Episode 215 - The Covermount Mixtape: Uncut "The Playlist" June 2006

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We promised to make our covermount episodes a recurring feature and we are here to make good on that promise. This week Crag joins us again and we’re talking about a “collection” that was included with the June 2006 issue of Uncut Magazine imitatively called “The Playlist”.

If you were to think of words that end in “able” the first one that springs to mind with this covermount is “forgettable”. Sandwiched in between (admittedly brilliant) tracks from the likes of Siouxise and the Banshees and Al Green is some truly beige music. There are other stand outs of course, but the whole thing is downright bizarre.

In our last covermount episode we hypothesised on what the real purpose was for covermount CDs for magazines such as Kerrang! And Metal Hammer; was it to promote new bands by using established acts to get people’s attention? Was it simply a good way to make money from smaller labels/bands/management companies by promising them an audience that was sure to be rapt with attention when they found out someone such as, say, the Deftones, would be contributing a track? We’re not entirely sure, but the feeling was certainly that at least they were trying to promote new music.

Uncut’s motivations are just as opaque and baffling only in a completely different way. Shoved in between tracks from the The Small Faces, The Waterboys and the aforementioned Al Green and Siouxie and the Banshees is a grab bag of indie, electro and country garbage laid out across 16 tracks. Whatever the purpose of this covermount was, it certainly was not to promote new music, or even, it seems, particularly good music.

The title “The Playlist” is probably the giveaway here – their ethos seems to be akin to what we all do with Spotify playlists now. That is, they wanted to chuck together some songs they thought were cool and then offer for free to their readers. A noble intention perhaps, but we can’t help but think many of their readers were familiar with some of these bands already.

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