Eye on the prize

Inside the US singer-songwriter’s path from early DIY explorations to modern country-folk force

In 1976, the revolutionary singer-songwriter LAURA NYRO returned from self-imposed exile. But her comeback confounded expectations, shifting away from the impassioned intimacies of her early albums to embrace more radical perspectives. Fifty years on, Nyro’s collaborators revisit her striking second act. “She was a hip American from the Bronx,” one friend and producer tells Rob Hughes. “But her soul was old.”

Mike Patton and the Avett Brothers join forces to create a work of immense beauty.

My Focus – Live Under The Rainbow

Black And Blue UMC/POLYDOR

London’s post-punk seismographers pick up more weird vibrations on their third album. By Victoria Segal. Illustration by Cold War Steve.