had just got to No 1, and Liam [Gallagher] came up to Damon and said: “Fookin’ No 1!” He was waving a finger in Damon’s face, really bolshie, and Damon just said, “We’ll see, we’ll see.” The gauntlet had been thrown down.

By this album, the conflict between Graham and the rest of the guys was really beginning to develop. Graham would bring stuff like Dinosaur Jr and Pavement into the studio, and quite rightly felt that no-one was listening. But, you couldn’t make “Charmless Man” sound like Pavement. I’d say, “Graham, it’s not relevant…” And he’d yell back: “Not relevant!” The vibe was, let’s keep the Parklife ball rolling. Sometimes I had to lay down the law, if he was being particularly awkward. Once he got so drunk in the Townhouse studio, I ended up saying, “If you’ve got nothing positive to say, Graham, go home.” And he did.

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BLUR

Released Feb 10, 1997

Highest UK chart position: 1

Very much Graham’s album, with something of a ground zero to its title, Blur finds the band leaving Britpop far behind to explore more experimental terrain, like “Beetlebum” and “Essex Dogs”. There is, though, the small matter of “Song 2”, a two-minute ‘throwaway’ that finally breaks Blur in America.

STEPHEN STREET: Blur had decided that commercial pressures and writing hit singles wasn’t going to be the main consideration any more. Damon was much more prepared to write in the first person, rather than about interesting characters. The mood in the studio was very different to when I’d first worked with them. Graham had got used to expressing his distaste. He’d fallen out with Alex as he didn’t approve of Alex’s company in Soho. So Damon asked me to go and see Graham, to talk about it. So I went to visit Graham in his new house in Camden, and he just didn’t want to go anywhere. He was very hurt, and he was drinking a lot. That tension with Graham was important to the quality of work initially, it kick-started things. And then I think, because he was so disaffected, we thought: ‘Let’s listen to Graham more. Let’s get to the core of what the band’s about.’ It was a case of let’s try not to upset Graham, because if he was upset, he could bugger off, and you wouldn’t see him again. But once they got in the studio, they were fine, like brothers again.

“Beetlebum” was where everything fell into place. We went to Iceland to record for a couple of weeks. Damon wanted to get away from London, and he loved it there. He did his vocals late afternoon, and we went out for dinner that night. When I listened back to it the following morning, I was nearly moved to tears. Damon was very proud of it, too, it’s the moment when he defined his voice. “Beetlebum” is about heroin, which I didn’t know when I recorded it. But one night Damon and me were out in Iceland, coming back from a club in the early morning – and in Iceland in mid-summer, it’s starting to get daylight again. I remember him telling me he’d perhaps taken some heroin, and I got very angry. I raced ahead, and he realised he’d upset me. I never thought he was the kind of person who’d need to do that. I said to him, “You don’t have to take that shit to be artistic. Don’t think you have to.” He just stood there looking sheepish.

The weariness you can hear in Damon’s singing at times was obvious, he’d had enough of playing the game. It was the LP where there were no outside pressures – only internal. Damon and Graham had been in each other’s pockets for so long, then you’ve got the relationships between their partners, and themselves. Graham had an ex who was dating [Damon’s future Gorillaz partner] Jamie Hewlett, who Damon was now hanging out with. Damon and Graham came into this record damaged, and were healed by making it. Yes, it saved the band, though only for a little while, of course.

____________________

13

Released March 15, 1999

Highest UK chart position: 1

Working with the celebrated William Orbit [producer on Madonna’s Ray Of Light] appears to encourage Blur to push even further into denser and more cerebral musical territory. Many of the album’s songs find Albarn baring his soul about his recent split from Justine Frischmann, while Coxon’s relationship with the band becomes increasingly fractious.

WILLIAM ORBIT: After Blur, they wanted to go in a different direction. It was as if Blur were experimenting with chaos. There was a battle between Damon’s more experimental direction, and Graham’s punk one, and Graham prevailed. If that tension had been growing on previous LPs, it came to a head here. Damon gave an awful lot to Graham, he was more than fair, and Graham just was not having it. He was peeing on the parade. It was like, why did Graham even come? He wasn’t being shackled. You could see Damon was upset. He’d try not to let it show, but he thought he was going to be hurt. Graham was showing his power. When Graham looked back on that period, he said Blur had to put up with him being “insane with anger”? Yeah, that sums him up. When he was drinking, he would scare people, become a bit psycho. He’s one of the most all-round creative forces and colourful guitarists, for his sheer range of emotion. And that applies to the whole of his life, they’re all the same thing.

But Graham made it work, he kept the game up. We got tracks like “Bugman” because we harnessed Graham’s rage. Sometimes by subterfuge. Graham would play the wrong notes, every time we were recording. Then, as if to say, “Just to let everybody know I can do it…” every time the tape was rewinding, he’d do it perfectly, so I kept the machine rolling. “Bugman” showed Graham could get people in the whole room to pay attention, like Jimi Hendrix. They are the grittiest guitars. And, of course, when you’ve got a roomful of blokes getting into playing this evil sound, he was loving it. They were all smoking lots of cigarettes. It was loud and intense. And then I’d go home for vast ProTools sessions, all through the night. Most of the record was like making a movie – scenes sewn together. But unlike a movie, it didn’t have a plot.

And you’ve got to understand, that the band were all experimenting with heavy partying. It was all done in the heat of the summer. I can remember turning up on a beautiful morning to Mayfair Studios. It was 10am, and sleeping in the doorway of the pub where he’d been drinking all night was Alex. It was so different to what I’d expected. Jamie [Hewlett] was definitely egging things on, taking them up another notch in the party zone. Believe me, everything was intense. I listened to “Bugman” recently, and thought: ‘Fuck! What is this? What on earth were we on?’ You can be very drunk, and random, and things can happen. People can go to a very dark space, and surprise themselves. Damon’s got some prescience about the things he does. He was waiting patiently for us to catch up. Were his nerve-endings exposed? That’s a good way of putting it.

The record company were worried they’d gone off the rails. Andy Ross would do anything to get in the studio, but he was verboten by Damon. But when Damon said they could hear “Tender”, they had what they wanted. Damon knew it was a hit when he sang it. Damon and Graham were united on that one. Damon wanted to bring in the London Community Gospel Choir for the harmonies at the end. We went to Reykjavik to do part of it. There was spiritual intent to that song, and in Iceland Damon was bright-eyed with it in the studio. He was hurtling back and forth from the control room, backing up his harmonies with spiritual zeal. He was talking in those terms. Damon and Graham both believe in the power of transcendence through music.

But then there were moments when you could see he was shattered by the split with Justine that much of the album is about. That emotional kaleidoscope informed him. You can be running around, feeling your mojo, but really you’re crying. There was this explosion of music and emotion, and I can’t pick them apart. The split was a stimulus for him. I can remember walking in Reykjavik behind Damon, and noticing how the women would fix on him, like a magnet going through a field of iron filings. And I think Damon was feeling that. We had a very full-on experience in Iceland. We drank a lot of alcohol. Damon seemed to be on a roll most of the time. Feeling his chops and spreading his wings. All of the things he was about to do, like Gorillaz [whose debut EP, “Tomorrow Comes Today”, was released in November 2000], were bubbling under. Damon was trying to examine what was going on. He was worried and puzzled about Graham. The relationship with Graham was the stronger dynamic than with Justine in making the record.

During “No Distance Left To Run”, though, Damon was in floods of tears as he sang “It’s over”. He was very emotional. He was on a rollercoaster. Sometimes he’d be very dark. He’d run around kissing everybody, and be brilliant. And then there’d be some days when he would go into the pain, and be a really hurt person. When he was crying as he sang, that was as deep as he got into that sort of mood. It was something that you don’t mess with. Somebody’s having an experience that’s not even cathartic. He’s in it in the here and now. And when it’s a musical thing, there’s this extra, beautiful dimension.

That wasn’t the only time he burst open like that. There were lots of times. He was exuberant. Rollercoasters and spontaneity are Damon’s nature anyway. God, I remember when I first saw him, at a really muddy Glastonbury. He was running down the front, took all this mud and was smearing it on his face as an act of kinship with everybody. It was only after the show that people pointed out that mud was probably descended of human faeces, and it freaked him out a bit and he had his face disinfected. He’s so open-hearted.

On “No Distance Left To Run”, Graham was fully supporting emotionally what Damon was doing, through his guitar. They still had that bond. It was damaged, but then you see a small thing – like not letting his guitar fall over, little caring things folk do when they love each other and are looking out for each other. And in something like that, however awkwardly, the bond would manifest itself.

____________________

THINK TANK

Released May 5, 2003

Highest UK chart position: 1

Recorded in the wake of Gorillaz’ success, and with Graham quitting the band early in the sessions, Think Tank didn’t get off to a good start. But, incredibly, the band rallied round new producer Ben Hillier (Elbow, Depeche Mode) and the resulting album, with its mix of samples, African rhythms and electronica, contains some of the most enduring music Blur have created. So far…

BEN HILLIER: The start of Think Tank sessions were turmoil. Damon had had the success of Gorillaz, and there’d been back-stabbing from the others. I think Damon was feeling that Blur was a lot of hassle, and he didn’t have as much control over it as he did over Gorillaz. The battle with that record was to make it creatively worth his while to work with the other guys again. And, of course, that didn’t really work with Graham.

I think it was all over by the time we started that record. All it needed was for Graham to turn up like Graham was, for everyone to say: “It’s not going to happen with him.” He was the great white elephant in the corner. He really wanted to leave, and they really didn’t want him in, but no-one had the nerve to say it. We were booked to start the record on a Monday. And on the Thursday, Graham checked himself into rehab for his alcoholism. I was adamant that we carry on. And that became the energy behind the record: we can do this without Graham.

Graham hadn’t left the band at that point. He came up from rehab for a couple of days, and we did “Battery In Your Leg”. It’s very easy to tell when Graham’s into something. If he’s really fucking angry, then his playing’s really fucking angry. I think he was elated with that song, because it felt like it meant he could carry on in the band. But he very quickly became destructive. It was a relief when he decided to leave, and very sad. It had a very big impact on Damon, especially, because Graham was like a member of his family.

A lot of the songs on that record are about Graham. Damon channelled his feelings into that album. “Sweet Song” was done when the legal negotiations for the split with Graham were starting, and that was pretty horrible. Damon would have been quite emotional when he sang it in the cracked, vulnerable way he does. Like Graham, Damon can’t fake it. The most successful songs on Think Tank are sad songs like that. The faster, more aggressive stuff was a relief from what was going on, whereas the real truth was very sad. The momentum behind that record was Graham, and the challenge to Damon to achieve a Blur LP without him. There’s a lot of Graham in the record. The after-burn of his leaving Blur allowed one final Blur album? Yes. That’s the best way of putting it.

It was soon after 9/11, and the Iraq war was approaching, which was affecting Damon quite a lot, because he was a big supporter of CND, and a pacifist. We loved the idea of finishing the record in Morocco, an Islamic country. And we needed to get away from London and the legal machinations, to finish things. It was like some great team-building exercise. We built the studio together, it brought everyone closer. In Marrakech, me and Damon broke the back of the lyrics. Damon only saw sun if he sat under a tree to write.

There were also some musicians we really wanted to work with on “Out Of Time”. Groupe Regional du Marrakech were astonishing. While I was setting the mics up, they started playing. All the chords sounded fantastic. And I looked out at the end of the session, and none of them had headphones on! What they were playing along to, I have no idea. They must have heard it through the door. The atmosphere fitted in with the idea that we’re locked in this together – a bunch of outlaws holed up in the countryside, us against them. It was very much like the Magnificent Seven.

Then, when we went back, we rebuilt the same studio in Damon’s farm down in Devon, and put the final touches. It was very dark. Horizontal rain for six weeks. We used to go out on Thursday nights down the pub and get wasted, and then all jump in the sea on Friday mornings to get rid of the hangovers.

We were all really excited by Think Tank when it was finished. It never felt to me like the end of the relationship. I thought because of the state of flux that Graham was in, he could probably pull it around. And that if they did become friends again, then they would almost certainly make more music together. Because it’s essential to who they are. Damon needs Blur, he’s a collaborative musician. And it’s difficult, if you’re Damon, to find people on your level. I think that’s why he got The Good, The Bad And The Queen together; that was a challenge to him. But they weren’t ever going to replace Graham, and Dave and Alex. Because they’d earned the right through the years to tell him to shut up, or support him. Blur challenges him, still.

____________________

BLUR’s BEST

FOR TOMORROW

Gruff Rhys, Super Furry Animals: This reminds me of David Bowie, and car-boot-sale records, and that early ’70s, melodic English melancholy they do really well. It’s evocative of Robert Wyatt and Soft Machine, and that South-East English musical tradition. It sounded like the records I was listening to, and that I wanted to hear. We were of the same generation. Damon and I tried to record a song together once. But we kept coming to the same conclusions, it was redundant. So we went to the pub instead and got hammered.

