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An Audience With… Bobby Gillespie

Uncut
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An Audience With… Bobby Gillespie
Primal Scream are touring the UK next week, beginning their trip at Manchester’s Apollo (December 10) – a fitting time, then, to revisit this piece from Uncut’s June 2006 issue (Take 109), in which frontman Bobby Gillespie answers questions from fans and famous admirers, discusses E, regrets, ...

Primal Scream are touring the UK next week, beginning their trip at Manchester’s Apollo (December 10) – a fitting time, then, to revisit this piece from Uncut’s June 2006 issue (Take 109), in which frontman Bobby Gillespie answers questions from fans and famous admirers, discusses E, regrets, rock’n’roll and The Jesus And Mary Chain. Interview: Nick Hasted

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Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie is pacing the room, picking up speed. He’s had a row with his manager minutes before, and some mildly cheeky questions from Uncut’s readers are enough to send him careening towards total meltdown, threatening indiscriminate carnage and National Service on his interrogators as he goes. Against this, as his volcanic mood gradually subsides, Gillespie channels his frustration into eloquent reams of rock’n’roll ranting and idealism, before coming to a stop an hour later, a picture of beatific calm.

It’s the sort of riveting, chaotic performance that has characterised Gillespie throughout a career that began as The Jesus And Mary Chain’s barely competent drummer in 1984, then continued with Primal Scream on early indie hit “Velocity Girl”, and ’91’s decade-defining rock/dance/E landmark, Screamadelica. They’ve regularly pushed their own sonic boundaries through five further albums, embracing Memphis soul, P-Funk and Krautrock, right up to the new, stripped-back rock of new LP Riot City Blues. If they move, Bobby, shoot ’em…

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Do you remember your first E?

Sarah Jezzard, Gosport

I went to see the Happy Mondays at the Zap Club in Brighton. Alan McGee got me it, but I remember it never worked! [laughs] I think he bought it from the band, or their entourage. I remember waiting for it to work, and it never worked. The Mondays were amazing. I’d seen them in Jeff Barrett’s club before that, totally straight, the night of the great storm in ’87. There probably was a time when it really worked the first time. But I’m not in the mood for it today.

Back in 1993, you gave me a Flying Burrito Brothers record, and it changed my life. Respect – and my wife Michelle has always wanted me and you to do a cover version of “Hot Burrito #1”. Would you be up for that?

Tim Burgess

Yeah! Get “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow out to play on it, because he lives out in LA, doesn’t he? Alright, see you in LA. Where Gram Parsons died, the Joshua Tree… we’ll make it up at Joshua Tree. Yeah, great idea, Tim, I’d love to do that.

Are you aware Screamadelica was the soundtrack to a crucial part of many people’s lives, including mine? How does that make you feel?

Jack Godrick, Blackpool

It’s nice. I’m glad. It’s a good thing. A lot of people come up and say they love that record. It’s a nice feeling, y’know. A lot of other people’s music means so much to me, so it’s nice to get that back. It’s lovely. Thanks.

When we’ve been out and we’ve got really drunk, I can never understand a fucking word you’re saying. One word is “Bannockburn”, and the other is “Sassenach”. How do the two words relate, and what would be the rest of the conversation?

Bernard Sumner

I don’t know if I’ve ever said that to him. I remember Bernard saying something to me about Culloden and the Duke of Cumberland because he’d seen Braveheart or some Jocksploitation movie. Bannockburn was the last time that Scotland beat England in a military battle. Robert the Bruce was the Scottish king, but he was actually a French Knights Templar. So the biggest Scottish hero was French. No wonder we’ve got an identity crisis. Yeah, King Edward II’s army was defeated at Bannockburn – “sent ’em homewards to think again” as the song goes. It’s a Jocksploitation question.

Given your behaviour after Screamadelica, should you be dead now?

Nick James, Swansea

As a band, yeah. Certain band members – yeah. Me – maybe. Some people we know – yes. They are dead. And some people never came back, mentally and emotionally. But we had a good time, so…regrets? Nah, nah, nah, nah.

Do you regret Give Out But Don’t Give Up [the much rockier ’94 follow-up to Screamadelica]?

Wes Newman, London

I don’t regret it. We never really had a choice. That’s the songs the band were writing. And the band was in a bit of a mess. It’s just hard to keep something like Screamadelica going. Heroin and cocaine came in, in a big way, and fucked up the creativity. Heroin was coming in anyway, in 1991. It just got worse. I was never into that. When we went to Memphis and made the Dixie Narco EP in November ’91, that was the last time it was good. After that, it was pretty dark. Everybody got too fucked up and the band dissipated, just fell apart, really. Yeah, the creativity was destroyed. It was pretty good for a few minutes. Then I thought, oh, the band’s fucked, everybody’s in a mess, we haven’t written any songs. People were only turning up to rehearsals in Brighton to score heroin – and speed, and coke. Because you could get them really cheap there. They’d come in, score drugs, split back on the train to London. It was a pretty depressing time.

But a couple of the best things we’ve done are on that, like “Sad And Blue”. I listen to that and I’m really proud to be in Primal Scream. We played with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, and we were as good as them. No British band can play country-soul as good as we can. A lot of people have tried [Bobby points to a picture of Elvis Costello] – they can’t do it. We’ve actually got the fucking groove to do it. It’s hard to play that slow and soft and gentle. Whatever people say, we did try to do something different. It was a million miles away from Screamadelica. We lost a whole audience. But, hey, that’s good.

If the tabloids had been following you and Kate Moss around in the ’90s, would you have been Public Enemy No 1 in the same way Pete Doherty is now?

Stephen Farrer, Glasgow

Nah. Pete’s different than me. I’m not into that tabloid thing. I just wanna be a musician. But it’s none of my business what other people get up to. I don’t really care.

Why did you want to be a rock star, and what did you think a rock star was?

Lucy Sandford, London

I went to see Thin Lizzy in 1976, when I was 14. Seeing Phil Lynott onstage dressed in black leather, playing a Fender bass with a huge big mirror on it, rocking like fuck and singing “The Boys Are Back In Town”, with thousands of screaming girls who want to fuck him. Lights everywhere, smoke bombs. I saw Phil Lynott running down the street outside the Glasgow Apollo that afternoon, hundreds of girls chasing him, and he was laughing. I always wanted to be a rock’n’roll star.

XTRMNTR is probably the dirtiest-sounding record I’ve ever heard. How did you get that sound?

Serge Pizzorno, Kasabian

I guess, Serge, that we were trying to get, on a tape, all the sounds and the feelings that we had inside our heads. We were trying to describe, accurately, the culture, and how it felt to us. And I guess at the time we felt claustrophobic, paranoid, concrete. A bit cold. Not numb. Because we were feeling – there’s a hell of a lot of feeling in that record. It’s just a bit diseased, y’know?

Was there a point when you stopped impersonating a rock star and became one?

Joe James, Gloucester

Is he a female impersonator, himself? Get a life. Next question. You know what I hate about interviews? People like that are like cops, they just want to find out more stuff about you. The problem is that people have no respect. When you walk onstage and you’re playing rock’n’roll and there’s thousands of people there, you’re a rock’n’roll star. When you’re in the audience, you’re a spectator. I never wanted to be a spectator. I needed to take part in the society of the spectacle that Guy Debord and the Situationists were writing about – everything that’s happening now, like people believing the war in Iraq’s curing anything, these people are suckers for the spectacle. I’ve never been a spectator. I’m an activist. I’m a militant and I’ve always been fucking creative and I always will be. I don’t look to other people – I’ve always followed my own instincts and my own soul. So that’s the fucking answer. It’s just too much for me, all this attention. I don’t want to be anything other than a singer in a band. I’m pissed off at everything today.

Was it tough to leave The Jesus And Mary Chain when you’d just made Psychocandy?

Alan Smith, Inverness

It was heartbreaking. They asked me to leave Primal Scream and be their drummer. And I couldn’t do it. Because I knew that I’d have a limited lifespan being a drummer, because I wasn’t one. So I stuck with Primal Scream. I had more fun being in the Mary Chain at that point. They were a better band, better people, better fun. I’d go round the world with them, playing Psychocandy. Our band was still starting out. Shitty rehearsal rooms, shitty gigs, shitty little record on Creation. I was playing drums in a classic rock’n’roll band. I was in ecstasy. In retrospect it looks brave to leave. But I had no choice. I’d maybe have had one more year in Mary Chain – the best year of my life. After that, they’d have wanted a real drummer. They replaced me with a drum machine, which was good.

Did you sober up at all after the ’90s?

Brian Earl, London

The ’90s? [disbelieving] No – och, I don’t know. What a stupid question. It’s nobody’s business what somebody fucking does. I just hate it, man, some weird puritan obsessed with other people’s lives. I mean, maybe that guy meant it in a nice way. But I don’t feel like answering that question. But, y’know, it’s a strange business, rock’n’roll. When I’m with my family and stuff, I feel sane. And then I come into rock’n’roll, and I feel insane. Today, I feel like I’m going insane, and this is the first interview. We’ve made a line of brilliant records, consistently. You can’t do that if you’re too fucked up. I just don’t want to defend myself. Every time I do interviews, it’s like going to court. I gave all that shit up when I was a teenager… I wish you could just put a record out and not speak to anybody. Because everything that’s going on is in the music, that’ll tell you about where we are. I’m not sitting here smoking crack and shooting up heroin in front of you. Are the other questions obnoxious? [Mildly] I just think people should go and fucking die, y’know? I don’t care if most people fucking die. [Bobby gets up and stalks around a little] I ain’t a fucking hippie, man, y’know? Just destroy the c***s. Wipe ’em out. Send ’em to Iraq. Put ’em in the front line. I’m only joking. I’m a peace-lover!

What are your memories of the ICA Rock Week in 1986?

Bob Stanley, Saint Etienne

I was far too young and it was a long time ago. The one time I really remember playing there was with The Jesus And Mary Chain, in about 1984, and when I walked onstage a whisky bottle went flying past my head. In 1986, I would’ve had a bowl haircut. It was in the summer. There were six of us in the band, and we were wearing crombies, a Dexys thing. We were all lined up across the stage, really proud. It wasn’t a disaster – because some of the gigs we played then were fucking hit and miss. Sometimes we’d walk off after two songs because all the instruments had been tuned by different people. I remember it as being a good gig. And it was a summer’s night, and it felt like anything could happen.

Do you regret singing “Bomb The Pentagon”? And do you regret changing it?

Jim Unsworth, Newcastle

I don’t regret anything. Next question. I regret having to do loads of interviews and having to explain myself. I don’t give a fuck. What’s the guy’s name? Do you regret your unfortunate name? Next question. [Returning to the subject after a bit] But y’know what? The whole 9/11 thing was the ultimate spectacle. To pull the wool over people’s eyes and get the green light for America to go to war with the world. As a musician, you can’t go against it very far. Because no musician’s ever toppled a government. But I still have my point of view. And I’m just giving it. I’m with William Burroughs. I believe in total resistance for all souls everywhere, fighting against any tyranny or oppression. This new record’s got a joy and ecstasy in it – not the drug. It’s funny, too. It hopefully can make people smile and dance and just feel good when they hear it, like I did listening to “American Girl” by Tom Petty on the way here. It’s just pure joy. If we can do that for somebody else then I’m a very happy guy. And I guess that’s one way you can fight against the system, the powers – the vampires, high on blood sacrifice. Putin, Bush, Blair – I’m not going to topple them. At the end of the day, I’m just a singer in a rock’n’roll band. But there’s different ways of having resistance, and my way of fighting the greyness and sterility of modern society and conventions is to play rock’n’roll with Primal Scream. That’s as far as it goes. I don’t think I’m trying to bring down the government. I never was. I don’t wanna protest too much.

I’ve heard you’re going back to basics with the new album. Have you had enough of being pioneers?

Jenny Johnson, Canterbury

We just wanted to make some good, exciting rock’n’roll music that was ecstatic. I love the early Beatles singles, the joy in that is incredible. It’s the rarest drug in the world. It’s like being in love. Without even knowing it, I think that’s what we were looking for. I think we’re one of the most exciting rock’n’roll bands in the world live, and I wanted to capture that on record.

