gooddelta

Extremely surprised at Altyr being so low, I thought it would be pop voter catnip but it’s hardly registering with them 😮 Greenfroze deserves way more, such a unique entry. It grew on me so much too from the semi to the final.

Oops. Yeah hasty edit as I misread the country name in my tired state ha! Delusional from the high of getting our first 18 in a while.

Omg at the 18, thanks Aesthetica! Thanks for the 12 too Cody, so very appreciated!

Baleghde <3 Not surprised at Dan contending, I was surprised it wasn't being more talked up (and especially that it even had some questions raised over its potential to Q in the first place) as it had all the hit ingredients - banger, crossover appeal, a distinct recognisable voice.

Thanks Wardy and Mothertopia, chuffed to make it into any votes at all this month with how insanely strong it was.

That Pestolia entry is such a banger, glad it's in the lead so far, deserves to be one of the main contenders. I know The Ting Tings are unlikely to be a big contender but that was such a lovely find and I had to throw my full weight behind it. Very chilled, Fleetwood Mac vibes which I didn't expect from them so thanks Jupiter!

Ohh thank you so much Jack+Mack for getting us off the grid early.

My entry has had almost Nada hype or discussion, multiple DNQ predix and not appeared in the odds so anything above last (where I’ve already been once this year) will be a victory! Looking forward to seeing who wins, I love the majority of the contenders and … didn’t care much for a couple.

I got Now Dance 2008 cheaply today and the massive banger that is Can't Stop Moving by Sonny J is on there, and I thought 'wow, I haven't heard this in YEARS'. Turns out it's not on Spotify of course. What a song, it feels like they pushed it a couple of times and it had good airplay and got used on a lot of TV shows, yet never did anything beyond scraping the top 40. I don't see how its style is a million miles away from, say, Afraid To Feel by LF System, so maybe it was just pushed in the wrong era.

Muse pretty easily, I really didn't care for the Lighthouse Family track at all.

Oh yes, I knew it was a happy hardcore cover but it's interesting that Flip & Fill decided to push their version properly after already using it as a b-side a few months earlier. I did read somewhere that it had gone down well as a b-side. I liked Kelly Llorenna's take on Heart Of Gold too, but the originals of those tracks are all great too. Happy hardcore never really got above the underground commercially here but it spawned quite a few hits in Germany, and I think even a couple in Australia.

I would argue it's been happening for slightly longer than six months. The charts really slowed right down immediately after that busy March to July period last year. We had some big hits from Sabrina, Gracie, Gaga/Bruno and ROSÉ/Bruno (and more fleeting but still big No.1s from Charli/Billie, Chase & Status etc) but not to the same peak sales levels as earlier in the year. You could also argue that we were just really spoilt last year with that one-off four-month period of mammoth hits and likely future classics, the sort that comes along once every decade or so usually, like late 1997, early 2001, summer 2013 etc. And that if you remove the anomaly of those four months, it's been slowing down a lot with lower sales at the top end but higher sales further down for much of the last couple of years. I think that the earlier made autoplay point is a good one too, it was so prevalent this time last year and it's impossible to say how much impact it might have had on numbers of the biggest songs, but it probably was quite a significant impact.

