Thanks to the 45 people who participated in last week's 2 weeks ago's poll :jump:

 

Official results from week 25:

 

[ 34 ] Peggy Gou - (It Goes Like) Nanana (#14)

[ 22 ] Leigh-Anne - Don't Say Love (#11)

[ 15 ] Doja Cat - Attention (#37)

[ 14 ] Doechii - What It Is (solo) / What It Is (Block Boy) (feat. Kodak Black) (#94)

[ 7 ] Gunna - fukumean (#47)

[ 6 ] Asake and Olamide - Amapiano (#86)

[ 5 ] D-Block Europe - Side Effects (#53)

[ 4 ] Digga D - DTF (#83)

[ 2 ] Gunna - back to the moon (#72)

 

BuzzJack's favourite top 100 hit for 2023 week 25 and auto-qualifying for the June monthly round is Peggy Gou - (It Goes Like) Nanana.

 

 

Born in South Korea and currently living in Germany, DJ and singer Peggy Gou is the first act representing either country to win one of these polls, doing so with her very first chart hit (joining Flowdan, Adeleye Omotayo and SYML on the short list of artists to win with a debut hit, and being the first to do so as a lead artist), the infectious '(It Goes Like) Nanana' lifting her right out of the underground and into the top 15, storming into the top 10 in its second week. And it was a fairly overwhelming victory, getting the nod of approval from just over 3/4 of voters. I incorrectly stated the other week that Kylie had the highest percentage of votes to date, that record was (and is still) in fact held by 'Flowers' but Peggy beats Kylie into second place. The artist she holds in second in this week's poll is another chart debut act albeit one who had many previous hits as a member of Little Mix - Leigh-Anne's debut solo outing still picked up an impressive 22 votes, just short of half of the possible votes, but landing 12 behind Peggy.

 

The key to getting to double figure votes in this poll was to be female (or be Kodak Black coasting through with a half-credit on a less popular alternate version of a female artist's song). In a pretty distant third place is Doja Cat while Doechii comes in 4th one vote behind. Gunna has both the best and worst performing hits of the week by male artists, with 'back to the moon' coming in last place with only 2 votes. Digga D's latest garbage also fell just short of the 5 vote mark, but D-Block Europe's just barely made it (none of their previous 3 hits of the year did, and major brownie points if you can name all 3 without looking them up).

 

Weekly winners to date:

01 // 12/01/23 // Sub Focus and Dimension - Ready To Fly

02 // 19/01/23 // Skrillex, Fred again.. and Flowdan - Rumble

03 // 26/01/23 // Miley Cyrus - Flowers

04 // 02/02/23 // Fall Out Boy - Love From The Other Side

05 // 09/02/23 // P!nk - TRUSTFALL

06 // 16/02/23 // RAYE - Ice Cream Man.

07 // 23/02/23 // Linkin Park - Lost

08 // 02/03/23 // Lana Del Rey - A&W

09 // 09/03/23 // Gorillaz - Silent Running (feat. Adeleye Omotayo)

10 // 16/03/23 // Zara Larsson - Can't Tame Her

11 // 23/03/23 // Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding - Miracle

12 // 30/03/23 // Nothing But Thieves - Welcome To The DCC

13 // 06/04/23 // Lana Del Rey - Paris, Texas (feat. SYML)

14 // 13/04/23 // Tyler, The Creator - DOGTOOTH

15 // 20/04/23 // David Guetta, Anne-Marie and Coi Leray - Baby Don't Hurt Me

16 // 27/04/23 // Post Malone - Chemical / Taylor Swift - Karma

17 // 04/05/23 // The Weeknd - Double Fantasy (feat. Future) / Florence + The Machine - Mermaids

18 // 11/05/23 // The National - The Alcott (feat. Taylor Swift)

19 // 18/05/23 // Ed Sheeran - Curtains

20 // 25/05/23 // Loreen - Tattoo

21 // 01/06/23 // Kylie Minogue - Padam Padam

22 // 08/06/23 // Dua Lipa - Dance The Night

23 // 15/06/23 // Dave and Central Cee - Sprinter

24 // 22/06/23 // Nathan Dawe, Joel Corry and Ella Henderson - 0800 HEAVEN

25 // 29/06/23 // Peggy Gou - (It Goes Like) Nanana

 

Qualified for the yearly round:

January // Bizarrap and Shakira - Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53 / Miley Cyrus - Flowers / Sub Focus and Dimension - Ready To Fly

