When you read the youtube comments and learn that Pearls is a metaphor for grains of rice 😢!

11 hours ago, Lee_J11 said:

I’m sorry but people sending songs over 5/6 minutes long really test my patience.

Strap yourself in with this lot 🤣

01= Years & Years – Ties (fave)

02 = Fontaines D.C. - Sundowner

03 = iamamiwhoami - shadowshow

04 = Texas - Like Lovers (Holding On)

05 = Ultravox - Accent on Youth

06 = Depeche Mode - Photographic

07 = Bananarama - Bad For Me

08 = New Order - Love Vigilantes

09 = M83 - Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun

10 = Sade - Pearls

 

Voting somewhat early as on holiday from tomorrow, so kinda wanna get it out of the way

 

Ties is my clear fave here; fantastic song and like a lot of Communion could’ve easily been a single. The others vary from decent to just a bit boring… I enjoyed Like Lovers, Sundowner and shadowshow. I feel I need to listen to more Fontaines stuff, whilst I wasn’t overly keen on Jackie Down the Line I did have it in my head for a lot of last week.

 

Ultravox/ Depeche Mode are decent picks and Banarama wasn’t too bad either. New Order I didn’t mind, but got slightly repetitive after a while. The bottom 2 I just found a little boring after a while. The M83 track is epic, but at the 5 minute mark I was wishing there was a radio edit, I can see that song dividing opinion and being fairly marmite.   

 

 

 

Here’s the AM playlist with all the songs this week.

MISSING: Texas :(

Apple Music – Webplayer

„The Pop Factor: Season 3 • Boot Camp: Part One in Barcel...

Playlist · 29 Titel

01 bananarama bad for me

02 depeche mode photographic

03 new order love vigilantes

04 m83 lower your eyelids to die with the sun

05 sade pearls

06 years & years ties

07 fontaines D.c. - sundowner

08 iamamiwhoami shadowshow

09 texas like lovers (holding on)

10 Ultravox accent on youth

01 Fontaines D.C. - Sundowner

02 M83 - Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun

03 iamamiwhoami - shadowshow

04 Sade - Pearls

05 Years & Years - Ties

06 Depeche Mode - Photographic

07 Ultravox - Accent on Youth

08 New Order - Love Vigilantes

09 Texas - Like Lovers (Holding On)

10 Bananarama - Bad For Me

that M83 song was a stunning discovery <3

this turned out to be quite an unexpected order for me this week, based on how much I enjoy some of these acts in general, but some mentors pleasantly surprised with really strong song choices.

1. Texas - Like Lovers (Holding On) (I'm familiar with most of their studio albums but I had no idea Texas had a song on a film soundtrack - this feels quite Corrs-esque in the verses with a hint of The Hush production but is suitably cinematic too, loving this one)

2. Sade - Pearls (what an absolutely beautiful and emotional song, I hope Sade stick around for a bit as I love what they bring to this group)

3. Years & Years - Ties (that first Y&Y album was so good, nearly anything could have worked and this is a great pick)

4. Ultravox - Accent on Youth (guessing this goes into another song on the album as it ends abruptly - I enjoyed it a lot up to its sudden halt so will check the next track on the album)

5. M83 - Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun (lovely soundscape and very atmospheric)

6. New Order - Love Vigilantes (good, driving production on this)

7. iamamiwhoami - shadowshow (sparkling production but didn't love it this time)

8. Bananarama - Bad For Me (sounds like Madonna's Holiday produced by SAW, not sure what to make of it!)

9. Depeche Mode - Photographic (drifted over me slightly)

10. Fontaines D.C. - Sundowner (this didn't do it for me unfortunately)

Sade

Years and years

Texas

Bananarama

New Order

Ultravox

Iamamiwhoiam

Depeche Mode

M83

Fontaines DC

This is clearly where all the cool kids came to hang out! #altfactor!

3 minutes ago, Herbs said:

This is clearly where all the cool kids came to hang out! #altfactor!

Well, all the cool kids plus Bananarama (I'm actually surprised they're at the lower end of votes, Wow is a great 80s pop album!)

