dandy*

I don’t believe I’ve ever managed a streak longer than the teens so I can’t see me holding on for much longer… I’m currently just hoping that I stumble across something I even want to consider sending next contest, although I think that’s been the case for about the past year so who knows. I do feel very out of touch with how to discover new music these days, most of the things I find are by acts already known to most.

Padam x 2

It kicks off with a classic! Love Chic (well I only know the big singles) and that’s definitely a song I’d think of quite quickly if asked to name tracks from the 70s. She is quite a lovely song really. It’s not a genre I’d really listen to but it definitely has that timeless feel that the best love songs from the era have. Much less familiar with Substitute and I can’t say it’s one I’ll likely return to. It was alright but pretty unremarkable to me.

We've got 28 people who've submitted something so that's a decent enough turnout for the contest, thank you all <3 (sadly two of the people who we vetoed decided not to enter anything else due to other pressures </3 but that's absolutely fair enough - you're both more than welcome to vote should you wish to, and I'm sorry again that we couldn't allow the songs in) We're just waiting on one switch (the person knows so don't worry that it might be you!) and everything else currently on the list seems fine to us. If there are any late stragglers out there, you've got until I wake up to submit!

I think that Gotye will be my favourite #1 of the year, it's definitely one that I still listen to a lot. It was so refreshing to see a song like that do so well in the UK. Call Me Maybe is brilliant pop. I'm going to join yourself and Jade in the camp of people who didn't love it at the time but now think it's one of the strongest pop singles of its time. I don't enjoy Paradise as much as I enjoy the above two, but it's definitely a lot better than much of what has been in the thread so far. I suspect it would be low top 10 maybe for me.

I’ll be sharing the final list with the other mods at the end of today so it’s not too obvious to them who has sent what - although I don’t believe anything since my message should cause an issue (famous last words etc)

Last day to get your entries in folks! ☺️

My debut entry was one of the first things I hunted down when I bought a turntable <3 I also have Kenton Slash Demon - Harpe, Working Men’s Club - Valleys, Underworld - And I Will Kiss, Lamb - Gorecki, Bran Van 3000 - Astounded, Jam & Spoon - Find Me (Odyssey to Anyoona), India Jordan - For You, Utah Saints -Ohio, Rex the Dog - Maximize and Digitalism - Pogo all on 12” single. I’ll have more as part of albums but I won’t count those.

It’s a really lovely album, I’d forgotten how much I enjoy her music. Seen a lot of comments about it being a grower but I think it’s her most immediate for me, instant feels from it

Or…

It was at first, but that choice was the song Rollo referred to that had well in excess of 100,000,000 plays on Spotify... your one was their second choice. (I do really like the song as well so I'm a bit sad to see it gone)

The song you were thinking of did end up as being one of the choices... and was one of the songs that ended up feeling a lot more well known than the rest of the list. We do definitely have a few artists that people will already know but generally the chosen tracks are pretty inspired choices rather than just the singles.

I must admit I thought we were looking at out first nil pointer… but not close!

#8 is an insane result!!! That’s about 20 places higher than I’d dared hope for!!!

We have to be realistic that Brat was a once in a career moment, this is a much more normal album trajectory

Awww no, sad to see Ennea, Mothertopia and Aelandor go out 😭

I’d made my peace with whatever the outcome was for FLJ but I’m still delighted to have qualified. Thank you to anyone who voted for the violin mental breakdown, I appreciate it x

There has been an injection of mod drama it turns out this edition has such a wide scope that virtually everyone has found songs that didn’t chart. The mods have decided to ask that charting songs are avoided altogether, unless the Spotify count is really low (let’s say 7 figures) Sorry to the few of you affected by this. I feel bad because I didn’t foresee an issue and know my OP will have steered some of you down that path - but this contest there were just a couple of tracks in particular that stood out like a sore thumb compared to the others.

I’m finding it really difficult to vote. I have listened through both semis twice and I feel like more songs sound the same than normal. Or maybe there’s just more of the same distinct types, like lots of pop, lots of indie rock, lots of slow quiet pretty ones, long dance ones etc - and I don’t have a reason to specifically vote one over another if that makes sense

Genuinely surprised to be listed there Rob! I really like my entry this month, but it’s quite quirky and I thought it was quite a risk. On the plus side, it doesn’t sound like the other songs in the semi. On the negative side, it’s not a buzzjack friendly genre.

Quite remarkably, this remains the only act to be double confirmed. (Although a few people have sent songs that were on my shortlist)

Oh gosh, don’t worry - I wouldn’t really put you up there! In 2007 then yes it probably would have happened, but these days we wouldn’t do such things ☺️

I’ve been thinking during this contest that we may need to update the rules for each contest individually. The way this contest is themed makes some themes much broader than others, and the context around what is popular in terms of numbers will change accordingly. So for example a threshold for a pop or rock based contest would need to be very different to a britpop based one to an electronica one etc. I’m not convinced we can flatline it - but I do check the Spotify plays of each entry so it becomes obvious within the context of each contest whether there’s one or two songs that have a significant head start… but even that doesn’t automatically mean a veto, we try and factor in how high a song peaked, references to it on site etc as well. Ultimately though this is everyone’s contest so if people would just prefer a straight cut off then we can try to agree one

I'm starting to realise that this theme isn't clear cut for everyone so, in case you're still pondering over what to send, here's some things that have cropped up so far with submissions where they haven't been quite what I was aiming at with the theme... Rap music - this is difficult as I can see that it is typically the same writer as performer - but I don't think it fits the singing part of the theme well enough. Perhaps it needs its own theme in future Songs where the artist isn't the primary writer of the track. There's been a couple where the singer has inputted melody or a part of the song, but others have written the majority A song that is the signature track of the chosen artist, but happens to have not been a hit in the UK. This is particularly where Spotify counts are high as that suggests a definite level of popularity and familiarity (very high spotify counts are likely to be a veto regardless of whether it's a signature tune or not). Obviously an act's most famous song is likely to be allowed if the act themselves is not as well known. Perhaps slightly controversially, songs where the lyrics are very short and also quite generic. Ie the same person may have created the track and it has some vocals, but the main focus of the track is more production or sound. Finally, tracks where the songwriter contributes to the singing but the most notable elements are sung by another person (obviously additional backing vocalists are fine though) Edit... btw no shame to anyone who has submitted something along those lines, just trying to help clarify some things that have come up that I didn't pre-empt.

We looked at the first batch yesterday and if you were vetoed then you'll already have heard about it ☺️ A very interesting selection of artists so far, definitely a reasonable mix of unexpected entries among the more familiar names. Here's a list of those who have entered so far... Addy! AH Gold Chez Wombat CowTzy dandy* DaTilt dhwe gooddelta Herbs Jaz13music Jester jimwatts Julian King Rollo Lee_J11 matto nine3/4 Popchartfreak Severin Spiceboy vibe WoW73 (22)