Novice, I have these cells in order (row then column) (3,3), (3,2), (4,2), (5,2), (5,3), (6,3), (7,3), (7,2). I don’t think it matters where the last word goes as long as it’s a close match to the album cover.
Unclued, you say a close match to the album, which in my world means you enter the 5 letter word in the cells below the last LTL character . but the arms on that are too short. So you could go 2+3 in the 2 cells, 3+2 in the 2 cells, or the 5 cells closest to there. If any of those is marked as wrong then a stewards enquiry should be held. To be fair to enigmatist this turned out to be a very good puzzle with a perfectly acceptable post solving preamble.
I wouldn't do the Listener is I didn't relish a challenge, and I realise that the internet has made it a lot more difficult for the setters to provide the ultimate in that sense. However I would like to see more crosswords that do not involve 70%+ cold solving before you can start to fill the grid. I realise the dichotomy, as cold solving is potentially the ultimate challenge, but I love being drawn into the solution by a series of successes rather than finishing a quiz and winning a jigsaw with no picture. Maybe I'm just a grumpy old git, because like I said earlier, once i completed this and re-read the preamble, my appreciation of the puzzle was immense, somewhat different to my thoughts whilst trying to complete it.
I have finally completed this beast of a crossword. I usually strive to complete the Listener without looking on here, but that proved impossible this week. So thank you to you all for the help, hints, therapy and counselling… especially to Loge 👍
I am ashamed to admit that I wondered if this was the theme fairly early on, based on the title alone. But quickly dismissed it thinking ‘surely not?’. I was close… but no cig-a-cigar