Jadaver

September '26

Round 1: 33 (didn't get: Latin Quarter) Round 2: 33 (didn't get: Fox) 3-in-10: 3 (Easy, Still, Nightshift)

Favourite: the stunning 'willow' Least favourite: the grating 'I Forgot That You Existed', my least favourite on Lover

This year's performers are: Dove Ellis Florence and the Machine JADE Knats Kojey Radical Nia Archives Olivia Dean Pulp on behalf of HELP(2) RAYE Suede so pretty much everyone except Dave and Paul McCartney. my dreams of a 'The Boy Who Played the Harp' performance at an awards show dashed!

Yeah blue is a surprise but a lovely nod to Sarah on the album cover!

Out of Control reissue is now live on their store! I'm going to order the blue vinyl + stickers 💙

I was a fan of froghurt shop chanteuse Esmée at the time but SecondCity has aged better long term for me, went for that!

Oh I forgot that 'Wake Me Up' cover was coming this year! I agree with others that it's a rock bottom contender, a poor interpretation with terrible vocals. I vividly remember the release of that Band Aid 30 cover. HMV didn't stock many CD singles by this point in 2014 but this one was an exception, we had lots of copies on display. I remember the music video getting its premiere on the X Factor and the impact of that promo was huge, the forum was shocked by just quite how much it was crushing the competition on iTunes, back when LivePopBars was a reliable resource. But it was pretty frontloaded and didn't leave much of a cultural imprint like the first iteration. I don't dislike it as much as others (the second one is least appealing to me sorry :x) but a fair placing. YouTubers Zoella, Joe Sugg and Alfie Deyes being shoehorned into the line-up is such a 2014 time capsule 'Real Love' was no 'Rather Be' but I did quite like it at the time. Funny that we had two 'Real Love' hits around that time with Tom Odell as well.

Yes love how versatile Damon is! I grew up in an Oasis household but could still appreciate their chart rivals too I unsurprisingly agree with you that Demon Days is the best Gorillaz project and 'DARE' is also a great pick! The Mountain is a triumph and certainly one of my favourite albums of 2026 so far. Glad you enjoyed the commentary <3 felt a bit vulnerable writing that but it helps to explain why I feel so attached to it. A mighty fine dance record indeed! Fabulous list once again with quite a few I had as honourable mentions like: 'Stan', 'Digital Love', 'Take Me Out', 'Crazy', 'Hey Ya!' etc. as well as the snap MCR love 🖤 'Stan' and 'Lose Yourself' are my favourites from Eminem so the public had good taste getting them both to #1. The storytelling, sample and production on the former are all hauntingly great. Thank you for commenting <3

'Melatonin' has finally clicked with me in the context of the album yessss 🤩 v 2000 and late on that one I know. The quick-fire verse is so addictive. It was actually hearing 'Nobody Wanna Dance Anymore' on NMF that convinced me to check out the album, what a full fat metallic banger. Obsessed with the 'Chillin' interpolation and how people have seamlessly mashed up the song with Britney's 'Showdown', as some of you already posted. The opener 'Sunglasses' really took me aback! So here for that left-field production from Arca and Machinedrum 'Brainrot' (what an earworm), 'Cloud 9' and 'Empty Stadium' are my other biggest early faves! Really impressed with this project. I was a huge fan of Aquarius back in the day but kinda drifted away after that (minus the odd song that happened to be on my radar like 'Stormy Weather' and 'Gravity') but this has properly pulled me back. Good for her getting such rave reviews too! ⭐

Eek what if this comes down to Rochelle vs. Johanne I'm hoping it's more, Pauline may need to be sacrificed here as I don't think Rochelle is going anywhere Edit: noooooooooo

Voted for Phoebe Bridgers this week and caused a tie in the process oops!

2000s TOP 10 RECAP #01 Roger Sanchez - 'Another Chance' (2001) #02 Gorillaz - 'Feel Good Inc.' (2005) #03 All Saints - 'Pure Shores' (2000) #04 Lady Gaga - 'Bad Romance' (2009) #05 Britney Spears - 'Toxic' (2003) #06 The Bravery - 'An Honest Mistake' (2005) #07 My Chemical Romance - 'Welcome to the Black Parade' (2006) #08 Tomcraft - 'Loneliness' (2002) #09 Sigur Rós - 'Hoppípolla' (2005) #10 Alizée - 'Moi… Lolita' (2000) Honourable mentions: 'Crazy' by Gnarls Barkley was the final song I cut, 'Hey Ya!' by OutKast, Eminem's 'Stan' and 'Move Your Feet' by Junior Senior also came very close, Girls Aloud's Tangled Up is my favourite ever girl group album so I wish I could've included something from that, although Sugababes were strong this decade too - both changed the face of early 2000s British pop music with their work alongside Xenomania, I already included plenty of chart toppers but 2000 housed many great dance ones in particular like Modjo, Sonique and Spiller, then there are some rockier faves like Green Day's 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' and Franz Ferdinand's 'Take Me Out' that I would've loved to include, also some more electronic fave songs like Basement Jaxx's 'Romeo', Burial's 'Archangel', The Chemical Brothers' 'Star Guitar', Daft Punk's 'Digital Love', Reflekt's 'Need to Feel Love' and Zero 7's 'Destiny', LCD Soundsystem and Röyksopp are also pretty fab in general, then Arcade Fire's Funeral and Björk's Vespertine are a couple more favourite albums of the decade that have sprung to mind, The White Stripes have become a big favourite - especially 'Fell In Love With A Girl', Arctic Monkeys were off to a flying start this decade, The Killers peaked with 'Somebody Told Me' for me, Amy Winehouse released an iconic album featuring my favourite 'You Know I'm No Good', BuzzFave Kylie had some cracking songs this decade too, with 'Slow' my #1 single of hers, Robyn's 'With Every Heartbeat' also springs to mind as another painful cut amongst much more... Time for another short break so see you at the weekend for the 2010s 🫶 I'd say the 2000s list was naturally the most commercial one yet (with 6 #1s!!) due to childhood nostalgia, but the 2010s and 2020s lists will contain a mix of both hits and less commercial stuff, as my taste evolved and I got better at searching outside of the mainstream, while still keeping an eye on the charts.

