Chez Wombat

Indeed, a really powerful and important album to hear. It works really well as an emotional narrative, starting on literal childhood innocence before the angry, intense reality hits. Not enough artists (let alone on their debut) are bold enough to be so visceral and open on the brutal realities of trauma and sexual assault and of course, is very timely given the multitude of real world examples we're seeing. I really loved 'i keep trying to change the ending' and the latter half of the album in particular, it starts leaning more into atmosphere and post rock which is an effective contrast to the intensity of before.

Excellent number 1 and one that would be the same for me *. I wasn't huge on Need U (100%), it just lacked that oomph, but this was much better, the sample works really well and the steel drums bring so much joy to it, it was a real pick-me-up on those dark winter nights when it came out. Love Hideaway too, very quirky and alternative type of dance which you'd never expect to be a hit, a lot of these types of dance definitely benefitted from the low sales environment before streaming was brought in, but it really gave us some excellent number 1s. Thanks for this Jester, been great to follow! This would be my own top 10: 01; Duke Dumont feat. Jax Jones - I Got U 02; Lilly Wood & Robin Schulz - Prayer In C 03; Sigma - Nobody to Love 04; Kiesza - Hideaway 05; Ella Henderson - Ghost 06; Route 94 feat. Jess Glynne - My Love 07; Clean Bandit feat. Jess Glynne - Rather Be 08; Calvin Harris - Summer 09; Nico & Vinz - Am I Wrong 10; Mr Probz - Waves This is definitely the last year I have fond nostalgia for the charts before streaming was added, but there are still some interesting turns in the coming years.

Aww, that would've been amazing to have an all foreign language top 2 (although I hear Wild Horse Nine is pretty good too), can't say I have a lot of interest in seeing the #1 but a really impressive feat!

So glad Russell Brand was found guilty, I was worried that he'd get off based on not enough evidence, the fact he's being tried for two more cases shows there's more coming out and he'll hopefully be away for even beyond his sentence, it was horrendous hearing those visceral accounts on the documentary and it was obviously well known to almost everyone in the industry (Katherine Ryan told him straight to his face). The 2000s was a horrendous time for this sort of open secrets of abuse and he was a lot of the reason why. Not surprised at all by David Walliams and I hope he goes away similarly based on what I've read, there was obviously a lot more going on to the allegations that got him sacked from BGT. His books were some of Harper's biggest products and contributed a significant amount of their profits, dropping him despite that shows it was really serious.

Wonderful to end the year with matching my Q record of 8 entries! And just the one DNQ in a whole ten contests is a record for me (my last one in 2019, I only took part in 9/10 of the contests), now the hard part of slogging through 65 other songs (I kid, I'm sure they'll be great xx) This song was played on Emily Pilbeam's early morning 6Music show, the same as where I found my Unknown Pleasures winner PISS, so let's hope that gives good fortune x I can't believe how under the radar this is and it's <1000 views, it's got a great Crystal Castles-esque witchy sound. Lovely to see former Terra Avium artists Hiatus here, Precious Little is one of my all time favourite of my entries <3 That was a fairly rare piano instrumental from him when the rest of his work is more electronic so intrigued to see how this is, also guessing yeule will sound quite different to my one, always find her a very exciting artist though.

Wow, I thought Bror Fontaines were goners there for sure! This was another great song from them (I don't remember it from Club Bizarre but I'm sure I would've pointed it) but I feel every passing week is a bonus for them so glad we'll get to hear at least one more! Commiserations to Zara and Texas, I know I ranked the former lowly quite a lot but Midnight Sun and Lush Life I think could've changed that. Texas I think struggled with a very competitive groups category, but I liked most of the choices and was glad to see my favourites, Summer Son and Black Eyed Boy sent, I think the only one I'd have liked to have seen as Sleep, quite an underrated song from their later years x

Hooray for New Order, an unconventional choice but still a banger x (please bring a big classic next round though!)

Jess Glynne generally disappointed as a solo artist (more on that to come!), but she definitely made a good start with her vocals on dance songs. My Love still sounds really good and was one of the highlights of the deep house phase (on that note, I will also defend I Wanna Feel, it's a non number 1 and wouldn't be top 10 for me, but that sound is quite nostalgic). I was really intrigued by Clean Bandit's classical/garage crossover sound when I first heard them, my favourite is still Mozart's House which still blends the two styles really well, that should've been a bigger hit but I'm glad Rather Be got them that breakthrough as it remains a really nice song, though New Eyes was a very patchy album overall. I do like their two other number 1s later as well, but sadly, they just turned into a generic dance act after that. At least we've still got their early stuff x

