gooddelta

I followed the same trajectory as you of win-AQ-DNQ, so hopefully can bounce back next time. Thank you - again! - for the support <3

Oops. Thank you to all the voters <3 And glad it wasn't 21st! I had a hunch I would be out after the very muted listenthrough reaction and it also wasn't in the right semi (I needed the likes of Kath, blacksquare, Leww etc). I see it didn't get the pop voters at all, which I thought it would do as it had a PinkPantheress vibe. I just called it wrong this month but no regrets as it was No.1 in my chart so I still love <3 And still glad to have got the year of Qs last year but at least there's no pressure to continue that this year now.

All those 1 pointers is unlucky indeed, very nice song from Bronzil that I'd have voted for.

Damn, I thought République d’Áskorza would Q, that's great French pop and was a brilliant discovery for me, for shame.

Ouch, thought Kath would be safe. But happy for Aeroche, that's a banger that's very me coded.

Wow, Semi 1 looks absolutely brutal, all 12 of those could feasibly be in.

Thanks for the tip! Ordered. It will take a while to come but that’s fine, I didn’t realise it was available without stupid postage costs anywhere!

LOVESONGS and UTERUS & UNIVERSE are my two new main takeaways from the album, which is indeed absolutely excellent despite the many interludes. I can't see it being released on CD sadly because Magic Still Exists never was. I actually have that on vinyl and I think it's worth a pretty penny these days. Not sure I can afford to import the new album from Bengans right now though (£60 including postage to the UK gah). She's come on leaps and bounds as an artist and performer, the first time I saw her live was as part of the Melodifestivalen final in 2009 where she competed with Love Love Love. It was such a strong final that she didn't even get a look in in the results, and it was a great disco song too (but not even in my top five favourites from the final). I still adore Dance Love Pop and Veritas though, even with how great these two recent albums have been. One of Sweden's very best artists.

You're right actually, my mistake, I was misinformed by Twitter last week when she was on! Just Jim Corr in the 'tinfoil hat brigade' then and whoever this other Leilani is 🤣

Theaudience 06.0 I Got the Wherewithal 08.0 If You Can't Do It When You're Young: When Can You Do It 09.0 A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed 07.0 I Know Enough (I Don't Get Enough) 11.0 Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) (ft Spiller) 09.0 Take Me Home 10.0 Murder On The Dancefloor 09.0 Get Over You 08.0 Move This Mountain 09.0 Music Gets The Best of Me 08.5 Mixed Up World 08.5 I Won't Change You 09.0 Catch You 08.0 Me and My Imagination 08.5 Today The Sun's On Us 08.5 If I Can't Dance 08.5 Heartbreak (Made Me A Dancer) (ft Freemasons) 07.5 Can't Fight This Feeling (Junior Caldera) 08.5 Bittersweet 08.5 Not Giving Up On Love (vs Armin Van Buuren) 07.5 Off & On 08.0 Starlight 08.5 Young Blood 07.5 Runaway Daydreamer 08.0 Love Is a Camera 07.0 The Deer & the Wolf 07.5 Come With Us 07.5 Crystallise 08.0 Wild Forever 07.0 Death of Love 08.0 Love Is You 08.0 Crying At The Discoteque 08.5 Hypnotized (ft Wuh Oh) 08.5 Breaking The Circle 07.0 Everything Is Sweet 07.0 Lost In The Sunshine 08.5 Freedom of the Night 08.0 Relentless Love 07.5 Vertigo 07.5 Taste 08.5 Dolce Vita 07.5 Stay On Me Collaborations 08.0 Circles (Just My Good Time) (ft busface) 06.0 f*** With You (ft Bob Sinclair & Gilberte Forte) 07.0 Immortal (Ft Lufthaus) She has remained very consistent throughout but I really do still love the debut album and the third album (a good few missed opportunity singles on there too). Didn't she push (Christmas) Time as a single too? If so then I would give that 8.5.

Bit of a dated example but Melanie C! She led an album that contained two No.1 singles with the grunge/punky Goin' Down! Or Gwen Stefani with Wind It Up. Pop artists that want to push boundaries will do it if they think they can get away with it. Sometimes it does misfire and derails a campaign though, like Robbie's Rudebox.

