The Paper Chase

The Eleventh Hour! is the fourth studio album by English rock band Magnum, released in 1983 by Jet Records. The production of this album caused a lot of tension between the band and Jet Records, following the two-year delay to the previous album, Chase the Dragon in 1982 and their first album, Kingdom of Madness, in 1978. These tensions were further strained when Jet Records denied the band a big name producer, leaving them to produce the album themselves. The Eleventh Hour! was released in May 1983, peaking at No. 38 in the UK charts, disappointing considering Chase the Dragons peak of No. 17 in 1982. The Eleventh Hour!'s original title was to be Road to Paradise. The 2005 expanded version of the album was reissued on 22 September 2006 in Japan with mini LP/paper sleeve packaging through Arcangelo.

This is a wordy but oh so fitting moniker for Shayne O'Neill's music, as the Future Kings of Nowhere perfectly captures the insouciant grandness he aspires to, with the self-deprecating twist that is the secret to his success. Actually, the secret to his success is summed up best on "I'm Still Waiting": "Take my quick observations and my questions and my poor explanations and wrap them up into rhymes. Weave them around my mouth, suffer me up into brilliance, until no-one doesn't know my name." With a sharp eye for mundane details, a wry wit, and an occasional ironic twist, the Future King and his cortege of guesting alterno-royalty take a royal trip around O'Neill's ragtag inner realm. Along the way there are amends to make, specifically on "Paper Napkins," an apology to the ex-girlfriend who's been the foil of the singer's many breakup songs. Perhaps "Never" describes their relationship, "Like a Staring Contest" their "trainwreck of an ending," but surely not the girl who did a runner and addressed in a folksy letter from home on "C Is for Heartache." There again, when you entangle yourself with women with a history of "high speed chase, no dialogue," as O'Neill does on "I Want You," it's no wonder problematic relationships make up the bulk of this set.

Die Oper Powder Her Face von Thomas Adès ist eines der überzeugendsten und stärksten Werke zeitgenössischer Kunst. Das tragische und auf grausame Art auch spaßige Libretto des englischen Schreibtalents Philip Hensher berichtet über den skandalösen Aufstieg und Fall der Lady Margaret, Herzogin von Argyll, deren Scheidungsverfahren in den 50er Jahren wegen der freizügigen Schilderung ihres Sexuallebens für Aufsehen gesorgt hatte.