dandy*

It’s a beaut!! I’m really hoping for Amie or Eskimo as I adore those

@King Rollo I suspect you’ll find Lisa Hannigan cropping up on a few more Damien Rice entries as she plays quite a fundamental part on a lot of his early material. They worked so wonderfully together that, musically at least, it’s a shame they went their separate ways.

01 Kate Bush - Hounds of Love - Just about wins the battle of the top 2 for me, both are 10/10 tracks but this is one of Kate's perfect trio of singles from the same album. 02 Dido - White Flag - Reminds me of when Mr D* and I first met, we used to play the album a lot so it has a lot of memories for me. 03 Robyn - Talk to Me - There's a few songs I prefer from the latest album but this is still another solid single from my favourite Swede 04 Agnes - Selfmade - Enjoyed this, I don't know much about Agnes aside from a handful of songs so looking forward to seeing what she has to bring 05 Adele - Hello - Not my favourite from her but the vocal is pretty undeniable and good enough for top half. I wish I'd thought to send her! 06 Tove Lo feat. Wiz Khalifa - Influence - There are a lot of her songs that I prefer to this but it's still decent enough 07 MARINA - Bubblegum Bitch - Haven't heard this in ages but I have a soft spot for all the earlier Marina material 08 Milica Pavlović - Ona nosi Pradu - Unsurprisingly I didn't know this before and thought it was a pretty sound track 09 Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Music Gets the Best of Me - Not a particular favourite of mine but I do think this is a very sensible choice for the first round 10 Leona Lewis - Better in Time (Single Mix) - I'm possibly being a bit harsh on this one but I've never been that keen on her voice, sorry! 11 Jessie Ware - Sauna - Her latest album hasn't really grabbed me much at all, it's the first one I haven't bothered buying. This is okay but I don't see me returning to it. 12 Zara Larsson - Love Me Land - I don't know that much Zara at all but from the love she gets on here I'm assuming she has a lot better to come, this one wasn't for me I'm afraid

When I first started buying I got loads of things but I'm being far more selective these days and only really buying things where I think I'll enjoy the album and I feel like it's a package that I will enjoy aesthetically as well. I do think sometimes that I enjoy looking at them more than actually listening to them!!

Time to do the boys... 01 Damien Rice - 9 Crimes - there's so much clear water between this and the others for me. I still listen to loads of songs from his 3 albums and if the mentor plays it right then I could very easily vote him top every time <3 02 Tom Grennan - Found What I've Been Looking For - surprising myself here as I wouldn't say I liked Tom at all, but I really liked the vibe of this. 03 Calvin Harris - Feel So Close (Radio Edit) - One of his best imo 04 Roosevelt - Luna - I'd forgotten that Roosevelt existed before he popped up here but I did quite enjoy his material and this is a fun and summer breezy kinda track 05 Gary Numan - We Are Glass - Decent opener for Gary, one of his strongest songs that I already know 06 Sam Smith - Diamonds - I've never been the biggest fan of Sam's music but this was a decent one from them 07 Sam Fender - Chin Up - I don't know that many songs of his, in fact probably only the bigger singles. This sounded kinda like I would have expected but it was decent enough 08 Lewis Capaldi - Hold Me While You Wait - I've never really liked his music tbh but this one is okay. 09 HRVY & Malú Trevejo - Hasta Luego - Not really something I'd ever choose to listen to but again it was okay for what it was 10 Darin - Lovekiller - This started off quite well as the video began, but then he started singing and it got worse. Lyrically I just found it really tacky. I did quite like the production value though so there's potential for me to like some of his other stuff. 11 Mackenzy Mackay - Want You For Life - Sadly this was one of those songs that I forget as soon as it's over - sorry! 12 Bladee - Cartier’god Icedancer (Intermission) - I was so disappointed by this as I don't usually mind Bladee! But this was just a very unusual choice, I'm sad that I'm having to put him last!

Imaginal Disc is really pretty - took me a while to track it down but eventually found one at a reasonable price. One of the times where Blood records definitely got it right

Apologies for the photo dump but here’s some of the records I’ve bought over the past couple of months… inspired by the bonobo one that’s just arrived and the insane matching of artwork to record design… and followed by some others that I also think are particularly pretty and well coordinated in their design.

The wording of this did make me giggle.

I'm not going to lock the thread because I think there's a lot of decent debate happening here - but I am going to ask that we quit with the personal remarks and any unnecessary posts about niggles with each other, they're just derailing the conversation.

Can you imagine if Buzzjack existed during World War II. "Have you heard that Doris Day refused to cancel her gig in Germany after hearing that her support singer was against the genocide happening in the concentration camps there?" "OMG tell me about it. I always knew she was a wrong un since that week in 1942 when she strategically released all those signed sheet music to stop The Andrews Sisters from finally making #1 that week"

It only happened once Calum had announced who was behind those people who'd been knocked out - and not everyone did it, just those of us that wanted to finally be able to talk a bit more about the acts we'd sent. So last year it was only once we were certain that Calum had no more tricks up his sleeve to bring anyone back - so I'm definitely not suggesting people should break anonymity at all before Calum has chosen to reveal them or he'd likely be most unhappy with me

I can see that side of things to be fair. If it does stay as it is (or to be honest even if it doesn't) this point is where I liked it last year when people posted to explain about why they chose their acts once they had gone out as it made me still read more about the acts and people's connections to them... and within that I'd be really happy to also take time to listen to a few other songs by those acts as well if the people who sent them included ones they really would have loved to send etc.

I definitely assumed someone was likely to be going home in round one as it's part of how this style of format usually works on the shows (and indeed as others have mentioned last time was more an anomaly to the usual format for a shock twist) I do get that it will be disappointing for people if they happen to go first but song selection and taking risks and then nervously waiting to see if they pay off or not is kinda part of the game isn't it?

Let's do the groups first then... 01 iamamiwhoami - play (best) - I've been listening to yammywhammy quite a lot over the past month and Play still stands up as being one of her best (although still better to come imo so hoping that they get through a few rounds at least) 02 Vengaboys - We Like to Party! (The Vengabus) - haha, the catchiness and fun levels are just difficult to deny! I bought this back when it was out and genuinely really enjoyed listening to it again, great example of 90s europop/dance done really well. 03 Bananarama - Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye) - I was a bit meh when I saw this in the line up but then ended up enjoying it way more than I expected, the chanting chorus is actually one of their most distinctive and I'd forgotten how good it is. 04 M83 feat. Susanne Sundfør - Oblivion - I love most things with Susanne's vocals on them and this is no different. Very solid choice. 05 Sade - The Sweetest Taboo - I'm looking forward to hopefully getting to hear more from Sade as I don't know them well at all aside from their two main hits. This was a nice vibe and I liked the chilled nature of it... they're often cited as a band that influenced trip hop acts so I'm really intrigued by them. 06 New Order - Ruined in a Day - I bought this back when it came out but it wasn't as strong as I remember it being. The production was quite dated and not one of the songs I return to often from the Republic album (I prefer the likes of Regret (obvs), Spooky (totally underrated) and Young Offender. 07 Fontaines D.C. - A Lucid Dream - A decent starter for them, it's not one that I'm particularly familiar with as I kinda skimmed past them before Romance. 08 Ultravox - Sleepwalk - Another decent starter. I don't know that much Ultravox outside of the Vienna album if I'm honest and thought this had potential to grow. 09 Depeche Mode - See You - This absolutely pains me as I love Depeche Mode and many of their songs will rank highly for me... but this one just isn't a favourite of mine, I'm much more into their darker sounding material. It's not bad though. 10 Years & Years - Take Shelter - This actually reached #1 on my personal chart back when I compiled them so I was really looking forward to hearing it again - but it really didn't do much for me now. Hopefully they will progress through fine though as I know I still like a lot of their other singles. 11 Texas - When We Are Together - I think I bought this single when it was released but I don't recall playing it very often. I wouldn't turn it off if it came on the radio but it's not something I'd go back to again these days really. 12 Dead or Alive - Misty Circles - I'm really sorry to whoever has sent this because I genuinely do admire you for choosing a less obvious act and I went into it hoping that I'd like it... but if I'm honest it didn't do much for me at all, quite of its time and could have been more distinctive.

It’s actually quite tough when an act who you love does something questionable… I felt the same as you T Boy when Roísin Murphy’s trans statements happened and needed time to level everything, I just wanted to believe that she didn’t really think like that and there would be some sort of explanation that kinda made it okay. But then there wasn’t and it just got worse instead 😕

I've just checked my Adele playlist and now Brer mentions it, Hello actually didn't make the cut ooops so I take back what I said and change my stance to Brer's correct opinion.

It's really interesting to see the songs people have chosen, quite a variance between acts of whether they've gone for a big hit or something more under the radar. And without giving anything away - imagine my surprise/confusion when I saw that my act doesn't actually have the song I had meticulously planned to send for them! But then going back to my planning notes and realising how it ended up on the form 🫣😂

It's really not - pot kettle black would be Pink calling out Ed Sheeran. Not people on a forum condemning something that has been brought into topic. It's quite insulting to suggest that people's views about a very serious issue come down to whether they like Ed or not, and it's just really disproportionate to enter any of this into a context around genocide of all things. I hadn't seen the Pink story at all before it was mentioned in this thread and I'm equally as disappointed by her as I am by Ed, if not more so.

I don't think this is a sensible line of argument tbh. It's a slightly more important subject than whether Ed is popular with people or not, why trivialise it? Platforms are important and how people use them is also important, Thom Yorke suffered similar backlashes before for similar reasons. And as Addy! says above, people disagree with P!nk's stance on it as well. The important thing isn't whether it was Ed's decision to remove Macklemore or not, it's whether they choose to paper over what's happening in the statement when they had an opportunity to do the right thing. I get that he's found himself in the middle of something he may not have anticipated being in, or something that he may not even feel well informed to comment on - and in that case he didn't have to make a statement at all... but that statement is one designed to protect revenue, it's about PR.

White Flag!! I mean it's a great track but this is early for it. Could say the same for Adele but it's kinda fitting to open with Hello

9 Crimes <3 One of my favourites from Calvin Harris being entered in round 1 as well.

OMG at me genuinely thinking the Vengaboys have one of the best songs here!

Yeah, I don't think this is a witch hunt against Ed! He's chosen his stance on it and it's a stance that very few people on this site are likely to agree with. It's not really comparable to people grumbling about an album drop or something! And it's the same for anyone - take Roísin Murphy and her comments about trans people, she didn't get a pass on her views just because we loved her music

Haha! I think the main thing for me is that any talk around other versions doesn’t detract from how you’d want to run these in future. Plus more isn’t always more.

I think this may be one of those times when an act goes from decent debut to fully formed vision on their second album. Both tracks so far are wonderful