Skummy

I had no idea that Ewan MacColl wrote that!

This is fucking awful, and representative of my least favourite trends in fandom - to ignore the plot as laid out to you, either in text or subtext, to instead look for holes and "truths" that aren't reflected in the story at all. It treats fiction as a series of problems to be solved, and nothing more, at the expense of the actual narrative. Which is disappointing, because "Who Killed Aerith?" is a good question if you follow my theory that you don't physically encounter Sephiroth himself until later in the game. In some way, it was Jenova that kills Aerith - you face "her" immediately after Aerith's death, after all. So either it's Jenova taking the form of Sephiroth - though the fact you face a piece of Jenova in her own form afterwards suggests otherwise - or another Sephiroth clone appearing as Sephiroth. Jenova perhaps has more reason to kill Aerith too - if she possesses any kind of consciousness, it's plausible that she bears a grudge against the Cetra. Sephiroth shouldn't want Aerith dead, because it's through Aerith's death that she's able to command the Lifestream to save the day. But on this I could be pressed to agree with the rubbish video in that you could make the argument that Cloud kills Aerith. Not in the smarty-pants "lol, she didn't die from the stabbing, she drowned" bollocks, but in the sense that what is Sephiroth at this point? A projection of Jenova, in some form or another. Cloud is particularly susceptible, having Jenova cells and Mako experimentation and everything else affect him. Could it be that what really happens is Cloud "possessed" by the Jenova/Sephiroth you're pursuing is the one who kills Aerith, presented in his mind as Sephiroth being directly responsible? Aerith remains calm regardless because she knows she needs to die to fulfil her destiny. IIRC, Cloud is the only witness to her death.

Chapter 20/21 spoilers (and two decade old spoilers for the original game);

Wall Garden and original game spoilers;

Same! I just got to the start of Wall Market last night, and figured I'd stop there as it's one of my favourite parts of the original and I wanted to give it plenty of time. So far I've loved it. I was worried that given how much they're expanding on the story, and given that there were a bunch of sequels/prequels/spin-offs already, they might end up fucking up parts of the story I liked in order to make all of that better fit together, but so far it feels note-perfect. It feels more "Rogue One" than "Phantom Menace" in that rather than adding superfluous elements to the story, it's expanding on parts we already know but went under-explored and, so far, while a few things have been moved around and given a little more time, it doesn't feel like there's anything that directly contradicts or undermines how I expected the characters to behave. In terms of fleshing out the story, I like that it establishes AVALANCHE (is it not ALL CAPS any more?) as being a bigger entity than just five people, and better contextualises the world they exist in, as well as showing the people of Midgar as being either opposed to or broadly sympathetic to them as a bit of a spectrum, rather than them just categorically being the good guys. Given that it's post-9/11 world, it was inevitable that playing as a literal terrorist organisation had to be painted with a few more shades of grey, and equally it's unsurprising that the ecological side of the story (and the nuances of people's role therein) has been given a bit more scope too. Character-wise, I really like this version of Cloud, and I love that Biggs, Wedge and Jessie have been fleshed out a lot more, in terms of actual "screen time" but also allusions to their backstory. I always thought they got a bad shake of it. Jessie, in particular, was a character I always liked in the original, and is set up as a potential love interest early, but is basically forgotten about before long and it just becomes Aerith or Tifa, so I'm glad to see her really become more of a focal point for a time here. Aerith is one I'm really happy with how she comes across, too. There always seems to be a temptation to paint Aerith as a purer-than-pure goddess figure, forgetting that aside from all that she's a slum-dwelling, hobnail boot and leather jacket wearing, sarcastic free spirit. They manage to capture all of that, while also feeling like she has a level of self-awareness or understanding of the plot beyond what she's letting on, that makes her feel like something more than she lets on - which is exactly the vibe she should have. So far, I love it. I have so many thoughts, but I'm going to try and save them 'til the end. EDIT: I forgot to mention that Midgar is visually near perfect, and the game is absolutely stunning. I'm far from a graphics guy - I can barely tell the difference between HD and SD, and very few of my favourite games are those you'd consider graphical masterpieces - but what I do really appreciate is attention to detail, and good set-pieces. You can have the best graphics in the world, but if you use them on nothing but dull grey scenery and wooden crates, it's meaningless. If you use it to flesh out a world, and create breathtaking landscapes, then I'm interested. And that's what this game has - every time I'm in a new area I feel like I need to stop for a moment to rotate the camera and just soak it all in, from getting a view of what the streets of Midgar look like all the way down to the fine detail of the characters' materia actually being visibly slotted into their weapons. I can't wait to see how this game/franchise tackles some of the locations to come. On top of that, the level design feels rational. Even when it falls into the latter day Final Fantasy trap of practically every new location basically being one long corridor, it looks great, and feels somewhat sensible - there are rarely cartoonish traps that kill your suspension of disbelief by making you think, "well come on, why would Shinra have even built that", or routes from A to B that make no sense when you try and visualise them as something that would be traversed by real people in their day-to-day lives. They've gone to some effort to make it feel logical, in a way the original perhaps didn't always.

