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THE JAM – SOUND EFFECTS DELUXE REISSUE

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THE JAM – SOUND EFFECTS DELUXE REISSUE

1980: The Jam are at their creative and commercial peak, after the career-saving All Mod Cons album and the brilliant “Eton Rifles” and “Going Underground” singles. The mod revival is over and Ian Page from Secret Affair is never seen again, except, weirdly, in a Nationwide item about Dungeons And Dragons. Fashions are changing, and Paul Weller – now well out of his long Pete Townshend/Dr Feelgood fixation – is tapping into new directions, telling journalists he’s been listening to Wire and Joy Division. More significantly, he’s taken to wearing paisley shirts and little sunglasses and – as The Jam’s latest No 1 single indicates, listening to Revolver-era Beatles. “Start!” is a mini-Revolver itself, with the bassline from “Taxman”, acidy backing vocals, and backwards guitar (while the b-side, “Liza Radley”, seems in name at least to be an homage to “Eleanor Rigby”). The Jam’s Sound Affects was their fifth in four years. It featured a new, wiry (if not Wire-y) production that seemed deliberately designed to get away from the rock sound of its predecessor, Setting Sons, and is just over half an hour long. There are lots of jangly guitars, harmonies and mid-’60s brass. Nothing at all on it sounds like Joy Division, Wire, the Gang Of Four or PragVec (although “Music For The Last Couple” vaguely resembles “Song 1”, a bonus track on Wire’s 154 album) and everything sounds like what it is – a Jam album strongly influenced by the music of 1966. Apart from “Start”’s Revolver-isms, “Monday” all but directly quotes Bowie’s early single “Love You Till Tuesday” while “Boy About Town” and “Man In The Corner Shop” are la-la-ing echoes of everyone from The Kinks to, well, The Beatles. All of which is run through with Weller’s unique style – from the edgy “Scrape Away” (which features a Style Council-predating French voice-over) to the furious “Set The House Ablaze”, from the cynical “Pretty Green” to the brilliant “That’s Entertainment”, Sound Affects is no weak mod pastiche album, but a proper pop remodelling of the past on Weller’s own terms. And, more than that, it’s powered by one of Paul Weller’s classic abrupt changes of musical style. From All Mod Cons’ powering-up of The Jam’s classic sound to The Style Council, all the way into the 21st century with 22 Dreams and this year’s Wake Up The Nation, Paul Weller’s best work has been done when he’s got fed up with the music he was previously making. Sound Affects is a precursor to the restlessness of its (infinitely weaker) follow-up, The Gift; but it’s also one that fits the increasingly psychedelia-obsessed music of the turn of the decade. That’s not to say it’s perfect. With a remix of the hit single, an instrumental track and some slightly odd clattery bits padding it out, Sound Affects is short weight at 35 minutes and several of the songs have a slightly unfinished feel to them (which may explain all those la-la-ing outros). But everything is stuffed with an energy and a commitment (and some brilliant guitar playing) which reflects the restlessness of The Jam at their best. This new “deluxe edition” is digitally remastered to the point where you can hear tape hiss on the quieter moments, and features a selection of previously unreleased and previously released tracks. There’s the usual morass of slightly different versions of songs on the album, which tell us little except that The Jam were extremely good at making demos. There’s another instrumental. There’s an alternative version of “That’s Entertainment”, a song which history tells us was better as a demo. But they’re all good listening, and best of all is a telling and classy selection of cover versions. The Jam’s versions of “She’s Lost Control” and “Outdoor Miner” seem to have been mislaid (ahem) but we get both “And Your Bird Can Sing” and “Rain” faithfully, if hectically, rendered, and a fantastic pair of Kinks songs, a crunchy “Waterloo Sunset” and an eerily good impression of Ray Davies on a cover of “Dead End Street”. If released at the time, these songs would have done little for a band who’d already leaned a little heavily on other people’s stuff. Here, they sound relaxed and liberated, part of a great repackaging of a fine album. David Quantick

1980: The Jam are at their creative and commercial peak, after the career-saving All Mod Cons album and the brilliant “Eton Rifles” and “Going Underground” singles. The mod revival is over and Ian Page from Secret Affair is never seen again, except, weirdly, in a Nationwide item about Dungeons And Dragons. Fashions are changing, and Paul Weller – now well out of his long Pete Townshend/Dr Feelgood fixation – is tapping into new directions, telling journalists he’s been listening to Wire and Joy Division.

More significantly, he’s taken to wearing paisley shirts and little sunglasses and – as The Jam’s latest No 1 single indicates, listening to Revolver-era Beatles. “Start!” is a mini-Revolver itself, with the bassline from “Taxman”, acidy backing vocals, and backwards guitar (while the b-side, “Liza Radley”, seems in name at least to be an homage to “Eleanor Rigby”).

The Jam’s Sound Affects was their fifth in four years. It featured a new, wiry (if not Wire-y) production that seemed deliberately designed to get away from the rock sound of its predecessor, Setting Sons, and is just over half an hour long. There are lots of jangly guitars, harmonies and mid-’60s brass. Nothing at all on it sounds like Joy Division, Wire, the Gang Of Four or PragVec (although “Music For The Last Couple” vaguely resembles “Song 1”, a bonus track on Wire’s 154 album) and everything sounds like what it is – a Jam album strongly influenced by the

music of 1966.

Apart from “Start”’s Revolver-isms, “Monday” all but directly quotes Bowie’s early single “Love You Till Tuesday” while “Boy About Town” and “Man In The Corner Shop” are la-la-ing echoes of everyone from The Kinks to, well, The Beatles. All of which is run through with Weller’s unique style – from the edgy “Scrape Away” (which features a Style Council-predating French voice-over) to the furious “Set The House Ablaze”, from the cynical “Pretty Green” to the brilliant “That’s Entertainment”, Sound Affects is no weak mod pastiche album, but a proper pop remodelling of the past on Weller’s own terms.

And, more than that, it’s powered by one of Paul Weller’s classic abrupt changes of musical style. From All Mod Cons’ powering-up of The Jam’s classic sound to The Style Council, all the way into the 21st century with 22 Dreams and this year’s Wake Up The Nation, Paul Weller’s best work has been done when he’s got fed up with the music he was previously making. Sound Affects is a precursor to the restlessness of its (infinitely weaker) follow-up, The Gift; but it’s also one that fits the increasingly psychedelia-obsessed music of the turn of the decade.

That’s not to say it’s perfect. With a remix of the hit single, an instrumental track and some slightly odd clattery bits padding it out, Sound Affects is short weight at 35 minutes and several of the songs have a slightly unfinished feel to them (which may explain all those la-la-ing outros). But everything is stuffed with an energy and a commitment (and some brilliant guitar playing) which reflects the restlessness of The Jam at their best.

This new “deluxe edition” is digitally remastered to the point where you can hear tape hiss on the quieter moments, and features a selection of previously unreleased and previously released tracks. There’s the usual morass of slightly different versions of songs on the album, which tell us little except that The Jam were extremely good at making demos. There’s another instrumental. There’s an alternative version of “That’s Entertainment”, a song which history tells us was better as a demo. But they’re all good listening, and best of all is a telling and classy selection of cover versions. The Jam’s versions of “She’s Lost Control” and “Outdoor Miner” seem to have been mislaid (ahem) but we get both “And Your Bird Can Sing” and “Rain” faithfully, if hectically, rendered, and a fantastic pair of Kinks songs, a crunchy “Waterloo Sunset” and an eerily good impression of Ray Davies on a cover of “Dead End Street”.

If released at the time, these songs would have done little for a band who’d already leaned a little heavily on other people’s stuff. Here, they sound relaxed and liberated, part of a great repackaging of a fine album.

