Severin

+25 Siouxsie and The Banshees - Hong Kong Garden +24 Garbage - Why Do You Love Me +23 Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit +22 The Doors - Light My Fire +21 Amy Winehouse - Rehab +20 Suede - Animal Nitrate +19 Pulp - Disco 2000 +18 Oasis - Cigarettes And Alcohol +17 The Cure - The Love Cats +16 Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me) +15 Tori Amos - Pretty Good Year +14 U2 - One +13 The Cardigans - Erase/Rewind +12 Dolly Parton - Jolene +11 Green Day - Basket Case +10 Roy Orbison - I Drove All Night +09 Duran Duran - Notorious +08 The Supremes - Stop! In The Name Of Love +07 Madness - One Step Beyond +06 Carly Simon - Nobody Does It Better +05 R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts +04 Blancmange - Living On The Ceiling +03 The Bravery - An Honest Mistake +02 Ram Jam - Black Betty +01 Lady Gaga - Alejandro

This is a horrendously inaccurate reading of post Cold War history of Ukraine. Nobody 'took away' their nuclear weapons in the manner you suggest. Ukraine realised they were incapable of maintaining them and so in a deal to guarantee their independence via an agreement of non-aggression and protection they traded them for 2.5 Billion in debt written off plus a guarantee of fuel for their reactors. Yanukovych was deposed by the Ukrainian uprising. Poroshenko won the first election and stated that Ukraine joining NATO didn't have enough support to make pressing the issue worthwhile. Although tolerated by the West he was certainly not their ideal choice due to the high levels of corruption and perceived lack of connection with the Ukrainian people. It is true that he and Putin hated each other but he wasn't hugely popular in the West either. This ultimately led to his defeat by Zelenskyy, who was nobody's first choice and looked to be more keen to develop a relationship with Putin than Poroshenko was. Putin had the chance then to resolve the situation favourably to himself but thought he could take advantage of a supposedly weak leader and a disunited Europe and NATO. The Ukraine-NATO Action Plan was first declared in 2002 and the first steps towards membership were taken in 2005. At this point NATO was still saying 'no, you can't join'. NATO maintained this stance even after the 2014 invasion of Ukraine and only started to discuss it seriously AFTER 2022 full-scale invasion. Yes, ending the war is what everybody wants but Ukraine and the Baltic states in particular will not be safe from Russia, no matter what the deal is, as long as Putin still draws breath.

There's just something about hearing Julee Cruise's Falling that is so evocative of that moment when Twin Peaks first aired. It takes me right back to a time when David Lynch created something so masterful that it changed everything that followed. The instrumental version is one of the few pieces of music that hits me every time. Although to be fair Laura's Theme hits the hardest. As for the Cyndi/Roy battle, I love Cyndi, or at least did until around the time she released I Drove All Night. Her version is great but... Roy Orbison is one of the greatest vocalists ever. No competition there.

Had a couple of listens to the album now and it's pretty much what you'd expect from them these days and feels like a natural follow on from The Ultra Vivid Lament. The title track opens the album and is by far the best on the record. Nicky Wire takes a spoken word lead vocal, reminiscent of Baz Luhrman's Sunscream, but where he decries society's reliance on being told how to think every minute. Asking at the end 'What happened to your critical thinking?' This is ironic as what follows are ten, post 2010 Manics-by-the numbers tracks. All the usual boxes are ticked, big choruses, lyrics full of hopeful melancholy (and melancholic hope, it varies) and sweepingly epic soundscapes followed by intimate moments. The singles, especially Decline & Fall, sound much better in context of the album and the re-tooling from the single version gives it more of an edge and bite. The other great highlight is Dear Stephen, which will resonate with anyone who grew up loving The Smiths but has had to watch in embarrassment as Morrissey turned into an arsehole over the years. Finally the closer OneManMilitia recalls the albums opener and is delightfully leftfield. With it the album comes nicely full circle and it's a perfectly solid addition to their catalogue. I just can't help feel that they're just a little too comfortable ploughing the same familiar furrow once again, which is a shame as they have so much more to offer when they want. Then again, what the heck, after all they've been through, they've earned the right to do as they please. Edited for terrible spelling and grammar

Voted for Japanese Breakfast as it's probably the best there for me, but I can't say I was that interested in any of them this week. Personal choices this week - Eville - Plaything Lacuna Coil - I Wish You Were Dead Slung - Collider