Nick Lowe: “I became convinced I was Johnny Cash…”

Uncut
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Nick Lowe: “I became convinced I was Johnny Cash…”

In the new issue of Uncut, Nick Lowe jokingly explains how he became convinced he was Johnny Cash when once writing a song. However, after sobering up, he was forced to play the idea to Cash himself, the stepfather of his then-wife Carlene Carter. “I had this idea for a song, had the first verse, and I stayed up all night thinking, ‘Oh, I can play this for [Cash]’,” says Lowe. “I drank I don’t know how much, but a lot. I became convinced I was Johnny. It sounded good after a few bottles of wine. “The next thing I knew I was waking up to Carlene talking on the phone, saying, ‘Yeah, we’re looking forward to seeing you, Nick’s written this great song. He stayed up all night and he really wants to play it you.’ I opened my eyes to a hideous hangover. I definitely didn’t feel like Johnny Cash!” Lowe also recalls once putting up Cash and wife June Carter Cash in his Shepherd’s Bush house, making records in Oswald Mosley’s former lock-up and attempting to steal “Oliver’s Army” from Elvis Costello. He also reveals the true origins of his "Basher" nickname. The new issue of Uncut, dated January 2014, is out now. Picture: Dan Burn-Forti

In the new issue of Uncut, Nick Lowe jokingly explains how he became convinced he was Johnny Cash when once writing a song.

However, after sobering up, he was forced to play the idea to Cash himself, the stepfather of his then-wife Carlene Carter.

“I had this idea for a song, had the first verse, and I stayed up all night thinking, ‘Oh, I can play this for [Cash]’,” says Lowe. “I drank I don’t know how much, but a lot. I became convinced I was Johnny. It sounded good after a few bottles of wine.

“The next thing I knew I was waking up to Carlene talking on the phone, saying, ‘Yeah, we’re looking forward to seeing you, Nick’s written this great song. He stayed up all night and he really wants to play it you.’ I opened my eyes to a hideous hangover. I definitely didn’t feel like Johnny Cash!”

Lowe also recalls once putting up Cash and wife June Carter Cash in his Shepherd’s Bush house, making records in Oswald Mosley’s former lock-up and attempting to steal “Oliver’s Army” from Elvis Costello. He also reveals the true origins of his “Basher” nickname.

The new issue of Uncut, dated January 2014, is out now.

Picture: Dan Burn-Forti

The Wild Mercury Sound Best 143 Albums Of 2013

John Mulvey
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The Wild Mercury Sound Best 143 Albums Of 2013

OK, I’ve managed to remember 143 albums that came out this year and that I liked. As in previous years, I didn’t see much point in hacking my list down to a Top 100, or Top 50, or whatever. While it’d be a stretch to claim every one is an imperishable classic, I do feel broadly confident recommending them all. Another caveat: I’ve spent a bit of time trying to put them in some kind of order, but realistically a lot of the placings are pretty arbitrary below the Top 30 or Top 50 – and not, of course, exactly scientific in the upper echelons, either. For a more assiduous and calculated rundown of the year’s best albums, I should refer you to the current issue of Uncut, where you’ll find a mathematically rigorous Top 80 that was voted for by almost 50 of the magazine’s staff and contributors. Since the Uncut list was published, I’ve seen some comments online express surprise at the inclusion of Roy Harper’s “Man & Myth”. The chart was voted for and compiled before Harper’s charges became public, in answer to your questions, and I can’t speculate on how our writers would have acted if that hadn’t been the case. As you’ll see, though, I’ve included “Man & Myth” in my list, because I wanted it to be accurately representative of the music I’ve played and enjoyed over the last year. At this point, I can’t honestly say when I will want to hear that record again, but that doesn’t strike me as relevant to a retrospective list like this one. Anyhow, please let me know what you make of my Top 143. I've added plenty of links to things I've written about the albums, and also to pieces on some of them by my colleagues at Uncut. I’m sure there are a few albums I’ve forgotten - remind me! - and I’d also welcome your personal charts in the comments box at the bottom of all this. A quick thank you, too, for all your engagement and support over the year; as ever, it’s very much appreciated. I seem to be blessed with the most enthusiastic, least snarky commenters on the internet, and I’m very grateful for that. Thanks again. Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey 143. Cool Ghouls - Cool Ghouls (Empty Cellar) 142. Dead Meadow – Warble Womb (Xemu) 141. Bill Orcutt - A History Of Every One (Editions Mego) 140. King Champion Sounds – Different Drummer (Wormer Brothers) 139. Matias Aguayo – The Visitor (Cómeme) 138. Kitchens Of Distinction – Folly (3Loop Music) 137. Deep Magic – Reflections of Most Forgotten Love (Preservation) 136. Gregor Schwellenbach – Gregor Schwellenbach Spielt 20 Jahre Kompakt (Kompakt) 135. Elephant Micah - Globe Rush Progressions (Product Of Palmyra) 134. Mike Donovan – WOT (Drag City) 133. Adrian Utley’s Guitar Orchestra – In C (Invada) 132. Jozef Van Wissem - Nihil Obstat (Important) 131. Carlton Melton– Always Even (Agitated) 130. Eiko Ishibashi – Resurrection (Drag City) 129. Lubomyr Melnyk – Three Solo Pieces (Unseen Worlds) 128. Cate Le Bon – Mug Museum (Turnstile) 127. The Julie Ruin – Oh Come On (TJR) 126. Bitchin Bajas – Bitchitronics (Drag City) 125. Buchikamashi – Out Of Body Experience (Fort Evil Fruit) 124. A Hawk And A Hacksaw - You Have Already Gone To The Other World (Lm Dupli-Cation) 123. Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – What The Brothers Sang (Domino) 122. Arp – More (Smalltown Supersound) 121. Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra - The Reason Why Vol. 1 (Headspin) 120. Eleanor Friedberger – Personal Record (Merge) 119. Julian Cope - Revolutionary Suicide (Head Heritage) 118. James Blackshaw & Lubomyr Melnyk – The Watchers (Important) 117. Wooden Shjips – Back To Land (Thrill Jockey) 116. White Fence – Cyclops Reap (Castleface) 115. Plankton Wat – Drifter’s Temple (Thrill Jockey) 114. Kandodo – k20 (Thrill Jockey) 113. Diana Jones – Museum Of Appalachia Recordings (Proper) 112. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – Mind Control (Rise Above) 111. Blondes – Swisher (RVNG INTL) 110. Lawrence English - Lonely Woman's Club (Important) 109. μ-Ziq – Chewed Corners (Planet Mu) 108. The Knife – Shaking The Habitual (Rabid) 107. Spain– The Morning Becomes Eclectic Session (Glitterhouse) 106. Cave – Threace (Drag City) 105. Ravi Shankar - The Living Room Sessions Part 2 (East Meets West Music) 104. Rangda/Dead C – Rangda/Dead C (Ba Da Bing) 103. Africa Express – Maison Des Jeunes (Transgressive) 102. Vieux Farka Touré – Mon Pays (Six Degrees) 101. Master Musicians Of Bukkake – Far West (Important) 100. Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood – Black Pudding (Heavenly) 99. Glenn Jones – My Garden State (Thrill Jockey) 98. Duane Pitre – Bridges (Important) 97. Mark Kozelek - Like Rats (Caldo Verde) 96. Cavern Of Anti Matter – Blood-Drums (Grautag) 95. Califone – Stitches (Dead Oceans) 94. Liam Hayes – A Glimpse Inside The Mind Of Charles Swan III (Night Fever) 93. MIA – Matangi (XL) 92. Arctic Monkeys – AM (Domino) 91. Janelle Monae – Electric Lady (Atlantic) 90. Magik Markers – Surrender To The Fantasy (Drag City) 89. Tony Joe White – Hoodoo (Yeproc) 88. Julianna Barwick – Nepenthe (Dead Oceans) 87. Wooden Wand & World War IV - Wooden Wand & World War IV (Three Lobed Recordings) 86. Forest Swords – Excavations (Tri Angle) 85. King Khan & The Shrines – Idle No More (Merge) 84. The Limiñanas - Costa Blanca (Trouble In Mind) 83. The Oblivians – Desperation (In The Red) 82. Chuck Johnson - Crows In The Basilica (Three Lobed Recordings) 81. Matt Kivel – Double Exposure (Olde English Spelling Bee) 80. Mazzy Star – Seasons Of Your Day (Rhymes Of An Hour) 79. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II (Jagjaguwar) 78. Darkside – Psychic (Matador) 77. Part Pelt Wild Gate – Hung On Sunday (MIE Music) 76. Duane Pitre – Feel Free: Live At Cafe OTO (Important) 75. Ultramarine - This Time Last Year (Real Soon) 74. Black Twig Pickers – Rough Carpenters (Thrill Jockey) 73. White Fence – Live In San Francisco (Castleface) 72. Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus (ATP Recordings) 71. Omar Souleyman – Wenu Wenu (domino) 70. Daniel Bachman – Jesus I’m A Sinner (Tompkins Square) 69. Sebadoh – Defend Yourself (Domino) 68. Lubomyr Melnyk – Corollaries (Erased Tapes) 67. Mountains – Centralia (Thrill Jockey) 66. Prefab Sprout - Crimson/Red (Icebreaker) 65. Danny Paul Grody – Between Two Worlds (Three Lobed Recordings) 64. Tim Hecker – Virgins (Kranky) 63. Retribution Gospel Choir – 3 (Chaperone) 62. Richard Thompson – Electric (Proper) 61. These New Puritans – Field Of Reeds (Infectious) 60. Dawn Of Midi – Dysnomia (Thirsty Ear) 59. Splashgirl – Field Day Rituals (Hubro) 58. Jim James - Regions Of Light And Sound Of God (V2) 57. Broadcast – Berberian Sound Studio (Warp) 56. Jonathan Wilson - Fanfare (Bella Union) 55. Israel Nash Gripka - Israel Nash’s Rain Plains (Loose) 54. Van Dyke Parks – Songs Cycled (Bella Union) 53. Ty Segall - Sleeper (Drag City) 52. Fuzz – Fuzz (In The Red) 51. Kevin Morby – Harlem River (Woodsist) 50. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (Columbia) 49. Four Tet – Beautiful Rewind (Text) 48. Matmos – The Marriage Of True Minds (Thrill Jockey) 47. Arbouretum – Coming Out Of The Fog (Thrill Jockey) 46. Courtney Barnett – The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas (House Anxiety) 45. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires Of The City (XL) 44. Steve Gunn & Mike Gangloff - Melodies For A Savage Fix (Important) 43. Bitchin Bajas – Krausened (Permanent) 42. The Handsome Family – Wilderness (Loose) 41. Chris Thile – Bach: Sonatas And Partitas, Volume One (Nonesuch) 40. Mikal Cronin – MCII (Merge) 39. Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory – Elements Of Light (Rough Trade) 38. Kelley Stoltz - Double Exposure (Third Man) 37. Josephine Foster – I’m A Dreamer (Fire) 36. Alela Diane – About Farewell (Rusted Blue) 35. Jon Hopkins – Immunity (Domino) 34. Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold (What’s Your Rupture) 33. Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Daze (Matador) 32. Roy Harper – Man And Myth (Bella Union) 31. Low – The Invisible Way (Sub Pop) 30. Julia Holter – Loud City Song (Domino) 29. Holden – The Inheritors (Border Community) 28. Alasdair Roberts & Robin Robertson – Hirta Songs (Stone Tape) 27. The Cairo Gang – Tiny Rebels (Empty Cellar) 26. Purling Hiss – Water On Mars (Drag City) 25. Houndstooth – Ride Out The Dark (No Quarter) 24. Promised Land Sound - Promised Land Sound (Paradise Of Bachelors) 23. White Denim – Corsicana Lemonade (Downtown) 22. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away (Bad Seed Ltd) 21. The Shouting Matches – Grownass Man (Middle West) 20. William Tyler – Impossible Truth (Merge) 19. Factory Floor – Factory Floor (DFA) 18. Desert Heat – Cat Mask At Huggie Temple (MIE Music) 17. Golden Gunn – Golden Gunn (Three Lobed Recordings) 16. Date Palms – The Dusted Sessions (Thrill Jockey) 15. Atoms For Peace – Amok (XL) 14. Hiss Golden Messenger – Haw (Paradise Of Bachelors) 13. Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle (Virgin) 12. Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin (Castleface) 11. Boards Of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest (Warp) 10. Chris Forsyth – Solar Motel (Paradise Of Bachelors) 9. Steve Gunn – Time Off (Paradise Of Bachelors) 8. Mark Kozelek & Jimmy Lavalle – Perils From The Sea (Caldo Verde) 7. Mark Kozelek & Desert Shore - Mark Kozelek & Desert Shore (Caldo Verde) 6. The Necks – Open (ReR/Northern Spy) 5. My Bloody Valentine – m b v (My Bloody Valentine) 4. Cian Nugent & The Cosmos – Born With The Caul (No Quarter) 3. Endless Boogie – Long Island (No Quarter) 2. Matthew E White – Big Inner (Domino) 1. Bill Callahan – Dream River (Drag City)

OK, I’ve managed to remember 143 albums that came out this year and that I liked. As in previous years, I didn’t see much point in hacking my list down to a Top 100, or Top 50, or whatever. While it’d be a stretch to claim every one is an imperishable classic, I do feel broadly confident recommending them all.

