Sharon O'Connell

London

Writer at Freelance

Freelance opinion caster on (mostly) music. Pernickety copy editor and proof reader. Cheerful pessimist.

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Articles

Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (10th Anniversary Edition)

2 days ago | uncut.co.uk | Sharon O'Connell

After 2010’s The Age Of Adz, on which Sufjan Stevens ditched his signature indie-folk banjo and recorders for glitchy beatscapes and experimental pop, Carrie & Lowell landed as a hushed and heartbreakingly raw excavation of the darkness that enveloped him following his mother Carrie’s death in 2012. Its songs, attempts to make sense of her troubled life and their relationship, are among the most forlorn in his catalogue. They’re also some of the loveliest.
Alan Sparhawk - With Trampled By Turtles

1 week ago | uncut.co.uk | Sharon O'Connell

“I can please myself with the things that I seek out,” declared Alan Sparhawk on “Station”, from last year’s extraordinary White Roses, My God. It read like creative self-affirmation with a note of shock, as he moved forward in the wake of Mimi Parker’s death and the resulting end of Low.
Panda Bear - Sinister Grift

2 months ago | uncut.co.uk | Sharon O'Connell

The claim that Animal Collective changed the shape of experimental indie pop, not just for however long a trend’s shelf-life was in the noughties, but permanently, is hard to deny: 17 years on from their Strawberry Jamcrossover, their influence endures in myriad disparate forms from Mermaid Chunky to Sun Araw and UMO.
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Purple Bird

Jan 30, 2025 | uncut.co.uk | Sharon O'Connell

Friendship. Concord. Openness and generosity. If folk is an innately community-minded music, then these are surely its cornerstones, not only practically but idealistically, too. They’re certainly qualities that have shaped Will Oldham’s career of 30-odd years.
Mark Lanegan Band - Bubblegum XX

Aug 14, 2024 | uncut.co.uk | Sharon O'Connell

The urge to disentangle certain charismatic artists from the mythos that clings to them is as eternally irresistible as it is futile. Interviews and memoirs are useful for this only if the subject/narrator is 100% reliable; the internet, teeming with wild opinions and purported truths, is no place to look for verification. Which is why a combination of cultural romanticism and institutionalised trust still has us looking to an artist’s songs for clues as to who they “really” are.
The Folk Implosion - Walk Thru Me

Jun 27, 2024 | uncut.co.uk | Sharon O'Connell

For those who’d been hankering after a Lou Barlow/John Davis status update, it came in 2022 with the (unannounced) release of “Feel It If You Feel It”. Hatched during pandemic isolation and featuring two tracks plus a remix of each, it was their first recording of new material in 23 years.
Heldon - Electronique Guerilla (reissue, 1974)

Mar 8, 2024 | uncut.co.uk | Sharon O'Connell

His name may not resonate as widely as those of Germany’s kosmische luminaries, but Richard Pinhas is now acknowledged as a significant player on the European electronic-rock scene of the 1970s, through both his solo work and with his band, Heldon. Named after the republic in Norman Spinrad’s bizarre, science fantasy/metafiction work, The Iron Dream, the group have always been essentially a solo project with changing guest lists.
Scott Fagan - South Atlantic Blues (reissue, 1968)

Feb 27, 2024 | uncut.co.uk | Sharon O'Connell

Tales of contenders who never fulfilled their early promise are plentiful in the music game, but Scott Fagan’s comes with intriguing details – including having sired Stephin Merritt – and an idiosyncratic soundtrack. Raised in the US Virgin Islands, he moved to New York in 1964 and there started co-writing songs with the heavyweight Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman team. Over the next three years, he also penned the songs that were to form his debut album.
Brittany Howard - What Now

Feb 16, 2024 | uncut.co.uk | Sharon O'Connell

Following the release of their second album, Sound & Color, Alabama Shakes were slated to scale even greater heights than a US Number One album and four Grammy Awards. However, Brittany Howard had reached a crossroads. Her decision to step away in 2018 wasn’t a move against the band – “incredible” is how she described the Shakes’ achievements to Uncut – but rather towards creative and personal fulfilment.
Daniel Villarreal - Lados B

Oct 13, 2023 | uncut.co.uk | Sharon O'Connell

If broad-spectrum interests, collaborative enthusiasm and an appetite for improvisation are indicators of a jazz mindset, Chicago-based drummer Daniel Villarreal easily fits the bill. The classification of his work, though, is far more slippery: he’s a member of Dos Santos, who play a high-energy hybrid of cumbia, psychedelia and jazz, a Latine psychedelic-soul duo called The Los Sundowns and the Mexican folk band Ida y Vuelta.