-Jay-

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Certainly the end of an era

Leave Do It ALONE, bish!! How does it feel to be so wrong!!!

Official ChartsThe Official best-selling vinyl albums and singles of 2025Taylor Swift scored the UK’s biggest vinyl album of 2025 with her twelfth studio album The Life Of A Showgirl. Albums: 1 THE LIFE OF A SHOWGIRL TAYLOR SWIFT 2 PEOPLE WATCHING SAM FENDER 3 WHAT'S THE STORY MORNING GLORY OASIS 4 LOVER (LIVE FROM PARIS) TAYLOR SWIFT 5 MAN'S BEST FRIEND SABRINA CARPENTER 6 THE ART OF LOVING OLIVIA DEAN 7 RUMOURS FLEETWOOD MAC 8 ROMANCE FONTAINES DC 9 SHORT N' SWEET SABRINA CARPENTER 10 DEFINITELY MAYBE OASIS 11 OK COMPUTER RADIOHEAD 12 AM ARCTIC MONKEYS 13 HIT ME HARD AND SOFT BILLIE EILISH 14 MORE PULP 15 MAYHEM LADY GAGA 16 THE RISE AND FALL OF A MIDWEST PRINCESS CHAPPELL ROAN 17 IN RAINBOWS RADIOHEAD 18 THE CLEARING WOLF ALICE 19 GRACE JEFF BUCKLEY 20 WISH YOU WERE HERE PINK FLOYD 21 BACK TO BLACK AMY WINEHOUSE 22 GNX KENDRICK LAMAR 23 EVEN IN ARCADIA SLEEP TOKEN 24 THE BOY WHO PLAYED THE HARP DAVE 25 WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM THAT'S WHAT I'M ARCTIC MONKEYS 26 THE BENDS RADIOHEAD 27 THE STONE ROSES STONE ROSES 28 CURRENTS TAME IMPALA 29 NEVERMIND NIRVANA 30 MOISTURIZER WET LEG 31 THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON PINK FLOYD 32 FROM THE PYRE LAST DINNER PARTY 33 HYBRID THEORY LINKIN PARK 34 SKELETA GHOST 35 LEGEND BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS 36 THE SECRET OF US GRACIE ABRAMS 37 SKINTY FIA FONTAINES DC 38 IGOR TYLER THE CREATOR 39 VIRGIN LORDE 40 BORN TO DIE LANA DEL REY Singles: 1 WHATEVER OASIS 2 FORTNIGHT TAYLOR SWIFT FT POST MALONE 3 SOME MIGHT SAY OASIS 4 THE GIVER CHAPPELL ROAN 5 THE SUBWAY CHAPPELL ROAN 6 WHERE IS MY HUSBAND RAYE 7 BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY QUEEN 8 GUESS CHARLI XCX FT BILLIE EILISH 9 XMAS KYLIE MINOGUE 10 MANCHILD SABRINA CARPENTER 11 PINK PONY CLUB CHAPPELL ROAN 12 OCEAN EYES BILLIE EILISH 13 REIN ME IN SAM FENDER & OLIVIA DEAN 14 SKINNY BILLIE EILISH 15 MESSY LOLA YOUNG 16 LAST NIGHT I DREAMT I FELL IN LOVE ALOK & KYLIE MINOGUE 17 IT'S AMAZING TO BE YOUNG FONTAINES DC 18 FREE AS A BIRD BEATLES 19 BADLANDS KILLERS/BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 20 PEOPLE WATCHING SAM FENDER 21 SPEAK LIKE A CHILD STYLE COUNCIL 22 ALONE CURE 23 FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK POGUES FT KIRSTY MACCOLL 24 TOMORROW COMES TODAY GORILLAZ 25 DAKOTA STEREOPHONICS 26 VALENTINE LAUFEY 27 TASTE SABRINA CARPENTER 28 SPIKE ISLAND PULP 29 BITTER SWEET SYMPHONY VERVE 30 MY EVER CHANGING MOODS STYLE COUNCIL 31 LONG HOT SUMMER STYLE COUNCIL 32 GOOD LUCK BABE CHAPPELL ROAN 33 THE DAY THAT I DIE LEWIS CAPALDI 34 POWER TO THE PEOPLE JOHN & YOKO/PLASTIC ONO BAND 35 THE ROPE WUNDERHORSE 36 BED CHEM SABRINA CARPENTER 37 I MISS YOU I'M SORRY GRACIE ABRAMS 38 BETWEEN TWO POINTS DAVID GILMOUR/ROMANY GILMOUR 39 LET THE LIGHT RETURN MANIC STREET PREACHERS 40 ECHOES NICK MASON'S SAUCERFUL OF Do you own any of these? Of the albums, I only bought one of them in 2025: Lady Gaga - Mayhem. I also own Sabrina Carpenter - Short n' Sweet, Chappell Roan - The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and Lana Del Rey - Born to Die. I own more of the singles: Taylor Swift feat. Post Malone, Kylie, Chappell Roan - Pink Pony Club, Alok/Kylie Minogue and Chappell Roan - Good Luck, Babe!