David Quantick

BOB DYLAN – THE ORIGINAL MONO RECORDINGS

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BOB DYLAN – THE ORIGINAL MONO RECORDINGS

Back in the ’60s, as he hurtled from Greenwich Village to Newport to Highway 61, it’s unlikely that Bob Dylan gave much thought to whether future generations would enjoy his music coming out of one audio channel or two. But the wild mercury obsessives of 2010 are confronted with that very issue. If we want to hear rock’s landmark recordings the way they were meant to be heard, shouldn’t we listen in mono? Certainly, the results can be incredible. Memories are still fresh of last year’s boxset The Beatles In Mono, so acclaimed that it overshadowed its stereo counterpart. With mono, the vocals and instruments are locked together. The words and music make up a whole. You can see how mono might significantly affect a Bob Dylan album. There are, frankly, plenty of shortcomings with his ’60s catalogue in stereo. The current Sony CD of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963) places his voice in the centre, his acoustic guitar on the far right and his harmonica on the far left, so that he seems to be three different people. Blonde On Blonde suffers, too, with the bass, drums, guitars and organ assembled in awkward positions like puzzled footballers across an endless midfield. Does stereo ruin Blonde On Blonde? Of course not. But perhaps it blunts its edge? The Original Mono Recordings is a CD boxset (and from December, a vinyl one) comprising remastered mono mixes of Dylan’s first eight studio albums, from 1962–67. It makes for very exciting listening. Just like The Beatles In Mono, there are hundreds of opportunities to spot subtle differences in the detail and DNA of extremely familiar songs. If I look at my notes, I can see underlined phrases such as “Everything connects, intimate & aggressive, no longer scattered components”, “Mystery of JWH much enhanced” and “Side two, BIABH – now we’re in the ballpark.” Dylan in mono is not, as you can appreciate, an exact science. His first four albums were acoustic, and the experience of hearing them in mono varies considerably. Bob Dylan, the 1962 debut, was remastered for CD in so-called ‘narrow stereo’ in 2005 after years of sounding ridiculous with Dylan’s voice in one speaker and his guitar in the other. In mono, it sounds different again – both naïve and ancient – as befits some of the 1920s and ’30s songs that Dylan sings. The compilers’ aim on The Original Mono Recordings, it appears, was to replicate the sound of the first-pressing vinyl LPs. Taking the debut album as an example, we hear ‘age’ at every turn: the age of the folk, blues and trad arr. songbook; the age of the recording; the age of the 20-year-old Dylan; the age of America. Dylan’s albums are historical documents, so it makes sense that they should sound like them. The Times They Are A-Changin’ and Another Side Of Bob Dylan don’t particularly alter in mono. The former is still a grim, unrelenting sermon from the protest singer’s pulpit, with a frighteningly high body count and little hope of justice. The latter is still a brave move into new forms of writing. The differences are a cleaner sound in mono (noticeable on “Ballad Of Hollis Brown” and “North Country Blues”) as well as, obviously, the relocation of Dylan’s guitar and harmonica (and on “Black Crow Blues”, his piano) into the centre of the picture. On Freewheelin’, however, major experiential changes are apparent. In mono it’s beautiful, haunting. You can half-imagine yourself in the shoes of an anxious young person in 1963, shivering in a chilly room as Dylan strums an unassuming couple of chords (“Masters Of War”, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”) and builds them, stanza by giddy stanza, into a towering poem. He sounds very, very close on these recordings: a bright, funny, outraged, decent guy. You might on this basis elect him as your spokesman. Dylan’s move to electric rock’n’roll (Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited) introduced new instruments – guitars, bass, keyboards – and created an abrasive, driving sound that stereo separation can easily undermine. As we now hear, “Maggie’s Farm” isn’t supposed to swing playfully (stereo); it’s meant to flail and collide, with pounding tom-toms bursting through the din (mono). The piano and organ on “Queen Jane Approximately” aren’t supposed to be stationed at opposite ends of the spectrum (stereo); they’re meant to meet in the middle, where the combination of sounds is wondrous (mono). All the same, on balance, the stereo version of Highway 61… remains my favourite, and it’s undeniable that some songs from that era (“Like A Rolling Stone”, “On The Road Again”, “Ballad Of A Thin Man”) are just as powerful in stereo as mono. Blonde On Blonde, on the other hand, is such a revelation in mono that I feel I should offload my stereo edition on the nearest charity shop, returning to wash my hands Pontius Pilate-style. It’s such a thrill to hear this album precisely as it once faced the world. The difference is dramatic. The epic ballads (“Visions Of Johanna”, “Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands”) no longer come at us from illogical angles, but nominate one narrator to relate their tales while his players sit around him, watching warily, hanging on his every word. When the pace quickens (“Absolutely Sweet Marie”, “Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again”), Dylan and the musicians are a united front, a more relaxed outfit and – incidentally – a great little band. No doubt about it, mono is the way to go with Blonde On Blonde. The same claim could be made for John Wesley Harding, though it’s a harder judgment to call. For one thing, many are fond of its ‘wide open prairie’ effect in stereo. I just find that mono gives it an older quality – it’s that ancient thing again – which seems to suit Dylan’s outlaw characters and biblical allusions. You decide. And finally, for those wanting a mono version of “Positively 4th Street”, it appears on a single-CD sampler, The Best Of The Original Mono Recordings, which is sold separately. David Cavanagh (Photo by Jerry Schatzberg)

Back in the ’60s, as he hurtled from Greenwich Village to Newport to Highway 61, it’s unlikely that Bob Dylan gave much thought to whether future generations would enjoy his music coming out of one audio channel or two. But the wild mercury obsessives of 2010 are confronted with that very issue. If we want to hear rock’s landmark recordings the way they were meant to be heard, shouldn’t we listen in mono? Certainly, the results can be incredible. Memories are still fresh of last year’s boxset The Beatles In Mono, so acclaimed that it overshadowed its stereo counterpart.

With mono, the vocals and instruments are locked together. The words and music make up a whole. You can see how mono might significantly affect a Bob Dylan album. There are, frankly, plenty of shortcomings with his ’60s catalogue in stereo. The current Sony CD of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963) places his voice in the centre, his acoustic guitar on the far right and his harmonica on the far left, so that he seems to be three different people. Blonde On Blonde suffers, too, with the bass, drums, guitars and organ assembled in awkward positions like puzzled footballers across an endless midfield. Does stereo ruin Blonde On Blonde? Of course not. But perhaps it blunts its edge?

The Original Mono Recordings is a CD boxset (and from December, a vinyl one) comprising remastered mono mixes of Dylan’s first eight studio albums, from 1962–67. It makes for very exciting listening. Just like The Beatles In Mono, there are hundreds of opportunities to spot subtle differences in the detail and DNA of extremely familiar songs. If I look at my notes, I can see underlined phrases such as “Everything connects, intimate & aggressive, no longer scattered components”, “Mystery of JWH much enhanced” and “Side two, BIABH – now we’re in the ballpark.” Dylan in mono is not, as you can appreciate, an exact science.

His first four albums were acoustic, and the experience of hearing them in mono varies considerably. Bob Dylan, the 1962 debut, was remastered for CD in so-called ‘narrow stereo’ in 2005 after years of sounding ridiculous with Dylan’s voice in one speaker and his guitar in the other. In mono, it sounds different again – both naïve and ancient – as befits some of the 1920s and ’30s songs that Dylan sings. The compilers’ aim on The Original Mono Recordings, it appears, was to replicate the sound of the first-pressing vinyl LPs. Taking the debut album as an example, we hear ‘age’ at every turn: the age of the folk, blues and trad arr. songbook; the age of the recording; the age of the 20-year-old Dylan; the age of America. Dylan’s albums are historical documents, so it makes sense that they should sound like them.

The Times They Are A-Changin’ and Another Side Of Bob Dylan don’t particularly alter in mono. The former is still a grim, unrelenting sermon from the protest singer’s pulpit, with a frighteningly high body count and little hope of justice. The latter is still a brave move into new forms of writing. The differences are a cleaner sound in mono (noticeable on “Ballad Of Hollis Brown” and “North Country Blues”) as well as, obviously, the relocation of Dylan’s guitar and harmonica (and on “Black Crow Blues”, his piano) into the centre of the picture. On Freewheelin’, however, major experiential changes are apparent. In mono it’s beautiful, haunting. You can half-imagine yourself in the shoes of an anxious young person in 1963, shivering in a chilly room as Dylan strums an unassuming couple of chords (“Masters Of War”, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”) and builds them, stanza by giddy stanza, into a towering poem. He sounds very, very close on these recordings: a bright, funny, outraged, decent guy. You might on this basis elect him as your spokesman.