Another caveat: I’ve spent a bit of time trying to put them in some kind of order, but realistically a lot of the placings are pretty arbitrary below the Top 30 or Top 50 – and not, of course, exactly scientific in the upper echelons, either. For a more assiduous and calculated rundown of the year’s best albums, I should refer you to the current issue of Uncut, where you’ll find a mathematically rigorous Top 80 that was voted for by almost 50 of the magazine’s staff and contributors.

Since the Uncut list was published, I’ve seen some comments online express surprise at the inclusion of Roy Harper’s “Man & Myth”. The chart was voted for and compiled before Harper’s charges became public, in answer to your questions, and I can’t speculate on how our writers would have acted if that hadn’t been the case. As you’ll see, though, I’ve included “Man & Myth” in my list, because I wanted it to be accurately representative of the music I’ve played and enjoyed over the last year. At this point, I can’t honestly say when I will want to hear that record again, but that doesn’t strike me as relevant to a retrospective list like this one.

Anyhow, please let me know what you make of my Top 143. I’ve added plenty of links to things I’ve written about the albums, and also to pieces on some of them by my colleagues at Uncut. I’m sure there are a few albums I’ve forgotten – remind me! – and I’d also welcome your personal charts in the comments box at the bottom of all this. A quick thank you, too, for all your engagement and support over the year; as ever, it’s very much appreciated. I seem to be blessed with the most enthusiastic, least snarky commenters on the internet, and I’m very grateful for that. Thanks again.

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

143. Cool Ghouls – Cool Ghouls (Empty Cellar)

142. Dead Meadow – Warble Womb (Xemu)

141. Bill Orcutt – A History Of Every One (Editions Mego)

140. King Champion Sounds – Different Drummer (Wormer Brothers)

139. Matias Aguayo – The Visitor (Cómeme)

138. Kitchens Of Distinction – Folly (3Loop Music)

137. Deep Magic – Reflections of Most Forgotten Love (Preservation)

136. Gregor Schwellenbach – Gregor Schwellenbach Spielt 20 Jahre Kompakt (Kompakt)

135. Elephant Micah – Globe Rush Progressions (Product Of Palmyra)

134. Mike Donovan – WOT (Drag City)

133. Adrian Utley’s Guitar Orchestra – In C (Invada)

132. Jozef Van Wissem – Nihil Obstat (Important)

131. Carlton Melton– Always Even (Agitated)

130. Eiko Ishibashi – Resurrection (Drag City)

129. Lubomyr Melnyk – Three Solo Pieces (Unseen Worlds)

128. Cate Le Bon – Mug Museum (Turnstile)

127. The Julie Ruin – Oh Come On (TJR)

126. Bitchin Bajas – Bitchitronics (Drag City)

125. Buchikamashi – Out Of Body Experience (Fort Evil Fruit)

124. A Hawk And A Hacksaw – You Have Already Gone To The Other World (Lm Dupli-Cation)

123. Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – What The Brothers Sang (Domino)

122. Arp – More (Smalltown Supersound)

121. Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra – The Reason Why Vol. 1 (Headspin)

120. Eleanor Friedberger – Personal Record (Merge)

119. Julian Cope – Revolutionary Suicide (Head Heritage)

118. James Blackshaw & Lubomyr Melnyk – The Watchers (Important)

117. Wooden Shjips – Back To Land (Thrill Jockey)

116. White Fence – Cyclops Reap (Castleface)

115. Plankton Wat – Drifter’s Temple (Thrill Jockey)

114. Kandodo – k20 (Thrill Jockey)

113. Diana Jones – Museum Of Appalachia Recordings (Proper)

112. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – Mind Control (Rise Above)

111. Blondes – Swisher (RVNG INTL)

110. Lawrence English – Lonely Woman’s Club (Important)

109. μ-Ziq – Chewed Corners (Planet Mu)

108. The Knife – Shaking The Habitual (Rabid)

107. Spain– The Morning Becomes Eclectic Session (Glitterhouse)

106. Cave – Threace (Drag City)

105. Ravi Shankar – The Living Room Sessions Part 2 (East Meets West Music)

104. Rangda/Dead C – Rangda/Dead C (Ba Da Bing)

103. Africa Express – Maison Des Jeunes (Transgressive)

102. Vieux Farka Touré – Mon Pays (Six Degrees)

101. Master Musicians Of Bukkake – Far West (Important)

100. Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood – Black Pudding (Heavenly)

99. Glenn Jones – My Garden State (Thrill Jockey)

98. Duane Pitre – Bridges (Important)

97. Mark Kozelek – Like Rats (Caldo Verde)

96. Cavern Of Anti Matter – Blood-Drums (Grautag)

95. Califone – Stitches (Dead Oceans)

94. Liam Hayes – A Glimpse Inside The Mind Of Charles Swan III (Night Fever)

93. MIA – Matangi (XL)

92. Arctic Monkeys – AM (Domino)

91. Janelle Monae – Electric Lady (Atlantic)

90. Magik Markers – Surrender To The Fantasy (Drag City)

89. Tony Joe White – Hoodoo (Yeproc)

88. Julianna Barwick – Nepenthe (Dead Oceans)

87. Wooden Wand & World War IV – Wooden Wand & World War IV (Three Lobed Recordings)

86. Forest Swords – Excavations (Tri Angle)

85. King Khan & The Shrines – Idle No More (Merge)

84. The Limiñanas – Costa Blanca (Trouble In Mind)

83. The Oblivians – Desperation (In The Red)

82. Chuck Johnson – Crows In The Basilica (Three Lobed Recordings)

81. Matt Kivel – Double Exposure (Olde English Spelling Bee)

80. Mazzy Star – Seasons Of Your Day (Rhymes Of An Hour)

79. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – II (Jagjaguwar)

78. Darkside – Psychic (Matador)

77. Part Pelt Wild Gate – Hung On Sunday (MIE Music)

76. Duane Pitre – Feel Free: Live At Cafe OTO (Important)

75. Ultramarine – This Time Last Year (Real Soon)

74. Black Twig Pickers – Rough Carpenters (Thrill Jockey)

73. White Fence – Live In San Francisco (Castleface)

72. Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus (ATP Recordings)

71. Omar Souleyman – Wenu Wenu (domino)

70. Daniel Bachman – Jesus I’m A Sinner (Tompkins Square)

69. Sebadoh – Defend Yourself (Domino)

68. Lubomyr Melnyk – Corollaries (Erased Tapes)

67. Mountains – Centralia (Thrill Jockey)

66. Prefab Sprout – Crimson/Red (Icebreaker)

65. Danny Paul Grody – Between Two Worlds (Three Lobed Recordings)

64. Tim Hecker – Virgins (Kranky)

63. Retribution Gospel Choir – 3 (Chaperone)

62. Richard Thompson – Electric (Proper)

61. These New Puritans – Field Of Reeds (Infectious)

60. Dawn Of Midi – Dysnomia (Thirsty Ear)

59. Splashgirl – Field Day Rituals (Hubro)

58. Jim James – Regions Of Light And Sound Of God (V2)

57. Broadcast – Berberian Sound Studio (Warp)

56. Jonathan Wilson – Fanfare (Bella Union)

55. Israel Nash Gripka – Israel Nash’s Rain Plains (Loose)

54. Van Dyke Parks – Songs Cycled (Bella Union)

53. Ty Segall – Sleeper (Drag City)

52. Fuzz – Fuzz (In The Red)

51. Kevin Morby – Harlem River (Woodsist)

50. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (Columbia)

49. Four Tet – Beautiful Rewind (Text)

48. Matmos – The Marriage Of True Minds (Thrill Jockey)

47. Arbouretum – Coming Out Of The Fog (Thrill Jockey)

46. Courtney Barnett – The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas (House Anxiety)

45. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires Of The City (XL)

44. Steve Gunn & Mike Gangloff – Melodies For A Savage Fix (Important)

43. Bitchin Bajas – Krausened (Permanent)

42. The Handsome Family – Wilderness (Loose)

41. Chris Thile – Bach: Sonatas And Partitas, Volume One (Nonesuch)

40. Mikal Cronin – MCII (Merge)

39. Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory – Elements Of Light (Rough Trade)

38. Kelley Stoltz – Double Exposure (Third Man)

37. Josephine Foster – I’m A Dreamer (Fire)

36. Alela Diane – About Farewell (Rusted Blue)

35. Jon Hopkins – Immunity (Domino)

34. Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold (What’s Your Rupture)

33. Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze (Matador)

32. Roy Harper – Man And Myth (Bella Union)

31. Low – The Invisible Way (Sub Pop)

30. Julia Holter – Loud City Song (Domino)

29. Holden – The Inheritors (Border Community)

28. Alasdair Roberts & Robin Robertson – Hirta Songs (Stone Tape)

27. The Cairo Gang – Tiny Rebels (Empty Cellar)

26. Purling Hiss – Water On Mars (Drag City)

25. Houndstooth – Ride Out The Dark (No Quarter)

24. Promised Land Sound – Promised Land Sound (Paradise Of Bachelors)

23. White Denim – Corsicana Lemonade (Downtown)

22. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away (Bad Seed Ltd)

21. The Shouting Matches – Grownass Man (Middle West)

20. William Tyler – Impossible Truth (Merge)

19. Factory Floor – Factory Floor (DFA)

18. Desert Heat – Cat Mask At Huggie Temple (MIE Music)

17. Golden Gunn – Golden Gunn (Three Lobed Recordings)

16. Date Palms – The Dusted Sessions (Thrill Jockey)

15. Atoms For Peace – Amok (XL)

14. Hiss Golden Messenger – Haw (Paradise Of Bachelors)

13. Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle (Virgin)

12. Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin (Castleface)

11. Boards Of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest (Warp)

10. Chris Forsyth – Solar Motel (Paradise Of Bachelors)

9. Steve Gunn – Time Off (Paradise Of Bachelors)

8. Mark Kozelek & Jimmy Lavalle – Perils From The Sea (Caldo Verde)

7. Mark Kozelek & Desert Shore – Mark Kozelek & Desert Shore (Caldo Verde)

6. The Necks – Open (ReR/Northern Spy)

5. My Bloody Valentine – m b v (My Bloody Valentine)

4. Cian Nugent & The Cosmos – Born With The Caul (No Quarter)

3. Endless Boogie – Long Island (No Quarter)

2. Matthew E White – Big Inner (Domino)

1. Bill Callahan – Dream River (Drag City)

Morrissey announces ‘Definitive Master’ edition of Your Arsenal

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Morrissey announces ‘Definitive Master’ edition of Your Arsenal
Morrissey is to release a new edition of his third solo album, Your Arsenal. Originally released in 1992, Your Arsenal was produced by Mick Ronson. The Definitive Master will be released on February 24 via Parlophone Records. It will be available on CD, vinyl and digital download, with the CD edi...

Morrissey is to release a new edition of his third solo album, Your Arsenal.

Originally released in 1992, Your Arsenal was produced by Mick Ronson.

The Definitive Master will be released on February 24 via Parlophone Records.

It will be available on CD, vinyl and digital download, with the CD edition accompanied by a bonus DVD of previously unreleased live concert from 1991.

Morrissey paid tribute to Mick Ronson in January this year in an extensive Q+A for Uncut. You can read the full transcript here.

You can read our Morrissey cover story on the current issue of Uncut, which includes the revelations that Morrissey has two albums’ worth of material ready.

The tracklisting for the Your Arsenal Definitive Masters are:

CD:

1. You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side

2. Glamorous Glue

3. We’ll Let You Know

4. The National Front Disco

5. Certain People I Know

6. We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful

7. You’re The One For Me, Fatty

8. Seasick, Yet Still Docked

9. I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday

10.Tomorrow (US Mix)*

DVD (with CD only):

Morrissey at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA, USA – October 31st, 1991.

1. November Spawned a Monster

2. Alsatian Cousin

3. Our Frank

4. The Loop

5. King Leer

6. Sister I’m A Poet

7. Piccadilly Palare

8. Driving Your Girlfriend Home

9. Interesting Drug

10.We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful

11.Everyday Is Like Sunday

12.My Love Life

13.Pashernate Love

14.The Last Of The Famous International Playboys

15.Asian Rut

Encore 1:

16.Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together

17.Suedehead

Encore 2:

18. Disappointed

Your Arsenal Definitive Master heavyweight, gatefold vinyl:

Side 1:

1. You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side

2. Glamorous Glue

3. We’ll Let You Know

4. The National Front Disco

5. Certain People I Know

Side 2:

1. We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful

2. You’re The One For Me, Fatty

3. Seasick, Yet Still Docked

4. I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday

5. Tomorrow (US Mix)*

Watch David Bowie’s new video for “I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)”

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Watch David Bowie’s new video for “I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)”

A new video for David Bowie's 'I'd Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)' has been unveiled. Scroll down to watch the video. "I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)" appears on the recently released deluxe edition of The Next Day Extra and also appears on Bowie Louis Vuitton advert. The video uses found footage from World War 1, including scenes of soldiers dancing while wearing gas masks, with close up shots of Bowie's distorted face. "I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)" and former LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy's remix "Love Is Lost" will be released on 12" white vinyl on December 16. The new release will come in a unique die cut sleeve designed by Jonathan Barnbrook. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5sf5s3PIyw

A new video for David Bowie‘s ‘I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)’ has been unveiled. Scroll down to watch the video.

