Chez Wombat

I'm not panicking yet with Reform, these are broadly in line with the YouGov predictions and very Brexit-friendly seats that have been screwed over by the Tories, does suggest they've definitely overperformed but hopefully doesn't equate to too many seats.

About as I expected overall, Reform a bit worryingly high but hopefully a bit overestimated x Anyway, THE TORY WIPEOUT BEGINS *.*

Green Day by a long way, hooray at Buzzjack recognising the clear standout here <3

Steps outstaying their welcome a bit x

I mainly fear/think the exit poll will just show a 'normal' landslide, rather than the <100 seats for the Tories some of the polls are predicting, possibly just below/above that of 1997, which could have the narrative spun as a 'slight disappointment' for Labour. I'm telling the logician in me that if it's wrong to the point of a hung parliament, it would be a polling scandal worse than 1992 x

Happy last day of Tory Rule :yahoo: My (entirely tactical) vote is in, I am hopeful that the signs could switch this time. Weirdly for a Conservative borough and historically a strong one, I've received no leaflets from them but one from Labour, Lib Dems, Green, Reform and even The Climate Party! I never thought we'd ever turn from Conservative so that'll be quite surreal x Can't stay up sadly due to work (though it is our work barbeque so that will hopefully be fitting to celebrate Tory defeat), but will turn the exit poll on at least for hopefully some much better news than last election x

These two should really be the final 2 based on play so far, brutal draw. Should be a good match though, I think I'd side with Spain narrowly, but this will definitely be their first real challenge.

This new attack line for Starmer is possibly the most clutching at straws I've ever seen, there is no person in the world that should be expected to not have at least some downtime outside of their occupation to prioritise their own wellbeing. I'd question the mindset of anyone that thinks otherwise.

Hooray, begone forgettable pop songs x Iglu & Hartly, I did quite like this at the time but haven't thought about it in years, and I've got a lot of nostalgia for Star Girl mainly thanks to Chris Moyles (if you know, you know x)

Leonard Cohen – Songs of Leonard Cohen An artist I'm sure needs no introduction to start us off. Despite not having many actual hits, Leonard Cohen is probably one of the well known and loved singer-songwriters of all time, with a career spanning six decades, right up until his death in 2016. His first studio album released in 1966 is very much an introduction to the many themes and storytelling, poetic lyrics that would feature prominently in his work and to this day, contains some of his best known work and has remained a favourite in his back catalogue. For me, Leonard Cohen is very much in the same boat as Bob Dylan - someone I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for, yet I do respect most of his discography rather than openly enjoy it and vocally isn't always my sort of thing. Yet, the pure atmosphere and talent present in the songwriting can often overcome that in the few songs I know. I did actually vaguely recognise a few songs here, Suzanne is a song I'm sure I've heard but not been able to name, but it's a great listen with dark, atmospheric vibe with gradually building instrumentation. And that's a description that fits the whole record really - slow, darkly-composed folk songs with some beautiful poetic imagery and gradually building instrumentals that help paint a beautiful picture. Cohen was apparently displeased with the arrangements on the record, but it's since been one of the best features - Master Song has a beautiful strings section, The Stranger Song with its great thrumming guitar and Sisters of Mercy with its array of strings and accordions gives it a proper old style folktale vibe. His vocals generally remain at a monotone throughout and perhaps even strain slightly when he goes for higher notes (or slightly unpleasant grunts at the end of One of Us Cannot Be Wrong), but I think it works as it keeps the emphasis on his poetry and songwriting. The other long time favourite on the album, So Long Marianne, wasn't quite for me. I'm sure it sounded great at the time, but feels a bit repetitive and pub-singalong-ish to my ears. Thankfully, the last few songs, Stories of the Street and Teachers, despite not a whole lot of variation in style from what we've heard earlier, return to the darker folktales. Ultimately after listening, I still think Cohen fits nicely alongside Dylan for me as a beautiful lyricist and not-so-beautiful vocalist, but in the same way as Highway 61 Revisited did for Dylan (though I did prefer that overall), Songs of Leonard Cohen is a clear emphasis of his strengths and what he does best in his chilling, atmospheric storytelling and the production is able to contrast with the vocal delivery to make that come to life. I'd certainly say it's a good place to start with his discography. 8.0

