gooddelta

Party Hard!

Worse for me than Crazy Stupid Love and the only Cheryl No.1 I don't care for at all. The verses are ok, the chorus is too garbled and just rubbish, and the production too one note and cheap sounding. The album had less going for it than the first two as well (which weren't exactly great to begin with), it wasn't an era that deserved two No.1 singles.

I was at this same gig in Cambridge! Wonderful show. My wider thoughts on these two weeks: Absolutely loved Heart of Asia, and bought it, low sales there for No.3 but glad it took advantage and crept into the top three there. Achilles Heel is so beautiful, I really wish this was Toploader's signature song instead of Dancing In The Moonlight, glad it made the top 10 at least. Dirty Water was done dirty with that peak, that's for sure. One of the best songs of 2000. It's easily up there with the highlights of Sugababes' debut album and isn't unlike it in sound. There was another quite similar vibey girlband called Kick Angel out around the same time, who I think missed the top 75 altogether with Misunderstood, and also Masai the following year with Heaven & Hell and Kick Back, who eventually made the top 50 but not quite top 40 when they went R&B in 2003 with Do That Thang. I loved all these sophisti-pop girlgroups. Dirty Water was very clearly modelled however on Janet Jackson album track This Time, the production, melody and structure are so similar, it's a clear ripoff. Also Aussie Popstars winners Bardot covered Dirty Water on their second album so at least somebody saw the potential. It is funny really how Britney had the whole industry running scared, only seven new entries in the whole top 40. Oops is of course a pop classic and holds up well today, so I don't blame labels for avoiding it. Shout out to this trance song You Put Me In Heaven With Your Touch by Rhythm Of Life just outside the top 20, which I always loved. The following week, I'm not sure I expected Madison Avenue to quite inch past Britney to clinch the No.1 (it was already available on both Now Dance 2000 and later Now 45, so I didn't bother getting the single myself) but I'm so glad they did. One of my favourite songs of the year, I also heard it on the chart in late 1999 and thought it sounded bigger. A fantastic dance record, which uses the samples so well. Sex Bomb is fun from Tom Jones and it was cool to see him get a top three hit from this era, especially being the age he was at the time. Was nice to see Mousse T get a second hit too. Koochy is so much weirder than I remember, I only recall it from the prominent Gary Numan sample, the song didn't last long in the charts so the No.4 peak was surprising. Tell Me Why (The Riddle) was the second No.1 in my personal chart in a row for Paul Van Dyk (Another Way was absolutely glorious the previous autumn), and kicked off my love affair with Saint Etienne. Such a warm vocal from Sarah Cracknell on this fantastic trance track. It deserves to be spoken of as a classic, rather than never being performed live at all. I remember buying the CD single from Asda and didn't realise until I got home that they mistakenly put in CD2 full of long mixes (when discs were still kept behind the counter), and I wanted the radio edit, so took it straight back to swap it. Mambo Italiano was quite fun from Shaft but I think we were all over mambo by this point. Fantastic performance though from Heather Small, which would obviously get second and third winds thanks to the London Olympics and Miranda, it was a real statement of a debut solo single.

Oh... one of my favourite songs from Shakira, and my favourite Spanish song. Wonderful ❤️

Khia, so legendary she coined a new term for floppy artists (not necessarily one hit wonders like she was though).

I didn't mind Crazy Stupid Love at the time but never go back to it at all now. I feel like 2014 didn't need any Cheryl (or Tinie) No.1s.

Nerina, I love her and this song.

Absolutely love this album and didn't expect to. It definitely is more pop than before so it figures but there are a lot of interesting influences on here. Snakes is very early 00s indie, like The Coral/Zutons, and it has a namecheck for Sydenham and Penge East where I used to live (between the two stations anyway), which is cool. I really love the last track, Aliens, too. There is just a great feel and sound to this album, it's punchy and poppy but still with a lot of bite, and 10 tracks feels perfect. One of my favourites of the year and I immediately bought the CD after my first listen.

Jamiroquai; a very poor lead single, released in June. They should have lead with the brilliant follow-up, Seven Days in Sunny June, released... in August. With the lead single hype that could have peaked much higher than it did. At least over time that ended up much bigger.

It’s a one horse race. And that horse is Mini Viva.

This must be the first time this year that everything in the top ten first reached the top 40 this year. And aside from Choosin’ Texas, everything was released this year! We are not worthy, it only took until October to get there.

