Celebrating Chris Difford on his 71st birthday. —Ed.

From England’s green and pleasant land, an unprepossessing and pleasant band—Squeeze aren’t out to change your life, just to provide you with friendly and understated pop gems, domestic and romantic tableaux of the sort that won me over even when I was at the height of my Anglophobia.

The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau more or less summed up my sentiments when he wrote of Squeeze’s 1982 compilation Singles – 45’s and Under, “They’re so principled in their unpretension, so obsessed with the telling detail, that their lesser moments are passively minuscule—not unfine when you squint at them, but all too easy to overlook.”

People are always talking about Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook as if they’re the McCartney and Lennon of the early eighties, but back me against a wall and the only Squeeze songs I can name are “Tempted,” “Pulling Mussels from the Shell,” and “Black Coffee in Bed.” And I considered myself a fan. Not a huge fan, but I saw them live on a pier in New York City once. Pity I was three sheets to the wind and almost fell off the pier.

But just because I don’t remember most of the songs on Singles – 45’s and Under doesn’t mean they’re not worth hearing. There’s a real warmth to Squeeze’s music, even if Difford and Tilbrook are rather cool customers. They’re Apollonian formalists, and pure popcraft is their strong suit. I’m talking immaculately put-together songs with smart words about heartbreak and occasionally irresistible melodies.

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In late-’70s Minneapolis, guitarist Bob Mould, drummer Grant Hart, and bassist Greg Norton came together to form one of the great trios in rock music’s long history. Burning bright for most of the ensuing decade, Hüsker Dü exploded out of the hardcore scene with ferocious speed, only to incrementally increase the melody without turning down the amps. On November 7, Numero Group releases the 4LP live set 1985: The Miracle Year, which posits the smack-dab middle of the ’80s as the band’s peak in terms of productivity, execution, and songwriting acumen. Soaking up the 43 songs, it’s impossible to argue.

Consisting of a complete live set from the venue First Avenue in Minneapolis on January 30, 1985, spread across two LPs and then an additional batch of live songs from various locales during the same period sequenced onto two more LPs, 1985: The Miracle Year might appear to be an undertaking best suited for an intensely devoted listenership.

However, time spent with the collection establishes a gripping momentum that thrives on an extraordinary level of precision, the band dynamic taken to an extreme, and a ratcheting up of intensity that teeters on the brink of sheer mayhem. This is especially the case as the First Avenue set (dubbed the “Minnesota Miracle”) blazes forth, the trio in the throes of a particular, peculiar positive energy that can only really exist when a group endeavor explodes far beyond any reasonable expectations.

As part of the SST Records elite that changed rock music forever, alongside Minutemen, Meat Puppets, and Black Flag, Hüsker Dü succeeded through a defiant tenacity and a relentless desire to keep pushing the possibilities. These bands were never supposed to progress beyond a local phenomenon. It all gets a thorough examination in 1985: The Miracle Year’s booklet essay by Bob Mehr.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | On November 1, 2024, The Cure released their widely acclaimed album Songs Of A Lost World. 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 an audience of 3,000. Now, fans will get to watch the whole show in cinemas worldwide before a physical Blu-Ray and DVD release in late December 2025.

The Cure: The Show Of A Lost World is a remixed, recut, and 4K remastered film of that night’s whole 31-song show. Directed by Grammy-nominated Nick Wickham, with a new Dolby Atmos sound mix by Robert Smith. The film includes all 31 songs performed that night, featuring the complete live performance of Songs Of A Lost World and a special five-song set to celebrate 45 years of the Seventeen Seconds album.

The Cure: The Show Of A Lost World is being released via Lost Images, Polydor/Capitol Records, Mercury Studios and Trafalgar Releasing. Tickets at cinemas around the world will go on sale on November 20th at 2pm GMT/10am EST/6am PST. Further details are available at thecurelostworld.com.

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 and will be playing live across Europe in Summer 2026.

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Remembering Bert Jansch, born on this date in 1943. —Ed.

There might be no better time than the present to be a record collecting fan of Bert Jansch. Vinyl reissues from all stages of the Brit-folk guitar linchpin’s career have been flowing into the racks for a while now, and we’re currently experiencing a crescendo of material from the late singer-songwriter.

The 1960s was flush with fingerpickers, and Bert Jansch was amongst the very best. Adding to his appeal, the Scottish troubadour was also a capable vocalist, solid songwriter, and a deft collaborator, first teaming with fellow guitarist John Renbourn; in short order the duo co-founded the progressive folk combo Pentangle.

Jansch’s eponymous debut and its follow-up It Don’t Bother Me, both issued in 1965, have endured as classics, and for those wishing to become conversant with the man’s work, they are the place to begin; last year Superior Viaduct issued the LPs singly, and both will be part of Earth Recordings’ upcoming box set of Jansch’s output for the Transatlantic label.

