The Fat Angel Sings

Ellie O’Neill is an artist from Co. Meath, Ireland. Her music weaves a rich, diverse and tender landscape, traversing raw and intuitive explorations of intimacy and loss, friendship and queer identity. On December 11th , Ellie will release her debut single ‘Bohemia / Little Sister’ on vinyl as a very limited edition pressing (x100) of hand-stamped, hand-numbered 7-inch via St. Itch.

It has been a good year for the Meath singer songwriter Ellie O’Neill. Last March she took to the Other Voices stage in a show that was broadcast featuring Maverick Sabre and Morgana.

Since then she has been steadily increasing a fanbase that appreciates the sincere and honest approach to music creation. Her songs range from grungy, big-hearted confessionals to two-chord reveries, accompanied by experimental guitar tunings and dynamic, grounded vocals.

In recent months, she has toured widely, opening for Adrianne Lenker, John Francis Flynn, and Tucker Zimmerman, as well as performances at Greenman, OtherVoices, and Pitchfork London. Her highly anticipated debut LP is due this year.

The Cure have a new concert film, The Cure: The Show Of A Lost World. The film will be screened in cinemas beginning December 11th. The film documents the band’s live show at London’s Troxy on November 1st, 2024 – release day for their “Songs Of A Lost World” album – where they performed the album in full for the first and only time in front of an audience of 3,000.

On 1st November 2024, The Cure’s widely acclaimed Grammy-nominated album ‘SONGS OF A LOST WORLD’ was released. The night of the album’s unveiling, The Cure performed the record in full for the first and only time at London’s Troxy in front of 3,000 fans. As a recut, remixed and 4K remastered film of that night’s full 31-song show. Directed by Grammy-nominated Nick Wickham, with new surround sound mix by Robert Smith, the film will be released on Thursday 11th December in cinemas worldwide for a limited time only. Initially formed in 1978, The Cure has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, headlined the Glastonbury Festival four times, and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. They are considered one of the most influential bands to have ever emerged from the UK.

Welcome to the last Uncut of 2025. But as we bid farewell to the old year, a new one beckons – in this instance, our annual preview showcasing many of the sure-to-be highlights of the next 12 months. You’ll find a slew of interviews with the likes of Courtney Barnett, Bill Callahan, Altın Gün, Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam, The Lemon Twigs’ Brian D’Addario, White Denim’s James Petralli, Buck Meek, Buzzcocks’ Steve Diggle, The Delines’ Willy Vlautin and more, There are also reports on fresh stirrings from the Stones, Stevie Nicks, The Cure and Alabama Shakes. All of which, I hope, whets your appetite for new music in 2026.

This month’s debuting cover stars, The Damned, who next year celebrate their 50th anniversary. For our cover story, the band revisit their formative years – an opportunity for some quality larks, of course, but it’s also a warm tale of enduring camaraderie and a testament to the vision of their fallen co-founder, guitarist and songwriter Brian James. There’s plenty more inside, of course – from Laura Nyro to Dry Cleaning, Dionne Warwick to James, The Byrds to the Arctic Monkeys.

Not much is known about the elusive Dove Ellis, but we do have three concrete facts. One: he’s an Irish singer-songwriter. Two: new-gen rockstars Geese are confirmed fans, with the band inviting him as their sole support act for their North American tour. Having recently opened for Geese on their US tour dates, Dove Ellis has released his debut album, “Blizzard”. Little is known about the Irish singer-songwriter, though the record’s release during the first week of December – like Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal – makes one wonder if we’ll end up hearing a lot more about him this time next year.

But this auspicious, sensitive, and self-produced debut also feels timely, the kind of indie record you can play on repeat around the holidays. “I’ll be gone by Christmas,” he sings on ‘It Is a Blizzard’. Yet you get the sense that “Blizzard” will stay with you quite a while longer, especially as it ends with the breathtaking ‘Away You Stride’.

0:00 Pale Song 3:32 Away You Stride 8:17 Heaven Has No Wings Itself

Compared to his larger-than-life live performances, ‘Blizzard’ is eerily intimate. It’s bedroom pop, if the bedroom was a French catacomb with the tunnels blocked up. You feel every crack in Ellis’ voice, and songs like ‘Little Left Hope’ expand his voice into a ghostly choir that’s difficult to recreate live. He’s capable of these soul-baring roars that leave you stunned, as on ‘Tie Your Hair Up’. 