Week 33: Around The World (La La La La La) is one of my favourite songs ever <3 It was a hit everywhere else in 2000 but was cancelled here at the time, I think it was on track to make top 40 or therabouts. But then by 2002 the time had really passed for it to be a giant hit, and Europop had moved on from the very cheesy style, but I'm glad it still managed to chart here, as it clearly became a very influential and classic song overtime, influencing loads of dance hits and with the hook sampled by a lot of acts over the years. I remember part of the band's schtick is that all four members cam from different countries, shame they were a one-hit wonder in the end. I also bought Like A Prayer this week, I thought that was a very solid Madonna cover and that the Black Legend beat worked pretty well with it. Mad'house had a whole album of mostly Madonna covers, the cover of La Isla Bonita was good too. But Holiday (the follow-up single), which ripped off Stardust, was less good. A very good double a-side from Röyksopp here, the parent album is such a classic and I loved both of these songs. Of the rockier songs, Girl All The Bad Guys Want was my favourite and again takes me right back to my school days, very fun pop punk. In My Place is a bit of a plod for me unfortunately, the follow up single was far better. Not a fan of the Quo or Toploader tracks either particularly. I think I thought Luv Da Sunshine would be a much bigger hit, it had a well used sample, but a lot of dance singles underperformed compared to expectations in 2002, maybe due to oversaturation. Week 34: Round Round was probably my favourite here, that was a really strong 1-2 punch of singles with Freak Like Me. I love the ballad middle eight before it bursts back into life. This probably could have suited Girls Aloud too. I bought and really enjoyed that Snap! remix, and Alone was decent from Lasgo, I think I preferred the follow-up Pray overall, and Something too of course. Of the other pop stuff, James Dean was ok, Daniel had better to come - I was surprised by the style of the song though at the time, he seemed to genre hop with every release so I found it hard to work out what kind of artist he was until well into 2003. Half A Heart was a bit plodding for me, I just didn't 'get' H and Claire musically, but I guess this single was at least very unlike a Steps song, whereas DJ and All Out Of Love could have been by them, so it was good to hear them do something different. The Hear'Say song wasn't half bad indeed, shame it didn't do very well after week one, because you could see it was a make or break song for them, the intro was particularly bouncy. I remember liking Misti Blu when I heard it on I think Hits 54, a lovely soundscape indeed. Nothing to add on Mary J, B2K and Romeo. The latter was so self serving but with no wink of irony that would have made it more likeable. A boring song with a reheated hook from 21 Seconds, how did this make the top three? Week 35: I really like the Milky song and along with Oakenfold it was basically the sound of commercial radio in summer 2002. Both deserved higher peaks and I thought both would have been bigger. Addictive is exactly that, with a hypnotic bassline, and for a top three hit that hung around for a bit, it's one of the most forgotten songs of the 00s, it really never gets played anywhere anymore. I'm Alive wasn't much of a hit at the time but has turned into a bit of a classic for Celine, quite a triumphant feel to it. I thought the Abs song was ok, not a bad use of the sample, but a big no to Crossroads, the Blazin' Squad cover is one of my least favourite singles ever. It felt like a very cheaply produced sounding song with no real charm to me and by rappers whose flow didn't complement each other. They did have better singles to come though, none of which were as big. Extreme Ways was good, I think I sequenced it next to Clubbed To Death on Buzzjack Presents 2002 as I felt they musically complemented each other well. I had to check the song by The Music, funnily enough I don't remember anything about their music, just the mass coverage they had before launch in the indie press. Not a bad track though.

Weeks 29 and 30: Clubland wins for me again on these weeks. Shooting Star I thought was a solid follow up to True Love Never Dies, in fact it was the b-side to that single funnily enough and proved so popular that they gave it a radio edit and pushed it out on its own. A good vocal from Karen Parry on it too. And Forever by Dee Dee was a big part of that wonderful dance movement coming from Belgium in 2002, shame it wasn't a top ten hit. It Just Won't Do and Emerge were also great dance songs, the former feels like it should have been bigger, it was everywhere that summer. Otherwise, not a massively remarkable fortnight for me here. Foolish was very solid R&B though with a good piano line, and better than the weak Beyoncé single - although that's a good pub quiz question (what was her debut solo hit?) as I doubt many people would name this track. It does remind me of the Austin Powers film it was on the soundtrack to though. Wish I Didn't Miss You was a strong soul track too, with a great vocal from Angie. I would say that the Gareth Gates song was his best single, a solid 7/10 for me, nothing remarkable by any means but a good Scandipop style second single that was far better than Unchained Melody. I Get Along is a bit ploddy for PSB, Release was a strange album for me, lyrically very good in places but a lot of it sounded like Britpop filler musically, including this. LK is one I remember quite well, nice summer song. And that Bryan Adams song was ok too, 2002 seemed to be the last hurrah in the top ten for quite a few 90s popstars (Bryan, Celine, No Doubt, various Steps members and a few others), music really just moved fully into the new decade come 2003. Strange Relationship is quite a nice track from Darren Hayes, with nice strings as Julian mentioned, but sounds more like an album track than a single. I've got nothing to add on DMAC or Demi Holborn, agreed on that bottom two, both naff in different ways. Weeks 31 and 32: By far my favourite is Underneath Your Clothes, which I even prefer to Whenever, Wherever, such a beautiful ballad with a typically striking vocal. I remember the first time I heard this, on a listening post in music shop Borders months before its single release, and I immediately bought the album off the strength of the impression this track made on me, so good and I just had to have it. A Thousand Miles is another classic ballad and one that's held up so well over the years, one of those classic US singer/songwriter one-off top ten hits that used to happen a lot in the 90s and 00s. Pounding is my other favourite here, this song made such an impression on me and I was glad they included it on Now 52 when There Goes The Fear had missed out on a Now appearance. Just a great, singalong indie track. Beauty On The Fire was a pleasant single from Natalie, it has an understated beauty to it that was well used by Saint Etienne in a sample on their lovely 2021 single Pond House. Colourblind was another good summer No.1 from the Pop Idol stable, glad Darius turned things around from being seen as a joke on Popstars to actually a good pop star with a No.1 to his name. Some good stuff here from N*E*R*D, and Linkin Park and I didn't mind Boys although definitely not a vintage Britney single. The Co-Ed single remix with Pharrell was a good effort though and far better than the album version, which was very plodding. I didn't like the Will Smith song, his weakest top three hit for me unfortunately, along with maybe the cover of Just The Two Of Us. And not sure what George Michael was doing on this album, another weak single although it had a memorable video. Automatic High was ok - again, I wasn't into S Club Juniors generally but in particular this song was lacking a chorus, it felt like it had a bridge that built up to nothing. The Natural song was nothing special, it was a bigger deal in Germany where I think they had several hits and a No.2 album somehow.

