Brer

Oops sorry everyone, I am fine, just slept through my alarms and only just woken up now lol :drama: I guess it's too late to start now so we'll just be taking an unplanned pause and will be back next week (luckily I have everything prepared for it now so that saves some effort next week).

Poor brave 'Cold Reactor' having its run split cleanly in two resulting in missing the top 20 both years </3 but 2 years in the top 40 is great going I suppose, still a 10/10 no notes indie pop track. Can't remember if I've heard 'Into Gold' before now, I thought I had but it wasn't really coming back to me so maybe I'm thinking of another song from them, in any case it's pretty much the classic London Grammar sound and great stuff from them as always (particularly love the ramped up instrumental near the end), it's a shame they seem to be in decline commercially now with this album falling a fair bit short of giving them another #1 but still top 3 with decent sales so could be worse. 'Perfect Stranger' is sounding better than I remembered, perhaps helped by seeing the video for the first time which as usual from twigs is excellent, I knew I recognised someone in the video but couldn't place who it was, from your commentary I now realise it was Yves Tumor :magic: Obviously a less artsy offering from her but considering 'holy terrain' was my favourite single from 'MAGDALENE' that's not a deal breaker for me. I felt a little gaslit by people claiming Addison Rae's music was good actually for a long time (still think 'Diet Pepsi' is highly overrated oop) but 'Aquamarine' is the first song I have liked from her so I'd like to see her continue with this sound, shame it fell off pretty quickly commercially though aw. A brilliant back to back of punchy female fronted rock songs in the middle of this section, knew SPRINTS already from their great BJSC entry which primed me to want to check out their album anyway (agreed with this being one of the big highlights although my absolute fave was 'Shaking Their Hands') but Mannequin Pussy were a discovery for me from your chart, their album is also on my list to catch up with so hopefully it can bring some more bangers like this x 'Floor' was the only Jadakissnia entry to get an 18 from me in 2024 but it's still only my second favourite, I presume my biggest fave is still to come unless I'm badly misremembering its chart run for you! Another glorious darkwave tune with an absolute killer hook, was quite heartbreaking to read about the circumstances behind the album it came from but I suppose it's good that Cash's last work still got to see the light of day eventually. Your Waterbaby entry got 5 points from me and I think I like 'Butterfly House' about as much as that one, a lovely dreamy track. Finally heard Vampire Weekend's album now and it's pretty fantastic from front to back, 'Mary Boone' is my least favourite of the singles but still very good, love the trip-hop influence in the production. I have grown to quite like 'Angel Of My Dreams' and I definitely appreciate the boldness going with it as a lead single, in stark contrast to Perrie's first solo single being the definition of safe radio filler for example, but there's something holding me back from fully stanning it still, it has moments of greatness throughout but I think the song as a whole is just a little bit too all over the place and inconsistent (the pre-chorus part in particular I don't really like, sounds too much like a throwback to Little Mix's more middling singles). The video existing in the same cinematic universe as 'Starburster' is kind of iconic though. I have high hopes that she'll be capable of making some really good stuff in the future anyway (and as posted before I am a bigger fan of 'Fantasy'), I do need to check out 'IT girl' soon ofc x

This week's #2s: Bobby Brown - On Our Own Calloway - I Wanna Be Rich The Cure - Lovesong Donny Osmond - Soldier Of Love Heart - All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You Jane Child - Don't Wanna Fall In Love Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation Jody Watley - Real Love Linda Ronstadt - Don't Know Much (feat. Aaron Neville) Madonna - Cherish Madonna - Express Yourself Milli Vanilli - Girl You Know It's True New Kids On The Block - Cover Girl Roxette - Dangerous Seduction - Two To Make It Right Sheena Easton - The Lover In Me Tears For Fears - Sowing The Seeds Of Love Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam Tone Lōc - Wild Thing Warrant - Heaven ~ Three very obvious standouts for me: The Cure - Lovesong Tears For Fears - Sowing The Seeds Of Love Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam

Just gonna give this a bump as we have fewer votes than the last few weeks - anyone yet to vote you have until 4pm tomorrow (Sunday)!

