MOJO 375 magazine cover, featuring The Rolling Stones

MOJO_375_cover_Rolling_Stones_featured_image.jpg

MOJO 375 – February 2025: The Rolling Stones

MOJO 374 magazine cover, featuring Neil Young and The Best Albums Of 2024

MOJO-374-cover-Neil-Young-featured-image.jpg

MOJO 374 – January 2025: Neil Young

MOJO-373-cover-David-Bowie-featured-image.jpg

MOJO 373 – December 2024: David Bowie

David Gilmour, on the cover of MOJO magazine, number 372

MOJO-372-cover-David-Gilmour-featured-image.jpg

MOJO 372 – November 2024: David Gilmour

MOJO 371 magazine cover, featuring Bob Dylan

MOJO-371-cover-Bob-Dylan-featured-image.jpg

MOJO 371 – October 2024: Bob Dylan

MOJO-370-cover-Nick-Cave-featured-image.jpg

MOJO 370 – September 2024: Nick Cave

MOJO-369-cover-Stevie-Nicks-featured-image.jpg

MOJO 369 – August 2024: Stevie Nicks

MOJO-368-cover-Paul-Weller-featured-image.jpg

MOJO 368 – July 2024: Paul Weller

MOJO-367-cover-Kate-Bush-featured-image.jpg

MOJO 367 – June 2024: Kate Bush

MOJO 366 magazine cover, featuring Pearl Jam and Pearl Jam CD

MOJO_366_cover_Pearl_Jam_featured_image.jpg

MOJO 366 – May 2024: Pearl Jam

MOJO 365 cover, featuring Liam Gallagher and John Squire

MOJO_365_cover_featured_image-1.jpg

MOJO 365 – April 2024: Liam Gallagher & John Squire

MOJO-364-cover-Paul-McCartney-Wings-featured-image.jpg

MOJO 364 – March 2024: Paul McCartney

MOJO-363-cover-Stevie-Wonder-featured-image.jpg

Stevie Wonder Stars In The New Issue Of MOJO Magazine!

MOJO-362-cover-Beatles-featured-image.jpg

The Beatles On Now And Then, The Best Albums Of 2023, U2, Blur And More In The Latest Issue Of MOJO!

MOJO 361 cover featuring The Rolling Stones

MOJO-361-cover-Rolling-Stones-featured-image.jpg

MOJO 361 – December 2023: The Rolling Stones

MOJO_360_30th_Anniversary_cover_featured_image.jpg

Dylan, Beatles, Zeppelin, Kate Bush Star In MOJO’s 30th Anniversary Issue

SHANE-MACGOWAN-HERO.jpg

Shane MacGowan’s 20 Greatest Songs

Beatles-Christmas-Hero_Daily-Mirror-Mirrorpix.jpg

The Beatles’ Christmas Records

Best-Albums-2024-slide.jpg

The Best Albums Of 2024

Pearl-Jam-92-HERO-scaled.jpg

Pearl Jam: All The Albums Ranked

Paul-Mccartney-Live-Hero_Jo-Hale.jpg

Paul McCartney Live Review: Timeless mastery and seasonal cheer

LedZeprectanglewhite.jpg

MOJO’s New Led Zeppelin Special Is Out Now!

Jeff-Lynn-Preview-Hero.jpg

ELO’s Jeff Lynne: “This is not a farewell to music!”

Keith-Richards-Hero.jpg

Keith Richards Interviewed: “We’re born to have fun. If you take it too seriously, you’re f\*\*\*ed…”

Best-Reissues-2024-slide18.jpg

The Best Reissues of 2024

Paul Weller and Bobby Gillespie Brixton Academy December 13, 2024

Weller-And-Gillespie-Hero.jpg

Paul Weller, Primal Scream, Kneecap And More Review: Eclectic lineup come together at Gaza benefit

The-Who-Hero-2.jpg

The Who: Every Album Ranked

Ringo-Hero.jpg

Ringo Starr: “It was an absolute surprise to me!”

