rd has been inspired by Hawaiian slack-key guitar, another honours the great heroes of West Africa’s Bamana kingdom, while a third finds its protagonist returning with “guns full-on fucking blazing”. Join us, then, for Uncut’s essential guide to many of 2022’s key albums. Brace yourself for news of NEIL YOUNG, JACK WHITE, BJÖRK, SPIRITUALIZED, COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS, ARCADE FIRE, THE WEATHER STATION, DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, STEPHEN STILLS, BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD, JOAN SHELLEY, ROKIA KONÉ, ROLLING BLACKOUTS CF, COWBOY JUNKIES, THE COMET IS COMING, SCRITTI POLITTI and more…

FACES

TITLE: To be confirmed

LABEL: To be confirmed RELEASE DATE: To be confirmed Nearly 50 years on from their last studio album, the three surviving Faces – Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones – reunite for more ooh la la…

K ENNEY JONES: “Getting back together again this year was so great. What can I say? It was noisy! Lots of laughs. Listening back to some of our old stuff was so emotionally satisfying. We were appreciating Faces songs that we hadn’t listened to since we first recorded them. I kept thinking, ‘My God, how did I manage to do that when I was drunk? I don’t remember doing that!’ When I tried to recreate it, I found I couldn’t do it. That was the thing about the Faces: we were such a great band when we were sober, then a little dishevelled when we were drunk. Dishevelled blues, I call it.

Still having themselves a real good time: Ronnie Wood, Rod Stewart and Kenney Jones at the 2020 BRIT Awards

KARWAI TANG/WIREIMAGE

“We were such a great band when sober, then a little dishevelled when we were drunk”

KENNEY JONES

“What we’ve decided to do is work on some of the original stuff that we didn’t use, so the album is going to be a mixture of old and new. The songs we’ve been revisiting are from right across the board. It’s very difficult to go into specifics, because many of them didn’t even have titles. I think the fans may have heard certain things before and might recognise them. Ronnie and I, in particular, have been working on lots of the old stuff together and we’ve re-recorded a couple of those songs with more of a modern feel.

“The new songs are coming along, too. We’re definitely going in the right direction, but work had to stop temporarily while Woody went back to his rescheduled gigs with the Stones. The same thing happened with Rod. I know that Rod, between things on tour, is working on lyrics to some of them.

Woody is doing the same thing. So we’ll return to those when we’re able to get back together again.

“I don’t want to give away too much at this point, but there will be some special guests on there with us. We’ve already done a few overdub sessions with some wellknown people, which will remain a trade secret for the moment. All I can say is that it’ll be out when it’s finished. There are so many other factors involved, not just the touring backlog but things like delays due to the vinyl shortage.

“We’ve also got future releases planned for Nice Records, after the success of the recent [Small Faces – Live 1966]. I’m still working on an animated film version of Ogdens’

Nut Gone Flake. We’ve done some new arrangements and we’ll be re-recording a lot of it. I was originally thinking about a fulllength feature film, but now it might be a six-part series. We’ll see. I never wanted the Small Faces, individually or collectively, to be in it. I just wanted it to be an animated film about Happiness Stan who goes in search of the other half of the moon. But now I’m thinking, ‘What’s wrong with putting us in there?’ So I’m playing around with different ideas.

“I’m doing a classical version of Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake, maybe using the London Philharmonic Orchestra. We’re still in the process of choosing. There’s so much stuff going on all over the place.”

Jack White: releasing “two entirely distinctive” new LPs

JACK WHITE

TITLE: Fear Of The Dawn / Entering Heaven Alive

LABEL: Third Man RELEASE DATE: April/July Nothing for four years.

And then…

J ACK White hasn’t exactly been inactive since 2018’s Boarding House Reach, his most recent solo release. Jack White: Kneeling At The Anthem DC, his first solo concert film, arrived that autumn, followed by the small matter of the Raconteurs reunion for 2019’s Help Us Stranger and subsequent American tour. 2020’s White Stripes compilation found him busy attending to his legacy, compounded by the launch of jackwhiteartanddesign.com, a repository for his wide-ranging work in design, sculpture, film and photography over the past 20-plus years.