Williams have now revelaed their FW47 in a gorgeous one off livery. The airbox shape suggest a potential trend for 2025 as it's similar to the McLaren, conceptually

Really? That's weird considering she's named on the single's cover art. Wonder why they did that? https://www.discogs.com/release/240740-Prim...-Velvet-Morning

Not quite true. Kate Moss sung on Primal Scream's cover of Some Velvet Morning, which was a minor hit, reaching #44 in 2003

That's what Putin wants you to believe and (along with the Nazi lie) is the official line. He wasn't all that bothered when Finland decided to join and is on record in the past stating that Ukraine would eventually join NATO at is their business to decide. He allowed the US to establish military bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan following 9/11 which would be unthinkable if he was concerned about NATO on his doorstep. He even once suggested Russia might join NATO one day. In 2002 when the Baltic states joined NATO, Putin said - “We of course are not in a position to tell people what to do. We cannot forbid people to make certain choices if they want to increase the security of their nations in a particular way.” He spoke of Ukraine in - "I am absolutely convinced that Ukraine will not shy away from the processes of expanding interaction with NATO and the Western allies as a whole. Ukraine has its own relations with NATO; there is the Ukraine-NATO Council. At the end of the day, the decision is to be taken by NATO and Ukraine. It is a matter for those two partners" For the first 8 years of his reign as Russia's leader he had no objections to Ukraine joining NATO. Ask yourself what happened to Putin in 2008 that so shifted his attitude towards his neighbours looking westward. The reality is that Putin has two main goals. Foremost is his fear that the increasing democratisation of neighbouring nations is a threat to his own position in Russia. He is terrified that Russia will decide to follow the path to true democracy and he would be desposed and seen as overseer of the breakup of the once great world power. He acted when neighbours Georgia looked to change things and was deeply concerned when the Arab Spring saw multiple regimes undergo colossal changes and dictators were deposed. Subsequently, he has designs on restoring Russia as a great imperial power, as it was during the era of the Russian Empire and the USSR. Part of this involves absorbing Ukraine back in to Russia itself, not just into their sphere of influence. He sees Ukraine as part of Russia and has latterly dismissed its status as a sovereign nation and questioned its right to exist. Kyiv was the founding city of the Kievan Rus which dominated Eastern European Slavic culture for nearly 400 years, he views it as the birthplace of Russian identity and an intrinsic part of the Motherland Ukraine meanwhile has been trying to establish freedom from Russian aggression since the October Revolution in 1917 and the subsequent Russian Civil War. NATO is an excuse to justify his actions and lay the blame elsewhere. His actions are entirely self serving.

Eminem's Houdini also mentions R Kelly and has a pun on Black Eyed Peas too

Disappointed to see Soul Asylum drop out so soon. I feel it's a very underrated song from the early '90s. Would have been good to see Smashing Pumpkins go through too but I do feel they have much better tracks in their catalogue, (even if they aren't eligible here0

The McLaren MCL39 became the first of this year's cars to break cover as it ran in a testing livery at Silverstone today. It's clearly a development of last year's car and retains the pull rod front suspension. Some changes around the engine cover intake a noticeable too.

The Osmonds - Crazy Horses

Def not their most well known single though. I'd argue the original The Who version is better known still.

Can't say I'm too bothered about any losses so far, even though I rather like Sparks and Shakespears' Sister's tracks.

Beastie Boys - Fight for Your Right Ozzy Osbourne - Changes (with Kelly)

Not sure if this has been answered for you already but she's used the melody from the track Spellbound. It's this part - Like a poem said by a lady in red You hear the last few words of your life With a haunting dance, now you're both in a trance It's time to cast your spell on the night Personally I think it's subtle enough that she might have got away with not crediting them but fair play for acknowledging her inspiration

Captain Sensible - Happy Talk Ramones - Baby I Love You Doctor and the Medics - Spirit in the Sky Scorpions - Wind of Change Faith No More - Easy

Having spent a bit of time with the album now, I'm warming to it, if still a little underwhelmed. It's definitely not as interesting as her earlier work and suggests she's going in a more mainstream direction on the whole but it's still better than a lot of other similarly styled acts right now and I'm looking forward to seeing her live again soon. I do feel the album is a little light on tracks, with only 8 actual songs and at around 35 minutes long, it feels a bit more like an EP than a fully realised album.

