Jacob-

01 (0) - 02 (1) - BJSC 110 // "Gloria" - The Midnight 03 (0) - 04 (0) - 05 (1) - BJSC 96 // "Giants" - Lights 06 (0) - 07 (1) - BJSC 157 // "A Gallant Gentleman" - We Lost The Sea 08 (0) - 09 (1) - BJSC 180 // "A Hair On The Head Of John The Baptist" - Saltillo 10 (0) - 11 (2) - BJSC 104 // "Looped" - Kiasmos | BJSC 174 // "Fortuna" - Trikk 12 (0) - 13 (0) - 14 (1) - BJSC 145 // "Gravity" - Holding Absence 15 (0) - 16 (2) - BJSC 130 // "Kyra (The Midnight Remix)" - Clubhouse | BJSC 139 // "Military Fashion Show" - And One 17 (1) - BJSC 185 // "Proximity" - Close Control 18 (0) - 19 (1) - BJSC 132 // "Alive" - Phil Lober 20 (2) - BJSC 97 // "Old Man" - Billy Lockett | BJSC 117 // "Carissa" - DESERT STAR 21 (1) - BJSC 184 // "SURFACE TENSION" - Lights 22 (2) - BJSC 106 // "Enough" - SONOIO | BJSC 140 // "Hvítir Sandar" (feat. Alcest) - Kælan Mikla 23 (0) - 24 (1) - BJSC 102 // "Girl" - Timecop1983 (Feat. Seawaves) 25 (3) - BJSC 112 // "Skylarking" - BT [12th without 15% deduction] | BJSC 162 // "Already Over" - Mike Shinoda | BJSC 176 // "This Is A Raid" - YOU LOVE HER [COZ SHE'S DEAD] 26 (2) - BJSC 142 // "Dead Of Night" (feat. Linnea Olsson) - Daniel Olsén & Jonathan Eng | BJSC 171 // "Evilest Man" King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard 27 (2) - BJSC 137 // "Strange Symmetry" (feat. High Fantasy) - Arwelone | BJSC 148 // "Glow" - Ashbury Heights 28 (0) - 29 (2) - BJSC 123 // "Desperado Vespa" - LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER | BJSC 133 // "Cry Of Peace" (feat. IIINO and Luciana Zogbi) / "Forever" (feat. IIINO and Asja Kadric) - Florian Bur 30 (2) - BJSC 98 // "Down The Road" - C2C | BJSC 122 // "Bats In The Attic (Unravelled)" - King Creosote & Jon Hopkins 31 (0) - 32 (0) - 33 (2) - BJSC 124 // "Stiff Kittens" - Blaqk Audio | BJSC 164 // "Zobacz mnie" - Klaudia Sobotka 34 (2) - BJSC 94 // "Up Ship!" - Port Blue | BJSC 101 // "Welcome Oblivion" - How To Destroy Angels 35 (4) - BJSC 109 // "Outbreak" - Feint (Feat. MYLK) | BJSC 115 // "Warm Water (Snakehips Remix)" - BANKS | BJSC 154 // "Vitamin Sea" - Owl City | BJSC 179 // "In A Spiral" - Phantogram 36 (2) - BJSC 93 // "Dear Adelaide" - Breanne Düren | BJSC 163 // "Let Me Live / Let Me Die" - Des Rocs 37 (4) - BJSC 89 // "Pass Out" - Sœur | BJSC 95 // "Tides" - Nu:Tone (Feat. Lea Lea) | BJSC 169 // "Joli Rouge" - The Dreadnaughts | BJSC 177 // "Where We Started" - PRXZM 38 (1) - BJSC 107 // "The Enemy" - Mat Zo (Feat. Sinéad) 39 (0) - 40 (1) - BJSC 91 // "No One Really Wins" - Copeland 41 (2) - BJSC 125 // "Hop On Hop Off" - Goodluck | BJSC 178 // "the devil wears converse" - LØLØ 42 (2) - BJSC 127 // "Beyond You" - Thomas James White | BJSC 160 // "Liquor Fish & Cigarettes" - KMFDM 43 (1) - BJSC 152 // "See The Light" - Weird Wolves DNQs: (20) (1) - BJSC 121 // "Blueless Bird" - Joni (21) (6) - BJSC 86 // "Above The Clouds Of Pompeii" - Bear's Den | BJSC 99 // "Slow Days" - Sœur | BJSC 113 // "Savages" - Savoir Adore | BJSC 143 // "Pins" - Fever Fever | BJSC 147 // "Shadowplay" - GOOSE | BJSC 166 // "Life In Vain" - Daniel Johnston (22) (3) - BJSC 92 // "Loves The Jobs You Hate" | BJSC 158 // "The Broken One (Feat. Ashley Alisha)" - Louis La Roche | BJSC 168 // "Feel" - Lies Of P (Seo Jayeong) (23) (6) - BJSC 108 // "PTL" - Relient K | BJSC 126 // "Bless My Heart" - Cady Groves | BJSC 138 // "No Computer" - Kaleida | BJSC 144 // "Champion" - Warpaint | BJSC 159 // "Mumei" - Nanashi Mumei | BJSC 172 // "River Mouth" ML Buch (24) (6) - BJSC 84 // "Into Your Veins" - Five Iron Frenzy | BJSC 90 // "Unbreakable" - Fireflight | BJSC 105 // "But Blood" - Hockeysmith | BJSC 120 // "Just A Little" - Violet Days | BJSC 129 // "14.3 Billion Years" - Andrew Prahlow | BJSC 153 // "Crystal Jellyfish" - Linx (25) (8) - BJSC 87 // "Man On The Street" - Imperial Leisure | BJSC 118 // "Navajo" - Masego | BJSC 119 // "Embers and Envelopes" - Mae | BJSC 134 // "Same Sea" - Lights | BJSC 136 // "A Letter To Ashley" - Your Broken Hero | BJSC 167 // "Leviathan (feat. Corey Taylor)" - Bear McCreary | BJSC 182 // "Bulletproof" - Lamb | BJSC 183 // "TOTETO" - PUPPET SUNSUN (26) (2) - BJSC 155 // "Bad List" - Ayria | BJSC 175 // "nudes" Luna Shadows (27) (6) - BJSC 100 // "Headlights" - Meadowlark | BJSC 111 // "Burn" - The Soft Moon | BJSC 141 // "New Life" - MAVRUS & Vika Dove | BJSC 150 // "Tell Him" (feat. Lalah Hathaway) - Moonchild | BJSC 161 // "Dead Weight" - Ella Jane | BJSC 181 // "Villain" - Pom Pom Squad (28) (4) - BJSC 85 // "Nostalgia" - Said The Sky (Feat. Missio) | BJSC 88 // "Cat" - Relient K | BJSC 128 // "Rise Up" - Jared Halley | BJSC 165 // "Uncanny Long Arms" - Underscores & Jane Remover (29) (2) - BJSC 116 // "A Toast To You" - Pagan Fury | BJSC 146 // "Love Is Real" - Moods (30) (3) - BJSC 103 // "Esperanza" - Moriaty | BJSC 131 // "Turn To Static" - Run Into The Night | BJSC 135 // "Planet Boom" - Tune Of Soul | (31) (1) - BJSC 156 // "When God Closes A Door - Larkin Poe

