Chez VampireBat

I've broken it, quick x

So I see my one pointer that narrowly beat out the song that was winning won in the end, I suppose that keeps my voting streak of winners up x Congrats Blacksquare! Was a good song and did sound like a big hit, I actually hadn't noticed you hadn't already won this year such is your dominance! I do hope Persephonia isn't doomed to 2nd forever but a great achievement following a DNQ streak nonetheless. Seems Ane Brun did ultimately do similarly to how she did in PFSC overall, though HMLTD did quite a bit better which checks out x I only voted for Spodic Empire and Skall in the top 10, but that is a great looking 11-15 section! Sadly still not a unique position in 37th but as said, I had no expectations here so pleasantly surprised for the steady run of points from various nations, thank you all who voted and remember not to switch on the news as everything is always normal B-) (also think that maybe my first votes from Herbilore? Unless I'm forgetting something, nice x) Ooft though I didn't notice my 18 was only just next to me, that's really harsh for Lankum especially as they did much better last time. Jadakissnia also deserved better x Many thanks Iz (and blacksquare) for a great contest, have really enjoyed the presentation throughout.

Gosh, my points really did come in waves here x (Thank you all! Here's to passing 100 x)

I mean 40th or 42nd would be unique positions so... Any of that top 3 would be a great winner, although it would be long overdue for Persephonia.

POPHub were literally the last one I cut, I didn't expect to see them this far ahead, but I'd be on board with it! The descent resumes *__

Oh my, from the last on 00 to top 10! That is most definitely temporary but thank you all!

This is probably the most surprised I've ever been by a qualifier so have no expectations and intrigued to see who my fans are! I'm hopeful for a slightly more open final than the odds are predicting.

No real surprise for Males and Groups, I'm wondering who sent Bladee as no one seemed to rank it highly (unless they didn't vote x) Dead or Alive I think got unlucky in a group this competitive, but they at least have You Spin Me Round... for the golden Gamu! Tove definitely the victim of a tough category with questionnable song choice, she could definitely be back though I imagine she'll have some tough competition depending on how many slots there are available!

I enjoyed this, although I do think it's the weakest of Zach Cregger's horror films so far, it was a little straightforward but tbf, it's a survival horror video game adaptation so I can get there isn't as much room for innovation as there is for original material. I did still think this worked very well though and definitely didn't outstay it's welcome, I liked that they kept the lead very recognisably human with his reactions and choices throughout all of it and the design of the monster/zombies looked really good, and it never took itself overly seriously too. Never played the games nor seen the movies (although don't feel like I'm missing out much on the latter) so can't comment on the Easter eggs/faithfulness, but it certainly felt very much like a video game in parts which is nice. Also, did he ever say a sentence that didn't have an f-bomb in it lol

2017 Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Holy Mountain Sampha - (No One Knows Me Like) The Piano The Killers - The Man 2018 Camelphat feat. Jem Cooke - Breathe Grimes feat. HANA - We Appreciate Power ROSALIA - Malamente (Cap. I: Augurio) 2019 Cate Le Bon - Daylight Matters Haim - Now I'm In It Weyes Blood - Movies 2020 Camelphat feat. LOWES - Easier Haim - The Steps Phoebe Bridgers - I Know the End 2021 Coldplay - Coloratura Japanese Breakfast - Be Sweet Mitski - The Only Heartbreaker 2022 Arcade Fire - The Lightning Parts I & II Caroline Polachek - Billions Tove Lo - No One Dies From Love 2023 Bjork & ROSALIA - Oral Hemlocke Springs - Sever the Blight Lankum - Go Dig My Grave 2024 Father John Misty - I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All Magdalena Bay - Death & Romance Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Wild God 2025 Ethel Cain - Nettles Oklou - Blade Bird ROSALÍA feat. Bjork & Yves Tumor - Berghain

2016 Glass Animals - Life Itself Rihanna - Love on the Brain Beyonce - Formation Will do the other years soon x

OK seriously, can we please keep to the subject at hand here and stop veering off into Ed Sheeran in the charts/popularity related things which are completely irrelevant to what's happening (there's a whole forum you can discuss that in), it completely undermines the seriousness of this topic and the healthy debate that's happening.