Order of preference - Chloe Slater – Sucker The Black Keys – The Night Before The K's – Breakdown In My Bedroom Squid – Cro-Magnon Man St. Lucia – Rolling Man Inhaler – Billy (Yeah Yeah Yeah) Alex Warren – Ordinary Oklou – blade bird Personal faves this week - Spiritbox - No Loss, No Love Desperate Journalist - 7 Calva Louise - W.T.F Bambara - Letters From Sing Sing

25 Soul Asylum - Runaway Train 24 Grandmaster and Melle Mel – White Lines (Don't Don't Do It) 23 Kirsty MacColl - A New England 22 Editors – Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors 21 Radiohead - Creep 20 The Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight 19 Julee Cruise - Falling 18 The Verve - Lucky Man 17 Dr. Dre featuring Eminem – Forgot About Dre 16 Wild Cherry - Play That Funky Music 15 The Rolling Stones - Start Me Up 14 Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood 13 Bomb The Bass - Winter In July 12 Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton – Islands In The Stream 11 The Bellamy Brothers - Let Your Love Flow 10 The Beach Boys - I Get Around 09 The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army 08 Shakespear's Sister - I Don't Care 07 Madonna - Give It 2 Me 06 Al Green - Let's Stay Together 05 Sparks - Amateur Hour 04 Chris Cornell - You Know My Name 03 Abba - Lay All Your Love On Me 02 Alanis Morissette - Head Over Feet 01 Snow Patrol - You're All I Have

Not really. Released in November and with a Nativity themed video but the song itself bears no relation to Christmas.

When Running Up That Hill charted in 2012 I think it's worth noting that it is a different recording to the one in 1985 and 2022

1 Kid Kapichi - Sardines 182 scrobbles 2 EVILLE - Nightmare 102 3 CLT DRP - Where the Boys Are 96 4 KNIFE BRIDE - Grenade 95 5 Creeper - Annabelle 90 6 KNIFE BRIDE - Tits And Teeth 80 7 HotWax - Drop 79 8 Saint Agnes - And They All Fall Down 78 9 Saint Agnes - Daughter Of Lucifer 78 10 Creeper - Spiders In Her Hair 72 11 Saint Agnes - Uppercut! 72 12 Desperate Journalist - The Fear 72 13 PROJECTOR - Same Dream 69 14 PROJECTOR - Zero 67 15 WARGASM - Salma Hayek 66 16 HotWax - Phone Machine 64 17 KNIFE BRIDE - Fang Dummy 62 18 SNAYX - Work 62 19 Kid Kapichi - New England 59 20 PROJECTOR - Feels Like Something 58 21 Saint Agnes - Repent 58 22 Creeper - Midnight 57 23 Kid Kapichi - Self Saboteur 55 24 IDLES - Mr. Motivator 54 25 WREX - Sleepless 54 26 CLT DRP - SeeSaw 53 27 HotWax - Treasure53 28 Kid Kapichi - Rob the Supermarket 53 29 Calva Louise - POP (urri) 50 30 HotWax - Barbie (Not Yours) 49 31 Sit Down - 14 Tonnes 49 32 Birdeatsbaby - Mississippi 48 33 Kid Kapichi - Working Man's Town 48 34 Sick Joy - Painkiller 47 35 Sck Joy - Talking to the Drugs 47 36 Witch Fever - In the Resurrect 46 37 Kid Kapichi - Violence 44 38 Taylor Swift - All Too Well (Taylor's 10 Minute Version) 44 39 CLT DRP - Like Father 43 40 SNAYX - Boys in Blue 43 41 Twin Temple - The Devil Didn't Make Me Do It 43 42 Salem - Destroy Me 42 43 Sick Joy - Turn Me Up 42 44 Garbage - Wolves 40 45 HotWax - All I Want 39 46 Killing Joke - Lord of Chaos 39 47 Bob Vylan - GDP 38 48 Heartworms - Consistent Dedication 38 49 Delilah Bon - Devil 37 50 HVIRESS - Arrival 37

Did you miss the part where Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014? Russia has been conducting military operations on Ukrainian soil ever since. It was the Biden administration that brokered the Gaza peace deal after many months of trying. If you think Trump being elected was the sole reason you are misguided.