Well it's been a minute... So coming up to four years ago now in the height of the pandemic, I decided to make use one of my many 100 Bucket List posters and work my way through the 100 supposed essential albums to listen to before you die, it was...a mixed bag to say the least as detailed in this thread, but ultimately it was a very enjoyable use of my time that helped to expand my limited knowledge of the all time classic albums. We may no longer be in a pandemic and I may not have quite as much time on my hands now, but nonetheless I've still been left with the feeling there's more to explore in terms of classic albums, and I've also been craving a new Buzzjack project to devote some of my spare time too, and now I'm coming up to a quieter time in my workplace, I thought why not expand the list a bit to take on some more albums, so that's what I'm doing, time for more Bucket list reviews :cheer: You may think this will be following the recent 100 Best Albums of all Time from Apple Music, and while that did certainly inspire me to continue, my main itinerary actually comes from another poster from a similar company, which I've noted down from an Amazon page. While I do think Apple's list was for the most part respectable, I can't hide the sense that the list was put together to generate more revenue to their top artists and labels, with some overinflated placings for recent stars (hello Ms Swift x) and I find the poster has a more diverse range of eras, genres etc. Here are in order, the albums I'll be reviewing (repeat artists were allowed, but obvs if I've already covered the album, it won't be featured here) Leonard Cohen – Songs of Leonard Cohen Neil Young – After the Gold Rush Rihanna – Anti Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong – Ella & Louis Dusty Springfield – Dusty in Memphis Selena – Amor Prohibido Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St. Cesaria Evora – Miss Perfumado The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster Black Sabbath – Paranoid Drake – Take Care Whitney Houston – Whitney Houston Missy Elliott – Supa Dupa Fly Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Sleater-Kinney – Dig Me Out Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly Van Morrison – Astral Weeks Bjork – Homogenic Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92 Burial – Untrue Janis Joplin – Pearl John Coltrane – A Love Supreme Billy Joel – The Stranger Madonna – Ray of Light Kraftwerk – Trans-Europe Express Frank Sinatra – In the Wee Small Hours The Beatles – Revolver Patti Smith – Horses Depeche Mode – Violator Brian Eno – Another Green World Otis Redding – Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul The Who – Who’s Next Joni Mitchell – Blue Frank Ocean – Blonde Jay-Z – The Blueprint Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico Carole King – Tapestry Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures De La Soul – Three Feet High and Rising Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club Sufjan Stevens – Illinois My Bloody Valentine – Loveless Massive Attack – Mezzanine Now while that's certainly enough to keep me going, the poster sadly only goes up to 2016, now eight years ago, which I do want to be a little more up to date with some recent critically acclaimed names I'm not too familiar with, so I have decided to take the post-2016 albums from Apple Music's list to add some more recent additions (with the exception of Billie and Taylor, both of which I've already listened to), they are: Travis Scott – Astroworld Solange – A Seat at the Table Tyler, The Creator – Flower Boy Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour Lana Del Rey – Norman F***ing Rockwell Bad Bunny – Un Verano Sin Ti SZA – SOS I'll probably weave them in every few albums just so there's a bit more diversity there, but otherwise it's the same process as last time, I will review and score every album out of 10. Updates probably won't be as frequent or lengthy as last time, depending on my free time, but I aim to finish everything I start so I hope to conclude this soon, however long it takes. Any comments are appreciated, even if you missed the first one, first album is coming up like, right now x

Wellll, that was a close one lads x That could've potentially been a humiliation up there with Iceland in 2016, but nice to know we're still capable of playing interesting football! Maybe it's Southgate's masterplan to just bore the opposition to tears for 90 minutes x Gonna need a lot to change to beat Switzerland, especially as they've just knocked out the current European champions.

