From John Fahey, the Sonics and the Waitresses to Slade, Wizzard and Mariah Carey, we count down the best festive numbers
50. John Fahey
The First Noel
Tiring of the fact that no one wanted to buy albums of experimental American primitive guitar music, but they bought White Christmas every year, John Fahey recorded an album of Christmas instrumentals. It was, by a margin, his bestselling record. Atypical of his work, but beautiful.
49. The Sonics
Dont Believe in Christmas
The Sonics believed some folks liked the taste of straight strychnine, so of course they didnt believe in Christmas. What happened when they stayed up late to try to catch a glimpse of Santa? Well, sure enough, dont ya know / The fat boy didnt show. Cheeky so-and-sos.
48. Emmy the Great & Tim Wheeler
Christmas Day (I Wish I Was Surfing)
Sounding much more like Ash than Emmy the Great and the loudest, most raucous thing on their 2011 Christmas album this is a song that sounds joyous, but is really about the desire to escape, to anywhere that isnt cold. So long as its not alone.
47. Little Joey Farr
RocknRoll Christmas
Rocknroll and rockabilly are a treasure trove of Christmas novelty numbers (try Marlene Paulas I Want To Spend Xmas with Elvis), but weve only got room for one. So, given Christmas is all about the kids, bless their souls, lets have a song by an actual kid who promptly disappeared from the pop world.
46. Lou Rawls
Santa Claus Is Comin to Town
One imagines this would be the soundtrack to Don Drapers Christmas as creamy as eggnog, with a supple swing thats nagging but not unobtrusive, its exactly the sound of an idealised Christmas from the 60s. Rawls made a ton of Christmas albums, but his first from 1967 is the best.
45. Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Rudy Sarzo & Simon Wright
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
How would Christmas sound reimagined by Black Sabbath? Almost exactly as you would imagine, to be honest. The most oddly foreboding of all the big Christmas songs suits the grinding and roaring. And it helps, naturally, that it contains a reference to Satans power.
44. Saint Etienne
I Was Born on Christmas Day
From fire and brimstone to prosecco and chocolate, bursting with optimism for the winter: Getting groovy after Halloween / Mid-November, got back on the scene / Im so glad that I just got my pay / I was born on Christmas Day! A song as sweet as a selection box.
43. The Free Design
Close Your Mouth (Its Christmas)
Probably the song that goes on in Don Drapers apartment after Lou Rawls, when the hip young kids have arrived. Get to know the people in your house, they sing. You might like them. Draper knocks back a whisky, raises an eyebrow and shakes his head.
42. Sally Shapiro
Anorak Christmas
A gorgeous bauble from the mid-00s wave of Scandinavian music that crossed electropop with the feyest indie. Sally falls in love on a Tuesday before Christmas, at a gig with a band that we both liked. But will she end up by herself or in the perfect kiss?
41. Solomon Burke
Presents for Christmas
The king of rocknsoul pitches himself somewhere between a revivalist preacher and Santa Claus: We want to give out a present to everybody this Christmas! All around the world for every man, woman, boy and girl! he exclaims in the intro. One of the few artists whose spoken sections routinely rival the songs (track down a copy of Soul Alive! if you dont believe me).
40. Joy Zipper
Christmas Song
Blank-faced and affectless, heres Christmas for the shoegazers from the duo briefly toasted at the start of the last decade. Kevin Shields and David Holmes produced, and you can bet Beach House were listening.
39. Neil Halstead
The Man in the Santa Suit
Truthfully, this version is only here because the Fountains of Wayne original an homage to the Kinks Father Christmas isnt on Spotify. But what a perfect, sad song: And hes a big red cherry / But its hard to be merry / When the kids are all laughing / Saying: Hey, its Jerry Garcia.
38. The Everly Brothers
Christmas Eve Can Kill You
The Man in the Santa Suit is a laughfest compared to this Everly Brothers number from 1972, about a hitcher alone the night before Christmas. Organ and pedal steel sound like the wind whistling through the trees as our hero trudges on: The sound of one man walkin through the snow can break your heart.
37. Santo & Johnny
Twistin Bells
Do we need cheering up? I think we do. Thank goodness, then, for the twangy guitars of Brooklyn duo Santo & Johnny, the gaudy, overlit shop window that contrasts with the stark loneliness of the Everly Brothers.
36. Run-DMC
Christmas in Hollis
Hip-hop hasnt been a huge source of Christmas songs, but Run-DMC were on top of it back in the first golden age. What would you do if you found Santas wallet on Hollis Avenue? Its a perennial question. Run decides its best to post it back; he is rewarded for his honesty.
35. Shirley & Dolly Collins
The Gower Wassail
Two of the greatest British folk voices combine for a drinking song that, if were honest, is unlikely to be ringing out in pubs this Christmas. The asceticism of the British folk tradition can be a useful astringent amid the sleigh bells and tinsel.