Manics-Alex-Lake-2024.jpg

Manic Street Preachers: “Failure is ingrained in the band as much as success.”

BOB-DYLAN-1966-HERO.jpg

Bob Dylan’s 60 Greatest Songs: Chosen by Paul McCartney, Bono, Patti Smith, Nick Cave, Chris Martin and more!

JOHN-LENNON-60S-HERO.jpg

20 Ways John Lennon Changed The World

Rush-Hero.jpg

Rush’s Greatest Albums Ranked!

Time Machine

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Magazine

Latest Issues

Back Issues

Recommends

Audio

Preview Only

Staging Mode

Articles

Stories

The Mojo List

New Music

Scorning predictions of his demise, year upon year, **:a[Shane MacGowan]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/spider-stacy-remembers-shane-macgowan-he-understood-the-essence-of-what-made-something-matter/' }** finally left us in November 2023. What he leaves, in terms of his spirit and the music of **:a[The Pogues]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/spider-stacy-remembers-shane-macgowan-he-understood-the-essence-of-what-made-something-matter/' }** – its poetry of defiance, devotion and degradation – is unlikely ever to be matched. But was there enough of it? “He wrote so many great songs in a short space of time,” argues his friend and chronicler Ann Scanlon told MOJO earlier this year. “How many songwriters can say that?” Indeed, and as testament to MacGowan’s singular genius, MOJO has compiled his 20 greatest songs…

**Gabrielle**   
(The Nips single, Soho/Chiswick, 1979)

Summer-of-’76 ace face ‘Shane O’Hooligan’ was hardly seen as a song writerly prospect, until November 1979 when his band The Nips (nés Nipple Erectors) served up this well-constructed slice of reincarnated ’50s rock’n’roll. Its transmission of central London’s buzz is offset against Shane’s baleful yearning for the titular ex. In the mid-2010s, the song’s publishers were reputedly touting Gabrielle for inclusion in Pop Idol. _AP_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bDDAOJV1xU

**Transmetropolitan**  
(from _Red Roses For Me_, Stiff, 1984)

First track on their debut LP, Transmetropolitan was The Pogues’ mission statement. Sulphate-paced accordions and violins ride a tub-thumping punk-folk groove as pie-eyed piper MacGowan machine guns not-quite expletives, leading his down-at-heel troops through a riotous London junket. Gloriously unrefined to its last defiant cry of “I ain’t going home tonight!” _AC_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBJ8C6jWhVA

**Dark Streets Of London**   
(from _Red Roses For Me_, Stiff, 1984)

Scrapping Ralph McTell-style sentiment, MacGowan maps the purgatory of poverty on The Pogues’ full-pelt debut single. Denied the warmth of Hammersmith’s pubs and bookies, he’s instead chilled by memories of “the place where they gave ECT”. Yet heart-breaking nihilism is undercut by the song’s animal heat, an unextinguishable blaze in the dark. _VS_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc6wJlLLe5Q

**Boys From The County Hell**  
(from _Red Roses For Me_, Stiff, 1984)

Often dismissed as a mere drinking song, this rip-roaring Dubliners-esque romp was darkness itself. Set against a bleak, rainy backdrop, it’s an unsettling celebration of ultra-violent retribution narrated by the amoral son of a blueshirt (Ireland’s fascist party) whose brother participated in My Lai. _JA_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psTqudN7t1M

**The Sick Bed Of Cúchulainn**   
(from _Rum, Sodomy & The Lash_, Stiff, 1985)

The roistering life given mythical heft, as MacGowan takes the Irish warrior demi-god of the title carousing through time and space. Heroic battles are fought against blackshirts; Irish Republican heroes are encountered during the Spanish Civil War; drink flows, relentlessly. Written in 1985, it proved a manifesto for MacGowan’s next 37 years, a quest to challenge the limits of apparent indestructibility. _JM_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAKZ9eyuhiY

