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Hope is not a strategy

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Continuing my trip up Empire's   top 20 films of 2025 #13 :     F1 It may not reinvent the wheel (sorry), but this nitro-boosted blockbuster is an old-school thrill-ride which successfully ports across much of Top Gun: Maverick’s vibes and style. One wonders if it was originally intended as a Maverick-style sequel to Days Of Thunder (’Days Of Thunder: Trickle?’), to star Tom Cruise. Instead, we get a laconic Brad Pitt as a 200mph underdog, vying against the cream of F1’s drivers — plus his own teammate, an excellent Damon Idris — and deploying all sorts of cunning tricks to out-velocity superior hardware. Bolting cameras onto 16 different parts of a car, Joseph Kosinski again delivers visceral spectacle, making you feel like you’re genuinely inside a modified Dallara F2 2018. But unlike Days Of Thunder, the off-track drama delivers too, with a bunch of likeable characters, and a hissable villain courtesy of Tobias Menzies. Plus, you get Martin Brundle and David Croft comm...
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I sit and wait for you like so many others do

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Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 20/10/17 : Carry Fire -  Robert Plant Our second visit with Mr Plant and "low key noodling" was my previous verdict - and whilst that may have been 34 years earlier than this album, I'll be surprised if we've moved too far from that situation. I think I'd go as far as describing this atmospheric low key noodling - it has a nice vibe to it, but it's really rather lacking in content. The main thought that drifted through my brain whilst it was on was "how many different stringed instruments are played on this?" - there are all sorts of interesting sounds on it. It's all well done I guess, but I don't like his voice and, whilst it's only 48 minutes long, it really did drag - so I remain unconverted to the charms of Mr Plant (but looking at the track ratings on Amazon Music, it appears that plenty are very much converted).  We're at a surprisingly high #3 with a new entry in the char...
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We should take this back to my place

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Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 27/10/17 : Flicker -  Niall Horan Our third visit with Niall, and they've been generally bearable so far, but I seem to recall he started out aimed squarely at the Irish granny market, so I'm a bit worried as to what we're getting here. Well, Irish granny music is a bit harsh, but there's not a lot to scare the horses here. It's quite an interesting album in some ways because it's the opposite of the normal stuff that the young male poppy singer-songwriters churn out - it's mostly laid-back, slow-tempo soft rock with a few (slightly) faster numbers in there to give some variety. I guess it's well done if it's what you're looking for  (and I actually almost like "Slow Hands")  and he gets some bonus points for doing something different, but it's fair to say it's not aimed at me. He looks amusingly young on the album cover though - that beard's not going to stop him gettin...
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Wolves in the woods don't play by their rules

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Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 03/11/17 : Scream Above The Sounds -  Stereophonics Our eighth visit with the 'phonics (keeping them level with the Manics) - it's fair so say their output has been variable, so who knows what we're getting here.  Hmmm - it's basically a Stereophonics album with the added "bonus" that they sometimes sound a bit bored with being who they are and they fancy being someone else. I noted down hints of Starsailor (quite often), Radiohead, jazz, yacht rock, Status Quo and The Sweet (which is quite the combination!) but there were plenty of other "oh, that reminded me of <X>" moments that I couldn't quite place. As a Stereophonics-agnostic I quite liked it as a "well, they're trying something a bit, but not too, different" effort so I'll be interested to read what the critics and fans thought of it. We're at #2 in the charts this week with a new entry on the start of a twe...
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You would keep the secrets in ya' - you be keeping paraphernalia

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Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 10/11/17 : As You Were -  Liam Gallagher Our third visit with Liam solo and our second visit with a Gallagher in a month - expectations are not high, but Noel managed to pleasantly surprise me, so you never know. Actually, this starts with "Wall Of Glass" which I knew I liked but I thought it was a Beady Eye track, so we're already ahead of the game. And taken, a track at a time, the rest of the album is decent enough (the singing isn't always great, but in other places it's way better than expected) - but there's not a huge amount of variety so I think you have to be a certain type of person to want a whole album of it. If you are that type of person, I'm sure you've already got this album so you'll be happy - it doesn't quite hit the spot for me but, and I can't stress this enough, this could have been far, far worse. We're all the way down at #8 in the charts this week on his fif...
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Hide your eyes from the land where I lie cold

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Next! The Seer (1986) This is another one I purchased as soon as it came out - but, for some unclear reason, it was the last one of theirs I ever bought (maybe this journey will help me understand). I think I still like this album but I don't believe I've listened to it in decades, so it will be good to catch up with it. Side One 1. Look Away This is very much up their anthemic sing-along street - no complaints from me about that! 2. The Seer This is an interesting one - it features Kate Bush because she's not done a lot of collaboration over the years. I'd always wondered how it came about - but five seconds on the internet tells me that apparently they asked and she said "yes", so I guess that solves that mystery. Kate provides an interesting mix of sounds on this but hers and Stuart's voices work well together - I'm not sure we needed 5:25 of it though. 3. The Teacher This was the only track of the first side I didn't remember from the title alo...
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I don't like your little games, don't like your tilted stage

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Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 17/11/17 : reputation -  Taylor Swift Our ninth visit with Taylor and this is one I've already rejected once because I just couldn't face two Taylor albums in a row - but I knew I was only delaying the inevitable. I'm expecting, as always, for this to be perfectly fine but completing mystifying as to why everyone loves it so much. Hmmm - from my point of view, I don't think I'd actually say this is perfectly fine because I found it quite boring. However, I can see that if you've grown up with Taylor and her "nice" stories of love and break-ups then maybe you feel like there's more to life now and this album kinda tries to move on a bit both musically and thematically (whilst still talking about love and break-ups as well). But as a Taylor-agnostic, I can't say I liked it - I still laughed at "the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh… 'cos she's dead” thou...
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