1 hour ago, Ghoulian said:

I’m up to “Jealousy” so half way.

Actually thought I was on 23/46 but it’s just realised it’s actually 23/58 😳

Yes you're in 1991 😄 hslfway is 1994

2.5 hours left to submit votes for any stragglers

And voting is closed!!! Thanks everyone for the votes- now i need to sort the eliminations out- first one tomorrow evening!

Done - sorry 2 minutes late.

Don't worry - you're in!

A word on postings- I have used AI on the write ups but after I wrote my little bits, so AI will be in italics. I aim to post a track a day but there will be a break as I'm away for a week next month but all results will be finished for Christmas!

Where songs are tied the song with the most 11's then the most 10s etc will given precedence etc.

#58

WINNER

 

YEAR: 2012

PEAK POSITION: 86

 

Now at this moment

the crowd acclaim us

Will you just listen to that sound!

 

Fresh from supporting Take That on their “Progress” Tour, this song served as the intro to their 12^th album “Elysium” and was their attempt to write something in the vein of Take That’s “Greatest Day”.  The song was originally offered to One Direction but they never heard anything back so it ended up as their own single, Tennant remarked on the song “superficially it's a sort of 'We Are the Champions' song but actually it's not. It's really about that moment...and really what's important is the camaraderie of everything that got you there. Enjoy the moment, enjoy the memory 'cause it's just a little moment."  In that sense it reminded Tennant of the feelings he had when “West End Girls” made No 1.

 

AI: On first listen, Winner sounds like the duo’s attempt at a modern, inspirational pop song: warm synth pads, a steady beat, a melody that rises with reassuring confidence. It’s almost aggressively pleasant

 

The official video—featuring a transgender roller derby team—gave Winner a cultural and emotional depth the song itself only hints at. Suddenly, the lyrics about triumph, identity, and perseverance gained specificity and poignancy.

 

This is one of those rare cases where the visual context elevates the song, revealing a meaning that the production alone doesn’t fully articulate.

 

Winner is a song that wants to be simple but can’t escape the Pet Shop Boys’ instinct for emotional ambiguity. It’s a victory song for people who don’t quite believe in victory—a gentle, slightly melancholy reassurance wrapped in the language of triumph.

Best score : 8 @MangoOoOoOo

Lowest score: 0 @dandy*

I like that it's a PSB rate and we start off with Irony!

Very bad song for me, and it seems to have talking over parts of the song in the video too.

Corny, easily their worst single. Maybe not a good sign to go ahead with it as a lead if it was originally pitched at One Direction, who declined it!

I mean it's obviously not up there with their classics but I don't think it's THAT bad a song! Something had to finish last though so may as well be this one.

Edited yesterday at 10:581 day by MangoOoOoOo

I didn’t give any 0s, but I gave a 1 and a bunch of 2s of which “Winner” was one. Not good.

I'm surprised that finished bottom. I gave it a score of 6.5. I always thought it was written specifically for the Olympic Games and was one of the official songs, like the Muse one. It looks like the Olympics just adopted it as it was out at the same time. I do remember it being played before the two events I attended, womens' handball and womens' volleyball. Those were the only two sports that I managed to get a ticket for.

I guess I was being pretty generous gifting it a 6.5 lol. Nothing too overly memorable but did like the sentiment to it at least hence a decent score from me.

Well, something had to come last and I'm not complaining. Not their best era by any means.

This was second last for me with 3.5 points. Makes sense if it was written to coincide with the Olympics, but the cynical edge is all too apparent and it's not surprising it barely featured in any coverage.

It's so refreshing to have other people giving fewer points to a song in a rate than I do. I'm used to be the grumpy old man who trashes the later career singles of his favourite artists. Winner didn't get my lowest score but was one of my nine 5s.

Winner isn’t the best (of course) but it’s alright. There’s definitely worse to come (er…some of those collaborations). Gave it a quite generous (I now think) six.

As an aside, I didn’t realise it had happened, but The Pet Shop Boys ever being reduced to supporting Take That of all people, is a sad indictment of UK music.

Edited yesterday at 14:241 day by Jaz13music

Not one of their great latter-day singles, and it came over as a bit bandwagon-jumping with the Olympics in full pelt, though it did get playlisted on Radio 2 I think. It's quite pleasant but there were better tracks on the album like Axis, Love Is A Bourgeois Construct, and Memory Of The Future and the non-album fab bonus track cover of The Bee Gees' I Started A Joke was best of all. Lovely.

#57

TOGETHER

 

YEAR: 2010

PEAK POSITIONI: 58

 

Tell me what you want from me

Give me what I need from you

 

2010 and time for a third “Best Of” album in the form of “Ultimate” and it became their first full release to miss the top 40 entirely!  They worked with Tim Powell who had been part of Xenomania but had left the outfit by this point, Tennant commented that the song was "about two people being intensely in love… But it could really be anything about two people. It could be Chris and I at the beginning of our writing career together, thinking we could go all the way with this”

 

Some of it’s failure to chart higher was pinned on the evolution of downloads which didn’t promote “legacy” acts.

 

AI: An orchestral, melodramatic waltz that tries to sound triumphant but can’t quite hide the melancholy at its core. It’s a song about unity that feels haunted by the possibility of separation.  There’s a faint sense of desperation, as if the relationship is already under strain and the song is trying to conjure unity through sheer force of will.

 

“Together” is not one of their most immediate singles, but it’s one of their most quietly revealing. Beneath the grand gestures lies a very human fear: that closeness is never guaranteed, and that sometimes the most romantic thing you can do is simply ask someone to stay.

Highest score: 8 @MangoOoOoOo

Lowest score: 2.5 @chartjack2