Chez Wombat

Hey Bulldog and Dear Prudence are my favourites so far, I prefer Siouxsie's cover of the latter but this one's lovely too and the former has a great riff and I'd have had that a fair bit higher!

Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire R.E.M. – Shiny Happy People Michael Jackson – Smooth Criminal Stone Roses – Fools Gold/What the World Is Waiting For Boy Meets Girl – Waiting for a Star to Fall

Day 11 - As no one's gone for it yet, I think Folklore is hard to beat for post-pandemic favourites. This is my favourite non-single from it <3 DUnDkI7l9LQ

Day 10 - My mind was pretty blank, though Grace Kelly, Barbra Streisand and Clint Eastwood are great shouts. I'll go for this great cut from Bastille, gone well off them now but their debut holds some good memories x (and if you don't know who this is, you're missing something x) JQnSc0bczg0

U2 is the best here, one of my favourites from them :wub: Also voted, Christina and One Direction (I've got good uni memories of it shh x). Bit of a drop off after that, one of Prince's weakest songs and yet it's his only number 1 -_-

Day 9 - I love discovering most 20th Century music as it's mainly a lot more up my street than today's hits, and the weekly Synctube listening sessions are allowing me to discover new things most weeks, 6Music is also helpful though and I think I'll use this beautiful electronic/trip hop number from 1993, just missed the top 40 x 1WZgpvFL5f0

Day 8 - Life on Mars was my first thought, but I knew someone else would pick that x I'm cheating a little bit here as the suite is literally based off the Planets, but this is a wonderful piece of music and the best of them by far <3 (I was really hoping I'd be the first to say this planet, but alas I cannot find a song I really like with Mercury, Uranus or Neptune in the title x) Nz0b4STz1lo

Day 7 - I was gonna go with Children, though I'm still spoiled for choice anyway! I will go with my favourite ever BJSC entry and introduction to one of my favourite ever instrumental bands (if you can call them that x) dzq6Q-43Tpc

Great to see you covering an era I would be for the most part, a bit more familiar with, this will be a huge nostalgia trip for me. Rest assured I am reading it all the way through even if I can't always comment. I'm still not overly clued up on some chart hits from the turn of the milliennium, but there are some real all time favourites coming for 2000 (and two of my favourite bands growing up have popped up, Hi Coldplay and Muse x) 2006 was when I started listening weekly so I could well recognise most if not all of the songs from around that point until about 2014 *__ (I should also know a decent amount of 04 and 05 thanks to Now albums).

Day 6: pRpeEdMmmQ0 I don't really have a massive favourite I instantly associate with a holiday (the songs that come to mind I heard a lot I'm not that fond of :kink:). Though I'm quite fond of this and heard it quite a lot on my family holiday to Portugal in 2010 (was a few months after the World Cup so they clearly liked it a lot x)

This one comes to mind: 6c1BThu95d8 I know they've had several classics and psychedelia proved to not quite be their thing, but this one is so beautifully composed and unlike anything else by them, a hidden gem x

Expected winner (what a margin!), but very well deserved. I first discovered it on this here website and it's become a real favourite since. The ominous instrumental, cryptic lyrics and video all work together wonderfully, it's the very best of Depeche Mode :wub: Duran Duran quite a surprise runner up, I had to remind myself of it and I'm not a big fan of them in general, but this is a good one. That and Chasing Cars (as overplayed as it is, it's still utterly beautiful) were my big favourites from the top 10, though I do enjoy all of them to varying extents. Didn't expect Remedy to be that high, I did enjoy it back in the day, but she really came and went before you knew it! Thanks for hosting Rollo, always enjoy these and already speculating who will win the #7s rate next year x

Day 5: ioE_O7Lm0I4 A bit cliched, but I've always found this suitable motivational music and it would make quite an entrance B-)

Long overdue, welcome to the mod team ^_^

Day 4: yfySK7CLEEg Discovered this quite late (along with most of the National's output), but it's a real favourite now :wub:

Another vanilla final 2 incoming, zzz x

Well can't say I saw that winner coming at all, not one of my favourites and I did prefer the other two entries from RONDE, but a surprise winner is always great, congrats Phil! Though I feel for POPHub losing right at the last minute, it was one of the better pop entries and wasn't that far from my votes in the end, aww x Gosh at Abeltesfayeton being the one that narrowly blocked me, Rollo and Jade, I mean I'm glad it did much better in the final so I don't mind the triple foot shoot there, but srsly what was up with Semi 1 dumping almost all the best songs :drama: Wasn't quite as engaged with this edition musically and I didn't make as many great discoveries (DNQing didn't help :kink:), however it was impeccably hosted twice in a row, many thanks to uhsting for a wonderful couple of months in Sovarasma, you've earned a rest x I think Transa - Timeless was the highest I can recall I gave you with 15, so possibly so unless I'm forgetting something obvious! Wonderful to see Ambient Jazz find an audience here to get top 20 x

Day 3: PC57z-oDPLs A lot of first year of uni memories, it distinctly reflects that year where I feel I was properly growing up for the first time still learning now x

Yeah if you read beyond the clickbait, you'll see that what she was saying was never actually going to get her arrested, they even used it as an example, and anyway, the law states that it's down to the police discretion anyway and as if that would even be considering for someone that powerful without clear evidence. The fact this is given breaking news status alongside a school shooting and aid workers being assassinated in Gaza is so bloody depressing, yet more culture wars bullshit to distract from the government's failings which they will of course openly jump on. Sadly, JK is still held in quite high regard with people I speak to (funny how her recent implict denial of treatment of transgender people in the Holocaust wasn't widely reported at all...) and any discussion of trans people are almost always framed negatively, I hate this world sometimes... :(

Day 2: A Buzzjack icon of course (RIP </3) x fS4jg-Yv1XA

Ooh nice, always love these. I'll go with the current day and an 80s classic x SsmVgoXDq2w

I win this x saa98l0yDYQ

I thought Mr Blue Sky could be a challenger to win this, injustice that it's not even in the top 10 :(

This was quite the experience. If Renaissance was a deep dive into dance music, this was one that goes even deeper. I'm surprised there's comments of 'country's not for me so I don't get this' as this is such a genre spanning album that properly dissects the roots and influences of the genre. There's electronica, hip hop, R&B, Opera (!), rock and roll...I'm not a huge country music fan myself, but I found a lot to enjoy here, and it really works as a statement of country's versatility and how it is so often pigeonholed and exclusive in certain circles. It's a little overbearing and definitely could've used some edits, the mid section with the features didn't quite hit the mark for me, but the craziness of the opening and closing sections makes up for it. Of the highlights, Daughter is wonderful and I certainly didn't have opera down as something she dabbles in here. Nor did I have 60s Psychedelia, YA YA is wonderful and Riiverdance is a riot too. The beefed up production of Jolene is good and I do appreciate a new interpretation of the song, but it doesn't quite work for me as the desperation and vulnerability was part of what made the original so powerful. I think I may like this more than Renaissance as there is a bit more variety, though they are very close together and work for different reasons. It's insane almost 30 years into her career how much she continues to push boundaries and surprise people, waiting for that rock album with anticipation x

Two big favourites in the top 20 so far, Birdhouse in Your Soul is gloriously eccentric, and a likely contender for best song ever written from the perspective of an inanimate object. It's a shame it took Prince's death for Purple Rain to repeak, but it is deserved, a gorgeous epic :wub: