This whole shindig has been going for over a year, but if you're new to it all, let me briefly explain: Quick List Vote Game (or QLVG for short) is a 5 stage voting game that takes place across a fortnight. The aim is to take a list of 100 songs and eliminate the bottom 20 songs per voting each round until there are just 20 songs left and a winner is crowned from that. Voting is done by selecting some 25-40% of the remaining songs each round and submitting it to my memo inbox before the voting deadline, which comes up at 6pm on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. Scoring in each round works as simple: regardless of how many songs you vote for, your #1 vote will score 40 points, and each subsequent song will score 1 point less, going down to #40 votes in round 1 scoring just 1 point. With each new round, you are free to adjust how many songs you wish to vote for (as well as the order), either for strategy or personal reasons, so long as it complies with the range that is set for that voting round. If you miss a round of voting, your previous round's votes will be re-used with a 20% penalty (so your top vote will get 32 points, #2 gets 31.2, etc), and your vote will consist of as many of your previously voted songs as possible, provided it doesn't go over the limit. This means that someone who voted 25 songs in round 1, could potentially be made to vote for 25 songs again in round 2. The 20% penalty stacks upon successive rounds. Meanwhile, to grant some purpose to your earlier votes, from round 2 onwards, I take 25% of a song's total points scored and add them to the total for the next round. In the event of a tie in points between two eliminated songs, if possible the tie will be broken by the number of (active) voters, and then the top vote received for the round. If that is not possible, the songs will be considered tied for ranking purposes. If this happens on the cusp of the elimination line (eg two songs tie at #80 for round 1) and the tie cannot be broken, all the tied songs will proceed into the next round, barring an extreme circumstance where there are somehow more than 20 songs scoring 0 points. In the interest of fairness, I will always lock in my own vote before the game begins, and I will be unable to adjust the order or proportion of my vote after that.
The list of songs included in each game is determined through a number of ways. Generally speaking, the songs will have to match a pre-determined theme, or feature on a certain list of songs that has been chosen. Typically, the theme will be chosen by a vote between multiple different themes, and from that, a voting process takes place in the Qualifying thread to determine the 100 songs that will compete in the next round. These Qualifying rounds typically open up on the Tuesday after a new QLVG is posted.
Retired Champions Years & Years - King (2015 ARIA End Of Year) La Roux - Bulletproof (2006-2015 Hottest 100 Top 10s) Britney Spears - Toxic (2000-2016 ARIA Top 10s) All Saints - Pure Shores (Girl Groups) The Prodigy - Breathe (1990-1999 ARIA Top 10s) Flight Facilities feat. Christine Hoberg - Clair de lune (Artists with 1 ARIA Top 50 hit) a-ha - Take On Me (Debut singles) A$AP Rocky feat. Drake, 2 Chainz & Kendrick Lamar - F**kin' Problems (Songs with <3.00 review averages) Powderfinger - These Days (Movie soundtrack songs) Lady Antebellum - Need You Now (Songs with male & female vocals) Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World (#1 hit follow-ups) Swedish House Mafia feat. John Martin - Don't You Worry Child (non-AU/UK/US/IE/CA artists) James Blake - Retrograde (non-top 50 artists) The Presets - My People (Australian artists) Alexis Jordan - Happiness (One-word titles) Dua Lipa - Be The One (2016 ARIA End Of Year) Drake feat. Wizkid & Kyla - One Dance (2016 Hottest 100) A Tribe Called Quest - We The People.... (2016 Favourites) Michael Jackson - Thriller (Title tracks) Bastille - Pompeii (Geographical tracks) Evanescence - My Immortal (Unmentioned titles) Carly Rae Jepsen - Run Away With Me (ACI Hits) Queens Of The Stone Age - No One Knows (10 letter