Dove Ellis’ debut album “Blizzard” showcases his unique voice and lyrical depth, blending chamber-pop and folk elements. The album features tracks like “Little Left Hope” and “Love Is,” which explore themes of love, memory, and human experience. Critics praise Ellis for his intimate delivery and lyricism, noting comparisons to Jeff Buckley while maintaining his own distinct style. 

The album is described as a beautiful mystery that captures the essence of Ellis’ artistic journey.

“You must see with eyes unclouded by hate. See the good in that which is evil, and the evil in that which is good. Pledge yourself to neither side.” That’s the Hayao Miyazaki quote that gives the latest Melody’s Echo Chamber album its name, and that sense of equilibrium translates to some of Melody Prochet’s most clear-eyed and translucent arrangements, though the music remains as ethereal as ever. “The music I create unusually inhabits the liminal zone between realism and fables,” Prochet remarked. “But the more experience I have of living, the deeper I love life and the less I need to escape. If my heart still belongs to the blue hour, it also feels like I’ve gathered up all the pieces of myself that were scattered everywhere and glued them together with gold like Japanese kintsugi.” The record was previewed by the singles ‘Daisy’, ‘In the Stars’, and ‘The House That Doesn’t Exist’.

“Daisy” started as a daydream while listening to Leon’s finest music. I reached out to him, and we instantly created this sweet overlapping zone—like an invisible playground between our worlds. It’s a privilege to have made this one together!

Melody’s Echo Chamber – “Daisy” out now on Domino Record Co.

Dave Alvin, Victor Krummenacher (Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven), Michael Jerome (Richard Thompson, Better Than Ezra, John Cale) and David Immerglück (Counting Crows, Camper Van Beethoven), and Jesse Sykes (Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter) form the core of this group of seasoned musicians, who have joined forces to take a trip back to the psychedelic folk/rock sound of the 1960s .

While The Third Mind may be a supergroup—the band consists of Grammy-winning singer/songwriter/guitarist Dave Alvin (The Blasters), bassist Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker), drummer Michael Jerome (Richard Thompson, John Cale), guitarist David Immergluck (Counting Crows, John Hiatt), and singer/songwriter Jesse Sykes—the quintet’s mesmerizing new album, “Right Now!”, is as ego-less a record as you’ll find.

Captured over four days in LA, the collection is a masterclass in being present, in letting go of control and embracing the thrill of collaboration. The recordings represent a singular moment—completely unscripted, completely unrehearsed—and the performances are as unpredictable as they are engrossing, blurring the lines between psychedelic rock, folk, blues, and soul on tunes from artists as diverse as Elizabeth Cotton and Pharoah Sanders.

Jesse Sykes is out front managing most of the vocals on this album. Dave Alvin joins Jesse on “Reno, Nevada,” which will be the single serviced to radio. Sticking with the tradition the band has established, the album includes cover songs including: “Shake Sugaree” (written by Elizabeth Cotten), “Reap What You So” (originally recorded by Otis Rush), “Darkness, Darkness” (originally recorded by The Youngbloods), “The Creator Has A Master Plan,” by Leon Thomas. “Before We Said Goodbye,” is an original written by Dave Alvin and Jesse Sykes. The album cover includes artwork from Lou Beach (who did the cover for Dave Alvin’s first solo album, and the last two Third Mind albums).

Inspired by the improvisational albums of Miles Davis, Alvin and Krummenacher started the band as an experiment, inviting some of their most talented friends for a free-form session that would become The Third Mind’s self-titled 2020 debut. American Songwriter hailed the result as “a captivating, often enthralling journey,” while the New York Times triangulated its sound between “Appalachia, the Byrds, and John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme.” The band returned with “The Third Mind 2” in 2023, and captured dates on their subsequent US tour for 2025’s sprawling Third Mind Live, featuring guitarist Mark Karan (Ratdog, Phil Lesh). 

released September 19th, 2025 

The story of Jimmy Cliff, who has died at age 81, is in part the story of reggae itself.

 “The Harder They Come”.  Director Perry Henzell’s film inspired by the life of Jamaican outlaw Ivanhoe “Rygin” Martin, starring Jimmy Cliff in the title role, failed to make a splash at the box office upon its initial U.S. release in early 1973.  But canny exhibitors realized its similarity to Blaxploitation films such as Shaft and Superfly, and it quickly became a mainstay of midnight movies. 

