30 14 2014 Sia - Chandelier 234 ( 52 - 14 - 30 )

29 256 2009 Chase & Status (feat. Plan B) - End Credits 235 ( X - X - 231 - 153 - 223 - 276 - 256 - 29 )

28 18 2008 Coldplay - Viva La Vida 240 ( 15 - 51 - 15 - 32 - 28 - 79 - 17 - 18 - 28 )

27 69 2013 Justin Timberlake - Mirrors 240 ( 57 - 55 - 69 - 27 )

26 22 2013 Daft Punk (feat. Pharrell) - Get Lucky 242 ( 35 - 16 - 22 - 26 )

 

Alert! Buzzjack traditional gender roles take a role reversal here as Sia's highest song in Chandelier, is the only song with any credited girls at all in this entire batch of 5. It falls from its high last year to come to a median between the two other results it's had.

 

There's a massive and very welcome change as the beautiful and thought-provoking End Credits comes in from years in the 200-zone to all the way right up to 29th place. I'm so pleased for it as it's become one of my default high scorers, the song's lyrics being gently sung by Plan B over an instrumental backdrop that visualises through sound the final act of one's life and floating, disembodied from your former life, it may be a DnB song, but it's also the art of dying in a song. It's quite beautiful and I'm very glad it's got this recognition, but better movements are to come.

 

Viva La Vida spends its penultimate year dropping ten places. In contrast to End Credits, this song about the beauties of life is still reminiscent and has some lyrics dealing with the end. It's still possibly the most anthemic Coldplay have ever been, I don't see them getting this high again once it bows out, but one more year for it to fight through.

 

Mirrors breaks through quite a bit out of its slumping ways to get into the top 30 for the first time, while its 2013 partner and big return for the then inactive early 00s Daft Punk has Get Lucky fall a bit but mostly stay fairly stable as it continues to crossover into being one of the most enduringly popular tracks of this decade so far.

YES End Credits :wub: best song in the final by miles, what an amazing & impressive climb!

Wow at Chase & Status, Blind Faith being that high is surprising enough, but End Credits :o It's an absolutely beautiful song that remains criminally underrated like you said so I hope it continues to do well for the duration of it's time here.

 

Viva la Vida to go out on a high next year plz x

End Credits is so so stunning

Oh that's a good bunch there, I'd happily listen to any of those 5 through choice and that's probably the first group so far where I can say that.

 

25 60 2007 Paramore - Misery Business 243 ( X - X - X - 487 - 286 - 386 - 204 - 137 - 60 - 25 )

24 17 2007 Sugababes - About You Now 243 ( 24 - 9 - 9 - 21 - 56 - 27 - 13 - 13 - 17 - 24 )

23 29 2007 Girls Aloud - Sexy! No No No 244 ( X - 42 - 99 - 104 - 177 - 73 - 30 - 22 - 29 - 23 )

22 51 2013 HAIM - Falling 244 ( X - 245 - 51 - 22 )

21 124 2014 Ariana Grande (feat. Zedd) - Break Free 246 ( 143 - 124 - 21 )

 

To finish off my posting these throughout the day, here's the final section before the top 20. Featuring 3 2007 songs, it's mostly going to be about reminiscing of the greats that we'll never see again. For two of the three, at least.

 

We start off with possibly one of the most incredible ten-year climbs ROTD has ever seen, as Misery Business does me proud and goes out leaving behind the most beautiful chart run. From not even appearing in its first three goes, to struggling in the rounds where I first started voting, steadily more and more Paramore fans got behind their best classic and it kept going. From the bottom of the 2007 final, to the midtable, to making the semi-finals, to finally, these last two years, making the finals and finishing this year as one of the major players in the entire thing. It's been my favourite thing about adding up the set of 2007 tracks these past few years, and of course it would be, it's well up there in my all-time list so... well done, Misery Business, we'll see you in another life.

 

About You Now has had a much steadier run, only once dipping out of the overall top 30. A strong pop song that I remember being into at the time, unusually, it's lasted all these years as one of the most enduring tracks, indeed, the most enduring track according to this, that the Sugababes ever did. And it'll probably be, the last we see of them in this competition (for the most part, as Get Sexy and Wear My Kiss haven't really been lighting up any rounds). It has been in the top 10 twice, a great run for a great song.

 

Then, there's Sexy! I will miss Sexy, in all honesty, it's one of the few tracks in here that I have strong enough negative feelings about to spew (hopefully amusing rather than vindictive) vitriol at it, although I guess Work From Home isn't a bad replacement. I won't miss people thinking it is a good song and voting it, for the last four years, into a position between #22 and #30, and two of those times, being the highest Girls Aloud track in the process as Call The Shots gave deference. This is one of those two. It is a really annoying track, but for the fans of it, it's gone out on its second highest position and it's only slightly below the first position so you've done well here.

