Ghoulian

I wonder who would have sent a 9 minute song by 10cc. 🤔

I had to vote for her anyway as wasn’t keen on the other two - sorry!

“Green And Pink” is my favourite but I’m sure “I Got A Gun” would do well.

In #187, like in #186, we just did enough to clear the semifinal, in fact scoring exactly the same number of points (56). However this time our final result of 36th / 42 was in line with what you might expect from a low qualifier, whereas in #186 the early expectations were smashed. Interestingly we only had slightly fewer final voters this time but as you can see suffered from low score syndrome. We suspect there was a lot of “we appreciate this more than we love it”. However the low scores are still very lovely to receive even if they don’t move the dial on the scoreboard much, so thank you everyone! Our impression so far is that BJSC tends to favour upbeat numbers with advanced production, on both the pop and alt sides. Our goal will therefore continue to be to feature striking songs that mainly use traditional instruments.

BJSC 187: Serafina Steer - Night Before Mutiny Semifinal - 19th (56 points) Final - 36th (125 points) Votes given: 18 FSR Rontvia // HENGE - Mushroom One 15 Fljótavík // Cain Culto - a plague, a pestilence 13 Séyetana // Portraits Of Tracy - Caught In A Jam 12 Zanmatony // Black Mighty Orchestra - Ocean Beach (Cybophonia Cinematic Remix) 11 Herbilore // Boys Go To Jupiter - Lovers Always Lose 10 Danæviia // Liminal - The Crop 9 The Spodic Empire // waist - bravado 8 Elëdan // Roly Porter - An Open Door 7 Trifoski // MEMORIALS - Dropped Down The Well 6 Lentyll // RAY - MOD 5 Jadakissnia // tlen - patnik 4 Kathaldazia // Dev Lemons - eat the pavement 3 Terra Avium // The Haunted Youth - falling to pieces 2 Skall // Domenique Dumont - Visages Visages 1 Deandria // Collide - Freak Like Me Votes received (20): 18 Fljótavik 13 Sovarasma 13 The Spodic Empire 12 Jadakissnia 12 A-Konohagakure 10 Aelandor 9 Deandria 8 Pagasa 5 Neliönoir 4 Séyetana 3 Terra Avium 3 Bronzil 3 FSR Rontvia 3 Trifoski 3 Persephonia 2 Kathaldazia 1 Skall 1 Zephyra Continuum 1 Lentyll 1 Ennea

I like “Heard It All Before” but the other 4 are stronger.

Oh I considered this for the retro trip hop contest but realised it was (just) released in the wrong century. So I went with “2 Wicky” instead, which came 7th but I feel like this might have done better.

It hasn’t been a very exciting year for the singles chart but it’s shaping up to be an incredibly tight battle for the year end #1. Just as I think one song has it wrapped up the other comes back. At one point “Man I Need” was doing almost the same weekly numbers as “Rein Me In” and looked safe, but then the latter pulled away very strongly in weekly sales and looked like it was going to close the gap very quickly. Now they’ve narrowed again. “Rein Me In” did 4.5k more this week and the overall gap is 81k with (I think?) 19 weeks left. I really can’t call it.

“Drive” is a fabulous example of how evocative soft rock can be: it’s such a warm and immersive track. However it’s come up against one of my all time favourites in “Together In Electric Dreams”, a song I love even more “Don’t You Want Me”, Oakey’s peak with the Human League. 10 Giorgio Moroder With Philip Oakey Together In Electric Dreams Only Top 40 creditors for either of these artists in their own right, and it's exquisite and sparkling of synth pop 9 The Cars Drive This is actually their last hit though it will be Top 5 again next year: a beautiful, wistful and emotional song 8 Alison Moyet All Cried Out One of her best remembered solo songs and it's very powerful, emotionally charged and brilliantly performed 8 The Style Council Shout To The Top Their most streamed song on Spotify: it's about the miners' strike and that riff is very memorable and effective 7 The Stranglers Skin Deep A lovely song about superficiality: their hits continue to be great even though most aren't big or well known 7 Wham! Freedom 539th #1: this is a very good, bright and breezy song, though George solo has now shown more artistic depth 7 Paul McCartney No More Lonely Nights (Ballad) Continuing a very successful run of singles, this is a rather gorgeous ballad with a Dave Gilmour guitar solo 6 Big Country East Of Eden Their 2nd album lead not managing to give them a 4th Top 10, but it has their usual expansive hopeful sound 6 Paul Young I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down A cover of a 1970s soul song, but it's well done and with some strong and punchy '80s production added 5 John Waite Missing You Very well remembered as a Heart FM staple and it is good for its genre, but everything about it is quite ordinary 5 Meat Loaf Modern Girl This is very much in the usual Meat Loaf sound world: it is enjoyable but I don't find it particularly distinctive 4 Dio Mystery 1st Top 40 after a few misses for this US band: this is fine but I find it indistinguishable from other hard rock 3 The Bluebells Cath Their last Top 40 apart from the "Young At Heart" revival: this is rather lightweight with some basic lyrics 2 Culture Club The War Song A 7th straight (and last) Top 3 but a rather poor and banal effort from them, plus the melody is quite grating 1984 Group 18: 1511 06/10/1984 Bruce Springsteen Cover Me 16 44-38-38-42-74-32R(20)-18-{16}-20-34-42-55-72->13 #1512 20/10/1984 Chaka Khan I Feel For You 1 22-5-2-{1}-1-1-2-6-14-21-25-21-25-50-63-74->16 #1513 20/10/1984 Ultravox Love's Great Adventure 12 23-13-13-{12}-12-16-30-46-65->9 #1514 20/10/1984 Spandau Ballet Highly Strung 15 25-{15}-21-30-54->5 #1515 06/10/1984 Julian Lennon Too Late For Goodbyes 6 71-42-30-12-{6}-6-9-19-34-50-75->11 #1516 13/10/1984 Kim Wilde The Second Time 29 52-33-{29}-29-37-59->6 #1517 20/10/1984 Lionel Richie Penny Lover 18 36-22-{18}-18-22-30-58->7 #1518 13/10/1984 Eugene Wilde Gotta Get You Home Tonight 18 50-39-32-24-22-{18}-23-36-52->9 #1519 13/10/1984 Feargal Sharkey Listen To Your Father 23 63-40-30-{23}-24-29-42->7 #1520 27/10/1984 Status Quo The Wanderer 7 23-{7}-7-7-10-18-31-43-53-59-66->11 #1521 13/10/1984 Billy Ocean Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run) 6 68-43-25-12-9-{6}-6-10-17-31-38-43-47-53->14 #1522 03/09/1983 ZZ Top Gimme All Your Lovin' 10 68-61-72-56R(55)-47-41-34-15-11-{10}-15-21-38-48-60-56-60-67->18 #1523 13/10/1984 Limahl Never Ending Story 4 69-47-40-20-10-5-{4}-5-10-18-27-33-43-66->14

