Is it really 20 years since The Horrors emerged? I first saw them at an NME new bands event – the “Rock’n’Roll Riot” tour – at the Astoria back in 2006.

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Autumn is upon us, and here is your September soundtrack: lots of old stuff, a bit of new stuff; New Wave and old soul, rock and pop and a four-song tribute to the songwriting genius of the late great Kris Kristofferson. 

Waxahatchee releases a plaintive slice of Americana as her first new music since the acclaimed album Tigers Blood.

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“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” That one line summed up Kris Kristofferson’s singular songwriting skill. It was like the entire Sixties ethos in a single phrase.

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Deaf School emerged from Liverpool at the dawn of punk with a sound inspired by cabaret and classic songwriters of the past.

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New York noisemongers A Place To Bury Strangers are as aggressively noisy as ever on their feedback-drenched new single Bad Idea.

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I’ve heard this song by Marvin, I’ve heard it by Dusty and I’ve heard it by the Stones, but until now I’d never heard it by Barbara til now. In fact I’d never heard of Barbara Randolph at all.

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Angel-voiced Z Berg teams up with gravel-voiced Keith Carradine on a version of the old favourite Love Hurts from the Strange Darling soundtrack.

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Listening today, 40 years later, it’s so obvious how much Lloyd Cole & The Commotions borrowed from Bob Dylan. Perfect Skin is almost a hybrid of Dylan’s twangy mid-60s period and the country-tinged moments of Lou Reed with the Velvets.

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I don’t think I’ve heard this before but someone the other day mentioned it as a highlight of the album The Notorious Byrd Brothers, so I looked it up.

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