2000s #02 Gorillaz - 'Feel Good Inc.' (2005) #01 Roger Sanchez - 'Another Chance' (2001) Claiming the runner-up spot for the 2000s is virtual band Gorillaz! I first came across 'Feel Good Inc.' as part of the Now! 61 track list and it is the first song with an unconventional structure that I ever remember hearing, so that blew my mind as a kid. My love for it has only grown over the past two decades as I could appreciate its dark themes more. I got to witness 'Feel Good Inc.' live in 2017 when I attended their Humanz tour in Birmingham and the atmosphere was incredible during that song! 'Feel Good Inc.' was chosen as the lead single for the group's sophomore album Demon Days. Damon Albarn wrote the song while en route to performing at Coachella with Blur back in 2003. Hip-hop group De La Soul agreed to collaborate with Gorillaz as they were familiar with 'Clint Eastwood', which featured rapper Del the Funky Homosapien. They originally brainstormed rhymes for the track 'Kids With Guns', which would feature Neneh Cherry in its final form, but De La Soul member David Jolicoeur wanted to be part of the recording of 'Feel Good Inc.' after Albarn showed him the instrumental. He has a writing credit for the rap verse which he also performs, while fellow member Vincent Mason is behind the maniacal laugh throughout. De La Soul's Kelvin Mercer did not contribute to the song due to timing conflicts as he was working on material for his own group. Elsewhere, Danger Mouse is credited as a producer, a year before he would achieve a #1 hit as part of Gnarls Barkley. Gorillaz themselves, Jason Cox and James Dring also have additional production credits. The lyricism throughout is sharp and Orwellian in style as Albarn criticises consumerist society and fake happiness. 'Feel Good Inc.' is a controlling, soulless corporation and De La Soul perform as representatives, with lines like "watch me while I navigate" illustrating their power. Albarn, as his Gorillaz character 2-D, is unhappily stuck in this corporation's tower in a "melancholy town where we never smile". I love his vocal delivery as he really nails the feeling of forced happiness, with underlying anxiety present, particularly the slogan-esque "feel good" parts. His character in the music video feels trapped and watches on as fellow Gorillaz member Noodle instead experiences freedom on her floating island. Adult me appreciates these visuals so much more than when I was a kid as those windmill scenes are clearly an homage to the film Castle in the Sky, from Studio Ghibli, an animation studio I've already gushed about several times in blurbs for this countdown. This genre-bending track opens with a suitably menacing bassline while 2-D swiftly tells us the city's falling apart. The rap section is similarly haunting both lyrically and production-wise. Meanwhile, the song flips that mood on its head for the chorus, as Damon sings in a more wistful manner, with hopeful lines such as "love forever, love is free" contrasting the depression of a soulless, dystopian society. The production becomes more acoustic for this part to match that shift in mood. I adore how this song defies expectations both genre-wise and in terms of structure, what a triumph. 'Feel Good Inc.' settled for a #2 peak in the U.K. chart as Gorillaz were blocked by Akon's 'Lonely'. The song has truly stood the test of time, with over 1 billion YouTube views and 2.5 billion Spotify streams. 'Feel Good Inc'. even re-entered the top 40 for several weeks just last year. ... I'm sure this #1 was predictable for those of you who have put up with me for years. 'Another Chance' may not be the writing masterclass of tracks like 'Feel Good Inc.', since it's based on a loopy sample, but sometimes an emotional connection can trump a technical one in my affections and that's exactly the case here - although it's still well crafted anyway! This is an occasion where a song is enhanced by its music video. The visuals for 'Another Chance' are beautifully human and I've always felt a connection to them. A woman wanders the streets with a large plastic heart, a striking metaphorical image, that shrinks as she faces rejection. But it later grows again when hope re-enters the picture. Similarly, the one quality I've always liked about myself is that I have a big heart, but sadly this has been taken advantage of in the past on numerous occasions - moreso on a friendship level, than a romantic one. So the video always spoke to me in that way and made the song extra special by association. Those visuals seem to be well regarded in general and have even been referenced in other videos, with JADE's 'Plastic Box' coming to mind. 'Another Chance' is based around a sample of Toto's 'I Won't Hold You Back'. I've listened to the original on several occasions but the electronic presentation of Roger Sanchez's looped sample is a lot more to my personal taste. American DJ and producer Sanchez purchased several records from a shop in Montreal and one of them happened to be Toto's Toto IV album. He explored this record for sampling ideas and felt the "if I had another chance tonight" hook would work perfectly. I love the regretful, yearning words and vocals as they also pack an emotional punch much like the video. The production is also wonderful with its swirly house sound and that impactful double drum kick. This single was one of the first electronic songs I loved, in amongst my rather poppy taste as a kid and evidently still hits me hard to this day! 'Another Chance' was a U.K. #1 hit for one week and dislodged 'Lady Marmalade' by Christina Aguilera and co. from the top in the process. Congratulations to Roger Sanchez who joins The Ronettes, Kraftwerk, Visage and Depeche Mode in the hall of fame here now! Two more identities to reveal...

