UNCUT
One of them is a debut by a bunch of thirtysomething Australian coffee addicts. The title of another is denoted entirely by symbols. A third, meanwhile, imagines an entirely new version of the monarchy… Welcome, then, to Uncut’s Best new Albums Of 2018. Over the past few month, our writers have been busily compiling their endof-year lists, and after an instructive week or so buried in a spreadsheet, I’m delighted to be able to share the results with you as part of our legendary Review Of The Year. In these pages you’ll find a comprehensive look back at our favourite albums, archive releases, films and books from the past 12 months. And to help us, we’ve invited some celebrated friends to offer their own thoughts on 2018 – including Jack White, Paul Weller, Courtney Barnett and Stephen Malkmus. Meanwhile, our free covermount CD features 15 tracks that have helped soundtrack our year – from Father John Misty to Ry Cooder, Cat Power to Rolling Blackouts, Ty Segall to Julia Holter. elsewhere, we unearth the latest treasures from neil Young’s archives, salute the return of Fleetwood Mac and preview some exclusive unseen Prince images.
Oh, and I’d also like to introduce a new contributor – elvis Costello, no less, who graciously offered to write his own Album By Album feature for us. Astonishingly, this piece also marks elvis’s first major appearance in Uncut – a mere 260 issues down the line.
But rather than flam together some kind of positive concluding message about the year in music, I’ll leave it instead to our cover star – Jack White. In an unusually frank and open interview with Peter Watts, White explains what it is that drives him to make music. The answer is surprisingly straightforward – but nevertheless, I suspect the sentiment is something all our interviewees would agree with. “I’m not a pop star, so I don’t have to come up with hits to stay alive,” he continues. “I’m glad I don’t have that sort of pressure, as that wouldn’t be interesting. I get to serve the song rather than any image. That’s something people might not know about me, but it’s always about the song. Whatever it takes to keep the song alive.”
Incidentally, do please send us your own end-ofyear charts. I’d like to publish a readers’ Albums Of The Year list in a future issue of Uncut. So send your entries to me at Michael.Bonner@ti-media.com.
Hope to hear from you soon!