Keith Harris And Orville - White Christmas* Starship - We Built This City Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls Aled Jones - Walking In The Air* Sting - Russians A-ha - The Sun Always Shines On TV Tiebreak: A-ha - Take on Me

James A was a tough one - I did think he played very well at first as a kind of reluctant but chilled traitor that went completely undetected, and the blindfold task I don't feel was the best thought through so almost don't blame him so much for that and the MIPS was well done, but...it's just not fun to watch when they clearly don't wanna be there, there were times I almost wanted to just shake him and say 'you are aware you signed up for a show where you're not guaranteed to be your intended allegiance right?', the cards dealt him a traitor and he should've just got over it, saying that, I think there was a lot more we didn't see that was edited out that felt like this was the cleanest they could've shown that allowed him to go on his own terms. It's just a shame they didn't go with Amol really, definitely a learning curve for the show I guess going forward, where we'll hopefully get people that actually want to be there. Personally, I thought Wilf was a good traitor that got too big for his boots (more on him later), so Kieran's parting gift was a pretty funny late derailment.

30; Metric - Doomscroller 29; Weyes Blood - God Turn Me Into A Flower 28; Caroline Polachek - Welcome to My Island (Original / Charli XCX & George Daniel Remix) 27; Eliza Rose & Interplanetary Criminal - B.O.T.A. (Baddest Of Them All) 26; Caroline Polachek - Billions 25; Working Men's Club - Widow 24; Gorillaz (feat. Tame Impala & Bootie Brown) - New Gold 23; Jessie Ware - Free Yourself 22; Harry Styles - As It Was 21; My Chemical Romance - The Foundations of Decay 20; Arcade Fire - The Lightning Parts I & II 19; Let's Eat Grandma - Happy New Year 18; ROSALÍA - SAOKO 17; Tove Lo - No One Dies From Love 16; First Aid Kit - Out Of My Head 15; Arctic Monkeys - There'd Better Be a Mirrorball 14; Black Country, New Road - The Place Where He Inserted The Blade 13; RAYE (feat. 070 Shake) - Escapism. 12; Kendrick Lamar - The Heart Part 5 11; Steve Lacy - Bad Habit 10; Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero 09; Gabe Gurnsey - Push 08; Ethel Cain - American Teenager 07; Beyoncé - Break My Soul 06; Fontaines D.C. - Jackie Down the Line 05; Weeknd - Sacrifice 04; Paramore - This Is Why 03; LF System - Afraid To Feel 02; Sam Ryder - Space Man 01; Griff & Sigrid - Head On Fire

The Chemical Brothers - Go The Courteneers - Not Nineteen Forever Dolly Parton - 9 To 5

01; Kate Bush - The Big Sky (Meteorological Mix) 02; Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough (Schizo Mix) 03; Fontaines D.C. - In ár gCroíthe go deo (Orbital Remix) 04; New Order - Confusion (Pump Panel Reconstruction Mix) 05; Adele - Hometown Glory (High Contrast Remix) 06; MARINA - Radioactive 07; Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under 08; Disclosure feat. Sam Smith - Omen 09; Texas - Mr Haze (GBX & Paul Keenan Remix) 10; Zara Larsson & Robyn - Puss Puss (Girls Trip) 11; Sophie Ellis-Bextor & Wuh Oh - Hypnotized 12; Bananarama - Now or Never 13; Darin - Give Me Tonight I love the original The Big Sky so was hesitant for a remix, but this definitely does it justice. Just Can't Get Enough has actually never been a big favourite of mine from Depeche Mode (too fluffy for the band that made Personal Jesus), but this remix adds a new kind of ominous feel to it which I'm really into, it's almost like the optimism and positivity of the original is a facade for what comes later, that was a great find <3 Seventeen Going Under was hard to rank amongst all these much as I like it, I guess middle feels about right. Wish Sophie had sent Heartbreak Make Me a Dancer, that was giftwrapped for a round like this! This was a good round though, even though I was hesitant, nothing I disliked x I have no idea what M83 would've sent for this, maybe something from Junk as that reflected a more disco/dancefloor-esque sound than what they usually do, either Solitude or this one (if just for the cute video alone x)

Ooh, I make that 64 so, hello AQ *. (Anyone that scuppers this might just risk my finger slipping on the ban button xx ) Edit: it’s 65 now…well then xx

I've not yet seen Season 2 (no point trying to avoid spoilers at this point!) so can't comment on that yet, but from everything else, I think this is rather accurate so far, Fiona was great entertainment value, as was Hugh, but both absolutely horrendous traitors and a bit spiteful in the former's case, I was quite glad to see her meet her match, thankfully the two that lasted would be a lot better! I don't think they'll ever beat that moment from Richard though, what a legend!