Yes thank you very much Lewis for all your hard work!

 

 

Full Playlist

 

 

Disc 1

 

Disc 2

 

Disc 3

 

Disc 4

 

Welcome to the BuzzJack Collection.

 

Sixty-five of our most prominent members submitted songs for inclusion over the last 2 months and we've spend the last 10 days shuffling them around so that they play in some sort of aesthetically pleasing order.

 

We open with the winning song in the BuzzJack’s Favourite Song rate which took place at the end of 2023 - Madonna's career highlight, Frozen. That’s followed by absolute banger after absolute banger as we take a ride through some of the best pop music ever made. Britney, Girls of both the Spice and the Loud variety, Rihanna, Katy P and Lady Gaga thrill us with their strident mega-pop.

As we segue into trance music via Loreen's monumental Euphoria, we dash through dance subgenres - massive EDM anthem Levels, filtered house number 1 Another Chance, Euro-pop classic What is Love, remixes of Kylie's Confide in Me and Orbital's Belfast bring us to our rave closer It's Grim Up North.

 

Disc 2 brings the boys. We start with quality cuts from Take That and Robbie, then Coldplay’s weepy Fix You. Next up we take a tumble through sad boy ballads hitting some classic rock and then head into '90s luminaries Radiohead, Blur and Suede with a breather to take in Muse’s interpretation of erstwhile musical number come-jazz-standard Feelin’ Good.

 

Disc 3 rages through hard hitters Lose Yourself, Breathe and King of the Slugs. Compelling tracks from Nightwish, Paramore, Taylor Swift, Lorde and Brandy & Monica take us to US superstars Mariah and Whitney.

 

Disc 4 opens with The Beatles' incomparable Across the Universe before we dive into primetime indie favourites Live Forever, Common People, Inbetween Days and Mr. Brightside. A grab bag pop music follows in the form of The Naked and Famous, The Kid LAROI, BTS, YVA, Steps, S Club 7 and Emma Bunton.

Fittingly closing out our collection is the magnificent Music by John Miles.

 

Thank you all so much for taking part and for celebrating with us our first year working on BuzzJack presents...

 

Enjoy the music!

Edited December 27, 2024Dec 27 by Colm

A great collection BuzzJack, thank you very much for this gift! :wub:

Amazing effort Colm, from the idea through to completion, and wonderful sequencing, thank you.

Thanks, gd. You and wardy's assistance was instrumental in getting this done.

I am honoured to have the final song on the last disc. It couldn't really have gone anywhere else. I've said before it should be the unofficial Buzzjack anthem.

 

Thanks Colm, gooddelta and Wardy for putting this together.

Great work :heart: Even though my submission is on Disc 3, I would say Disc 1 is my favourite overall!

Quite surprised to see my choice on disc 1 :o

Would you have put the dance stuff elsewhere?

an incredible collection of songs in the end, great job putting it together - disc 3 looks amazing but all of them look very strong

Not necessarily - just hadn’t expected it to be a disc 1 kinda track

 

Everything seems to flow pretty well on face value - not easy considering the variety of tastes covered

Disc 4 was an ordeal to sequence. It was mostly leftovers.

Edited December 28, 2024Dec 28 by Colm

Just realised there are two disc 3s, which one do you mean? :kink:

 

Was the original idea to have 3 discs but then it needed spreading out to be more coherent?

There's a few reasons to spread it over 4 discs. Playing time was one issue. The average disc length would have been 98 minutes with 3 discs.

 

With 3 discs you have fewer opening and closing songs and those positions in play lists are good for putting songs that don't sound similar to anything else. Also Music and Still Life demanded to be placed last whichever disc they were on so we didn't have many other opportunities left as we also felt that Frozen should take up another opening slot because it's BuzzJack's current official favourite song.

 

 

We do tend to over think these things. 😄

not me being offended in being part of the "leftovers" :drama:

Left overs as in 'wouldn't fit well on the first three discs' not as in 'undesirable' or 'rejected'.

 

 

 

Happy New Year! Just in time for everybody’s best of the year lists and charts and as we look back at the 12 months just gone, we present to you a hopefully fairly comprehensive compilation that represents the UK charts and zeitgeist of 2024. It was a year where the charts started with a bang - huge hit after huge hit and massive sales for many weeks during the first half of the year, before slowing down somewhat in the second half as new product rather dried up. Nevertheless, looking at our compilation, there are a few songs on here that will probably go on to become classics, particularly some of those from the new ‘big pop girls’ on the scene, many of whom have actually been around for many years and are finally now having a proper chance to shine, as well as the increasingly dominant sounds of country and folk music.

 

Disc 1 kicks off with the star of the year, Sabrina Carpenter, who spent a whopping 21 weeks at No.1 with three singles - an amazing feat considering she had never previously peaked higher than No.19 with anything before the immediate pop classic Espresso was released. While it was a very female dominated year, three of the year’s biggest hits came from male soloists - and we showcase Benson Boone’s impassioned rocky No.1 Beautiful Things, Teddy Swims’ soulful Lose Control and Hozier’s unique smash Too Sweet - his biggest hit since the mammoth Take Me To Church and the Irish singer’s first No.1 hit. We then have a long run of the contemporary major female artists - Billie Eilish’s BIRDS OF A FEATHER, the massive Good Luck, Babe! by breakout star Chappell Roan, the late year chart topper and Christmas No.2, That’s So True by Gracie Abrams, and the No.1 Fortnight from Taylor Swift and Post Malone. Further hits follow from Ariana Grande, Charli xcx in her year of brat, and the impressive debut solo single by Little Mix’s JADE. This disc also features huge hits from Artemas and ROSÉ & Bruno Mars, the returning sensations from Sophie Ellis-Bextor (2001’s Murder On The Dancefloor returned to its previous peak of No.2 a year ago after usage in a memorable scene in the film Saltburn) and Natasha Bedingfield’s 2004 classic Unwritten, and more pop hits from Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga, Tate McRae, Addison Rae, Olivia Rodrigo, another Little Mix soloist in Perrie, BTS’ Jimin, and Eurovision winner Nemo with victorious single The Code. We also feature the late year musical smash from one of the films of the year, Defying Gravity from Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, and a tribute to the late Liam Payne, with One Direction’s Night Changes, a song that we didn’t include on our 2014 album, the year it was first released, but it deserves its place here after the song re-peaked following his tragic death.

 

Disc 2 starts with the year’s biggest seller - a song that was also on 2023 when it looked like being a mere low top ten success at the time we compiled that album. But clearly Noah Kahan’s Stick Season took off into the new year, spending seven weeks at No.1, and deserves its place as part of the fabric of 2024. Another big folky No.1 came from Gigi Perez’s Sailor Song, while one of the biggest hits of the second half of the year was Die With A Smile, a timeless sounding duet by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. We then get the second No.1 from Sabrina - the summer smash Please Please Please, which topped the chart for five weeks, before we move into the country section. Country had a major year commercially and we showcase Dasha’s Austin, which spent a massive 21 weeks in the top 10, including eight weeks at No.10 itself - a record. We then have Beyoncé’s No.1 hit TEXAS HOLD EM’, Shaboozey’s huge top three smash A Bar Song (Tipsy), and I Had Some Help by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen, with a top 30 country ballad from Zack Bryan rounding off this mini section. Hits from Michael Marcagi, Djo, Myles Smith, Mark Ambor and Alex Warren continue the slightly folky/indie vibe of this disc, as do Good Neighbours, a long-running top 75 hit from Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners, and critically acclaimed rock from Vampire Weekend, The Cure and Fontaines D.C. Breakout Baroque indie-pop styled group The Last Dinner Party then precede indie and rock smashes from Coldplay, Sam Fender and the returning Linkin Park, before the Eurovision duo of runner-up and UK top 40 success Baby Lasagna, and Ireland’s unforgettable Bambie Thug round off the disc.

