dandy*

Argh at people voting for my fave so early, it’s a fantastic dance track!! (Love Story btw, although Tell Me Why is good as well)

Silent Shout was my favourite album of 2006 so very happy to see the title track doing well here. I remember also finding the vocals off putting at first but they just seem normal to me now, they just add to the overall aesthetic once you get used to them. Marble House was my favourite from the album but the 4 singles in particular were all 10/10

We finished watching it over the weekend. I still have similar views to my earlier ones… I didn’t hate it all but ultimately I just found it too stylised and I found it left quite a shallow feeling when it had ended - the reliance on almost play monologues in stand alone key scenes felt less impactful each time that technique was used, and the way that plotlines were retrospectively dropped in for twists meant that I found they weren’t explored properly. For example Reuben’s need to help provide money for everyone would have been better explored if we’d have seen it happen, it’s something I can see as being expected of men in certain circles and would have been good to explore it properly. The shade to his character was only really hinted at in retrospect so he remained thoroughly unlikeable as a character to me and the obvious reveal about him being abused came across in the narrative like it’s not his fault he’s like that which was a bit crap - and on the whole I found Gadd’s portrayal too ‘grunty’ and kinda like an OTT manga version of a character type. Niall ended up being not much better and I found myself not caring in the slightest whether either or both of them ended up dead. And was relatively happy when both did indeed die. Niall’s plot left me cold because I found elements like having sex with Reuben’s wife to be borderline unbelievable for his character. I also find it difficult to believe he’d spend £60K on conversion therapy - maybe that happens, who knows, but I don’t know of anyone who’s paid for themselves to go, especially not in the era that it supposedly happened in - it was a bit cliche. I also simply don’t believe he’d let his guard down to tell Reuben about his wife and son. With Baby Reindeer both main characters were flawed but both had moments of likeability. In this both the leads were just impenetrable in their unlikeability. Worst of all, I saw most of the twists coming a mile off - so the writing style of introducing key things retrospectively just didn’t shock or surprise me. The Reuben plot I mentioned in the first paragraph was one of the few things I didn’t totally see coming which is why it stood out for me. And the premise was set up like the two characters would have represented two halves of men… and I assume that the idea behind the title was they could form a whole man between them? Or that they could be better? But by the end I just thought that even if you took the limited best qualities of both and merged them you’d still end up with a twat. On the plus side I did think much of it was acted well - and there were moments that made me smile or laugh unexpectedly. I did think some of the ‘set piece’ monologue style bits were effective. I’d probably give it a 5/10 which is sad as I was hoping to like it a lot more than that… but it still did have potential as an idea to be a lot more if things had been portrayed a bit more subtly and plots handled less bluntly.

I didn’t like this one at the time… because I was a huge Erasure stan and hated everything that was higher than Always as I had hoped that would debut at #1 😂 But I do now like it, it would definitely be top 5 for me. And I’m delighted to see that we share the same favourite for 1994, great track

Congratulations Addy! Wasn’t the biggest fan of the top two this time around but that’s okay, lots of my faves ended up making the top 10 so good results on the whole… aside from my own of course, the less said about that the better! 🫣

Oh no… that’s zero from the two people I’d have guessed may have voted for Endless Deathless before the results began… this could be a long evening! 😂🫣 It’s a good job I don’t have high hopes… but aside from that it feels like this is a good start for some of my faves

I really liked it at the time (and had bought U R The Best Thing back in 1992 or 1993 so it was nice seeing them get success) but these days I'd rate it a bit lower as I find it a little irritating. It's okay but I'd never choose to play it.

I’m in the this is dull camp. It doesn’t go far enough into the laid back synth vibe for me to be on board with it from a production angle; where as it doesn’t have enough of a hook for me to love it as a pop song. Pleasant but not something I’ll return to.

A rare and slightly off the top of my head chart of what's on the virtual stereo chez dand 01 Slayyyter - DANCE... 02 Rare DM - Honey 03 Tyondai Braxton - UnFS 04 Rare DM - LA Traffic 05 Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Ruin 06 wing! - Hold Them To It 07 Slayyyter - BRITTANY MURPHY 08 Robyn - Into The Sun 09 GENER8ION & Yung Lean - STORM II 10 DJ_Dave - Fail-safe 11 The Chemical Brothers - Go 12 Lucia & The Best Boys - Big Romance 13 Overmono - Lockup 14 Paula Kelley - Static 15 Casablanca Drivers - Fears 16 Guedra Guedra - Paradigm 17 Tove Lo - I'm your girl right? 18 Olivia Rodrigo - The Cure 19 Boards of Canada - Prophecy at 1420 Mhz 20 Fat Dog ~ Go f*** Urself

Only just heard this and on first listen it is by far my favourite thing I've heard by her, really enjoying it

(The award for most unsurprising post of the year goes to)... I couldn't resist as well

FINALLY we're getting a release that contains the full tracklist from the three parts of the album! (Quite aside from any version of this being expensive so definitely one to grab if you are looking for the album at a reasonable price!!) https://store.robyn.com/products/complete-body-talk-vinyl-2lp?variant=57452580700491&srsltid=AfmBOoqcFTFWkVXguw_ZWJyC3ji8_g3GuKZuoj1Lj9SSK-kyoK4o31Xi

Have to disagree with PCF on the Prince track... I wasn't particularly fussed at the time but since I've really grown to love Controversy, it's really very ahead of its time considering it was first released in 1981 and I really love the contrast between the stark verses and the chorus. The edit in 1993 made it easier to digest as well seeing as the original was pretty long.

I can never remember how that song goes - I've just had to listen to it now to remind myself... which is really odd as I could definitely sing any of the other #1s from this era (if not the 90s as a whole)... yet when I do listen to it, I enjoy it and remember which one it is - but I've already forgotten how it goes again. It's definitely an outlier in the #1s from the time, but one that I'm glad made it as it's good to have something different. Despite me not recalling how it goes, I'd also rank it highly.

I loved it… then I hated it… now we’re on speaking terms

I wish there was a studio version of some of these versions, Die With a Smile in particular <3

Little Fluffy Clouds! <3 Also like the Urban Cookie Collective track, a good follow up

Free pass for Christine though surely?

I had The Victory Lap on my list of potentials for BJSC for a few months but it never quite made it. Listened to the album a couple of times at the time and I enjoyed it, but for some reason I’ve not returned to it since - will try to rectify that!

🤭

Oh I'm not sure that FLJ have ever opened a final before, certainly feels like a long time ago if we have... cue Brer telling me it happened as recently as 2025 or something

I think I lost just two of my votes from SF2, FSR Rontvia and Persephonia

This is an awful final two, enjoyed both their entries :/

Hoping to qualify but definitely think it is less certain than the predictions suggested - one of those situations where people feel others should like it but nobody is saying they actually liked it - similar to 2515 last month

A shame about Drake (sentence could usually end here) denying Go a top 5 place. Hope they manage to climb a bit next week whilst it still has some momentum