Chez Wombat

Broken Heart was another one from my 1001 Songs... book and is one of the most beautiful and melancholy discoveries from there, it's grown quite a following despite not charting so wasn't sure I could sneak it into a song contest here, but glad I managed it x thank you for the votes so far, especially the two 12s from Jim and Bjork <3 pleased to be top half so far. I did enjoy all that current top 3, though my own top 3 were a long way ahead of the rest of the pack here, two of them need to be doing better x

F1W6yB1DUv0 9. Roxanne de Bastion – UV Not sure what it is about that name that appeals to me...B-) This is certainly one that remains quite firmly under the radar (a number of it's 121 views are probably me!) and had I not heard it by chance that one morning on 6Music, I wouldn't know it at all. I did want to shout it out as it was a really late standout song in 2024 for me. It's got a lovely melody to its chorus and her vocals are filled with a sense of quiet power that are never overbearing, and the piano eventually builds into a colourful instrumental array as it progresses, but it is the lyrics that stand out as well. The theme of the song and the EP was described by Roxanne as 'voicing the unsaid and about shedding light. It can be interpreted on both a personal, as well as on a societal level'. This song likens women in the music industry as being an ultraviolet light - invisible to the human eye but vital - and it makes lines like the need of a blacklight to make things clearer and the need of a change. It's the sort of subtle social commentary that I really like and makes songs stand out that bit more to just being well produced, contrasting slightly with the vibrant production and matching the quiet power of the vocals. A certain other song still to come continues that theme x

Thanks for commenting/listening! I guess a miserable, rainy New Years Day is a good place to start this x RAMO6HHfsdM 10. Bat For Lashes - The Dream of Delphi It's been a while since I've heard from Bat For Lashes (2009/early 2010s to put it clearer, which feels further away every day x), while I never properly explored her work, I did really like what I knew of her work. I'm not sure I'd have found The Dream of Delphi if it wasn't on a recommended Apple playlist, and I'm very pleased I did as this is quite stunning and really deserved more attention this year. Natasha's vocals haven't lost any of their ethereal and other-worldly feel, they are the centrepiece that help to guide the song to dreamy horizons as the quiet synths and beat builds with each verse, before closing with some lovely strings. Coincidentally, I have another favourite called by the new age band, Cusco. I'm not sure if it's the mythical, dream-like feel that matches the sacred myth that always gives these Delphi songs such a beautiful, heartwarming feel but I guess there's something about that title. That's a tangential way of saying this is great and you should check it out (Cusco as well x)

H & Claire easily, though not a great selection (50 Cent is one of the best here but I expect that’ll be out soon x)

I had no expectations for this after that last minute flubbing of the last season which made me concerned this wasn't the big revival I was hoping for (took me until now to watch it). I was pleasantly surprised, the best Christmas special in a long time and miles better than The Church on Ruby Road. I must admit as someone that does feel lonely from time to time, it did get to me a bit. I also feel that's easily the best Ncuti's ever been as the Doctor, he wasn't as OTT emotional and got to the heart of how cruel the Doctor can be, the sequence with Anita and his attack on Joy were brilliantly done. I think the concept of the villains could've been stronger with some rewrites, but it felt a bit underbaked and confusing in practice. The solution didn't make a lot of sense and they never felt properly threatening apart from maybe the first few briefcase swaps. I agree I found the cameo of Ruby a bit pointless, that "twist" in the finale really downgraded her as a character.

Both great, but Rabbit Heart edges it, one of Florence’s best songs <3

Berlin - Take My Breath Away Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer Heart - Alone U2 - With Or Without You Whitesnake - Here I Go Again Venus, Sledgehammer, Bad just missing out. I had only heard the piano sample from The Way It Is before and it was a great discovery. Atlantic Starr - Always Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett - I Just Can't Stop Loving You Peter Cetera and Amy Grant - The Next Time I Fall

RIP, a great figure even if seemingly a lot of his greatest actions came after he was president. At least he got to live out one more election (even if it wasn't his preferred outcome :'()

Top 5 Albums 1. Billie Eilish – HIT ME HARD & SOFT 2. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD 3. Charli XCX – Brat/Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat 4. Father John Misty – Mahashmashana 5. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Wild God Just missing out: Beyonce - Cowboy Carter and The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy As much as I've loved delving into Godspeed You! Black Emperor's back catalogue in the latter part of the year, I can't pinpoint a specific song I'd highlight that stands out, it works better as an experience, therefore no songs will feature in the countdown. Top 20 Films 1. Poor Things 2. The Zone of Interest 3. Monster 4. The Beast 5. Anora 6. Sing Sing 7. Dune Part 2 8. Perfect Days 9. The Wild Robot 10. The Substance 11. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga 12. I Saw the TV Glow 13. Conclave 14. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl 15. The Holdovers 16. Challengers 17. All of Us Strangers 18. Heretic 19. Longlegs 20. Hundreds of Beavers Sidenote: I have a letterboxd account (FriendlyOwl) which I'm hoping to start making more use of from next year if you're interested in following where I may share some more thoughts to the void B-) Singles 11-40 11. The Cure – Alone 12. Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory – Afterlife 14. James K – Blinkmoth (July Mix) 16. Kite feat. Anna Von Hausswolff – Losing 17. Caroline Polachek feat. Weyes Blood – Butterfly Net 18. Billie Eilish – CHIHIRO 19. Ariana Grande – We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love) 20. Arab Strap – Bliss 21. Sabrina Carpenter – Espresso 22. Father John Misty – I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All 23. Echoberyl – Weird Boy 24. English Teacher – R&B 25. Vampire Weekend – Capricorn 26. Bambie Thug – Doomsday Blue 27. Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us 28. Allie X – Black Eye 30. Beyonce – 16 CARRIAGES 31. Tyler, the Creator – Noid 32. Ultra 5 feat. J Cee – Potion (Lange Remix) 33. Chappell Roan – Good Luck Babe! 34. Vitesse X – Eternal 35. Spirits Unbridled – Descent Into Despair 36. Charli XCX – Von Dutch 37. FKA Twigs – Eusexua 40. The Libertines – Merry Old England 41. Jamie xx feat. Robyn – Life 42. JADE – Angel of my Dreams 45. ABU NEIN – Wir Leben 46. Mogwai – Lion Rumpus 47. Sadness – I Want to Be With You 48. Pet Shop Boys - Loneliness 49. Public Service Broadcasting – Electra 50. Baby Lasagna – Rim Tim Tagi Dim I've linked to a few that I feel are less well known that I would encourage you to check out x