 

Disc 3 is a look into the biggest rap, hip/hop and R&B hits of the year, starting with the comeback No.1 single from Eminem, who was killing off his Slim Shady alias in style with the Abracadabra sampling Houdini, the first No.1 by the legendary rapper to spend more than a week at No.1. We then hear big hits from Kendrick Lamar, Tommy Richman, a rare UK rap smash this year from Central Cee - albeit with American Lil Baby along for the ride, and other hits led by Future, Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign, Belfast singer and rapper Jordan Adetunji, The Weeknd & Playboy Carti - a decent sized hit following the relative underperformance of the superstar’s lead single, and more hits from 21 Savage, Bryson Tiller, Tyler The Creator, Indian rapper Hanumankind, plus Ndotz, Lay Banks and Flo Milli. The tempo reduces a bit for SZA, a rare R&B hit from Muni Long and an Afrobeats/R&B fusion from Nigerian singer Tems. More hits follow from The Kid LAROI, KSI, and a unique single in different parts from RAYE, plus a very rare reggae hit from YG Marley. We round the disc off with second appearances from Teddy Swims, Benson Boone, Noah Kahan and Sam Fender, the latter two together this time on the top five hit Homesick.

 

Disc 4 is where we showcase the year’s biggest dance hits - although check out our 2024 Dance compilation for a wider look at the best the genre had to offer. And where else to begin than with the genre’s only No.1 hit, BACKBONE by Chase & Status and Stormzy. It wasn’t a major year for the genre commercially but there were long running top 10 hits from Sonny Fodera, Jazzy and D.O.D plus Bl3ss, CamrinWatsin and bbyclose, and Ella Henderson and Rudimental - all showcased at the front of the disc. Big top 40 hits from the likes of Becky Hill and Sonny Fodera, The Blessed Madonna and Clementine Douglas, Calvin Harris & Rag’n’Bone Man, Rudimental and friends, and Fred Again… and Baby Keem follow. We had a very rare French language top 40 hit at the end of the year, from Belgian superstar Stromae and French singer Pomme, and that is featured next to Adam Port and co’s infectious top ten hit Move, the critically lauded summer anthem Life by Jamie xx and Robyn, and further top 40 dance hits from Majestic, The Jammin’ Kid and the legendary Céline Dion - who gave her first public performance in years at the Olympics in Paris, plus NewEra and a second top 40 hit of the year from Natasha Bedingfield, appearing on a rejig of These Words by Badger. Cascada’s take on Jax Jones’ Never Be Lonely, disqualified Dutch Eurovision star Joost’s top 40 techno hit Europapa - a smash even without exposure of the final, and further hits from Kygo & Ava Max (sampling Shakira) and David Guetta and OneRepublic (sampling O-Zone), as the 00s revival continued, ahead of the UK Eurovision entry Dizzy by Olly Alexander, which rather flopped on the contest’s televote, with nul points, but scored reasonably with the jury to achieve 18th place overall and peaked just outside the UK top 40. We round off the final disc with a second look at some of those biggest female pop artists of the year, who were scoring hit after hit. Charli xcx teamed up with Billie Eilish for the No.1 hit Guess, originally a bonus track from an extended version of brat, while Chappell Roan had another long top 10 stay with HOT TO GO! Taylor Swift and Gracie Abrams are also here with big top ten hits, while of course we finish how we started, with star of the year Sabrina Carpenter and her nine-week No.1 hit Taste.

'Capricorn' and 'Starburster' are fab non-top 40 inclusions :wub:

This is a great recap for those few BuzzJackers that don't follow the charts any more (FlopJackers)

 

Great artwork concept. Wonderful work, all round.

Edited December 31, 2024Dec 31 by Colm

I don't think the artwork could have been anything else really.

 

2024 is brat. Charli to win everything.

 

Thanks for all your help with the covers etc Colm, and Wardy and Roba for helping me to decide which songs to cull from a shortlist of about 115.

Edited December 31, 2024Dec 31 by gooddelta