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
IN 2025 VAN MORRISON TURNED 80, MADE his best album in 35 years, and showed unexpected signs of warming to the business of being interviewed. If many conversations with him over the years betrayed a reluctance to go into the mystic, this time Morrison at least approached its neighbourhood. Pressed by MOJO’s Andrew Male to explain his ongoing quest for “a sense of wonder”, Morrison invoked William Blake. “It’s about transcending the mundane,” he said.
Perhaps, though, the idea isn’t really mystical; perhaps it’s what all great music does to us, in different ways. This month, we listen anew to the kitchen-sink epiphanies of The Smiths; visit funky Addis in the company of Mulatu Astatke; toast the return of Sugar; reconsider the Stones’ tempestuous mid-’70s; and track back through the 70-year career of Dion DiMucci. Then, we enlist the help of Van, CMAT, Paul Weller, Brett Anderson, Robert Plant, Annie Caldwell, Jarvis Cocker, many more fine musicians and 56 regular MOJO contributors to celebrate the best music of 2025. Can a food stop at a motorway service station provoke a stream-of-consciousness meditation on fame and mental health and end up as our favourite track of the year? If you ever needed proof of how music transcends the mundane, read on…