Fleet Foxes top 5 *.*

Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over Duran Duran - Notorious Lionel Richie - Dancing On The Ceiling (actually a decent one from him x)

It's that time of year where I give you a tirade of what I've been enjoying this year, going over my top 40 songs of the year and occasionally some other bonus materials in perhaps too much detail, and this year, I've been really quite on it with music at least in my 6Music/Apple Music circles so I've got a lot to say... ...Only I'm not really gonna say it as for whatever reason, I just don't have the energy this year :x it may be that I've had a fairly tough year personally or just general fatigue of starting these after so many years and while music has certainly helped with that, it's the sort I'd rather just process internally rather than talk about it. Yet, there were some truly great finds that I really want to at least highlight, so I'm going to post 11-50 of my singles, top 10 of albums and films in the next post and do a commentary for the top 10, as I did feel bad abandoning something I've been working on for thirteen years now. Whether I'll have more energy next year or whether this is a nice economic way of doing this as I get older remains to be seen but hope you enjoy anyway x Comments are as always welcome, I may not respond to them all but I read and appreciate all of them and will try and poke my head into a few other threads in here as well x Info-dump on the way.

Rage vs Joe in 2009 definitely, it's the one week in my lifetime actively following charts where it felt like it was big news and a proper race for number 1...with the best possible outcome.

Gracie out before Teletubbies :cheeseblock: All is right with the world x I thought Millennium Prayer would be the one I'd be most flabbergasted at people pointing, but Let's Party too? Oh dear x

People actually pointed the Millennium Prayer?! Well then...

Oops, I'd just finised Black Doves the other day which stars Ben Whishaw so it was clearly fresh in my mind :lol:

This was the second most watched programme of the day on Christmas Day with over 9 million, a bit down on the 14 million that watched the last one in 2008, but still very impressive considering terrestrial TV ratings are much lower in this climate. I loved this, they always get it spot on. It really does both verbal slapstick humour and silent comedy so well. My heart was in my mouth for that final sequence. Feathers McGraw was wonderful as well and they managed to even get a little bit of social commentary in there as well. This was sadly the first special without Peter Sallis as Wallace, although Ben Whitehead did a great job and I can't say it detracted from it at all. It's wonderful to see in an age of oversaturation of content, that Wallace & Gromit have resisted that and that time and artistry is still being taken to produce great quality materials.

Think we need a thread for this x X0ZGf2B01uU The sixth production of Wallace & Gromit, the first full episode since 2008's A Matter of Loaf and Death and the second to be feature length after The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, released almost 20 (!) years ago in 2005. It aired on BBC on Christmas Day and will be available in select cinemas and Netflix globally on 3rd January!

I've always had a soft spot for Gabrielle's Power of Love, it's a very nice cover that suits her quite well. Ellie's is rather pleasant as well which I guess is enough to say we have the correct top 2 x

Pleased to see Mufasa underperforming, the first live action reboot was completely unnecessary and this is doubly so, I wish Disney would put as much effort into their new ideas as they do rebooting their existing IPs (I expect Moana will give them enough material for a while now sadly x)

a-ha - Take On Me Falco - Rock Me Amadeus George Michael - Careless Whisper Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls REO Speedwagon - Can't Fight This Feeling Both Tears for Fears songs, Don't You (Forget About Me) and We Built This City missing out. Billy Ocean - There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry) Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald - On My Own Starship - Sara For leaving precisely zero impression on me x

I should be here for most of this, but may need to dip in and out x The Bangles - Manic Monday Eddie Murphy - Party All The Time Madonna - Material Girl

As if Romeo left before Emma Bunton :/

20; Fairytale Of New York - The Pogues Featuring Kirsty MacColl (1987) 19; I Believe In Father Christmas - Greg Lake (1975) 18; Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (2008) 17; Patience - Take That (2006) 16; Downtown - Petula Clark (1964) 15; Rock Around The Clock - Bill Haley And His Comets (1955) 14; Magical Mystery Tour EP - The Beatles (1967) 13; Caravan Of Love - The Housemartins (1986) 12; Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) - The Darkness (2003) 11; Build Me Up Buttercup - The Foundations (1968) 10; Sunshine Superman - Donovan (1966) 09; Y.M.C.A. - The Village People (1978) 08; Hoots Mon - Lord Rockingham’s XI (1958) 07; Last Christmas / Everything She Wants - Wham! (1984 / 2022*) 06; All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey (1994 / 2020*) 05; Uptown Funk - Mark Robson Featuring Bruno Mars (2014) 04; Happy - Pharrell Williams (2013) 03; Teletubbies Say “Eh-Oh!” - Teletubbies (1997) (B-)) 02; My Oh My - Slade (1983) 01; You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman-Turner Overdrive (1974)

Pleased Lily and Tom didn't win this, not sure what makes people think these are better than the others, both awfully bland and the former particularly so when you have the original. Aurora to go next x