2023 ALBUMS PREVIEW

One is a three-act rock opera about artists being exiled into space, another is influenced by Uzbekistani disco, while a third features a song called “Layla” inspired by its creator’s apparent “Oedipal hatred of Eric Clapton”. Join us, then, for Uncut’s essential guide to many of 2023’s key albums. Brace yourselves for news of THE CURE, BLONDIE, THE ROLLING STONES, DEXYS, LUCINDA WILLIAMS, ELVIS COSTELLO, ROBERT FORSTER, THE DAMNED, NATALIE MERCHANT, MARGO CILKER, MODERN NATURE, GRAHAM NASH, SPARKS and more…

Uncut

On the cover: Neil Young by HenryDiltz IN

“He was free, anarchistic”

KEITH LEVENE | 1957–2022

HIS OWN CREATION

Three essential Keith Levene tracks

Mountain time

As Complete Mountain Almanac, Rebekka Karijord and Jessica Dessner have written a song for every month of the year – with the aid of the latter’s notable siblings

“Mick wanted me”

He was this close to being a Rolling Stone. Instead, Harvey Mandel continues to weave solo guitar magic

A QUICK ONE

Two thumbs up for ourdeluxe, updated Ultimate Music

Gaye Su Akyol

Turkish psych dervish who wants her listeners to do more than just dance

UNCUT PLAYLIST

On the stereo this month...

There’s A World

15 tracks of the month’s best new music

AN AUDIENCE WITH... Lawrence

The Felt, Denim and now Mozart Estate mainman on baseball caps, Record Store Day and his elusive quest for fame: “I’m prepared to pay a price for that, yes”

JOHN CALE

Mercy DOUBLE SIX/DOMINO

SHIFTY ADVENTURES AND MORE…

MARLENEMARINO BLACKACETATE EMI, 2005 2003’s HoboSapiens was strong,

MEG BAIRD

Furling DRAG CITY 9/10

Q&A

Meg Baird: “Everything becomes more beautiful and more sad”

AtoZ

This month… P24 GUIDED BY VOICES P26 GAZ

GUIDED BY VOICES

La La Land

Q&A

Bob Pollard: “It’s like making a collage”

AMERICANA Album of the month

WHITEHORSE I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying SIX SHOOTER 8/10

ITALIA 90

Drawing from the past, reaching for the universal

KALI MALONE FEATURING LUCY RAILTON AND STEPHEN O’MALLEY

Does Spring Hide Its Joy IDEOLOGICORGAN 8/10

Q&A

Kali Malone & Stephen O’ Malley: “Feels like home”

THE BROTHER MOVES ON

$/he Who Feeds You… Owns You NATIVE REBEL 8/10

Q&A

Siyabonga Mthembu: “Protest music is still protest music”

HC McENTIRE

Every Acre MERGE 8/10

Q&A

HC McEntire: “Every Acre, in many ways, is a long goodbye”

DAVE ROWNTREE

REVELATIONS

NEW ORDER

Low-Life (Definitive Edition) WARNER MUSIC

HOW TO BUY... VIDEODROME

“I wish you’d applaud louder...” Highlights from the Low-Life set’s live footage

GONG

Magick Brother (reissue, 1970) BYG 8/10

Q&A

Sax-man Didier Malherbe on the birth of a psychedelic institution

AtoZ

This month… P44 CLUSTER P45 LIGHTSHIPS P46 GIRLSCHOOL

LIGHTSHIPS

Electric Cables (reissue, 2012) GEOGRAPHIC 8/10

Q&A

Lightships’ Gerard Love on “staying away from chords” and life outside Teenage Fanclub

NICK GARRIE

REVELATIONS

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Perú Selvático: Sonic Expedition Into The Peruvian Amazon 1972-1986 ANALOGAFRICA

Q&A

Samy Ben Redjeb of Analog Africa

VARIOUS ARTISTS

REDISCOVERED Uncovering the underrated and overlooked

MEREDITH MONK

THE SPECIALIST

COMING NEXT MONTH...

