Indie cult favourites The Wave Pictures have unveiled their latest single, “Sure and Steady,” a charming precursor to their highly anticipated album, “Gained / Lost“. Set for release on 27th February via Bella Union Records, the album promises to be a distillation of the DIY spirit that has guided the trio for nearly three decades.
Following the Burroughs-inspired dreamscape of the lead single “Alice,” “Sure and Steady” shifts the focus from dreams to memories.
The Wave Pictures say: “Sure and Steady” is like Lou Reed if he’d grown up in the East Midlands. This song is a memory song, rather than a dream song. Like Proust with his Madeleines, this is a song about flapjacks. This is also a song about other people’s mothers and how they are so different from one’s own mother. This song is like a photograph.”
“Sure and Steady” is the second single from The Wave Pictures new album “Gained / Lost”, due out 27th February 2026
The elemental joy of making music and the pleasure of pure sound lie at the heart of the new album, joy and pleasure distilled into it’s essential essence by David ‘Sheddiebrek’ Tattersall (guitar and lead vocals), Franic ‘Hot Fudge’ Rozycki (bass) and Jonny ‘Huddersfield’ Helm (drums).
Arbor Labor Union was born from a peach tree in Georgia in the American south. They play psychedelic, repetitious, and joyful rock and roll music. Arbor Labor Union follow up their 2023 album, “Yonder“, with a new EP for the new year. The record brings a new dose of Cosmic American rumble. Title track, “Out To Pasture” is toasted by the afternoon sun; rolled in twang and tied to a driving rhythm that’s an excellent continuation of what they’d been harnessing on “Yonder“.
Stretching out from purple dawn “Patch of Violet” to cicada twilight “Spittle of the Morning Moon” like Whitman laying on his back observing the dew drop worlds collected on shards of green swords “hidden in a drop of dew”, to the topographic map of the stars as witness/ dull mirror ,reflecting the constellation of the human body “zodiac man”. To the cloud disappear / cloud evaporate canned heat boogie hymnal of Clear View. The prayer is answered and the sun pokes the light through again. A voice in the forest calls out blindly. She lets her hair down and answers, calling him back to her in the way she knows how. A CSNY seasoned skillet of guitar fried taters “repunzel”.
releases January 2nd, 2026
“Out to pasture” indeed. More bound and freer than ever. From the stump again to sky, Arbor Labor Union. As the leaves fall. 2025 AD.
Baked in boogie and broken on the road, the new EP tacks their turbulence into the Crazy Horse winds. The new EP pairs with a December tour with Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band. “Out To Pasture” lands January 2nd.
Amanda Bergman has today announced that she will release her third album “embraced for a second as we die” on 16th January via The Satchi Six & Arketyp. Following her return with the video for ‘Grasp’ earlier this month, she has today also shared lead singles ‘Mexico’ and ‘is this how you said you’d be gone’ Speaking of ‘Mexico’ Amanda says: “‘Mexico’ captures the essence of a lot of the music I’ve loved and listened to over the years.
It’s about the internal push and pull between self-erasure and adaptive surrender — a tension I believe many of us experience in intimate relationships, whether healthy or damaging.”
Speaking of ‘is this how you said you’d be gone’ Amanda says”: “‘is this how you said you’d be gone’ is a song about the stunned stillness after sudden loss, how loss and grief sometimes rearranges your life, and its very infrastructure. Some relationships – even when someone has died or drifted away – can feel just as vivid,
Sometimes even more so, than those still present. For me, the inner conversations I have with my dad and grandma, for example, can feel as real as birdsong, even though they are long since gone. I’ve stopped questioning it and instead learned to use it – not unlike how I’d honour my children’s fantasies, not for their content but for their truth. Sometimes the body and the mind agree on a kind of truth that logic can’t touch.” Embraced for a second as we die follows up 2024’s “Your Hand Forever Checking On My Fever” for which Amanda won two Swedish GRAMMY awards, ‘Lyricist of the Year’ and ‘Singer/Songwriter of the Year’.
Amanda describes “Embraced…” in short as a display of “love as resistance. Across relationships – romantic, familial, ancestral – love is portrayed as/assumed to be the only force that still feels real amid chaos”. The title alludes to the theory (“whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter”) that the brain releases a flood of DMT in our final moments. She says, “embraced for a second as we die” isn’t about death so much as it’s about that imagined moment of clarity – the second when everything, for once, makes sense. For me, that’s the image. In my own search for answers, there’s also a kind of realisation – or maybe comfort – in knowing that, okay, whether I choose to become a pirate or a Buddhist, there’s still a pretty good chance it’ll all end the same way anyway”.
The album was written by Amanda and the music arranged by her and her partner Petter Winnberg with the intent in mind of the live recording reaching its full potential and making up most of the final product. This was then recorded in two sessions at Atlantis Metronome – the old ABBA studio in Stockholm.
On her new album, Amanda Bergman tries to grasp the present moment as it unfolds. The personal and the political, the quiet little moments, a world seemingly on the verge of implosion. But also the passage of time, people who disappear, love as an act of resistance, and the strange mix of euphoria and despair that comes from simply being alive right now.
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).
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.” DesmondDekker 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 Worldbenefit 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.”
The Fat Angel Sings 
