Chez Wombat

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

I think the 'gotcha' moment of Ruby would've worked better if there wasn't things brought up that couldn't really be explained by her just being normal. How did she make it snow? (If it was psychological, I'd understand, but it wasn't, other people saw it) How did she create an alternate timeline in 73 Yards? Why is a 15 year old dressing up like a death eater and pointing at nothing if they're otherwise normal and not aware that anyone else can see them? They could've done an interesting link with the powers of the TARDIS attaching itself to an otherwise normal Ruby in a way to break it up from Sutekh's control which made her a bit more powerful than she expected before loosening. Don't get me wrong, I don't really like the companion being a mystery/ultimate saviour trope either, but if you're gonna set up a rug pull, you shouldn't leave things unturned. It's just not as clever or original as he wants it to be.

Mmm, I had my doubts this would fully stick the landing as Doctor Who finales usually do and this was no exception x There was some good stuff - Mel's gradual corruption was great, the scene watching the universe and the Doctor realising was fantastic and hit a lot harder than his other emotional moments (I do agree that I wish there was fewer of these throughout the season as it would've made the moment hit harder) and Sian Clifford is always great to see. On the whole though, it sadly suffered from the classic hallmarks of a rushed finale as has already been noted - one being the reset button which seemed garbled and rushed even for Doctor Who. Taking down the God of Death was clearly super easy, barely an inconvenience (if you get that, you're my friend), the show isn't for babies, it shouldn't be afraid to at least have some damage done in the path to victory. I suppose I should've seen the 'actually she's not that special' trope coming as Disney did the same with Rey in Star Wars. I get it, but it feels very smarmy and just a sign that they've clearly wrote themselves into a corner as no answer would've been enough. If this is indeed the last we see of Ruby (I'm guessing it isn't though haven't caught up with recent spoilers), then I'm not sure she'll be anyone's favourite companion, as headstrong as she is, she generally seemed pretty surface level, which I suppose is the point, but I would've liked to see a bit more development. I feel like a lot of the 73 Yards questions have gone unanswered and it makes it all seem like it was just all a fantasy which is a real shame as that remains a high point of the season. I guess if you're into happy sappy endings you'd like it, but I just prefer things being a bit darker and it left me rather underwhelmed (though still an improvement on any of Chibnall's). I do feel this season had some brilliant moments, but more episodes would've allowed so much more ideas and development to flourish rather than this rushed conclusion, it's a shame. Mrs Flood actually on the good side it seems, gotta be a friendly timelord surely x

Alphabeat – Fascination The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition Chicane – Poppiholla Pendulum – Propane Nightmares Chase & Status feat. Plan B – End Credits Would love to also hear any of the below: Hot Chip – Ready for the Floor The Ting Tings – Shut Up and Let Me Go Mark Ronson feat. MNDR & Q-Tip – Bang Bang Bang Swedish House Mafia feat. Pharrell – One (Your Name) Coldplay – Violet Hill Robyn – Dancing on My Own Brandon Flowers – Crossfire Biffy Clyro – Many of Horror One Night Only – Just for Tonight Muse – Uprising Could we have James Newton Howard's The Hanging Tree as an RIP to Donald Sutherland (he played President Snow in the Hunger Games films)

Just sounds like a Mylo Xyloto album track, which is still decent, but very by the numbers and it's definitely not becoming anyone's favourite Coldplay song. The outro is definitely the best part, I was starting to warm to it a bit more after that. Ultimately, though I preferred Higher Power by them if I wanted a pop sellout sound. I guess I'll just be hoping for a Coloratura to be buried on here somewhere x

I'm OK with Westlife or Eminem going, but voted for Steps x

The speech about Brianna Ghey and Trans acceptance at Question Time was the first time I really adnired Starmer for what he was saying. Better late than never I guess x Ed Davey also came across pretty well, of course Sunak still didn't, it's really quite stunning how much he keeps digging with every media appearance. His defensive response to the audience member asking about the ECHR was so nasty and has utter inability to provide anything of value apart from meaningless 'tax cuts' was pathetic. Deserved the calls of Shame.

Denmark did nearly catch us out in the semis of last Euros so goes to figure as with the last few tournaments that a team we have (recent) history with proves the most challenging, History repeating itself!

Hell of a shot from Denmark!

Love the little I know of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, amazing storytelling and great, epic sounds. The Mercy Seat is particularly great and I'm really liking their material this year.