34. Tracey Thorn
Snow in Sun
Originally from Scritti Polittis sublime 2006 album White Bread, Black Beer and reworked by Thorn on her gorgeous album Tinsel and Lights which is enough to qualify it as a Christmas song here is a featherlight breath of winter to freshen your face.
33. Mahalia Jackson
Go Tell It on the Mountain
You cant really have Christmas without acknowledging that someone significant was born on 25 December and not just Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne. The queen of gospel wants you to spread the news far and wide, and she imparts her message with due gravitas.
32. Big Star
Jesus Christ
Big Stars Third is the least likely album to contain a Christmas song, but amid the desperation and despair was this huge burst of fervour. Did Alex Chilton mean it? Was it a joke? Its effect is magnified by the music that surrounds it on the rest of the album.
31. Calexico
Green Grows the Holly
Gorgeous and stern, and undoubtedly the best adaptation by an Americana band of any poem written by Henry VIII. The horns bloom, like the flowers of the song, turning something indisputably English into a desert lament.
30. Jimmy McGriff
Winter Wonderland
McGriff opens with a squall of organ that doesnt lead you to believe Christmas is coming anytime soon, then takes Winter Wonderland at such a leisurely pace that it takes a moment to recognise it. (If you like this, try Jimmy Smiths Christmas 64 as well.)
29. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
Aint No Chimneys in the Projects
When you live in poverty, certain logistical problems come to mind. Namely, if youre in a big public housing block, how does Santa get the presents underneath the tree? A fabulous addition to the long line of socially conscious soul and funk Christmas music.
28. Sons of Heaven
When Was Jesus Born?
We all know the answer, but when its posed this beautifully, in such impeccable close harmony, the obviousness of the question can be forgiven. There are many versions of this, but its a hard song to do anything but beautifully.
27. Thea Gilmore
Listen, the Snow Is Falling
Yoko Onos is the original version and Galaxie 500s rendition is more celebrated, but Thea Gilmore gets the perfect ratio of iciness to wonder it sounds like a Christmas tree, if such a thing were possible. The 2009 album Strange Communion is highly recommended.
26. The Temptations
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
Oh, wrap yourself in the blanket of those glorious voices! Motown took Christmas seriously, with the result that you could probably do this list entirely from Motown tracks. This one gets selected because what is really a fairly dismal song is transformed by a perfect arrangement.
25. Clarence Carter
Back Door Santa
Pure Christmas filth. Back Door Santa can make all the little girls happy / While the boys are out to play. But dont mistake him for Father Christmas: I aint like old Saint Nick / He dont come but once a year. I dare you not to dance, though.
24. Ramones
Danny Says
Merry Christmas (I Dont Want to Fight Tonight) is better known as a Ramones Christmas song, but the sublime Danny Says gets the nod, qualifying on the grounds that the desperate, lonely band are stuck on the road deep in winter and it aint Christmas if there aint no snow.
23. Cristina
Things Fall Apart
No matter how bad your Christmas is, its not as bad as Cristinas. Mind you, given its the early 80s New York art underground, she was probably forbidden from liking something so bourgeois. Even a party cant cheer her: I caught a cab back to my flat / And wept a bit and fed the cat.
22. Joni Mitchell
River
Joni Mitchell is bereft, too, on this gorgeous piano ballad, when Christmas just makes her mourn her relationship and flee Laurel Canyon for her home in Canada, where there might be a frozen river she could skate away on, away from everything.
21. David Banner
The Christmas Song
Completing the mini-run of joyless Christmases, heres the most joyless of all when the only way to pay for Christmas is to rob and deal and kill. The climactic jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way is not intended as cause for celebration.
20. Lindstrm
Little Drummer Boy
Hans-Peter Lindstrm takes almost 43 minutes to assemble a Christmas song from electronic squiggles, through the martial drumbeat, to the melody coming in at eight minutes. It then spends a further 25 minutes warping and mutating, picking up and discarding musical phrases, before exploding orgasmically in its final 10 minutes or so.
19. William Bell
Every Day Will Be a Holiday
It doesnt actually mention Christmas, but gets counted and not just by me as a Christmas song because of the little horn lift from Jingle Bells, for it being about being lonely waiting for his baby to come home (presumably for Christmas), and because its B-side was Please Come Home For Christmas. Its also a fabulous piece of Stax soul.
18. Belle and Sebastian
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
On the 2000 charity album Its a Cool Cool Christmas which was pretty strong Belle and Sebastian took on the most beautiful of all the Christmas hymns. Something so delicate suited them. Also recommended: El Vez merging Feliz Navidad and Public Image.
17. The Staple Singers
Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas?