PARKLIFE

Ray Davies, The Kinks: One of my fondest times with Damon is a poetry festival at the Albert Hall. He sang one of my songs and I sang “Parklife”. Then I understood the similarities between The Kinks and Blur. It’s in the way I change chords, and sing stylistically. And I’ll tell you why “Parklife”’s maybe their best song, and certainly their best record. It’s Damon’s shameless ability to utilise whatever it takes. Because he couldn’t have pulled that vocal off. And using Phil Daniels switched them into the Mockney London thing. It showed they were a band of power.

GIRLS AND BOYS

Pete Shelley, Buzzcocks:

I don’t know if it was a coincidence – but in 1993, Buzzcocks played, and the front row was Blur. And a year later, Parklife came out! “Girls And Boys” is so simple, it just goes round and then starts again. What the Germans call the “ear-worm” takes over after you’ve heard it. A perfect pop song. It reminds me of “It’s No Game” on Bowie’s Scary Monsters, and Neu!’s guitar riffs. That’s pop – you recycle, with slants befitting the times. Of the ’90s bands, they’re the one that stand the test of time.

BEETLEBUM

Nicky Wire, Manic Street Preachers: “Beetlebum” feels like something that could have been on The White Album. Everything is by way of implication. You don’t quite know what everyone’s playing or even what the words really mean. It’s mumbled, hazy. I don’t know if it’s some kind of invocation of drugs but there’s nothing literal about it. Alex’s bass playing on it is gorgeous, really smooth and sexy. And then Graham’s coda takes you to a different place again. It’s a pretty faultless song. There’s nothing I would change about it.

TENDER

Ray Winstone: I actually got to sing it at the end of a film. It’s got a country feel for my ear… I went Johnny Cash on it. I said to Damon, “Listen, you sing it your way, and I’ll sing it mine” – giving it large. And he said, “Listen, I won’t tell you how to do your game. Don’t tell me how to do mine” – a line from the film we made together, Face. I like the kid. He’s a top boy, you know. After being used to seeing the Pistols, Blur played music again that I could understand.

This month in Uncut!

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Arctic Monkeys, Kate Bush, Warren Zevon and Neil Young all feature in the new issue of Uncut, dated June 2014 and out now. Alex Turner and co discuss their past, their future and their place in the rock’n’roll pantheon, in our cover story. The group also reveal their intentions behind that f...

Arctic Monkeys, Kate Bush, Warren Zevon and Neil Young all feature in the new issue of Uncut, dated June 2014 and out now.

Alex Turner and co discuss their past, their future and their place in the rock’n’roll pantheon, in our cover story.

The group also reveal their intentions behind that famous Brit awards speech, and about what’s on their iPods, while John Cooper Clarke and Attractions drummer Pete Thomas explain what it was like working with the Monkeys.

Neil Young speaks to Uncut about his plans for the coming year, working with Jack White and Archives 2, while friends, bandmates and collaborators remember how Warren Zevon battled a gangster father, alcoholism, drugs and guns to write some of the greatest songs of our time.

As Kate Bush plans her return to the live stage, we delve back to 1989 for a full, revelatory interview in which Bush divulges the secrets of her Sensual World.

Bob Mould answers your questions about Hüsker Dü, the joys of motorway service stations, professional wrestling and coming out in public, while we look at the extraordinary life of revolutionary soul star Isaac Hayes.

Toumani & Sidiki Diabaté receive Uncut in Mali to talk about their new album, their country’s storied musical history and the religious war dividing their homeland, while comedian, actor and musician Matt Berry reveals the albums that have soundtracked his life.

The Handsome Family recall the making of their True Detective-soundtracking masterpiece “Far From Any Road”, while John Sebastian looks back over the greatest albums of his career, Lovin’ Spoonful, solo work and more.

The Black Keys discuss the making of their new album Turn Blue, while the record is reviewed in our epic, 39-page reviews section, alongside new releases from Roddy Frame, Sharon Van Etten, Swans and more, while archive releases from XTC, Grace Jones, Oasis and Wreckless Eric are also reviewed.

Films and DVDs including Gruff RhysAmerican Interior, The Canyons and Blue Rain are also reviewed, along with live shows from The Cure and Wild Beasts, and a star-studded tribute to William Onyeabor.

The issue also comes with a free CD, One For The Road, featuring tracks from Echo & The Bunnymen, Roddy Frame, Thee Oh Sees, Toumani & Sidiki Diabaté, Chuck E Weiss, Wye Oak and Liz Green, among others.

The new Uncut, dated June 2014, is out today (April 25).

The Libertines reunite for London Hyde Park show in July

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The Libertines will reunite for a live show at Hyde Park in London this July. The band will headline the British Summer Time festival on July 5 on a bill that also includes The Pogues, Spiritualized, Maximo Park and The Enemy. Rumours about a potential reunion emerged over the weekend after Pete ...

The Libertines will reunite for a live show at Hyde Park in London this July.

The band will headline the British Summer Time festival on July 5 on a bill that also includes The Pogues, Spiritualized, Maximo Park and The Enemy.

Rumours about a potential reunion emerged over the weekend after Pete Doherty gave an interview in which he claimed he had been approached with an offer to reunite the band for a live show.

Carl Barât subsequently revealed that the chances of the band reuniting “very much a possibility” and, when pushed for a date on which any live show may take place, added: “keep the 5th July free”.

The Libertines last played live together in 2010 at the Reading and Leeds Festivals.

Photo credit: Roger Sargent

The 16th Uncut Playlist Of 2014: hear new Neil Young, Jack White and much more…

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Beyond the Ebay landfill mountains of luminous “Ghostbusters” singles, there were a weird few days this week when it seemed as if no-one had actually located a copy of Neil Young’s “A Letter Home” on Record Store Day. After everything, did it actually exist? Had Neil, in his current capricious mood, personally had it removed it from the stockrooms of record stores on Friday night? Gradually, though, sightings came in: we located one owner on Twitter who’d bought a copy direct from Third Man in Nashville (but not played it). And, now, we’ve been privileged to hear it ourselves, as Warner Brothers gear up for one of the stranger major label campaigns involving an A-list artist in recent memory. I’ll try and write something about this odd, crackling gem in the next few days, though unfortunately it’ll have to wait until I’ve navigated the pile of page proofs for our forthcoming Ultimate Music Guide on The Cure, due on sale in the UK on May 19. From today, though, you can buy the new issue of our mag in which Young is interviewed by a notably determined Nick Hasted. Plenty more in there worth reading, too - Full details here - and I’d like to flag up Andrew Mueller’s interview with Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté in Bamako as especially worth your time. As is plenty of this playlist, I reckon, kicking off with Jack White’s “Lazaretto”. Don’t miss the new Plaid one and a lovely William Tyler live set from NYC Taper. Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey 1 Jack White – Lazaretto (Third Man/XL) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYF0LtfUvJs 2 Brian Reitzell – Auto Music (Smalltown Supersound) 3 Tune-Yards – Nikki Nack (4AD) 4 LCD Soundsystem - The Long Goodbye (Live At Madison Square Garden) (DFA/PArlophone) 5 The Soft Pink Truth – Why Do The Heathen Rage? (Thrill Jockey) 6 [REDACTED] 7 John Hiatt – Terms Of My Surrender (New West) 8 Mike Cooper - Trout Steel (Paradise Of Bachelors) 9 Mike Cooper - Places I Know/The Machine Gun Co (Paradise Of Bachelors) 10 Courtney Love – You Know My Name (Cherry Forever) 11 Plaid – Reachy Prints (Warp) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ6I6J0yrHQ 12 William Tyler – April 16, 2014 Union Pool, New York (NYC Taper) 13 Mogwai – Come On Die Young (Chemikal Underground) 14 Kasai All Stars – Beware The Fetish (Crammed Discs) 15 Neil Young – A Letter Home (Third Man/Reprise) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H47jI6xanA 16 John Murry – Califorlornia (Rubyworks) 17 Tim Pope – I Want To Be A Tree (Fiction) 18 Dylan Howe – Subterranean: New Designs On Bowie's Berlin (Motorik) 19 Fennesz – Bécs (Editions Mego) 20 Lewis – L’Amour (Light In The Attic) 21 Tomas Barfod – Love Me (Secretly Canadian)