Dylan’s move to electric rock’n’roll (Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited) introduced new instruments – guitars, bass, keyboards – and created an abrasive, driving sound that stereo separation can easily undermine. As we now hear, “Maggie’s Farm” isn’t supposed to swing playfully (stereo); it’s meant to flail and collide, with pounding tom-toms bursting through the din (mono). The piano and organ on “Queen Jane Approximately” aren’t supposed to be stationed at opposite ends of the spectrum (stereo); they’re meant to meet in the middle, where the combination of sounds is wondrous (mono). All the same, on balance, the stereo version of Highway 61… remains my favourite, and it’s undeniable that some songs from that era (“Like A Rolling Stone”, “On The Road Again”, “Ballad Of A Thin Man”) are just as powerful in stereo as mono.

Blonde On Blonde, on the other hand, is such a revelation in mono that I feel I should offload my stereo edition on the nearest charity shop, returning to wash my hands Pontius Pilate-style. It’s such a thrill to hear this album precisely as it once faced the world. The difference is dramatic. The epic ballads (“Visions Of Johanna”, “Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands”) no longer come at us from illogical angles, but nominate one narrator to relate their tales while his players sit around him, watching warily, hanging on his every word. When the pace quickens (“Absolutely Sweet Marie”, “Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again”), Dylan and the musicians are a united front, a more relaxed outfit and – incidentally – a great little band. No doubt about it, mono is the way to go with Blonde On Blonde.

The same claim could be made for John Wesley Harding, though it’s a harder judgment to call. For one thing, many are fond of its ‘wide open prairie’ effect in stereo. I just find that mono gives it an older quality – it’s that ancient thing again – which seems to suit Dylan’s outlaw characters and biblical allusions. You decide. And finally, for those wanting a mono version of “Positively 4th Street”, it appears on a single-CD sampler, The Best Of The Original Mono Recordings, which is sold separately.

David Cavanagh

(Photo by Jerry Schatzberg)

Kings Of Leon announce new UK tour

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Kings Of Leon announce new UK tour

Kings Of Leon have announced details of a five-date UK arena tour to take place next summer. The band, who are currently at Number One with new album 'Come Around Sundown' will play a series of massive gigs in May and June. Kings of Leon play: Coventry Ricoh Arena (May 30) Sunderland Stadium Of Light (June 17) Manchester Lancashire County Cricket Ground (19) London Hyde Park (22) Edinburgh Murrayfield Stadium (26) Tickets for the gigs go on sale next Wednesday (November 3) at 9am (GMT). Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk. Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Kings Of Leon have announced details of a five-date UK arena tour to take place next summer.

The band, who are currently at Number One with new album ‘Come Around Sundown’ will play a series of massive gigs in May and June.

Kings of Leon play:

Coventry Ricoh Arena (May 30)

Sunderland Stadium Of Light (June 17)

Manchester Lancashire County Cricket Ground (19)

London Hyde Park (22)

Edinburgh Murrayfield Stadium (26)

Tickets for the gigs go on sale next Wednesday (November 3) at 9am (GMT).

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Suede showcase new ‘Best Of’ at intimate London gig

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Suede showcase new ‘Best Of’ at intimate London gig

Suede played a greatest hits set to an ecstatic crowd at intimate west London venue Bush Hall last night (October 27). The reunited five-piece, led by Brett Anderson, played 19 songs at the sold-out west London venue, with the majority of the crowd singing along to every track. They release 'The Best Of Suede' on Monday (November 1). Frontman Anderson exclaimed how pleased he was with the show before playing 'My Insatiable One', saying: "It's just lovely. It's lovely you're here and it's lovely to play these songs." Anderson interacted with the crowd frequently, shaking hands with audience members and unbuttoning his black shirt for the majority of the performance, before asking them towards the end of the gig what song they wanted next. Wrapping the main set up with 'Beautiful Ones', Anderson paused to ask: "It's been great, hasn't it? It's been lovely. It's a nice sort of gig!" The band then briefly left the stage before returning for an encore which saw Anderson end the show in emotional style, singing 'To The Birds' with his hand clasped to his chest and saluting those in the crowd. Suede played: 'This Hollywood Life' 'Killing Of A Flashboy' 'Trash' 'Filmstar' 'Animal Nitrate' 'Heroine' 'Pantomime Horse' 'My Insatiable One' 'The Drowners' 'She' 'Can't Get Enough' 'Everything Will Flow' 'The Asphalt World' 'So Young' 'Metal Mickey' 'The Wild Ones' 'New Generation' 'Beautiful Ones' 'To The Birds' The band are now gearing up to play London's 02 Arena on December 7. Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk. Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Suede played a greatest hits set to an ecstatic crowd at intimate west London venue Bush Hall last night (October 27).

The reunited five-piece, led by Brett Anderson, played 19 songs at the sold-out west London venue, with the majority of the crowd singing along to every track. They release ‘The Best Of Suede’ on Monday (November 1).

Frontman Anderson exclaimed how pleased he was with the show before playing ‘My Insatiable One’, saying: “It’s just lovely. It’s lovely you’re here and it’s lovely to play these songs.”

Anderson interacted with the crowd frequently, shaking hands with audience members and unbuttoning his black shirt for the majority of the performance, before asking them towards the end of the gig what song they wanted next.

Wrapping the main set up with ‘Beautiful Ones’, Anderson paused to ask: “It’s been great, hasn’t it? It’s been lovely. It’s a nice sort of gig!”

The band then briefly left the stage before returning for an encore which saw Anderson end the show in emotional style, singing ‘To The Birds’ with his hand clasped to his chest and saluting those in the crowd.

Suede played:

‘This Hollywood Life’

‘Killing Of A Flashboy’

‘Trash’

‘Filmstar’

‘Animal Nitrate’

‘Heroine’

‘Pantomime Horse’

‘My Insatiable One’

‘The Drowners’

‘She’

‘Can’t Get Enough’

‘Everything Will Flow’

‘The Asphalt World’

‘So Young’

‘Metal Mickey’

‘The Wild Ones’

‘New Generation’

‘Beautiful Ones’

‘To The Birds’

The band are now gearing up to play London‘s 02 Arena on December 7.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Manic Street Preachers postpone London gigs due to illness

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Manic Street Preachers postpone London gigs due to illness

Manic Street Preachers have postponed their gigs tonight and tomorrow (October 28/29) at London's O2 Academy Brixton. The band cannot play because frontman James Dean Bradfield is unwell with laryngitis and has been told by doctors to rest his voice. "I would like to personally apologise to the fans," the singer said in a statement. "Nothing makes us feel worse than having to postpone a show. We were particularly looking forward to playing two nights at Brixton as we have such special memories of previous gigs at this venue. To say we are gutted about this situation is putting it mildly." Tonight's show has been rescheduled for January 21, while tomorrows will take place on January 22. Tickets remain valid and refunds are available from point of purchases if necessary. Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk. Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Manic Street Preachers have postponed their gigs tonight and tomorrow (October 28/29) at London‘s O2 Academy Brixton.

The band cannot play because frontman James Dean Bradfield is unwell with laryngitis and has been told by doctors to rest his voice.

“I would like to personally apologise to the fans,” the singer said in a statement. “Nothing makes us feel worse than having to postpone a show. We were particularly looking forward to playing two nights at Brixton as we have such special memories of previous gigs at this venue. To say we are gutted about this situation is putting it mildly.”

Tonight’s show has been rescheduled for January 21, while tomorrows will take place on January 22. Tickets remain valid and refunds are available from point of purchases if necessary.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Iron & Wine announce UK tour

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Iron & Wine announce UK tour
Iron & Wine have announced details of an upcoming tour of the UK. Playing in support of their new album, 'Kiss Each Other Clean', which is released in January next year, Sam Beam and a full band will hit the road in March. The nine-date jaunt will begin at London's Roundhouse on March 8 and fi...

Iron & Wine have announced details of an upcoming tour of the UK.

Playing in support of their new album, ‘Kiss Each Other Clean’, which is released in January next year, Sam Beam and a full band will hit the road in March.

The nine-date jaunt will begin at London‘s Roundhouse on March 8 and finish at Leeds Metropolitan University on March 17.

