Jaz13music

Probably my favourite so far, a pretty good dance record and I like Becky’s vocals. I agree Afterglow was great though!

Blame is good but it feels like it should have been better. Considering the artists involved, it felt like the sum was less than the two parts. It just seems a bit ‘by numbers’ with the obligatory rent-a-vocalist, so position seems about right.

Rhino video is excellent!!🦏

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These Days is okay, not really memorable for me, though I like that it’s uptempo. Can’t say I’m a fan of any of the 21st Century Take That stuff I’m afraid.

Nostalgia has always been a very strong motivator for the general public’s buying habits….or streaming habits nowadays.

Fine Young Cannibals - Johnny Come Home Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary Eurythmics - There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) The Cure - In Between Days

Sing is one of the Ed singles I can tolerate, it had a bit more to it than his staid ballads. It was a bit of a red herring as a lead single, but I suppose the Pharrell involvement made the difference

Are they meaning it as a rhetorical question then, or should those have a question mark too? I admit I’m not great at grammar! 🤣

Gary Numan & Tubeway Army - Down in the Park Naughty Boy feat. Sam Smith - La La La Calvin Harris & Disciples - How Deep Is Your Love Tom Grennan - Little Bit of Love Darin - En apa som liknar dig Sam Fender - Will We Talk?

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights Robyn & Kleerup - With Every Heartbeat Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Murder on the Dancefloor MARINA - Oh No! Zara Larsson & MNEK - Never Forget You Adele - Skyfall

New Order - Regret Fontaines D.C. - Favourite Texas - Summer Son Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again Bananarama - I Want You Back Sade - Kiss of Life

Everybody… is one of my 3 favourite TFT songs (along with Mad World and Sowing The Seeds..) love the driving rhythm and great lyrics, sadly too relevant for today’s world too. Might just be topped by Welcome… for me though, especially that magnificent sprawling full album version. Just when I thought FGTH/Trevor Horn couldn’t top their ambitions with the first three singles! Pie Jesus is gorgeous, more eclectic 80s hits. The Heat Is On is a great fun song from a great film. Alison Moyet’s vocals are excellent again but I prefer her earlier (non cover version) hits I’m a big fan of Billy Bragg’s early career, much underrated great songwriter and guitarist. I’ve come to appreciate Move Closer and the songwriting achievement more over the years.

Am I Wrong, is pretty good, I suspect I’ll rank it at a similar position as you. Really catchy and great guitar melody.

Concentrating on my favourites, Easy Lover is great, contrasting vocals work well and the drumming is excellent as usual by Phil. We Close are eyes is good but as has been mentioned, they had better to come. I love Material Girl more now than at the time, great fun pop. Everytime You Go Away is pleasant enough. I have a real soft spot for Kiss Me, quirky with that brilliant intro. Weirdly enough I found a copy of the 12 inch vinyl while crate digging this week.

I like Lovers On The Sun , slightly different stuff for Guetta with the Avicci influence apparent. Love the spaghetti western stuff that others have mentioned

Without checking exactly, I think that’s very close to mine

I didn’t plan to respond basically because I don’t have to, it was all meant to be a personal choice, but I just felt in the right mood to do so, after reading some of the comments here. Right, so I’ll say it yet again just for clarity, the mention of ‘features’ was a very minor factor in choosing not to forward Years & Years, the reason was the level of competition was just too high for a song and artist I really love. As for anyone suggesting accusations of my perceived prejudice based on language (non ESL), nationality, diversity or any other issue, I will say you know nothing about me. To judge me on the basis of a musical preference, in a so called ‘fun’ music contest, on a music forum is not acceptable. I used the word variety (meaning musical variety only), not diversity, to describe why I didn’t choose too many dark synth groups to go through. New Order and Depeche Mode are two of my favourite bands, and both put forward my favourite songs so, since I was meant to be judging, I put those two through. And yes I did vote iamamiwhoami last in the round before, but did anyone bother to check how I voted in the other 3 rounds? I’ll help you out, it was 9th 5th and 6th, so half the time they would have been in the top six for me. But why let facts get in the way of OTT statements? Also iamamiwhoami has been the revelation of the whole competition for me. I had heard very little from them previously, but I’ve liked everything that has been submitted, and blue blue was the best of the lot. And even despite my own personal preferences to the contrary, I still chose to put through some acts for what I, obviously wrongly, felt was for the good of the contest. For example Texas have been very dominant in the voting so far so I gave them a place. Contrary to opinion, if anyone is interested, I did spend a lot of time analysing your voting so far before choosing. In the interest of fairness I also strongly considered each artists back catalogue to try to guess what impact they would have on the rest of the contest. I’ll go on. Bananarama aren’t my favourites but in being the most pop act remaining (based on many other’s ideas of what ‘pop’ means, not mine, I hate putting acts into genre boxes) and with their best song too, I thought they deserved a place to keep some of that vibe in the contest. Sade purely personally wouldn’t have been my choice but they are the most distinctive of the acts here so I gave them a place. Fontaines D.C. are the one with the heavier indie/alt sounds (again more variety), and are actually the most recently formed of the groups (so the so called 80s bias is also rubbished even if you think the age of the song/artist matters at all as to whether it is good, which it doesn’t). Just this week they released the best song of the year so far (of course again just my opinion), which was fantastic timing by their mentor, when they might have been in danger. Again the feature didn’t matter here either. And after all is there any combination of six groups that everyone would be happy with? I think that covers all the acts, and I know it won’t change anyone’s opinion, but I’ve got it off my chest so that’s something. On a positive note, I have to say the other judges and especially Calum (thanks also for deflecting some of the flak) did a fantastic job last night, great work all!!!

