Chez Wombat

I just finished watching this today (need to remember to cancel my Discovery+ subscription via Prime before the month's out :kink:). I knew Schneider was a bit dodgy, but seeing it all laid out like that was quite harrowing, I feel so bad for those kids and how much it still haunts their lives. The degrading of female members of staff is sadly unsurprising in the wake of #MeToo, but some of those supposed jokes getting on the air for shows aimed at kids is awful (and that's not even purely down to Schneider, the fact that execs and parents didn't say something to stop that is awful). I watched several of those shows like Zoey 101 and Drake & Josh growing up and I was oblivious at the time. Drake Bell's story is the most shocking though, I won't spoil it if you're yet to watch but it definitely makes me see him in a whole, new tragic light given the pretty bad stuff he's done recently, but that's another level.

Heart of Glass easily the best, other favourites are quite close together but I think Atomic, Call Me, Rapture and One Way or Another would be my picks.

Perhaps against type for me but I'm going for Steps :o This is comfortably their best song for me, along with One for Sorrow. Really like the Kaisers too, but I preferred the other singles from Employment.

Ingermanlandia an essential, hooray :wub: Oh gosh, just 3 points away for qualifying and my 10 and 5 pointers both even less, that's one way to be frustrated :lol: :drama: That's a respectable score though, thanks for the voters, especially Mikey for the 12 (your song deserved better too x)

Well their passive aggressive album title I'm totally fine with it 👍 don't give a f*** anymore 👍 comes in handy here :kink: Oops, but I was sensing it as this edition was a bit crowded for such a niche song, and at least I have some good company on the sidelines, Gonna need my favourite to get through to make up for that agonising wait tho x

I'm probably out from that lot then, sad x (hoping my favourite that's in there is through).

Oh no not again for Jade </3 I did think it may be at risk for being a bit too subtle, but always love that sound.

The album of the same name was hit and miss, but Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is my favourite Elton song, beautiful lyrics and wonderfully sung and composed :wub: Deserved higher, but quite respectable for one of the oldest songs here. Still D.R.E. is a banger too, one of my favourite old school hip hop songs.

The pain comprised with these gifs of doom :drama: Tartford was my 1 pointer, very enjoyable retro song, Aesthetica wasn't far off either, was an interesting swerve. Edit: Yay Abeltesfayeton *.*

Oh...there goes my ten pointer </3 I suppose the length of Rolloland's was always going to be divisive, but that was a great discovery, really love that early 90s Madchester sound.

50/50 on whether I can get through, but hopefully. There's been very little discussion of the entries this month so I'm interested to see how these turn out.

So I listened to the 1988 Blue Monday and turns out this was the version I heard first as I remember seeing the video on the music channels :lol: It's a shame what it does to the intro and outro and a few too many bells and whistles, but still definitely worth a vote. So went for that, Word Up, Walk Like an Egyptian, Alone and Letter from America (Let's Go All The Way and Love Missile F1-11 were also good discoveries I heard today that didn't make the poll). I thought Cliff/Sarah would be a shoo-in for Worst, but then that Anfield Rap supposed song came along and the rest is history x

Just been to see it, really good. Love to see a good take on found footage horror and some wonderful callbacks to classic possession horror. Agree that David Dastmalcian was excellent, good to see him in a lead role after a lot of supporting ones recently. It's what I imagine a US episode of Inside No. 9 would look like with a higher budget and runtime, though I thought it would've worked better without the opening and closing scenes, it would make some of the plot points come as surprises and the ending wasn't quite as strong as it could've been, still the horror scenes when they come were excellently done.

John Farnham - You're The Voice The Sisters of Mercy – This Corrosion Bananarama – Venus Run-D.M.C. – Walk This Way The Pogues & The Dubliners – The Irish Rover

Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name, outside of the fact that with weeks to go no one could've called it, but even at the timem though the campaign was definitely gaining traction and had a big lead at first, it looked like it was dwindling as the week went on and I'd say most going into Sunday, weren't quite expecting that result.

Going for Pink, but I'm clearly gonna be alone for some time here x

I see you had a poll error, so fixed it x (and naturally voted for Gen 1, I have some fleeting interest in most eras, but that will always be the epitome of my childhood and the only one I played multiple times)

A Thousand Miles and You're The Voice are my favourites to drop out so far, both a bit cliched/overplayed and of their time, but it works so much that they still sound like great time capsules. Time of My Life is a similarly great 80s cheesy moment. No other massive favourites to drop, though I did rather like Ready for the Floor at the time and a rather unconventional top 10!

