Gone are the old certainties of how decisions were made "by having lunch with an MP, or taking a journalist out," laments one.
The album was angry in a way that still sounds relevant: "got no privacy, got no liberty because the 20th-century people took them away from me," Davies laments on the opening track.
Related: Nigerian laureate Wole Soyinka laments 'vicious, unprincipled' election He complained of irregularities, however, including alleged APC voters who were underage or brought in from neighbouring Chad and Niger.
But given she's apparently now happy and contented, and has devoted much of the past 18 months to motherhood, will her new songs capture the public imagination the way the heartbroken laments of 21 did?
"It's a real marmite city, but if you persevere you are rewarded with views that the country's only real ocean city can give"); Manchester ("there's just too much to say about the city I call home," laments munichguy21); and even little old London, with "the magic ingredient of what makes London great.
Brand – who has attempted to position himself as an anti-corporate, anti-politics agitator – also laments the power of the "establishment" and "old media".
Sparks laments the lack of female role models now, making an exception for Ke$ha, whom she thinks follows their subversive lineage.
There's Claudia, who doesn't "have a lot of black friends" yet laments that "you can't even talk about fried chicken or Kool-Aid without wondering if someone's going to get offended".
It is a measure of the clásico that Bale will miss out because of a muscle injury but the laments have been limited.
The Blacklips performed a surreal burlesque during which Hegarty rehearsed his spellbinding laments, in a show that also occasionally involved throwing offal and buckets of blood at the audience.
Purchases this week have confirmed my worst suspicions about the mangoes available in this country; as Sodha laments: "The season for alphonso mangoes is short, and our supermarkets prefer selling unripe Brazilian mangoes as they have longer seasons and are hardier".