Beyond the Ebay landfill mountains of luminous “Ghostbusters” singles, there were a weird few days this week when it seemed as if no-one had actually located a copy of Neil Young’s “A Letter Home” on Record Store Day. After everything, did it actually exist? Had Neil, in his current capricious mood, personally had it removed it from the stockrooms of record stores on Friday night?

Gradually, though, sightings came in: we located one owner on Twitter who’d bought a copy direct from Third Man in Nashville (but not played it). And, now, we’ve been privileged to hear it ourselves, as Warner Brothers gear up for one of the stranger major label campaigns involving an A-list artist in recent memory. I’ll try and write something about this odd, crackling gem in the next few days, though unfortunately it’ll have to wait until I’ve navigated the pile of page proofs for our forthcoming Ultimate Music Guide on The Cure, due on sale in the UK on May 19.

From today, though, you can buy the new issue of our mag in which Young is interviewed by a notably determined Nick Hasted. Plenty more in there worth reading, too – Full details here – and I’d like to flag up Andrew Mueller’s interview with Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté in Bamako as especially worth your time.

As is plenty of this playlist, I reckon, kicking off with Jack White’s “Lazaretto”. Don’t miss the new Plaid one and a lovely William Tyler live set from NYC Taper.

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey

1 Jack White – Lazaretto (Third Man/XL)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYF0LtfUvJs

2 Brian Reitzell – Auto Music (Smalltown Supersound)

3 Tune-Yards – Nikki Nack (4AD)

4 LCD Soundsystem – The Long Goodbye (Live At Madison Square Garden) (DFA/PArlophone)

5 The Soft Pink Truth – Why Do The Heathen Rage? (Thrill Jockey)

6 [REDACTED]

7 John Hiatt – Terms Of My Surrender (New West)

8 Mike Cooper – Trout Steel (Paradise Of Bachelors)

9 Mike Cooper – Places I Know/The Machine Gun Co (Paradise Of Bachelors)

10 Courtney Love – You Know My Name (Cherry Forever)

11 Plaid – Reachy Prints (Warp)

12 William Tyler – April 16, 2014 Union Pool, New York (NYC Taper)

13 Mogwai – Come On Die Young (Chemikal Underground)

14 Kasai All Stars – Beware The Fetish (Crammed Discs)

15 Neil Young – A Letter Home (Third Man/Reprise)

16 John Murry – Califorlornia (Rubyworks)

17 Tim Pope – I Want To Be A Tree (Fiction)

18 Dylan Howe – Subterranean: New Designs On Bowie’s Berlin (Motorik)

19 Fennesz – Bécs (Editions Mego)

20 Lewis – L’Amour (Light In The Attic)

21 Tomas Barfod – Love Me (Secretly Canadian)

Hear Portishead’s Beth Gibbons cover Black Sabbath

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Portishead's Beth Gibbons has covered Black Sabbath's 1971 song "Black Sabbath" as Black Sabbeth. The track, which you can hear by clicking below is by Bristol based stoner rock band Gonga and features Gibbons on vocals. Meanwhile, back in February, Adrian Utley of Portishead said that the band members were "clearing our schedules" in order to work on their fourth album. Speaking at By:Larm Festival in Oslo he commented: "We're clearing our schedules so we can get on with it, otherwise it will be another 10 years," referencing how busy the members of the band are with other projects. Utley added that he had recently discussed plans for the follow-up to 2008's 'Third' with Geoff Barrow, saying: "We were both really enthusiastic, and enthusiasm counts for a lot in Portishead world." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-mc7D6hs5U Portishead will headline the Electric Picnic festival this year alongside Outkast and Beck. The three-day festival, held in the Stradbally Estate in County Laois, Ireland, runs from August 29-31. Other artists set to appear on the line-up include Foals, Pet Shop Boys and Paolo Nutini.

Portishead’s Beth Gibbons has covered Black Sabbath’s 1971 song “Black Sabbath” as Black Sabbeth.

The track, which you can hear by clicking below is by Bristol based stoner rock band Gonga and features Gibbons on vocals. Meanwhile, back in February, Adrian Utley of Portishead said that the band members were “clearing our schedules” in order to work on their fourth album.

Speaking at By:Larm Festival in Oslo he commented: “We’re clearing our schedules so we can get on with it, otherwise it will be another 10 years,” referencing how busy the members of the band are with other projects. Utley added that he had recently discussed plans for the follow-up to 2008’s ‘Third’ with Geoff Barrow, saying: “We were both really enthusiastic, and enthusiasm counts for a lot in Portishead world.”

Portishead will headline the Electric Picnic festival this year alongside Outkast and Beck. The three-day festival, held in the Stradbally Estate in County Laois, Ireland, runs from August 29-31. Other artists set to appear on the line-up include Foals, Pet Shop Boys and Paolo Nutini.