The Staple Singers are worried: too many wars, too much space exploration means people are searching for light and cant seem to find the right star. Jesus isnt just another baby boy, they warn. So show some respect. Glorious.
16. The Watersons
Sound, Sound Your Instruments of Joy
Just listen to the voices: this is Christmas as it must have sounded when it was a religious festival in the depths of winter, rather than an excuse to rack up debt. Make your own fun! Maybe weave an Action Man out of three pieces of straw! And yet its so beautiful.
15. Eartha Kitt
Santa Baby
Were into the start of the big songs now, and Eartha Kitts contribution is the precise opposite of the Watersons vision of Christmas. She wants a sable, a convertible, a yacht, a platinum mine She wants every sensation. And whats Jesus got to do with anything?
14. Otis Redding
White Christmas
Who knew the most famous Christmas hit of all could be so emotionally wrought? Where Bing Crosby sounded as if he was fondly pondering his Christmas, Otis sounds like hes breaking into a sweat trying to will it into existence through sheer force of desire.
13. The Pretenders
2000 Miles
Sometimes simple is best: Robbie McIntoshs guitar playing on the Pretenders 1984 hit is a model of folk-rock restraint, taking from the Byrds, and offsetting Chrissie Hyndes voice and lyric with a sense that everything, somehow, is going to be OK.
12. Bob Seger and the Last Heard
Sock It to Me Santa
Santas got a brand new bag! hollers Bob Seger, who was a Detroit R&B shouter years before he became a heartland American beard rocker. Sock It to Me Santa is a fabulous explosion garage rock and soul brought together into something made for the best bar in the city on Christmas Eve.
11. Wham!
Last Christmas
A big Christmas hit that was unlike previous UK seasonal singles it wasnt wrapped in sleigh bells, there was nothing consciously novelty about it. Perhaps George Michael had been paying close attention to some of the great US Christmas soul singles, because this was a heartbreak song that just happened to be set in December.
10. Darlene Love
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
A Christmas Gift to You from Phil Spector codified the sound of Christmas: maximal, filled with signifiers of the season (there is nowhere sleigh bells cant be draped). Darlene Loves Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) was the standout on a record on which the quality didnt drop from start to finish.
9. Wizzard
I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
Roy Woods enduring contribution to the season owed a huge debt to Phil Spector theres almost certainly a kitchen sink section at work somewhere in the mix but it transcends imitation by its sheer verve. It was recorded in summer, with the studio air conditioning turned down to make everyone feel wintry. Attention to detail, right there.
8. Slade
Merry Xmas Everybody
Christmas 1973 brought not just Wizzard but the most enduring of all British Christmas singles. Forty-six years later, people still bellow Its CHRISTMAS! in Noddy Holders face, which, apparently, gets a little wearisome. The whole thing was Jim Leas mums idea why didnt Slade have a song they could release every year? She got her wish.
7. Donny Hathaway
This Christmas
It wasnt a hit at the time, but took off when it was included on a 1991 reissue of the 1968 Atco compilation Soul Christmas. To which you can only say: why did it take the world so long to notice? Its a Christmas song that stands up regardless of the season. And according to the publishing body Ascap, its now the 30th most performed Christmas song of all time in the US.
6. Tom Waits
Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis
Probably not one to play when youre unwrapping the presents. A character study that begins grimly, then offers hope, as the narrator says things are getting better before ripping the rug away without ceremony. Do you want to know the truth of it, she asks: Charley, hey, Ill be eligible for parole come Valentines day.
5. Marvin Gaye
Purple Snowflakes
A song so beautiful its almost otherworldly Marvin Gayes flawless falsetto, the unexpected chord changes, the sense of mystery. Yet its wrapped up in the most comforting of Christmas imagery chestnuts roasting, blankets of white without ever explaining why the snowflakes are purple.
4. The Waitresses
Christmas Wrapping
Like Cristinas Things Fall Apart, Christmas Wrapping was originally written for the Z labels 1981 compilation the most punching-above-its-weight Christmas comp ever. Its a fabulous stream of consciousness, during which Patty Donahue talks herself from wanting to miss Christmas to knowing she cant miss Christmas, that bursts into joy at its horn refrain.
3. Low
Just Like Christmas
Lows 1999 Christmas EP released as a gift to fans was one of the most unexpected seasonal delights: ascetic indie band embracing the season without irony. Its lead track was a joy, the discomfort of touring reminding them of when they were young, and it feeling just like Christmas. Just two verses, and a repeated refrain perfect.
2. The Pogues
Fairytale of New York
Theres almost nothing left to be said about Fairytale of New York, a song that has been impossible to avoid for more than 30 years. Such is the strength of the songwriting and the grace of the performance that, despite the overexposure, it feels fresh every single time. That a scrappy folk-punk band produced something that will endure as long as Christmas itself is a real Christmas miracle.
