Doug

With her latest album dropped at midnight this morning, Holly Humberstone has followed up her quite well promoted campaign of singles (well, each one of them got playlisted on R1). All of her singles really did it for me more than anything she’s done before, To Love Somebody in particular, so I’ve given the album a listen during the train journey I’m currently on, and it’s really good! It matches the vibe of the singles and her sound is very HAIM/Carly Rae Jepsen. I hope this album does something chartwise to make up for the singles somehow not doing a single thing.

+5: Dracula +4: Man I Need +3: iloveitiloveitiloveit +2: American Girls +1: Fever Dream -1: Rein Me In -2: Lush Life -3: Homewrecker -4: White Keys -5: Babydoll Dracula getting the highest score in a while with the most +5s you say? It’s what she deserves 💙 Just The Way You Are would have got it tho if it didn’t get shafted.

Absolutely called it lol. I don’t understand the hype behind Fike one single bit, nor do I see him bigged up absolutely anywhere? So frustrating how many reimagined songs nowhere near as good get into the top 10 but JTWYA can’t manage it and now it’s been removed from the R1 playlist, that’ll be it won’t it?

Good god I thought The Dead Dance was bad enough being completely generic and void of anything special, but this is TOSH. It literally sounds like Stan Twitter ran "make something cunty slay the house down boots mawma" through Copilot and it came back with this. She really doesn't choose her finest moments for soundtrack songs 😅

This absolutely BANGS!! I actually loved Internet Girl and they’ve done it again!

AHHHH!! Best final 2 in YEARS!! I cheered so loudly when Karishma was given the best edit and was confirmed to make it before the others, but really warmed to Pascha even more and to make it past Dan when I initially thought she had no chance, she really held her own through the interviews. Get it girl!! I’ll be so happy with whoever wins but Karishma still has my vote. After the cast seeming awful at the start, it really has worked out damn well!

Click Clack Symphony Leak It I Know You’re Hurting Younger You The rest irdc about lol

This sounds comically terrible rn hahahaha I can’t with berries being the only real held items of note for a start, not to mention so many Pokemon and moves being unavailable, it’s giving playthrough teams rather than fully built competitive teams which is what the creators aimed for and what we were all expecting. I guess we’ll see how things go on as they add more Pokemon and more items as time goes by but I’m definitely not gutted to be missing out right now. Also lol at some of these abilities for the new megas - it would be a bad time to be a Skarmory or Victreebel fan. They’d better do Scolipede justice.

I s2g if Milky gets booted out of the top 10 for another Dominic Fike grimfest

I’d love Nini to win, objectively she probably shouldn’t win against Myki’s 4 wins but she’s just my kind of queen to the note, just that level of unpredictability really makes her so interesting to me. Myki surely.

It really was a challenge of two halves but Darlene really deserved this win as did Myki so I’ve got to give the former credit for doing it for me this time, but she’s still easily my least favourite of the three. As much as I do, I also don’t want Nini to win because I’m concerned about the amount of hate that’ll probably come her way from all angles 😔 but I know there’s pretty much no chance she’ll win anyway.

I’m totally OVER Lush Life lol. A decent song is normally soiled for me when it suddenly is popular because of a dance craze, it’s gone from a 9 to a 6 at a push and once it disappears will probably become more enjoyable again in the future. By far Babydoll is the worst in the top 10 though, literally what is the appeal? Really hoping Milky can hang onto the top 10!! But I keep being disappointed.

Dimension would have won this for me most other weeks but it has to be Bebe!

+5: Dracula +4: Man I Need +3: iloveitiloveitiloveit +2: American Girls +1: Fever Dream -1: Rein Me In -2: Lush Life -3: Homewrecker -4: Swim -5: Babydoll

I’m guessing it’ll have access to Superpower too so it would be one of the few pokemon to get Contrary and STAB! Not a huge fan of the bird but can’t deny that’s a pretty big selling point!

An absolute banger as usual from him even if it is a bit Dimension-by-numbers. Still mad that DJ Turn It Up isn’t the universal club hit that it should be because that right there is beyond an 11.