Ben Watt – Hendra

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Stark, beautiful return for the solo Everything But The Girl man... A lot has happened in the 31 years since Ben Watt’s first (last) solo album, North Marine Drive. Empires have fallen, musical revolutions have come and gone. Watt hasn’t been idle, of course. He played with Tracey Thorn in Everything But The Girl for 20 years, and did another decade as a club DJ and boss of the dance label Buzzin’ Fly. Then there’s the real-life stuff. Watt was being a father. He almost died from an auto-immune disease, which he chronicled in his book Patient. He has just published a second book, Romany and Tom, which explores his late mother and father’s relationship, while containing much autobiographical reflection. As he was writing that, Watt’s sister Jennie died unexpectedly. In the midst of this turmoil, Watt found himself retreating to his basement, writing songs. He did this on the guitar, mostly, changing the tunings to challenge himself. But he was also, it seems, trying to reconnect with his younger self, and see what might have happened if he hadn’t teamed up with EBTG. That quest, as Watt surely knows, is impossible, but as fools’ errands go, it’s an interesting one. Amidst all this loss and self-examination, it’s easy to see why he might want to re-engage with the ghosts of youthful optimism. It’s also true that musical fashions have reverted. That stripped-down folk aesthetic couldn’t be more contemporary (Watt counts Hiss Golden Messenger’s Bad Debt as a recent favourite). What’s new is the worldview, and that’s what gives Hendra its stark power. These are beautiful songs, penned from midlife. “Young Man’s Game” – “a folk song about DJ-ing” – tackles the subject head on: “Every mirror just tells the time/can you name a great fighter over 45?” Watt has always sounded older than his years, but he now has the life experience to suit his temperament. He’s also more confident musically. Here, he employs Bernard Butler, casting him as the album’s Mick Ronson. If Butler’s stark guitar lines add splashes of blood to Watt’s pallid canvas, they never threaten the sense of reserve which hangs over the project. The title track sets the mood. It’s a stark invocation of emotional resilience. In the words, Watt imagines the dreams of his late sister, a rural shopkeeper in Somerset. The lyrics are plainspoken and honest to the point where they produce a shudder of embarrassment. The sense of loss is palpable, and it slides into the second song, “Forget”, which is musically brighter, but turns on the phrase “who am I fooling when I say I have no regrets?” It’s a very English-sounding record. The autobiographical detail means that the songs offer a tour of the landscape. “Matthew Arnold’s Field” travels from Beaconsfield to Headington, as Watt prepares to scatter his father’s ashes near Oxford. The funereal tone is maintained by Watt’s delicate electric piano. “The Levels”, with Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour playing lovely slide guitar, is another exploration of grief, employing the flooded ditches of Somerset as a metaphor. Two songs were inspired by an American road trip, but they employ the same emotional palette. “The Gun” makes an emotional case for gun control with a tale of an accidental shooting. The bluesy “Nathaniel” was inspired by a sign Watt saw painted next to a trailer in Oregon commemorating a boy killed in a road accident, and compares the contemporary fashion for “secondary grieving” with the piercing pain of familial loss. So, the mood is serious. But it’s tough, rather than glum. The gently jazzy “Golden Ratio” is like John Martyn playing with EBTG. And then there’s “Spring” written as a counterweight to the prevailing mood. Searching for ideas, Watt noticed a Bill Evans album on the studio floor, with the title You Must Believe In Spring. He borrowed the theme, and composed one of his loveliest songs; a gentle, Lennon-esque hymn to endurance and hope. Ironically, or not, it would sound great at a funeral. Alastair McKay Q&A Ben Watt What was your plan for the album? I wanted to somehow reconnect with the person I was in that pre-Everything But The Girl Period. When I was a precocious 19 year-old on Cherry Red thinking I had the right to call up Robert Wyatt and ask him to be on my first EP. And to connect with the direction I might have gone in had I not teamed up with Tracey (Thorn). When two colours merge, you’re going to get a new colour. Was it influenced by the book you wrote about your parents, Romany and Tom? Lyrically, I definitely wanted to write a bunch of unsentimental songs. I wanted to write a set of songs that were very true. Quite a few of them came out of the process of thinking I went through when I was writing my book. Then towards the end of that, my sister, who I was very close to, died, quite unexpectedly. She was only 58. It all came to head, and I wanted to get some of this stuff down. It’s quite dark emotionally. I always think I write songs about some form of resilience. There is some form of hope, even in the darker moments. I’m always looking for that in the characters in the songs. They have a tough exterior, even if they have a soft interior. INTERVIEW: ALASTAIR McKAY

Stark, beautiful return for the solo Everything But The Girl man…

A lot has happened in the 31 years since Ben Watt’s first (last) solo album, North Marine Drive. Empires have fallen, musical revolutions have come and gone. Watt hasn’t been idle, of course. He played with Tracey Thorn in Everything But The Girl for 20 years, and did another decade as a club DJ and boss of the dance label Buzzin’ Fly.

Then there’s the real-life stuff. Watt was being a father. He almost died from an auto-immune disease, which he chronicled in his book Patient. He has just published a second book, Romany and Tom, which explores his late mother and father’s relationship, while containing much autobiographical reflection. As he was writing that, Watt’s sister Jennie died unexpectedly.

In the midst of this turmoil, Watt found himself retreating to his basement, writing songs. He did this on the guitar, mostly, changing the tunings to challenge himself. But he was also, it seems, trying to reconnect with his younger self, and see what might have happened if he hadn’t teamed up with EBTG. That quest, as Watt surely knows, is impossible, but as fools’ errands go, it’s an interesting one. Amidst all this loss and self-examination, it’s easy to see why he might want to re-engage with the ghosts of youthful optimism.

It’s also true that musical fashions have reverted. That stripped-down folk aesthetic couldn’t be more contemporary (Watt counts Hiss Golden Messenger’s Bad Debt as a recent favourite). What’s new is the worldview, and that’s what gives Hendra its stark power. These are beautiful songs, penned from midlife. “Young Man’s Game” – “a folk song about DJ-ing” – tackles the subject head on: “Every mirror just tells the time/can you name a great fighter over 45?”

Watt has always sounded older than his years, but he now has the life experience to suit his temperament. He’s also more confident musically. Here, he employs Bernard Butler, casting him as the album’s Mick Ronson. If Butler’s stark guitar lines add splashes of blood to Watt’s pallid canvas, they never threaten the sense of reserve which hangs over the project.

The title track sets the mood. It’s a stark invocation of emotional resilience. In the words, Watt imagines the dreams of his late sister, a rural shopkeeper in Somerset. The lyrics are plainspoken and honest to the point where they produce a shudder of embarrassment. The sense of loss is palpable, and it slides into the second song, “Forget”, which is musically brighter, but turns on the phrase “who am I fooling when I say I have no regrets?”

It’s a very English-sounding record. The autobiographical detail means that the songs offer a tour of the landscape. “Matthew Arnold’s Field” travels from Beaconsfield to Headington, as Watt prepares to scatter his father’s ashes near Oxford. The funereal tone is maintained by Watt’s delicate electric piano. “The Levels”, with Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour playing lovely slide guitar, is another exploration of grief, employing the flooded ditches of Somerset as a metaphor.

