Chez Wombat

Three points then pfft, let me just pretend I did end up sending this David Holmes track and masquerade as that in the final x This contest and last are definitely giving me reminders not to check the odds thread (or odds in the semi thread in this case) :') I'm honestly a bit miffed, Snapped Ankles have been my favourite discovery of the year and I was really hoping more would be into it, I was either overestimating it or it was just a really bad draw even with just six DNQ spots, hopefully was a good discovery to those in the opposite semi anyway x Pleased at least to have most of my votes through in what was a very strong semi.

oh....

Going to riot a bit if I'm one of the last two DNQs as that's three of my votes out now </3 Jadakissnia/Cumulonimbia both great qualifiers though

Lotunia another one of my votes out :'( Had a really wholesome synthwave sound.

Well, already lost one of my votes with just six possibilities, Skall was my 4 pointer </3 Didn't deserve last at all. Pleased for Macromia though despite the mixed predictions! Oops at Taahino, didn't quite make my votes but one of their best entries recently x

Marshmello and Bastille - Happier twenty one pilots - Heathens twenty one pilots - Stressed Out

Renewed for a third season, hooray! Hopefully doesn't take three years this time x While I did prefer Season 1 as a finale and overall, this was a quite spectacular finale just about everything thrown in and a fantastic top off to the season. Innie and Outie Mark having that recorded conversation was so hypnotising seeing two completely different mindsets not quite seeing the other's perspective despite being the same, he made each one so distinctive as well so real credit to Scott. The ending cliffhanger felt like a real culmination of that and sets things up well. As well as all the drama and action, it did bring the humour too. The office fighting with the band thrown in was wonderfully bonkers and Milchick was on top form. Cobel's intentions remain a real mystery to me, and I'm interested to see where she goes from here. If there's one flaw in this season, it's that I found her focused episode to be less of a convincing back story, certainly not compared to Gemma's devastating and stunning hour before that, and she clearly still can't catch a break! My heart was in my mouth for poor Emile, a true GOAT in every sense x I too am a little unsure what it will do from here, especially as the whole concept has really been a bit upended by the diverging paths of the main four, but the quality of this season has certainly given hope it can continue.

Not the best start to this with Let Your Love Flow and Strange & Beautiful out so early </3 two very different moods, but both my go-to songs when I'm feeling that way x

Finally released in the UK! (Go see it over Snow White x) I think if there was ever a film I was going to love, it was this and for sure it didn't disappoint, gonna take a lot to beat this for film of the year - animation was beautiful, the animals looked and acted just like realistic animals would for the most part which added a sense of authenticity that's really missing from generic Disney/Pixar movies yet they were still so expressive as personalities, and the long takes and slow (ahem, flowing) camera movement was amazing in immersing you in the dreamy feel of the world. It was clearly based on Earth but felt like it was in it's own space of time which added to it (The Secretarybird in general felt like a spiritual being in an otherwise lifelike setting). Moreover, what an incredible success story this has been for both independent filmmaking and the Latvian film industry - it's already going down in history there, and was clearly a labour of love taking over five years to make, animated all through an open source software and made for just 4 million. It's stories like this that really keep you going in a time where success in the film industry is so often just seen in big studios. Need @Jade and @Brer to see this in particular x (not sure there's another film where a cat and a capybara are the lead roles x)

Everyone's entitled to consuming their own way. I don't buy physical music much as I just don't have the money or space so streaming works well for me, I'm not claiming anything else. But don't be under any illusion that streaming is making a real difference in any other way than convenience for consumers though, it's very well documented how much the streaming giants exploit artists and it really does not pay them much unless it is a significant amount or you get a lucky break via social media, it's an uphill battle for lesser known musicians. If I discover smaller artists on YouTube crawls/playlist recommendations, I do at least try to buy the download or use Bandcamp in a way that helps them just that little bit more.

Well it's gonna take something truly remarkable to outclass Outro, one of my favourite songs of all time ❤️❤️❤️ Didn't even come to my mind, but does fit as despite it's wide usage in Media, it was never actually a single. (inb4 Bre 'you've missed a song')

Odds and Hype - rent paid this month *. Semi 2 was a really good semi with some unexpected surprises, I wanted to vote for my whole top 15, but I'm hoping the five I left will be safe anyway.

Westlife, though I'll be gunning for that bottom 2 next.

Beautiful presetation <3 Although I wish I'd picked an earlier colour now as Semi 1 seems a lot better for my song :x David Holmes and Raven Violet showing up here's a bit of a surprise! It was between this and Hope is the Last Thing to Die when I sent that so I'm interested to see how this fares, it's quite Noel Gallagher-esque x

Watched this all in one go too, absolutely phenomenal. An early contender for best of the year. The single takes and real-time filming was obviously really well done, but it wouldn't have worked without a really harrowing, sensitive story to boot. It's a difficult subject matter and they could've easily been overly dramatic with it, but the characters all felt extremely genuine - serious props to the kid who played Jamie as you couldn't help but feel for him sometimes despite what he did, and the changes in character he showed with the therapist was incredibly done. Making the family normal and not abusive with only subtle clues that there was a slight disconnect between father and son was a really good choice too as that could've easily felt cliched. That last part of episode 4 was beautiful and the whole of episode 3 was stunning. I couldn't help but nitpick slightly at Episode 2 as it was a bit more contrived and less believable, working in education myself, but that's minor quibbles in what is a great achievement, and actually quite an important show to watch in our current times as it's hardly the stuff of imagination.