I love A Minha Menina, and never thought it would end up on this list! I first became aware of it when The Bees covered it in the early '00s, and incredibly it used to get fairly regular Radio 1 airplay at the time. It's pretty clear the band don't speak Portuguese, and just covered the lyrics by sound. I enjoyed it whenever it came on, but never knew the title, or ever really looked further into it. Fast-forward a few years, and it shows up on a jukebox in the first pub I'd consider my local. I would put it on every single time I was in there, and just loved it. I discovered it was an Os Mutantes cover, and downloaded a few more of their tracks, though with no real understanding of context, what album they were form, where they fit in any kind of sequence or whatever. I liked some, disliked others, and didn't think much about them beyond that. A year or two later, turns out my then-girlfriend was a huge Os Mutantes fan, and we actually ended up seeing them live in 2008, and meeting Sergio Dias. Phenomenal live act, and a discography well worth looking into - though A Minha Menina will always remain my favourite.

Wichita Lineman is amazing for being able to invoke everything it does, while having surprisingly few actual lyrics. It really has two verses and a variation on a chorus, and that's it. It feels like there's so much more to it than that. America is a wonderful song, made all the more astonishing by the fact that it doesn't rhyme, at all, but loses no sense of musicality for it.

Montague Terrace (which is admittedly brilliant) making the cut makes me think that's not the last we've heard of Scott Walker on the list. I can see him showing up again, either for the final Walker Brothers record, or something from Tilt, at least. I'm not a big Pink Floyd guy, but I love See Emily Play, and Arnold Layne from the same period.

I have never played Fire Promoter mode. Tomorrow night I'll be booking someone else's promotion on Twitch, trying to do better at it than, among others, Gene Munny, Piper Niven and Suge D. I'm sure it'll be fine. https://www.twitch.tv/gingerpimpernel/

Oh, I didn't realise you could place them outside the house, I thought that would just release them. A "zoo" is a great idea, I might give that a go. I currently have a pet hermit crab (HERMIT CRAB!) and snapping turtle in my house, but every other duplicate critter I've sold so far. I just took a Nook ticket to an island that was covered in cherry trees. Like, every single tree on there. It was the only fruit I didn't have, and I came away with like 80 of the things. Enough to plant them liberally all over my own island and make a tidy profit selling off the remainder. A very successful day! @Sousa, I love the idea of the DIY area, and have started to build one of my own. It's only a slight concern, as all the materials there are easily replaceable anyway, but would the stuff left out there be up for grabs by someone visiting the island, if they felt like just stealing it all?

I adore Captain Beefheart - one of my favourite "celebrity" encounters in my life was being able to chat for a long time to John "Drumbo" French, who played drums on the majority of Beefheart albums, and sings vocals for the reformed Magic Band. "Electricity" is one of my favourite tracks of theirs - the bassline, Beefheart's drawn out vowels on the word "Electricity", just the overall weirdness of it, while still being identifiably a blues jam, it's just superb.