Well this is certainly no Poor Things...and I loved that and I don't want that to sound negative as I did enjoy this too, it's just very different to that so manage your expectations x The title seems very ironic when you know the three stories as you'd argue there's not a lot of that present, yet it works in a very twisted sense as they each focus on a type of kindness that can actually seriously damage a person in every way, and extrapolated to a bizarre extent as Lanthimos usually does. Plemons, Stone & Defoe were all excellent in their multiple roles, and Mamoudou Athie was great in Archive 81 so it's good to see him getting some recognition. There was certainly some classic dark, absurdist humour too which worked well amongst some thoroughly unfunny situations. It's just a shame that, perhaps a given due to it's structure, that the pacing and development of the stories was a bit shaky. . Still definitely worth watching as no other filmmaker has his style and it's always thrilling to watch, but could've been stronger overall.

I'm not watching, but imagining that Kuennesberg's giving him an easy ride as with all the Tories, the amount of desperation from her recently to try and say 'well actually both parties have been struggling' issue and trying to exemplify Labour's flaws as much as possible is hilarious, though she's going to be insufferable on election night.

It's been a while since I've seen Coldplay live, but this set is really making me want to see them again. Such brilliant performers and they can really work a crowd, Fix You performed with their hero, Michael J Fox, was such a touching moment :heart: It is a pity so much of the setlist was their recent sellout songs, but I did really appreciate them doing Sparks from Parachutes to satisfy the different generations of fans.

...if England actually face them at all that is ;-)

The White Stripes a new entry and me the only voter? Criminal, they weren't around a long time but one of the most influential bands from the 21st Century. Underworld are amazing from what I know of them, just not that aware of them outside of the well known singles.

When you make Donald Trump say something correct ('I can't understand what he just said'), you know you're finished. What a disaster, I think barring a massive scandal on the other side (because being a convicted criminal clearly wasn't enough x), the only way for the Democrats would be last minute replacing him, but even then that's a risk. Harris isn't really popular at all and will struggle against Trump. It is mind-boggling and incredibly worrying how American seems this scared of progressivism that these are our options for president.

Wow, that first half is brutal, Spain and Germany potentially only being the Quarter Final :o (and potentially a France/Portugal rematch as well!) Certainly a generous draw for England, we could easily scrape our way to the final there, but any of those teams can knock us out the way we've been playing, definitely need to step it up now.

I quite enjoy Taking Back My Love, aww x Either of the first 2 to go, forgettable pap.

I figured this would be a snoozer, I see I made the right choice not watching :lol: We're very lucky our group was one big stalemate (one win in the whole group is crazy, must not happen often) as this is easily the weakest we've ever been under Southgate, one can hope we'll wake up now x

06 The Church on Ruby Road 02 Space Babies 04 The Devil's Chord 07 Boom 09 73 Yards (sadly made a bit worse in retrospect as the threads weren't tied up in a good way in the final) 07 Dot and Bubble 06 Rogue 08 The Legend of Ruby Sunday 05 Empire of Death Better than all of Chibnall's (not that that's hard x) and probably better than S8, about on par with S10 (though that had a much stronger finale and better conclusion to the series arc)

As expected, I do think far right populism and a media-obsessed leader can only take you so far (we are thankfully a bit different from the US in that regard), I imagine most of their projected seats will go back to Tories.

I nearly tried Phoenix's Lisztomania for this, but thought it may not quite fit the type of pop expected...I suppose it's a good thing I didn't even if it would've been accepted as I may have been too late! :lol: Good choice as well though. That's the only song I recognise, though a few familiar names.

Disturbia, Infinity 2008, Human, Fire, Kickstarts, All the Lovers and Barbra Streisand for Best - some of those maybe not big favourites but all good songs. Leon Jackson and Justin Bieber for worst, Cliff being saved x