February // Freya Ridings - Weekends / Lana Del Rey - A&W / P!nk - TRUSTFALL

March // Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding - Miracle / Nothing But Thieves - Welcome To The DCC / Zara Larsson - Can't Tame Her

April // Florence + The Machine - Mermaids / Post Malone - Chemical / Taylor Swift - Karma

May // Käärijä - Cha Cha Cha / Kylie Minogue - Padam Padam / Loreen - Tattoo

 

Qualified for the playoff for the yearly round:

January // Fall Out Boy - Love From The Other Side

February // Linkin Park - Lost

March // Miley Cyrus - River

April // Jonas Brothers - Waffle House

May // Alessandra - Queen Of Kings

 

~

 

Timekeeping continues to not be my strong point so it's another 2 in 1 poll this week, frankly neither of these lists of songs are really compelling enough to the BuzzJack audience to justify their own thread anyway so let's pretend it was intentional. I foresee week 27 being another one horse race, whereas for week 26 I'm not sure I see even one horse so interested to see who gets the win there. As ever with the double poll threads there are extra options for if you only want to vote in one of the polls (click 'only participating in the other poll' on the other one) or to register the equivalent of a null vote in one while voting in the other. It's a short and sweet 7 songs per week, week 26 adding up to 21 minutes and 22 seconds and week 27 adding to 22 minutes and 27 seconds, for a total playlist length of 43 minutes and 49 seconds.

 

 

Vote for as many or as few songs as you want and would be ideal if you can make sure you've heard all the songs before voting if possible!

 

Will ambitiously try and aim to be good at timekeeping again so setting the tentative deadline as Sunday evening as usual (that's Sunday 16th) and will try and get the June monthly round belatedly up that evening too (will include the qualifier(s) from the first poll in this thread but not the second) :jump:

My rankings from week 25:

 

1 '(It Goes Like) Nanana' 9.5/10

2 'Attention' 9/10

3 'Amapiano' 8/10

4 'Don't Say Love' 8/10

5 'fukumean' 7.5/10

6 'back to the moon' 7/10

7 'What It Is' 5/10 (3.5/10 for Kodak Black version)

8 'Side Effects' 2/10

9 'DTF' 1.5/10

 

Voted for the top 5. The Peggy song is super infectious, feel good and packed with hooks, immediately up there with the best I've heard to date from her, I feel like it still sounds fairly underground so kinda surprised it's been so big and universally popular but not complaining! Have always really enjoyed Doja's rap verses so I'm glad she's leaning into that more this era, 'Attention' is very strong with the lyrics and flow and love the trip-hop production too, the chorus didn't immediately click with me but grew on me more as the song went on. Still waiting for Asake to have a properly big hit or at least his style of afrobeats to become more prominent as he has a bit of an X factor that puts him above other big artists in the genre for me, although this particular song is dragged down a bit by the Olamide feature which I wasn't as impressed by (very similar to the Musa Keys feature dragging down Davido's 'UNAVAILABLE' a bit). Surprisingly impressed by Leigh-Anne's solo debut, I guess I am a sucker for the UK garage production, very solid hook too. Don't think it's a coincidence that my enjoyment of Gunna's hits is directly inversely proportional to their length, he is finding good production and hooks but he just isn't compelling enough to carry a song on his own for more than a couple of minutes, 'fukumean' is just short enough to hit the sweet spot (and the Sho Madjozi sample injects some energy into it) while 'back to the moon' probably could have been vote worthy too if it was a minute shorter but as it is it wears out its welcome, still probably the 2 best songs on the Gunna album. Doechii's song was very disappointing compared to other stuff I've heard from her, nice to see her making a chart breakthrough but I wish it was with something a bit less generic, albeit catchy. (The Kodak verse is garbage so smart move also releasing a solo version). Then there's the two obvious UK rap stinkers, 'Side Effects' continues DBE's trend of the year of being so indistinct and comatose that I have almost nothing to say about it but it edges into bad territory purely because the only thing I remember about it is the start of the hook sounding awful, and the Digga D song has pretty ok production but enough complete garbage tier lyrics to make me never want to hear it again.

Week 26: again came close to null voting, but 'die young' feels like a slight improvement on 'Dancing Is Healing' from Rudimental which just missed out for me (and a huge improvement on 'gutter' from venbee, although that isn't a high bar), so just voted for that. 'Makeba' came close.

 

Week 27: far more clear cut - voted 'vampire' only.