Two songs were inspired by an American road trip, but they employ the same emotional palette. “The Gun” makes an emotional case for gun control with a tale of an accidental shooting. The bluesy “Nathaniel” was inspired by a sign Watt saw painted next to a trailer in Oregon commemorating a boy killed in a road accident, and compares the contemporary fashion for “secondary grieving” with the piercing pain of familial loss.

So, the mood is serious. But it’s tough, rather than glum. The gently jazzy “Golden Ratio” is like John Martyn playing with EBTG. And then there’s “Spring” written as a counterweight to the prevailing mood. Searching for ideas, Watt noticed a Bill Evans album on the studio floor, with the title You Must Believe In Spring. He borrowed the theme, and composed one of his loveliest songs; a gentle, Lennon-esque hymn to endurance and hope. Ironically, or not, it would sound great at a funeral.

Alastair McKay

Q&A

Ben Watt

What was your plan for the album?

I wanted to somehow reconnect with the person I was in that pre-Everything But The Girl Period. When I was a precocious 19 year-old on Cherry Red thinking I had the right to call up Robert Wyatt and ask him to be on my first EP. And to connect with the direction I might have gone in had I not teamed up with Tracey (Thorn). When two colours merge, you’re going to get a new colour.

Was it influenced by the book you wrote about your parents, Romany and Tom?

Lyrically, I definitely wanted to write a bunch of unsentimental songs. I wanted to write a set of songs that were very true. Quite a few of them came out of the process of thinking I went through when I was writing my book. Then towards the end of that, my sister, who I was very close to, died, quite unexpectedly. She was only 58. It all came to head, and I wanted to get some of this stuff down.

It’s quite dark emotionally.

I always think I write songs about some form of resilience. There is some form of hope, even in the darker moments. I’m always looking for that in the characters in the songs. They have a tough exterior, even if they have a soft interior.

INTERVIEW: ALASTAIR McKAY

Watch Bruce Springsteen’s video for Record Store Day release, “American Beauty”

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Bruce Springsteen released a new EP, "American Beauty", for Record Store Day 2014. The a 12" vinyl EP featured four unreleased tracks - "American Beauty", "Mary Mary", "Hey Blue Eyes" and "Hurry Up Sundown". To accompany the release, Springsteen and the E Street Band shot an impromptu video for th...

Bruce Springsteen released a new EP, “American Beauty”, for Record Store Day 2014.

The a 12″ vinyl EP featured four unreleased tracks – “American Beauty”, “Mary Mary”, “Hey Blue Eyes” and “Hurry Up Sundown”.

To accompany the release, Springsteen and the E Street Band shot an impromptu video for the song “American Beauty” before their gig at Charlotte, North Carolina on Record Store Day itself – April 19.

Click below to watch the video.

Springsteen recently inducted the E Street Band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You can read the full transcript of his induction speech here.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse: new live show announced

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Neil Young & Crazy Horse have announced a new live date to their forthcoming European tour itinerary. They will now play Stockholm Music & Arts Festival on August 3, 2014. Yesterday [April 24], Young revealed additional formats for his new album, A Letter Home. Apart from the vinyl edition...

Neil Young & Crazy Horse have announced a new live date to their forthcoming European tour itinerary.

They will now play Stockholm Music & Arts Festival on August 3, 2014.

Yesterday [April 24], Young revealed additional formats for his new album, A Letter Home. Apart from the vinyl edition already released on Jack White’s Third Man label for Record Store Day, Young’s regular record company will also release the album on CD, digitally and in a deluxe box set next month.

The Europe tour dates for Neil Young and Crazy Horse so far are:

July 07, Laugardalshöllin, Reykjavík, Iceland

July 10, Live At The Marquee, Cork, Ireland

July 12, Hyde Park, London, England

July 13, Echo Arena, Liverpool, England

July 15, KüçükÇiftlik Park, Istanbul, Turkey

July 17, Yarkon Park, Tel-Aviv, Israel

July 20, Münsterplatz, Ulm, Germany

July 21, Collisioni Festival, Barolo, Italy

July 23, Wiener Stadthalle, Wien, Austria

July 25, Warsteiner Hockeypark, Mönchengladbach, Germany

July 26, Filmnächte am Elbufer, Dresden, Germany

July 28, Zollhafen – Nordmole, Mainz, Germany

July 30, København Forum, København, Denmark

August 1, Bergenhus Festning – Koengen, Bergen, Norway

August 3, Stockholm Music & Arts Festival – Stockholm, Sweden

August 5, Lokerse Feesten, Lokeren, Belgium

August 7, Monte-Carlo Sporting Summer Festival, Monaco, France

August 8, Foire aux Vins de Colmar, Colmar, France

Fleet Foxes update: Robin Pecknold is “working on songs”

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Robin Pecknold has updated fans on the future of Fleet Foxes, revealing that he is working on new songs. In a post on the band's official Facebook page, he accounts for their lack of activity since 2011's Helplessness Blues, revealing that he has enrolled at university. Pecknold writes: "For anyo...

Robin Pecknold has updated fans on the future of Fleet Foxes, revealing that he is working on new songs.

In a post on the band’s official Facebook page, he accounts for their lack of activity since 2011’s Helplessness Blues, revealing that he has enrolled at university.

Pecknold writes: “For anyone who’s curious, this is a short Fleet Foxes update – been a while! So, after the last round of touring, I decided to go back to school. I never got an undergraduate degree, and this felt like the right time to both see what that was about and to try something new after a while in the touring / recording lifestyle. I moved to New York and enrolled at Columbia, and I’ve mostly been doing that, but I’m working on songs and excited for whatever happens next musically, even if it’s down the line. Hope all is well out there.”

Pecknold will appear at this year’s here End Of The Road festival as part of The Gene Clark No Other Band, a collaborative project featuring Beach House’s Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen, former Walkmen member Hamilton Leithauser, ex-Fairport Convention member Iain Matthews and members of Lower Dens, Wye Oak and Celebration.

Photo credit: Pieter M Van Hattem

Send us your questions for Harry Dean Stanton!

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As he prepares to release his debut album at the sprightly age of 87, Harry Dean Stanton is set to answer your questions in Uncut as part of our regular Audience With… feature. So is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask the legendary cult actor? What are his memories of co-starring with Bob Dylan in Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid? How did he end up living with Jack Nicholson for a year? What kind of show could we expect if we saw him perform with The Harry Dean Stanton Band? Send up your questions by noon, Friday, May 2 to uncutaudiencewith@ipcmedia.com. The best questions, and Harry's answers, will be published in a future edition of Uncut magazine. Please include your name and location with your question.

As he prepares to release his debut album at the sprightly age of 87, Harry Dean Stanton is set to answer your questions in Uncut as part of our regular Audience With… feature.

So is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask the legendary cult actor?

What are his memories of co-starring with Bob Dylan in Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid?

How did he end up living with Jack Nicholson for a year?

What kind of show could we expect if we saw him perform with The Harry Dean Stanton Band?

Send up your questions by noon, Friday, May 2 to uncutaudiencewith@ipcmedia.com. The best questions, and Harry’s answers, will be published in a future edition of Uncut magazine. Please include your name and location with your question.

Emmylou Harris – Wrecking Ball

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1995 masterpiece reissued with disc of out-takes and making-of DVD... Upon its original release, Wrecking Ball prompted acclaim and bewilderment in equal measure. It was, unquestionably, a great record. It just didn’t sound very much like the sort of great record that Emmylou Harris made. Her canon of great records to this point, while formidable, also conformed to a certain type: orthodox Nashville country lightly doused with essence of Laurel Canyon folk-rock. It was a template that had served Harris well more or less up to Wrecking Ball’s immediate predecessor, 1993’s “Cowgirl’s Prayer”. While very much the kind of thing that people expected of Harris, from the title downwards – and actually not a bad album – Cowgirl’s Prayer was not, at least by Harris’s standards, successful. The choice ahead of her seemed stark: resignation to a long dotage as a heritage act trading her considerable past glories, or reinvention. She chose the latter – to a degree which, she later admitted, caused some of her fans to wonder if the real Emmylou Harris had been kidnapped by aliens. She assembled the sort of all-star ensemble that you can really only summon if you are, in fact, Emmylou Harris, including Steve Earle, Neil Young, Lucinda Williams, Larry Mullen Jr, Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Besotted by Daniel Lanois’s production of Bob Dylan’s 1989 album Oh Mercy, and by Lanois’s debut solo album Acadie, she enlisted him as producer. With her career-long ear for a great song, she and Lanois chose tracks by various members of her new backing group, as well as cuts by Gillian Welch, Julie Miller and Jimi Hendrix. Anybody who still expected another helping of Harris’s usual sweetheart-of-the-rodeo trundling was served more or less instant notice to quit by the opening track, Lanois’s “Where Will I Be”. For possibly the first time in Harris’s career, a track on which she appears is dominated by something other than her own vocals (even when she appeared as a backing singer, as on Gram Parsons’ solo albums, she had a tendency to occlude everything else, as a voice like hers will). “Where I Will I Be” is a Lanois production in more than the literal sense, echoing both the epic sweep of his work with U2 – Lanois himself provides an Edge-ish shimmer of guitar and Adam Clayton-like grumble of bass – and the cavernous gloaming of the backdrops he created for Dylan. Harris herself sounds unusually fragile, her voice a trebly whisper at the top of her range. The same approach is taken to the cuts on (i)Wrecking Ball(i) which had already appeared elsewhere. Steve Earle’s “Goodbye”, released earlier in 1995 on “Train A-Comin’” as a gruff, sparse acoustic blues, is turned into a stately, shuffling, almost trip-hop ballad (something Earle surely recalled as he flirted with electronica on 2007’s “Washington Square Serenade”). The arrangement of Dylan’s “Every Grain Of Sand”, which originally closed Dylan’s 1981’s Shot Of Love – and sounded like Dylan was making it up as he went, in a shed – is similarly polished: again, Harris plays against it with a haunted, almost cracking vocal which amplifies the song’s vulnerability (in company with Sheryl Crow, she sang “Every Grain Of Sand” at Johnny Cash’s funeral in 2003). Weirdest of all is the version of Hendrix’s “May This Be Love”, all backwards-sounding guitars and Lanois’s backing vocals elevated almost to the status of duet partner, providing effectively portentous counterpoint. The extras included with this reissue are a documentary, Building The Wrecking Ball, which explains how Wrecking Ball came to be, and a disc of out-takes which mostly demonstrates how Wrecking Ball could have ended up had the nerve of all concerned not held. The versions of the songs that made the finished album – including “Where Will I Be”, “All My Tears”, “Deeper Well” – are much closer to what most early purchasers of Wrecking Ball would have expected from Emmylou Harris, and now serve mostly as a reminder of how ambitious and audacious the album was. The versions of Richard Thompson’s “How Will I Ever Be Simple Again” and Harris’s own “Gold” – which later surfaced on 2008’s All I Intended To Be – are, however, magnificent. Andrew Mueller

1995 masterpiece reissued with disc of out-takes and making-of DVD…

Upon its original release, Wrecking Ball prompted acclaim and bewilderment in equal measure. It was, unquestionably, a great record. It just didn’t sound very much like the sort of great record that Emmylou Harris made. Her canon of great records to this point, while formidable, also conformed to a certain type: orthodox Nashville country lightly doused with essence of Laurel Canyon folk-rock.

It was a template that had served Harris well more or less up to Wrecking Ball’s immediate predecessor, 1993’s “Cowgirl’s Prayer”. While very much the kind of thing that people expected of Harris, from the title downwards – and actually not a bad album – Cowgirl’s Prayer was not, at least by Harris’s standards, successful. The choice ahead of her seemed stark: resignation to a long dotage as a heritage act trading her considerable past glories, or reinvention.

She chose the latter – to a degree which, she later admitted, caused some of her fans to wonder if the real Emmylou Harris had been kidnapped by aliens. She assembled the sort of all-star ensemble that you can really only summon if you are, in fact, Emmylou Harris, including Steve Earle, Neil Young, Lucinda Williams, Larry Mullen Jr, Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Besotted by Daniel Lanois’s production of Bob Dylan’s 1989 album Oh Mercy, and by Lanois’s debut solo album Acadie, she enlisted him as producer. With her career-long ear for a great song, she and Lanois chose tracks by various members of her new backing group, as well as cuts by Gillian Welch, Julie Miller and Jimi Hendrix.

Anybody who still expected another helping of Harris’s usual sweetheart-of-the-rodeo trundling was served more or less instant notice to quit by the opening track, Lanois’s “Where Will I Be”. For possibly the first time in Harris’s career, a track on which she appears is dominated by something other than her own vocals (even when she appeared as a backing singer, as on Gram Parsons’ solo albums, she had a tendency to occlude everything else, as a voice like hers will). “Where I Will I Be” is a Lanois production in more than the literal sense, echoing both the epic sweep of his work with U2 – Lanois himself provides an Edge-ish shimmer of guitar and Adam Clayton-like grumble of bass – and the cavernous gloaming of the backdrops he created for Dylan. Harris herself sounds unusually fragile, her voice a trebly whisper at the top of her range.