The New York Times noted that it ran for 26 weeks at a Cambridge cinema in 1973 before returning in 1974 for another seven years.  Its Island Records soundtrack catapulted Jimmy Cliff to international fame and played a major role in popularizing reggae around the world.  Only Cliff’s title track was recorded specifically for the film; the album was rounded out with past Cliff classics as well as songs by The Melodians, Desmond Dekker, The Maytals, and others.  Though the LP only reached the lower half of the chart it became a mainstay of the genre and, in 2021, was recognized by the Library of Congress with inclusion in the National Recording Registry.

Jimmy Cliff remained forever associated with The Harder They Come, and the artist born James Chambers in St. James, Jamaica used it as a springboard to a career that endured until his death earlier today at the age of 81.  The singer was still a teenager when he experienced his first successes in Jamaica; in 1964, he was chosen as one of the country’s representatives at the New York World’s Fair.  In 1969, “Wonderful World, Beautiful People” espoused a philosophy of positivity that served Cliff well: “Take a look at the world/And the state that it’s in today/I am sure you’ll agree/We all could make it a better way/With our love put together/Everybody learn to love each other…”  The anthemic song gave Cliff his first U.K. top ten single; it was followed by further hits including the anti-war lament “Vietnam” (which reportedly earned fans such as Bob Dylan) and a powerful cover of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World.”  Desmond Dekker took Cliff’s “You Can Get It If You Really Want” to the charts in Europe, Australia, South Africa, and the United States.

Cliff’s 1969 composition “Many Rivers to Cross” became one of his most famous works, recorded over the years by artists including Cher, Annie Lennox, and UB40.  A fusion of reggae and gospel, it anticipated Cliff’s ongoing melding of disparate world music elements.  Bruce Springsteen championed his songs including “Trapped,” The E Street Band’s recording of which ended up on the multi-platinum We Are the World benefit album.  He joined Little Steven for the anti-apartheid record “Sun City,” collaborated with The Rolling Stones, Sting, Joe Strummer, and Elvis Costello, and contributed a spirited version of Elton John and Tim Rice’s carefree “Hakuna Matata” to The Lion King spin-off album Rhythm of the Pride Lands.  Another Disney film, Cool Runnings, inspired Jimmy’s international hit cover of “I Can See Clearly Now,” originally written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Johnny Nash – one of the first non-Jamaican artists to record in Kingston and earn the respect of the genre’s progenitors.

In 2010, Jimmy Cliff was inducted by Haitian singer-rapper Wyclef Jean into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  He was only the second reggae musician to be welcomed to the Hall, following Bob Marley – whom Cliff had, years earlier, encouraged to audition for producer Leslie Kong.  In 2013, Jimmy won his second Grammy Award for the album appropriately entitled “Rebirth” – the first came for 1986’s “Cliff Hanger“, with appearances by Kool and the Gang, La Toya Jackson, and Jaco Pastorius – which was produced by Tim Armstrong of punk band Rancid.  In addition to original songs, “Rebirth” featured renditions of Rancid (“Ruby Soho”) and The Clash (“Guns of Brixton”), further underscoring the breadth of Cliff’s musical immersion.

2022’s “Refugees”, Cliff’s final studio album released in his lifetime, found him continuing his crusade for a better world, with songs including “We Want Justice,” “Racism,” “Bridges,” and the title track.  He sang with a note of hope on “Refugees”: “We gonna’ make it through the odds/Every day that we live is blessing in disguise/Do unto others as you would have done it to you/Listen, that’s just the word from the wise.”  Jimmy Cliff’s legacy of love and light will continue to reverberate from the streets of beautiful Jamaica throughout the world.​

Like so many Jamaican teens of his time, he moved to Kingston in the early 1960s and joined a rising musical movement that would help give voice to the country’s independence from Great Britain. A decade later, he helped reggae ascend to the international stage with his starring role in the cult favourite “The Harder They Come” and his featured place on the film’s classic soundtrack.

Here are a few songs that trace the arc of his career, and of reggae.

1962: “Miss Jamaica”

Singing along to an easy, bluesy groove, Cliff had a way of sounding both relaxed and fully committed, and could make a nursery rhyme sound like an anthem: “Roses are red / violets are blue / Believe me / I love you.” He also joined a long popular tradition, most famously expressed in such 1970s standards as Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are” and Springsteen’s “Thunder Road,” of offering praise to a very personal kind of beauty: “Although you may not have such a fabulous shape / To suit the rest of the world / But you do suit me and that’s all I want to know.”

1968: “Vietnam”

Like Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and other anti-war songs, Cliff’s “Vietnam” was drawn from the horrors of those who had served overseas. “Vietnam” was a seething, mid-tempo chant — “Vi-et-nam, Vi-et-nam,” the very name an indictment, in this song for the death of a soldier who had written home to say he would soon be returning, only for his mother to receive a telegram the next day announcing his death.

