Brer

A lot of K-pop album releases come packaged with randomised photocards from a collectable set (presumably encouraging some level of excessive multibuying from superfans) which is against the OCC rules, and is a rule they seem to actually consistently enforce which is a rarity from them of course. That's part of the reason K-pop albums always do so much better in the US.

(I might have to go slightly past midnight, don't shoot me )

The only reason I (vaguely) know who your artist is certainly has nothing to do with them being a musician x

I don't think there's likely to be any more vetoes, the person who tried to send Perrie used up all the cheapness for the month we've all been quite inspired otherwise bar two or three somewhat cheap artist choices. (Who will, per recent tradition, immediately all be hailed as the winner contenders to my annoyance!) I'm just finishing the veto research for the last batch of entries now.

That's not far off, it's pronounced 'lay-vay'. 'Viva La Vida' returning a questionable reset that I will not question x edit: and 'Yellow'

Oh yay 'Breakin' Dishes' finally getting an overdue reset and chart position - funnily enough debuting in the same position as Coldplay's 'Sparks' when it did likewise. (And lol at her actually releasing a new song this year but it's instead an album track from 2007 giving her a new top 40 hit - I thought 'Friend Of Mine' was overhated but 'Breakin' Dishes' is certainly better, an bop x)

Ooops this deadline has crept up fast - will get something in tonight obvz x

The song titles on that Sabrina album really do not give me much hope that she's dialling back the cringe any time soon. (Having said that I heard about half of 'Tears' this morning - the first thing I heard when I turned the radio on because it's impossible to avoid her on Radio 1 - and I think it sounded decent? Although I'm conscious that I said the same thing about 'Manchild' on first listen and that ended up getting very irritating very fast so let's wait to see how I feel after having to hear 'Tears' 100 times as well x)

Not Ed making a song so mid that even radio don't want to touch it

Interesting to see Laufey on the Radio 1 playlist! Yay for Florence being A-Listed <3 and the new Biffy Clyro song is quite a banger too x

Will be doing a relisten and voting this evening, sorry for being last minute x

Yes I'm sure they have their reasons (it's not like they've disappeared from the site entirely), in the immortal words of Hotlady 'that their option' at the end of the day, I just do think it's notable and a bit of a shame that we've gone from having a pretty consistent handful of nations who tended to often fill that particular niche to basically all of them being gone in such a relatively short timeframe. (Of course we still get retro entries from other countries, just not as consistently - this reminding me that still to this day I've only ever sent one song from pre-2000 to the main contest!)

I just mentioned your upcoming anniversary in this thread a few hours ago so that's on you if you still forget about it (also yay for a Suedeonia return! has been a while - I notice the whole 'retro bloc' seems to have (mostly) silently evaporated in the last year or so, wherefore art thou Singerpurear and Tartford as well?)

'Blue Weekend' opened with 36.2k so it's looking like this album will be a slight step down. (Having given it a listen today it's not as good as 'Blue Weekend' imo so fair, still happy to see them heading for a second #1 and still a pretty respectable sales figure).

Am also not really too keen on 'Dive' oops so am glad 'Lady Lady' got its moment in the top 40 before being overtaken at least ~ will be interesting to see how much of a splash her new album tracks make after how much her back catalogue has been rallying.