Lizzo scores eight nominations with Eilish and Lil Nas X on seven, but British artists largely snubbed in major categories
The 17-year-old pop sensation Billie Eilish has become the youngest artist to be nominated in all four of the most prestigious Grammy award categories: record, album and song of the year, and best new artist.
Her gothic, innovative single Bad Guy, which topped the US charts, is nominated in the song and record categories, while her similarly chart-topping album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? is nominated for the album prize. She completed a sweep of the top categories with a best new artist nomination, and has six nominations in all. Her album engineers got a nod in the best engineered album category, including her brother and collaborator Finneas, who received three nominations.
The most nominations were for Lizzo, who received eight, including in the top four categories. The powerhouse Minneapolis singer, known for her vociferous support of body positivity as well as her showboating flute solos, has been a slow-burn success, first releasing music in 2013 but scoring breakthrough hits this year with Juice, Tempo and US No 1 hit Truth Hurts.
Lil Nas X received six nominations, including three in the top categories, predominantly for his song Old Town Road. It is indisputably one of the most successful songs of the year, breaking a US chart record with its 19 consecutive weeks at No 1 Mariah Carey and Boyz II Mens duet One Sweet Day had held the honour since 1996. All three of Eilish, Lizzo and Lil Nas X have never received a Grammy nomination before.
R&B singer HER scored five nominations, including record, album and song of the year, with Ariana Grande also earning five, including record and album of the year her first appearances in the major categories. Wisconsin singer-songwriter Bon Iver was nominated four times, including record and album of the year, while Beyonc in a relatively minor year with no solo album release still managed to secure four nominations, for her Lion King soundtrack work as well as her Coachella concert film, Homecoming.
While recent years have seen Grammy success for the likes of Ed Sheeran and Adele, British artists were mostly shut out of the top four categories. Lewis Capaldi received a nomination for song of the year for his ballad Someone Like You, which has topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Bristol country-soul singer Yola was nominated for best new artist, and received three further nominations in American roots categories.
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke earned three nominations in specialist categories, with Chemical Brothers scoring three, and two for R&B singer Ella Mai. Other nominated Brits include the 1975, Bring Me the Horizon, James Blake and Elvis Costello. A surprise inclusion was Bones UK, a Camden rock band who, despite their low profile, secured a nomination for best rock performance with their song Pretty Waste.
Lil Nas X also crops up in the rap categories, this time with his single Panini in the running for rap/sung performance. The genres biggest prize, best rap performance, features a posthumous nomination for Nipsey Hussle, the LA star who was shot dead in April.
Snubs include to Taylor Swift, who might have expected more than just one nomination in major categories song of the year for Lover, the only song in the category to feature a single songwriter and Ed Sheeran, whose collaborative album No 6 Collaborations Project only generated one nomination, for pop vocal album. Sam Smith received no nominations for their major US hit Dancing With a Stranger, nor did Halsey, whose single Without Me spent 29 weeks in the US Top 10 and went five times platinum.
The total lack of nominations for Solanges acclaimed album When I Get Home, or Bruce Springsteens Western Stars, is also surprising the Guardian has asked their record labels if their albums were put forward for nomination.
Record of the year Bon Iver Hey, Ma Billie Eilish Bad Guy Ariana Grande 7 Rings HER Hard Place Khalid Talk Lil Nas X ft Billy Ray Cyrus Old Town Road Lizzo Truth Hurts Post Malone & Swae Lee Sunflower
Song of the year Natalie Hemby, Lady Gaga, Hillary Lindsey & Lori McKenna, songwriters (Lady Gaga) Always Remember Us This Way Billie Eilish OConnell & Finneas OConnell, songwriters (Billie Eilish) Bad Guy Brandi Carlile, Phil Hanseroth, Tim Hanseroth & Tanya Tucker, songwriters (Tanya Tucker) Bring My Flowers Now Ruby Amanfu, Sam Ashworth, D. Arcelious Harris. H.E.R. & Rodney Jerkins, songwriters (HER) Hard Place Taylor Swift, songwriter (Taylor Swift) Lover Jack Antonoff & Lana Del Rey, songwriters (Lana Del Rey) Norman Fucking Rockwell Tom Barnes, Lewis Capaldi, Pere Kelleher, Benjamin Kohn & Sam Roman, songwriters (Lewis Capaldi) Someone You Loved Steven Cheung, Eric Frederic, Melissa Jefferson & Jesse Saint John, songwriters (Lizzo) Truth Hurts
Best urban contemporary album Steve Lacy Apollo XXI Lizzo Cuz I Love You (Deluxe) Georgia Anne Muldrow Overload Nao Saturn Jessie Reyez Being Human In Public
Best rap album Dreamville Revenge of the Dreamers III Meek Mill Championships 21 Savage I Am > I Was Tyler, the Creator Igor YBN Cordae The Lost Boy