“I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)” appears on the recently released deluxe edition of The Next Day Extra and also appears on Bowie Louis Vuitton advert. The video uses found footage from World War 1, including scenes of soldiers dancing while wearing gas masks, with close up shots of Bowie’s distorted face.

“I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)” and former LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy’s remix “Love Is Lost” will be released on 12″ white vinyl on December 16. The new release will come in a unique die cut sleeve designed by Jonathan Barnbrook.

Rod Stewart planning Faces reunion gigs for 2015

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Rod Stewart planning Faces reunion gigs for 2015
Rod Stewart has said that he will likely play with the Faces in 2015. Speaking to WZLX radio station in Boston, via The Guardian, Stewart said that plans to record an album with Jeff Beck had fallen through, but that he and Ronnie Wood were planning a Faces reunion for the year after next. He comme...

Rod Stewart has said that he will likely play with the Faces in 2015.

Speaking to WZLX radio station in Boston, via The Guardian, Stewart said that plans to record an album with Jeff Beck had fallen through, but that he and Ronnie Wood were planning a Faces reunion for the year after next. He commented: “I think we have got much more of a chance of getting the Faces back together, in fact, Ronnie’s office is talking to my people, and we’re ear-marking 2015.”

The Faces reunited in 2010 and played a number of shows with Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall on lead vocals in place of Stewart, including a headline performance at the Vintage at Goodwood Festival, and the band toured in 2011. In 2012 Hucknall sang “Stay With Me” at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio, even though Stewart had planned to perform with the band, but later came down with the flu. Stewart last played with the band at the Brit Awards in 1993.

Earlier this year Rod Stewart had said he was keen to reform the Faces with Ronnie Wood, suggesting that a reunion could happen if and when The Rolling Stones decide to retire.

You can order Uncut’s Ultimate Music Guide dedicated to the Small Faces and the Faces here. It’s also available through the Uncut app on the iTunes store.

Watch Robby Krieger and John Densmore discuss Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison

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Watch Robby Krieger and John Densmore discuss Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison
Robby Krieger and John Densmore have been filmed together for the first time in 10 years. In footage below, Krieger and Densmore reminisce about the impact Ray Manzarek had on the band and their early rehearsals with Jim Morrison. This conversation was filmed not long after Manzarek's death on May...

Robby Krieger and John Densmore have been filmed together for the first time in 10 years.

In footage below, Krieger and Densmore reminisce about the impact Ray Manzarek had on the band and their early rehearsals with Jim Morrison.

This conversation was filmed not long after Manzarek’s death on May 20 this year and features on an updated version of the Doors app in a section called Ray ‘Manzarek Remembered’.

You can watch a trailer for the Doors app below.

The updated version of the app is available from the iTunes app store from Thursday, December 5. The ‘Ray Manzarek Remembered’ section also features a critical deconstruction of Manzarek’s keyboard playing, a “Riders On The Storm” photo montage, recently discovered transcripts of Morrison’s testimony and bail bond application from the 1969 incident the Dinner Key Auditorium in which Jim Morrison was accused of indecent exposure.

Watch Robert Plant, Bonnie Dobson and Bernard Butler perform at Bert Jansch tribute

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Watch Robert Plant, Bonnie Dobson and Bernard Butler perform at Bert Jansch tribute

Footage has emerged of Robert Plant, Bonnie Dobson, Bernard Butler and Danny Thompson performing at A Celebration Of Bert Jansch. The tribute concert took place on Sunday, December 3 at London's Royal Festival Hall. Plant, Dobson, Butler and Thompson played Dobson's "Morning Dew". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A48ifzmNwBo You can watch a film here of Neil Young performing "Needle Of Death" which was specially filmed for the concert. The set list for A Celebration Of Bert Jansch was: RALPH MCTELL "Anji" JACQUI MCSHEE’S PENTANGLE (Jacqui Mcshee: vocals, Gary Foote: sax, Spencer Cozens: piano, Gerry Conway: drums, Alan Thomson: electric bass) "I've Got A Feeling" "Cruel Sister" DONOVAN “I Deed I Do” "House of Jansch" NEIL YOUNG “Needle of Death” exclusively recorded for this show in Jack White’s “Record your own voice” booth MARA CARLYLE (with Lisa Knapp: Ukelele, Dan Teper: accordion, Rex Horan: upright bass) “It Don’t Bother Me” MARTIN SIMPSON "Blues Run the Game" MARTIN SIMPSON & DANNY THOMPSON “Heartbreak Hotel” DANNY THOMPSON "Goodbye Mr Pork Pie Hat" LISA KNAPP (with Bernard Butler: electric guitar and Paul Wassif: acoustic guitar) "Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning" JACQUI McSHEE & DANNY THOMPSON & TERRY COX & BERNARD BUTLER “Poison” ~~~~~ BERT JANSCH “Travelling Man” VT from recording of L.A. Turnaround (1974) BEVERLEY MARTYN (with Mark Pavey: acoustic guitar, Michael Watts: electric guitar, Evan Jenkins: drums, Rex Horan: double bass) "When the Levee Breaks" GORDON GILTRAP "Loren" PAUL WASSIF (with David Watson: guitar, Evan Jenkins: drums, Rex Horan: double bass) "900 Miles" “Build A Band” RALPH MCTELL "A Kiss in the Rain" LISA KNAPP & MARTIN CARTHY "Blackwaterside" MARTIN CARTHY "Rosemary Lane" "Georgie" ROBERT PLANT (with Bernard Butler: electric guitar) "Go Your Way My Love" BONNIE DOBSON (with Robert Plant: bongos and vocals, Bernard Butler: electric guitar, Danny Thompson: acoustic bass) "Morning Dew" WIZZ JONES "Weeping Willow Blues" "High Days" BERT JANSCH “Morning Brings Peace of Mind” VT from “Dreamweaver” documentary (2000) ENSEMBLE Finale: "Strolling Down the Highway"

Footage has emerged of Robert Plant, Bonnie Dobson, Bernard Butler and Danny Thompson performing at A Celebration Of Bert Jansch.

The tribute concert took place on Sunday, December 3 at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

Plant, Dobson, Butler and Thompson played Dobson’s “Morning Dew”.

You can watch a film here of Neil Young performing “Needle Of Death” which was specially filmed for the concert.

The set list for A Celebration Of Bert Jansch was:

RALPH MCTELL

“Anji”

JACQUI MCSHEE’S PENTANGLE (Jacqui Mcshee: vocals, Gary Foote: sax,

Spencer Cozens: piano, Gerry Conway: drums, Alan Thomson: electric bass)

“I’ve Got A Feeling”

“Cruel Sister”

DONOVAN

“I Deed I Do”

“House of Jansch”

NEIL YOUNG

“Needle of Death” exclusively recorded for this show in Jack White’s “Record

your own voice” booth

MARA CARLYLE (with Lisa Knapp: Ukelele, Dan Teper: accordion, Rex

Horan: upright bass)

“It Don’t Bother Me”

MARTIN SIMPSON

“Blues Run the Game”

MARTIN SIMPSON & DANNY THOMPSON

“Heartbreak Hotel”

DANNY THOMPSON

“Goodbye Mr Pork Pie Hat”

LISA KNAPP (with Bernard Butler: electric guitar and Paul Wassif: acoustic

guitar)

“Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning”