I agree with Rich that the last category is more you than the others.

I don’t think any of the songs kicked out would have been in my bottom 10, with the obvious exception.

Chaka Khan - I Feel For You Giorgio Moroder and Philip Oakey - Together In Electric Dreams Prince And The Revolution - Purple Rain Sade - Smooth Operator The Cars - Drive

5 Severina - Moja Štikla (2006, 12th) Apparently she’s singing about various chat up attempts from local men. It’s a delightful and energetic song with traditional instruments and folk singing, and their most adventurous entry until the last few. 4 Lelek - Andromeda (2026, 15th) This didn’t do badly but deserved to do a whole lot better. It’s a hugely atmospheric track that builds beautifully with a culturally authentic feel and great interplay between the singers. 3 Maja Blagda - Sveta Ljubav (1996, 4th) 1996 seems to be doing very well so far in my reviews. I think this is quite special for its time. I love how she goes for the high notes, and the fact that it’s a song that only really has the impact on stage with a live performance.

Might check them out. You’ve not been in that long right? Do you have a thread?

Waiting to be upgraded to a top 35 smash.

OMG it’s cheap but I can’t knock you for sending like one of the greatest songs of all time!

Delighted for Séyetana, our 13 pointer! As a second timer that’s an unimaginable length of time to wait for your first win, and I’m sure knowing you it won’t have been due to a lack of strong entries along the way. Also great to see both semi last placers from 186 in the final top 5, and Rontvia was an instant 18 point smash with the New Helvetians! Nice to see a strong result for Fljótavik which was our other medalist, and thanks very much for the unexpected 18 back! 36th isn’t a great result on the face of it after 13th last time, but actually it’s really pleasing to see that we received 20 sets of votes, just many of them were very low scorers. Thanks Sovarasama and Spod for the bronzes and Jadakissnia, A-Konohagakure and Aelandor for other double figure scores. We’re a little unsure where to go next: maybe will try and find something with slightly broader appeal but keeping the New Helvetica aesthetic. And thanks Skall for the great hosting job!

10 Nina Badrić - Nebo (2012, DNQ) 2012 was well endowed with heartfelt ballads, and I think this is a really classy one, although I can see why it didn’t wow the audience. 9 Danijela - Neka Mi Ne Svane (1998, 5th) This is quite of its time but a lovely performance and very good for its style. 8 Boris Novković featuring Lado members - Vukovi Umiru Sami (2005, 11th) I really like the folk style of the instruments and backing vocals here, and the song has a satisfying rhythm. 7 Marko Bǒsnjak - Poison Cake (2025, DNQ) I really felt for him as he nailed the performance and it’s a very clever song whose sections flow well together. 6 Doris - Marija Magdalena (1999, 4th) It feels like this was inspired by Dana International from the previous year, but it’s a very good song and earned a great result.

Another hot mess from Katseye!

Nice for Phoebe Bridgers to have a hit! Like the switch up a lot.

Relieved Bloc Party made the top half over that cheap Sunblock cover! Moving to Madonna now.

The #100 bar is on course to be higher than last year actually, when it was 450k. Currently #100 is on 293k, vs 276k in Week 33 of 2025.

Moving to Ricky now, though it is kind of sweet.

She had 12 in the early part of the year. She now has 10 and she’ll finish with 9.

#54