Best R&B album BJ the Chicago Kid 1123 Lucky Daye Painted Ella Mai Ella Mai PJ Morton Paul Anderson .Paak Ventura
Best dance/electronic album Apparat LP5 Chemical Brothers No Geography Flume Hi This Is Flume (Mixtape) Rfs Du Sol Solace Tycho Weather
Best country album Eric Church Desperate Man Reba McEntire Stronger Than the Truth Pistol Annies Interstate Gospel Thomas Rhett Center Point Road Tanya Tucker While Im Livin
Best Americana album Calexico and Iron & Wine Years to Burn Madison Cunningham Who Are You Now Keb Mo Oklahoma JS Ondara Tales of America Yola Walk Through Fire
Best Latin pop album Luis Fonsi Vida Maluma 11:11 Ricardo Montaner Montaner Alejandro Sanz #ELDISCO Sebastian Yatra Fantasa
Best gospel album Kirk Franklin Long Live Love Donald Lawrence Presents the Tri-City Singers Goshen Gene Moore Tunnel Vision William Murphy Settle Here CeCe Winans Somethings Happening! A Christmas Album
Best pop solo performance Beyonc Spirit Billie Eilish Bad Guy Ariana Grande 7 Rings Lizzo Truth Hurts Taylor Swift You Need to Calm Down
Best pop duo/group performance Ariana Grande and Social House Boyfriend Jonas Brothers Sucker Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus Old Town Road Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello Seorita
Best traditional pop vocal album Andrea Bocelli S Michael Bubl Love (Deluxe Edition) Elvis Costello and the Imposters Look Now John Legend A Legendary Christmas Barbra Streisand Walls
Bass guitarist said he pretty much raped a woman in band autobiography The Dirt, but now apologises for possibly making the story up
Nikki Sixx, bassist with 1980s rock band Mtley Cre, has apologised over a story from the bands autobiography The Dirt in which he admitted to pretty much raping a woman.
In the book, Sixx recounts an incident in which he tricked a woman into believing she was having sex with him in a dark closet at a party, when it was actually bandmate Tommy Lee. The woman reported being raped later that night in a separate incident as she attempted to hitchhike home. On hearing of the second incident, Sixx said that it made him realise I had probably gone too far At first, I was relieved, because it meant I hadnt raped her. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that I pretty much had. I was in a zone, though, and in that zone, consequences did not exist.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Sixx has somewhat retracted the story. I dont actually recall that story in the book beyond reading it, he said. I have no clue why its in there other than I was outta my head and its possibly greatly embellished or [I] made it up. Those words were irresponsible on my part. I am sorry.
He said he did not recall the story because, when the book was being written in 2000, he was at a really low point in my life. I had lost my sobriety and was using drugs and alcohol to deal with a disintegrating relationship which I still to this day regret how I handled. I honestly dont recall a lot of the interviews with Neil, referring to Neil Strauss, who wrote the book with the band.
He added: There is a lot of horrible behaviour in the book. What I can tell you is that we all lived to regret a lot and learned from it. We own up to all our behaviour that hurt ourselves, our families, friends and any innocents around us.
The Dirt has been adapted for a film biopic by Netflix, to be released on 22 March.
Artists become eligible for selection 25 years after the release of their first record. An international voting committee of more than 1,000 artists, historians and members of the music industry will select five or six of these acts for induction into the Hall of Fame. Fans are also eligible to vote: the top five artists selected by the public will be tallied along with the committees votes.
Radiohead were among 2018s potential inductees, but declined to attend the ceremony. The bands guitarist, Ed OBrien, said at the time: As a British band, its one of those things that its very lovely to be nominated, but we dont quite culturally understand it. Its a very American thing. Us Brits are very bad at celebrating ourselves.
LL Cool J was also nominated for the 2018 list. If the New York rapper is selected for the 2019 group, he will be the seventh hip-hop act to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, following Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Run-DMC, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, NWA and Tupac Shakur.
If Stevie Nicks makes the 2019 class, it will mark her second induction to the Hall of Fame. She is a member of Fleetwood Mac, who were inducted in 1998. She would become the first woman to be inducted more than once. As of 2017, 22 male performers had been inducted twice or more, with Eric Clapton receiving three inductions as a solo artist, with Cream and with the Yardbirds.
The Zombies have been nominated multiple times. In 2017, keyboardist Rod Argent told Billboard that the psychedelic band would be flattered, gratified and absolutely delighted to be inducted. I know there are some people that actually portray themselves as unaffected and dont care and, Oh, well, it would be nice, but, really I dont get it. Its not something that I particularly want. Were not those people at all.