Week 26:

 

1. Jain - Makeba

 

-

 

2. Juice WRLD and Cordae - Doomsday

3. venbee and Rudimental - die young

4. Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice and Aqua - Barbie World

5. Young Thug - Oh U Went (feat. Drake)

6. Young Thug - Parade On Cleveland (feat. Drake)

7. Stormzy - Toxic Trait (feat. Fredo)

 

Week 27:

 

1. Fall Out Boy - We Didn't Start The Fire

2. Lil Uzi Vert - Flooded The Face

3. Lil Uzi Vert - Aye (feat. Travis Scott)

4. Lil Uzi Vert - Endless Fashion (feat. Nicki Minaj)

 

-

 

5. Olivia Rodrigo - vampire

6. Charli XCX - Speed Drive

7. D-Block Europe and Clavish - Pakistan

Week 26:

great: Jain

good: Stormzy

okay: Venbee, Juice Wrld

crap: Nicki, Young Thug x2

 

Week 27:

decent: Charli, Fall Out Boy

okay: Olivia

crap: DBE, Lil Uzi Vert x3

Week 26

 

1. Stormzy - Toxic Trait (feat. Fredo)

2. Juice WRLD and Cordae - Doomsday

3. Jain - Makeba

4. Young Thug - Oh U Went (feat. Drake)

5. Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice and Aqua - Barbie World

6. Young Thug - Parade On Cleveland (feat. Drake)

7. venbee and Rudimental - die young

 

Voting for my top 2 this week. 'Toxic Trait' is a bit of a return to form for Stormzy after the ok-but-not-great last album and 'Doomsday' is pure nostalgia. I wasn't expecting it to be a remake of Eminem's 'Role Model'. The original is obviously far superior but this one is fun.

 

It's hard to hear 'Makeba' without thinking of advertisements but there's a reason why some many ads use it.

 

I don't really get the hate for 'Barbie World'. It's not great but I don't think it's that bad and the sample works fine. An improvement on 'Princess Diana' at least for me.

 

'Oh U Went' is definitely the better of the two Thug/Drake tracks for me. There's not much of the usual high-pitch Young Thug parts that drag his songs down. 'Parade on Cleveland' was rubbish though.

 

'die young' is just very boring!

Week 27

 

1. Olivia Rodrigo - vampire

2. Charli XCX - Speed Drive

3. D-Block Europe and Clavish - Pakistan

4. Lil Uzi Vert - Endless Fashion (feat. Nicki Minaj)

5. Lil Uzi Vert - Flooded The Face

6. Fall Out Boy - We Didn't Start The Fire

7. Lil Uzi Vert - Aye (feat. Travis Scott)

 

 

Voting for my top 3 this week. 'Vampire' is not quite as good as the greatest tracks from 'sour' but it's a great comeback and I think it will get to #1 eventually. 'Speed Drive' is the best track to interpolate 'Mickey' this year (sorry Baby Tate). 'Pakistan' has a catchy chorus and Clavish's verse is pretty good. Much better than their last collab!

 

There's parts of Nicki's verse in 'Endless Fashion' that I like but there's also some messy parts that stop it from being a banger. 'Flooded The Face' is pretty good minus some dodgy lyrics and sounds a lot better than anything off the last album. 'Aye', however, sounds awful. Really not for me. I'm giving up on Uzi ever giving us something as epic and transcendent as 'XO TOUR Llif3' again.

 

'We Didn't Start The Fire' is even cringier than I expected. Some of the choices of references are ridiculous: Captain Planet??? Metroid???. The vocals also feel so much more muted and less impactful than in their proper bangers.

Glad to finally put a name to the Makeba song which has been on that viral SNL video of the dancing guy. I went with that & Venbee/Rudimental for week 26. Olivia and Charli made up my week 2. Tempted with Stormzy but was bored before Fredo even got started. Same for Parade On Cleveland - actually liked Drake's bit and then it went downhill fast.

Stormzy - Toxic Trait (feat. Fredo) (#11) - much more like it from him, best he's done in a while

Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice and Aqua - Barbie World (#25) - definitely in the so bad it's good category, the sheer cheek of it is admirable tbh

Jain - Makeba (#55) - LONG overdue this being a UK hit, funky and fabulous!