Think I'll finally give Sam & Dave - Soul Man a play this week after it only got one nomination as a #2 bonus. RIP Sam Moore x Need to do some cross referencing again to figure out what gets a play from Elton! edit: also just remembered Peter Yarrow died this week too so likewise can finally give a play to 'Puff, The Magic Dragon' which also got 1 vote as a #2 bonus - ofc if anyone would rather a different song then feel free to suggest x

I mean it kinda does though. He's basically the Spanish speaking world's Taylor Swift. It's on you if you're somehow not aware how big he is and has been for quite a few years now, you don't need to live in a country he's big in to be aware of his numbers x

I had forgotten about this... they clearly could have actually put her on the 2024 list and been able to legitimately claim they called it then (although I don't think she'd have beaten The Last Dinner Party anyway).

I was expecting to be on my own voting for Evanescence for a while so happy to see there are a few others already x (not surprised at the song leading though and that would be my 2nd pick as well)

Voted for Kelly Clarkson ~

Switched to Rachel Stevens now.

...apart from the one you sent to BJSC I presume :magic: (as a featured artist, mind x)

I had intended to finally start playing this again in the new year but kinda forgot oops - I'll try and resume from next week, may or may not catch up on the rounds from last week depending on if I find the time and motivation to x

What a shock that one of the biggest artists on global Spotify has a new song doing well, truly out of nowhere xox

Finally listened to this now - I really liked 'Straight And Narrow' from Sam before and had heard a clip of this one from Billboard Breakdown and thought it sounded like it'd be up my street as well, and indeed I'm really loving it straight away :heart: very much in the same wheelhouse as Zach Bryan so it's great to see another artist of that ilk blowing up now. I'm sure it will still go top 40 in the coming weeks but if it does actually end up peaking at #41 I'm going to be mad given the dubious circumstances behind a couple of this week's re-entries x

It's not 'every indie band' though. It seems completely random whether bands from that era can manage to pull off sales increases or not. There have definitely been previous weeks where I thought albums like this might do quite well but then they made no noise. Sabrina's sales have fallen off a little more than I realised so FF might only need 10k to get #1 which seems feasible.

The artist credit for this 'Tweaker' song seems to be completely different on Kworb / Apple Music than it is on Spotify :thinking: Bad Bunny has jumped to #1 now with 'DtMF', also #1 on Apple Music and coming very close to dethroning 'Die With A Smile' on the global Spotify chart. I'd say it could be contending to give him a first Hot 100 #1 as lead artist at this rate but I presume airplay would be a major uphill battle so might need to gain a lot more still on streaming.