1969: “Wonderful World, Beautiful People”

One of Cliff’s many talents was looking clear-eyed at life as it is, and imagining so well what it could be — a paradise made real by the melody, the feel and lyrics of “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” a vision so inevitable even the likes of President Richard Nixon and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson can’t get in the way. “This is our world, can’t you see? / Everybody wants to live and be free.”

1969: “Many Rivers to Cross”

Onstage, he sometimes literally jumped for joy, but Cliff also could call out the deepest notes of despair. The sombre, gospel-style “Many Rivers to Cross” was inspired by the racism he encountered in England in the 1960s and tells a story of displacement, longing, fatigue and gathering rage — but never defeat. “I merely survive because of my pride,” he tells us, a variation of the old saying that hopes dies last.

1970: “You Can Get It If You Really Want”

Cliff’s political songs were so enduring in part because they were so catchy, and because they offered hope without the promise of easy success. Kicked off by a spare horn riff, “You Can Get It If You Really Want” has a lighter mood than “Vietnam,” but just as determined a spirit. “You must try, try and try, try and try,” Cliff warns. “Persecution you must fear / Win or lose you got to get your share.”

1972: “The Harder They Come”

The title track to the movie which would mark the high point of his success, “The Harder They Come” has a spiky, muscular rhythm, the kind you could set to the forward march of a mass protest. It’s a sermon of retribution for oppressors — “the harder they fall, one and all” — and of earthly rewards for those who have been robbed: “So as sure as the sun will shine / I’m gonna get my share now, what’s mine.”

With their foremost line-up’s return, the band promise the wild energy that we know and love. “Natural Magick” incorporates blazing psychedelic sermons, raga rave-ups, stardust-coated pop pearls and mood-enhancing mantras, encapsulated on the album’s title track.

Kula Shaker are an English psychedelic rock band. Led by frontman Crispian Mills, the band came to prominence during the Post-Britpop era of the late 1990s. The band enjoyed commercial success in the UK between 1996 and 1999, notching up a number of Top 10 hits on the UK Singles Chart, including “Tattva”, “Hey Dude”, “Govinda”, “Hush” and “Sound of Drums”

Kula Shaker’s are back with a album “Natural Magick” finds the band harnessing the power to cast their most potent spell yet, incorporating blazing psychedelic sermons, raga rave-ups, stardust-coated pop pearls and mood-enhancing mantras. “This chapter in the band’s life is very much driven by live energy and that spiritual connection with the audiences which comes with it. We all agreed that the songs should be no longer than three minutes. There are no epics.” (says Crispian) Reformed permanently in 2021 due to the return of keyboard wizard Jay Darlington, reuniting all four members of the band’s classic line-up for the first time since 1999. The band became UK chart-toppers with 1996’s debut album “K” and ’99’s follow-up “Peasants Pigs and Astronauts” saw them push the creative envelope prior to their premature dissolution. Having made a welcome return in 2007 with the self-funded “Strangefolk”, Kula Shaker have built towards the sonic summit. 

KULA SHAKER’s irrepressible return continues apace as the original line-up announce the release of a brand new single “Charge of The Light Brigade” on Strangefolk Records.

The band’s sound feels more amplified than ever with the return of Hammond organ wizard Jay Darlington after a decade with Oasis and various Gallaghers, reuniting all four members of the band’s classic line-up (Crispian Mills: guitar/vocals; Jay Darlington: Hammond organ; Alonza Bevan: bass; Paul Winter-Hart: drums) for the first time since 1999’s “Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts”.

Packed with allusions to spiritual vampires and the fairy cavalcade of Celtic folklore, this three-minute musical trip is the first of a number of new tracks the band have recorded for their upcoming eighth studio album (title to be announced) and heralds their March/April shows in the U.K., where they will be riding out with Ocean Colour Scene as very special guests on their 2025 tour.

With their seventh and latest album “Natural Magick” (2024) released across the world and topping the Independent Album Charts in the UK (“The best album of their career” – Shindig!), and having completed successful tours of North America, Asia, the UK and Europe last year, Kula Shaker are well and truly back in the saddle, galloping at speed, in a startling return to form.

Delivering that renewed wild energy we know and love, “Natural Magick” proved to be a mesmeric 13-track incantation incorporating blazing psychedelic sermons, raga rave-ups, stardust-coated pop pearls and mood-enhancing mantras. A technicolour sonic pathway towards a more enlightened state of mind, this was Kula Shaker casting their most powerful spell yet.

