Great album front to back, but the final two tracks, Blackpool Illuminations especially, cap it off masterfully. Early AOTY contender for me, closely followed by Nadine Shah’s Filthy Underneath.

I bet!

Shaping up to be a great album so far. “The Slab” is a masterpiece of pacing and atmospherics.

Almost all of Swans’ and Radiohead’s output plays chess with my brains, but Sonic Youth’s Diamond Sea manages to ask more and more questions with every listen (and there have been quite a few).

I guess this makes me ancient, but here goes nothing: Blondie, Hangin’ on the telephone .

Each and every single they’ve released so far has been an absolute banger. If the album maintains this standard, I think it could be a serious contender for AOTY.

Beat me to it 😂! Essential song.

I’m an Eastern European leftie whose peasant ancestors (not all of them, obviously) suffered through famine, unspeakable state-sanctioned violence and extended prison terms during Stalinism and through decades of opression afterwards. The intergenerational trauma is something we’re all still struggling with. I cannot bear to hear the “Well, you need to break some eggs in order to make omelette”-type of negationist twaddle and I’m reminded daily of how the authoritarian postwar regimes have made it damn near impossible to resurrect the Left in the region. Don’t just fuck tankies, feed them rancid cum only.

I was truly glad to hear it during “American Honey” and it was cleverly used there. As far as covers go, this is by far my favourite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oabGb_HiHfs .

No matter how many films and TV series use this song or how many people cover it, it’ll never be anything less than stunning and seductive.

Glorious track, wish it went for about 10-12 minutes more, hyped AF for the album.

One of the greatest covers in history, by LCD Soundsystem.

Swans, Celebrity Lifestyle. Downright addictive.

It’s choppy yet propulsive, groovy but dark. I love it, certainly among the better releases today.

I also live in a country where WhatsApp is the messaging app almost everybody uses. You won’t be able to get all of your relatives, friends and co-workers on Signal, so I’d suggest you start small - get SOME people onboard, make it very clear you’re gonna be using WhatsApp for work-related stuff only, see what happens. Besides, Signal has its quirks, too - switching phones and backing up will lead to a lot of frustration and its devs proudly state that “more options is never the answer”. It’ll sadly remain a niche app for activists and the privacy-inclined, I fear. But if you really care about privacy, you should ditch Telegram ASAP.