dandy*

Poison is indeed good fun, an unexpectedly poppy return from him (for the genre). I used to like that Martika song, it's a bit of its time but it was distinctive in its theme and chanting sound.

Another huge fan of Torn here, it was such an unexpected moment to have a song like that from someone in Neighbours (no offence Kylie!) and it's a huge shame it happened to be up against Aqua doing incredible numbers. Not really a fan of anything else that's new over these weeks, with N-Trance being particularly awful. I bought the Embrace track at the time and whilst it was designed to sound anthemic, it always fell a little short for me. I don't think they ever released a single that I thought was amazing.

Whilst you say you're not a hater of the artist, you basically come across as exactly that because you're straying from using an album to demonstrate what (you are assuming) is happening to just having petty digs at her. Her last studio album was actually my favourite album of the year it was released, it was brilliant and was correctly reviewed favourably almost everywhere. And actually I'd say it really did make her stand out as a voice that was very different to everything else I was hearing at the time. Her new one is less brilliant in my opinion as I think it lacks the subtlety of her previous one, it's probably a 6/10 for me. But I can see why some critics would rate it, and reviewers have always been a little hyperbolic at times so I don't see that quote you mention as being really much different to something that many other journalists would roll out.

LÖL

I just had a complete panic as I think Debby Friday was my 10 in the semi and I had the nightmare of not voting and costing something a win... but I've just listened to Addy's track and I liked it a lot so I'm pretty certain I'd have voted for it too - phew!

Apologies again that I didn't manage to vote @Josh! but I'll definitely keep an eye on this to see who does well, plus I'll try to finally listen to those in SF1 who the countries with similar taste to me pointed so that I can see what I've missed out on ☺️

Sadly can't see the story but is the CD/DVD the one with the plain pink cover with green symbol on it?

Oh definitely in 1989 - it was the first album I bought myself, which is why the singles hold special memories

I would never have expected the London Boys album to have made #2 either! I've just looked it up and it actually spent 25 weeks top 40 😂

I don't think I'm going to get chance to vote in this, sorry Josh. It wouldn't be particularly fair if I did as I haven't listened to the SF1 tracks at all as I've been busy with work and, when not, it's been too nice outside in the sunshine

Eusexua top 3 for eleven weeks!

Would be happy with either P!nk or Razorlight going tbh, but went with the former. In my head P!nk always began at Get the Party Started

Rabbit Heart for me. Easily my favourite song of the 10 and something I was absolutely obsessed by when it was out.

These votes for Deadmau5 need to stop, it's a great track!!! Think I'll settle on Steps. I don't mind the occasional track from them but this was not them at their best.

I had this 🤭 Had a link to the KLF, which now I'm listening you can kind of tell

It just genuinely is my least favourite of the bunch. I've been listening to her back catalogue a lot over the past few weeks as I wanted to make an album/playlist of what I think she should do on tour (geek alert) and I found myself putting all of the other songs listed above on it before I found a way to incorporate Poker Face. It isn't awful or anything, but generally speaking I don't like the songs from the Fame as much as I do singles from subsequent albums; and I prefer Paparazzi to it by some distance. And I absolutely love Always Remember Us This Way, it's absolutely beautiful and doesn't deserve to be going... my rank would be something like: 01 Disease (total recency bias really but I'm REALLY enjoying this of late) 02 Always Remember Us This Way 03 Telephone 04 Rain On Me 05 Judas (this has grown on me, I always found the chorus awful but I love the production and verses/bridge still - plus the Hurts version exists and I like that too) 06 Poker Face

LON-DON NIGHTS! Hurrah for them getting a second hit so quickly. I hadn't listened to that in a while but, having just done so, I can see why I liked it so much at the time. Realistically they only really had these two songs that were any good but they still hold a lot of memories for me. I like the PSB cover of It's Alright. I agree that it isn't a huge move away from the original in terms of style, I've always assumed it was an underground track that they wanted to bring to the masses as opposed to covering an already well known song where they changed it more significantly.

I listened to this earlier and my lasting impression was that it felt a bit too much and missed some shade, I kinda want to describe it as being a bit brash and blunt sounding. There were bits I enjoyed though, Focus is Power and If Not Now, It's Soon sounded better in the album than they did as stand alone singles - but I'm still not a fan of 69, the lyrical content just isn't something I'll ever enjoy listening to. Cheers To Me sounded like the strongest melody and was undeniably catchy, probably the best stand alone track for me. I Do and I Don't Care felt like a bit of a retread of I Do This All The Time, it was okay but I definitely would always choose to listen to the latter. In Plain Sight and Lies were probably the two others that I liked the most on first play, although I think that was partly because they felt like a little bit of a change. I'm not going to write it off too quickly though as I do think she's really talented, at worst I think there will be a few keepers to add to my playlist of Prioritise Pleasure.

Agreed with everyone else so far that it was another great episode, I love how much of a contrast it was to last week also. The way it built up the tension was done well and it managed to cleverly use one setting for a long period of the episode without it getting stale. They did exactly the right thing to keep the creature pretty mysterious as revealing what it looks like will ruin it. The only thing I think they could potentially have done was have them trying to manoeuvre through the station more once they realised what was happening, but it was still just fine as it was.

Be Mine should have made the final 😢 Like gooddelta was saying, I knew it before she became popular in 2007 and it was such a strong pop single and the first of hers to demonstrate that knack for melody and poignant lyrics that she excels at. This round is tough - my favourite is way ahead of the other two, and would have also beaten Robyn for me to be fair

Haha, we always used to sing got a license to kilt as well! Liking both the Beautiful South and Cyndi Lauper songs since I last commented. The Prince and U2 songs are okay as well.

Wow that's a great start, much higher than I was expecting for her!

I’ll start my lonely journey here… but Poker Face

Great news! Her album worked its way to being one of my very favourites of last year, definitely top 5 of the year material <3

Just listened for the first time and I’m liking, but not loving it. The verses are strong but there’s something about the breakdown sections that feel like they don’t quite hit hard enough, particularly the final section. But it’s still good and I’m still excited to have her back