JACQUI McSHEE & DANNY THOMPSON & TERRY COX & BERNARD

BUTLER

“Poison”

~~~~~

BERT JANSCH

“Travelling Man”

VT from recording of L.A. Turnaround (1974)

BEVERLEY MARTYN (with Mark Pavey: acoustic guitar,

Michael Watts: electric guitar, Evan Jenkins: drums, Rex Horan: double bass)

“When the Levee Breaks”

GORDON GILTRAP

“Loren”

PAUL WASSIF (with David Watson: guitar, Evan Jenkins: drums,

Rex Horan: double bass)

“900 Miles”

“Build A Band”

RALPH MCTELL

“A Kiss in the Rain”

LISA KNAPP & MARTIN CARTHY

“Blackwaterside”

MARTIN CARTHY

“Rosemary Lane”

“Georgie”

ROBERT PLANT (with Bernard Butler: electric guitar)

“Go Your Way My Love”

BONNIE DOBSON (with Robert Plant: bongos and vocals, Bernard Butler:

electric guitar, Danny Thompson: acoustic bass)

“Morning Dew”

WIZZ JONES

“Weeping Willow Blues”

“High Days”

BERT JANSCH

“Morning Brings Peace of Mind”

VT from “Dreamweaver” documentary (2000)

ENSEMBLE

Finale: “Strolling Down the Highway”

Watch Jack White perform a folk version of ‘We’re Going To Be Friends’

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Watch Jack White perform a folk version of ‘We’re Going To Be Friends’

In September of this year a host of music stars came together in New York for Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating The Music of Inside Llewyn Davis, a fundraising concert for the American non-profit, the National Recording Preservation Foundation. At the concert in Manhattan's Town Hall Jack White performed a folk music version of The White Stripes' "We're Going To Be Friends", assisted by banjo, fiddle and double bass. The concert was filmed for the US network Showtime, who have now released a clip of White's performance, which you can see below. They will broadcast the concert in full next week. The show was inspired by the forthcoming new Coen Brothers film, Inside Llewyn Davis, which is released on January 24, 2014 in the UK. The concert featured music from the T Bone Burnett-helmed soundtrack as well as the classic folk songs which inspired the movie, which is set in Greenwich Village in 1961. You can an Uncut's exclusive interview with the Coens, T Bone Burnett and actor John Goodman in the new issue of Uncut.

In September of this year a host of music stars came together in New York for Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating The Music of Inside Llewyn Davis, a fundraising concert for the American non-profit, the National Recording Preservation Foundation.

At the concert in Manhattan’s Town Hall Jack White performed a folk music version of The White Stripes’ “We’re Going To Be Friends”, assisted by banjo, fiddle and double bass. The concert was filmed for the US network Showtime, who have now released a clip of White’s performance, which you can see below. They will broadcast the concert in full next week.

The show was inspired by the forthcoming new Coen Brothers film, Inside Llewyn Davis, which is released on January 24, 2014 in the UK. The concert featured music from the T Bone Burnett-helmed soundtrack as well as the classic folk songs which inspired the movie, which is set in Greenwich Village in 1961.

You can an Uncut’s exclusive interview with the Coens, T Bone Burnett and actor John Goodman in the new issue of Uncut.

Midlake – Antiphon

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Midlake – Antiphon

The band move on with a subtle change of emphasis following Tim Smith's departure... Bands who survive the exit of their creative leader are rare. Bands who keep the same name, carry on regardless and thrive are almost unheard of. When the first Midlake recording sessions since 2010’s Top 20 album The Courage Of Others exposed the rifts at the heart of the band and resulted in the departure of lead singer and songwriter Tim Smith, Eric Pulido, Paul Alexander, Eric Nichelson and McKenzie Smith would have been forgiven calling time on the band, or at least drifting aimlessly for a while as they decided whether to stick or twist. Instead, Pulido – who had only joined the band in 2004, five years after Smith initially formed Midlake – stepped up and essentially took over Smith’s role. This didn’t involve a radical change of direction; Pulido favours the same ‘70s folk-meets-soft-rock melodies and dark bucolic lyricism, and is even a dead ringer for Smith as vocalist, a smooth tenor who loves to bed his lead within warm band harmonies. A casual fan of their two breakthrough albums, 2006’s The Trials Of Van Occupanther and The Courage Of Others, may not even notice the difference. But the opener and title track immediately introduces the subtle changes of emphasis. Pulido’s stately melody throws sudden curveballs. Alexander’s bass is deep and tough, an almost post-punkish element within a sound that constantly recalls Days Of Future Passed-era Moody Blues. He and McKenzie Smith step forward as a rhythm section, giving a discreet funk to the mid-tempo stroll. The playing feels more spontaneous and freewheeling, with organ or guitar or drums suddenly taking centre-stage before even more suddenly falling back into line. The song ends dissolves abruptly into a radioactive synth crackle, and segues straight into “Provider”; a trick pulled repeatedly, giving Antiphon the feel of a suite of songs, rather than a simple album. A record so ambitious musically – with all the elements above joined by orchestras, woodwinds, surprisingly angular guitar and lots of carefully deployed prog-rock synth runs – needs one big song to pull the listener into its world, and it arrives three songs in. “The Old And The Young” is a bubbling, swinging anthem on the subject of Be Here Now, with a chorus so infectious and celebratory that it manages to bathe the entire album in sunshine. It opens the way for less instant songs – the symphonic instrumental “Vale”, the resigned divorce ballad “Aurora Gone”, the stormy, pensive triptych “Ages”, “This Weight” and “Corruption” – to take hold of ears, head and heart. The latter two, in particular, dominate the end of the album with bleak visions. “This Weight” opens with the couplet, “I’m not fooling anyone but me/I don’t love anyone but me”, which is more a withering judgement on human selfishness than either a Pulido confessional or, as it could easily be read, as a coded kiss-off to Smith. Meanwhile, Paul Alexander’s piano-led “Corruption” poses a philosophical question: ‘Science our daughter/Religion our father… Who is mother?” Its rhetorical, as Alexander has already answered his own question in the song’s title. This cryptic form of political overview dovetails with Antiphon’s sleeve art, which looks like a global firework display but is actually a visual representation of the corporations that control the world. Antiphon, named after a form of call-and-response song, is not a call-to-arms. But it is a response to a time of sadness and change, and an attempt to find solace in the simple act of keeping going. It’s full of notes to us and to self about throwing off the past and moving forward, even though erasing the past is impossible. And it might just grow into an even better record than The Courage Of Others, as one gets used to the way it replaces Smith’s precision and popcraft with the new Midlake’s love of digression and sonic adventure. Garry Mulholland Q&A Eric Pulido You’ve said that, when Midlake began recording after touring The Courage Of Others, “something was missing.” What was that something? Energy. Cool ideas were forming, but as we kept beating them to death the life got sucked out of it. All that material was completely scrapped when Tim decided to leave. When Tim announced his departure, did Midlake consider splitting? I should’ve been shitting my pants at the beginning of this! But I think we have more of a dynamic vision now. We’d got a little too comfortable in just facilitating Tim’s vision. When he left we were able to throw everything out and say, “OK - how do we wanna start again, so that everybody feels ownership of this?” The excitement had been lost. There weren’t even many of us coming to the studio anymore. It was like, “Call me when you need me.” And that’s just not a band. You re-presented the brilliant John Grant to the world by being his backing band on Queen Of Denmark. What effect has his subsequent success had on Midlake? That’s a great question because we made John’s record while making The Courage Of Others, where we had many obstacles to overcome and which came out quite dark, and found making John’s record quite cathartic. It was enjoyable and collaborative and subconsciously reminded us that making music can be fun. INTERVIEW: GARRY MULHOLLAND

The band move on with a subtle change of emphasis following Tim Smith’s departure…

Bands who survive the exit of their creative leader are rare. Bands who keep the same name, carry on regardless and thrive are almost unheard of. When the first Midlake recording sessions since 2010’s Top 20 album The Courage Of Others exposed the rifts at the heart of the band and resulted in the departure of lead singer and songwriter Tim Smith, Eric Pulido, Paul Alexander, Eric Nichelson and McKenzie Smith would have been forgiven calling time on the band, or at least drifting aimlessly for a while as they decided whether to stick or twist.

Instead, Pulido – who had only joined the band in 2004, five years after Smith initially formed Midlake – stepped up and essentially took over Smith’s role. This didn’t involve a radical change of direction; Pulido favours the same ‘70s folk-meets-soft-rock melodies and dark bucolic lyricism, and is even a dead ringer for Smith as vocalist, a smooth tenor who loves to bed his lead within warm band harmonies. A casual fan of their two breakthrough albums, 2006’s The Trials Of Van Occupanther and The Courage Of Others, may not even notice the difference.

But the opener and title track immediately introduces the subtle changes of emphasis. Pulido’s stately melody throws sudden curveballs. Alexander’s bass is deep and tough, an almost post-punkish element within a sound that constantly recalls Days Of Future Passed-era Moody Blues. He and McKenzie Smith step forward as a rhythm section, giving a discreet funk to the mid-tempo stroll. The playing feels more spontaneous and freewheeling, with organ or guitar or drums suddenly taking centre-stage before even more suddenly falling back into line. The song ends dissolves abruptly into a radioactive synth crackle, and segues straight into “Provider”; a trick pulled repeatedly, giving Antiphon the feel of a suite of songs, rather than a simple album.

A record so ambitious musically – with all the elements above joined by orchestras, woodwinds, surprisingly angular guitar and lots of carefully deployed prog-rock synth runs – needs one big song to pull the listener into its world, and it arrives three songs in. “The Old And The Young” is a bubbling, swinging anthem on the subject of Be Here Now, with a chorus so infectious and celebratory that it manages to bathe the entire album in sunshine. It opens the way for less instant songs – the symphonic instrumental “Vale”, the resigned divorce ballad “Aurora Gone”, the stormy, pensive triptych “Ages”, “This Weight” and “Corruption” – to take hold of ears, head and heart.

The latter two, in particular, dominate the end of the album with bleak visions. “This Weight” opens with the couplet, “I’m not fooling anyone but me/I don’t love anyone but me”, which is more a withering judgement on human selfishness than either a Pulido confessional or, as it could easily be read, as a coded kiss-off to Smith. Meanwhile, Paul Alexander’s piano-led “Corruption” poses a philosophical question: ‘Science our daughter/Religion our father… Who is mother?” Its rhetorical, as Alexander has already answered his own question in the song’s title. This cryptic form of political overview dovetails with Antiphon’s sleeve art, which looks like a global firework display but is actually a visual representation of the corporations that control the world.

Antiphon, named after a form of call-and-response song, is not a call-to-arms. But it is a response to a time of sadness and change, and an attempt to find solace in the simple act of keeping going. It’s full of notes to us and to self about throwing off the past and moving forward, even though erasing the past is impossible. And it might just grow into an even better record than The Courage Of Others, as one gets used to the way it replaces Smith’s precision and popcraft with the new Midlake’s love of digression and sonic adventure.

Garry Mulholland

Q&A

Eric Pulido

You’ve said that, when Midlake began recording after touring The Courage Of Others, “something was missing.” What was that something?

Energy. Cool ideas were forming, but as we kept beating them to death the life got sucked out of it. All that material was completely scrapped when Tim decided to leave.

When Tim announced his departure, did Midlake consider splitting?

I should’ve been shitting my pants at the beginning of this! But I think we have more of a dynamic vision now. We’d got a little too comfortable in just facilitating Tim’s vision. When he left we were able to throw everything out and say, “OK – how do we wanna start again, so that everybody feels ownership of this?” The excitement had been lost. There weren’t even many of us coming to the studio anymore. It was like, “Call me when you need me.” And that’s just not a band.

You re-presented the brilliant John Grant to the world by being his backing band on Queen Of Denmark. What effect has his subsequent success had on Midlake?

That’s a great question because we made John’s record while making The Courage Of Others, where we had many obstacles to overcome and which came out quite dark, and found making John’s record quite cathartic. It was enjoyable and collaborative and subconsciously reminded us that making music can be fun.

INTERVIEW: GARRY MULHOLLAND

The Rolling Stones announce “14 On Fire” tour dates

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The Rolling Stones announce “14 On Fire” tour dates
The Rolling Stones have announced the full run of dates for their forthcoming tour. The 14 On Fire tour will take in Australia, New Zealand, the Far East and Asia. Mick Taylor has been confirmed as special guest on all dates. The Rolling Stones will play: February 21: du Arena, Abu Dhabi Februa...

The Rolling Stones have announced the full run of dates for their forthcoming tour.

The 14 On Fire tour will take in Australia, New Zealand, the Far East and Asia.

Mick Taylor has been confirmed as special guest on all dates.

The Rolling Stones will play:

February 21: du Arena, Abu Dhabi

February 26: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo

March 4: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo

March 6: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo

March 9: Cotai Arena, Macau

March 19: Perth Arena, Perth

March 22: Adelaide Oval, Adelaide

March 25: Allphones Arena, Sydney

March 28: Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne

March 30: Hanging Rock, Macedon

April 2: Entertainment Centre, Brisbane

April 5: Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland

The 45th Uncut Playlist Of 2013, + Ryley Walker and the Sound Of 2014

John Mulvey
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The 45th Uncut Playlist Of 2013, + Ryley Walker and the Sound Of 2014