There are likely to be complaints from the US about the Halls perceived snubs artists including Bjrk, Kate Bush, Roberta Flack, Whitney Houston, Depeche Mode, the Monkees and Chic are considered overdue for induction. The ceremony holds great significance in the American music industry, but does not command similar significance in the UK.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame organisation was established by the late Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun in 1983. The museum opened in Cleveland, Ohio in 1986. That year, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Elvis Presley became the first inductees. Aretha Franklin became the first female inductee in 1987. In 2018, Bon Jovi, the Cars, Dire Straits, the Moody Blues and Nina Simone were selected for induction.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2019 induction ceremony will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, on 29 March.
From Behemoths satanic metal to a triumphant return from Lana Del Rey, here are the tracks you need this month read about our ten favourites, and subscribe to all 50 in our playlists
One of 2017s most sensual and heady albums has dropped in the form of Nonames Room 25. Imagine Erykah Badus cosmic knowledge exchange delivered in Chance the Rappers frank chatter and youre close, but Noname has an unruffled confidence and wry worldview that is all her own. The boom-bap backings may be pretty but they belie a savage edge, as the Chicago rapper goes in on Uncle Toms and beta males (The way I lullaby your brokenness, believe me Im Ripley). Its hard to pick a highlight but Ace is an absolute gem, and not just because it shouts out the UK. Two midwest MCs, Smino and Saba, drop by, with the latter almost stealing the show with a domino rally of a verse, words tipping over in an impressively unbroken stream.
Let us give thanks as LDR goes into the DGAF phase of her career. Not only is her forthcoming album called Norman Fucking Rockwell but the second single to be taken from it is called Venice Bitch and is nearly 10 minutes long. Her schtick has long involved a love-hate relationship with American iconography, and now she seems to be falling on the side of love she longs for that Norman-Rockwell-painting life for her and her partner, with the lovely image on the stoop with the neighbourhood kids / callin out bang bang kiss kiss perhaps the first inkling of their nuclear family. The song earns its length, stretching out into the warm evening in a haze of fuzz guitar and wandering analogue synth tones.
The time signature hopscotch of math-rock powers this truly magnificent song, but where that genre often gets bogged down in technicality and bad jeans, Kiran Leonard elevates it to powerful, elegant heights. The prolific songwriter from Saddleworth Moor is only 23 but operating at a seriously mature level, here dissecting the narcissism of internet culture. You can almost feel the weather systems passing across the song, soft breezes in the verses whipping into choppy squalls for the choruses and, with the tearjerkingly powerful guitar solo, an electrical storm of emotion.
One of the most anticipated metal releases of the year is I Loved You at Your Darkest by Polish satanists Behemoth, which, if Wolves Ov Siberia and previous single God = Dog are anything to go by, will be symphonically heavy. Where God = Dog used pulverising blast beats and had a video that epically inverted Christs crucifixion, Wolves Ov Siberia is more of a rollicking romp. Frontman Nergal roars things like We hail the flame, we hail the ice / Beyond bosom, beyond materia / We reject! We fucking deny! while riffs stride confidently across the battlefield.
Returning with her first completely solo material since 2010 is pops patron saint of heartbreak, with Metronomys Joe Mount co-producing. But while Honey is sung in a trademark melancholy minor key, shes clearly fed up of being in the corner / watching you kiss her, and so on. Instead, Honey drips with sex: At the heart of some kind of flower / Stuck in glitter, strands of saliva / Wont you get me right where the hurt is? Suffice to say, the title doesnt refer to something youd spread on toast, unless thats what youre into. Be sure to check out our long read on Robyn from last week, too.
The best rap of this year has been marked by a willingness to get psychedelic. Travis Scotts Astroworld, A$AP Rockys Testing, Swae Lees Swaecation, Playboi Cartis Die Lit, basically anything involving Young Thug all have their heads in the clouds, possibly elevated there by some substance. Lil Uzi Verts new track is up there with them, hoisted aloft by the remarkable production by Dolan Beats, with a floaty harp melody sampled from anime series Death Parade. Uzis lyrics may cleave to cliches about clothes, jewellery and round bottoms but his flow tumbling forward in a permanent high register is addictive enough to run towards the six-minute mark.
Aviary, the new album from highbrow dream-popper Julia Holter, is nearly 90 minutes long, and sees her head back to the slightly more conceptual, suite-like approach of albums like Tragedy and Loud City Song. But, moth-like, she always circles back to the bright filament of pop. I Shall Love 2 is a big-hearted psych symphony: a trilling, wordless vocal line invites in a whole orchestra, who eventually fill the song to bursting it pops, and dies away instantly.
If you want proof that irony, in the hands of the internet and social media, has modulated into something infinitely complex, just take a look at Jimothy Lacoste. His persona posh nerd rapper and possible fuckboi is extremely silly, and yet created with so much deadpan flair that it totally works. It helps that his songs gently slap: following the likes of Getting Busy!, Drugs and Future Bae, Fashion is his best track yet, an ode to his snazzy dressing (Tucked in shirt, lovely cords) backed by dreamy G-funk. Is he serious? Best not to ponder it too hard.