**The Old Main Drag**   
(from _Rum, Sodomy & The Lash_, Stiff, 1985)

A ruined life crunched into three minutes, this pitiless tale of Piccadilly rent boys and police brutality expresses a very physical humanity: alleyway sex, bloody violence, slow death. What startles beyond the Tuinal-spiked narrative, though, is how MacGowan suddenly stops singing, delivering his last words with a trapdoor snap. No consolation, no hope. _VS_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGnW7ZiByAM

**A Pair Of Brown Eyes**   
(from Rum, Sodomy & The Lash, Stiff, 1985)

Broken-hearted and drunk, our hero is cornered by an old soldier inflicting his tale of still greater loss when, invalided home, he finds no pair of brown eyes awaiting him – anecdotally not a sweetheart’s but his dog’s. Framing its vivid narrative weave, the poignant tune derives from Francis McPeake’s Wild Mountain Thyme. _MS_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNtQ5AnRlz8

**Sally MacLennane**  
(from _Rum, Sodomy & The Lash_, Stiff, 1985)

This rollicking jig was inspired by Shane’s uncle’s pub in Dagenham, which served Sally MacLennane stout to Ford workers. With its twisted tale of prodigal Jimmy croaking on his pint, the track became an indie disco staple, coaxing student revellers to dance to punk’d Irish traditional music, and thereafter delve into the deep, dark world of MacGowan. _AP_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym-Oz0TMSb0

**A Rainy Night In Soho**   
(from _Poguetry In Motion_ EP, Stiff, 1986)

One of MacGowan’s great London songs, but the location isn’t as important as the deeper message of enduring love and the consolations of the uncanny – a romance that leans into the word’s original supernatural connotations. The singer considers his place in the great scheme of things with tender fortitude: “I’m not talking of the first time/I never think about the last.” _JM_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSyL-TrD\_2g

**The Body Of An American**   
(from _Poguetry In Motion_ EP, Stiff, 1986)

MacGowan at his most adventurous, mixing the poetic stage-Irish of Seán O’Casey with the Baroque melodicism of Turlough O’Carolan. Musically, it’s constructed for the parlour, a funereal waltz leading to a celebratory drunken chorus, but the narrative – centred around the wake of an Irish American boxer – is elusive. A song that simultaneously resists analysis yet demands it. _AM_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItFwHE2n8Vs

**Fairytale Of New York**   
(single, Pogue Mahone, 1987)

Not many can boast to have written a genuine standard, let alone a seasonal one. Shane and Jem Finer’s bid for immortality works across time and generations, its rejection of sentimental baubles for a fierce balance of defiance and decay its true wonder. Finer credited Shane for the song’s Broadway melody; Kirsty MacColl is the perfect foil. _DE_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8

**If I Should Fall From Grace With God**   
(from _If I Should Fall From Grace With God_, Pogue Mahone,1988)

Later, MacGowan would regret the sophistication that came with the addition of Philip Chevron (guitar) and Terry Woods (mandolin etc), but who can deny the epic woosh and seamless instrumental mesh of this relentless snarl in the face of death, and maybe even damnation? Let him go, boys. Let him go. _DE_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4v6aNjGFFk

**Thousands Are Sailing**   
(from _If I Should Fall From Grace With God_, Pogue Mahone, 1988)

Like Horslips and U2, The Pogues were haunted by the Irish diaspora, its voyage “across the Western Ocean/To a land of opportunity” never more rousingly dramatised than by Thousands…’s writer, former Radiator From Space Philip Chevron. Though no Luke Kelly, lead voice MacGowan utterly owns his bandmate’s poetic panorama. _MS_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swQNNjXztsI

**Lullaby Of London**   
(from If I Should Fall From Grace With God, Pogue Mahone,1988)

Even in The Nips, MacGowan was London-Irish rather than merely Irish. Lullaby Of London isn’t an overt ode to MacGowan’s city – London is never mentioned – but it couldn’t be set anywhere else. It is, though, unquestionably a lullaby, a sibling for Forever Young, a prayer for the child MacGowan would never sire. _JA_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL2B\_uz5jaE