Iron & Wine will play the following:

London, Roundhouse (March 8)

Brighton, Corn Exchange (9)

Birmingham, Town Hall (10)

Edinburgh, HMV Picture house (11)

Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall (12)

Dublin, Olympia (14)

Manchester, Academy 2 (15)

Gateshead, Sage (16)

Leeds, Metropolitan University (17)

Iron & Wine go on sale on Thursday (October 28) at 9am (BST).

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Surviving Slits members to release tribute to Ari Up

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Surviving Slits members to release tribute to Ari Up
Former Slits guitarist Viv Albertine has said that she and bassist Tessa Pollitt will release the band's "last ever" song as a tribute to frontwoman Ari Up, who died last week (October 20). Albertine announced plans for the track via Twitter, explaining that they will customise the release personal...

Former Slits guitarist Viv Albertine has said that she and bassist Tessa Pollitt will release the band’s “last ever” song as a tribute to frontwoman Ari Up, who died last week (October 20).

Albertine announced plans for the track via Twitter, explaining that they will customise the release personally.

“Me and Tessa are going to release last ever Slits song ‘Coulda Shoulda Woulda’ from 1981 on cassette,” she explained. “We will hand draw covers. A healing thing.”

Paying tribute to Ari Up, Albertine wrote: “Ari‘s biggest gift to me was she made The Slits a safe place for a woman of any shape or size to be relaxed and free with her body. She celebrated womanliness, she revelled in it. She was so sensual on and offstage it was empowering to any girl who saw her. I’m not kidding. The way she carried herself was a revolution.”

She added: “Throughout the last 30 years there were many people who tried to suppress and squash Ari. No-one succeeded. She was reviled, mocked and criticised for daring to be herself. She could not and would not be tamed. It scared people. It scared men. She was stabbed and attacked in the street so many times. For just emanating too much WILD STUFF.”

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Nirvana stars reunite on new Foo Fighters album

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Nirvana stars reunite on new Foo Fighters album
Dave Grohl has revealed that he has recruited his former Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic to play on Foo Fighters' new album. Novoselic played bass on a song, while Husker Du's Bob Mould appears on another track called 'Dear Rosemary'. "Honestly, it sounds like if Husker Du wrote a four or five m...

Dave Grohl has revealed that he has recruited his former Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic to play on Foo Fighters‘ new album.

Novoselic played bass on a song, while Husker Du‘s Bob Mould appears on another track called ‘Dear Rosemary’.

“Honestly, it sounds like if Husker Du wrote a four or five minute hit opus and then the Foo Fighters played it,” Grohl told BBC Radio 1 about the Mould track.

He was less explanatory about Novoselic‘s input, simply stating that he “came in the other night and played bass on a song”.

Grohl also said that Butch Vig is producing the album, while the band are also making a movie about the “experience”. Vig last worked with Grohl on Nirvana‘s 1991 album ‘Nevermind’.

“The last month and a half we’ve been in my garage recording totally old school analogue with Butch Vig,” he said. “This whole project has been really cool because I haven’t made a record with Butch in 20 years, almost exactly 20 years.”

Grohl added that the album is Foo Fighters‘ “heaviest yet”, and that the band have now completed seven songs, with another five or six more due to be recorded in due course.

In other Foo Fighters news, the band are set to play Milton Keynes Bowl in July 2011, with tickets going on sale on November 5 at 9am (BST).

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

The 41st Uncut Playlist Of 2010

John Mulvey
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The Rolling Stones on our minds a lot this week, with the Keith Richards book finally out (please have a look at Allan’s immense review in the new Uncut), and a pile of page proofs from our forthcoming Rolling Stones Ultimate Music Guide for me to read. Consequently, we’ve been coming back a ...

The Rolling Stones on our minds a lot this week, with the Keith Richards book finally out (please have a look at Allan’s immense review in the new Uncut), and a pile of page proofs from our forthcoming Rolling Stones Ultimate Music Guide for me to read.

Continue

Massive Attack to release music ‘spontaneously’ in 2011

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Massive Attack to release music ‘spontaneously’ in 2011
Massive Attack have said they will "spontaneously" release new music during 2011. Robert '3D' Del Naja from the Bristol band admitted that "it's more fun putting things out randomly" than sticking to a schedule. "We got quite a bit of EPs out next year," he told Spinner. "We're tired of the cycle ...

Massive Attack have said they will “spontaneously” release new music during 2011.

Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja from the Bristol band admitted that “it’s more fun putting things out randomly” than sticking to a schedule.

“We got quite a bit of EPs out next year,” he told Spinner. “We’re tired of the cycle of album, tour. It’s more fun putting things out randomly, sort of spontaneously. We’ve done it quite traditionally this year, so maybe next year, a bit unorthodox.”

Meanwhile, Massive Attack[ will release their ‘Atlas Air EP’ on November 22. The four-track EP will include two new mixes of ‘Atlas Air’, plus a new song called ‘Redlight’, which features Elbow‘s Guy Garvey. Proceeds from the EP will be donated to War Child.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Peter Saville designs headstone memorial for Tony Wilson

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Peter Saville designs headstone memorial for Tony Wilson
Tony Wilson's memorial headstone has been unveiled, having been designed by his long-term Factory Records cohort Peter Saville and his associate Ben Kelly. The black headstone, which is made of granite, is now sitting at The Southern Cemetery in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, Manchester, reports Creative Revi...

Tony Wilson‘s memorial headstone has been unveiled, having been designed by his long-term Factory Records cohort Peter Saville and his associate Ben Kelly.

The black headstone, which is made of granite, is now sitting at The Southern Cemetery in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, Manchester, reports Creative Review.

Wilson died of a heart attack in 2007, following a long-term battle with cancer. He is referred to on the headstone as a “broadcaster and cultural catalyst”. It also features the following book extract, selected by Wilson‘s family and taken from Isabella Varley Banks‘ 1876 novel The Manchester Man:

“Mutability is the epitaph of worlds/Change alone is changeless/People drop out of the history of a life as of a land/Though their work or their influence remains.”

Despite being designed by Saville and Kelly, the headstone does not feature one of Factory‘s trademark catalogue numbers. Wilson‘s coffin, labelled FAC 501, was the last of these.

Paul Barnes and Matt Robertson also helped Saville and Kelly to design the headstone.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Loretta Lynn recruits The White Stripes for tribute album

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Loretta Lynn recruits The White Stripes for tribute album
The White Stripes are among the bands to be handpicked by Loretta Lynn to feature on a tribute album featuring cover versions of her songs. 'Coal Miner's Daughter: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn' is released on November 9 in the US, and also features covers by Paramore, Kid Rock, Faith Hill and Carrie U...

The White Stripes are among the bands to be handpicked by Loretta Lynn to feature on a tribute album featuring cover versions of her songs.

‘Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn’ is released on November 9 in the US, and also features covers by Paramore, Kid Rock, Faith Hill and Carrie Underwood.

The White Stripes have offered their 2002 version of ‘Rated X’ for the release. In 2004, Jack White produced, played on and co-wrote Lynn‘s album ‘Van Lear Rose’.

The tracklisitng for ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn’ is:

Gretchen Wilson – ‘Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)’

Lee Ann Womack – ‘I’m A Honky Tonk Girl’

The White Stripes – ‘Rated X’

Carrie Underwood – ‘You’re Lookin’ At Country’

Alan Jackson and Martina McBride – ‘Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man’

Paramore – ‘You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)’

Faith Hill – ‘Love Is The Foundation’

Steve Earle and Allison Moorer – ‘After The Fire Is Gone’

Reba featuring The Time Jumpers – ‘If You’re Not Gone Too Long’

Kid Rock – ‘I Know How’

Lucinda Williams – ‘Somebody Somewhere (Don’t Know What He’s Missin’ Tonight)’

Featuring Loretta Lynn, Sheryl Crow and Miranda Lambert – ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Jonny: “Jonny”