A weird thing about Reach Out is that the producer told Levi Stubbs to "sing it like Dylan". It sounds crazy until you're specifically listening out for it, but the elongated vowel sounds at the end of lines - most notable on "gone" and "confusion" early on - are incredibly Dylanesque.

"96 Tears" is also referenced in the Cramps' "Human Fly", with the line "ninety-six tears in ninety-six eyes", which a friend of mine misremembered as "Fifty-Six Tears", which subsequently ended up as the name of our shortlived band. I don't know much Love - they pop up on compilations, though I never liked anything enough to look further into them - "7 and 7 Is" is superb, though, and I honestly didn't realise it was as early a release as this. I'd have placed it later in the decade - which doesn't sound like much, but pop music was developing at such an accelerated pace that 1966 to 1968 could be world's apart. I honestly never knew that Stepping Stone was a Paul Revere song! Revere is someone I know by reputation, usually as a bit of a punchline/novelty act, and I'm not really aware of them ever having made much of an impression in the UK. The song I know better as a Monkees song, and then the later Sex Pistols cover. "God Only Knows" I think is honestly one of the greatest pop songs ever. Brian Wilson was, briefly, a genius.

my Switch is showing 7+ hours to download this game. I left it on Sleep Mode overnight to try and do it, and connection dropped at 90%+ and had to start over. 😢

they're hugely influential on the American brand of psychedelia (which tended to be more rock-oriented, and arguably more intense/paranoid, than English psych, which tended to be more pastoral and folk-influenced), so I'm not surprised to see them make the list. We're really getting into stuff that I'd expect most people to know now, so what I'm really looking forward to now is some out of left-field and international choices that I might not know.

Yes, the weird sound on 13th Floor Elevators' recordings is an electric jug player. Really adds a weird, watery rhythm to a lot of their work. I adore them.

I love Bert Jansch. I think it was Johnny Marr who apparently met him for a cup of tea while remastering one of his old albums, and said, "did you realise, back then, that what you were doing was so much heavier than all the people around you bragging about how heavy their music was?", and apparently Jansch just sipped his tea and said "of course". My favourite track of his is "Poison", which feels like if Nick Drake got angry instead of depressed; "Sinnerman" is a song my old band used to play, actually long before I ever heard Simone's version. As we did a lot of our songs at the time, we just took the lyrics from an old book of folk songs, and figured out a tune to fit. I was blown away the first time I heard Nina sing it. The Irish Rover is brilliant.

I adore Amsterdam, maybe Brel's best work. It's just full of so much rage and indignation, and utterly unlike what anyone else was doing at the time. I'm a huge Scott Walker fan, but tend to find that his covers of Jacques Brel's work are over-orchestrated, and that they lose a lot of the seediness because of it - Amsterdam is about the only one that really captures the essence of the work, if anyone's wanting to hear the English translation. Bowie did a good version, too. The interesting thing about "House Of The Rising Sun" is that, at the time, a lot of contemporary versions framed the song from the female perspective - Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan both recorded versions with the lyrics as "poor soul" and "poor girl", respectively, and versions as far back as the '20s do the same, before The Animals' "poor boy". Pretty much every version since The Animals has followed their lead and gone with "poor boy". It does change the feel of the song a tad. My favourite fact about that song, though, is that given it has elements of folk songs dated back to the 16th Century, it could be said that the song "The House Of The Rising Sun" is actually older than New Orleans itself.

I love Roy Orbison, one of the greatest male vocalists there ever was. Be My Baby I consider the greatest pop song ever. Spector never did anything better. When Hal Blaine, the drummer on that record (and practically every other American pop song of the '60s) passed away recently, someone put together a Spotify playlist of songs that use that opening beat, and there are literally hundreds of them. Iconic. Leader Of The Pack is fun, but a little hokey - I don't think the Shangri-Las have aged as well as The Ronettes, or had enough of a soul-influenced backing to make some of their stuff age as well as other girl groups of the era. Still some lovely tunes, though - Remember (Walking In The Sand) being my personal favourite. Walk On By is an amazing tune. It's another song that's had some superb cover versions over the years - The Stranglers' version is the one I'm most familiar with, though Isaac Hayes had a great version too.