Named after a ninth-century mystic, Kula Shaker first carried their freak flag of spiritual sonics to the top during the heady days of Britpop, first with their debut hit “Grateful When You’re Dead” / “Jerry Was There,” followed by top five songs like “Hush” and “Tattva” (a pop song written in Sanskrit) before releasing the legendary “Govinda.”

Having formed their own label Strangefolk in 2007, Kula Shaker have slowly but surely returned to their sonic summit, with a prolific surge of writing, which began in 2023 with “1st Congregational Church Of Eternal Love And Free Hugs“, followed by their acclaimed “Natural Magick” in 2024.

Sounding the charge for 2025, this new song continues the ever-evolving Kula Shaker legend, which has both entertained and inspired listeners for decades, and 2025, and sees the band advance once again as “Charge of The Light Brigade” trailers the release of a new studio album.

25 years on from the debut album “K,” Kula Shaker have proved they are still one of the most exciting and ecstatic bands around, an unstoppable tour de force, with kinetic energy cursing through every second of their “electric” live shows.

The band will be releasing new music and embarking on international tours, headlining venues and festivals throughout 2025.

The tour, with extra dates added due to huge demand, kicked off on March 27th in Leeds, UK and runs until May 4th in Newcastle, will see the bands playing 24 dates across the country including two dates at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on April 4th and May 1st and two dates in Glasgow on the 15th and 16th of April. U.S. dates to be announced shortly!

Kula Shaker’s new album “Natural Magick” 

Helicon & Al Lover release ‘Backbreaker’ from incoming collab album, ‘Arise’ Due out February 13th, it finds Helicon’s psych-rock infused with Lover’s genre-bending electronics – resulting in a maximalist, uplifting sound with a baggy, hypnotic pulse.

“Backbreaker came from a desire to fuse sounds we’d never really heard living side by side”, says Helicon frontman John-Paul Hughes: “Middle Eastern guitars paired with a melodic bassline that sits somewhere between Motown and indie rock; eastern strings and percussion rubbing up against sub-basses and breakbeats; chanting harmonies woven through Helicon’s psychedelia, Al’s sampler work, and Tony Doogan’s production. It’s a track you can listen to thirty times and still find something new; some independent melody, texture, or rhythm hiding in the layers. It’s a beautiful melting pot of moving, colliding sounds.”

Lover says: “This one was especially fun for me. I grew up going to drum & bass parties in my late teens and early twenties. It was never a huge part of my identity, but I always loved the music. As I dug deeper into the genre, the importance of the Amen break and how entire branches of electronic music were built around that single drum pattern. It all became endlessly fascinating. Blending that world with rock has been done before, but not quite in the way we approached ‘Backbreaker’. The aggression and intensity of both genres fit naturally together, and the psychedelic edge that emerges when they collide feels like its own new space.”

Emma Swift’s “The Resurrection Game” follows in the tradition of her heroes, singer-songwriters like Sandy Denny and Marianne Faithfull, artists who transformed personal struggle into compelling music. As Swift’s first album of original material, it represents an important and promising step in her artistic development. Emma Swift is an Australian songwriter. She lives in Nashville, TN with the British cult musician Robyn Hitchcock. Swift herself describes this collection as “a bummer of a record,” a characterization that proves accurate, if reductive. Written primarily between 2022 and 2024, these songs emerged from the aftermath of what Swift describes as a seven-week “nervous breakdown” that resulted in her being sectioned in her native Australia. What followed was over a year of recovery—a period Swift characterizes as “very fragile”—during which she processed her experience through therapy, medication, and ultimately, her art.

The album succeeds in its stated goal of transforming personal pain into music.  Swift’s voice remains her strongest asset, providing clarity and emotional weight to lyrics that confront difficult subjects directly. The juxtaposition between her crystalline vocals and the album’s heavy emotional content creates tension that works well on the stronger tracks, though it occasionally feels forced on weaker material.

Producer Jordan Lehning has created arrangements that serve Swift’s material well. The album’s sonic landscape aims for lush orchestration that creates space for Swift’s voice while providing musical support for the lyrics. The production occasionally leans too heavily into the album’s melancholy, making some tracks feel overwrought where a lighter touch might have been more effective.