Ooh another double bill of Charli tracks - I actually heard the Billie version of 'Guess' before the original and since it's one of the few remixes that was just adding a guest vocalist rather than being a radical overhaul it does make the original feel quite incomplete as a result, Charli and Billie have such great chemistry! But it's another strong electroclash-esque song from her either way and pretty funny on the lyrical front (I love her alluding to the Google Drive leaks lol). 'So I' on the other hand is definitely one where both the original and the remix stand on their own feet and are both great for their own reasons, the original was by far my favourite of the more downbeat songs from the original album and the remix is such a beautiful complement to it focusing on different aspects of her history with SOPHIE (plus the new production is great and a good call to bring in A. G. Cook for it). Also cool to see two Fontaines songs together here, I wasn't wowed on my first listen of 'Bug' but revisiting it now it's definitely growing on me a lot albeit it just sounds like a fairly typical album track from them (which is still not a bad thing x) so I am a little perplexed at it becoming so popular to be honest, although at least has been good to see 'Favourite' and 'Starburster' getting second winds alongside it. 'Sundowner' stands out a lot more to me, beautiful track and interesting to hear another member of the band getting the vocal spotlight. First time hearing this Chalk song and they're definitely a band I need to be paying more attention to, loving the mix of post-punk and electronic elements here, actually quite similar to the sound of the Fat Dog song in this section I guess but I think I like it even more! 'All The Same' is great too if not quite as memorable for me as their more wacky songs. 'DAUGHTER' stands alongside 'RIIVERDANCE' for me as the most effective implementations of Beyoncé's genre bending on 'COWBOY CARTER', I do appreciate the diversity but it felt a little bit too on the nose at some points, kinda wish she left out a couple of the skits that were alluding to it as it makes it come across a bit forced. The incorporation of operatic elements into the country sound really works well here though and it's definitely one of the most lyrically compelling songs from the album too. Wasn't really on the hype train for Caroline Polachek until this album but it really blew me away and the additions from last year's deluxe were very much just a gift that kept giving, 'Coma' was my fave of the additional tracks, I probably ought to give the original version a listen at some point oops but an inspired choice of cover. As I've just posted in the chart forum I thought 'Fantasy' was actually better than JADE's bigger hit and it's a shame it fell so flat commercially as I don't see why it couldn't have been a bigger hit, maybe it's just the 'What's Your Pleasure?' stan in me talking but I think she does this sound really well, think this has overtaken 'Don't Say Love' as my favourite solo Mix release to date. And I don't want my earlier comment re 'Hyper Feminine' to come across as if I don't like it, I still gave it 1 point in BJSC, just thought it was one which sounded like the artist had potential to make something I would like more and obviously that did prove to be the case! Could probably have done with the vocal line in this one being repeated a little bit less but it's still great on the instrumental front.

How long will this be open for? I'll try and get around to doing this (and the end of year Electronic poll too).

The first edition had a remix of Lizzo's 'About Damn Time' in it but other than that indeed there haven't been any top 40 hits entered until this one (where we have two of them). I guess it was never a rule that you couldn't send them but people were following somewhat of an honour code until now :kink:

^ I think it's more likely to overtake 'Lose Control' when the album comes out (or just another week down the line, we've seen how long it takes all of his hits so far to peak!)

New Music Friday boost has put Bad Bunny's 'BAILE INoLVIDABLE' in at #113! I remember there was one song from his last album that briefly made the Spotify top 200 too but maybe this one could actually have a shot at finally giving him a top 100 hit not accompanied by a big Anglophone artist... Great that Lola is gaining momentum again but still a lot of ground to make up. Hopefully she can get to #2 this week at least.

I honestly thought 'Fantasy' was both better than 'Angel Of My Dreams' and sounded more like a hit but I guess that's just me oop She really seems to have been pushing 'IT girl' a lot for it to allegedly be just a 'promo single'. Odd case. Also I'm not gonna be complaining if Teddy Swims' success with other songs ends up denying 'Lose Control' the chart longevity record due to the 3 track rule, not least because his other 2 charting songs atm are both worlds better. Despite obviously being an undebiably huge hit 'Lose Control' still feels like such an inconsequential song to be threatening records set by 'Blinding Lights'.

I understand the argument there (I alluded to it in my own post) but if that's really such a grave concern for them then it just feels like the point of the award has been so compromised to the point where it's time for it to end or at least rebrand. Maybe it should just be left as a shortlist rather than proclaiming a single winner so they can have it both ways (although I realise that would be less of a prestigious selling point for marketing purposes etc.) (Also in fairness I do still see people bringing up the Bon Iver thing from time to time, but then the Grammys are their own whole category of farce)

Ooh the certifications keep rolling in for Fontaines D.C., 'I Love You' is one of my faves from them as well <3 Yay for 'm.A.A.d city' and '2 On' trickling to the platinum mark (both songs that never made the top 100 here as well, the former is an album track tbf x), the gold certs for 'Be Alright' and 'Go' and the silver cert for 'American Heartbreak' (is that Zach's first certified album here or did the self-titled get there already?) Plus ofc *.* at 'BRAT' going platinum, crazy just how much this has lapped the field of her previous albums' successes - might have now sold more than all her other albums combined?

Jimin coming to be kept on SCR all year by his bots now? :mansoncheer: