Chez VampireBat

Roland Rat Superstar! - Love Me Tender* Queen - I Want To Break Free Propaganda - Dr Mabuse Bob Marley And The Wailers - One Love / People Get Ready Kenny Loggins - Footloose Ultravox - Dancing With Tears In My Eyes Also really liked the Pointer Sisters, Cocteau Twins and New Order songs, most sad I couldn't fit Weird Al in here, hopefully @Bror can help it x Tie break: Depeche Mode

We have the same top 4 so great stuff! I thought your top 2 would be the other way round, but both are fantastic so either's a great outcome. The Sun Always Shines on TV has one of my favourite intros of any 80s song and gives a suitably dramatic intro to forecast what's to come. The lyrics are quite over the top, but there's such a great vocal performance and wall of sound is barely matters. I love Take on Me, but this is a suitable number 1 for them too. Not much else I can add to West End Girls, though I would personally rank it as my favourite PSBs song and is still as standout, lyrically relevant and beautifully atmospheric every time I listen. Take My Breath Away and The Final Countdown were some of my earliest 80s discoveries so have a soft spot for them and do still think they are really great songs, so cheesy and over the top but that's what the 80s were best for and the production is wonderful and they really sing those cheesy lyrics like they mean them which adds to it. Only one in the top 5 I don't really strong opinions on is Chain Reaction, it's fine I guess x Thanks for doing another one of these, Rollo, this would be my top 10 ranking: Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls A-ha - The Sun Always Shines on TV Europe - The Final Countdown Berlin - Take My Breath Away Falco - Rock Me Amadeus Jackie Wilson - Reet Petite The Housemartins - Caravan of Love Madonna - Papa Don't Preach The Communards - Don't Leave Me This Way Billy Ocean - When The Going Gets Tough (The Tough Get Going) 11. Spitting Image - The Chicken Song

Whew, well that was always going to be a tough game, honestly Norway looked better and more deserving for most of the second half, but England came back a bit stronger in extra time and Bellingham did some absolute wonderwork there, definitely need to do better in the Semis though especially if it is Argentina, let's hope the side that played Mexico shows up for that! I'd have never thought both Kane and Haaland wouldn't score there! (a real shame the latter couldn't play the full time, but I'm sure he's going to be doing great things for them going forward)

Norway are seriously dominating possession here and look more likely to score after that lifeline, need some last minute wonder work here x

I had Goodies and Don't Cha quite close to each other and on the cusp of the top 10 when I did my 2005 ranking so interesting to see them the same here, both are quite iconic songs for their era and I'd say they deserved to be top 10. I think the only other song I really care for so far is All About Us, that was one of the songs I liked the most from the Now album, even if listening to it now, it sounds quite unmistakably like their big hit.

I mean they probably won't win, but Count Binface is surely on course to get his best ever vote share. Black Mirror's The Waldo Moment coming true x

Catching up a bit, Give Me Everything another very big throwback to that club banger phase, very of it's time but again, like Party Rock Anthem, I do have a bit of nostalgic fondness for it and the Kodak-Kodak rhyme is wonderful. Read All About It is also quite of it's time as rap ballads with a pop female feature seemed to always pop up in the charts or over the radios, but I did like it even though it wasn't the most original, I do think Labrinth's Earthquake should've got to number 1 though, it always felt a lot bigger and was another huge anthem from my (brief) clubbing days. We R Who We R felt like a number 1 reflective of a new release by that artist rather than it being her best work, it's very derivative of her other songs and doesn't feel that well remembered. Also don't think Grenade has aged that well, but I did love that at the time, I do think he would go on to find a more appropriate sound through the decade. Heart Skips a Beat is my favourite by Olly and is still a nice, breezy number when I do hear it, Dance With Me Tonight felt like his peak though, I did enjoy it but got a bit tainted by overplay.

Wow, could we have yet another of the all time best selling number 2s finally lose that status? Though it will depend on England's performance over the next week, they'll need to at least win Saturday's match.

That was only my second contest and first wooden spoon *__ Sending Bastille just before they hit the mainstream x

Oh so Belgium do still have the power to decimate them, wonderful (quite insane they are doing this now when they were five minutes away from being eliminated 2-0 last round!) What a colossal muck up from FIFA and Trump (completely deserved), even if they may have lost anyway, that was all that would've been on the player's and their opposition's minds and Balogan didn't even score so it may not have mattered whether he'd been there or not.

Resigning, but also not resigning as he's standing in the by-election. Coward, I fear most of Clacton won't care enough about this issue to really want to displace him, but I hope I'm wrong. This could be quite positive for Labour though especially if Burnham stays popular with the public, as it has undeniably tainted their popularity.

A great festive top 2 to start the top 10 - A capella has such a great, soothing and atmospheric quality and Caravan of Love was where it really pulled off well, it's very cheesy but perfect for the time of year. Nice to see rrrrrrrrRRRRRRReet Petite a bit higher here than on the last countdown, the claymation video is quite of it's time but a 50s classic and I'm glad it got him a number 1. Rock Me Amadeus would be very high for me as well, still an extremely standout and bizarre song with a frantic structure, quite insane that a song that left field (and in a foreign language) got number 1 in the US as well. Madonna couldn't do a lot wrong in her elite era, Papa Don't Preach indeed has some great storytelling to it.