Think this is the earliest I've ever voted but I caught all of it sooo pretty solid semi with some newer names in my votes, my top 3 in particular were such standout pieces of music.

Which semi for me please? :magic:

I think while the charts will never will reach the height of peak interest of the olden days (changing consumption habits makes this impossible, streaming something will never feel as much of an 'event' as buying a physical copy and sadly, they are in little demand outside fanbase buys), I do feel they are at a bit of a happy medium now. They still get a decent amount of media coverage from time to time, it's pretty much just for old songs returning or legacy acts like The Beatles, Kate Bush, Sophie Ellis Bextor and the obligatory Christmas number 1, but that's the audience that grew up with the charts at their peak and I've personally seen a bit more interest in the last couple of years than I had prior. I don't think any of the methods suggested would make it better - the random cassette release dates are very transparent and manipulative and make chart runs look untidy, but they are keeping physical media alive. ACR definitely isn't perfect, but like...do people genuinely want it going back to the slowness of 2016/17 with one artist potentially clogging the whole top 10? That's not only dull but potentially damaging to the industry, how are newer artists going to break through or labels take a chance with self-made musicians if the metrics of popularity constantly drag them down with the same songs getting streamed? Unless you go viral on Tik Tok, it's pretty hard to stand out these days, this at least gives more of a chance of higher turnover. I feel the authors need to accept that the charts are simply never going to be that popular again, what we've got now at least does enough to raise interest every now and then and allow many big hits to be recognised rather than just one dominating forever.

Gone with that great four in a row of Robert De Niro's Waiting, I Want to Break Free, Dancing with Tears in My Eyes & Smalltown Boy, plus The Riddle and Together in Electric Dreams (good selection but that still wins by a mile x) Gone for UB40 for worst, but most of them are pretty inoffensive. I rather like Solid, don't think it deserves to be there x

50; Electric Light Orchestra - Mr Blue Sky 49; Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence 48; They Might Be Giants – Birdhouse In Your Soul 47; Prince and The Revolution – Purple Rain 46; Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars 45; Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance 44; Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 43; John Farnham - You're The Voice 42; Eagle-Eye Cherry - Save Tonight 41; The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition 40; Alphabeat – Fascination 39; U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For 38; Metallica – Nothing Else Matters 37; Lady Gaga - The Edge Of Glory 36; Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dog - Still D.R.E. 35; Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine 34; Laura Branigan - Gloria 33; Chicane featuring Máire Brennan - Saltwater 32; Kaiser Chiefs – Oh My God 31; Abba - SOS 30; Vanessa Carlton – A Thousand Miles 29; Tove Lo featuring Hippie Sabotage - Stay High 28; The Cure – Friday I'm In Love 27; Duran Duran – Ordinary World 26; Natasha Bedingfield – Unwritten 25; Robin S. – Show Me Love 24; R.E.M. - Shiny Happy People 23; Sugababes - Overload 22; Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes - (I've Had) The Time Of My Life 21; Sia – Chandelier 20; Felix - Don't You Want Me 19; Hot Chip – Ready For The Floor 18; Madonna - The Power Of Goodbye / Little Star 17; Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly With His Song 16; Little Boots - Remedy 15; Grace - Not Over Yet 14; Fatboy Slim – The Rockafeller Skank 13; Dua Lipa - Break My Heart 12; Käärijä - Cha Cha Cha 11; Madonna - Deeper And Deeper 10; Prince and The Revolution - Kiss 09; Roxette – Listen to Your Heart / Dangerous 08; Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time 07; Destiny's Child - Bills, Bills, Bills 06; Macy Gray - I Try 05; Pink – Don't Let Me Get Me 04; Rihanna - Where Have You Been 03; Anastacia - I'm Outta Love 02; Emma Bunton - Maybe 01; Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories - Stay (I Missed You)

Indie reigns supreme :cheeseblock: (and Steps I guess x) Love is Noise is definitely the most mid here so that to go now.

Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance Kenny Loggins - Footloose Katrina and the Waves – Walking on Sunshine Echo & the Bunnymen – The Killing Moon Michael Jackson - Thriller