PeteFromLeeds

Giving Azimuth a listen - enjoying the music, I can certainly see where you're coming from with the lyrics being quite downbeat but with glimmers of hope in there!

Nice to see Don't Cry, Put Your Head On My Shoulder pop up here, a lovely song which is certainly very toned-back but works well I think. I can see quite a lot of other Tom Odell songs scattered throughout the sections since I last commented so will need to give some of those a listen at some point!

Ooh I didn't realise Tom Gregory and VIZE had collaborated again! (although to be fair I haven't heard from either artist fonr years either ) This is sounding like a nice dance song though, the guitar strumming in the verses works quite well.

10 January 2025 1 [NEW] Nathan Evans & SAINT PHNX - The Wedding 2 [2] Indochine - No Name 3 [1] Cut Copy & Kate Bollinger - Belong To You 4 [14] Tom Speight & Lydia Clowes - Perfect Strangers 5 [3] Together For Palestine - Lullaby (ft. Nai Barghouti, Neneh Cherry & Leigh-Anne) 6 [4] Of Monsters and Men - Dream Team 7 [5] John Allan - Resurrection Power 8 [10] Matoma & Nico & Vinz - Love To The Universe 9 [11] Pat Barrett - All This In A Name 10 [9] The Maccabees - Koya 11 [12] Chinese American Bear - Forever Lover 12 [17] Tom Speight - Buzzing 13 [13] Strings And Heart - oasis for my soul 14 [16] Walk Off The Earth & Ryan Mack - Where Would I Be 15 [15] Sheppard - Beautiful Nothing 16 [21] Jonathan Ogden - Be My Peace 17 [20] John Allan - On & On 18 [28] LUNA & Russo - Voorbestemd 19 [35] Alok & Zeeba - Dive Into The Ocean (ft. Portugal. The Man) 20 [30] Cephas Azariah & Elle Limebear - you're gonna be ok 21 [22] SERA - Firestone 22 [23] fieldlily - Grow 23 [24] Limoblaze & Joe L Barnes - Do It Now (Agbanilagbatan) 24 [6] St. Basil's & Lucy Grimble - Our Promised Saviour 25 [27] Kensington - Stay 26 [26] Kinnship - Zeal 27 [42] Megi Gogitidze - Sulis Saxli 28 [36] Quiet Man - Treading Water 29 [37] St. Lundi - Mercury 30 [40] Tom Speight - Higher 31 [56] The Head And The Heart - Beg, Steal, Borrow 32 [39] Sigrid - Jellyfish 33 [52] White Lies - Juice 34 [NEW] Seafret - Signal Fire 35 [44] Nation of Language - I'm Not Ready For The Change 36 [89] Ibibio Sound Machine & Village Cuts - Anyone Like You 37 [41] Ryan Stevenson - All Falls Away 38 [7] Rend Collective - The Reason 39 [50] Caamp - Mistakes 40 [45] Cut Copy - Solid 41 [46] Chance Pena - Collapse 42 [55] Caleb Hearn & Jenna Raine - BITE THE BULLET 43 [18] JVKE & Forrest Frank - SHINE YOUR LIGHT 44 [49] TAEYEON - Panorama 45 [47] Josh Gauton - Quiet Joy 46 [58] Josh Gauton - Fly Back Quickly, My Love 47 [53] Mgzavrebi - Chveni Ambavi 48 [NEW] Gen Zeal - Your Way Yahweh 49 [51] Circa Waves - Old Balloons 50 [48] Colony House - OK OK OK OK 51 [57] Steve Queralt & Emma Anderson - Lonely Town 52 [74] ILLENIUM & Norma Jean Martine - Refuge 53 [NEW] The Kooks - Sunny Baby 54 [54] Son Mieux - Morning 55 [63] Seafret & KT Tunstall - Five More Seconds 56 [64] Curtis Harding - The Power 57 [65] Seafret - Wait 58 [59] Kate Flanders - Satisfier 59 [60] Inhaler - Billy (Yeah Yeah Yeah) 60 [62] Joshu - holding on 61 [NEW] Rhufo & dei - Open Hands 62 [78] Land of Color & Sarah Kroger - Again And Again 63 [79] Saint Etienne - Take Me To The Pilot 64 [69] Elle Limebear & Zo Ross-Waddell - Every Good Thing 65 [NEW] Darren Kiely - Two Roads 66 [66] Steph Macleod & Nathan Jess - Prepare The Way 67 [19] Muyiwa & Riversongz - Dancing Around The Manger 68 [32] One Hope Project & Thomas Aston - Joy To The World 69 [67] Steph Macleod - Serenity 70 [83] Praise Lubangu - fair weather! 71 [77] Jonathan Ogden & Praise Lubangu - Safe 72 [80] Stephen Stanley - idols 73 [86] Unheilig - Wunderschon 74 [8] Rea Garvey - Happy Christmas 75 [31] Project of Love - Luke 2 - Glory 76 [34] Marizu - King Of Glory 77 [70] Ax and the Hatchetmen - Blurry Lights (with Albert Hammond Jr) 78 [NEW] Limoblaze, Joe L Barnes & Moses Akoh - Through It All 79 [33] Sarah Kroger - Creator Of The Stars Of Night 80 [73] almost monday - lost