London songwriter Will Westerman has been knocking around for a couple of years now, leaving swoons and sighs in his wake. The acoustic Mother Song was a breathtakingly sad yet sexy calling card, but, with producer Bullion, he has since added subtle drum machines to create 80s-facing pop balladry. With a doleful voice somewhere between Arthur Russell and Car Seat Headrests Will Toledo, on Albatross the first track from his new EP Westerman sketches out a series of lazy afternoons, with possible romances hovering around the edges.
Along with fellow travellers such as Laurel Halo, Call Super and Minor Science, TJ Hertz, AKA Objekt, has carved out a new space for techno. His music keeps the jaw-slackening (or, depending on what youre on, tightening) power of 4/4 beats, but takes in lessons from dub, jazz and psychedelia. The result is a dizzying, intelligent but rambunctious kind of dance music. In the wake of his most commercial moment to date, Theme from Q, comes Secret Snake, another supremely confident and original track. A swaying dancehall-adjacent beat and some subtly kooky vocal samples power the dub techno of the first half, before it explodes into a burst of giant melody.
3D Hubs, like MakeXYZ, was a community-based 3D printing service that let anyone with a printer sell their prints online. Founded in the heyday of the 3D printing revolution, the service let thousands of makers gather a little cash for making and mailing prints on their home 3D printers.
Now, however, the company has moved to a model in which its high-end partners will be manufacturing plastic, metal, and injection molded parts for customers willing to pay extra for a professional print.
“Indeed, more focus on high end printers run by professional companies,” said founder Brian Garret. “So a smaller pool of manufacturing locations (still hundreds around the world), but with more control on standardized quality and repeatability. Our software takes care of the sourcing, so companies order with 3D Hubs directly.”
Not everyone is happy with the decision. 3DPrint.come editor Joris Peels saw the value in a solid, dedicated community of hobbyists in the 3D space. The decision to move away from hobbyist printers, wrote Peels, “has confused many.”
“The value of 3DHubs is in its community; the community gives it granular local presence and a barrier to entry. Now it is just like any 3D printing service upstart and will lose its community entirely. I’ve always liked 3DHubs, although I have been very skeptical of their Trends Report I like the company and what they’re doing. I liked the idealism coupled with business,” he wrote.
The community, for its part, is angry.
A big F you to @3DHubs today! Switching over from "Locally sourced 3D prints" to the "Closed manufacturing program" basically… This was a big reason for me to own a 3d printer… now it's all gone!
Sad news! @3DHubs is closing normal hubs (non Manufacturing Partners/Fulfilled by 3D Hubs). I've been pushing for months to get into the Fulfilled by 3D Hubs program, hope they give me one last change to join 😥 pic.twitter.com/R6W51rLEeH
The move will happen on October 1 when all prints will be completed by Fulfilled by 3D Hubs partners, dedicated merchants who will offer “source parts for larger, high value engineering projects.” The company wrote that during the early hobbyist days the “platform at that time was very much free-form, with the goal of serving as many, mostly one-off, custom maker projects as possible.”
This slow movement from hobbyist 3D printing to professional parts manufacturer is not surprising or unexpected, but it is jarring. The 3D printing community is small, vociferous, and dedicated to the technology. In the early days, when 3D printers were rare, it was tempting to buy a mid-price printer and become a small, one-person shop online. Now, with the availability of commodity printers that cost less than some paper printers, the novelty and utility of a low-resolution print has fallen considerably.
3D printing never fulfilled its promise in the home and small office. A one-off print can save some of us a trip to the machine shop or music store but in practice home 3D printing has been a bust.
Like most open source technologies that went commercial, the dedicated zealots will complain and the established players will pivot into profitability. It ruffles feathers, to be sure, but that’s how these things work. To paraphrase the White Stripes, “Well, you’re in your little room and you’re printing something good/ But if it’s really good, you’re gonna need a bigger room/ And when you’re in the bigger room, you might not know what to do/ You might have to think of how you got started sitting in your little room.”
In a frank new memoir, the guitarist opens up about his time with the metal band and how boiling tensions caused him to leave
Everything about the image of Judas Priest communicates cooperation and unity. Theyre five men in leather and studs, who barrel through a finely calibrated brand of heavy metal, highlighted by two lead guitarists who found a trademark by mirroring each others key riffs precisely.
According to one of those guitarists, however, the inner workings of the band represent the precise inverse of that image, creating a parallel history of resentment and suspicion. KK Downing has written a new memoir, Heavy Duty: Days and Nights in Judas Priest, which challenges the narrative of one of the worlds most storied heavy metal bands, while giving frank explanations for why, after 41 years as a Priest loyalist, he left in a huff in 2011. If you load too many things on to a persons plate, the 66-year-old Downing said, at some point theyre going to drop it.