Clearly no other artist in the world could take a track like this to the top or anywhere near it because it isn't mainstream commercial. Even if it ends up being a one week No.1 I don't think it means anything in the context of the era or the success of future singles or the album. I still respect him for releasing a brave lead and not letting the label force him into something more radio friendly (which they surely would have done when they heard it). I think any artist that is destined to remain a superstar for a long time and across different generations needs to musically evolve and some things will be less successful than others commercially but they are all important. Sign Of The Times, Lights Up, As It Was and Aperture is a remarkably diverse set of lead singles. When you're too big to fail, like Harry is currently, is exactly the right time to gamble on a lead single, because you can always release the big radio hit later. The album will sell in huge quantities regardless and you need more commercial stuff for future singles to stabilise it. Clearly if Aperture was a second or third single it would never perform as well as being a lead. It's a good tactic to get multiple big hits from an album.

Leilani is a bit 'tin foil hat' these days unfortunately (but then so is Jim Corr, so we get a double from that post): https://x.com/LeilaniDowding I always found that single gloriously bizarre while also not being very good. It was on Trevor Horn's ZTT label interestingly.

Yeah true, bad timing. I guess Syco would have expected more though from a non-album release regardless as I think they thought she was untouchable at that point. As a forum, most people were predicting No.1/2 for it initially, I suppose before we knew what it would be up against: That thread is a super entertaining read altogether actually, lots of people were super sure in it being No.1 and thought Girls Aloud had no chance. The Promise really ended up being an unexpected career renaissance for them.

I would definitely be surprised if Land of DW (this is epic and top 10 material) and Deandria aren't in. Not that I would know where to start with predictions myself this month.

Some thoughts on the last few shows/weeks: Shame Britney didn't perform on her first week at the top, but what a powerhouse single ...Baby One More Time was indeed, it just blew the competition away. I did want to see The Corrs get to the top with Runaway but its sales weren't really enough to contend with the songs around it, shame they didn't put it out the week 911 got to the top. I note they performed the original version arrangement live on the first week (now wondering if this was pre-recorded at some point in 1998), but that version above must be from its second week when they switched to the Tin Tin Out mix. Whitney was on amazing form this era, a great run of classic singles, a brilliant comeback. Lots of nice US R&B, soul and rap around, the Lauryn Hill song is such a classy gem and 2Pac's Changes is one of my favourite songs of the year too - shame that and DJ Sakin weren't played on the show. The year properly got into gear in these weeks with the first big hit for *NSYNC, which is a bit of a b-tier Cheiron single especially comparing it directly with the song that debuted at No.1 on the same week, but then the track is a couple of years older than Britney's song so clearly the studio was just warming up its production technique. Also One Week is such a unique single, the way the guy spits the verse lyrics out, I can't keep up with that pace when I try to mimic it! More good No.1s in Blondie (brilliant and unexpected comeback) and Lenny Kravitz - thanks to the ad campaign as he never had a big hit again and hadn't had one for some time up to this point. And amazing to see Steps STILL top 10 with Heartbeat/Tragedy. Boy You Knock Me Out is a very forgotten top three hit but a nice sample on it, and Will Smith more or less recreating his rap from Summertime. I also really love that version of Good Life by Inner City, it's actually my go to mix, the Spanish guitar on it is very up my street. Nice to see the Eurovision national finalists at the end of each episode. Say It Again by Precious in its original demo form with Jenny Frost at the back, Sister Sway with the brilliant dance track Until You Saved My Life (this would have been a great entry for us and for sure would have done better than Precious at Eurovision as dance-pop was in then, it's like the early Atomic Kitten singles), and then the Alberta song which is crap but she finished 2nd in the 1998 national final too so was a bit unlucky not to ever go to the contest. While neither of her national final songs were hits, she did have a 1998 top 50 hit with the very topical Yoyo Boy, which I knew well from Hits 99. No expense spared in that music video. Quite weird that on the first show this week we had two young boybands with guitars who both went top 20 in the same week, Next of Kin and The Moffats. The latter were Canadian but the former were from Essex, not that you'd know it with the US accent they put on. I actually thought 24 Hours From You was a half decent song, which I remember fairly well from the time. File these two bands next to 21st Century Girls, Hepburn and Thunderbugs under forgotten 1999 pop bands with guitars that appeared this year and were rarely thought of again. There was no public appetite for this sound yet, they were ahead of their time (or behind as I guess they were formed as a reaction to Hanson's success?) and we had to wait for Busted and McFly for teen guitar pop to do well.

