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.”

To quote Madonna’s 2005 global smash Hung Up, “Time goes by so slowly”, and no-one is more aware of that sentiment at the moment than the Queen Of Pop’s devoted fanbase as they eagerly await her new a

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

From The Bottom Of An Old Grandfather Clock (reissue, 2004) DEAD OCEANS

For over 50 years, BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND has been a secret master of spiritual electronica, receiving inspiration from a “higher power” to provide healing songs for the disenfranchised. Now, he and his wife face long-deserved acclaim and grave new challenges with equanimity. “I can’t explain it, but I feel joyous,” he tells VICTORIA SEGAL .

Squeeze ’s songwriting duo are back in harness, toting a rock opera they wrote in the ’70s with an all-new album to come. Given their near-constant strife, it’s a miracle. But as they insist, “the thing that always brings us together is the songs…”