THE STATE OF SOUND INTERVIEW

‘There are many Bob Dylans but there's only one Lou Reed’: Emma Swift on her album of Lou Reed covers

In 2020, Emma Swift’s album of Bob Dylan covers, Blonde on the Tracks, brought her widespread acclaim and a new audience. In the midst of making an album of Lou Reed covers, she talks to State of Sound about searching for the real Lou, and what it was like trying on his leather pants.

21 March 2026

EDITOR’S PICKS

TRENDING

Paul Simon’s greatest solo albums, ranked! (Part 1)

In the 14 studio albums Paul Simon has released since the end of Simon & Garfunkel, the singer-songwriter has been on an extraordinary creative journey. Read the part 1 of our ranking.

INTERVIEW

Sleaford Mods: 7 songs that changed my life

Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson on the importance of vulnerability, his love of Ian Brown's voice and why Kneecap will never outshine the Sex Pistols.

THE 1970s COUNTERCULTURE

Rupert Bear with a huge penis: how the Oz magazine obscenity trial inspired the Bookshop Band

The Oz magazine obscenity trial of 1971 sent shockwaves across Britain. 60 years later, The Bookshop Band’s Ben Please tells us how it inspired their new EP.

THE BEATLES

‘Please Please Me’: How the Beatles sang about sex and got away with it

The Beatles could only break America by conforming to its prudish sexual attitudes. But did Lennon and McCartney have the last laugh?

RANKING

Paul Simon’s greatest solo albums, ranked! (Part 1)

In the 14 studio albums Paul Simon has released since the end of Simon & Garfunkel, the singer-songwriter has been on an extraordinary creative journey. Unlike several of 1960s contemporaries, his music has undergone a major transformation. Read the first part of our ranking here.

21 March, 2026

FEATURES

WATCH STATE OF SOUND TV

The Smiths, The Stone Roses, The La’s: 7 riffs that changed my life with Shapes Like People

Watch Shapes Like People’s Carl Mann play the riffs that changed his life. Inspired by everybody from John Squire to Johnny Marr, Carl explains the secret behind a classic riff and why simplicity is always best.

‘Pete Townshend had us running around spinning the speakers’

INTERVIEW

On the release of the Bookshop Bands’ new EP Oz Sucks, Ben Please talks about the creative chaos of working with Pete Townshend.

When Liam told Noel, ‘Mate, you're as good as the Beatles now!’

INTERVIEW

Legendary music writer Paolo Hewitt on the madness of touring with Oasis in 1997, Liam's reaction to one of Noel Gallagher's best songs and why the working classes have always had the best taste.

THE STATE OF SOUND INTERVIEW

Yankee Hotel Fox Dropped: The story of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot became a parable 25 years ago. Will The Golden Dregs’ Godspeed soon provide another?

Dropped by 4AD two days before they began recording Godspeed, The Golden Dregs went on to make a stunning album. The band’s leader and songwriter Ben Woods tells State of Sound about the shattering journey and what happened next.t

14 March, 2026

REVIEWS

ALBUM REVIEW

Wasted On Youth

The Molotovs

The sibling duo might not wear their influences lightly, but their debut album is an adrenaline shot of youthful optimism.

by David Rea

28 January 2026

Emerge, Return

The Bookshop Band

The Resurrection Game

Emma Swift

All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade

Of Monsters and Men

Definitely Maybe

Oasis

Live Review

Robyn Hitchcock at the EartH theatre in London.

ESSAY

‘Outside is America’: Was U2’s biggest failure one of music’s great Icarus moments, or a band blazing their own trail?

U2’s Rattle and Hum was one of the most savagely mauled albums of the 1980s. But for David Rea, aged fifteen in the year of its release, it was an exhilarating widescreen road movie through America.

7 March 2026

ESSAYS

NICK DRAKE

THE REMAKING OF NICK DRAKE: Is the complex artist finally stepping out from behind the ‘doomed genius’?

The new box set The Making of Five Leaves Left illuminates a focused and forthright artist at his genesis, and further undermines the idea he was an isolated, haunted romantic.

by David Rea

25 October 2025

PET SHOP BOYS

‘All the love we hide’: The forgotten lyrics to one of Pet Shop Boys’ greatest songs

On the 40th anniversary of its original release, we explored the forgotten coda to Pet Shop Boys’ single ‘Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)’ and discovered a haunting footnote to the story of 1980s Britain.

1980s MUSIC

Live Aid at 40: The story of a punk, a prime minister and a Britain now vanished

The extraordinary story of the Greatest Show on Earth recalls a very different Britain, one which came together to help a faraway African nation. It is difficult to imagine the same thing happening today.

ESSAY

How the Jam invented Britpop’s ethos

Critics couldn't take the Jam seriously at first, claiming they were just a bunch of gimmicks. But their ‘hail your heroes’ ethos was entirely authentic, setting the blueprint for Britpop two decades later.