It's pretty bleak in comparison to the five years preceding, which Music Week found produced 19 headliners: The Killers, Arctic Monkeys, Kings Of Leon, Beyoncé, Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Kasabian, Kanye West, Rihanna, Biffy Clyro, The Libertines, Justin Timberlake, Kaiser Chiefs, The Black Keys, Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Razorlight, Franz Ferdinand and Gorillaz.
The alternatives are nearly bleak in comparison: a hedge fund or similar investment would gut Yahoo to a core rump of (hopefully profitable) services, and sell off areas such as Yahoo News.
Mr. Paterson's low political standing makes his election prospects seem bleak and, by comparison, Mr. Bloomberg appears a rock of political stability.
Islay does have its wild places, but Jura looks bleak and desolate in comparison, and that is part of its attraction.
"Many of us regularly fall into the bleak, bottomless pit of the comparison trap," warns a self-help site on the internet.
So in reality, the picture might not look as bleak for the U.S. in comparison.
While the bleak economy in 2009 affects any comparison, June was the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year revenue increases after 14 months of declines.
A fair comparison might be to "Bleak House," a survey of lives joined sometimes by family, sometimes by mere coincidence -- but most often by compulsory contiguity.
A movie like [Andre de Toth's] "Day of the Outlaw," as famous as it is for being bleak and gritty, is practically a musical in comparison to "Il Grande Silenzio".
Mawenzi summit's fearfully serrated talons shredded the blue heavens; the rounded, snow-glazed brow of Kibo, a few miles to the left across a bleak lava plateau, stood higher, yet seemed by comparison benign.