This period remains the most lauded stretch in the guitarist’s oeuvre, in part due to its consistency and sharpness of focus. 1966 brought third album Jack Orion, which both extends from and contrasts with its predecessor, the opening strains of banjo in “The Waggoner’s Lad” picking up where It Don’t Bother Me’s finale “900 Miles” left off. The instrumental switch intertwines productively with Renbourn’s guitar, as his role, having commenced on the prior disc’s “Lucky Thirteen,” is deepened across four Jack Orion cuts to positive effect.

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There’s something quietly magnetic about Lōwli’s debut album Window in the Woods. The project of Irish composer and songwriter Róisín Lowry, Lōwli has been steadily carving a name for herself in the Irish neo-classical scene over the past few years, and this full-length release feels like the moment where it all comes into focus.

Recorded in Treehouse Studios, Co. Wicklow, Window in the Woods is a beautifully brooding collection that blurs the lines between modern classical composition and dark, cinematic pop. It’s the kind of album that creeps up on you, full of hushed intensity and emotional precision.

At its core lies a vintage 1920s Forster upright piano, whose soft imperfections lend a deeply human quality to the record. Around that, Lōwli layers sweeping strings, atmospheric percussion and ambient textures, creating something that feels both fragile and expansive. Her voice—rich, controlled, and hauntingly pure—floats above it all, particularly on standout tracks “Undone” and “Ground Above You,” where she balances vulnerability with quiet strength.

The instrumental moments are just as affecting. Pieces like “Lament” and “Islands Are Falling” strip things back to their emotional essence, evoking the restrained melancholy of Agnes Obel or Nils Frahm. It’s music that demands stillness, the kind of record you put on late at night, when the outside world finally fades away.

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Celebrating Adam Ant on his 71st birthday. —Ed.

Who’s better qualified to talk about New Wave legends Adam and the Ants than a real, live ant? Or better yet, anthropomorphic cartoon superhero Atom Ant? I recently caught up with everybody’s favorite atomic-powered New Frontier insect at a retirement anthill outside Phoenix, Arizona, and took the opportunity to ask him a few questions about the band that invented Antmusic.

Before we start, how’s Secret Squirrel?

Squirrelly. Very squirrelly. All of that International Sneaky Service stuff went to his head. I was always having to remind him it was only TV. I occasionally get coded letters from him with handwritten return addresses from places like Colombia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But they’re all postmarked Erie, Pennsylvania.

So what do you think about Adam and the Ants’ striking visual image?

It’s a disgrace to Family Formicidae. Real ants don’t wear make-up, although we do have our fair share of Goth Kids. Don’t get me wrong; in one sense their look is a return to the campy outrages of Glam Rock, and I don’t know a single ant who doesn’t love him some Glam. Hell, even their patented two-drummer Burundi beat is a salute of sorts to Gary Glitter.

What was your response to the “Antpeople Phenom”?

I took it as a left-handed complement to our eusociality and this mythical notion that we share some kind of “hive mind.” Hell, if that were true we’d all like straightedge–if that ain’t a terrifying example of programmed hive behavior, I don’t know what is. But speaking for myself, I think Antpeople are good people. You could do worse than imitate us. Let’s face it: acting human certainly hasn’t gotten the human race very far. The shit you people do on a daily basis is appalling. Cooperation and peaceful crisis resolution just aren’t your thing. Remember the episode where arch-enemy Karate Ant and I faced off and ended up having a friendly chat? Donald Trump would have called him “Little Rocket Man” and escalated that little contretemps into WWIII.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Founded by Ray Charles in the 1960s, Tangerine Records is proud to celebrate the 17x GRAMMY® Award-winning singer, songwriter, and pianist’s singular legacy with the Tangerine Master Series, a new slate of reissues highlighting Charles’ best-known music alongside classic records long out of print, and ready for rediscovery. Each album has been restored and remastered under the direct supervision of The Ray Charles Foundation, painting a vivid new portrait of an artist and icon whose impact continues to expand and inspire.

The Tangerine Master Series now presents No One Does It Like…Ray Charles! collecting for the first time ever a number of mid-1960s singles, B-sides, and non-LP tracks never before gathered together on a single cohesive album. The instant classic collection captures Ray Charles at the height of his powers, offering a rare glimpse into a prolific and creatively explosive moment in his career. Tracks like “My Baby Don’t Dig Me,” “Without Love (There Is Nothing),” “Worried Life Blues,” and a top 10 rendition of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman’s classic “No One” showcase his unmatched range and soul.

An essential addition to the Ray Charles canon and a snapshot of an artist at the peak of his creative brilliance, No One Does It Like…Ray Charles! arrives everywhere on Friday, November 21. Pre-orders/pre-saves are available now.

“A discography can define legacy, it can define a tenure of greatness, but to appreciate the gifts of Ray Charles, one has to avoid taking such a wide-lens approach, which is a way of saying that each Ray Charles song is a universe,” writes award-winning poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib in an exclusive essay penned expressly for this new release. “No One Does It Like…Ray Charles! is an offering which makes that plain….All of the songs on this album existed, somewhere, before this, stretched out alongside the massive career of Ray Charles. But this is the first time they’ve been curated and organized in one single place.

