Get In The Q: We Review The British Music Magazines So You Don’t Have To

Brian Raftery | November 14, 2006 1:20 am
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The good news about the British music magazines: Thanks to better distribution deals, they’re easier to track down than ever. The bad news: Picking up the big three–Q, Mojo and Uncut–will set you back $27.74 a month. Blimeny gee! In order to save you some cash, we’ve taken a look at each mag’s just-released December issue. After the click-through, our handy consumer’s guide.

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UNCUT Cover: Bob Dylan Centerpiece Feature: The best albums of the year (been there) Highlights: A full-page essay on the Triffids; many, many lovely pictures of Joanna Newsom. Lowlights: Between the Who, Springsteen, Dylan and Neil Young, this issue is wayyy too heavy on the nostalgia–even for Uncut. We eagerly await next month’s oral history on Boz Scaggs. So, is the new Oasis compilation amazing, or super-amazing?: Five stars (super amazing) Number of unnecessary Robbie Williams photos: None that we could find, though maybe he’s hiding somewhere in the numerous pictures of the E Street Band. The “Whosit’s Doing What Now?” Award For Most Prominently Featured British Celebrity We’ve Never Heard Of: Russell Brand

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Q Cover: God, we can’t tell. This issue is supposed to show off the magazine’s new design, yet the cover looks like a MySpace page from 1995. Centerpiece Feature: Nirvana: Anybody heard of them? Highlights: A round-up of bad rock mustaches, inspired by Brandon Flowers; and the Nirvana thing’s pretty cool, too, if you can stand to read about them for the 3,245th time this week. Lowlights: A Vanity Fair-style portrait round-up of ’90s artists, imaginatively titled “Icons.” What? You mean that U2 was had an album called Pop, and they used to wear cowboy hats? Wild! So, is the new Oasis compilation amazing, or super-amazing?: Three stars (amazing) Number of unnecessary Robbie Williams photos: Three, though the Take That feature may have goosed that count a bit. The “Whosit’s Doing What Now?” Award For Most Prominently Featured British Celebrity We’ve Never Heard Of: Seth Lakeman

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MOJO Cover: The Who Centerpiece Feature: The Who profile Highlights: A Jarvis Cocker Q&A; a Top 50 fringe-folk countdown; a Rough Trade Top 10; many, many lovely pictures of Joanna Newsom. Lowlights: Does the world really need another story on Smokey Robinson’s drug abuse? So, is the new Oasis compilation amazing, or super-amazing?: Five stars (super amazing) Number of unnecessary Robbie Williams photos: None. The “Whosit’s Doing What Now?” Award For Most Prominently Featured British Celebrity We’ve Never Heard Of: Bic Runga (though she’s actually from New Zealand)