THIS MONTH'S CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE...

James McNair A Whitley Bay transplant via East

ALL BACK TO MY PLACE

THE STARS REVEAL THE SONIC DELIGHTS GUARANTEED TO GET THEM GOING...

ON YOUR MOJO CD THIS MONTH…

Rob Walbers, Maria Cecilia Tedemalm, Jack Finnigan Image

Theories, rants, etc.

MOJO welcomes correspondence for publication. Write to us at: MOJO, H Bauer Publishing, The Lantern, 75 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 2PL. E-mail to: mojoreaders@bauermedia.co.uk

Music of the Sphere

THE HOT NEWS AND BIZARRE STORIES FROM PLANET MOJO 

AFTER THREE YEARS, FOLK GIANT MARTIN CARTHY RETURNS TO THE STAGE

Revel yells: (main) Martin Carthy in happy communion

GRUFF RHYS FINDS HOPE IN THE SADNESS, IN FRANCE

Getting down: Gruff Rhys gets up close to

Anohni

The Best of 2023

MERSEY CULTS DEAF SCHOOL CELEBRATE 50 YEARS!

MENTION NAMES including Enrico Cadillac Jnr, Bette Bright

Corinne Bailey Rae

The Leeds soul adventurer adores Björk’s Debut (One Little Indian, 1993).

COME ON DOWN, ELLIOTT SMITH’S FORMER BAND HEATMISER

“W HEN HEATMISER fell apart,” admitsco-singer/ writer/guitarist Neil

FREAK OUT! INTRODUCING CHIC NEW DISCODELIC ACTIVISTS SAY SHE SHE!

Sound of Silver: Say She She (from left)

ROCOCO WORDSMITH HAMISH HAWK GETS HIS CLAWS INTO MORRISSEY

ON TOUR recently, Hamish Hawk woke to find

The month’s best choppy funk, slow electro and piano hymnals.

1 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & PATTI SCIALFA ADDICTED TO

Child of the Holocaust turned prog rock icon, the bass (and high tenor) of Rush on tragedy and comedy, cocaine and cancer, and the wildest myths about his storied band. “Fairly obviously, we were never fascists,” sighs Geddy Lee.

‘‘SORRY – ONE MOMENT…” WHEN the

The Factor

THE UNMISTAKABLE BLAST OF A .44 Magnum pierces

Mr Good Example

The Warren Zevon Renaissance is upon us, reports Bob Mehr.

MOJO/The Best Of 2023

It was a year of little miracles. A

The 75 Best Albums of 2023

50 JANA HORN The Window Is The Dream

“It’s Like A Conversation”

Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense reasserted its greatness, and brought the factions of Talking Heads together, unexpectedly. “It’s never looked better,” Jerry Harrison tells Martin Aston.

MOJO PRESENTS

The Best of 2023

“We Will Hear Some Music Very Soon”

Music Film Of The Year

“There Would Be No Billie Eilish Without Goth”

Back from the grave: goth had a big 2023, with Siouxsie, Lol, Budgie, The Sisters Of Mercy and Death Cult resurgent. Blame the apocalypse, they tell Victoria Segal

“She Could Say Anything With Her Horn”

Jaimie Branch grabbed ears and stole hearts in 2023. So sad she didn’t live to see it. “She was bubbling with energy,” learns Andy Cowan

“These Songs Clearly Were Highly Personal”

1 BLUR The Ballad Of Darren (PARLOPHONE) An

THE BEST REISSUES OF 2023

Coming of age: Betty Davis’s psychedelically funky

“Dylan’s Story Became Much More Pronounced”

1 BOB DYLAN The Bootleg Series Vol. 17: Fragments – Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996–1997) (COLUMBIA)

"The Best Thing I've Heard All Year"

THE MAKERS OF OUR BEST ALBUMS OF 2023 ON THE MUSIC THAT BLEW THEM AWAY.

THE FUN BOY THREE TAKE OVER THE ASYLUM

Having just left The Specials, Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Neville Staple burst into 1981 with pop-savvy proto trip-hop hits. Over in less than two meteoric years, their unique oeuvre took in a second LP produced by David Byrne, an all-female backing band, and sudden collapse when American success hung in the balance. “We needed to have fun,” bandmates recall, one year on from Hall’s untimely passing. “It was short and sweet, wasn’t it?”

YESTERDAY ONCE MORE

Over 50 years since their split, and nearly 30 since their last virtual reunion, THE BEATLES are back together. In new interviews, PAUL and RINGO tell the story behind the elegiac Now And Then, rescued from the same batch of Lennon demos as Free As A Bird but, with Ringo unbound, GILES MARTIN onboard, and someone or something called MAL, flying far higher. "It was like an impossible dream," they tell TOM DOYLE

Simply The Best?

The Red and Blue albums are The Beatles’ canonical compilations – gateways, for many, to the world of Fab. Remixed, expanded, and featuring Now And Then, they return, 50 years on, and continue to ask questions. Like who actually compiled them? And how definitively do they represent the band? “The idea was to show their evolution,” discovers Danny Eccleston, “from the beginning to the end.”

Avalon calling

After 10 years of silence, former Midlake frontman Tim Smith finally finishes his first adventure

“I don’t know how The Cure did it.”

Tim Smith speaks to Victoria Segal.

The whole of the moon

His tenth solo album, reportedly the digest of some 150 possible songs accrued over 20 years.

Soulmates

James Petralli’s Texan post-punk crew make a dream team-up. 

John J. Presley

★★★★ Chaos & Calypso GOD UNKNOWN. CD/DL/LP

Only when I laugh

Life is a cabaret: Madness venture into a

FOLK

John Francis Flynn ★★★★ Look Over The

Magic pie

Toronto-based singer-songwriter seeks enlightenment through prayer, travel and pudding.

ELECTRONIC

Moritz Von Oswald ★★★★ Silencio TRESOR. CD/DL/LP

Vince Clarke

★★★★ Songs Of Silence MUTE. CD/DL/LP Synth-pop lifer

The toxic avengers

Cult ’90s Californian trio get the monument they’ve long deserved: an 11-LP box set of everything they released during a decade eternally under the radar.

Jimi Hendrix Experience

On fire: Jimi Hendrix and co “burn the

Departure lounge

Bryan’s ninth solo studio LP gets the deluxe treatment; adding previously unreleased ‘lost’ studio album, Horoscope.

Thin Lizzy

Vagabonds Of The Western World: 50th Anniversary Edition

A test of faith

Both experimental shows at the fabled Tokyo arena released in full

Flame on!

With flash packaging and a title that meant “go to hell”, The Wailers’ Island debut was a bold opening shot. But did it find its target?

REISSUES EXTRA

ABBA ★★★★ The Visitors UNIVERSAL. LP For

Estonia Mundi

Thawed this month from music’s permafrost: beauteous folk songs of survival from a small nation in peril.

Sparks

The Best of 2023

Light and heat

Built around access to Reed’s personal archives, a sympathetic portrait of a vastly talented but difficult man

Amen, Brother

Cane-carrying family band singer Rudolph Isley left us on October 11.

DECEMBER 1965 …Stan Tracey goes Under Milk Wood

Now you has Brit-jazz: (from right) Stan Tracey,

Who had the stage fright yips?

Let us answer your rock queries and settle music-related disputes.

Gina Birch and The Raincoats

It began with The Slits and punk’s omni-promise. Then the ’80s and internal fracture necessitated a hiatus.