Happy with 17th, higher than I thought (a lot of small points adding up plus a couple of medals!), thanks for that. Great winner, Addy. Always great to see that duo doing well, Moonlight Shadow is one of my favourite songs, certainly from that era, so crazy that I didn't even think to look for another collab between Mike and Maggie. Great discovery and deserving winner.

Just so you know, the fact that it is AI would disqualify it from my votes. I’d rather not spend my limited time on this earth listening to anything spat out by a plagiarism machine. Maybe find a song that the generator of the unholy amalgamation slop product was trained on? x

I believe it's illegal to reveal someone else's vote in a polling station, even accidentally, and you might receive a fine (£5000 iirc) for doing so, so people are told not to post pictures which is technically banned. But votes in the ballot box are anonymous so there would be no reason to discount any votes. Good result for the Greens with the mayoralty in Hackney, hope to see a lot more councillor gains as results for their target areas come in, I expect we'll see gains for them in London especially. That said, it's hard not to feel depressed seeing how many people have voted Reform, and it makes me really worried for the next GE. We could lose our NHS, our infrastructure would slowly disintegrate, homelessness and poverty would skyrocket, going carbon neutral and getting cheaper energy would become a distant dream and you can forget about fixing water/ sewage. It seems like no one actually looks at Reform policies and just vote based on vibes, culture wars talking points and "but the iMiGranTs". National politics aside, at the very least when Reform f*** up local council budgets and fail to deliver functioning councils and raise council tax everywhere to cover their failures and ballooning debt people will see that they're not to be trusted, but they'd probably just blame the national government. 3 years is a long time, just got to hope they keep running their concentration camps ads I guess and enough people will find it distasteful enough to not vote for the fascists.

Yay really nice to Q this year and first announced. 😮

DNQ and lost my 12, 10 and 8. Honestly don't know what's up with this contest sometimes. :/ +12 // Wholune // Nekrogoblikon // Secret Elephant (feat. Reel Big Fish) +10 // Ennea // World's First Cinema // Make Me A Monster +08 // Ben's Sanctuary // SCHILLER // Euphoria: Der Traum (Extended Version) +07 // Q +06 // Q +05 // Q +04 // Q +03 // Pagasa // This Is Lorelei // Dancing In The Club +02 // Q +01 // Q Tbf Wholune was a 33% deduction but still, awful results. 🙃

BBC NewsLord Mandelson arrested on suspicion of misconduct in pub...The Metropolitan Police says a 72-year-old man has been taken to a London police station for interview following the arrest in Camden.Mandelson getting the Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor treatment. Good.

Oh yeah and it's worth saying I was super impressed by this performance before deciding to enter Desperado Vespa to BJSC (I heard this before the studio version), from what I've seen he's a great live act.

Aelandor trendsetter. *.* Fantastic choice, a really cool artist who makes a lot of his own (usually analogue) synths. There's a lot that could be done with staging (I imagine loads of wires and industrial looking stuff everywhere) and I reckon he could pull off something both heavy and dancey if it's anything like Desperado Vespa (so perhaps broad appeal :O ), but will have to see what the song is like.

Congrats @Scene ! Lovely to see First Aid Kit do so well. Loved them for ages (The Lion's Roar, Stay Gold, Emmylou <3 ) but I missed some of their newer releases so this was a great reintroduction for me.

Finally updated this, although I haven't quite skimmed all the details I usually would, might collect the stats from specific threads later. Looks like 2025 was a decent year for Aelandor on the whole! Qs and DNQs are now at 47/47, keeping my 50/50 stat going it seems. Sad to lose my Q streak there, Villain was a fun track, wish it'd been a tad longer but thought it had a good shot at getting through anyway. 😦

I feel very strongly about this. AI "music" is pure theft and plagiarism, and a scourge on an industry already plagued with issues around exploitative streaming services underpaying artists. This slop should not be sold and should not be sitting alongside real work by artists on streaming platforms and stores. It's trained on a vast database of actual work without the consent of artists and spits out unholy generic amalgamations. Unfortunately, it is getting more sophisticated, there are fewer "artefacts" and it's getting harder to tell. If you just want to enjoy a song and aren't listening for it, it can be tricky. At the very least, I think it should have "[AI]" preferably in the title, or failing that in the same place you get the little "E" for explicit. And it should be banned from being sold commercially. AI can be a great tool for things like stem separation and other 'engineering' tool. Some creative uses (like Headache, mentioned earlier I don't mind because it was the 'recording' of the voice only, and it was clearly a deliberate artistic decision), generating a specific sample that can be chopped up and manipulated. But a fully AI song that isn't made with intent is artistically worthless and I can't take it seriously. At best, fully generated AI music is alright for non-commercial comedy and satire. As far as this contest, I won't blame the countries making the entries because of how difficult it is to tell if it is and I'm sure it's not intentional, but the moment I find out a song is AI (and I will be researching songs much more frequently that I used to) I will be vetoing it from my votes. As for looking for entries, I'll either enter older songs or do a lot more research on songs I enter, which is a shame because it used to be so cool finding 'faceless' obscure artists, I'll just have to do all I can to verify they're real. I would love a total ban but in lieu of legislation to clamp down on this shit it's tough to police in an online song contest for mods volunteering their time, I get that. In terms of using AI for banners etc, no one's selling it. I kind of feel like (even generally speaking) if it's not commercial and it's transparent what it is a lot of the harm is reduced. People don't have infinite time, and it can bring ideas to life... but it has none of the charm that even lil paint jobs have. Even though it's unlikely people would commission art for a contest like this so no artists are missing out, I feel the same way about AI 'art' as I do music, I'd much rather see real art. As far as this contest goes it's a lesser evil and hosting is a tough job (or seems to be, haven't had the opportunity yet! :O ) so I get why people use it, it's more about the idea/ concept when hosting, and the key thing is it's voluntary, not commercial.

Of all the results not to follow live. 😄 Had a great time catching up on this, don't remember seeing myself in 1st (certainly not a decent way through votes) on the scoreboard since The Midnight! Started to have notions when I saw that happening, was hoping for a top 5, but still very happy with 9th. Didn't expect that at all, you never know when something will click with so many people - thanks for all the points, especially all of those medals (18s from Terra Avium, Fljótavík and Summericia! ❤️). Like Bré said, it's only my 4th top 10 after Lights [5th in BJSC 96] , The Midnight [2nd in BJSC 110] and We Lost The Sea [7th in BJSC 157], so it's a big thing for Aelandor! 9th is an unique position too. Great way to close the year in BJSC. Congrats to Dan as well, great track, very happy to see it as a winner!

Voted! Thank you for the extension, it's been a busy week and was so useful to have this morning/ early afternoon to finalise votes.

A bit late but here for anyone who wants it: Apple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 179 • The Final by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 41 Songs

Apple Music - Web Player178 ◾FINAL by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 41 SongsAlso missing Scotland 2.

Apple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 178 SF1 by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 28 SongsApple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 178 SF2 by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 27 SongsScotland 2 also missing from semi 2 on Apple Music.

It's essential to distinguish between the "true believer" racists/ fascists and those swept up in the rhetoric, because unfortunately Reform has effective, powerful rhetoric (not helped by our awful right wing media, even the BBC is complicit in wildly disproportionate coverage of Reform and Farage). Reform correctly diagnoses problems, then provides either no solutions or disastrous ones that would actually exacerbate the problems but on a surface level sound good. People are suffering economically and want someone to blame, billionaires and corporations desperately want to distract people with something and immigration is the perfect scapegoat, there is a legitimate issue there due to the abysmal handling of asylum processing under the Tories and the still existing backlog in that system. The fact that small boats make up 2-3% of total immigration is irrelevant, politics is about narrative, and the narrative is "your life is worse due to public services and taxpayer money being strained by immigration", instead of "the top 1% are slowly acquiring assets ordinary people used to own". I have no sympathy for most of the flag shaggers marching yesterday, especially those lapping up words from Elon Musk of all people (aside, the irony of "patriots" cheering on a foreign billionaire directly attempting to interfere in our democracy is quite something) but we can't afford to lose everyone thinking of voting Reform forever, there will always be the 15%ish fascist rump and f*** them, they'll reveal themselves every time they open their mouths, especially as they've been emboldened in recent times. Others however, are understandably disillusioned with neoliberalism and a stagnant economy and in their minds see someone presenting an alternative to the status quo. They're wrong, I shudder to think what might happen to our country should Reform get anywhere near power, but the people who can be reached need to be reached, not with watered down right wing rhetoric that Labour are attempting to co-opt, but with a real alternative. If there's no political rehabilitation possible we might as well just give up. I know of people who have successfully pulled themselves out of ring-wing thinking, which is only really possible if there are lifelines from the left. All that said, outward bigotry should still be socially stigmatised, some of these bast*rds used to at least need to dog whistle.. :/

Apple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 177 Final by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 42 Songs

Apple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 177 SF1 by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 27 SongsMissing: Lookylion. Apple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 177 SF2 by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 27 Songs

So it has! Ah well, good to have it in anyway. Am out tomorrow. :O

Voted, prepped it hours ago but forgot to sent them oops, just got in before the deadline.

Finalising my list now, will be sending shortly!

Apple Music - Web PlayerFinal by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 41 Songs

Apple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 172 FINAL FESTA by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 42 Songs