1 [NEW] Nathan Evans & SAINT PHNX - The Wedding 2 [2] Indochine - No Name 3 [1] Cut Copy & Kate Bollinger - Belong To You 4 [14] Tom Speight & Lydia Clowes - Perfect Strangers 5 [3] Together For Palestine - Lullaby (ft. Nai Barghouti, Neneh Cherry & Leigh-Anne) 6 [4] Of Monsters and Men - Dream Team 7 [5] John Allan - Resurrection Power 8 [10] Matoma & Nico & Vinz - Love To The Universe 9 [11] Pat Barrett - All This In A Name 10 [9] The Maccabees - Koya 11 [12] Chinese American Bear - Forever Lover 12 [17] Tom Speight - Buzzing 13 [13] Strings And Heart - oasis for my soul 14 [16] Walk Off The Earth & Ryan Mack - Where Would I Be 15 [15] Sheppard - Beautiful Nothing 16 [21] Jonathan Ogden - Be My Peace 17 [20] John Allan - On & On 18 [28] LUNA & Russo - Voorbestemd 19 [35] Alok & Zeeba - Dive Into The Ocean (ft. Portugal. The Man) 20 [30] Cephas Azariah & Elle Limebear - you're gonna be ok 21 [22] SERA - Firestone 22 [23] fieldlily - Grow 23 [24] Limoblaze & Joe L Barnes - Do It Now (Agbanilagbatan) 24 [6] St. Basil's & Lucy Grimble - Our Promised Saviour 25 [27] Kensington - Stay 26 [26] Kinnship - Zeal 27 [42] Megi Gogitidze - Sulis Saxli 28 [36] Quiet Man - Treading Water 29 [37] St. Lundi - Mercury 30 [40] Tom Speight - Higher 31 [56] The Head And The Heart - Beg, Steal, Borrow 32 [39] Sigrid - Jellyfish 33 [52] White Lies - Juice 34 [NEW] Seafret - Signal Fire 35 [44] Nation of Language - I'm Not Ready For The Change 36 [89] Ibibio Sound Machine & Village Cuts - Anyone Like You 37 [41] Ryan Stevenson - All Falls Away 38 [7] Rend Collective - The Reason 39 [50] Caamp - Mistakes 40 [45] Cut Copy - Solid

Ah I hadn't realised The Fray had changed vocalist, I'm really rubbish at noticing those things The Dutch band Kensington who I really like swapped their vocallist for an American and I didn't notice at all until I found out on Wikipedia! Glad you're enjoying the song though. Thanks Lewis! Yeah I like his music as well, he's certainly a very deep thinker and a lot of his songs seem to have a few layers to them lyrically. Thanks Joseph!

I recognise a lot of the names in that first section (mostly from your previous EOYs I think ) - ROA is of course one I do know well, it's a great song and incredibly catchy! Giving Hard Time Lover a listen as I enjoyed Collapse by Chance Peña earlier in the year and I've not heard from Gryffin for years - the melody is sounding great even if the topic of the song is somewhat bittersweet. Speaking of bittersweet, I'll make a mental note to listen to that David Kushner track as I know you suggested it in my EOY as well!

Ah I hadn't given that version a listen - that is sounding nice as well! Just giving Arrèter le temps a listen now as well and that's sounding great, as you say the piano and the vocals both marry together to create a song that does sound quite beautiful.

80: Zoe Me - Million de MoisThe first time in a while that a follow-up to a Eurovision entry has made a decent dent in my charts (Voyage is still to come), this cracked my Top 10 in the summer. I do love her voice and the production of the song (translated 'Million Months' in English) is great, if James Bond was French this could easily be the theme. 79: Reverend and the Makers - Haircut (ft. Vicky McClure)Yes, the lead singer of Reverend and the Makers is called John McClure but as far as I can see he isn't related to the featured artist Vicky McClure, who apparently is usually an actor and makes her singing debut on this track. It's incredibly catchy, the theme is unfortunately about a relationship that is breaking down but at least we can hear both sides of the story and it's the sort of song that gets you clapping and dancing along! 78: Steph Macleod - SerenityThe first of two Steph Macleod songs in my EOY, this is a very simple song which takes a well-known prayer about serenity and combines it with the 'this is the day that the Lord has made' verse from the Psalms. This is one of those songs which is very simple musically but really resonated with me, and just feels so relevant when sung as a part of worship. 77: Amistat - strangerGerman duo Amistat had a #1 in my chart at the end of last year with 'hello', and this is the follow up to that. It's a bit more toe-tappy than that one but follows a similar theme of hurt in relationships, but with the lead singer boldly stating that neither he nor the subject of the song are strangers, but that they'll always know each other. This got to #2 in my chart earlier in the year. 76: Josh Gauton - Thomas, I Get ItIf you get the reference in the title you can probably guess what this song is about - it's the first time Josh Gauton has explicitly mentioned faith in quite a few years, although his songs are quite clearly saturated in Christian imagery. It's a song about the difficulties of faith from someone who has clearly been through highs and lows, but I'm fairly sure he's still on the path. It's in his traditional 'moody indie' style though so makes for really interesting listening. 75: Jim Noir - Out Of SightJim Noir was a favourite of my dad's growing up so I've always had a soft spot for him. Although we all completely missed this song being released and so I only charted it in August despite it being released in October 2024! It's probably his liveliest tune to date with the flute (or high-pitched synth?) backing track, and of course as per usual the lyrics are slightly bizarre. 74: The Afters - You Never Gave Up On MeThe Afters were the first Christian act to have a #1 in my chart all the way back in 2017. This is their first Top 10 hit in my chart since 2021, cracking the Top 5 at the start of the year with a fairly standard but equally very well-put together worship song, reminding us that God will always be there for those of us who trust in Him, even when we walk away and give up on ourselves. 73: Cosmos in Buzunar - I AM BACKThis band are from Moldova, and that's the sum total of everything I know about them I've just googled 'buzunar' and Google is showing me pictures of pockets so that's what it must mean, you learn something new every day! I AM BACK is a brilliant indie-synth-pop (don't ask me to categorise things into genres, I will fail!) track which to be fair I imagine Buzzjack would quite enjoy! 72: Tors - Never Give UpThe highest appearance in my chart for British band Tors to date, this is quite simply a joyful song about never giving up! It's the sort of music I love, voices in harmony, guitars and drums, and a really positive message to share. It entered my chart just before Christmas 2024 and got into my Top 5 at the start of the year. 71: Mumford & Sons - MalibuThe first of two Mumford songs to appear here - I kept saying that I would make sure I listened to the Rushmere album as I loved both the songs I've heard from it, but I never did! There have always been questions around whether Mumford and Sons would consider themselves Christians, and whilst this song doesn't mention God (indeed it's named after a city in California, bizarrely) the lyrics of the song arre quite clearly drawing from Christianity (especially the 'shadow of your wings' line in the chorus) and really is a joyful song which expresses a sense of praise and love. This entered my Top 10 just before lent but in the end was eclipsed by the album's title track which is still to come!

Congrats to Macclesfield - always love a good underdog upset!

Yeah I've not played a game in a long time but can't pass a name like that by without commenting! I'm sure trees do hate us as well.

Popping my head back in here this month with an entry! (it probably will just be this contest for the time being given how Lent falls this year). I've got something I'm happy to put in as an entry even if it does do awfully, it's also my first artist self-recycle (albeit not as the lead artist).

Also - Simon Yates has retired Don't think I saw that one coming!

To go through where we are with World Tour teams: NSN Cycling (formerly Israel Premier-Tech), Lotto and Uno-X have been 'promoted' to WorldTour Level Cofidis have been 'relegated' to ProTour Arkea and Intermarché-Wanty no longer exist (the latter has been merged into Lotto) As far as I can see, Cofidis and Tudor Pro Cycling are the best second-division teams so will get an automatic wildcard into all three Grand Tours if they want it. That just leaves Tom Pidcock's Q36.5 as not being guaranteed anything but I imagine they'll get at least a couple of wildcards after Tom's Vuelta performance.

We're in the 'down' year this year where there isn't a World Championships or an Olympic Games. So I guess the biggest action will be seeing how many more times Armand Duplantis can break the Pole Vault world record by a centimetre!

I mean, I wouldn't do any better! The United Cup is going on at the moment (a competition where a men's singles, women's singles and doubles entry compete for their country) and we're into the Quarterfinals - the USA and Switzerland have booked their place in the Final 4.

It's a great song! A shame I wasn't in the contest to give it the points it deserved Thanks Jade!

90: Gas Street Music & Michael Shannon - Fruit Of My LifeGas Street Music are a worship collective from Gas Street Church in Birmingham. They had a whole album out this year but this was the one that stuck with me the most, focussing on living out the fruits of the spirit in our daily lives. This peaked at number 13 in my chart back in August (and is apparently the only song ever with the word 'fruit' in its title to enter my chart!) 89: Ziferblat - Bird of PrayEurovision o'clock! This didn't grab me massively at the time but it grew on me a lot after the contest, one of the more rock-ier of the entries this year with some amazing outfits and made even more impressive by the fact that the lead singer was suffering from laryngitis throughout! Plus through Googling the band's name I've now discovered that there's a coffee shop called Ziferblat where you pay for the amount of time you spend in there, not what you consume - a concept that clearly interesting enough for me to bother writing about it here. 88: Reverend And The Makers - UFOI must admit I've not heard anything from Reverend and the Makers since the early 2010s, but something (probably their song with The Lottery Winners last year) made me want to check out their music again, and so they've had two Top 40 hits this year. This one, a song focussing on how we would explain the mess of this world to aliens if they did indeed exist, was the higher peaking of the two but the lower-charting in my EOY. I think I actually discovered this when poking through WhoOdyssey's 'indie track of the week' which has been a great source of new music recently. 87: Elle Limebear & CalledOut Music - One GodA beautiful song by two of the UK's best known worship artists, this one focusses on the community of the church, and how 'we're not as divided as we are connected' as the lyrics say - a very timely reminder that we can't do the Christian walk on our own. This cracked my Top 10 just before Lent this year. 86: The Fray - Angeleno MoonYes, apparently The Fray are still a thing! This is a fairly standard indie-pop song but a very nice one at that (apparently 'angeleno' means something from Los Angeles, not a random Italian guy as I initially thought). Another song that made its way into my Top 10 just before Lent. 85: Harrison Storm & Brittany May - You Beside MeNow to a song from the very start of the year, this is a lovely guitar-strummy winter warmer of a duet focussing entirely on the love they have for each other - a bit of a break from the other Harrison Storm song I know which are quite moody! This one spent quite a bit of time in the lower echelons of my chart back in 2024 before peaking at number 6 right at the start of the year, matching Harrison Storm's highest peak back in 2024 with 'Tomorrow'. 84: Stephen Stanley - i still have youStephen Stanley is another great worship artist, incorporating more guitars and a slightly 'rougher' voice than a lot of his contemporaries. This one is a song about his trust in God regardless of what happens in his life, and how having a child has shaped this even more. 83: New Wine Worship & Sharyn - AnointingThis is the first chart-topper to drop out, reaching the top spot at the end of August with a climb from #70 (which may be a record in my own chart?) It's very simply a call for the Holy Spirit to be at work, but the snog really resonated with me when I first heard it. 82: Inhaler - Billy (Yeah Yeah Yeah)I'll preface this with the fact that I have no idea who Billy is or what this song is about, but it's incredibly catchy and one of those you just find yourself tapping your toes along to. It marks Inhaler's first Top 40 hit in my chart since Love Will Get You There back in 2023. 81: Stephen Stanley - idolsAnd we finish with a second song by Stephen Stanley! Musically it's very similar to i still have you but with the focus being a plea for God to help him remove 'idols' (Christian slang for things that we put ahead of God and effectively 'worship', even though they can't give the satisfaction we can get from knowing who we are in God). This one was a Top 5 hit in my charts, reaching #5 in late October.

Again not a massive TV person, but the concept of Adolescence really grabbed me and so I've watched whatever snippets I can on YouTube. Recording entire episodes in a continuous take must really be an art form. The 1% Club is of course a great show as well, although I must confess I've only seen the Christmas special this year!

Just giving Echo a listen now - Tom Walker's voice is still great, I really didn't expect that drop in the chorus though! Quite different to the indie-pop he was releasing when he was getting regular chart hits.

I've been glancing at your chart as it's been going along, I didn't realise Janet Devlin was still around, let alone had released a whole bunch of songs this year! Certainly a switch in genre listening to Emotional Rodeo. The Fate of Ophelia was one of the catchiest #1s of the year as well, I can see why it's done so well!

Not too many I recognise in that last section - I think Plastic Box is the only one I've heard before! Giving In The Rain a listen now though, the lyrics are certinly very poignant and paint a difficult picture of trying to keep sadness to yourself. I hadn't clocked the 'tears into gold' lyrics until you mentioned them, another interesting facet to the song if it is referencing Kintsugi!

We certainly seem to have eight of the 'big' teams in the final eight! Burkina Faso losing 3-0 to the Ivory Coast - I was hoping they might have a decent chance as one of the better teams below those at the top level but not to be.

An incredible start to the season for Coventry - breaking all sorts of records in terms of goals scored. Although they have only won one in their last five games...

Also on a winter sports theme - Sweden won the Junior Ice Hockey championships yesterday. Nice to see someone other than the USA get a look-in!