gooddelta

Rude was certainly a moment in time. Not my cup of tea and never was, it didn't seem to fit the music scene of 2014 at all either so it was a bit of a surprising No.1 viewed outside the context of the year. It makes me think of the quote someone on here had in their signature about it being incredibly obvious that Rude would be No.1 ahead of Cheryl, and then she got there (initially) before this overtook, so her fans had a good gloat about that. Money On My Mind is very irritating for me, I was never a fan of it, I think I saw Sam say somewhere very recently that they don't like singing it anymore so doubt they would argue much with this placing.

I like Rolling Back The Rivers and it makes sense it was considered, as it was track 3 on the album, the production on the album version doesn't sound very punchy for a single so I'll be interested to hear that intended single release. They probably worried about fan reaction if they didn't release Untouchable as a single, although I could have done without the radio butcher, sorry, mix.

Mis-teeq for me but I like both that and Katie. Nerina is in another league completely, fantastic song.

Secondcity, not a bad house track. I wasn't a major fan of Esmée although for a while she seemed like the next big thing and it was cool to see a Dutch pop singer do well. I preferred the Chipmunk collab that went top three (had completely forgotten it did that well!)

Both rubbish ensemble songs, I can’t argue with the placings. I like choir songs sometimes but Wake Me Up is not well sung, which spoils it, and the song was far too recent to cover, the original was still all over the radio at that point. So it just felt like a rushed, bad choice. I did buy Band Aid 30 to support the cause but it’s honestly such a terrible version and nowhere near as good as Band Aid 20, which I have fond memories of. The production on Band Aid 30 is really poor and sterile in comparison. I also have a soft spot for Band Aid II! In fact I like all versions apart from 30.

I have reconfirmed. There's something I've been meaning to send here for a while that HENGE disrupted that I still love. I still plan to use my previously confirmed song though, everything comes back around eventually.

Texas - Like Lovers (Holding On) (I'm familiar with most of their studio albums but I had no idea Texas had a song on a film soundtrack - this feels quite Corrs-esque in the verses with a hint of The Hush production but is suitably cinematic too, loving this one) Sade - Pearls (what an absolutely beautiful and emotional song, I hope Sade stick around for a bit as I love what they bring to this group) Years & Years - Ties (that first Y&Y album was so good, nearly anything could have worked and this is a great pick) Ultravox - Accent on Youth (guessing this goes into another song on the album as it ends abruptly - I enjoyed it a lot up to its sudden halt so will check the next track on the album) M83 - Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun (lovely soundscape and very atmospheric) New Order - Love Vigilantes (good, driving production on this) iamamiwhoami - shadowshow (sparkling production but didn't love it this time) Bananarama - Bad For Me (sounds like Madonna's Holiday produced by SAW, not sure what to make of it!) Depeche Mode - Photographic (drifted over me slightly) Fontaines D.C. - Sundowner (this didn't do it for me unfortunately)

Robyn - Time Machine (oh how I love this, reminds me of very happy memories of that time and unusual for a big poppy Max Martin co-write to not be a single) Leona Lewis - Outta My Head (speaking of which, what did Max do the pop females around 2010 that prevented his bangers from being singles? I think nearly every Leona fan wanted this to be a single, to show a different side to her, and while it sounds dated now, at the time it was in keeping with the charts and sounded great) MARINA - Teen Idle (it is very difficult to go wrong with Marina's first two albums, they are just wonderful – fantastic production, vocals and lyrics as ever) Agnes - Loaded (has some real You Oughta Know vibes to this, pleased to see Veritas get an outing too!) Adele - Can I Get It (I think I only ever listened to 30 once or twice and this is an inspired choice for the round as 21 has so many classics that weren't singles - it was refreshing to hear this again actually and to hear a strong higher tempo single from Adele. That whistling hook sounds like something radio would have loved so maybe it should have been a single) Sophie Ellis-Bextor - New York City Lights (Trip The Light Fantastic could be mined forever for this competition, one of the album tracks (Love Is Here) even topped my personal chart at the time. The chorus melody of this one always reminded me of 'What will we do with a drunken sailor?'! It was a great album track though) Zara Larsson - Blue Moon (solid track from Zara's latest album, which was a good one) Jessie Ware - The Kill (I recall liking this when I heard the album but wasn't as enamoured with it today, very slick production though) Dido - Mary’s in India (pretty nice music and good storytelling) Kate Bush - Reaching Out (decent too - strong round)