The same approach is taken to the cuts on (i)Wrecking Ball(i) which had already appeared elsewhere. Steve Earle’s “Goodbye”, released earlier in 1995 on “Train A-Comin’” as a gruff, sparse acoustic blues, is turned into a stately, shuffling, almost trip-hop ballad (something Earle surely recalled as he flirted with electronica on 2007’s “Washington Square Serenade”). The arrangement of Dylan’s “Every Grain Of Sand”, which originally closed Dylan’s 1981’s Shot Of Love – and sounded like Dylan was making it up as he went, in a shed – is similarly polished: again, Harris plays against it with a haunted, almost cracking vocal which amplifies the song’s vulnerability (in company with Sheryl Crow, she sang “Every Grain Of Sand” at Johnny Cash’s funeral in 2003). Weirdest of all is the version of Hendrix’s “May This Be Love”, all backwards-sounding guitars and Lanois’s backing vocals elevated almost to the status of duet partner, providing effectively portentous counterpoint.

The extras included with this reissue are a documentary, Building The Wrecking Ball, which explains how Wrecking Ball came to be, and a disc of out-takes which mostly demonstrates how Wrecking Ball could have ended up had the nerve of all concerned not held. The versions of the songs that made the finished album – including “Where Will I Be”, “All My Tears”, “Deeper Well” – are much closer to what most early purchasers of Wrecking Ball would have expected from Emmylou Harris, and now serve mostly as a reminder of how ambitious and audacious the album was. The versions of Richard Thompson’s “How Will I Ever Be Simple Again” and Harris’s own “Gold” – which later surfaced on 2008’s All I Intended To Be – are, however, magnificent.

Andrew Mueller

Neil Young’s A Letter Home: CD, download and deluxe box set revealed

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Neil Young has announced details of the CD, download and box set editions of A Letter Home. The vinyl edition of the album was released by Jack White's Third Man label on Record Store Day [April 19]. Young will now release the album via Warner Bros/Reprise Records on May 19 across multiple formats...

Neil Young has announced details of the CD, download and box set editions of A Letter Home.

The vinyl edition of the album was released by Jack White’s Third Man label on Record Store Day [April 19].

Young will now release the album via Warner Bros/Reprise Records on May 19 across multiple formats.

A Letter Home will be released on CD and digital album as well as a limited edition deluxe box set, which includes a special “direct feed from the booth” audiophile vinyl version and a DVD that captured the original electro-mechanical process, along with comments from the producers and recording engineers. It includes:

* Standard audio LP pressed on 180-gram black vinyl

* Audiophile LP pressed on 180-gram black vinyl

* Standard audio CD

* DVD

* 12″ x 12″, 32-page full color booklet

* Seven 6” vinyl discs pressed on clear vinyl; a 7th disc of this set features a version of “Blowin’ In The Wind” backed with an alternate take / arrangement of “Crazy”.

The album was recorded at Third Man Records, Nashville and co-produced by Jack White, who also plays piano and provides vocals on “On The Road Again” and “I Wonder if I Care As Much”.

On April 22, Young finished the last scheduled date on his solo acoustic tour in Chicago. You can read the set list here.

Young discusses A Letter Home and his other current projects in the new issue of Uncut, on sale Friday, April 25.

Track Listing for A Letter Home:

A Letter Home intro

“Changes” (Phil Ochs)

“Girl From The North Country” (Bob Dylan)

“Needle of Death” (Bert Jansch)

“Early Morning Rain” (Gordon Lightfoot)

“Crazy” (Willie Nelson)

“Reason To Believe” (Tim Hardin)

“On The Road Again” (Willie Nelson)

“If You Could Read My Mind” (Gordon Lightfoot)

“Since I Met You Baby” (Ivory Joe Hunter)

“My Hometown” (Bruce Springsteen)

“I Wonder If I Care As Much” (Everly Brothers)

David Bowie announces “Diamond Dogs” picture disc

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David Bowie is releasing a 7" picture disc of "Diamond Dogs" on June 16. The single was originally released in June, 1974. For this fortieth anniversary reissue, it will be a double A-side with Tony Visconti's 2005 mix of the version of the song that appears the David Live album. This is the lates...

David Bowie is releasing a 7″ picture disc of “Diamond Dogs” on June 16.

The single was originally released in June, 1974. For this fortieth anniversary reissue, it will be a double A-side with Tony Visconti’s 2005 mix of the version of the song that appears the David Live album.

This is the latest in the run of 40th anniversary 7″ picture discs released by Parlophone Records, following on from “Starman”, “John I’m Only Dancing”, “The Jean Genie”, “Drive In Saturday”, “Live On Mars”, “Sorrow”, “Rebel Rebel”. Last week, Bowie released “Rock’n’Roll Suicide” picture disc for Record Store Day.

DAVID BOWIE

DIAMOND DOGS LIMITED EDITION 40th ANNIVERSARY PICTURE DISC 33 1/3RPM

A-Side Diamond Dogs

Arranged & produced by David Bowie

Mixed by David Bowie & Tony Visconti

Recorded at Olympic & Island Studios, London

AA – Side Diamond Dogs (David Live – 2005 mix)

Produced & mixed by Tony Visconti

Recorded live at Tower Theater, Philadelphia, July 1974

Catalogue Number DBDOGS 40

The image on the A side of the picture disc is an outtake from the famous session shot by photographer Terry O’Neill and the AA side features a previously unseen image from the 1974 US tour.

The Handsome Family: “True Detective has shown us we’re not that weird – we just needed the right context”

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The Handsome Family tell the story of “Far From Any Road”, their 2003 song now used as the theme to HBO’s True Detective, in the new issue of Uncut, out on Friday (April 25). Rennie and Brett Sparks reckon the success of the track has shown that the band aren’t as left-field as they used ...

The Handsome Family tell the story of “Far From Any Road”, their 2003 song now used as the theme to HBO’s True Detective, in the new issue of Uncut, out on Friday (April 25).

Rennie and Brett Sparks reckon the success of the track has shown that the band aren’t as left-field as they used to think.

“We’ve had a lot of people over the years talking about how strange we are,” says Rennie. “You know, oddballs, way out, left-field…”

“All of that, you know, Gomez and Morticia bullshit,” adds Brett.

“But it turns out we’re not really that weird,” Rennie continues. “We just needed the right context. People have said one reason they like the show so much is that it mentions things in the mainstream that haven’t been mentioned there before. Things like us, and Beefheart, things that people thought can’t be appreciated by the mainstream – but it turns out people love that stuff, they’ve just been waiting for somebody to admit it!”

The Handsome Family explain how they wrote and recorded “Far From Any Road” in the new issue of Uncut, dated June 2014, and out on Friday (April 25).

Photo: Jason Creps