That’s exactly right, the Smiths were my lodestar when I was younger (and actually now too to be truthful) as I had/have pretty bad social anxiety, as you might be able to tell from some of my posts on here! They pretty much soundtracked the whole of my teenage (and longer) years. Brilliant band in all ways!

Just to add quickly. As I said at the start, every song was excellent, thank you mentors! I tried to be fair, making choices taking into account previous voting scores, the promise of possible remaining songs, variety (different strands of ‘pop’) and yes personal preferences. From those eliminated: iamamiwhoami - I have to admit this has been the revelation of the whole competition for me. I had heard very little from iamamiwhoami previously, but I’ve liked everything that has been submitted, and blue blue is the best of the lot. However I think I was concerned about the potential of their songs available for the rest of the contest?! So sorry! Years & Years - Sunlight is a fantastic song, a real banger, I’ve always loved it and Years & Years too. I’m just afraid the level of competition elsewhere was so high, and I know everyone is focusing on the ‘feature’ issue, but that was really a very minor factor. Sad to see them go though! I hope I’m going to be forgiven by their mentors for these choices 🫣……. don’t @ me!

HRH Princess Jazmine XIII, esteemed Pop Factor judge hereby declare by royal decree, my verdict on the groups category…..tonight six will continue and two have to go. Firstly….aarrghh, these songs are so good, you’ve all made this too hard. I know I made a request for you to bring in the ‘big guns’, but there’s some of my absolute favourites from these artists here. It’s almost as if some of you have been reading my mind?!👀. So, here goes……..

Okay, since the cat is pretty much out of the bag (Julian) I admit I am a Traitor …. I mean the third judge. Some of you may have noticed that I missed the deadline to enter the contest and soon after Calum very kindly offered me the judging role. I’ve tried to keep pretty quiet since then, whilst continuing to vote, so that it didn’t influence my decisions for this round. But it’s been really great fun so thanks again Calum. As regards this stage, no BS it was genuinely really hard to choose, there were so many great songs in my category, but I’ve definitely tried to be fair in what I decisions I made.

And an excellent top two to finish! I love the Desire… album too and Billions is also my favourite from it. Brilliantly sung with unique production and that excellent hip hop rhythm. Chairlift were also great I agree. I came across Working Men’s Club with the self titled debut album you mentioned, though that was a bit more abrasive at times, sort of industrial sounding synth music, Valleys was a definite highlight. I lost track of them a bit until this year, but Devout is excellent. So it’s great you finished on a song that’s a new discovery. I’m really enjoying Widow, it still has that dark synth vibe I like but maybe a bit more melodic than their early stuff. It’s great! Too many excellent honourable mentions to highlight them all, but some personal favourites would include Introvert, Cry For Me, Capricorn, Ring Of Past, Starburster and choke enough. Congratulations on finishing your opus then! I’ve really enjoyed following along and adding (hopefully not too much) comments as you worked through them. It’s been really insightful, informative and engaging, with lots of lovely personal touches. For me there was some nostalgia, some reminders and some new discoveries, so thank you. And I love the overall playlist too, I’ll definitely be saving it!

Dua is another who never seems to miss with her singles. I love those early songs you mention especially Be The One, but the Future Nostalgia era is fantastic throughout. Physical is ace with its 80s influences and great lyrics which you describe so well, and a lovely nod to Olivia NJ! Don’t Stop Now just edges it for me (another ‘should’ve been a number one’), perhaps with that behemoth of the US charts in ‘21, Levitating! I’m in agreement with The Last Man On Earth being my favourite Wolf Alice song. Epic beautiful work, a middle eight that I think has echoes of the Beatles, building to that fantastic ending, and of course I’m a sucker for the strings! As you say, they’ve been a brilliant innovative band over many years now, never resting on their laurels. May it long continue! Really intrigued as to what your top two will be!

Birthday purchases today of Radiohead’s In Rainbows, Pixies Surfer Rosa and a ridiculously expensive deluxe copy of Beatles Rubber Soul (couldn’t resist I’m afraid)!