**The Broad Majestic Shannon**   
(from _If I Should Fall From Grace With God_, Pogue Mahone,1988)

This hymn to Ireland’s great river offered classic MacGowan elements: musicians playing old Irish airs, birds singing, booze, existential sorrow. Yet here the place names along the Shannon lend the song an epic, watery sweep, while the “rusty tin can” and “old hurley ball” possess an intangible Rosebud significance. Not just about a river, but the melancholy flow of life itself. _PG_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMi3AGWsm0I

**White City**   
(from _Peace And Love_, Pogue Mahone, 1989)

Originally intended by MacGowan as an acid house rave-up, then reworked into a Trad Arr salute to the once grand West London dog-track (demolished in 1985) this galloping jig is also a valedictory lament for the loss of a working-class Atlantis and its heady culture of “speed, skill and schemes”. _AM_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJIoDTcPGds

**Summer In Siam**   
(single, Pogue Mahone, 1990)

Conceived as a four-line miniature with just vocals and rippling light-on-water piano, Summer In Siam is the sound of MacGowan reaching for a state of Zen-like peace. As such, the finished version, with additional harp glissandos and strings, has a bittersweet unease, MacGowan’s lyrical purity chivvied into a more conventional state of romantic bliss. _AM_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66quTi26YLY

**The Church Of The Holy Spook**   
(from Shane MacGowan And The Popes’ _The Snake_, ZTT, 1994)

A banjo-driven testament of mum-was-a-saint guilt and good-old-ways redemption, like I Fought The Law and White Lightning reverse-engineered into London-Irish country pub-punk. It’s also charged with Catholicism and Buddhism, and the claim that “rock’n’roll you crucified me” is no joke. His first post-Pogues chart entry, it boded so well. _IH_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZumb3Xqryc

**Haunted**   
(Shane MacGowan And Sinéad O’Connor single, ZTT, 1995)   
This re-recorded Pogues song (the original’s on the OST of Alex Cox’s 1986 Sid And Nancy movie) is a golden imagining of punk’s sacrificial couple simply being young and in love. :a[Sinéad O’Connor]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/sinead-oconnor-remembered/' } sounds beatific, Shane’s as vulnerable as he ever got, and then love conquers death. No need to remember that it appeared in a Sandra Bullock art-heist rom-com. _IH_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_q7307IWwr4

**Rock’n’Roll Paddy**   
(from Shane MacGowan And The Popes’ _The Crock Of Gold_, ZTT, 1997)

Posted out to members of their fan club from 1963 to 1969, The Beatles’ Christmas flexi-discs provided bespoke festive messages for the band's most loyal devotees. From Today’s perspective, however, these discs provide a fascinating insight into the Fab’s rapid year-by-year progress, developing from innocent pop larks through expanded consciousness and, finally, their growing apart.

Originally conceived by PR manager Tony Barrow, the discs were thin and cheaply made so fans were advised to stabilise them with a coin for playback. They became increasingly sought-after, 30,000 were distributed in 1963. By 1965, the number of fan club members receiving a record had increased to 70,000. In 1970, after the band split, all the messages were compiled onto a vinyl LP, _From Then To You_. As a festive treat from _us_ to you, MOJO have catalogued the Fabs’ end of year addresses…

_(Recorded 17 October 1963, Studio Two, EMI Recording Studios, Abbey Road)_

Recorded in October 1963 at the end of a session for :a[I Want To Hold Your Hand]{href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jenWdylTtzs' }, The Beatles’ first fan club Christmas disc begins with the band larking through a rendition of Good King Wenceslas featuring references to film star Betty Grable and BBC bandleader Henry Hall. “Hello, this is John speaking with his voice…” kicks off Lennon, going on the detail some of the “gear things” that happened to the band in 1963, including their bill-topping live TV performance on Sunday Night At The London Palladium. George thanks the fan club’s secretaries, including “Anne Collingham,” a name in fact invented by Barrow to represent staff working at the group’s London offices. Paul, meanwhile, tries to quell fans habit of chucking Jelly Babies at the band onstage. “We’ve gone right off Jelly Babies…” he pleads. “But we still like Peppermint Creams, Chocolate Drops and Dolly Mixtures.”