I saw a guy on TikTok mention that hits are hanging around longer not just due to streaming but because radio are in tandem keeping the big streaming hits on their playlists longer too (you only have to look at Radio 2 to see how previous 5 week runs have now become 8/9). And obviously Heart and Capital are hanging onto stuff forever and a day. And the other big reason is that a lot of songs are doing well in their niches and little pockets of fans online and go mini-viral for a bit, but there haven't been many true crossover hits released this year that have managed to capture enough attention from different audiences to really get the streaming numbers we saw this time last year. If you think about the big hits last year, they could have all comfortably fit on all kinds of radio stations. Espresso, Die With A Smile, Good Luck, Babe, APT., Austin, Birds Of A Feather etc were MOR or chilled enough to fit just as well on Radio 2 etc but commercial and with enough Gen Z appeal to be on the contemporary hit stations. And it seems these days that you have to really have that true crossover appeal of multiple audiences to get the big numbers (which is why Christmas stuff does so well of course), especially now that rap hits don't seem to rack up the numbers that they used to. The days of Sprinter getting days of a million plays on Spotify feel alien now. And if you look at the recent releases, nothing really has taken off to that extent that has that really wide ranging audience appeal, apart from Ordinary and Messy, which have in turn been the two biggest hits of the year. As more and more people continue to use TikTok, it seems things are becoming further fragmented in terms of the music used on videos as people are taken off in all sorts of directions by their own algorithms, so what we get is loads and loads of quite popular songs but few with really massive and enduring popularity. A positive side effect of all this is that a lot of smaller artists are able to build solid, loyal fanbases without ever scoring a hit and do mini tours, whereas in previous eras they just wouldn't have had the same avenues of exposure for their music. Which is why I think it's so crazy that against this backdrop, people are calling out songs like The Giver and Azizam as flops, when actually they have done so solidly in this new status quo were are in. I truly think the only artists around right now who are going to slam straight in at No.1 with their new singles without any shadow of a doubt are Taylor Swift and Harry Styles, or Adele but I'm honestly not even certain of that now. There aren't many really reliable 'hit machine' superstars around right now, that can get a hit without going viral on TikTok first.

Agreed on both counts, and I really like MØ's version of Say You'll Be There.

Lena’s Satellite was released midway through the week and not available for several days after she won Eurovision, hence its lowly debut of No.30 after the early hype had dissipated. Crazy label decision after Fairytale went top ten the previous year. What was the issue with Obsessed by Mariah Carey? Didn’t it keep getting delayed over and over again while the hype was at its highest point? And by the time it came out it missed the top 40, yet is one of her biggest songs in the streaming era! Such a shame that You Are by Atomic Kitten was pulled as I agree it was on course for top three and a decent chart run. The late 90s and early 00s had several examples of this - like We Are Here by DJ Pied Piper which was probably on course for top ten, and would have saved them from being a one hit wonder. Also, I See Right Through To You by DJ Encore which was pulled at the last minute and would have gone top 20 I’m sure.

The Weekend is the song I’m least likely to play out of choice but all five are strong here.

Razorlight for a third time.

Florence by far, wonderful single ❤️

Hendinia coming for that niche win once more! I agree that Dan is being widely overlooked, felt like a very accessible standout to me, with a very recognisable vocalist.

Voted. I only really loved seven songs to the extent that I wanted to vote for them, but my top two were worth the entry price alone, for very different reasons.

Also voted. Thanks for the great theme choice Jade, my favourite PFSC edition I can remember entering, I've added all of my votes to my in rotation playlist and could have voted for several others too. I was listening to this playlist in the car for the first time while driving on this road where there are loads of blue peacocks slowly milling around, so it certainly was a suitably trippy soundtrack.

I must be well out on Hendinia. I thought it sounded much bigger, not too far away sonically from a Rose Gray smash.

Leona, it was clearly an attempt to replicate Run's success, which didn't really happen, But it's a nice cover. Really not keen on Ryan Adams...