Young Thug - Oh U Went (feat. Drake) (#65) - Drake saves this one, can see what YG was going for but it doesn't quite work

venbee and Rudimental - die young (#73) - the self-deprecating lyrics from her are becoming so lame now in every song, shame as the beat is decent

Juice WRLD and Cordae - Doomsday (#92) - ooh nice sample use, this is one of the good'uns from his never-ending unreleased catalogue

Young Thug - Parade On Cleveland (feat. Drake) (#97) - bit too backseat for me this one

 

Voted Stormzy, Barbie, Jain, YG/Drake & Juice.

 

Olivia Rodrigo - vampire (#2) - it's grown a little just enough to scrap a vote

D-Block Europe and Clavish - Pakistan (#10) - weird how their more boring songs tend to go top 10

Fall Out Boy - We Didn't Start The Fire (#52) - a neat idea continuing on from the Joel original although it's not chronological, deserves a vote

Charli XCX - Speed Drive (#61) - no, mashing mickey with barbie is not the one charlotte

Lil Uzi Vert - Flooded The Face (#63) - this just nails a vibe

Lil Uzi Vert - Endless Fashion (feat. Nicki Minaj) (#75) - can we give Blue (Da Ba Dee) a rest yet?

Lil Uzi Vert - Aye (feat. Travis Scott) (#94) - this doesn't nail any vibe

 

Voted Olivia, FOB & Uzi.

 

First poll went for Jain and Venbee; 2nd Olivia only

 

 

Week 26

1. Excellent (9/10)
2. Makeba
3. Toxic Trait

    

   Very Good (8/10)

4. Oh U Went
5. Doomsday
6. Parade On Cleveland

    

   Solid (high 7)

7. Die Young

    

   'Tis okay (6/10)

8. Barbie World

 

 

Week 27

1. Excellent (9/10)
2. Speed Drive

    

   Very Good (8/10)

3. Vampire

    

   Alright (low 7)

4. Pakistan

    

   'Tis Okay (6/10)

5. Flooded The Face

    

   Mixed (5.5/10)

6. Endless Fashion
7. We Didn’t Start The Fire

    

   Did not like this (5/10)

8. Aye

Week 26

01. Jain - Makeba (#55)

02. venbee and Rudimental - die young (#73)

03. Juice WRLD and Cordae - Doomsday (#92)

04. Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice and Aqua - Barbie World (#25)

05. Stormzy - Toxic Trait (feat. Fredo) (#11)

06. Young Thug - Oh U Went (feat. Drake) (#65)

07. Young Thug - Parade On Cleveland (feat. Drake) (#97)

 

Week 27

01. Olivia Rodrigo - vampire (#2)

02. Charli XCX - Speed Drive (#61)

03. Lil Uzi Vert - Flooded The Face (#63)

04. Lil Uzi Vert - Aye (feat. Travis Scott) (#94)

05. Fall Out Boy - We Didn't Start The Fire (#52)

06. Lil Uzi Vert - Endless Fashion (feat. Nicki Minaj) (#75)

07. D-Block Europe and Clavish - Pakistan (#10)

 

Voted for 'Makeba' and 'vampire' this week! Pleasantly surprised by the former becoming a bit of a hit. In the Lounge me and UltraCruelSummer/Sam hosted a rave.dj competition about 6 years ago (a website where you can mash up two songs together) and I discovered it via being a part of someone's mash-up! So I think this is the first time I've heard the full song on its own :lol: I was unsure about 'vampire' at first, as I found the cursive vocals at the start off-putting, but it's getting better and better now. That week 27 bottom 3 is so bad :')

Stormzy

Nicki x Ice

-

Olivia

D-Block Eurppe

Charli XCX

Lil Uzi Vert x Nicki

 

:magic:

Week 26:

 

1. Stormzy - Toxic Trait (feat. Fredo)

2. Young Thug - Oh U Went (feat. Drake)

3. Lyrical Lemonade, Cordae & Juice Wrld - Doomsday

4. Young Thug - Parade On Cleveland (feat. Drake)

5. Jain - Makeba

6. Venbee & Rudimental - Die Young

7. Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice & Aqua - Barbie World

 

After his last era, I was really quite surprised to see 'Toxic Trait' not touch the top 10. It sounded like the perfect comeback song after a relatively slow sounding era (with an exception made for the banger that is 'This Is What I Mean'), Fredo also sounds great on the track to make things even better. Despite me being on the fence about Young Thug's latest album on the whole, the two Drake collaborations are definitely an exception. 'Oh U Went' is a total banger with Thug providing a killer hook and Drake delivering a 'Her Loss'-esque verse as well. The first half of 'Parade On Cleveland' is nearly the opposite but I still enjoy the track a lot, Metro Boomin's production on both tracks also take them to another level imo.

