Mavis Staples Bemoans And Admires The State Of Our World

October 13, 2025

To call Mavis Staples a voice of a generation would mean to hugely underestimate her cultural significance. For one, this artist’s career encopmasses more than a single peer-group lifespan, and then, her influence not only on music but also on a civil rights movement, and even if we focus solely on songs these have crossed genres and styles with ease, their only constant remaining the veteran’s voice and personality. Still, the last platter she issued was 2019’s “We Get By” – written and produced by Ben Harper, and though Mavis’ contributed to "Here It Is: A Tribute To Leonard Cohen" in 2022, fans have been eagerly waiting for her next solo offering. And soon the wait will be over.

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THE WATERBOYS Return To Dennis Hopper’s Realm

October 12, 2025

When THE WATERBOYS released the “Life, Death And Dennis Hopper” last April, it seemed that one hour would be enough for the Scottish ensemble’s dive into American cinematicity, yet they created too much of Western-landscape-exploring material to use within a single platter’s context, star-studded or not. As a result, December 5th will the a companion record issued, called “Rips From The Cutting Room Floor” and featuring tracks that didn’t fit the original narrative.

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DURUTTI COLUMN Expand Their Debut For Anniversary Edition

October 12, 2025

Starting out as a real band, DURUTTI COLUMN arrived at their first album as a one-man operation, guitarist Vini Reilly working with producer Martin Hannett and roping in a rhythm section to flesh out the grooves for tracks the two concocted. Still, the initial low-key affair titled “The Return Of The Durutti Column” proved to be much loved, highly influential and, four and a half decades down the line, often listened to by many a connoisseur. That’s why the 1980 album’s expansion which shall soon see the light of day seems like a great reason to admire it afresh.

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Chris Rea Compiles His Yuletide Output Into Standalone Album

October 11, 2025

There are plenty of Yuletide albums which more often than not turn out to be uninspired stop-gaps in an artist’s creative streaks. It’s different with Chris Rea, though, because the English musician made a habit of placing a seasonal song on his records, from 1986’s “Driving Home For Christmas” onwards. He issued “The Christmas EP” two years later, has been adding pieces to this cache of tuneful cuts ever since, and now the entire collection of these is to form “The Christmas Album” which will hit the shelves on November 28th.

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LAIBACH Celebrate Their Debut’s Anniversary With A Box Set

October 11, 2025

Listening to LAIBACH seems a laborious thing, both on record and in concert, and this scribe isn’t ashamed to admit the Slovenian ensemble’s performance back in the mid-’90s remains about the only show he’s ever walked out of, but there many people who are very much invested in the group’s totalitarian-sounding oeuvre. Their discography started four decades ago with the issue of an album titled “Nebo žari” which arrived without the band’s name on the cover, because Yugoslavian authorities had banned them. Restored in its originally intended place, the word “Laibach” will now appear as an element of the disc’s artwork – and the artwork of a box set built around that platter.

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