John Mulvey
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Spent a sizeable part of yesterday afternoon grappling again with “The Age Of Adz”, with little progress. It made me think, beyond the Sufjan Stevens album, there have been a good few albums this year, eagerly anticipated by me, that I’ve ended up delicately avoiding talking about here. Big personal disappointments, in other words: The Hold Steady’s “Heaven Is Whenever” and the Black Mountain album, whose title I’ve momentarily forgotten, spring to mind. I’d also, I think, end up filing “Shadows” by Teenage Fanclub in there: not a crushing disappointment, as such, more a mild, wearying one. It’d be churlish – and hopefully out of character – to criticise a band for growing older and reflecting changes of pace and perspective in their music. But struggling to articulate the frustration, I wish TFC had stuck at trying to be a rock band, rather than settling for being an indie one. That Raymond’s aesthetic hadn’t seemed to triumph over that of Norman and Gerry. Jonny, it must be said, are an indie band – or rather an indie project of sorts, featuring the Fanclub’s Norman Blake and Euros Childs, a tremendously gifted singer-songwriter who seems to have been bumbling along mostly below the radar since Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci split up. Their album, “Jonny”, is nothing like a return to the crunch of “Bandwagonesque”; if anything, it’s Childs’ musical history that’s referenced much more closely. It does, though, have a sprightliness, an ease and playfulness about it which comes as a relief after “Shadows”. Childs mostly takes the lead, but while Blake-fronted songs like the folk-rockish “You Was Me” and, especially, the lovely “Circling The Sun” would have fitted onto “Shadows” neatly enough, they seem to have a propulsion and lightness of touch which is, to me at least, much more pleasurable. “Candyfloss”, meanwhile, is an inspired coupling of the two talents – a Gorkys-style verse and a TFC chorus – which works just fine. Nevertheless, it’s Childs’ voice and vision which dominates “Jonny”, revisiting the stylistic highpoints of his old band as if guided by the gentle encouragement of Blake to do what he does best. Hence there are slightly dazed country songs – “I’ll Make Her My Best Friend”, “English Lady” – which recapture the somewhat autumnal whimsy of late Gorkys. There are daft glam songs which sound like the themes to ‘70s children’s programmes: “Wich Is Wich” and “Cave Dance”, the latter running off into a long and burbling drone-out which imbalances the whole album in a likeably perverse way. Best of all, the surging “Goldmine” and the prancing falsetto piano piece, “Bread”, sound like they could have been made around the same time as “The Game Of Eyes” and “Miss Trudy”. A very comforting album, really, and even the “Rubber Soul” pastiche, “Waiting Around For You” works perfectly, to the extent I keep expecting them to sing “Beep beep yeah” at any moment.

Spent a sizeable part of yesterday afternoon grappling again with “The Age Of Adz”, with little progress. It made me think, beyond the Sufjan Stevens album, there have been a good few albums this year, eagerly anticipated by me, that I’ve ended up delicately avoiding talking about here. Big personal disappointments, in other words: The Hold Steady’s “Heaven Is Whenever” and the Black Mountain album, whose title I’ve momentarily forgotten, spring to mind.

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Yoko Ono unveils Montagu Square Blue Plaque for John Lennon

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Yoko Ono unveils Montagu Square Blue Plaque for John Lennon
Yoko Ono has unveiled an English Heritage blue plaque on the Montagu Square apartment that she shared with John Lennon. The ground floor and basement flat residence 34 Montagu Square was initially bought by Ringo Starr and then rented out to Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix. Lennon and Ono moved i...

Yoko Ono has unveiled an English Heritage blue plaque on the Montagu Square apartment that she shared with John Lennon.

The ground floor and basement flat residence 34 Montagu Square was initially bought by Ringo Starr and then rented out to Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix.

Lennon and Ono moved into the property in 1968, and went on to shoot the naked cover of ‘Two Virgins’ in the apartment.

“I am very honoured to unveil this blue plaque and thank English Heritage for honouring John in this way,” said Yoko.

“This particular flat has many memories for me and is a very interesting part of our history. In what would have been John‘s 70th year, I am grateful to you all for commemorating John and this particular part of his London life, one which spawned so much of his great music and great art.”

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

The Charlatans drummer Jon Brookes returns to action following brain tumour

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The Charlatans drummer Jon Brookes returns to action following brain tumour
The Charlatans' drummer Jon Brookes has played with the band for the first time since being diagnosed with and treated for a brain tumour in September. The drummer collapsed while onstage with the band in Philadelphia, and has been receiving treatment in the UK since then. On Saturday (October 23),...

The Charlatans‘ drummer Jon Brookes has played with the band for the first time since being diagnosed with and treated for a brain tumour in September.

The drummer collapsed while onstage with the band in Philadelphia, and has been receiving treatment in the UK since then. On Saturday (October 23), he played during the encore of The Charlatans‘ set at the O2 Academy Birmingham.

Writing on Thecharlatans.net after the gig, Brookes admitted that he was feeling nervous ahead of the show.

“A huge feeling of goodwill came head-on towards me as over 2,000 Charlatans fans let me know that I was welcome back onstage,” he wrote.

He added: “I took the deepest breath and tried to let it flow. I hope it sounded OK, but to be honest I have no real measure, it was like I would imagine doing the 100 metres in the Olympic games would feel like! But please let me say thanks again to the Academy crowd for a top night!”

Brookes said that although he “won’t be doing much travelling this side of Christmas” he is “feeling strong and positive”.

The Verve‘s Pete Salisbury has been filling in for Brookes at The Charlatans‘ gigs while he is out of action.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Jimmy Page’s £495 autobiography sells out

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Jimmy Page’s £495 autobiography sells out

A limited edition photographic autobiography from the Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has sold out - despite not being officially released yet. 'Jimmy Page By Jimmy Page' – which cost £495 – is 512 pages long and features over 650 images of Page from throughout his career. It sold out through pre-orders. The hefty book is bound in leather and wrapped in silk and was compiled by Page himself, who also wrote the text. A selection of pictures from the book, taken by photographers such as Kate Simon, Neal Preston, Ross Halfin and Pennie Smith will be on display on November 5-6 at Elms Lester Painting Rooms in Covent Garden, London. Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk. Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

A limited edition photographic autobiography from the Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has sold out – despite not being officially released yet.

‘Jimmy Page By Jimmy Page’ – which cost £495 – is 512 pages long and features over 650 images of Page from throughout his career. It sold out through pre-orders.

The hefty book is bound in leather and wrapped in silk and was compiled by Page himself, who also wrote the text.

A selection of pictures from the book, taken by photographers such as Kate Simon, Neal Preston, Ross Halfin and Pennie Smith will be on display on November 5-6 at Elms Lester Painting Rooms in Covent Garden, London.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

THE ARBOR

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THE ARBOR
Directed by Clio Barnard Starring Manjinder Virk, Christine Bottomley Andrea Dunbar was a success story of modern British drama – and one of its tragedies. Best known to film audiences as writer of Alan Clarke’s Rita, Sue And Bob Too! (1986), Dunbar grew up on an impoverished Bradford estate ...

Directed by Clio Barnard

Starring Manjinder Virk, Christine Bottomley

Andrea Dunbar was a success story of modern British drama – and one of its tragedies.

Best known to film audiences as writer of Alan Clarke’s Rita, Sue And Bob Too! (1986), Dunbar grew up on an impoverished Bradford estate and established herself, through the Royal Court, as a vital voice of working-class Britain.

However, she died at 29, after a drink-related decline.

Shot on the Bradford estate where she lived, Clio Barnard’s film documents its subject’s life and career, but beyond that, it paints a portrait of a family, a community and a harsh period of modern British history.

Named after Dunbar’s first play and her old street, The Arbor is as much imaginative essay as documentary, with actors lip-synching to the voices of real people – among them, the writer’s daughter, Lorraine.

The effect, distractingly artificial at first, serves to make this distressing story all the more immediate. Revealing, moving and entirely individual.