Taylor is racking up the songs destined to be non-No.1s recently. It's pretty good though but for me has nothing on I Knew It, I Knew You. Cleveland is her worst song since ME! It's memorable, but not for the right reasons. Babydoll coming to be the big song of the autumn/winter after the very similar Man I Need this time last year feels so engineered, even though I like it. That main synth bassline in both songs reminds me of the production on Cherish by Madonna. The Ashe song feels much fresher and less like a copycat. Even though it also wears its 70s influences on its sleeve, it doesn't do it in such an obvious way to ape one particular song. So I hope that picks up again soon.

I far prefer Shake It Off to All About That Bass although it was quite a gimmicky feeling top two. I'm not a fan of Meghan's music generally. Stay With Me is a nice track although it was very overplayed, I would put this one a little higher probably although haven't checked the list.

I do wonder if Saint Etienne have ever performed this song live. I bought it on CD on this week and still adore it, but sure they have never even acknowledged it in concerts despite it being their only top 10 hit (unless you count Cola Boy which was an alias for Bob & Pete). About eight years ago I sat next to Paul Van Dyk on a flight from Heathrow to Berlin, and should have told him how much I love this track! But decided to leave him alone.

G4 or Rhydian could have shaken this competition to its core

I thought exactly this, there is probably no getting past that song unless people decide to penalise it for her not being the lead artist.

Just like in BJSC and Bop Idol, it seems to me there are a fairly even number of pop and alt voters here keeping things close and variable each week. Although the groups category is surprisingly alt heavy this year leaving little for the pop voters to really go for. It would have been interesting to see the likes of A*Teens, Five, Roxette or a K-Pop group to mix things up. Female and male categories both seem pretty pop to me although Kate Bush/Marina/Robyn/Jessie Ware/Adele straddle pop and alt tastes, while we have Gary Numan and Damien Rice in here, and I guess Roosevelt leans more that way.

I thought Calvin would walk this round but the last few votes suggest that Tafty needs to come and vote pronto.

It is a pretty pointless exercise of a remix, haha. Maybe it's a soft push back into public view as their 30th anniversary is next year so no doubt they will tour!

Sounds ok, a little cheesy and Mark's voice sounds a little different to me than usual somehow, maybe it's the production or sound levels. I'm still playing Feel My Love a lot, absolutely love that.

I have noticed the original version on Spotify curated Halloween playlists in the last couple of years, so I guess they're trying to capitalise on that and hope it becomes an allSTARS type bigger streamer around Halloween.

One person’s potential single is another person’s filler. While Leona fans almost universally cried out for Outta My Head as a single, I don’t think other fanbases among the 30 acts left were quite as vocal about the singles that should be released so it can be hard to identify the best choice on paper for this round. Also I can only speak for myself but I wouldn’t want to use a song in Pop Factor that I don’t personally love, even if it means going out on that song. So I suspect personal taste weighs heavy on some of these choices that may not appear to fit the theme. I feel for Dido’s mentor because she picked her singles so well. See The Sun is ok too but definitely not as strong as the singles that were picked, so it does become very difficult.

Tilted is wonderful but Around The World is basically the blueprint for a lot of modern Euro influenced pop. A lot more popular now than it was when released but it had six weeks at No.1 for me back in the day. I voted for that.

Kabelo Feat. The Arrows - Everybody Needs Somebody Pandora - The Naked Sun Kate Miller-Heidke - A Certain Panic Ashe - Stop The Wedding! Bachelor Girl & Jack Jones - Gotta Let You Go Take That & Michael Patrick Kelly - Feel My Love Pandora - Trust Me Helene Fischer - An Meiner Seite Sara Bareilles - Just A Kid Saint Etienne - DJ Taylor Swift - Patient Zero Baz - Smile To Shine (Tin Tin Out Mix) Girls Aloud - What's A Girl To Do Adult Leisure - Bad Idea Sugababes - Ghost Girls Aloud - Miss You Bow Wow (Sarah's Version) Fragma - Say That You're Here (Riva Remix Album Edit) Natalie Imbruglia - Beautiful Love Madonna & Charli xcx - Danceteria Afterhours Royel Otis - Linger

They might just be restocking/promoting the 2024 edition again, although I thought they'd jump at the chance to include Kylie. Ballroom Blitz looks like another where I already own 95% of the tracks. Guess it's a timely one for the Christmas present market, or what still exists of it.