Swift’s core band   — Spencer Cullum (pedal steel), Jordan Lehning (keys) and Dominic Billet (drums), Juan Solorzano (guitar) — are largely experienced Nashville hands, a group who recently has started to play together as Echolalia.  They’ve all known each other for years, played together at different times but never altogether as a band. Cullum’s pedal steel work provides some of the album’s most memorable moments. Cullum, whose extensive experience includes work with Miranda Lambert, Kesha, and Little Big Town, brings a deft touch to Swift’s material. His playing adds the right Americana flavour while maintaining the album’s emotional consistency, particularly on tracks like “How To Be Small” and “Beautiful Ruins.”

The addition of a string section—featuring Annaliese Kowert and Laura Epling on violin, Betsy Lamb on viola, and Emily Rodgers on cello—brings classical sensibilities to the album’s texture. Rather than simply adding orchestral grandeur, these players approach the material with precision and emotional intelligence, creating arrangements that enhance the songs’ emotional impact without overwhelming them.

Swift’s approach to addressing mental health and personal crisis through her songwriting is both brave and necessary. As she notes, “I believe that there is a space for songs about real pain. In this moment in time, we live in a world where we’re encouraged to anesthetize what ails us by any means possible. But this record is more about spending time with your sadness, of leaning into that sorrow and facing it head on.”

This philosophy permeates every track on “The Resurrection Game”. Swift doesn’t offer easy answers or false comfort; instead, she presents a clear-eyed examination of suffering that acknowledges its reality while searching for meaning within it. On “No Happy Endings,” she confronts mortality and impermanence with unflinching honesty: “The world’s a spinning time bomb / That there’s no denying / There are no happy endings / But baby I’m trying.” Yet even in this stark assessment, there’s defiance—an insistence on connection despite inevitable loss.

Her lyrics cut straight to the heart of complex emotions without resorting to cliché or sentimentality. In “How to Be Small,” she captures the vulnerability of depression with devastating simplicity: “I am so terribly lonely / How are things with you?” The contrast between profound isolation and casual social convention captures the disconnect between internal experience and external performance that defines much of modern suffering.

The album’s title track and songs like “Nothing and Forever” and “Catholic Girls Are Easy” showcase Swift’s ability to find universal truths within personal experience. In “Beautiful Ruins,” she transforms the aftermath of trauma into something almost mythic: “I come from the place, the place of many crows / And I’ve told them all my stories / And I’ve let them pick my bones.” The imagery is both visceral and poetic, suggesting both destruction and renewal.

Swift gives us songs that go beyond her personal mental health crisis; they are explorations of humanity that will resonate with anyone who has faced loss, grief, or the kind of existential questioning that comes with life’s darker moments. The album’s closing track, “Signing Off With Love,” perhaps best encapsulates this duality: “Is this how the end of the world is supposed to feel?” Swift asks repeatedly, but the act of asking—and the love in the song’s title—suggests that even in endings, connection remains possible.

Swift’s belief in “the redemptive power of art” (as she puts it) is evident throughout “The Resurrection Game“. She describes her process as attempting “to alchemize the experience. To make the brutal become beautiful.” This transformation is perhaps the album’s greatest achievement—it takes pain that could have been purely destructive and channels it into something that offers both artist and listener a path toward healing. In “The Resurrection Game,” she literally excavates the past: “In Calistoga, where the redwoods grow / I have come to, to excavate your bones,” transforming the archaeological metaphor into something deeply personal yet universally resonant.

“The Resurrection Game” is quite different from Swift’s previous album, 2020’s “Blonde on the Tracks“, which featured her interpretations of Bob Dylan songs. Where that earlier effort demonstrated Swift’s ability to reinterpret existing material through her own perspective, this new collection presents her original songwriting. The contrast is notable: “Blonde on the Tracks benefited, of course, from classic source material and allowed Swift to focus on vocal interpretation, while “The Resurrection Game” requires her to carry the full weight of both song writing and performance.

“The Resurrection Game” succeeds as both personal statement and artistic milestone. Swift’s willingness to address difficult subject matter directly demonstrates real courage, and her voice remains compelling throughout. While the album has its uneven moments, it achieves something meaningful: transforming private pain into music that speaks to universal experiences of loss and recovery. The stronger tracks—particularly “The Resurrection Game,” “Beautiful Ruins,” and “How to Be Small”—reveal Swift as a songwriter of genuine talent, capable of finding poetry in darkness without resorting to easy sentiment. For listeners drawn to honest, emotionally direct music, 

Emma’s album, “The Resurrection Game” came out September 12th, 2025 on Tiny Ghost Records.