Jonathan Romney

SUFJAN STEVENS – THE GENIUS OF ADZ

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SUFJAN STEVENS – THE GENIUS OF ADZ

If you’re hoping to hear the next instalment of Sufjan Stevens’s “50 States Project” – his homage to Rhode Island, perhaps, with songs about the flooding of Scituate and the Gaspée Affair – then you may be waiting a long time. Stevens recently admitted that his pledge to record an album dedicated to every State in the Union was merely a promotional gimmick, although in the light of his erratic output since Illinois – Uncut’s second-best album of the year, 2005 – you kinda wish he’d stuck with the programme. Certainly Rhode Island, or even North Dakota, would have been preferable to The BQE, his multimedia paean to a Brooklyn flyover, or yet another volume of Christmas songs. Music For Insomnia, an album of ambient frittering recorded with his stepdad, at least made good on its promise to lull listeners to sleep. Last month, Stevens suddenly announced he was streaming a new – hour-long! – EP via his Bandcamp page, yet All Delighted People did little to dispel the impression that here was a major artist struggling to regain his focus. It certainly had its moments of trademark Sufjan sublimity, but these were overshadowed by two versions of the rococo title track and a moving ode to his little sister that could only be reached via a petulant ten-minute guitar solo. Now at last comes the official follow-up to Illinois, although it makes All Delighted People feel like a triumph of brevity and restraint. The concept, unusually for Stevens, is that there is no concept. Aside from the title track, which was inspired the apocalyptic collages of schizophrenic folk artist Royal Robertson, this is Stevens writing from the heart. Gone are the Biblical allusions and potted local histories, replaced by meditations on love, sex, ageing and regret, and a fairly brutal excavation of his own neuroses. The downside of Stevens’ inward journey is that it seems to have eroded his confidence, leading to a maddening tendency to sabotage his best tunes. “Futile Devices” is a deceptively sweet and sparing opener, but it’s followed by the (aptly-titled) “Too Much” – the first of several ostensibly pretty songs to be sunk by a tsunami of electronic glitches and orchestral over-indulgence. “I Want To Be Well” does a pretty good job of conveying the mental trauma Stevens suffered during a recent bout of debilitating depression, which is to say it’s virtually unlistenable. Rather than use synthetic beats to lend his music muscle and drive, Stevens treats his drum machines like toys, programming them full of antsy, ungroovy rhythms. Initially, he’d planned to avoid using any live instruments on the record whatsoever, but instead an unhappy compromise has been brokered. Strings, horns, harps and choirs are sliced and diced on the computer, Stevens acting the mad conductor as he triggers torrents of queasy glissando with a click of his mouse. Yet when he calls off the artillery, The Age Of Adz can be stunning. Final track “Impossible Soul”, encapsulates everything that is brilliant and exasperating about this album (and, arguably, Stevens’s career as a whole). Over the course of its 25 astonishing minutes, it evokes in turn Lennon’s Double Fantasy, Radiohead’s In Rainbows, Ne-Yo, Bon Iver, Matmos, and The Langley Schools Music Project version of “I’m Into Something Good”. Stevens begins the track in a loved-up rapture, before gradually picking apart the whole business of love and finally batting his eyelids furiously at anyone in sight. “Girl, I want nothing less than pleasure,” he purrs, as the song-suite flutters toward a dreamy conclusion. “Boy, we made such a mess together…” Hang on, “boy” as in a boy, or “boy” as in American for blimey? At last, Stevens sounds like he’s having fun. Despite much speculation, he’s never come out as either gay or straight, so the matter remains tantalisingly unresolved. As indeed does the question about whether he is one of the most important songwriters of his generation or just an infuriating, neurotic show-off. This album provides plenty of evidence for both arguments. Sam Richards Q+A Who is Royal Robertson and how did he influence the album? He was a Louisiana-based sign-maker and self-proclaimed prophet who suffered from schizophrenia and created weird art that was inspired by his prophetic visions. A lot of his art is centered around spaceships, the Apocalypse, alien monsters and a pantheon of cosmic characters. These songs are preoccupied with primal things – love, heartache, wellness, sexual desire, loneliness, basic needs. But, like Royal, they have this cosmic veneer, this obsession with vast abstractions of the universe. It’s a big hodgepodge. Why did you choose to write this album from a more personal perspective? Everything I write is personal. I don’t think this album is any more or less personal. I would call it more primal, more rudimentary. Maybe it feels more so because I finally I let go of all the conceptual outfits. I guess I got tired of the whole literary narrative approach. It seemed time to narrow the content and focus more on impulse, on instinct. That’s what everyone else is doing, singing about love and sex, letting it all hang out. Why can’t I? You’re quite hard on yourself in the lyrics… I’ve become more and more suspicious of my own motivations. I used to believe in some kind of redemption, but I’ve been abused too many times to invest confidence in anyone, especially myself. I’d rather not dwell on self-deprecating anthems, but these songs have got the best of my insecurities. INTERVIEW: SAM RICHARDS

If you’re hoping to hear the next instalment of Sufjan Stevens’s “50 States Project” – his homage to Rhode Island, perhaps, with songs about the flooding of Scituate and the Gaspée Affair – then you may be waiting a long time. Stevens recently admitted that his pledge to record an album dedicated to every State in the Union was merely a promotional gimmick, although in the light of his erratic output since Illinois – Uncut’s second-best album of the year, 2005 – you kinda wish he’d stuck with the programme.

Certainly Rhode Island, or even North Dakota, would have been preferable to The BQE, his multimedia paean to a Brooklyn flyover, or yet another volume of Christmas songs. Music For Insomnia, an album of ambient frittering recorded with his stepdad, at least made good on its promise to lull listeners to sleep.

Last month, Stevens suddenly announced he was streaming a new – hour-long! – EP via his Bandcamp page, yet All Delighted People did little to dispel the impression that here was a major artist struggling to regain his focus. It certainly had its moments of trademark Sufjan sublimity, but these were overshadowed by two versions of the rococo title track and a moving ode to his little sister that could only be reached via a petulant ten-minute guitar solo. Now at last comes the official follow-up to Illinois, although it makes All Delighted People feel like a triumph of brevity and restraint.

The concept, unusually for Stevens, is that there is no concept. Aside from the title track, which was inspired the apocalyptic collages of schizophrenic folk artist Royal Robertson, this is Stevens writing from the heart. Gone are the Biblical allusions and potted local histories, replaced by meditations on love, sex, ageing and regret, and a fairly brutal excavation of his own neuroses.

The downside of Stevens’ inward journey is that it seems to have eroded his confidence, leading to a maddening tendency to sabotage his best tunes. “Futile Devices” is a deceptively sweet and sparing opener, but it’s followed by the (aptly-titled) “Too Much” – the first of several ostensibly pretty songs to be sunk by a tsunami of electronic glitches and orchestral over-indulgence. “I Want To Be Well” does a pretty good job of conveying the mental trauma Stevens suffered during a recent bout of debilitating depression, which is to say it’s virtually unlistenable.

Rather than use synthetic beats to lend his music muscle and drive, Stevens treats his drum machines like toys, programming them full of antsy, ungroovy rhythms. Initially, he’d planned to avoid using any live instruments on the record whatsoever, but instead an unhappy compromise has been brokered. Strings, horns, harps and choirs are sliced and diced on the computer, Stevens acting the mad conductor as he triggers torrents of queasy glissando with a click of his mouse.

Yet when he calls off the artillery, The Age Of Adz can be stunning. Final track “Impossible Soul”, encapsulates everything that is brilliant and exasperating about this album (and, arguably, Stevens’s career as a whole). Over the course of its 25 astonishing minutes, it evokes in turn Lennon’s Double Fantasy, Radiohead’s In Rainbows, Ne-Yo, Bon Iver, Matmos, and The Langley Schools Music Project version of “I’m Into Something Good”.

Stevens begins the track in a loved-up rapture, before gradually picking apart the whole business of love and finally batting his eyelids furiously at anyone in sight. “Girl, I want nothing less than pleasure,” he purrs, as the song-suite flutters toward a dreamy conclusion. “Boy, we made such a mess together…” Hang on, “boy” as in a boy, or “boy” as in American for blimey? At last, Stevens sounds like he’s having fun. Despite much speculation, he’s never come out as either gay or straight, so the matter remains tantalisingly unresolved.

As indeed does the question about whether he is one of the most important songwriters of his generation or just an infuriating, neurotic show-off. This album provides plenty of evidence for both arguments.

Sam Richards

Q+A

Who is Royal Robertson and how did he influence the album?

He was a Louisiana-based sign-maker and self-proclaimed prophet who suffered from schizophrenia and created weird art that was inspired by his prophetic visions. A lot of his art is centered around spaceships, the Apocalypse, alien monsters and a pantheon of cosmic characters. These songs are preoccupied with primal things – love, heartache, wellness, sexual desire, loneliness, basic needs. But, like Royal, they have this cosmic veneer, this obsession with vast abstractions of the universe. It’s a big hodgepodge.

Why did you choose to write this album from a more personal perspective?

Everything I write is personal. I don’t think this album is any more or less personal. I would call it more primal, more rudimentary. Maybe it feels more so because I finally I let go of all the conceptual outfits. I guess I got tired of the whole literary narrative approach. It seemed time to narrow the content and focus more on impulse, on instinct. That’s what everyone else is doing, singing about love and sex, letting it all hang out. Why can’t I?

You’re quite hard on yourself in the lyrics…

I’ve become more and more suspicious of my own motivations. I used to believe in some kind of redemption, but I’ve been abused too many times to invest confidence in anyone, especially myself. I’d rather not dwell on self-deprecating anthems, but these songs have got the best of my insecurities.

INTERVIEW: SAM RICHARDS

ELTON JOHN AND LEON RUSSELL – THE UNION

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ELTON JOHN AND LEON RUSSELL – THE UNION

In the mid-’60s, while the teenage piano player Reg Dwight was breaking into showbiz, Leon Russell was building his rep as a top-flight LA session man and a key member of the legendary Wrecking Crew. The transplanted Oklahoman was also the ringleader of LA’s Southern mafia, a talented, hard-living posse of musicians that included Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, Gram Parsons, Dr John and fellow Tulsa natives JJ Cale, Jim Keltner and Chuck Blackwell, intermittently infiltrated by honorary shitkickers George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. One night in August 1970, soon after he’d completed his job as the musical director of Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Russell was among the curious folks packed into the Troubadour on Santa Monica Boulevard to check out a much-hyped young Brit, now renamed Elton John. Russell was impressed, and the feeling was mutual. “I copied Leon Russell, and that was it,” Elton admitted in 1971. Russell’s influence is readily apparent on rollicking uptempo songs like “Take Me To The Pilot”, “Amoreena” and “Honky Cat”. And when Elton broke in America it was with “Your Song”, the kissin’ cousin of Russell’s exquisite love ballad, “A Song For You”. All of that makes The Union, Elton’s heartfelt, T Bone Burnett-curated attempt to give Russell his due, a matter of payback as well as a tribute. Not surprisingly, Elton and lyricist Bernie Taupin, with Russell frequently alongside them, chose to revisit the rustic terrain of Tumbleweed Connection, and their romantically imagined America locks in seamlessly with the 68-year-old Russell’s deep grounding in the real thing. A number of these freshly minted tunes would have fitted comfortably onto any of Elton’s early-’70s classics or Russell’s self-titled 1971 debut album, while the culminating “Never Too Old (To Hold Somebody)” and “The Hand Of Angels” reflect back on those days with a mix of “been there, done that” satisfaction and valedictory nostalgia. The material is designed to showcase the principals’ piano playing, and skilled engineer Mike Piersante has set up the mic’ing and mix by putting Russell’s piano on one side of the stereo spectrum, Elton’s on the other, making the record a particular kick under headphones. Some of these cuts, including the adrenalised “Monkey Suit”, were built on top of basic tracks containing only Russell and Elton’s pianos, played perfectly in sync with each other. “No one uses two pianos on a record anymore, since Phil Spector, probably,” Elton noted. More often than not during its 63-minute length, The Union sounds like an Elton John album, thanks to his signature melodies enwrapping Taupin’s image-filled lyrics, his still-powerful voice and undiminished presence. Only through repeated listenings does Russell’s Hoagy Carmichael-like lazy drawl assert itself, as he sings with disarming poignancy and tenderness, his always-grainy voice now as rutted as a dirt road. (Russell, it should be noted, underwent brain surgery shortly before the sessions began.) For Burnett, who obsessively pursues aural authenticity, this expansive project – with its gospel choir, brass section and an all-star cast including Booker T Jones on Hammond organ and Robert Randolph on pedal steel, along with the producer’s own wrecking crew – is the antithesis of his monophonic, single-mic recording of John Mellencamp’s recent No Better Than This. The arrangements come closer to excess than any of Burnett’s recent productions – perilously close at times. There’s an over-abundance of ballads, some of which feel more ponderous than reflective, and wall-to-wall choral carpeting thickens passages that call out for spare, close-mic’ed intimacy. But these missteps are counter-balanced by the galloping rock’n’boogie of “Hey Ahab”, “A Dream Come True”, “Monkey Suit”, “Hearts Have Turned To Stone” and the elegiac resonance of “Jimmie Rodgers’ Dream”. The most captivating slow-tempoed song is Taupin’s Civil War fable “Gone To Shiloh”, which plays out as a brass-encrusted New Orleans funeral march. Russell takes the first verse and Elton the third, bookending an appearance by Neil Young in a spine-tingling cameo. The pomp of the arrangement almost befits a Broadway production number, and yet its sheer gut impact is immense. If “Gone To Shiloh” isn’t the sort of track you’d go to on a regular basis, it seems tailor-made for special occasions. And that’s perfectly fitting, as this gathering of old-timers with something still to say, if not to prove, seems special indeed. Bud Scoppa

In the mid-’60s, while the teenage piano player Reg Dwight was breaking into showbiz, Leon Russell was building his rep as a top-flight LA session man and a key member of the legendary Wrecking Crew.

The transplanted Oklahoman was also the ringleader of LA’s Southern mafia, a talented, hard-living posse of musicians that included Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, Gram Parsons, Dr John and fellow Tulsa natives JJ Cale, Jim Keltner and Chuck Blackwell, intermittently infiltrated by honorary shitkickers George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.

One night in August 1970, soon after he’d completed his job as the musical director of Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Russell was among the curious folks packed into the Troubadour on Santa Monica Boulevard to check out a much-hyped young Brit, now renamed Elton John. Russell was impressed, and the feeling was mutual. “I copied Leon Russell, and that was it,” Elton admitted in 1971. Russell’s influence is readily apparent on rollicking uptempo songs like “Take Me To The Pilot”, “Amoreena” and “Honky Cat”. And when Elton broke in America it was with “Your Song”, the kissin’ cousin of Russell’s exquisite love ballad, “A Song For You”.

All of that makes The Union, Elton’s heartfelt, T Bone Burnett-curated attempt to give Russell his due, a matter of payback as well as a tribute. Not surprisingly, Elton and lyricist Bernie Taupin, with Russell frequently alongside them, chose to revisit the rustic terrain of Tumbleweed Connection, and their romantically imagined America locks in seamlessly with the 68-year-old Russell’s deep grounding in the real thing. A number of these freshly minted tunes would have fitted comfortably onto any of Elton’s early-’70s classics or Russell’s self-titled 1971 debut album, while the culminating “Never Too Old (To Hold Somebody)” and “The Hand Of Angels” reflect back on those days with a mix of “been there, done that” satisfaction and valedictory nostalgia.

The material is designed to showcase the principals’ piano playing, and skilled engineer Mike Piersante has set up the mic’ing and mix by putting Russell’s piano on one side of the stereo spectrum, Elton’s on the other, making the record a particular kick under headphones. Some of these cuts, including the adrenalised “Monkey Suit”, were built on top of basic tracks containing only Russell and Elton’s pianos, played perfectly in sync with each other. “No one uses two pianos on a record anymore, since Phil Spector, probably,” Elton noted.

More often than not during its 63-minute length, The Union sounds like an Elton John album, thanks to his signature melodies enwrapping Taupin’s image-filled lyrics, his still-powerful voice and undiminished presence. Only through repeated listenings does Russell’s Hoagy Carmichael-like lazy drawl assert itself, as he sings with disarming poignancy and tenderness, his always-grainy voice now as rutted as a dirt road. (Russell, it should be noted, underwent brain surgery shortly before the sessions began.)

For Burnett, who obsessively pursues aural authenticity, this expansive project – with its gospel choir, brass section and an all-star cast including Booker T Jones on Hammond organ and Robert Randolph on pedal steel, along with the producer’s own wrecking crew – is the antithesis of his monophonic, single-mic recording of John Mellencamp’s recent No Better Than This. The arrangements come closer to excess than any of Burnett’s recent productions – perilously close at times. There’s an over-abundance of ballads, some of which feel more ponderous than reflective, and wall-to-wall choral carpeting thickens passages that call out for spare, close-mic’ed intimacy. But these missteps are counter-balanced by the galloping rock’n’boogie of “Hey Ahab”, “A Dream Come True”, “Monkey Suit”, “Hearts Have Turned To Stone” and the elegiac resonance of “Jimmie Rodgers’ Dream”.

