galmuth

I think because it is such a simple song that they've played so much, they can easily play around with it. They usually have Dan Miller play a semi-improvised acoustic guitar intro (Miller Time), and they add an extended outro.

Fingertips live, eg the one on the Gigantic DVD.

And most live versions of Istanbul - recent versions with Curt Ramm were fantastic.

Not a "Starmerite sycophant" whatever the hell that is. I am not a fervent supporter of any political party. I simply do not believe that Labour are inherently islamophobic - I've seen nothing to suggest that. Im not trying to cover anything up or deflect by saying that the Tories are Islamophobic. It's relevant because the Tories have been in power and controlling foreign policy up until a month or so ago. If the Tories were still in charge, there would have been no change to the UK gov's position.

Not that I think that Islamaphobia is the driving factor behind support for Israel, nor do I pretend to fully understand, besides the obvious fact that they're an existing ally and were attacked by terrorism which kicked this off.

The tide is turning against the Israelian government's scorched-earth policy but it's taking too long, especially from the US side. Seemingly the Israelian people are also taking issue with their government's position which is more pressure than we can exert from our side.

Btw Jeremy Corbyn was vindicated for what, defending Hamas and Hezbollah? Plenty of people have stood up for Palestine over the years without standing up for Hamas. Palestinians deserve to be free, not controlled by Hamas terrorists.

Labour has a far far less of an islamaphobia issue than the Conservatives.

Labour did previously have a antisemitism issue however, and undoubtedly they're hesitant to do anything which might be tagged antisemitic (even if it's not).

But despite that, they haven't been in power for long and have already done far more than the Tories did.

I agree - their first few albums used some wonderful and wacky sound choices when it was just the two of them messing around, and their post-90s albums rely a lot more on the band.

I also listened to the albums in order recently and noticed the same. The first album is the most creative and eclectic in many ways, and each album loses a little of that essence but the production values get noticeably better.

That said, my favourite is probably Lincoln which is nearly as crazy as the first, but with slightly better songwriting IMO.

I also love John Henry in a different way; the songwriting and production is as good as TMBG gets, but it definitely has a different vibe to the first two albums.

I find most post-90s TMBG albums get very much slept-on. I also love The Else and Glean, but again they have an entirely different vibe to the first couple of albums.

Unpopular opinion incoming.. I was listening to the albums in order recently. I love the first three from start to end, but I couldn't get through Apollo 18 without having the urge to skip Mammal and Dinner Bell - I find the vocal melodies really grating in those tracks.

Having Fingertips shuffled around the album almost makes up for it, if you're listening to a proper version which doesn't have them bundled into one track.

Wow, I haven't been keeping up with MIA outside the music, but I feel like I'm missing a few steps between her pro-immigration music and endorsing far right US politicians.

No, they clearly aren't trying to appear racist, or even directly court their votes. They just don't want to actively feed into the idiotic theories that stoke tensions.

Oh man, I haven't heard that one before. Bona fide quality conspiracy theory 👍

No one even mentioned Zionism or Israel...

It's more that it's a tactical choice to avoid polarising people. There's nothing material to gain by attending the protests, and much to lose in terms of pissing off the far right more and destabilising a precarious situation.

The shit-stirrers like Farage would immediately whip up some bullshit that Labour MPs attending anti-fascist protests is "proof" that the government are choosing to politically punish the far right protesters. The last thing Starmer wants is a resurgence of disorder.