JAT PUBLISHING, MICHAELOCHSARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES A S ’23’s releases

Altered States

Back from the wilds of Topanga Canyon with a “psychedelic” new album fired by weed and tequila, MARGO PRICE is moving far beyond her country-tonk roots. But will inner flight, personal loss and newfound wisdom tame her wayward impulses? “It’s been a long, weird road to get to the person that I am,” she tells Stephen Deusner. “But here I am.”

Bra by Cymande

How a righteous funk anthem and future block party staple was birthed in a Brixton basement. “The bass was the genesis…”

GIMME DANGER!

A band in disarray. A fancy hotel in West London. Heavy riffs and delinquent ballads. Fifty years since the release of IGGY AND THE STOOGES’ Raw Power, Nick Hasted convenes a crack team of heads – including J MASCIS, JIM REID, MARK ARM and BOB MOULD – to dig deep into one of the most influential records in rock history. “All three Stooges albums are equal to me,” says IGGY POP. “But Raw Power, that’s the big one.”

THE RAW AND THE COOKED

Raw Power’s mixes

IGGY AND THE STOOGES’ LAST STAND

The Raw Power band revived

The Meters

Funk session supremo Leo Nocentelli looks back on a stellar career

Nothing But Heart

Uncut pays tribute to MIMI PARKER as friends and collaborators including Jeff Tweedy and Steve Albini celebrate the music and influence of LOW’s beloved vocalist, songwriter and instrumentalist. “She was the calmest of oceans,” learns Stephen Deusner. “She was the ebb and flow of it all.”

Mimi Parker: The Lost Interview

With Jeff Tweedy, producer of 10th Low LP

“We’re not Kansas!”

Low’s collaborators pick their favourite Mimi Parker performances

“HAVE YOU SECURED YOUR LOAD CORRECTLY?”

NEIL YOUNG is out there in the wilderness, travelling on his bus back towards his Canadian homeland. This literal journey into his past also seems a suitable metaphor for Young’s peripatetic 2022. Over the past 12 months, this most capricious of musicians has hurtled backwards and forwards through his history and the present day – from 1970s ‘bootlegs’ via mythic lost albums and powerful new recordings with his doughty lieutenants Crazy Horse before arriving, finally, at a 50th-anniversary edition of his celebrated album Harvest. In this exclusive interview, Young – accompanied by Crazy Horse and producer Rick Rubin – looks back over a prolific year and attempts to make sense of the different, sometimes contradictory Neil Youngs who have emerged along the way. “I got a lot of stuff to clean up,” he tells Damien Love. “I’ve got a big mess that I left behind.”

“NEIL CUT OFF A PIECE OF HIS FINGER!”

The lost Rick Rubin Crazy Horse session – found again!

“WE’VE FINISHED A LOT OF STUFF”

Young reveals what the Archives might have in store for 2023

“THEY WERE THROWING STUFF AT US!”

Nils Lofgren remembers taking the Tonight’s The Night Tour to the UK in 1973, soon to be immortalised on the upcoming Official Bootleg Series release, Under The Rainbow

HARVEST TIME

1971 doc gives a peek behind the barn doors and beyond

CAT POWER SINGS DYLAN

Royal Albert Hall, London, November 5

KENDRICK LAMAR

O2 Arena, London, November 8

Glass Onion is the most fun you’re likely to have with a film this holiday season

A follow-up to Knives Out paints with broad strokes; Fassbinder remade; and teen black comedy from Spain

REVIEWED THIS MONTH

JOHNWILSON/NETFLIX GLASS ONION Directed by Rian Johnson Starring

ALSO OUT...

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER RELEASED DECEMBER 16

MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM

CINEMAS 7/10

It shows that Fab Macca was anything but meek in person

“I’M starting all over again and working upwards,” beamed

WILKO JOHNSON

Fiery Feelgoods guitarist 1947-2022

NIK TURNER

Hawkwind’s Mighty Thunder Rider ( 1940-2022 )

GAL COSTA

Tropicália queen (1945-2022)

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Mike Scott

The Waterboys skipper on the records that forever float his boat: “I wanted to live in music”