Damien Rice - Amie (beautiful song, love the strings and it is a very emotional and stirring piece) Calvin Harris feat. Tinashe - Dollar Signs (Production is very Martin Garrix-esque, shame we don't hear more of this kind of drop from Calvin although I guess it was very typical of 2014. It's a great pick for this round, although funny to hear Tinashe's very female vocal in the solo male round - guess it answers the question of will Calvin have to sing on his own entries) HRVY - Never Be Us (this is already saved to my 2022 playlist - it's a strong example of the early 2020s dance sound, it's kind of reminiscent to Don't Wake Me Up in terms of melody and production but all the better without Chris Brown on it) Sam Smith - Lose You (I do remember this now from Now 115, really good track from Sam and should have been pushed as a full single if it wasn't) Gary Numan - M.E. (Basement Jaxx took a strong bassline and ran with it to make a banger, but the source material was clearly strong and ahead of its time) Darin - Om du var min (hat-tip to the sender for sending something Swedish, a good recent-ish one from Darin) Lewis Capaldi - Heavenly Kind of State of Mind (still not mad on his voice but the song is decent enough for me to overlook it) Roosevelt - Forget (great production that saved the rest of it for me) Sam Fender - The Treadmill (Sam is very hit and miss for me, I really like the original People Watching album and loads of its album tracks were fantastic, but I was less taken by the deluxe songs) Tom Grennan - If Only (quite upbeat and John Newman-esque but still not gelling with his voice)

I've been hoping for this one as the first one was such a great concept. No interest in Ballroom Blitz unfortunately, maybe they are doing this to get a few 70s songs out before they appear on the last remaining Yearbooks from the 70s.

As far as I can recall it was a promo single or album grat kind of situation, it had a Felix Jaehn remix that I enjoyed at the time too. Not sure if a full single or why Now included it, guess they assumed it was one or the label serviced it to them. The Treadmill I'm not sure, maybe just a focus track for the album re-release. A bit of a grey area between official and promo singles, grats and focus tracks.

Can't argue with Fuego at No.1, a pop stomper that came alive in rehearsals, duly shot up the odds and came so close to winning. It got my vote, Eleni is an amazing performer. Looking forward to reading more when it's the right time to resume, interesting stuff so far Julian.

Kelly Osbourne - a good example of a bad cover and gets my vote. Fierce - a good example of a great pop cover

And voted... I enjoyed quite a lot of this contest, and really liked my top eight a lot in particular. Considering the names involved here, I was surprised how many discoveries I made.

Ok, I will vote now, thanks.

In Bop Idol 7 we used the 18 points voting system to vote for 15 songs each, can I just confirm that it has now reverted back to the 12 points system before I vote? It does say that in the opening post but just want to check that is definitely correct - are we only using the 18 points system for contests of a certain size?

The Bravery

There was a loophole here that I’m interested to see if anyone used, in that this round did not explicitly only ask for album tracks. But anything that wasn’t a single - demos, b-sides, live songs (that weren’t performances of singles), covers, soundtrack submissions etc were all surely fair game?

Skinnydippin’ would have walked them through the round

Then again, thinking about the way the public treated Leona’s few uptempos, maybe it’s better it has a legacy of being one of the best pop album tracks of the 00s rather than peaking at No.18 and then limping away.

Time Machine is what I’d have picked too! Or In My Eyes. Love it. Outta My Head could wipe the floor here, the ultimate missed opportunity.

I have finally confirmed. I decided to go with my heart instead of my head and if that bites me then at least I don't go down with a song I don't care much about (like many of this act's critically acclaimed album tracks) as I know I would regret that. This song is ... obscure. But I loved it so much at the time. I rediscovered it recently for ... reasons ... and have had it on repeat since I found it again.

Let's give a big Coyote welcome to LeAnn Rimes!

True, and I guess that was actually the album tracks round, whereas Last Night On Earth was flung out when A-list acts were still burning through hit singles so it stood no chance really (but nothing else did of hers imo).