I would say very well, 6Music and critically acclaimed music are what I most often seek out and I generally send all of my favourite discoveries of the moment and only specifically avoid songs that are likely vetoes or the artist has been sent a lot before, though I do purposefully try to mix it up genre-wise from month to month as I'd like to not become too reliant on one sound, The exceptions are generally more subtle ambience or obscure breakcore which I do listen to quite a bit of, but it can be a bit risky if it really connects.

Because it would clear the way for a headline grabbing Messi vs Ronaldo final (see also Argentina's easy path to the final compared to other teams), and yeah, as Dobbo said above, while they can't outright fix games, they can certainly make decisions go a certain team's way. Plus, I know anything can happen with the game but Spain have the potential to absolutely decimate the US even at home. Portugal, at least based on how they're playing so far, may give them more of a chance and a headline grabbing defeat to boot.

Utterly pathetic, we all know FIFA's corrupt but I didn't think they'd be thar blatant. When Sepp Blatter's shaking his head in disappointment, you know you've hit rock bottom. Would be wonderful poetic justice if US get trounced today, but I can't see Belgium being strong enough to do so, Spain can hopefully bring that (or Portugal, as I fear FIFA really wants them to go forward).

Alexei Sayle - 'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor?* The Fraggles - Fraggle Rock Theme* Mel Brooks - To Be Or Not To Be (The Hitler Rap)* (The way this would actually be quite close x) Van Halen - Jump Sade - Your Love Is King Bananarama - Robert De Niro's Waiting Afrika Bambaataa And The Soul Sonic Force - The Renegades Of Funk The Special AKA - Nelson Mandela Chaka Khan, Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and Howard Jones were very close, although bit of a step down on last week overall.

Amazing job for Cabo Verde, I don't think there was a scenario where they could ever go through but holding the European champions to a draw and running the world champions very close is a story for the ages, should do quite a bit of good for them on the world stage even if the squad seem to be aging. Can't see past an Argentina/France rematch in the final looking at the draws now, unless Spain can change things.

I can't justify staying up for this when I have work the next day, which is a shame as it does seem like it'll be a great match, England would likely win in any other setting, but with a home crowd at the altitude like this and with Mexico winning all their matches without conceding so far (albeit not really facing a top tier team yet), it'll be a harder fight. Wouldn't be surprised if it goes to penalties.

Well that was an ordeal, thank the lord for Kane x I don't fancy our chances against Mexico unless we seriously stop sleeping for the whole first half. Excellent performance from DR Congo, were a serious threat until right at the end.

I knew DR Congo would be tricky, this is giving the same vibes as the Ghana game except we're further behind... Although tbf, an incredible performance from the goalkeeper, a lot of those were heading in.

And like magic, the other dubstep song I was referring to shows up! Definitely a contender of one of the most forgettable number 1s in terms of how it's held up, chart run and completely taking advantage of a summer lull, however I love it and it would be right near the top for me. Their earlier singles, Guilt and Me & You were a lot better, but this had many of those same elements with the banging production and great urgent vocals, as well as a wonderful breakdown at the finish. It's genre might have dated, but it still sounds fantastic.

Wow at Germany, though at the same time I'm almost not surprised as they constantly seem to underperform since their win, also with the way the draw went, it did seem they would've been out for sure against France next round (watch Sweden get through now I've said that x). German economist Joachim Klement who used a mathematical model to predict the outcome of the world cup and accidentally was completely spot on in predicting the winners of the last three tournaments predicted Netherlands this year...given he himself knew it was irrational, he'll probably be very pleased x

Louder is a great throwback to the dubstep sound that was in vogue for a while in that year, I did prefer DJ Fresh's other follow-ups to this one, but it was a decent number one. I'm pleasantly surprised the other dubstep number 1 hasn't come yet as that's one of my favourites x Don't have as much fondness for Stay Awake as I do his other number 1, and was one of many flash in the pan number 1s at the time getting there on front-loaded name power alone, but it is fairly unique at the top in terms of style, 'stick around like Elastoplast' is a lyric for the ages as well x I have a lot of nostalgic fondness of What Makes You Beautiful, it was played in a lot of clubs at uni and almost everyone was singing along with it, I think they did really good to produce a really likeable, anthemic song as their debut, I think that's honestly the only one I really rate from them outside Night Changes, though of course, some great records came from them solo x

I hadn't noticed Lady In Red was yet to come! It doesn't offend me tbh, though it's a little earnest for something so corny and I do prefer some other 80s ballads. Not a whole lot else I have a lot to say about so far, Don't Leave Me This Way is a pretty good cover though not a big favourite.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax Eurythmics - Here Comes The Rain Again Echo And The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me Nena - 99 Red Balloons Very strong start to the year indeed x