It’s what she deserves 😭😭👏

The cheer I had when Karishma’s team won was even louder bearing in mind Kieran would automatically be gone. I really find it hard to understand why the retailers found it hard to invest in their product - my parents’ dogs would love it, and her vision was so accurate for all of the dog owner friends I have. Those retailers were utterly miserable and confusing, and why some of them (Pets at Home) believed in the 6ft impractical cat tree more I can’t fathom. The fact that Kieran’s team was that close to winning… gross. Thank god good beat evil!! Gutted for Rothna but I did have a feeling that she would be more likely to be fired over Dan looking at the bigger picture. Business plans are as follows from what I’ve heard: Karishma - Skincare Dan - Student Recruitment Lawrence - AI PR Agency Priyesh - Cocktail Brand Pascha - Private Healthcare Recruitment In respect to the interviews/business plans, my thoughts on how it’ll probably play out: Karishma - strongest candidate in YEARS and has been called out for her strengths by Karen and Tim, and that’s rare. And her business plan being skincare, which brought Alan the biggest investment return across all series, gives her an advantage. I just have *a feeling* that it’s all gone so well for her that either her business plan won’t be fully finalised or she’ll crack in the interviews, or he’ll prefer one of the boys. I just hope I’m wrong. Dan - for a gay person, Alan seems to actually like him surprisingly. He’s proven to be competent despite being a bit slow and introverted, and his business is an incredibly successful student recruitment firm that he claims to be making a very positive trajectory. He’s definitely the most likely to make the final in my eyes, but he’ll find the interviews tough to get through, being a bit slow to come up with answers on the surface. Lawrence - again, Alan really likes him (probably because he’s another arrogant tosser), and has pulled out good results at times. A business that relies on AI is sure to peak his interest, and while Lawrence is arrogant, he is annoyingly smart. He’ll hold his own in the interviews, but can see him still being rinsed and it could be his downfall if his business plan has too many holes. Priyesh - I found Alan’s comment to him pretty harsh and unnecessary. Yes, he was nonchalant in this week’s task, but he’s proven to get on with it and when he’s invested in a task, he’s fully committed and does well. His business is the one I’m the most interested in but I can totally see his business plan having areas not fully thought through and him getting grilled to the nines and tens, and therefore not making the cut, but I hope I’m wrong. Pascha - she’s done well enough and she’s lovely but I think she’s the least likely to make it through to the final, especially as her business plan is quite limited. I also have a feeling she might not have a full business plan and get quite a hard time, and while she’s clearly very smart for her age, I think she’ll get the “you’re too young” treatment. On that note I think it’ll be Dan and either Karishma or Lawrence in the final, really hoping for the former obviously but just hoping she can hold her own in the interviews. I want it to be Karishma and Priyesh but I can’t see it.

What a TUNE!! She’s reversed the trajectory after the two first songs were a bit poor. I don’t care if it’s a rip off of Jump because there’s enough on it to give it her own stamp and it’s so good.

My boy Scovillain getting a decent unique ability I KNOW that's right!! Still wouldn't cover up the fact that in most situations it would be cooked the moment its time in mega form runs out, but I'll take it 😅 Lucario Z getting Prankster is actually so funny to me hahahaha why exactly does it need it when it's that fast 😭

Well there potentially goes my theory that the final 2 lipsync would be Pink Pony Club (seemed like an obvious choice over the past year) as Ru rarely repeats artists for lipsync songs on the same season. Nevertheless, looking forward to seeing Nini perform SGUMG, she must smash it again if she beats Juicy!

This has really clicked with me recently after hearing it on the radio a few times, it’s so stunning, as is the video. Might be my favourite from them now and I’m glad it gave them another top 40.

I'd rather she went with Nobody's Son but this is easily the next best choice. Why she decided Such A Funny Way was a good choice when it's worse than the majority of the album will always be a mystery to me.

Enough time has passed and many listens have been given for me to calm down and properly assess the album. Not including the intro/outro tracks: 08 // I Will Overcome 08 // Beware.. The South London Lover Boy 10 // The WhatsApp Shakespeare 09 // Winter Woman 09 // Click Clack Symphony (really has grown on me with the impact of the video and time to let it all sit in) 11 // I Know You're Hurting 10 // Life Boat 09 // I Hate The Way I Look Today (I actually love the OTT craziness of this but can appreciate that to some it's probably a lil bit much) 10 // Goodbye Henry (this is so underrated, absolutely stunning and she ticked the box of "happy sounding sad song" in the absolute best way) 11 // Nightingale Lane 07 // Skin & Bones 10 // Where Is My Husband 07 // Fields 09 // Joy (the verses of this really remind me of Emeli Sande - Breathing Underwater!!) 09 // Happier Times Ahead And that's me being pretty strict - I know that the ones below 9 have potential to grow further. It's a two 11 scoring situation because I Know You're Hurting is SO powerful and touching, while Nightingale Lane remains the song of the year so far for me and speaks to me on a similar level. It's going to be hard to top this as the album of the year as the months go by! I'm just so glad that she's getting her flowers and this is on track to be her first number 1 album, I find it mad that My 21st Century Blues never made it!

I bloody hope that’s not the video lol