Inside the issue, you’ll also find:

MILES DAVIS: During the early ’70s, Miles Davis once again pointed the way ahead. Fired up by Hendrix, Sly Stone, James Brown and the righteous spirit of the decade, Miles blew minds and found acclaim among a whole new audience. Fifty years after the pioneering On The Corner, and with eyewitness testimony from his bandmates, Tom Pinnock reveals the raw power of ‘Electric Miles’, as the Dark Magus turned on, tuned in and freaked out. “Man, he had all of the arrows under his belt…

THE BLACK KEYS: After the “great reset” of last year’s juke-joint jamboree Delta Kream, The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney sound newly driven on their upcoming 11th album, Dropout Boogie. Sat around the kitchen table in Nashville’s reassuringly hard-to-find Easy Eye Studios, the world’s biggest small band reminisce to Stephen Deusner about their early lives in Akron – detentions, dead-end jobs, lost fingers – and consider how much (or how little) they’ve changed. As one collaborator notes, “They’re like a couple of kids”…

THE ROLLING STONES: A band on the run. A decadent mansion in the South of France. One song called “Bent Green Needles” and another about Brian Jones. A double album that, against all odds, became the creators’ most iconic work. Fifty years since the release of Exile On Main St a crack team of Stones heads – including Cat Power, Adam Granduciel, Billy Gibbons, Mike Scott, Jennifer Herrema, Steve Gunn, J Mascis, Bobby Gillespie and Kurt Vile – dig deep into The Rolling Stones’ very own Basement Tapes. “Exile… has got everything…”

MICHAEL HEAD: Rejoice! After a five-year absence, the return of Michael Head – aka England’s greatest living songwriter – is upon us. Rob Hughes visits the Wirral Peninsula to discover that Head, his demons at bay, has made the perfect comeback with Dear Scott. But what accounts for this renewed sense of purpose? “Just keep fuckin’ going,” he tells us.

AROOJ AFTAB: Arooj Aftab’s stunning Vulture Prince album was one of 2021’s finest releases, a work of refined, minimalist rapture, dedicated to her late brother. But the Brooklyn-based singer and composer is no sensitive artiste. Fresh from winning a Grammy, the self-confessed hedonist tells Sam Richards about the full extent of her ambitions – and why she needs to ride the social whirl in order to make music: “Being in the centre of many energies is inspiring to me…”

GLEN MATLOCK: With a fiery new solo album ready to roll, the Sex Pistols songwriter talks “Anarchy…”, activism and gigging in the DMZ.

THE ASSOCIATES: The making of “Party Fears Two”.

ROXY MUSIC: Album by album with Bryan Ferry.

SHARON VAN ETTEN: Jersey girl turned Pilates mum makes peace with the darkness on devastating sixth album.

Plus...

In our expansive reviews section, we take a look at new records from Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Bonnie Raitt, The Americans, Kevin Morby and more, and archival releases from ? and the Mysterians, Norah Jones, Neil Young, and others. We catch Yola & Allison Russell and The Who live; among the films, DVDs and TV programmes reviewed are The Northman, Navalny, Playground, Murnia and Casablanca Beats; while in books there’s Rory Sullivan-Burke and Bob Stanley.

Our front section, meanwhile, features Bob Dylan, Ural Thomas, Brian Eno and SST Records’ contribution to 80s underground rock music, while, at the end of the magazine, Fatouwata Diawara shares her life in music.

All this, and much, much more...