Not that I listen to music much at all these days. But Groove - the Microsoft streaming service - were offering a 30 day free trial, so I thought i'd give it a go.

And given The Manics were the last band I liked before I went cold on music, and i've spent the last fifteen years posting on Manics related forums, Futurology seemed like the obvious choice.

So anyway, I think it's pretty good. Didn't make the same impact and impression on me as Journal For Plague Lovers - which I thought/think was right up there with The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go - but it's certainly better than Rewind the Film, Postcards from a Young Man and Send away the Tigers.

I particularly like:

- Dreaming A City (Hugheskova). An instrumental that sounds like it could be from the score of the putative Top Gun 2 - and that's no bad thing in my book.

- The Next Jet To Leave Moscow. Like all the best Manics material, it finds the right balance between pop appeal and what you might call darker, 'adult' themes. Got a good beat as well.

- Futurology. Sounds to me like it could have been on This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. Infused with the kind of haunting melancholy that always hits a chord with me. And also has a good beat.

And so on. It's not bad at all. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's still not as interesting as Twitter, wine, the war and FIFA. But I suppose it helps to break up the monotony a bit, and is something different.

In other news:

Can you believe David Bowie died? I was never really a fan beyond knowing and liking his famous early to mid-70s hits. But . . . well, yeah.

Rumour has it that he slept with a 13 year old at the height of his fame. Strange how being a critically acclaimed artist can insulate someone from the raw hatred that is usually reserved for child rapists.