2007 felt like such a transitional year for X Factor between the 'accidentally found a global superstar and on the right path' 2006 to the 'genuine unmissable Saturday night TV' of 2008-2011 (and a bit beyond but these were the peak years). 2007 was full of quite weak acts though and certainly nobody with any international appeal, I just rewatched Kimberley's performance and she has a great voice but not sure about the 'X Factor' - likewise Leon though. I was backing Same Difference all the way, as naff as they were, but there hadn't been a group making pure pop for many years. Rhydian was super talented, maybe would have done better on Britain's Got Talent than a pop show like this? I can't remember being too bowled over by Hope but did like their performance of Hurt.

Apologies Rollo, I missed the tail end of this but just caught up. Great No.1 which I am in agreement with; a real classic single, a great belting vocal and just a brilliant melody and production. Here's my rank (I've always loved the Phil cover, such a joyful song for me in this version and the original): 1. Total Eclipse Of The Heart - Bonnie Tyler 2. Every Breath You Take - The Police 3. You Can't Hurry Love - Phil Collins 4. Karma Chameleon - Culture Club 5. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson 6. Down Under - Men At Work 7. Uptown Girl - Billy Joel 8. Let's Dance - David Bowie 9. True - Spandau Ballet 10. Too Shy - Kajagoogoo 11. Is There Something I Should Know? - Duran Duran 12. Red Red Wine - UB40 13. Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home) - Paul Young 14. Only You - The Flying Pickets 15. Give It Up - KC and the Sunshine Band 16. Baby Jane - Rod Stewart 17. Candy Girl - New Edition Agreed, they have all stood the test of time and not many years can claim that. Candy Girl is probably at the bottom in terms of classic status but it's still recognisable. A very male dominated year with just the one female artist at the top.

I took my mum to see Leona in 2013 because a friend pulled out of coming along a couple of hours before. She wasn't a fan whatsoever beforehand so was just coming to not waste the ticket but was then wowed by Leona's whole performance that evening and Glassheart was so great in the encore. I think she was quite surprised there were a few dancier songs in the set because ballad after ballad was pushed as singles apart from Forgive Me and Collide. Such a missed opportunity, again, to not release Glassheart as a single. One More Sleep later proved that the public would react to something a little more uptempo and fun, I guess the label got scared off at Forgive Me 'only' making No.5 at what was more or less her career peak.

Also it’s weird that Stop Crying Your Heart Out got the X Factor final slot but barely reacted commercially (compared to how her performances had done in the past) even though she knocked it out of the park vocally as always. An Outta My Head performance on the final would have been electric although I doubt she had a say in the matter as she had a contestant journey montage playing behind the Stop Crying performance which wouldn’t have worked on an uptempo. Was it a contractual obligation to put that cover on the album? Maybe they’d banked on it being a safe smash like Run in the case of other singles not catching on as expected.

Ignition I don't feel the need to hear again for obvious reasons but it's a shame it's so tainted now as it reminds me of my end of school prom (it was No.1 at the time). Voted The Darkness by default but I don't care for it overmuch.

Mis-Teeq too.

Morrissey now for me. Work It is certainly no sad loss.

I think I Got You was a good single so I'd have still slotted it in somewhere but Happy was not it as far as being a lead single (would have been a fine album track), a predictable choice that derailed the era from the off. Imagine the statement of returning with Outta My Head!

I missed this thread and that this album had come out on vinyl but saw it in HMV today and it was an instant purchase. I adore this album and it's great to have all the extras on it too. Such a mishandled era in terms of single choices and order of release etc but I can't fault the album.