BAXTER DURY (UK)

It was Sunday June 28, 2024, and Baxter Dury had just stepped from a rapturously received set on The Park Stage at Glastonbury Festival. After towelling himself down, a familiar figure approached him backstage. It was Paul Epworth, the lauded producer/songwriter whose creations have draped themselves across the airwaves of the 21st century more successfully than any other Briton. You’ll know his work from huge global hits with Florence + The Machine, Glass Animals, Paul McCartney, U2 and, most significantly, Adele.

Together they dreamt up Allbarone’s nine-track tour-de-force, stripping everything away and building Baxter’s most melodically direct, futuristic collection in intense three-hour daily shifts throughout December and January. “It’s more than genius really,” says Baxter of Epworth. “It’s like he’s telepathic or something; he sees music in a shape and form that nobody else I’ve ever met does. He doesn’t care what you think: he just wants to make it brilliant, otherwise it goes in the bin.”