I don't believe it was that hard for him. An artist of Ed's stature standing by Macklemore and making it clear that he is to continue as a show of solidarity for not necessarily Palestine, but just general freedom of speech would've been a powerful statement, he may have lost some of his venues but he's in a position where he can take that hit and find alternatives, while it would've doubtless still got negative coverage, it wouldn't have been blanket across the board and would've gained him a lot of new respect and would've shown that he had principles and that music takes precedence. You can't tell me that would be worse than this pure corporate shill, fence-sitting that has tried to please everyone and literally pleased no one.

He has, Tommy Robinson and Boy George - glowing endorsements indeed! It wasn't just a few fans, the prices for the tour falling dramatically suggests otherwise. He'll recover for sure but I think this has done him a lot more harm than good overall

Sadeness Part 1 is such a unique number 1, I was so taken aback that something like that could top the charts when I first heard it. It was great that something of that experimental early 90s new wave scene managed to break through. I quite like Everything I Do... too, I think I wouldn't have liked it at the time and it's definitely not 16 weeks at number 1 worthy, but I'll take it over One Dance and Rein Me In. His raspy voice works quite well and the instrumental is suitably cinematic and epic. I've never been as big a fan of the Queen song as the other side and their one still to come is better, but it is a fitting one in the wake of Freddie's death.

01; Dido - White Flag 02; Kate Bush - Hounds of Love 03; Robyn - Talk to Me 04; MARINA - Bubblegum Bitch 05; Leona Lewis - Better in Time (Single Mix) 06; Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Music Gets the Best of Me 07; Milica Pavlović - Ona nosi Pradu 08; Adele – Hello 09; Tove Lo feat. Wiz Khalifa – Influence 10; Zara Larsson - Love Me Land 11; Jessie Ware – Sauna 12; Agnes - Selfmade The weakest of the three rounds for me personally, but the top 2 are classics (I hope Dido's got a gameplan though as that's very early for this to appear! Maybe if a certain other collaboration's allowed x), the MARINA song was a good one I hadn't heard before and I've really enjoyed the singles from this current Robyn era. Most of these other artists do definitely all have better to hopefully come though. Milica Pavlovic with quite a decent song there too, we love an underdog x

01; Calvin Harris - Feel So Close (Radio Edit) 02; Gary Numan - We Are Glass 03; Roosevelt - Luna 04; Damien Rice - 9 Crimes 05; Tom Grennan - Found What I've Been Looking For 06; Sam Fender - Chin Up 07; Lewis Capaldi - Hold Me While You Wait 08; Sam Smith – Diamonds 09; HRVY & Malú Trevejo - Hasta Luego 10; Bladee - Cartier’god Icedancer (Intermission) 11; Darin – Lovekiller 12; Mackenzy Mackay - Want You For Life My favourite Calvin song <3 I know and enjoy the Gary Numan one as well Been hearing quite a bit of his songs in the Synctube 80s sessions and a lot of them are good so interested to see if he has any deeper cuts. I really like the little I know of Roosevelt and this one was great too, I sent him to one of the end of year PFSCs so hopefully some of what I already know get a chance to shine x Really liked the Damien Rice song, haven't really checked him out beyond Cannonball, the next four artists all generally miss more than hit for me sadly, but I'll say I quite liked all of these, I guess the Bladee song has some interesting production? Just trying to soften the blow x

01; M83 feat. Susanne Sundfør – Oblivion 02; Fontaines D.C. - A Lucid Dream 03; Ultravox - Sleepwalk 04; Vengaboys - We Like to Party! (The Vengabus) 05; Depeche Mode - See You 06; New Order - Ruined in a Day 07; Bananarama - Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye) 08; Years & Years - Take Shelter 09; iamamiwhoami – play 10; Dead or Alive - Misty Circles 11; Sade - The Sweetest Taboo 12; Texas - When We Are Together Great start from easily the best category, I knew the M83, Depeche Mode and Ultravox songs already but Fontaines and New Order songs I wasn't familiar with and sounded great. Probably won't be ranking Vengaboys that high going forward, but that song's a classic x I didn't dislike anything here, although I have never been that keen on play, which may be a bit of a hot take given my general BJSC taste, but hopefully will enjoy some other picks from her. Likewise, I do have some songs I really like from the bottom 2 artists, but these ones were a bit too MOR for me x

