Smint

Not really - UK rap seems to be doing on average worse this year compared to previous. Just the biggest two UK artists are collaborating and another one is teaming up with Drake.

I've been reading that title in that way all week but didn't want to say. Glad not just me! :kink:

Where do you even start re: Starmer? Broke all of his pledges when he ran for Labour leadership Worrying authoritarian control over the whole Labour party re: selections - always shutting out the left Was pro-Remain now pledging never to bring Britain back to the EU, not even the Single Market despite public opinion and economy crying out for it Patronising, charisma free style Won't offer the radical change needed in these worrying times That said, I get 100% what you say about not wanting Tories in so if he has to be PM then so be it (because it will be him or Sunak, unless the latter is dumped by his party). The current thinking of progressives is to have a Tory out vote which will mean voting Lib Dem in the South/West and Labour everywhere else (there will be websites with much more detailed instructions on what to vote in what area). I would hope Lib Dems get lots of seats so they have influence over Starmer because they are better on most policies nowadays.

Shame in a way as she was a great MP but I hear that she doesn't feel that being an MP helps with the Climate Emergency and takes away from focussing on that. In a way, I understand you only have to watch what happens in Parliament to see how useless it is with its adversarial, unfair system.

Lana is an artist who although I'm a massive fan of the moody arty genre she encapsulates and loved some of her singles 'West Coast' and 'Video Games' are amazing, never really warmed to her as a person. Something about her image put me off and sometimes she can be a bit funny with her views - that said probably not good to judge her on things like that too much. It's actually Buzzjack that has made me think she has to be great as she gets so many rave reviews. I did start listening to both 'UltraViolet' and 'Norman f***ing Rockwell!' and they sound great - should try more of them.

Next single, title track from 'I Inside the Old I Dying' out MZDfM6bhKMc A lot better than 'A Child's Question, August' IMO, quite beautiful, even if not very commercial again. And there's a UK/European tour coming this Autumn. I've only ever seen her once during the Stories era so will def go and see her as she's generally rated excellent live! Tickets on general sale on the 16th June.

Awww - shame. Did think she'd be slightly higher (or maybe wishful thinking). For someone so young, she is scarily talented. I thought her image was a bit too much for WWAFWDWG (although musically pretty faultless) so glad she softened it slightly for 'Happier than Ever' and let the music speak. Mind you, think the backlashes she gets from her overdemanding fans (over not very much at all) is a bit unnecessary as if she's not allowed to grow as a person. I would say that 'Everything I Wanted' is the most uncommercial long lasting top 10 hit of all time (I'm not including tracks that went 7-25 say). It spent 10 non consecutive weeks in the top 10 and the subject matter and tone of it just isn't that kind of record. Genuinely love most of her songs so no particular favourites.

For ages I thought that it peaked at no.6 but realised recently that belonged to the rather forgotten 'Your Love is King' 'Paradise' is my favourite Sade song.

I love 'La Luna' ,'Circle in the Sand', 'Leave a Light On','California' and 'Heaven is a Place on Earth' from Belinda. Her success was so different each side of the pond. The GoGos and 'Mad About You' were big in her home country but flopped here. For 'Heaven on Earth' album equally big in both US and UK then her US success withered but remained successful in UK for few more albums.

Yay, a decent climb for Tori! :D Even though there's no question that Tori did not maintain the unbelievable quality of her early career - I would put Earthquakes, Pink (on balance my favourite), Pele (although controversially I think the second half meanders a bit), Choirgirl and Scarlet in the top tier category, all of her albums have at least a few good tracks. I do think Night of Hunters and Native Invaders are almost as strong albums- 'Fearlessness', 'Shattering Sea', 'Reindeer King', 'Climb', 'Mary's eyes' are all late highlights. I put her top as she's such a nice friendly person and always thought unfairly treated by the sexist music press esp in the UK who dismissed her with lazy Kate Bush comparisons, when apart from a trapped-in-a-box album image they are NOTHING alike. Live she is a legend and always gives her best (even if her voice isn't on peak form), takes time to meet her fans and varies the setlist within a tour (which many artists never do) so no two nights are the same. Even though she played them hundreds of times I still got a chill up my spine when I heard 'Silent All These Years' or 'Precious Things' a couple of months back at the Royal Albert Hall!

Yep I gave more to Bjork than Bjork did! Her first 6 albums including 'Selmasongs' were absolutely amazing but then 'Volta' onwards she started being ahem a bit too difficult to get into, although 'Fossora' and 'Vulnicura' have great moments the rare times I play them. My favourite albums overall have to be 'Medulla' (once you're over the no instruments it's not that inaccessible although diverse and adventurous) and 'Debut' (love the second side especially the beautiful chillout ambient 'One Day', 'Aeroplane', 'Come To Me' trio, probably because I played this album to death when I was young and have such magical memories of those tracks) although I know that others would put 'Homogenic' or 'Vespertine' at the helm and that's completely understandable. Oh and the 'Triumph of the Heart' video has to be the most purrfectly bizarre video that Bjork has made - well her 'Utopia' ones were bonkers but not in such a fun way IMO.

Wonder if Florence gets less votes as many people think of FATM as a band. Love her 'Ceremonials' album especially and 'What the Water Gave Me' is one of my favourite tracks of all time- just so epic.

Really? I thought a young American lady would be, ahem, happier than ever with the highest new entry unless she was on the list last time?

Dp

I know about Franco but the change since then appeared to be incredible but guess haters gonna hate.

And moving on to Spain and it's not good news there either as the Conservatives and the Far Right Vox party did extremely well in the local elections. The Prime Minister has decided to call a snap General election to see if Spain wants to go fully fash. Really sad as Spain is a beautiful tolerant country. That said, wish Sunak called for a General Election after tanking in the local elections here but that would require honesty and character which are nowhere to be seen in these current times.

Really enjoying this thread - thanks so much for this Gezza! Seems that alternative singer songwriter females doing better this rate than last one - so expecting some good climbs and new entries from them still to come.

Anastacia has amazing singles especially 'One Day in your Life', 'Im Outta Love' and of course 'Left Outside Alone' not quite the artist I would buy an album of. Crazy that such great pop was not wanted by her home country that she only just scraped the Billboard Top 100 with her first hit then absolutely zilch. :nono:

Oh we agree on something Usher related then! That's probably my favourite.

Apart from'DJ Got us Falling in , 'Love in this Club' and possibly 'Without You' all of the above are just utter bilge especially 'Yeah'. Just polar opposite of what I like in a track.

Yes de Santis is scared shitless of Trump - his attempt will fail pathetically but of course the sad news is that the anti LGBT rhetoric will ramp up massively during the period.

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/24/targ...btq-collection/ Depressing news showing that threats of violence works in removing LGBT visibility from the public/corporate sphere - this attack on Target store of course has happened after Bud Light beer company had a huge decline in sales after a ferocious backlash to them sending trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney a single can of beer with her photo on to celebrate her one year of transition. Plus of course these far right tactics will be imported to the UK very soon (signs of it happening now).

They say that the devil's best idea was pretending that he never exists or the route to fascism is paved by people claiming that the threat exaggerated, so we have to take seriously the fact that a hard/far right cabal is taking head of the Tory party aided by the usual media suspects (Mail, Sun, Express, Telegraph) aided by a loss making but extremely well funded "news" channel GB news which are entirely unscared of regulatory sanctions and appearing to play nice. Johnson in some ways is not the best figurehead for it - not truly hard right, pissed the gammon off with the lockdown and certain green issues but they'll hype him up and use his narcissism especially as their chosen one, Liz Truss, failed so badly. Braverman also plays very badly to the public despite speaking their language and Badenoch recently annoyed a lot of Brexiters by slowing down the EU law bonfire nonsense. But yes they are gunning for Sunak and Hunt especially since the Tories lost over 1000 seats so look like losing the next election. As Starmer isn't producing radical change from Sunak's style of Government (sadly)then they'll be happy with deposing Sunak and finding a true hard right Orban, Meloni leader in the UK even if they have to wait a while. Nothing to suggest it won't work either.

Very respectable position for 'Run To You' considering it didn't do that well when originally released but def my favourite Whitney track.

Awww bet Raye would be chuffed at her high debut here! Kind of deserves it just for 'Escapism' IMO but hope she has a long career of success with stuff she believes in.