Regarding the 7" I was a little disappointed that it didn't have a thick spine like all of her releases from Say Something onwards had! Impressive that she's the 9th best selling

Oh XMAS the transatlantic smash you are

Yessss the taste!

That's an interesting point about "Horny Spice" (lmao), that there's a number of songs of a rather sexual nature in their early work, but this really went out the window once they were big. I mean, it figures - but it's an interesting quirk of early days Spice Girls. Wasting My Time is one of the most misunderstood songs in the fanbase 💔 One of the highlights of Forever! I've never been behind the "one long song" criticism about it following Get Down with Me. I definitely understand that there's rhythmical similarities, although I think thematically and vocally they have different moods. Get Down with Me is quite upbeat and bouncey, while Wasting My Time has more of a iceiness to it, I think. Still, I kind of wish they weren't together on the album so that criticism had never emerged. I do really like Give Me What You Want. It couldn't sound more like 1999 if it tried but I think that's a great thing about it tbh! There's an alternate reality where their third album, released in 1999, ended up being largely based around this sound and I can imagine the world would have responded well to it in that moment. The lyrics, again they're dated (specifically "pager number")... but if they'd actually released the song that year, I'm sure it would have seemed cool. Weekend Love is a really quirky song. Kind of deceptive that it's a sweet sounding song and then that rap comes out of nowhere like a bullet train! I don't have a big love for it, but I have an appreciation for it in the sense it does have a Spiceiness to it. I never really paid much attention to My Strongest Suit over the years, but lately I've been enjoying it more, I really have no idea why it's clicked, but it's fun!

I've heard these: 11 Ruel - Kicking My Feet | 1-4-5-7-7-9-7-6-5-1-... 13 Taylor Swift - The Life of a Showgirl | 1-1-3-8-11-12-12-14-15-x 14 JADE - THAT'S SHOWBIZ BABY! | 2-3-9-10-12-14-x-8-10-13-... 17 Ava Max - Don't Click Play | 2-3-6-10-10-x 22 MARINA - PRINCESS OF POWER | 2-7-7-13-14-x 25 Daniel Seavey - Second Wind | 3-6-5-7-10-12-14-15-x-5-15-x 26 Addison Rae - Addison | 1-3-6-11-13-14-15-15-x 27 Zara Larsson - Midnight Sun | 3-6-8-13-x 29 Selena Gomez & benny blanco - I Said I Love You First | 3-5-9-11-13-14-15-x 31 Cardi B - AM I THE DRAMA? | 4-11-14-x 35 Lorde - Virgin | 5-11-13-14-x 37 Sabrina Carpenter - Man's Best Friend | 4-9-15-x 39 Doja Cat - Vie | 6-8-14-x I think Jade is my favourite out of all of those!

Doing what I like to do and compare to Tom Grennan lol - his song was midweek #9 on the Monday last year, ended up at #30. Wish we knew Kylie's sales at #5 but for now I think it could end up somewhere in the 20s by Friday? Not sure if it can stay Top 20 but that would be great!

My Most Played... Female Solo Artists 1. 5,703 - Kylie Minogue (1st) 2. 4,787 - Ariana Grande (2nd) 3. 4,080 - Mariah Carey (4th) 4. 3,702 - Taylor Swift (5th) 5. 3,475 - Lady Gaga (7th) 6. 3,431 - Britney Spears (8th) 7. 3,202 - Carly Rae Jepsen (9th) 8. 2,162 - Rihanna (13th) 9. 2,087 - Dua Lipa (14th) 10. 2,040 - Charli xcx (16th) 11. 2,000 - Katy Perry (17th) 12. 1,602 - Cheryl (18th) 13. 1,591 - Beyoncé (19th) 14. 1,522 - Madonna (21st) 15. 1,473 - Melanie C (22nd) 16. 1,429 - Rita Ora (24th) 17. 1,199 - Louise (25th) 18. 1,141 - Rita Ora (28th) 19. 1,040 - Nicki Minaj (30th) 20. 1,002 - Kelly Clarkson (31st) Male Solo Artists 1. 3,076 - Troye Sivan (10th) 2. 1,573 - Shawn Mendes (20th) 3. 1,177 - Conan Gray (26th) 4. 1,105 - Calvin Harris (29th) 5. 726 - David Guetta (48th) 6. 725 - Nick Jonas (49th) 7. 610 - Lauv (61st) 8. 591 - Justin Bieber (63rd) 9. 559 - Ed Sheeran (64th) 10. 553 - Kygo (67th) 11. 548 - Sigala (68th) 12. 525 - Harry Styles (72nd) 13. 512 - Miguel (74th) 14. 441 - Jax Jones (79th) 15. 417 - Zedd (82nd) 16. 405 - sombr (85th) 17. 401 - Greyson Chance (86th) 18. 393 - Olly Murs (88th) 19. 391 - Olly Alexander (89th) [a considerable number of the scrobbles are as Years & Years though] 20. 358 - Liam Payne (97th) Female Group/Duo Artists 1. 4,246 - Girls Aloud (3rd) 2. 3,625 - Spice Girls (6th) 3. 3,032 - Little Mix (11th) 4. 2,075 - The Saturdays (15th) 5. 1,143 - Sugababes (27th) 6. 960 - Fifth Harmony (34th) 7. 776 - MUNA (43rd) [female-fronted band] 8. 724 - All Saints (50th) 9. 346 - Eternal (98th) 10. 320 - Neon Jungle (106th) 11. 303 - Honeyz (111th) 12. 280 - Destiny's Child (118th) 13. 274 - The Pussycat Dolls (121st) 14. 273 - Atomic Kitten (122nd) 15. 194 - KATSEYE (160th) 16. 181 - BLACKPINK (170th) 17. 177 - HAIM (174th) 18. 160 - Stooshe (189th) 19. 136 - HUNTR/X (207th) 20. 114 - The Veronicas (226th) Male Group/Duo Artists 1. 1,440 - One Direction (23rd) 2. 779 - 5 Seconds of Summer (42nd) 3. 687 - dearALICE (52nd) 4. 641 - The Wanted (57th) 5. 460 - Take That (77th) 6. 410 - Lawson (83rd) 7. 406 - Galantis (84th) [could be considered as a solo artist in recent years, but most of my scrobbles are from when they were a duo] 8. 377 - Why Don't We (92nd) 9. 343 - Jonas Brothers (100th) 10. 333 - Sigma (104th) 11. 290 - Westlife (114th) 12. 285 - Maroon 5 (116th) 13. 282 - PRETTYMUCH (117th) 14. 235 - The Vamps (137th) 15. 226 - The Chainsmokers (141st) 16. 214 - Disclosure (145th) 17. 209 - The 1975 (147th) 18. 188 - Coldplay (166th) 19. 139 - Union J (205th) 20. 137 - Wham! (206th) Mixed Group/Duo Artists 1. 2,512 - Steps (12th) 2. 618 - S Club (59th) 3. 515 - Clean Bandit (73rd) 4. 381 - Paramore (91st) 5. 146 - Liberty X (200th) 6. 129 - Florence + The Machine (213th) 7. 94 - The Corrs (254th) 8. 93 - Cover Drive (255th) 9. 77 - Myzica (289th) 10. 71 - ABBA (304th) [although combining 48 scrobbles for S Club 8 and 41 for S Club Juniors, who are the same group with different names, gives them 89 scrobbles]

Tom Grennan made it to #30 on 3rd January 2025, I see no reason why Kylie would only be fighting to stay Top 100 on 2nd January 2026 when she also has Boxing Day streams counting towards her sales this week, whereas Tom's were based on 27th Dec-2nd Jan.

I like Sugar & Spice except for the really droney "sugar and spiiiiiiiiiiice" hook which grates after a while lol. Feed Your Love is nice to have. Insane behaviour that it's the ONLY unreleased song they gave us across the entire 25th anniversary "celebrations! I quite like Outer Space Girls for having a particular 90s sound that they didn't otherwise explore, so it stands out. Christmas Wrapping is cute, wish it was a full 4 piece moment though!

I have enjoyed the recent batch of episodes! Although I'd say the internet's general reaction to Volume 2 has leaned towards negative. Spoiler Personally I have appreciation for Will's coming out scene. I did find it touching, and it felt like an earned moment. Will facing his fears, fears that were being used against him by Vecna - to me, that's pretty powerful. If I was to have a nitpick... maybe there's some characters who were present for this coming out, who don't have much of a connection (if any) to Will, who I'd rather have not been involved in the scene, namely Murray and Kali. Maybe a slightly more intimate scene with Joyce, Jonathan and his closest friends would have been the approach I'd have preferred. This is sadly predictable but there's certainly been some homophobic responses to Episode 7. I'm wondering how there's so many people watching this show over the years who didn't detect that Will's character development across the seasons was leading up to him coming out! It's a shame to see the episode is getting review bombed. In part that's due to the Byler fans too. Otherwise, I enjoyed the revelation of there being an Abyss and that the upside down is actually a bridge between the Abyss and Hawkins!