_(Recorded 26 October 1964, Studio Two, EMI Recording Studios, Abbey Road, London)_

Taped during the final sessions for _:a[Beatles For Sale]{href='https://open.spotify.com/album/1vANZV20H5B4Fk6yf7Ot9a?si=yHMdA1IlSAanhrukbJcJNQ' }_, The Beatles’ second seasonal missive beings with an even dafter version of Jingle Bells, accompanied by a kazoo-ing paper and comb (predating its use on :a[Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds]{href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7x-0c9jl4Y' } by three years). Paul thanks fans for buying their records – “I don’t know where we’d be without you, really.” “In the army, perhaps,” quips John before thanking fans for buying his book In His Own Write. “There’s another one out pretty soon, it says here. Hope you buy that too. It’ll be the usual rubbish, but it won’t cost much. That’s the bargain we’re going to strike up!”

## **The Beatles Third Christmas Record**

_(Recorded 8 November 1965 – Studio Two, EMI Recording Studios, Abbey Road, London)_

It’s the turn of The Beatles own Yesterday to be lampooned at the start of 1965’s Christmas message. The band’s first run at their now traditional message, scripted by Barrow, was scrapped, not least because George wasn’t present. Instead, having finished recording _Rubber Soul_’s Think For Yourself the group took to ad-libbing around the mic late at night. Auld Lang Syne is also performed in the croaky vocal style of Barry McGuire’s US hit Eve Of Destruction, John put words to a traditional Scottish air (complete with some of-their-time comedy accents), before a reprise of Yesterday showed that even when goofing around – and possibly stoned – they still sounded great.

## **Pantomime – Everywhere It’s Christmas (The Beatles Fourth Christmas Record)**

_(Recorded 25 November 1966, Dick James Music, New Oxford Street, London)_

“We thought it was time we had an entirely different approach,” said Paul McCartney of The Beatles’ fourth festive disc. Having taken a three-month break following their North American tour, fans were starting to speculate whether they might be getting their now customary gift. “Naturally, the big question in everyone’s mind is ‘Will The Beatles be giving us a fourth Christmas Record this year?’” asked the November 1966 edition of The Beatles Monthly Book. Thankfully, the answer was yes. Recorded the day after Strawberry Fields Forever on 25 November, it presented a more ambitious, scripted pantomime featuring three original songs – Everywhere It’s Christmas, Orowayna and Please Don’t Bring Your Banjo Back – amongst the skits. One of which was a curious dialogue about matches, candles and buns with John and Paul playing the parts of “Podgy The Bear” and “Jasper”. Again, grass may have been involved.

## **Christmas Time (Is Here Again) – (The Beatles Fifth Christmas Record)**

_(Recorded 28 November 1967 – Studio Three, EMI Recording Studios, Abbey Road, London)_

It says a lot about The Beatles’ attitude towards their fan club that even at this post-_Pepper_ point in their career they spent nine hours in Abbey Road working on their annual Christmas gift. Even more ambitious than the previous year’s Goons-inspired panto, and pre-dating the release of :a[The Who]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/the-mojo-list/the-whos-top-ten-greatest-albums/' }’s _:a[The Who Sell Out]{href='https://open.spotify.com/album/01Zc1xVpVQFnVKBc0SMMBO?si=FoPc2hHiQSSk4ghWcHxmTQ' }_ by several weeks, it was a pop art collage featuring spoof radio and TV broadcasts and jingles and a send up of BBC Light Programme’s daily request show Housewives’ Choice (George cues up “for all the people in hospital, Plenty Of Jam Jars by The Ravellers”). It also featured three bursts of :a[Christmas Time ]{href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB7LX8mRRHM' }, a song that was later remixed for inclusion on the 1995 reunion single :a[Free As A Bird]{href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODIvONHPqpk' }. Ringo also revived the track for his 1999 album _I Wanna Be Santa Claus_, and the following year :a[R.E.M.]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/the-mojo-list/rem-their-best-albums-ranked/' } recorded it for their own annual fan club-only Christmas single.

## **The Beatles** **Sixth Christmas Record**

_(Recorded at various times and locations)_

The Beatles had met radio DJ :a[Kenny Everett]{href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqOh4z2ASdk' } during their 1966 North American tour and were interviewed by him again in 1967 and 1968. Sensing a fellow anarchic spirit and no doubt impressed by Everett’s groundbreaking use of tape editing, they invited him to mix together the individually recorded items that made up what would be their penultimate Christmas message. A head-spinning collage of skits, poems and a short Paul original sending wishes for Christmas, Easter, Autumn, the New Year and Michaelmas are tied together by manipulated _:a[White Album]{href='https://open.spotify.com/album/1klALx0u4AavZNEvC4LrTL?si=_5d94HBXTTu7Zg-QsZH2gg' }_ cuts and sound effects. Much as you might think listening to :a[Revolution 9]{href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNdcFPjGsm8' } after :a[Love Me Do]{href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pGOFX1D_jg' }, it’s hard to square this with the more showbiz laffs of four years previously.

## **Last Year: The Beatles Seventh Christmas Record**

_(Recorded at various times and locations)_

Everett returned to mix The Beatles’ final Christmas flexi (credited under his real name Maurice Cole). While Paul contributes a brief but soulful Christmas ditty on his acoustic guitar and Ringo’s segment mentions The Magic Christian, in which he starred alongside Peter Sellers out that December (“it’s just a plug for the film, Ken. Try and keep it in!”), the majority of the material was provided by the recently married John and Yoko, singing a warped Xmas duet and interviewing each other as they walked around the gardens Tittenhurst Park. Tellingly, George is heard for just six seconds. In four months’ time McCartney would officially announce that The Beatles were no more.

_With thanks to Kevin Howlett whose feature on The Beatles’ Christmas records originally appeared in MOJO 291._

It’s that time of year again, the time where we gather MOJO’s writers together to thrash out the definitive list of the best new albums this year has had to offer. We’ve had plenty of returning favourites in 2024 - **Nick Cave**, **Jack White**, **Paul Weller** and **St. Vincent** among them. And in some cases have welcomed back artists after we were starting to worry we may never hear from again –  say hello, **The Cure** and **The The**. For us, though, what’s helped to make 2024 yet another vintage year for music is the new artists coming through and forging out new pathways. One's that we’re sure to be exploring for many years to come. If you want even more of the year’s best music make sure you pick up a copy of :a[the latest issue of MOJO]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/magazine/latest-issues/mojo-374-january-2025-neil-young/' } for the inside story on many of these records and a bespoke 'Best Of 2024' CD. Until next year…

Since his death in 2021, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry has enjoyed a fertile, if inconsistent, creative afterlife. Two 2024 releases, however, placed the reggae magus’s unreleased incantations in friendly new settings: _King Perry,_ shepherded by producer Danny Boyle; and this cosmic roots confection, worked on since 2017 by Killing Joke bassist Youth. Heady flashbacks to the mid-’70s Black Ark sound proliferated, plus some game if unlikely vocal sparring partners including Boy George.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvNwkntY7b8

“The title makes me think of attraction, passion, playfulness, paying attention, our collective downfall, loss, falling in love and love of humanity. That should cover it,” Joan Wasser told MOJO, comprehensively nailing the emotional breadth and maturity that filled her sixth solo album proper. Plenty of personality from this seasoned session pro (Anohni, Gorillaz _et al)_ too, as she pared back her music to burnished, sometimes torchy, New York soul.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbA\_E1iEuDI

The inimitable Basher’s first album in 11 years was, as he explained in MOJO 371, an investigation of “the craft of songwriting… It takes an enormous amount of effort to make it sound like you’ve made no effort at all.” Mission accomplished on _Indoor Safari,_ as Nick Lowe and his wrestling-masked accomplices Los Straitjackets made a clutch of new songs, revamps and covers (Garnett Mimms!) resemble lost hits from a golden age of rock’n’roll radio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKkhyNPMvTA

If the reunion of Creation’s _other_ battling brothers stole most of the headlines in 2024, the simmering _entente_ between Jim and William Reid was the one that delivered the goods: a knockabout, argumentative memoir; and this equally spirited eighth album. _Glasgow Eyes_ was a late JAMC classic of pop-culture snark (“Andrew Oldham’s on the phone”), gnarly self-mythologising (“The dark shit”) and even trace elements of filial affection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3\_NOCiRbII

A band who roughly resembled a cross between :a[Kate Bush]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/the-mojo-list/kate-bushs-50-greatest-tracks/' } and :a[Queen]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/brian-may-interviewed/' } – or, perhaps, Florence & The Machine and The Darkness – were always going to be a bit much for some. Nevertheless, the gusto with which the mostly female band grappled with pomp-pop made them 2024’s breakout stars. Note, too, an autumn cover of :a[Sparks]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/the-mojo-list/sparks-best-albums-ranked/' }’ This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us that asserted their art-rock bona fides with appropriate flamboyance.

**READ MORE: :a[The Last Dinner Party at Glastonbury Reviewed: Baroque pop angsts and mass arm-waving.]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/the-last-dinner-party-at-glastonbury-review/' }**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pETz4IMmeDU

Another strong year for British jazz found some of the main players stretching their wings, as Cassie Kinoshi and Nubya Garcia leaned harder into ravishing, complex orchestrations to supplement their soloing chops. Garcia, in particular, proved a sophisticated and democratic leader on her second solo album: ceding space to notable guests like esperanza spalding and Georgia Anne Muldrow; taking her turns in the spotlight on sax with notable discretion and maximum impact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqHitDV703Q

The deep-pile richness of Garcia’s _Odyssey_ often recalled Kamasi Washington’s _Heaven And Earth_ (MOJO’s 2018 Album Of The Year), but Washington’s belated sequel switched up his own game: less cosmic grandeur, more funkiness, danceability and street smarts. As ever, Washington was another master strategist, uniting George Clinton, André 3000, sundry next-gen rappers and a surfeit of good ideas into a relentlessly joyful 86 minutes.

**READ MORE:** :a[**Kamasi Washington Interviewed: “It was difficult to make because it was so personal.”**]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/kamasi-washington-on-his-new-album/' }

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6iWnD9JGWc

Like :a[the Gallaghers]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/the-mojo-list/oasis-and-solo-top-ten-albums/' } and Reids, a rapprochement between Chris and Rich Robinson resulted in the first Black Crowes album since 2009 – and the best, perhaps, in nearly three decades. _Happiness Bastards_ charged through :a[Stones]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/new-music/the-rolling-stones-reviewed/' }/:a[Faces]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/the-mojo-list/rod-stewart-and-the-faces-best-albums-ranked/' } raunch, Southern soul and country honk with a punch reminiscent of their earliest records – a focus borne out by Rich’s pragmatic assessment in MOJO 364: “In order to do this properly, we had to not be dicks.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHBu97e--xA

Gene Clark, Beth Gibbons and Mazzy Star were the classy influences cited by Kiwanuka upfront of his fourth album, and first since 2019: reference points that reasserted his music as a complex evolution of soul. The aptly titled _Small Changes,_ however, also reiterated his ability to make timelessly great music – historically resonant, subtly modern – and overcome self-doubt with the high-spec support of regular producers Danger Mouse and Inflo.

**“Everybody hurts, it seems to say, but this may help…** ★★★★” **:a[Read MOJO’s review of Small Changes in full.]{href='https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/new-music/michael-kiwanuka-small-changes-review/' }**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BusZjcKbH5w

Marling’s 2020 album, _Song For Our Daughter,_ was a hypothetical concept, but _Patterns In Repeat_ made explicit the artist’s new reality, as Child Of Man opened with the gurgling of her one-year-old. And if Marling ruefully admitted in MOJO 372 that albums about motherhood had always bored her, she remained a subtle and uncommonly intelligent singer-songwriter – one alert to the lullaby clichés of the genre, and with the gifts to artfully circumnavigate them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSeJqLyeCeE

The last men standing of Seattle’s ‘90s rock insurgency, Pearl Jam have weathered triumph and tragedy, from the rocket success of debut album _Ten_ to the unimaginable horror of Roskilde. Yet throughout it all, Eddie Vedder and his group have shown extraordinary endurance and resilience, a collective strength borne out in their body of work.