 

I usually hate new Juice Wrld material, it progressively gets worse with every release. However I realise why they couldn't keep this track in his vault. Cordae hasn't really gotten any success in the UK so far in his career but he is a fantastic rapper and he raps best over classic beats imo. Unlike most of Juice's posthumous collaborations you can tell that both parts were recorded before Juice's death. The video is also really interesting, its a must-watch.

 

I like that Makeba is so different to everything else in the charts but I guess its just not my kind of music. I'm not too fussed on 'Die Young'. 'Barbie World' is a total abomination of a song, most certainly a contended for 2023's Worst Song Of The Year.

Last day to be guaranteed to have your vote counted as I will again be aiming to get the new thread(s) up tonight, and you never know, maybe I actually will this time :jump:

Week 26:

 

1 'Doomsday' 8.5/10

2 'Oh U Went' 8/10

3 'Makeba' 7.5/10

4 'Barbie World' 7.5/10

5 'Toxic Trait' 7/10

6 'die young' 6/10

7 'Parade On Cleveland' 5.5/10

 

Voted for the top 4. The last few posthumous Juice WRLD scraps have been pretty hit or miss but this is definitely one of the better ones, good to have a less depressing performance from him and he fits surprisingly well over the retro Eminem sample (Cordae also fits that sound well and thought they had great chemistry). The Thug/Drake tracks are a mixed bag, 'Oh U Went' is a bit carried by the excellent Metro Boomin production and a good Drake verse as Thug's part gets a bit repetitive, whereas I actually like his verse on 'Parade On Cleveland' more but the whole Drake half of that song is pretty tedious and I feel like the phone call part should have just been an interlude/intro on the album. Didn't know if I'd heard 'Makeba' before now but I did immediately recognise it from adverts, it's also a bit repetitive but a really cool sounding track, liking the African influences. Was pleasantly surprised by 'Barbie World', Nicki totally ruined her last Ice Spice collab but she's much better on this one, otherwise just sounds like a pretty good Ice Spice track with 'Barbie Girl' playing in the background. 'Toxic Trait' is a step back in the right direction for Stormzy but still not quite a fave, I do really like the hook though (reminds me of 'Nice & Good' by Knucks and SL), just wasn't getting too much from the verses, especially Fredo's. venbee is sounding less annoying on 'die young' but overall just a serviceable but ultimately forgettable DnB track much like 'Dancing Is Healing'.

 

Week 27:

 

1 'vampire' 8.5/10

2 'Flooded The Face' 8/10

3 'Aye' 6.5/10

4 'Speed Drive' 5/10

5 'Endless Fashion' 2/10

6 'We Didn't Start The Fire' please take me back to a time when this didn't exist/10

7 'Pakistan' 1/10

 

Only the top 2 getting my votes here, really not a good week. Olivia delivered with her comeback though and I think that is probably going to grow on me even more, really love the chorus (hit harder each time) and here for the song picking up more as it goes along, especially liked the Lorde-esque backing vocals in the middle section. Uzi's quality is all over the place, 'Flooded The Face' is a good straightforward banger, 'Aye' has a good instrumental but feels a bit wasted with so much empty space left on it and a pretty lacklustre Travis feature, and 'Endless Fashion' is just straight up bad, it's not impossible for an Eiffel 65 sample to work (Flo Rida's attempt was pretty fun) but this one is only a bit better than the Guetta/Rexha abomination, though that is more on Nicki than Uzi to be fair ('I've got a Republican doctor / make my ass great again, MAGA' surely has to be the worst lyric of the year). The Charli song is sadly mid, it sounds like the result of asking an AI to make a Charli XCX song singing about Barbie to the tune of 'Mickey'. Slightly better than the Baby Tate song though I guess. The Fall Out Boy thing just fails on a basic conceptual level (I could maybe be more forgiving of the cringe lyrics if they at least put them chronologically) but it is at least competent enough musically that I can't bring myself to rank it below DBE - clearly what they were missing with their previous releases of the year was that they were just boring and indistinct, to get back to the high end of the chart they needed to plumb the depths of quality much lower. The whole hook is just a string of uncomfortable DBE-isms with the autotune sounding more unbearable than ever. The verses are not much better. 1/10 is if anything being generous, and that's down to Clavish being a relative breath of fresh air on the song, not that his verse is great either. Perhaps the worst thing about it is that it is, in fact, pretty catchy. I woke up this morning with the hook stuck in my head. Go away. x