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Celebrating Adam Horovitz on his 59th birthday. —Ed.

Well here it is: the album that changed everything–for the better! The fiery shot of hip hop fired across the bow of rock’n’roll that succeeded (spectacularly!) by swiping its most monstrous riffs from rock’n’roll itself, and its brash, crass, and hilarious attitude from punk.

As I remember it, 1988’s Licensed to Ill did the impossible by converting predominantly white hardcore punks and rockers to an almost exclusively black musical genre (hip hop) OVERNIGHT. I recall attending a party being thrown by a couple of Johnny Thunders wannabes at a roach-infested crash pad in Philly, and lo and behold all every sneering personality crisis in attendance wanted to do was jump joyously around to Licensed to Ill until the morning hours.

Do you think it’s easy to instantaneously win hearts and minds? To turn cynical hive-minded hardcore kids (just like the Beasties when they started out) into the kinds of responsible world citizens who immediately rushed out to buy Public Enemy’s black-consciousness-expanding It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back after a single playing of “No Sleep till Brooklyn”? Licensed to Ill was the boldest blow for race mixing this side of P-Funk. Or Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka even. Or Public Enemy for that matter. True, even the most cursory glance at Kid Rock should be enough to tell you this remarkable phenomenon had its downside (God Save Us From Vanilla Ice!) but STILL.

But Licensed to Ill was more than just a remarkable blow for instant integration. The Beastie Boys muscled their way to the front of the bus on the basis of sheer bravado and a snotty sense of New Yawk humor not heard since the Dictators released the great Go Girl Crazy! Mike D., MCA, and Ad-Rock were that crazy kid down the block who lived to get high, liked to egg cop cars, and had that insane stash of Hustler magazines. And who thought everything was funny; hell, he even laughed while he was PUKING.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Recordings is teaming up with The Pharcyde to celebrate 30 years of the iconic rap group’s era-defining sophomore LP, Labcabincalifornia. The release will arrive on newly remastered 2-CD and digital formats on December 5th and is available for pre-order/pre-save today. This 30th-anniversary edition of the album features instrumentals, B-sides, remixes by the legendary J Dilla, and a brand-new remix by Glen Nicholls (whose work includes collaborations with The Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails, U2).

Originally released in 1995, Labcabincalifornia marked a creative evolution for The Pharcyde. Produced by the group alongside J Dilla, the album blended sharp lyricism with inventive, jazz-infused beats that helped shape the sound of modern hip-hop. Featuring timeless singles like “Drop,” “Runnin’,” and “She Said,” the record showcased the group’s lyrical maturity and experimental edge. The Spike Jonze–directed video for “Drop,” which sampled the Beastie Boys’ “The New Style,” became a defining visual moment of the decade and helped propel the track onto the Billboard Hot 100.

The Pharcyde formed in 1989 in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles. Originally consisting of Fatlip, Slimkid3, Bootie Brown, and Imani, the band became one of the city’s hottest groups thanks to their innovative style during the gangsta rap era.

As critic Dean Van Nguyen wrote about their breakthrough debut, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, the quartet were a different sort of rap group than what was traditionally expected in the early 1990s. “With G-funk crumbling pavements in the Wild West, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde offered a breezier boom-bap alternative.

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Celebrating Johnny Marr on his 62nd birthday. —Ed.

I’m a Morrissey fan by temperament—of all the musicians who have ever lived, Manchester’s most famous miserabalist (he even beats Mark E. Smith!) comes closest to sharing my belief that hope is the lubricant that keeps the human meat grinder running—and because I consider him the funniest musician to ever kvetch into a microphone.

I can’t help but love a man who quipped, “What’s the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning? Wish I hadn’t.” And was quoted as saying, “I have found the best way to avoid ending your life as a bitter wreck is to start out as one.” The Mancunian misanthropist’s feckless take on life is utterly hilarious, and what I’ll never get over is there are people out there who don’t think he’s funny. No wonder Morrissey’s miserable; he’s a great comedian but nobody gets his jokes.

And the jokes just keep on coming on The Smiths’ third studio LP, 1986’s The Queen Is Dead. Morrissey possesses a savage wit; “Girlfriend in a Coma” is a black comedy for the ages. And on The Queen Is Dead Morrissey is in top form. He opens “Bigmouth Strikes Again” with the lines, “Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking/When I said I’d like to/Smash every tooth in your head/Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking/When I said by rights/You should be bludgeoned in your bed” and you can practically hear him cackling. And his take on dying a romantic death on “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” (“And if a double-decker bus/Crashes into us/To die by your side/Is such a heavenly way to die/And if a ten-ton truck/Kills the both of us/To die by your side/Well, the pleasure—the privilege is mine”) never fails to crack me up.

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