Wrecking Ball was far better than We Can't Stop, an iconic video and the song itself was much more effective at showing her maturing as an artist than the predecessor. She would do better material later in her career, but that was certainly the best we've seen so far. Look Right Through was the song I was surprised was still to come, it definitely couldn't have got to number 1 at any other time than then (and a lot of other dance songs would take advantage of that going into next year), but the deep house sound was one I was really into and I still think it still sounds good despite it probably beign largely forgotten these days. Sam Smith would go on to completely lose me musically next year, but their dance song features before that still sound really good, I never tired of La La La despite the overplay. I actually hadn't registered Somewhere Only We Know was still to come, the advert was quite nice but not a fan of the cover at all sadly, it just doesn't need to exist when she has so much better original material.

Now this is a top 10 where I know and enjoy all of them very much x I expected those as your top 2 and they are big favourites of mine too. Fade to Gray is the first thing I think of when I think of that early 80s dark synthwave, the moody synths, eclectic production and English and French translation is so unique. I discovered Love Will Tear Us Apart fairly recently. it is an incredibly tragic song considering what happened to the lead singer, but it's beautiful, Unknown Pleasures is on my second album bucket list so hopefully will get round to it one of these days! Both Blue Monday and Vienna have some of my all time favourite instrumental solos, both stunning. I heard All Mod Cons by The Jam as part of my first album project and it was a great album and really made me appreciate their social commentary more. I prefer A Town Called Malice over Going Underground, but both are great, although I can't mention Going Underground without referring to this early internet classic: I think Crash is probably one I wasn't expecting here, but I love that song too, the vocals and production work so smoothly to complement the song, I also discovered it through Matt Willis' version on Mr Bean's Holiday! Safe to say this one's a bit better x I think I instinctively say a lot of ABBA's best work came from the 70s, but it's a good point that they were much more experimental and interesting in the 80s and the singles are all consistently great. I used to think Lay All Your Love on Me was a bit overrated on here, but I have since changed my view and I'd say it would be in my top 10 songs from them, beautiful production throughout. My attempt at my own top 10 (with some caveats I've probably forgotten about 100 that could be here): The Tweets - The Birdle Song (naturally x) Orchestral Manoevres In The Dark - Enola Gay A-ha - Take on Me New Order - Blue Monday Phillip Oakley & Giorgio Moroder - Together In Electric Dreams Visage - Fade to Gray Laurie Anderson - O Superman Ultravox - Vienna Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain (This would be my pick for him, but love When Doves Cry too) Kim Wilde - Kids in America Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls Tears for Fears - Sowing the Seeds of Love Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight Dexys Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen

Congrats Jim, sometimes an obvious winner is for a reason and there definitely wasn't anything else that it could've been. Shame I dropped out of the top 10 at the end, but 15th is a lot better than I thought I'd do after the start, thanks for all who voted and would highly recommend the EP to those that enjoyed this one, maybe I'll send another song from it at one point x Wonderful to see almost all of my top 5 in the top 10 and the other at 11th! I did think there was some very good, unique songs this edition despite not being the best overall, Alip_Ba_Ta deserved better though, that was very standout. Thanks for hosting, uhsting!

Jacob *____ 🐈

1000 Rabbits (was I ever not going to love them with a name like that x) have been one of my favourite finds with their left-field, slightly chaotic pop style, I thought this one stood out the most with it's strings, bassline and explosion at the end of the song, but their whole EP is really good. Doesn't look like I'm on to a big hit here, but pleased it found a few fans, thank you to blacksquare and uhsting in particular <3 (and those last few posts were quite good for me as well x) Joy Formidable did stand out as a likely winner and would be a deserved one (I don't think it necessarily needed to be that long, but wasn't mad at it x) and great to see my 12 in contention too x

I can't wait to find out who Mr Irish bast*rd and Bobby Funk were x

You haven't given any reasons for your stance though, apart from quite a sweeping statement that this is just Buzzjack hating on Ed Sheeran when this goes much deeper than that. In a discussion, viewpoints are challenged and if you're not willing to engage when having a viewpoint that differs from the majority, then maybe think about whether you should say it.