One of the main loads he bore concerned his relationship with fellow lead guitarist Glenn Tipton. While their playing in the studio showed exceptional rapport, as people they hadnt an ounce of it not even when they met back in 1974. I never found Glenn to be particularly easy to get along with, Downing writes. Very early on, I was fully aware of the limited conditions under which he operated. If you were going to relate to him, you would do so entirely on his terms.
The disconnect between the men rippled into a multitude of fissures which eventually caused Downings relationship with the band to crumble. His book chronicles a history of slights, including key management decisions that excluded him, a division of labor in the solos that disfavored him, and an official history that downplayed his key role in the groups creation.
Contacted by email, the bands manager, Jayne Andrews, wrote that the current members of Judas Priest would have no comment on Downings view.
I felt I was in crisis, the guitarist says of his decision to leave the band. Whether it sounds selfish or not, everything seems to go out of the window in a crisis.
When discussing his decision to leave, Downing sounded somewhat more conflicted than he did in the book. He also made sure to stress how much he respects the other band members musicianship, as well as how fervently he honors their mutual legacy. More, he said he feels the book is fair and that, if his fellow Priests read it, they wont be surprised by either his interpretations of various events or his feelings about them. Downing even thinks the book may do the band a service. Its putting their names out there, he said. Fans like to read about the ups and downs. It cant all be good, can it?
It remains to be seen if the other members agree. Regardless, Downing hardly confines himself to pointing fingers at others, either in conversation or in the book. His prose (composed with writer Mark Eglinton) illuminates the many factors from his past which shaped his personality and which later contributed to the dysfunction within the band. Growing up in a rough neighborhood in West Bromwich, Downings home life was scarred by a father who suffered from paranoia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, germaphobia and gambling issues, and a mother who suffered from a rare metabolic psychological disorder. As a result, he developed a poor self-image, rendering him unexpressive and unassertive. Even so, the man born Kenneth Downing had a strong determination to make it as a musician from an early age. Growing up, his influences went way beyond metal. I wanted to play jazz, so I listened to George Benson, he said. I also loved the classical guitar player John Mills and Chopin. I wanted to be able to play it all.
Judas Priest in 1983 from left, KK Downing, Rob Halford and Glenn Tipton. Photograph: Paul Natkin/WireImage
Glenn Tipton, lead guitarist with Judas Priest, is stepping back from performing after being diagnosed with the later stages of Parkinsons disease. He has lived with the early stages of the degenerative disorder for a decade. According to a statement released by the band, the diseases progression has left him unable to play the heavy metal bands more complex material.
Tiptons live duties will be assumed by Andy Sneap, who has previously performed with the band, as well as with other acts including Megadeth and Opeth. However, Tipton will remain in the band and has expressed a hope that he will return to the stage.
I want everyone to know that its vital the Judas Priest tour go ahead and that I am not leaving the band, he wrote in reference to dates in support of their forthcoming album Firepower. Its simply that my role has changed. I dont rule out the chance to go on stage as and when I feel able to blast out some Priest! His bandmates paid tribute to Tiptons determination and commitment, labelling him a true metal hero.
Judas Priest formed in West Bromwich in 1969 and went through a rotating lineup until Tipton joined five years later, settling the bands personnel for a period. He appeared on their debut album, Rocka Rolla (1974) and became known for his complex playing style and classical influences. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential heavy metal guitarists of all time.
Firepower, the bands 18th album, is released on 9 March.
The last surviving member of the British rock bands best-known lineup died after contracting pneumonia
Motrhead guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke has died at the age of 67.
His death was announced on Motrheads Facebook page. According to the post, Clarke died peacefully in hospital after suffering from pneumonia.
The musician, born Edward Allan Clarke in Twickenham in 1950, joined Motrhead in 1976. Along with drummer Phil Taylor and frontman Lemmy, he is considered to have been part of the best-known Motrhead lineup. The trio released their self-titled debut album in 1977 and produced hits including Ace of Spades. Clarke also provided lead vocals on numerous Motrhead tracks.
Clarke left the band in 1982 and was replaced by Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson. Clarke subsequently formed the rock band Fastway with UFO bassist Pete Way. The band released seven albums and toured with AC/DC.
In later years, Clarke reunited with his Motrhead bandmates. In 2000, he made a guest appearance at their 25th anniversary concert at Brixton Academy, London. He also joined Lemmy in 2014 to play Ace of Spades during a Birmingham Arena show.
Clarke was the last surviving member of the classic Motrhead lineup. Phil Taylor died of liver failure in November 2015, and Lemmy succumbed to cancer the following month.