Not uncharacteristically, I’ve spent the past few days repressing a bunch of unnecessary rage about the publicity afforded the BBC’s Sound Of 2013 poll. Not so much because of the artists selected, but because of the way it effectively presents an ultimatum to new talent: have something resembling success in the next 12 months, or else people will weary of your miserable underachievement and move on to the next batch of hopefuls. It’d be disingenuous, of course, to pretend that the music industry - and, indeed, music fans – have only just become pathologically hungry for the next big thing, and correspondingly ruthless with regards to those who don’t have the requisite instant impact. But I think this calendar-anchored turnaround, this churning of new artists on a 12-month cycle, effectively compresses what was once a more flexible, if not exactly laidback, business model. It also, of course, ignores how a lot of what I’d perceive as more interesting artists develop in a quite different way, quietly assembling a deepish catalogue of music before many people actually notice them. Such, it transpires, is the case with Ryley Walker, a Chicago-based guitarist who I would’ve voted for in the Sound Of 2013 poll if I didn’t think my participation in these things was kind of hypocritical (I wasn’t actually invited this year, after declining to be involved last year in what I recall was pretty pompous fashion). I’ve been hyping Walker’s “West Wind” single for Tompkins Square pretty hard for the past few weeks; a brackish and magical seven-inch that sits somewhere between Tim Buckley’s soaring reveries and Bert Jansch circa “LA Turnaround” (Bernard Butler, a key player in last night’s Jansch tribute show, has been on Twitter repping for Walker, too). I’d thought “The West Wind” was a debut single, but – much as industry manoeuvres like the Sound Of 2013 would have us believe otherwise – the dissemination of good music in 2013 is a lot more complicated than that. A few minutes on the internet (or, now, on this blog) and you can find another great single by Walker, “Clear The Sky”… … plus a very fine live set, and a whole album of Takoma-ish guitar duets with Daniel Bachman from a couple of years back (both are linked below). I’m sure there’s more worth discovering by him out there (I have the b-side of “The West Wind”, “A Home For Me”, which I haven’t spotted online and which might be my favourite Walker song yet): let me know if you hunt down anything else. In the meantime, a lot more to dig into here: the first exquisite track to surface from Linda Perhacs’ comeback album (going to see her at Cecil Sharp House tomorrow); the new record by my favourite Sumatran devotional folk scholars, Suarasama; the Angel Olsen album, especially the bits where she sounds like a cross between Leonard Cohen and Patti Smith; Ben Chasny and Donovan Quinn’s New Bums album; Neil Young doing “Needle Of Death” in Jack White’s record booth; and Mark McGuire, who appears to have become Steve Hillage, more or less… Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey 1 Suarasama – Timeline (Space) 2 Mark McGuire – Along The Way (Dead Oceans) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGxosUuBg0A 3 ? 4 Ryley Walker – The West Wind/A Home For Me (Tompkins Square) 5 Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witness (Jagjaguwar) 6 FC Judd – Electronics Without Tears (Public Information) 7 Ryley Walker - The Bootleg: Live at Galerie Rademann, Schwarzenberg/GER, 15-Oct-2013 (Dying For Bad Music) 8 Ryley Walker & Daniel Bachman - Of Deathly Premonitions (Plustapes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trTVW8dq7oY 9 Marissa Nadler – July (Bella Union) 10 Aziza Brahim – Soutak (Glitterbeat) 11 Fat White Family – Taman Shud EP (Trashmouth) 12 Quilt – Held In Splendor (Mexican Summer) 13 Black Dirt Oak – Wawayanda Patent (MIE Music) 14 Francisco Lopez – Untitled#295 (God) 15 Joan As Policewoman – The Classic (PIAS) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfXqJth6Eo4 16 Holden – The Inheritors (Border Community) 17 Thurston Moore – Detonation (Blank Editions) 18 New Bums – Voices In A Rented Room (Drag City) 19 Linda Perhacs – Freely (Asthmatic Kitty) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n-nWy6fB00 20 Neville Skelly – Carousel (PIAS) 21 Lou Reed – Street Hassle (Arista) 22 Hiss Golden Messenger – Bad Debt (Paradise Of Bachelors) 23 Rob St.John And Tommy Perman – Water Of Life (Edinburgh Water Of Life) 24 Neil Young – Needle Of Death (Live At Third Man) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeZFOWNJ_X4

Not uncharacteristically, I’ve spent the past few days repressing a bunch of unnecessary rage about the publicity afforded the BBC’s Sound Of 2013 poll. Not so much because of the artists selected, but because of the way it effectively presents an ultimatum to new talent: have something resembling success in the next 12 months, or else people will weary of your miserable underachievement and move on to the next batch of hopefuls.

It’d be disingenuous, of course, to pretend that the music industry – and, indeed, music fans – have only just become pathologically hungry for the next big thing, and correspondingly ruthless with regards to those who don’t have the requisite instant impact. But I think this calendar-anchored turnaround, this churning of new artists on a 12-month cycle, effectively compresses what was once a more flexible, if not exactly laidback, business model.

It also, of course, ignores how a lot of what I’d perceive as more interesting artists develop in a quite different way, quietly assembling a deepish catalogue of music before many people actually notice them. Such, it transpires, is the case with Ryley Walker, a Chicago-based guitarist who I would’ve voted for in the Sound Of 2013 poll if I didn’t think my participation in these things was kind of hypocritical (I wasn’t actually invited this year, after declining to be involved last year in what I recall was pretty pompous fashion).

I’ve been hyping Walker’s “West Wind” single for Tompkins Square pretty hard for the past few weeks; a brackish and magical seven-inch that sits somewhere between Tim Buckley’s soaring reveries and Bert Jansch circa “LA Turnaround” (Bernard Butler, a key player in last night’s Jansch tribute show, has been on Twitter repping for Walker, too).

I’d thought “The West Wind” was a debut single, but – much as industry manoeuvres like the Sound Of 2013 would have us believe otherwise – the dissemination of good music in 2013 is a lot more complicated than that. A few minutes on the internet (or, now, on this blog) and you can find another great single by Walker, “Clear The Sky”…

… plus a very fine live set, and a whole album of Takoma-ish guitar duets with Daniel Bachman from a couple of years back (both are linked below). I’m sure there’s more worth discovering by him out there (I have the b-side of “The West Wind”, “A Home For Me”, which I haven’t spotted online and which might be my favourite Walker song yet): let me know if you hunt down anything else.

In the meantime, a lot more to dig into here: the first exquisite track to surface from Linda Perhacs’ comeback album (going to see her at Cecil Sharp House tomorrow); the new record by my favourite Sumatran devotional folk scholars, Suarasama; the Angel Olsen album, especially the bits where she sounds like a cross between Leonard Cohen and Patti Smith; Ben Chasny and Donovan Quinn’s New Bums album; Neil Young doing “Needle Of Death” in Jack White’s record booth; and Mark McGuire, who appears to have become Steve Hillage, more or less…

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

1 Suarasama – Timeline (Space)

2 Mark McGuire – Along The Way (Dead Oceans)

3 ?

4 Ryley Walker – The West Wind/A Home For Me (Tompkins Square)

5 Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witness (Jagjaguwar)

6 FC Judd – Electronics Without Tears (Public Information)

7 Ryley Walker – The Bootleg: Live at Galerie Rademann, Schwarzenberg/GER, 15-Oct-2013 (Dying For Bad Music)

8 Ryley Walker & Daniel Bachman – Of Deathly Premonitions (Plustapes)

9 Marissa Nadler – July (Bella Union)

10 Aziza Brahim – Soutak (Glitterbeat)

11 Fat White Family – Taman Shud EP (Trashmouth)

12 Quilt – Held In Splendor (Mexican Summer)

13 Black Dirt Oak – Wawayanda Patent (MIE Music)

14 Francisco Lopez – Untitled#295 (God)

15 Joan As Policewoman – The Classic (PIAS)

16 Holden – The Inheritors (Border Community)

17 Thurston Moore – Detonation (Blank Editions)

18 New Bums – Voices In A Rented Room (Drag City)

19 Linda Perhacs – Freely (Asthmatic Kitty)

20 Neville Skelly – Carousel (PIAS)

21 Lou Reed – Street Hassle (Arista)

22 Hiss Golden Messenger – Bad Debt (Paradise Of Bachelors)

23 Rob St.John And Tommy Perman – Water Of Life (Edinburgh Water Of Life)

24 Neil Young – Needle Of Death (Live At Third Man)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeZFOWNJ_X4

Watch Neil Young cover Bert Jansch’s “Needle Of Death” in Jack White’s Third Man Recording Booth

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Watch Neil Young cover Bert Jansch’s “Needle Of Death” in Jack White’s Third Man Recording Booth

A specially recorded film of Neil Young covering Bert Jansch's "Needle Of Death" was shown last night [December 3, 2013] during a tribute concert to Jansch. A Celebration Of Bert Jansch took place at London's Royal Festival Hall. Among the performers were original Pentangle members Jacqui McShee and Danny Thompson, Robert Plant, Ralph McTell, Martin Simpson, Bernard Butler, Martin Carthy and Beverley Martyn. Bert Jansch died on October 5, 2011 at the age of 67. Robert Plant - accompanied by Butler - performed "Go Your Way My Love" and then joined Bonnie Dobson to play "Morning Dew" at the concert, which was staged to mark Jansch's 70th birthday, which would have fallen on November 3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeZFOWNJ_X4 Neil Young's cover of "Needle Of Death" was recorded in Jack White's Third Man Recording Booth in Nashville on Record Store Day. In the film - which you can see above - Young appears in the booth, while Jack White can be seen in the background.

A specially recorded film of Neil Young covering Bert Jansch’s “Needle Of Death” was shown last night [December 3, 2013] during a tribute concert to Jansch.

A Celebration Of Bert Jansch took place at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Among the performers were original Pentangle members Jacqui McShee and Danny Thompson, Robert Plant, Ralph McTell, Martin Simpson, Bernard Butler, Martin Carthy and Beverley Martyn. Bert Jansch died on October 5, 2011 at the age of 67.

Robert Plant – accompanied by Butler – performed “Go Your Way My Love” and then joined Bonnie Dobson to play “Morning Dew” at the concert, which was staged to mark Jansch’s 70th birthday, which would have fallen on November 3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeZFOWNJ_X4

Neil Young’s cover of “Needle Of Death” was recorded in Jack White’s Third Man Recording Booth in Nashville on Record Store Day. In the film – which you can see above – Young appears in the booth, while Jack White can be seen in the background.

Roddy Frame, London Theatre Royal Drury Lane, December 1, 2013

Michael Bonner
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Roddy Frame, London Theatre Royal Drury Lane, December 1, 2013

There have been plenty of surprises and revelations in music during the last twelve months. Admittedly, perhaps not all of them have had the same impact as the sudden arrival of records by David Bowie or My Bloody Valentine; nevertheless, a Tweet on June 3 from Edwyn Collins’ label AED carried its own quietly momentous piece of breaking news. “A new @RoddyFrame record in the wind, on AED, early 2014. It’s a lovely thing, just wait til you hear it. Watch this space, popsters.” It’s been seven years since Roddy Frame’s last studio album Western Skies. Since then, he’s played upwards of 20 gigs and a handful of festivals. I remember an acoustic show at Bush Hall in October 2011: a terrific showcase for Frame’s nimble, life-affirming pop, although it made me wonder (and not for the first time) why unlike so many of his contemporaries Frame hasn’t quite been given the dues he deserves. Indeed, a month before the new album announcement in June, Frame posted on Soundcloud a demo for “Green Jacket Grey”, one of his legendary unreleased tracks from the early Eighties, offering yet more compelling evidence for his astonishing songwriting gifts. And on Sunday, during the first of three shows to mark the 30th anniversary of Aztec Camera’s debut, High Land, Hard Rain, Frame reminded us further of the calibre of his back catalogue. It’s possible to watch Frame as he bounds around the stage of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with something approaching jealousy. After all, there are few men in their late 40s who look like they've got the same waist size as they had in 1983. Frame at 49 is absurdly youthful, full of boyish enthusiasm - 'the sound of young Scotland' evidently persists - whether in the way he moves round the stage a little like a cat on its uppers, or in his self-deprecating between song banter. “I don't really like photographs," he says, "but tonight I don't mind. Or you can set up an easel at the side of the stage and maybe do a watercolour..." Although we’re ostensibly here to celebrate High Land, Hard Rain, the evening’s set is broken down into two halves. The first finds Frame – initially solo, then joined by bassist Amulf Linder and drummer Adrian Mehan – treating us to “a few songs from the East Kilbride period”. It’s astonishing to be reminded that Frame was writing songs this good – “Green Jacket Grey”, “Orchid Girl” and “Just Like Gold” are standouts – when he was just 15 or 16, playing them in the youth clubs of East Kilbride. Behind him, black and white images of his hometown appear: a concrete underpass, tower blocks, housing schemes, a disused school, Glasgow in the Seventies in all its glory. The High Land, Hard Rain set itself faultless. I bought the album in 1983 or so from Max’s Records in Eastbourne – a beloved second home for me as a teenager – and it’s one of the few albums from that period that I’ve regularly revisited since, regardless of how my own personal tastes have shifted. Admittedly, I have an on-off relationship with the production – the drum sound is conspicuously of its time – but the important bits (the songs themselves, that is) continue to shine. Here – with the addition of guitarist Tom Edwards and keyboardist Owen Parker to the band – everything is rendered in splendid technicolour. Opener “Oblivious” sets an astonishingly high standard - but the run of songs that follows – “The Boy Wonders”, “Walk Out To Winter”, “Pillar To Post”, “Down The Dip” – sustain the consistently high level of Frame's songwriting, full of chiming melodies and soaring arpeggios. An impromptu between song Q+A, meanwhile, reveals many useful facts. Yes, this is still the same 1953 Gibson ES-295 Scotty Moore he played on the original album. Yes, he is using a 1mm Plectrum. Aztec Camera’s first professional engagement was supporting The Teardrop Explodes on the day Ian Curtis died. The title for the album came from Highlands Avenue, Acton, where he was living while writing part of it; “If you want to go on a rock pilgrimage, the No. 9 goes there.” There’s another show tonight (Tuesday) in Manchester and tomorrow (Wednesday) in Glasgow. If you can get tickets, I’d advise you to go. Finally, please excuse the shameless plug, but here's a gentle reminder that the latest collection in our Sonic Editions series is now available. This is the new 2014 collection, which contains 25 iconic images curated by Allan and includes pictures of The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Ryan Adams, The Smiths, Bryan Ferry, Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, Debbie Harry and Tom Waits. Each image is available as a limited edition print, individually numbered, hand printed and framed to order, and you can click here to view the full collection. Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner. Photo credit: Getty Images