From _:a[Ten]{href='https://open.spotify.com/album/5B4PYA7wNN4WdEXdIJu58a?si=NlvEj0M3T_eoUx8ndnpE-w' }_ and _:a[Vitalogy]{href='https://open.spotify.com/album/5pd9B3KQWKshHw4lnsSLNy?si=3N3OwAYHRRe4HA0RZ2FkMw' }_’s grunge-hewn rock anthems through the eclectic spreads of 2002's :a[_Riot Act_]{href='https://open.spotify.com/album/7AOWw68DEPnDmTpquZw8bG?si=FGTiMQUSQa6T2-zD1nzmFg' } and _:a[Gigaton]{href='https://open.spotify.com/album/5bTixyz2GHx1YUqNUdzfut?si=ieK5ivU3QhuIzmqwlc48CQ' }_ in 2020 and 2023's _:a[Dark Matter]{href='https://open.spotify.com/album/7MNrrItJpom6uMJWdT0XD8?si=Xrhddg8kRGqT7sfqaKtvdA' }_, Pearl Jam have shown they both understand the chemistry that fuses the band together and also have a willingness to move its constituent parts to explore new terrain. Here, MOJO's Keith Cameron surveys the road travelled so far…

The new dawn promised by 1998’s _Yield_ quickly faded. Drummer Jack Irons quitting for health reasons was bad luck, but an album dominated by unprepossessing material recorded with a new producer, Tchad Blake, experimenting with the titular recording method when your latest drummer was Soundgarden rock godhead Matt Cameron seemed perverse (as did leaving Sad in the ‘Lost Dogs’ pile). The approach actually better suited the gentler songs – Light Years is a gem – but despite Brendan O’Brien’s remixing, the stilted _Binaural_ ultimately satisfied no one.

The efficacy of producer Brendan O’Brien’s tight ship regimen on 2009’s _Backspacer_ was emphasised by its successor. Lightning Bolt sessions began in 2012, then paused for a year of hum and hah plus side-projects, and the sense that no one ever reconvened on the same page haunts this fitful collection. In the credit column: Sirens, an unabashed McCready power ballad that Vedder sung into the next dimension.

The band’s imminent 20th anniversary was deemed the moment to belatedly go new wave; producer O’Brien took barely a month to help whip out the shortest PJ album (37 minutes). Some of the snap-happy cuts could actually have used more evolution, but The Fixer and Got Some vindicated the notion of EdVed fronting The Police. Even the ballads had zip, while Unthought Known was a readymade arena air puncher.

The mid-career self-titling flagged ‘_Avocado_’’s fresh start even before a note was heard – then Life Wasted tore out of the grooves like a caged rat, the urgency maintained throughout, be it the raw AC/DC growl of World Wide Suicide or the surf garage romp Big Wave. With several lyrics inspired by the US political landscape, Pearl Jam clearly felt the imperative for direct audience engagement – and remembered that it suited them.

Co-produced with engineer Josh Evans and even longer in the pot than 2013’s _Lightning Bolt_, the eco-conceptual _Gigaton_ improbably vindicated the five-guys-cook-a-pizza approach to record making. Amidst its wild mood swings and occasional missteps, this was a collectively invested, creatively intrepid PJ sometimes missing from the band’s 21st century output. Stadium folk (Retrograde), cosmic country-prog (Seven O’Clock), iceberg disco (Dance Of The Clairvoyants): all here and more besides, on an epic soundtrack for dangerous times.

Latest on Mojo

Latest Magazine

Latest Articles