From what we can gleam, they鈥檝e now had a couple of years where they haven鈥檛 been able to book the acts they most wanted, for various reasons (Taylor: fame and schedule; Madonna: cost; Stevie: health).
At the same time they鈥檝e been fortunate enough to have landed on an incredible run of all-timers of Macca, Elton, and Coldplay (I鈥檓 not suggesting the 鈥楶lay are in the same league but in terms of putting on a spectacle they鈥檙e about as good as it gets).
At some point availability and cost of huge names had to catch up with the festival. I respect that Neil Young has had a hell of a career but he still feels like a charitable booking for Michael. O-Rod ticks the boxes for rising pop act with momentum, and The 1975 seem decent enough for those who like them but aren鈥檛 realistically going to thrill most ticket holders in the run up.
All the usual caveats about number of other stages, strength of the undercard, etc. etc., but as a headliner trio - if all three rumoured acts do actually materialise - the festival is somewhat hobbling into the fallow, imo.
Another album from last year that's totally underrated is actually the newest one from Elbow. They have had such a consistently solid output since 2008 really, there's some well-made songs on this one. Beautiful arrangements, smooth vocals, with groovy riffs. Really enjoyable.