There have been plenty of surprises and revelations in music during the last twelve months. Admittedly, perhaps not all of them have had the same impact as the sudden arrival of records by David Bowie or My Bloody Valentine; nevertheless, a Tweet on June 3 from Edwyn Collins’ label AED carried its own quietly momentous piece of breaking news. “A new @RoddyFrame record in the wind, on AED, early 2014. It’s a lovely thing, just wait til you hear it. Watch this space, popsters.”

It’s been seven years since Roddy Frame’s last studio album Western Skies. Since then, he’s played upwards of 20 gigs and a handful of festivals. I remember an acoustic show at Bush Hall in October 2011: a terrific showcase for Frame’s nimble, life-affirming pop, although it made me wonder (and not for the first time) why unlike so many of his contemporaries Frame hasn’t quite been given the dues he deserves. Indeed, a month before the new album announcement in June, Frame posted on Soundcloud a demo for “Green Jacket Grey”, one of his legendary unreleased tracks from the early Eighties, offering yet more compelling evidence for his astonishing songwriting gifts. And on Sunday, during the first of three shows to mark the 30th anniversary of Aztec Camera’s debut, High Land, Hard Rain, Frame reminded us further of the calibre of his back catalogue.

It’s possible to watch Frame as he bounds around the stage of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with something approaching jealousy. After all, there are few men in their late 40s who look like they’ve got the same waist size as they had in 1983. Frame at 49 is absurdly youthful, full of boyish enthusiasm – ‘the sound of young Scotland’ evidently persists – whether in the way he moves round the stage a little like a cat on its uppers, or in his self-deprecating between song banter. “I don’t really like photographs,” he says, “but tonight I don’t mind. Or you can set up an easel at the side of the stage and maybe do a watercolour…”

Although we’re ostensibly here to celebrate High Land, Hard Rain, the evening’s set is broken down into two halves. The first finds Frame – initially solo, then joined by bassist Amulf Linder and drummer Adrian Mehan – treating us to “a few songs from the East Kilbride period”. It’s astonishing to be reminded that Frame was writing songs this good – “Green Jacket Grey”, “Orchid Girl” and “Just Like Gold” are standouts – when he was just 15 or 16, playing them in the youth clubs of East Kilbride. Behind him, black and white images of his hometown appear: a concrete underpass, tower blocks, housing schemes, a disused school, Glasgow in the Seventies in all its glory.

The High Land, Hard Rain set itself faultless. I bought the album in 1983 or so from Max’s Records in Eastbourne – a beloved second home for me as a teenager – and it’s one of the few albums from that period that I’ve regularly revisited since, regardless of how my own personal tastes have shifted. Admittedly, I have an on-off relationship with the production – the drum sound is conspicuously of its time – but the important bits (the songs themselves, that is) continue to shine. Here – with the addition of guitarist Tom Edwards and keyboardist Owen Parker to the band – everything is rendered in splendid technicolour. Opener “Oblivious” sets an astonishingly high standard – but the run of songs that follows – “The Boy Wonders”, “Walk Out To Winter”, “Pillar To Post”, “Down The Dip” – sustain the consistently high level of Frame’s songwriting, full of chiming melodies and soaring arpeggios. An impromptu between song Q+A, meanwhile, reveals many useful facts. Yes, this is still the same 1953 Gibson ES-295 Scotty Moore he played on the original album. Yes, he is using a 1mm Plectrum. Aztec Camera’s first professional engagement was supporting The Teardrop Explodes on the day Ian Curtis died. The title for the album came from Highlands Avenue, Acton, where he was living while writing part of it; “If you want to go on a rock pilgrimage, the No. 9 goes there.” There’s another show tonight (Tuesday) in Manchester and tomorrow (Wednesday) in Glasgow. If you can get tickets, I’d advise you to go.

Finally, please excuse the shameless plug, but here’s a gentle reminder that the latest collection in our Sonic Editions series is now available. This is the new 2014 collection, which contains 25 iconic images curated by Allan and includes pictures of The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Ryan Adams, The Smiths, Bryan Ferry, Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, Debbie Harry and Tom Waits. Each image is available as a limited edition print, individually numbered, hand printed and framed to order, and you can click here to view the full collection.

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

Photo credit: Getty Images

James Taylor announces tour dates

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James Taylor announces tour dates
James Taylor has announced a 10 date UK tour with his band to take place in September/October 2014. Taylor, who last toured the UK in 2011, will play: SEPTEMBER 5 - Plymouth Pavilions 26 – Birmingham LG Arena 27 – Leeds First Direct Arena 29 – Glasgow SSE Hydro 30 – Manchester Phon...

James Taylor has announced a 10 date UK tour with his band to take place in September/October 2014.

Taylor, who last toured the UK in 2011, will play:

SEPTEMBER

5 – Plymouth Pavilions

26 – Birmingham LG Arena

27 – Leeds First Direct Arena

29 – Glasgow SSE Hydro

30 – Manchester Phones 4 U Arena

OCTOBER

2 – Cardiff Motorpoint Arena

4 – Brighton Centre

5 – Bournemouth BIC

7/8 – London Royal Albert Hall

Book from www.ticketline.co.uk / 0844 888 9991 or from the venue direct.

Uncut reveals albums of the year in The Best Of 2013

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Uncut reveals albums of the year in The Best Of 2013

The Uncut team reveal our albums of the year in The Best Of 2013, a special supplement that comes with the new issue, dated January 2014 and out now. The 52-page supplement includes our Top 80 albums of the year, with high-charting LPs from The National, Daft Punk, Prefab Sprout, Kurt Vile, John Grant and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. The Uncut Best Of 2013 review also features the best of this year’s reissues, music DVDs, TV, films and books. The new issue of Uncut, including the supplement, is dated January 2014 and out now.

The Uncut team reveal our albums of the year in The Best Of 2013, a special supplement that comes with the new issue, dated January 2014 and out now.

The 52-page supplement includes our Top 80 albums of the year, with high-charting LPs from The National, Daft Punk, Prefab Sprout, Kurt Vile, John Grant and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

The Uncut Best Of 2013 review also features the best of this year’s reissues, music DVDs, TV, films and books.

The new issue of Uncut, including the supplement, is dated January 2014 and out now.

Billy Bragg – Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy 30th Anniversary Edition

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Billy Bragg – Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy 30th Anniversary Edition

The bard's compact debut plus live counterpart... There are many reasons to welcome this anniversary edition of Billy Bragg’s seven-track debut album – not all of them directly concerning the music. In an age of extravagantly bloated deluxe packages, there’s something heartening about the fact that, even puffed up to twice its original size, this expanded version of Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy comes in at a shade under 35 minutes. Then there’s the discovery that the additional material, which constitutes Bragg playing the album in its entirety at a recent London show, for once sounds more polished than the album itself, though there’s not much in it: both versions feature nothing fancier than a man in a room with a microphone and an electric guitar, the latter played with fist-clenched passion rather than any attempt at finesse. A quick listen to the sophisticated Americana of his latest album, Tooth & Nail, confirms that Bragg has come a long way in the three decades since he released Life’s A Riot..., but it requires no great leap to join the dots. Hearing the original and the 2013 live set back-to-back, it’s immediately apparent how comfortably the 55-year-old inhabits these brief, urgent songs of anger, compassion and confusion. And although the highly politicised street-corner barker of legend is certainly present, Life’s A Riot... reveals that Bragg’s interests were always much broader than that early caricature allowed. The range of subject matter – love, obsession, class, consumerism, the minutiae of small town life – is not just striking but at times depressingly pertinent. The references to Anna Ford and Angela Rippon might date-stamp the album, but not much else does. “The Busy Girl Buys Beauty” remains a remarkably relevant dissection of the tyranny of must-have teenage fashion fixes and the impossible lure of celebrity. The martial rhythm guitar and rallying chorus of “To Have And Have Not” makes explicit Bragg’s debt to The Clash, and the words follow suit. “At 21 you’re on top of the scrap heap/ At 16 you were top of the class,” he sings, railing against such topical concerns as endemic unemployment and the failures of the education system. But Bragg’s real interest lies in the politics of the heart. Tenderness might well slide into mawkish sentiment on “The Milkman Of Human Kindness”, where his adenoidal honk dissolves into a sorry sob, but it’s a rare misstep. “Man In The Iron Mask” is genuinely disquieting, a slow, minor-key portrait of a tortured lover lurking in the shadows, staunch and loyal but with a dagger in his heart – and very possibly another in his pocket. The chorus line of the still-thrilling “A New England” – “I don’t want to change the world” – now seems particularly prescient given Bragg’s gradual shift towards domestic rather than political matters. On the new live version he sings the extra verse written for Kirsty MacColl, a generous acknowledgment that the song has, for decades now, belonged as much to her as to its composer. The album’s epic at almost three minutes, the tragicomic “Richard” pokes around in the lonely aftermath of love gone astray. The most melodically ambitious song on the record, its highlights include Bragg’s unlikely climb into crystal clear falsetto, and a slinky little guitar motif. In general, though, Life’s A Riot... is – how shall we put it? – economical. “Lovers Town Revisited”, which ponders that early 80s staple, “fighting in the dancehalls”, is barely a minute long, and throughout the guitar playing is similarly efficient, a blunt, trebly, nuisance-noise, intent only on grabbing the listener’s attention. Though raw and often clumsy, Life’s A Riot... still stirs. Bragg has become such an integral part of the landscape, it’s instructive to be reminded that there was no one like him when he arrived. Listening again to these songs is to realise just how much that voice would have been missed had it not demanded to be heard. Graeme Thomson EXTRAS: Life’s A Riot... performed live as an encore at Union Chapel, London, on June 5, 2013. 7/10 Q&A BILLY BRAGG What are your memories of making the album? It was all pretty much one take stuff. I basically just recorded my live set, and some of them worked and some of them I didn’t play well enough. It was a last roll of the dice for me. I was in bands that had come to nothing, and I didn’t think I had another shot. There was no Plan B. Maybe now it sounds like urgency but at the time it was a bit more like desperation! You can hear that sense of now-or-never in the grooves. I was struck by the emotional range. “A New England” was really about how all those years of the struggle in punk had come to nothing, and I just needed a cuddle. That side of Billy Bragg sometimes gets forgotten, but it’s still there now on the new album. The live disc suggests that you still connect to those songs. Oh yeah. Bollocks to hiring the Albert Hall and the LSO – get a hold of this! It’s great, I can do the whole album as an encore. I recently did an in-store at Grimey’s record store in Nashville and threw in the whole lot. Kurt Wagner was hugging me afterwards in tears, saying “I never thought I’d get to hear that!” INTERVIEW: GRAEME THOMSON

The bard’s compact debut plus live counterpart…

There are many reasons to welcome this anniversary edition of Billy Bragg’s seven-track debut album – not all of them directly concerning the music. In an age of extravagantly bloated deluxe packages, there’s something heartening about the fact that, even puffed up to twice its original size, this expanded version of Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy comes in at a shade under 35 minutes.

Then there’s the discovery that the additional material, which constitutes Bragg playing the album in its entirety at a recent London show, for once sounds more polished than the album itself, though there’s not much in it: both versions feature nothing fancier than a man in a room with a microphone and an electric guitar, the latter played with fist-clenched passion rather than any attempt at finesse.

A quick listen to the sophisticated Americana of his latest album, Tooth & Nail, confirms that Bragg has come a long way in the three decades since he released Life’s A Riot…, but it requires no great leap to join the dots. Hearing the original and the 2013 live set back-to-back, it’s immediately apparent how comfortably the 55-year-old inhabits these brief, urgent songs of anger, compassion and confusion. And although the highly politicised street-corner barker of legend is certainly present, Life’s A Riot… reveals that Bragg’s interests were always much broader than that early caricature allowed.

The range of subject matter – love, obsession, class, consumerism, the minutiae of small town life – is not just striking but at times depressingly pertinent. The references to Anna Ford and Angela Rippon might date-stamp the album, but not much else does. “The Busy Girl Buys Beauty” remains a remarkably relevant dissection of the tyranny of must-have teenage fashion fixes and the impossible lure of celebrity. The martial rhythm guitar and rallying chorus of “To Have And Have Not” makes explicit Bragg’s debt to The Clash, and the words follow suit. “At 21 you’re on top of the scrap heap/ At 16 you were top of the class,” he sings, railing against such topical concerns as endemic unemployment and the failures of the education system.

But Bragg’s real interest lies in the politics of the heart. Tenderness might well slide into mawkish sentiment on “The Milkman Of Human Kindness”, where his adenoidal honk dissolves into a sorry sob, but it’s a rare misstep. “Man In The Iron Mask” is genuinely disquieting, a slow, minor-key portrait of a tortured lover lurking in the shadows, staunch and loyal but with a dagger in his heart – and very possibly another in his pocket.

The chorus line of the still-thrilling “A New England” – “I don’t want to change the world” – now seems particularly prescient given Bragg’s gradual shift towards domestic rather than political matters. On the new live version he sings the extra verse written for Kirsty MacColl, a generous acknowledgment that the song has, for decades now, belonged as much to her as to its composer.

The album’s epic at almost three minutes, the tragicomic “Richard” pokes around in the lonely aftermath of love gone astray. The most melodically ambitious song on the record, its highlights include Bragg’s unlikely climb into crystal clear falsetto, and a slinky little guitar motif. In general, though, Life’s A Riot… is – how shall we put it? – economical. “Lovers Town Revisited”, which ponders that early 80s staple, “fighting in the dancehalls”, is barely a minute long, and throughout the guitar playing is similarly efficient, a blunt, trebly, nuisance-noise, intent only on grabbing the listener’s attention.