I really do want each round to get better for the Groups but it doesn’t seem to be happening 😂

01 Texas - Like Lovers (Holding On) (me being a Texas fan is the biggest revelation of this competition so far, I wasn’t expecting it at all but this was exactly the energy I needed)

02 iamamiwhoami - shadowshow (another very pretty entry that stands out amongst the pack)

03 Years & Years - Ties (love this album, this wouldn’t be one of my personal picks from it but still quite away ahead of the rest of these anyway)

04 Bananarama - Bad For Me (Rich wasn’t wrong in describing this as Holiday by Madonna, quite a shameless rip but alas, I didn’t care for much below this and this bopped)

05 Depeche Mode - Photographic (really enjoyed the production of this, quite comfortably the best of the 3 new wavey songs for that part alone - just wish more was happening with the vocal than inaudible mumbling)

06 Sade - Pearls (enjoyed the moodiness and the drama of the instrumental for this, it didn’t really go anywhere but she has a beautiful voice so I understand how one would be captivated by this)

07 New Order - Love Vigilantes (okay but not very memorable)

08 Fontaines D.C. - Sundowner (what I’m learning is that the 3 songs I like by Fontaines, out of the 4 I know, are their more happy sounding songs but a lot of their back catalogue is much darker and grungier so my taste is not in sync with the sender - I think I’ve got an idea who it might be based off that!)

09 M83 - Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun (a ten minute song is like anti-Rob so this was always going to struggle for me personally - I did like the vibe of it but it did just feel like a 10 minute long outro to a film, rather than going through a particular journey of sound so the duration wound up feeling unnecessary to me)

10 Ultravox - Accent on Youth (I played all of Depeche/New Order/this again to make sure I’d remembered which was which correctly but this still hasn’t stuck with me even after a second listen. I’m finding their songs so far to lack a hook and they just kind of plod along from start to finish but I know when we get to Vienna that I like that one at least!)

01 Depeche Mode - Photographic this was truly such a fantastic discovery. Easily my favourite of their three choices so far!

02 Ultravox - Accent on Youth another fantastic discovery from Ultravox. I think I'll be liking a lot more of them based on these selections.

03 New Order - Love Vigilantes really enjoyed this one from New Order. Probably my favourite of their three choices too.

04 iamamiwhoami - shadowshow enjoyed this one too. I think they could be a dark horse in this category tbh.

05 Bananarama - Bad For Me this was a good slice of 80s pop.

06 Sade - Pearls not usually my thing but this song is good.

07 Fontaines D.C. - Sundowner I liked this too but the above songs overshadowed it.

08 Texas - Like Lovers (Holding On) didn't really wow me but I do like their sound generally and this is no exception.

09 Years & Years - Ties not the biggest fan of this.

10 M83 - Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun this did nothing for me - sorry!

Years & Years - Ties

Texas - Like Lovers (Holding On)

Fontaines D.C. - Sundowner

Bananarama - Bad For Me

New Order - Love Vigilantes

Sade - Pearls

iamamiwhoami - shadowshow

Ultravox - Accent on Youth

Depeche Mode - Photographic

M83 - Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun

1. BANANARAMA

2. TEXAS

3. IAMAMIWHOAMI

4. NEW ORDER

5. SADE

6. FONTAINES DC

7. YEARS AND YEARS

8. DEPECHE MODE

9. ULTRAVOX

10. M83

I was really enjoying M83 up until now but this one tested my patience. LOVED the 80s pop vibes of Bananarama’s though.

1. New Order - Love Vigilantes

2. M83 - Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun

3. Years & Years - Ties

4. Ultravox - Accent on Youth

5. iamamiwhoami- shadowshow

6. Sade - Pearls

7. Fontaines D.C. - Sundowner

8. Depeche Mode - Photographic

9. Bananarama - Bad For Me

10. Texas - Like Lovers (Holding On)

Depeche Mode - Photographic

Sade - Pearls

Years & Years - Ties

Ultravox - Accent Of Youth

New Order - Love Vigilantes

Texas - Like Lovers

Fontaines - Sundowner

Bananarama - Bad For Me

M83 - Lower Your Eyelids

iamamiwhoami - Shadowshow

M83

iamamiwhoami

Fontaines DC

Sade

Ultravox

Bananarama

Years & Years

Depeche Mode

New Order

Texas

I really enjoyed this group. Ultravox and Bananarama providing catchy bawps!! M83 was stunning, the blasphemy in this thread! :’(

Bananarama (favourite)

New Order

Sade

Texas

Ultravox

Years & Years

Iamamiwhoami

Depeche Mode

Fontaines DC

M83 (least favourite)

Good top 5. Glad Bananarama have managed to top my ranking for the first time - I love all the singles I know by them !

On 29/09/2026 at 17:35, Calum said:

This week, awardinary will be hosting a listen-through session for Boot Camp: Part One in Barcelona on Thursday 1 October at 19:00 BST. More information will be shared before the session begins, but if you'd like the opportunity to listen to all of the performances with others please feel free.

For those wanting to come along and experience the reactions to your own entries, we invite all mentors and voting members to come online at 7pm to hear this week's songs.

https://sync-tube.de/room/6vcaNiZZ

The week we will begin with the groups, followed by female vocalists, and lastly the males.