Get In The Q: We Read The British Music Magazines, So You Don’t Have To
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 January issue. After the click-through, our handy consumer’s guide.
UNCUT
Cover: The Beatles
Centerpiece Feature: People who like the Beatles talking about how much they like the Beatles. Apparently, the guys from Oasis are fans.
Highlights: The behind-the-scenes story about the making of the greatest Christmas song of all time; Neil Hannon from the Divine Comedy taking a shot at Coldplay (though, being that this is a British magazine, it’s a very polite shot); the new-psych compilation, which is one of the better free CDs we’ve picked up in a while.
Lowlights: See “Centerpiece Feature”
The “Whosit’s Doing What Now?” Award For Most Prominently Featured British Celebrity We’ve Never Heard Of: Actually, we knew all of ’em this issue. Though we had pretty much forgotten about Dave Stewart.
Q
Cover: Bono and Noel (at least on the version available in the U.S.; we also found this cover floating around online)
Centerpiece Feature: It’s the annual Q Awards issue, which means that most of the magazine is dominated by pictures of famous people meeting each other.
Highlights: The minute-by-minute timeline of the Q Awards, in which we find out that Liam Gallagher skipped out on the awards so he could “go to the zoo,” which may not be may not be cockney drug slang; an interview with Peter Gabriel.
Lowlights: As we mentioned before, they really, really love Razorlight.
The “Whosit’s Doing What Now?” Award For Most Prominently Featured British Celebrity We’ve Never Heard Of: Jonathan Ross, who we have heard of, but only thanks to numerous mentions in Q.
MOJO Cover: Bob Dylan Centerpiece Feature: The year-in-music wrap-up. Highlights: A “Buried Treasure” on Basement 5, the so-called “black PiL” (we would love to hear this; please email us at tips@idolator.com if you have any details or MP3s); a stellar look at the best reissues of 2006; an in-the-studio piece on the Arcade Fire. Lowlights: Good lord, Mojo: Stop with Pet Sounds already. Is there any subscriber left who has not read about this album three dozen times? Is this what we’re going to do to our kids when the 40th anniversary of OK Computer rolls around? The “Whosit’s Doing What Now?” Award For Most Prominently Featured British Celebrity We’ve Never Heard Of: Peter Jenner
