What constitutes a ‘lost’ album? It’s a question we routinely ask ourselves, as record companies empty their cupboards of old tapes in the hope of finding unreleased gold. As countless Uncut features attest, Neil Young has been steadily releasing caches from his fabled repository of ‘lost’ albums – the most recent, “Oceanside Countryside“, arrived in March. Now Bruce Springsteen has opened his vault to unveil unreleased full-length records of his own. For this issue’s cover story, Peter Watts’ research and interviews reveal the unexpected nature of Springsteen’s shadow discography: for an artist so closely associated with a specific band, it’s fascinating how much of this music has either been recorded solo or in the company of musicians other than his doughty lieutenants in the E Street Band.
Critically, though, while Young’s ‘lost’ records have been the subject of intense speculation for decades, it transpires that the contents and extent of Springsteen’s archival motherlode were largely unknown, even among the most die-hard Bruce Tramps.
Neil Young is due to begin his first European tour since 2019, including stopoffs at Glastonbury and Hyde Park. Meanwhile, we take a trip back to 1975 to celebrate “Zuma“, his first album with the new line up of Crazy Horse. Elsewhere, we discover the secrets of Scott Walker, War, Booker T and Sade; untangle a bumper month of albums that includes releases from Wet Leg, Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band, Marianne Faithfull, Mark Stewart, The New Eves, the B-52s and Mickey Newbury; witness Iggy Pop live; discover all about the Wilko Johnson play; meet Caroline, Folk Bitch Trio and plenty more.
The Fat Angel Sings 