 

The final two tracks in this section break up the farewell party a bit and instead are fairly new climbers, HAIM proving that HAIM can always beat Girls Aloud at their own game (it's not their own game but I have Buzzmemes to reference (and they haven't really beaten Sexy, they've only drawn with it, I don't care enough to tiebreak anything outside of the top 10, but on vote numbers, HAIM actually got one more!)) and be an incredible band in their own right as Falling is some stunning pop that is very welcome up here. May it not live up to its title for years.

 

And then, Ariana comes in with Break Free. That run kind of expresses my own feelings on it, I was indifferent when it was released but the video and the way it doesn't age and my way of picking up more of Zedd's wonderful production skills the more I listen to him means that this is one of my favourite of her tracks and one of the best pop tracks of the last few years for me now. Fitting.

I'll go through the top 20 tomorrow.

 

To remind you of what's left and if anyone wants to, do some speculation, here it is in alphabetical order:

 

Ariana Grande - One Last Time

Ariana Grande - Into You

Carly Rae Jepsen - Run Away With Me

CHVRCHES - The Mother We Share

Clean Bandit (feat. Jess Glynne) - Rather Be

Ellie Goulding - Figure 8

Katy Perry - Teenage Dream

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

Lana Del Rey - Video Games

Loreen - Euphoria

Muse - Uprising

Of Monsters And Men - Little Talks

Rihanna (feat. Calvin Harris) - We Found Love

Rihanna (feat. Drake) - What's My Name

Rihanna (feat. Jay-Z) - Umbrella

Robyn - With Every Heartbeat

Robyn - Dancing On My Own

Solange - Losing You

Swedish House Mafia - Don't You Worry Child

Great rise for Break Free - absolute tune!

 

Excellent to see Don't You Worry Child in the top 20.

Omg at Figure 8!

Hard to predict but I have a feeling one of these will win :lol:

 

Ariana Grande - One Last Time

Clean Bandit (feat. Jess Glynne) - Rather Be

Katy Perry - Teenage Dream

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

Rihanna (feat. Jay-Z) - Umbrella

Robyn - With Every Heartbeat

 

 

20 10 2012 Of Monsters And Men - Little Talks 247 ( 54 - 106 - 48 - 10 - 20 )

19 26 2012 Lana Del Rey - Born To Die 251 ( 104 - 119 - 189 - 26 - 19 )

18 343 2009 Muse - Uprising 257 ( X - 278 - 259 - 388 - 210 - 177 - 343 - 18 )

17 30 2012 Solange - Losing You 263 ( 188 - 77 - 21 - 30 - 17 )

 

The only song in the top 20 to score under 250 points, Little Talks drops from its rather shock appearance in the top 10 last year, but it did win the 2012 round this time, so that's not a bad performance for an indie-folk classic. It's certainly become one of the easiest to love alt anthems from this decade, what there are of those now, and it adds a nice bit of variety to the top end of ROTD.

 

Lana getting two entries in the top 20 is very good for her, but here falls one of those. It looks really surprising that Born To Die was so underrated in this until very recently, it's always got rave reviews, but clearly that's only come to the fore as far as voting here goes and it gets a new peak sitting in the top 20. Losing You has always, by contrast, done far better and is definitely the least commercially successful song in the top 20, but it's had a fanbase on Buzzjack that's carried it towards the top end and this year is no exception as it too gains a new peak.

 

The only song here not from 2012 (for the year most represented in the top 20 it's lost 3 out of its six right out of the gate, and that's just made me realise that there's one year not represented at all in the top 20, that being 2008, whose highest was Viva La Vida), is Muse's Uprising and what an incredible rise this one has had. It was my +30 in the final because it's a clear winner for me on every level, upbeat, fun rhythm and meaningful lyrics, combining into what is all but the perfect rock anthem, but this has really shocked me. In a good way, it's a much nicer peak for this incredible song than #177, and it meant that this has ended up being the underdog of the top 20, out a bit early, but it's done so well for itself that I am very, very satisfied with this.

I'll go through the top 20 tomorrow.

 

To remind you of what's left and if anyone wants to, do some speculation, here it is in alphabetical order:

 

Ariana Grande - One Last Time

Ariana Grande - Into You

Carly Rae Jepsen - Run Away With Me

CHVRCHES - The Mother We Share

Clean Bandit (feat. Jess Glynne) - Rather Be

Ellie Goulding - Figure 8

Katy Perry - Teenage Dream

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

Lana Del Rey - Video Games

Loreen - Euphoria

Muse - Uprising

Of Monsters And Men - Little Talks

Rihanna (feat. Calvin Harris) - We Found Love

Rihanna (feat. Drake) - What's My Name

Rihanna (feat. Jay-Z) - Umbrella

Robyn - With Every Heartbeat

Robyn - Dancing On My Own

Solange - Losing You

Swedish House Mafia - Don't You Worry Child

 

On the whole, what a wonderful selection.

 

How is Figure 8 so high? I like it, but I think she can do better! It's not all that really.

 

Hoping Umbrella, One Last Time or Teenage Dream can win :wub:.

 

16 77 2010 Katy Perry - Teenage Dream 281 ( 154 - 161 - 77 - 84 - 59 - 77 - 16 )

15 42 2012 Ellie Goulding - Figure 8 286 ( 120 - 160 - 153 - 42 - 15 )

14 13 2011 Lana Del Rey - Video Games 287 ( 52 - 42 - 43 - 45 - 13 - 14 )

13 27 2014 Clean Bandit (feat. Jess Glynne) - Rather Be 291 ( 23 - 27 - 13 )

 

It's breakthrough time for Katy! She's always quite famously been the pop star that ROTD doesn't actually treat very kindly, getting lots of her songs falling just outside cutoff points, most of them not making it past the yearly finals, only Hot N Cold and a couple of others representative in the final, where they normally come somewhere towards the bottom. Not this year. This year, Katy has managed to keep one of her songs right until the business end of the final, still a little ways off a top 10 but so very close. I'm pleased for Rob all the Katy fans we definitely have on the site and hopefully this'll open up the way for more Katy successes, I do like an underdog.

 

Figure 8 provides us with Ellie Goulding's big hope in ROTD now, it's been rising for a while but clearly this was the year for that one Ellie single that was clearly incredibly high quality for all who heard it, but not enough people actually did hear it and so it became a bit of a cult pop classic. It's so much better than some of her big hits, mentioning no names, Love Me Like You Do, that it still seems like a travesty all those years on. I don't care that much about pop music, honest. But sometimes...

 

Video Games comes in about 30 points ahead of Born To Die, so is still Buzzjack's favourite out of those two, as it dips just one place from last time. It's moved up a level from previous years, where it was hanging around the 40s, now it's hanging around the teens. *something something teens playing video games that isn't at all clever*

 

Rather Be is a song I've always tipped to win this one day, although its first two years it fell quite a bit short of doing that and I think Rockabye might actually be a more likely eventual winner now. It's much closer this time around though, as it comes in as the highest song from 2014 and 13th overall. Still over 100 points off of winning, but it's a bit better.

surprised that Uprising hasn't ever been top 100 before now, I thought it was always a well regarded song but perhaps we got a few more indie voters this year.

 

great to see Chase & Status climbing lots this year too!

 

12 46 2012 Swedish House Mafia - Don't You Worry Child 292 ( 26 - 64 - 32 - 46 - 12 )

11 8 2013 CHVRCHES - The Mother We Share 309 ( 131 - 53 - 8 - 11 )

 

Year update: so this means that in the top 10, there is one of each year except for 2008, 2013 and 2014, and two for 2007, 2011 and 2015. Not as even as we've had it in the past, and that means there are at least two slots free next year.

 

Don't You Worry Child takes the title of the highest song that contains credited men only. While there are actually men involved on the credits in four of the songs above it, that's the criteria I normally use when announcing this 'award' - I'll also give another pat on the back for gender equality for whichever song that is. It's actually been fairly high in recent years, #4 for Mr Brightside in 2014, #8 for I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor in 2015, Viva La Vida at #18 last year is the only time when I've been running that it's been lower than this. Anyway, Don't You Worry Child has been up and down within the final, but is clearly on the up. For a dance song, I think its strength is that it gets emotional, much more so than many do and it's very easy to attach feelings to it, I have always attached feelings of euphoric joy from university first year myself.

 

CHVRCHES, meanwhile, gets the somewhat less universal award title of highest track formerly in Buzzjack's Song Contest (to Rob's consternation), it retains that title from last year after stealing it from Paper Planes the year before. It falls out of the top 10 but not far, and given it won the 2013 final, it's vindicated in being the highest 2013 track again in the overall competition. Lovely song, and a great introduction (for me, it was the first CHVRCHES song that I loved), now let's get more CHVRCHES in the Buzzjack mainstream. Saviours of western pop, as I will constantly say until it is recognised by all.

Lana slaying <3

 

Into You or Run Away With Me to win :wub:

Run Away With Me or Robyn to win. Enjoying these Ellie Goulding, double Lana, Paramore and Muse rises!

 

10 4 2012 Loreen - Euphoria 316 ( 4 - 6 - 3 - 4 - 10 )

9 3 2007 Robyn - With Every Heartbeat 334 ( 33 - 125 - 7 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 7 - 1 - 3 - 9 )

 

Euphoria does keep its top 10 run just barely but it's still a long way off conquering this competition like it has so many others on this site, although many of those were back in the day when it was new and fresh and absolutely the best thing ever to everyone. It still has a large base, but will that be enough to let it ever recover and win?

 

For With Every Heartbeat, a double winner, we now have to say goodbye to it as it falls in a mere 9th, which given the rest of its top 10 run, is fairly low, but two wins! Only three other songs in ROTD today have managed even one, and only one other has managed more than one, so With Every Heartbeat goes out having done all it can (aside from beat Bad Romance a couple more times. Or beat its competing Robyn track on its out).

Ellie <3