gooddelta

Melanie C for the second time, although Slim Shady is a classic too. Interesting that Never Be The Same Again finished higher in the Australian end of year chart.

Cain Walker is AI, it must be the second AI artist (that I know of) to chart recently on here after Xania Monet. 'His' EP is at No.10 in the iTunes album chart too so someone is making some coin. Apparently in the US Don't Tread On Me sold 1,000 downloads last week.

They always seemed to release loud singles with swagger and attitiude as leads, but they were never the best that the eras had to offer. This is rubbish, and would be lower for me, glad they left it off the tour setlist. Agreed that the next single was better, one of their best of the 00s, and one that really should have been on the setlist.

Voted, Semi 2 was packed and brutal, I enjoyed 15 entries a lot so had a few sad cuts to make.

01 59,426 Wham! - Last Christmas [2,067 CDs, 4,397 12" vinyl, 1,860 downloads, 51,101 streaming] [sCR: 110,528] [total: 5,984,618] [post-1994 total: 4,564,703] [1,469 ineligible formats this week] 04 39,049 Tom Grennan - It Can't Be Christmas This was the gap last year between Wham! at Christmas No.1 and Tom 'Alexa' Grennan. Let's assume Wham! don't have the 6k+ physicals this year (maybe 1/2k from some sort of release or leftovers) and say 54/55k for them. The Christmas chart is also announced a day further away from Christmas Day compared to last year so Alexa might be feeling fractionally less generous. Let's assume 37k Alexa sales for Kylie, then 18k+ physicals is a tall order but if there's anybody that can do it with a very loyal and devoted fanbase and a cause to get motivated for, then it's Kylie. I think the prices (e.g £4.99 for the CD) are still probably a bit high for people to buy two songs available on an album that comes out the week before. Should have saved a couple of b-sides and kept them physical only!

Britney for me too. Agreed with Rob really, Most Girls was probably my favourite from the first era but R&B P!nk wasn't really my bag. I know she's always been bigger in Australia than basically anywhere else so it's interesting that this was true right from the start. Top 15 of the year is no mean feat for her second single.

Herbs' confirmation PM presumably 🤣

The harrowing days of collecting mehs like strays and knowing you were doomed immediately

Definitely not my cup of tea either. A curious novelty for the Christmas charts. I'd heard that Ed Sheeran had said Nizlopi were his heroes and can kind of hear their influence on some of his stuff.

(Except Caught in the Middle)

I don't have an issue with AI created music if, indeed, it is labelled clearly as such and just used for fun and not for commercial gain. I have 'generated' many 'songs' on Suno myself for a laugh with family and friends, for sharing in jokes in song form etc. But I don't think it should be used for commercial gain or released on services that make money for the 'creator'. The lines are getting very blurred very quickly though and I do think AI will be part of more chart music before long. It's telling that we are only a few years in and already can't tell the difference between some AI and human created songs, so some producers and artists are bound to see what they can get away with. I suspect though that in particular it's hard to tell with a shoegaze song because the genre is low-fi and distorted anyway, like a lot of AI stuff still is. I'm yet to hear any AI produced pop song that doesn't clearly sound like AI. Even with that Xania Monet artist who is charting in some US charts, the hallmarks are there; the bass on her music feels slightly distorted, the vocal sounds too perfect with no human emotion and slightly robotic at times, the song titles on her album have capitalisation in weird places etc...

For a moment I thought, the 90s violinist? But in fact it's the German schlager star, which would be even more random if she managed to sneak an Alexa-aided UK top 100 hit.

I've been waiting for this, my favourite new Christmas song last year.

Anyone know if the MP3 download is also being held back for Christmas week? It's currently greyed out on Amazon.

I'm still waiting for Laufey's from last year so wonder if it's at the decision of the artist/label what to do with it after a one year exclusivity clause. Edit: ooh scrub that, it's just been added today! So yes, one year for sure so XMAS should be on Spotify this time next year.

Heard it now, it's very fun and jolly and won't sound out of place on Alexa for sure. I don't think I've heard any other Christmas song spell out the letter X M A S, so there's something unique about it at least.

Indeed, and just the whole chous alludes to it: "You can bang your head or you can drown in a hole Nothing lasts forever, but, you can try But look around you, Everyone you see, everyone you know is gonna..." Shine? To pass comment on the other song, Lady I ranked in the top 20 of my No.1s of 2000 rate - I do love the backing track and music, but the vocal is not my favourite.

Every Day’s Like Christmas and 100 Degrees are the only songs on my Christmas playlist from the original project (although notably the SAW mix of the former) so it is indeed a shame to see it missing. Hopefully the four new originals will be up to scratch!

The single being the 12th would be for the best for sure as that is Christmas chart week. Get mobilised Kylie fans, the joint power of Alexa and Kylie’s fanbase would be great. I’ve had an email saying XMAS is available to listen to now but I can’t find a working stream on Amazon. Anybody got a working link?

Turns out the Kylie physicals ARE released on Christmas week (12th December for 19th December chart). Go on Kylie stans, do your best.

Yes Perfect was great too. I bought the album containing that and bought the follow-up album too, although must have imported them both as they were not released here. She tried out for Eurovision a few years ago and I think came 3rd (?) in the Australian national final, but the song wasn't one of her best. I wish she would be internally selected (along with Sheppard who have also tried out for it).

Surprised that didn’t dent charts this summer somewhere, I’ve heard this so many times on TikTok etc 😂 It’s only a matter of time before an AI created song hits the charts. One was already in the UK iTunes/sales chart a few weeks back by an R&B ‘artist’ called Xania Monet.

It was definitely played on the music channels from late 2000 but canned before release. I did buy the album around this period too which is how I was aware of it. She also had a No.1 in Australia a lot later, in 2009, called This Is Who I Am which deserved a UK push - it was very P!nk/Kelly vibes. I have always thought that Vanessa has one of the most powerful voices in music. She works and tours a lot nowadays with Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics.

Oh yes! Forgot about the AI Grimes. I really thought someone would send something from the new Headache album this month, but I suppose part of the reason they did so well before is because of the surprise/unique factor, which now isn't there. And obviously it was a brilliant song. A very solid new album though, much brighter than the first album.

Presumably somebody on the listenthrough revealed it as being AI too. As that took place before Roba mentioned it was in his thread. So everyone would be none the wiser if it hadn't been brought up I suppose and it would have been an easy Q causing no dilemma for people. Headache was slightly different though in that the music was produced by Vegyn, it's just the vocal delivery that was AI, not the entire constructed song.