Unsurprising but a shame Gurriers have fallen out of the top 40 album mids today. Here’s hoping for a Fontaines-style ascension one day!

Ooh those trip-hop drums are right up my street feeling very well fed by Irish rock bands today after catching up on the new Gilla Band and Gurriers albums too

01 Boy Harsher - GET MEAN 02 Tinashe - Popstar 03 Phoebe Bridgers - Lost Weekend 04 Gurriers - Nobody's Coming To Save You 05 Olivia Rodrigo - you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love 06 Charli xcx - Music, Fashion, Film 07 Slayyyter - WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA 08 Adult DVD - Adult DVD 09 Miley Cyrus - Bass Persuades 10 Gilla Band - Pugnello

I think performances of her singing the song live on tour have been going viral!

Ooh we have a couple of new entries today! 88 GENER8ION, Yung Lean - STORM II (I've seen this all over social media since it was performed at the VMAs so not too surprised) 194 Faouzia - UNETHICAL (yay for a Spotify showing now after her official chart top 100 appearance recently)

01 Gary Numan - M.E. 02 Damien Rice - Amie 03 Roosevelt - Forget 04 Sam Fender - The Treadmill 05 Darin - Om du var min 06 Sam Smith - Lose You 07 Calvin Harris - Dollar Signs (feat. Tinashe) 08 Lewis Capaldi - Heavenly Kind of State of Mind 09 HRVY - Never Be Us 10 Tom Grennan - If Only Gary Numan quite the influence on early 2000s electronic music with the aforementioned borrowing of 'M.E.' for Basement Jaxx, 'Cars' being used on Armand Van Helden's 'Koochy' and of course 'Freak Like Me' by Sugababes lifting from Tubeway Army's 'Are 'Friends' Electric?'. Perfect choice for this round. Wow the Martin Garrix comparison for 'Dollar Signs' is spot on, that drop is very 'Animals'

01 Fontaines D.C. - Sundowner 02 M83 - Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun 03 iamamiwhoami - shadowshow 04 Sade - Pearls 05 Years & Years - Ties 06 Depeche Mode - Photographic 07 Ultravox - Accent on Youth 08 New Order - Love Vigilantes 09 Texas - Like Lovers (Holding On) 10 Bananarama - Bad For Me that M83 song was a stunning discovery <3 this turned out to be quite an unexpected order for me this week, based on how much I enjoy some of these acts in general, but some mentors pleasantly surprised with really strong song choices.

01 Jessie Ware - The Kill 🩸 02 Kate Bush - Reaching Out 03 MARINA - Teen Idle 04 Robyn - Time Machine 05 Zara Larsson - Blue Moon 06 Adele - Can I Get It 07 Leona Lewis - Outta My Head 08 Agnes - Loaded 09 Dido - Mary’s in India 10 Sophie Ellis-Bextor - New York City Lights that MARINA song took me straight back to browsing 'soft grunge' Tumblr blogs in around 2012-14, the nostalgia

I was aware you were a fan of The Clash and U2 but couldn't recall what you thought of 'The Fly' specifically, great #1 pick! I checked out Achtung Baby when going through early '90s Mercury Prize nominees and thought it was a genius album, with that standing out as a highlight. I think my own top 10 would look like this: 01 Enigma - Sadeness Part I 02 The KLF - 3AM Eternal (feat. The Children Of The Revolution) 03 Queen - Innuendo 04 U2 - The Fly 05 The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go 06 Queen - These Are The Days Of Our Lives 07 Bryan Adams - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You 08 Michael Jackson - Black Or White 09 Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff - Dizzy 10 George Michael & Elton John - Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me Thanks Jim for doing this! Much taste on display and I enjoyed reading your great commentaries.

Round 1: 27 (didn't get: Haircut 100, Bread, Nick Kamen) Round 2: 36 (didn't get: Dire Straits) 3-in-10: 1 (Here I Go Again) Great to hear a clip of 'That's Entertainment' today

Switching to from Kate to Katie now