The most captivating slow-tempoed song is Taupin’s Civil War fable “Gone To Shiloh”, which plays out as a brass-encrusted New Orleans funeral march. Russell takes the first verse and Elton the third, bookending an appearance by Neil Young in a spine-tingling cameo. The pomp of the arrangement almost befits a Broadway production number, and yet its sheer gut impact is immense. If “Gone To Shiloh” isn’t the sort of track you’d go to on a regular basis, it seems tailor-made for special occasions. And that’s perfectly fitting, as this gathering of old-timers with something still to say, if not to prove, seems special indeed.

Bud Scoppa

BRYAN FERRY – OLYMPIA

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BRYAN FERRY – OLYMPIA

“Take me on a rollercoaster / Take me on an airplane ride...” From the start Bryan Ferry was bewitched by the exotic glamour of pop, its promise of some fabulous elsewhere, “far beyond the pale horizon, some place near the desert strand”. But if he once conjured with the contradictions of dream homes and heartaches, in later years he seemed to elide the difference between the real and make-believe and take refuge in misty never-neverlands: Avalon, Mamouna, the Hollywood Casablanca of “As Time Goes By”. On the face of it Olympia might be the latest station on this wistful tour: vaguely redolent of deco movie palaces or even a Leni Riefenstahl-style propaganda spectacle. Until you realise that it’s likely a more prosaic reference to the West Kensington neighbourhood, all exhibition halls and office blocks, where you find Ferry’s studio. And indeed rather than some great departure, Ferry’s first album of original material since 2002’s Frantic sticks pretty close to home. Neurotically so: just like Frantic, Olympia draws heavily on material originally recorded back in 1996 with Dave Stewart (conspicuously absent from the stellar list of names – Scissor Sisters, Eno, Nile Rodgers, Jonny Greenwood, David Gilmour – highlighted in the advance publicity). At least three tracks here – “You Can Dance”, “Alphaville”, and the closing “Tender Is the Night” – date from those sessions, while the Scissor Sisters collaboration, the coyly titled “Heartache By Numbers”, was apparently recorded over five years ago. And yet Olympia was trailed with such promise. First DJ Hell had stripped down “You Can Dance” to a chilly techno pulse, recasting Ferry as the vampiric crooner we once knew from Roxy tracks like “Ladytron”. Then Groove Armada hit upon one of their seemingly random moments of genius, cutting up Ferry with Truffaut and reworking “Shameless” into a brooding electraglide in blue. Finally Leo Zero joined the dots from Godard to Daft Punk, rerecording “Alphaville” as relentless Parisian funk. All three versions worked brilliantly at reclaiming Ferry as the founding retrofuturist of British avant-pop, but none appear on the album as it now arrives. Instead “You Can Dance” (which in the 1996 version available on bootlegs was actually a curious essay in drum and bass), is draped in the gilded, otiose funk that’s been Ferry’s signature soundworld since 1985’s Boys And Girls – perfectly rendered in the accompanying video, which is like if Gustav Klimt had directed a Robert Palmer promo. In many ways it’s an awesome production – nobody except Sade dares to make records that sound so impeccably imperious any more. But listen to it against the Hellish remix and its finery pales. The tendency to overload and overwork the song, the result of too many hours of Olympian fretting, comes to a head on the cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song To The Siren”. The track credits five guitarists, including Nile Rodgers, Phil Manzanera, David Gilmour and Jonny Greenwood – Eric Clapton and Johnny Marr were presumably out of the country – three drummers, a percussionist, and Brian Eno playing some obscure synth, and the result is a stupendously overblown gas giant of a cover, one that’s simply blown away by Liz Fraser and Robin Guthrie’s spare Mortal Coil version. Ferry clearly realises this – it’s why he enjoys his breezy cocktail jazz outings and bar band Dylan dalliances. And the best tracks on Olympia benefit from a certain lightness of touch: “Me Oh My” fans the embers of torch song – “Everything I care about is gone/I wonder why?” – and makes a virtue of the husk of Ferry’s lunar croon. And the closing “Tender Is The Night” taps into Ferry’s familiar F Scott Fitzgerald feel for fading romance; like Gatsby, enchanted by the green light of promise but, like “Boats against the current/Borne back ceaselessly into the past”. Olympia could do with a little more of that future-facing yearning, the contemporary spirit that crackled through the remixes, to remind us of times when Ferry seemed as much a figure from our future as from our recent past. Stephen Trousse

“Take me on a rollercoaster / Take me on an airplane ride…” From the start Bryan Ferry was bewitched by the exotic glamour of pop, its promise of some fabulous elsewhere, “far beyond the pale horizon, some place near the desert strand”.

But if he once conjured with the contradictions of dream homes and heartaches, in later years he seemed to elide the difference between the real and make-believe and take refuge in misty never-neverlands: Avalon, Mamouna, the Hollywood Casablanca of “As Time Goes By”. On the face of it Olympia might be the latest station on this wistful tour: vaguely redolent of deco movie palaces or even a Leni Riefenstahl-style propaganda spectacle. Until you realise that it’s likely a more prosaic reference to the West Kensington neighbourhood, all exhibition halls and office blocks, where you find Ferry’s studio.

And indeed rather than some great departure, Ferry’s first album of original material since 2002’s Frantic sticks pretty close to home. Neurotically so: just like Frantic, Olympia draws heavily on material originally recorded back in 1996 with Dave Stewart (conspicuously absent from the stellar list of names – Scissor Sisters, Eno, Nile Rodgers, Jonny Greenwood, David Gilmour – highlighted in the advance publicity). At least three tracks here – “You Can Dance”, “Alphaville”, and the closing “Tender Is the Night” – date from those sessions, while the Scissor Sisters collaboration, the coyly titled “Heartache By Numbers”, was apparently recorded over five years ago.

And yet Olympia was trailed with such promise. First DJ Hell had stripped down “You Can Dance” to a chilly techno pulse, recasting Ferry as the vampiric crooner we once knew from Roxy tracks like “Ladytron”. Then Groove Armada hit upon one of their seemingly random moments of genius, cutting up Ferry with Truffaut and reworking “Shameless” into a brooding electraglide in blue. Finally Leo Zero joined the dots from Godard to Daft Punk, rerecording “Alphaville” as relentless Parisian funk.

All three versions worked brilliantly at reclaiming Ferry as the founding retrofuturist of British avant-pop, but none appear on the album as it now arrives. Instead “You Can Dance” (which in the 1996 version available on bootlegs was actually a curious essay in drum and bass), is draped in the gilded, otiose funk that’s been Ferry’s signature soundworld since 1985’s Boys And Girls – perfectly rendered in the accompanying video, which is like if Gustav Klimt had directed a Robert Palmer promo. In many ways it’s an awesome production – nobody except Sade dares to make records that sound so impeccably imperious any more. But listen to it against the Hellish remix and its finery pales.

The tendency to overload and overwork the song, the result of too many hours of Olympian fretting, comes to a head on the cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song To The Siren”. The track credits five guitarists, including Nile Rodgers, Phil Manzanera, David Gilmour and Jonny Greenwood – Eric Clapton and Johnny Marr were presumably out of the country – three drummers, a percussionist, and Brian Eno playing some obscure synth, and the result is a stupendously overblown gas giant of a cover, one that’s simply blown away by Liz Fraser and Robin Guthrie’s spare Mortal Coil version.

Ferry clearly realises this – it’s why he enjoys his breezy cocktail jazz outings and bar band Dylan dalliances. And the best tracks on Olympia benefit from a certain lightness of touch: “Me Oh My” fans the embers of torch song – “Everything I care about is gone/I wonder why?” – and makes a virtue of the husk of Ferry’s lunar croon. And the closing “Tender Is The Night” taps into Ferry’s familiar F Scott Fitzgerald feel for fading romance; like Gatsby, enchanted by the green light of promise but, like “Boats against the current/Borne back ceaselessly into the past”.

Olympia could do with a little more of that future-facing yearning, the contemporary spirit that crackled through the remixes, to remind us of times when Ferry seemed as much a figure from our future as from our recent past.

Stephen Trousse

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