Though raw and often clumsy, Life’s A Riot… still stirs. Bragg has become such an integral part of the landscape, it’s instructive to be reminded that there was no one like him when he arrived. Listening again to these songs is to realise just how much that voice would have been missed had it not demanded to be heard.

Graeme Thomson

EXTRAS: Life’s A Riot… performed live as an encore at Union Chapel, London, on June 5, 2013. 7/10

Q&A

BILLY BRAGG

What are your memories of making the album?

It was all pretty much one take stuff. I basically just recorded my live set, and some of them worked and some of them I didn’t play well enough. It was a last roll of the dice for me. I was in bands that had come to nothing, and I didn’t think I had another shot. There was no Plan B. Maybe now it sounds like urgency but at the time it was a bit more like desperation! You can hear that sense of now-or-never in the grooves.

I was struck by the emotional range.

“A New England” was really about how all those years of the struggle in punk had come to nothing, and I just needed a cuddle. That side of Billy Bragg sometimes gets forgotten, but it’s still there now on the new album.

The live disc suggests that you still connect to those songs.

Oh yeah. Bollocks to hiring the Albert Hall and the LSO – get a hold of this! It’s great, I can do the whole album as an encore. I recently did an in-store at Grimey’s record store in Nashville and threw in the whole lot. Kurt Wagner was hugging me afterwards in tears, saying “I never thought I’d get to hear that!”

INTERVIEW: GRAEME THOMSON

Junior Murvin dies aged 67

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Junior Murvin dies aged 67
Junior Murvin has died aged 67. The Jamaica Observer writes that the singer died at the Port Antonio Hospital in Portland earlier this morning (December 2). Best known for the Lee 'Scratch' Perry produced 1976 single "Police And Thieves", Murvin - real name Murvin Junior Smith - was apparently suff...

Junior Murvin has died aged 67.

The Jamaica Observer writes that the singer died at the Port Antonio Hospital in Portland earlier this morning (December 2). Best known for the Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry produced 1976 single “Police And Thieves“, Murvin – real name Murvin Junior Smith – was apparently suffering from advanced stage diabetes at the time of his death.

The 1977 album Police and Thieves was Murvin’s LP debut and saw him backed by The Upsetters. He released his last studio album, World Cry, in 1995.

The Clash covered “Police And Thieves” on their 1977 debut album. Scroll down to hear Murvin’s original version, as performed on Top Of The Pops.

Murvin’s son, Kevin Smith, told the Jamaica Observer that his father was admitted to hospital last Thursday for diabetes and hypertension treatment.

In praise of Bruce Dern in Nebraska

Michael Bonner
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In praise of Bruce Dern in Nebraska

Looking back on the ways in which Hollywood had changed since he started out as an actor, Bruce Dern told Uncut in 2004, “Where are the people? Where are the stories? That’s what the ‘70s was, and each of us who survived, those are the kind of movies we always wanted to make. And always will try and make. And whenever there’s one out there like that – look for us to be involved in it. I’m still trying to be a better actor. I’m still hoping I’m growing. Y’know, there’s no retirement. Shit, if you’re 80 play 80!” In many respects, Alexander Payne’s new film, Nebraska, fulfils Dern’s requirements. It gives a plum role to Dern – now in his 77th year – as Woody Grant, a grizzled, faintly bewildered retiree who undertakes an 850 mile road trip from his hometown of Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska on the dubious promise of a million dollar payout. Superficially, at least, the plot resembles another one of Payne’s films, About Schmidt. But Nebraska revives the spirit of Dern’s beloved Seventies’ cinema, too, starting with the vintage Paramount logo Payne dusts down for the start of the film. Meanwhile, you might spot the way the story riffs on Paul Mazursky’s Harry And Tonto – another loose-limbed yarn concerning a septuagenarian on a road trip – or perhaps find similarities to Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show in Payne’s use of monochrome small town photography. The small town is a critical factor here, I think. Payne is an unusual figure among contemporary film directors in that he still references his non-California origins. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Payne seems to studiously avoid large metropolitan settings in his films, instead championing recognisably regional environments – in particular his home state. Events in both Election and About Schmidt take place in the suburbs of Omaha; Sideways steers a gentle course round the sleepy vineyards of the Santa Ynez Valley; The Descendents, meanwhile, abandons mainland America altogether in favour of the Hawaiian islands. As Woody – in the company of his long-suffering younger son David (SNL’s Will Forte, in a rare straight role) – make their way through Wyoming and South Dakota towards Nebraska, Payne’s film becomes a quiet requiem to the disadvantaged American heartland; half-empty diners, rusting farm machinery and boarded-up stores suggesting that a great tranche of the country is sinking into a dark economic crisis. On a more intimate level, there is also a question mark over Woody’s mental acuity: is his befuddlement simply a side effect of having nothing constructive to do with his retirement (“He needs something to live for,” says his wife), or is there something more serious going on: is he drifting towards Alzheimer’s? Certainly, David’s decision to travel with his father is motivated as much by wanting to spend what you suspect he believes is his last significant chunk of ‘quality time’ with his father as it is to do with wanting to make sure he doesn’t come to any harm. But for all this, Nebraska is often a very funny film. The scenes involving a family reunion the Grant’s hometown of Hawthorne, Nebraska are especially funny, as news of Woody’s supposed windfall turns him into a local celebrity, giving rise to expectations of payback for past debts, whether real or otherwise. The chief claimant – and, I suppose, the film’s de facto bad guy – is Woody’s bull-necked former business partner, Ed Pegram, played brilliantly by Stacy Keach. Props in particular go to June Squibb (84), who plays Kathy, Woody’s quarrelsome, foul-mouthed wife. A visit to the Hawthorne cemetery, where she gleefully rattles through the causes of death of various family members and other local residents is hilarious. She gets a terrific, although admittedly unexpected, punchline out of the word “cancer”. And then there’s Dern, triumphant as Woody, with his shock of white hair, flannel shirt and jeans, stumbling down the road, doing his best work in 40 years. As long-suppressed details about his early life – his time in Korea, alcoholism, former girlfriends – emerge, we begin to see more clearly what has shaped this largely egotistical and cantankerous old man. These are people going nowhere, in need of something to hang on to. Nebraska opens in the UK on Friday, December 6 Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

Looking back on the ways in which Hollywood had changed since he started out as an actor, Bruce Dern told Uncut in 2004, “Where are the people? Where are the stories? That’s what the ‘70s was, and each of us who survived, those are the kind of movies we always wanted to make. And always will try and make. And whenever there’s one out there like that – look for us to be involved in it. I’m still trying to be a better actor. I’m still hoping I’m growing. Y’know, there’s no retirement. Shit, if you’re 80 play 80!”

In many respects, Alexander Payne’s new film, Nebraska, fulfils Dern’s requirements. It gives a plum role to Dern – now in his 77th year – as Woody Grant, a grizzled, faintly bewildered retiree who undertakes an 850 mile road trip from his hometown of Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska on the dubious promise of a million dollar payout. Superficially, at least, the plot resembles another one of Payne’s films, About Schmidt. But Nebraska revives the spirit of Dern’s beloved Seventies’ cinema, too, starting with the vintage Paramount logo Payne dusts down for the start of the film. Meanwhile, you might spot the way the story riffs on Paul Mazursky’s Harry And Tonto – another loose-limbed yarn concerning a septuagenarian on a road trip – or perhaps find similarities to Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show in Payne’s use of monochrome small town photography.

The small town is a critical factor here, I think. Payne is an unusual figure among contemporary film directors in that he still references his non-California origins. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Payne seems to studiously avoid large metropolitan settings in his films, instead championing recognisably regional environments – in particular his home state. Events in both Election and About Schmidt take place in the suburbs of Omaha; Sideways steers a gentle course round the sleepy vineyards of the Santa Ynez Valley; The Descendents, meanwhile, abandons mainland America altogether in favour of the Hawaiian islands.

As Woody – in the company of his long-suffering younger son David (SNL’s Will Forte, in a rare straight role) – make their way through Wyoming and South Dakota towards Nebraska, Payne’s film becomes a quiet requiem to the disadvantaged American heartland; half-empty diners, rusting farm machinery and boarded-up stores suggesting that a great tranche of the country is sinking into a dark economic crisis. On a more intimate level, there is also a question mark over Woody’s mental acuity: is his befuddlement simply a side effect of having nothing constructive to do with his retirement (“He needs something to live for,” says his wife), or is there something more serious going on: is he drifting towards Alzheimer’s? Certainly, David’s decision to travel with his father is motivated as much by wanting to spend what you suspect he believes is his last significant chunk of ‘quality time’ with his father as it is to do with wanting to make sure he doesn’t come to any harm.

But for all this, Nebraska is often a very funny film. The scenes involving a family reunion the Grant’s hometown of Hawthorne, Nebraska are especially funny, as news of Woody’s supposed windfall turns him into a local celebrity, giving rise to expectations of payback for past debts, whether real or otherwise. The chief claimant – and, I suppose, the film’s de facto bad guy – is Woody’s bull-necked former business partner, Ed Pegram, played brilliantly by Stacy Keach. Props in particular go to June Squibb (84), who plays Kathy, Woody’s quarrelsome, foul-mouthed wife. A visit to the Hawthorne cemetery, where she gleefully rattles through the causes of death of various family members and other local residents is hilarious. She gets a terrific, although admittedly unexpected, punchline out of the word “cancer”.

And then there’s Dern, triumphant as Woody, with his shock of white hair, flannel shirt and jeans, stumbling down the road, doing his best work in 40 years. As long-suppressed details about his early life – his time in Korea, alcoholism, former girlfriends – emerge, we begin to see more clearly what has shaped this largely egotistical and cantankerous old man. These are people going nowhere, in need of something to hang on to.

Nebraska opens in the UK on Friday, December 6

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

Willie Nelson – To All The Girls…

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Willie Nelson – To All The Girls…

At 80, country’s king takes up with 18 assorted queens... Willie Nelson is fond of a collaboration – setting aside numerous get-togethers with fellow travellers in the country of Country, can anyone else boast a duet roster that embraces Wynton Marsalis, Julio Iglesias, U2 and Snoop Dogg? Here he plays things mostly safe with a set of country standards – including his own songs, natch – and a stellar roster of female voices. If the results are sometimes unremarkable – a rehash of Kitty Wells “Making Believe” with Brandi Carlisle and a leaden “Far Away Places” with Sheryl Crow fit the frame – the album is redeemed by Nelson’s engagement on most cuts. It hasn’t always been so – there are many jog-throughs in that mammoth discography – but a new contract and the advent of the big 8-0 have put a spring in the ol’ feller’s step. 2012’s Heroes and this year’s Let’s Face The Music both yielded age-defying highlights. So does To All The Girls. Nelson’s conversational vocal style is deceptive going on offhand, but class acts like Rosanne Cash (on Kristofferson’s “Please Don’t Tell Me”) and Emmylou Harris (on Springsteen’s “Dry Lightning”) spur him to fine performances, while Norah Jones drawls sweetly on “Walkin’” and Alison Krauss adds sublimity to his south-of -the-border “No Mas Amor”. Here, as elsewhere, Willie’s stuttering, Spanish-flavoured guitar is as engaging as vocals that have acquired the timbre of seasoned redwood. There’s the odd flounder; Nelson’s simply overpowered by Mavis Staples on Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands”, and Dolly Parton’s “From Here to The Moon And Back” is string-laden syrup. He’s more at home in a 1950s Texas ballroom, playing Western Swing with Shelby Lynne on “Till The End Of The World” or whooping it up with Tina Rose on Conway Twitty’s “After the Fire Is Gone”. Needless to say it’s all immaculately played, meaning even the flat spots pass by amicably, leaving Willie’s gap-toothed grin hovering like an ancient Cheshire cat. Long may he endure. Neil Spencer

At 80, country’s king takes up with 18 assorted queens…

Willie Nelson is fond of a collaboration – setting aside numerous get-togethers with fellow travellers in the country of Country, can anyone else boast a duet roster that embraces Wynton Marsalis, Julio Iglesias, U2 and Snoop Dogg? Here he plays things mostly safe with a set of country standards – including his own songs, natch – and a stellar roster of female voices. If the results are sometimes unremarkable – a rehash of Kitty Wells “Making Believe” with Brandi Carlisle and a leaden “Far Away Places” with Sheryl Crow fit the frame – the album is redeemed by Nelson’s engagement on most cuts.

It hasn’t always been so – there are many jog-throughs in that mammoth discography – but a new contract and the advent of the big 8-0 have put a spring in the ol’ feller’s step. 2012’s Heroes and this year’s Let’s Face The Music both yielded age-defying highlights. So does To All The Girls. Nelson’s conversational vocal style is deceptive going on offhand, but class acts like Rosanne Cash (on Kristofferson’s “Please Don’t Tell Me”) and Emmylou Harris (on Springsteen’s “Dry Lightning”) spur him to fine performances, while Norah Jones drawls sweetly on “Walkin’” and Alison Krauss adds sublimity to his south-of -the-border “No Mas Amor”. Here, as elsewhere, Willie’s stuttering, Spanish-flavoured guitar is as engaging as vocals that have acquired the timbre of seasoned redwood.

There’s the odd flounder; Nelson’s simply overpowered by Mavis Staples on Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands”, and Dolly Parton’s “From Here to The Moon And Back” is string-laden syrup. He’s more at home in a 1950s Texas ballroom, playing Western Swing with Shelby Lynne on “Till The End Of The World” or whooping it up with Tina Rose on Conway Twitty’s “After the Fire Is Gone”. Needless to say it’s all immaculately played, meaning even the flat spots pass by amicably, leaving Willie’s gap-toothed grin hovering like an ancient Cheshire cat. Long may he endure.

Neil Spencer

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