titles) Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over (#1 Hits Around The World) Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Ain't No Mountain High Enough (First Time QLVG Artists) Foo Fighters - Everlong (Top 10 Alternative Songs hits) Lana Del Rey - Video Games (Non-Top 20 singles on #1 albums) Regurgitator - Black Bugs (Animal songs) The Chemical Brothers - Go (Artists Over 40) Portishead - Glory Box (Songs with samples) David Bowie - "Heroes" (Noun songs) Pulp - Common People (5+ Minute songs) Placebo - Pure Morning (LGBTI+ artists) Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights (1970s tracks) Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart ('Love' songs) Concrete Blonde - Joey (Songs with first names) Divinyls - Boys In Town (3- Minute songs) Youssou N'Dour & Neneh Cherry - 7 Seconds (Number songs) The Killers - Mr. Brightside (Lead singles) Lorde - Green Light (2017 ARIA End Of Year) Gang Of Youths - What Can I Do If The Fire Goes Out? (2017 Hottest 100) BROCKHAMPTON - BOOGIE (2017 Favourites) Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain (Colour songs) Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U (Songs from years ending in '0') M83 - Midnight City (Songs and artists starting with the same letter) Gotye - Hearts a Mess (Non top 50 hits) Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Message (Songs beginning with 'The') Last edited:
If you recall from last year, we're kicking off the new year in the same way. Firstly we're looking at the ARIA EOY top 100, then the triple Hottest 100, and then a nominated list of songs from 2017 that do not feature in either list. As there is some crossover between the ARIA & triple j lists, and winning songs are retired, in the event that the winning song is one of these songs, to ensure the list keeps at 100 songs, the next game will include the Hottest 100 #101 song in its place, which we just learned 12 hours ago was Frank Ocean's "Chanel".
More so than usual, there is a bit of dispute as to which is the 'appropriate' version of song to feature in this. For the purposes of this listing, I have adhered to what ARIA listed (although I could not bring myself to credit Skrillex on "HUMBLE."), however you are free to vote as if your preferred version is the one mentioned, whether you may be mortified that Beyonce is on "Mi Gente", or mortified that Beyonce is not on "Perfect". Basically whatever floats your boat.
Anyway, it's time to start with that ARIA list!
Adele - Water Under The Bridge Alessia Cara - How Far I'll Go Alessia Cara - Scars To Your Beautiful Amy Shark - Adore Andy Grammer - Fresh Eyes Bliss N Eso feat. Gavin James - Moments Bruno Mars - 24K Magic Bruno Mars - That's What I Like Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean & Migos - Slide Calvin Harris feat. Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry & Big Sean - Feels Camila Cabello feat. Young Thug - Havana Charlie Puth - Attention Cheat Codes feat. Demi Lovato - No Promises Childish Gambino - Redbone Clean Bandit feat. Sean Paul & Anne-Marie - Rockabye Clean Bandit feat. Zara Larsson - Symphony David Guetta feat. Justin Bieber - 2U Dean Lewis - Waves Demi Lovato - Sorry Not Sorry DJ Khaled feat. Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper & Lil Wayne - I'm The One DJ Khaled feat. Rihanna & Bryson Tiller - Wild Thoughts Drake - Passionfruit Dua Lipa - New Rules Ed Sheeran - Castle On The Hill Ed Sheeran - Galway Girl Ed Sheeran - Happier Ed Sheeran - Perfect Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You Flume feat. Kai - Never Be Like You French Montana feat. Swae Lee - Unforgettable FRENSHIP & Emily Warren - Capsize Future - Mask Off Hailee Steinfeld - Most Girls Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso feat. Florida Georgia Line & Watt - Let Me Go Halsey - Now Or Never Harry Styles - Sign Of The Times Imagine Dragons - Believer Imagine Dragons - Thunder J Balvin & Willy William feat. Beyonce - Mi Gente James Arthur - Say You Won't Let Go Jason Derulo feat. Nicki Minaj & Ty Dolla $ign - Swalla Jax Jones feat. Raye - You Don't Know Me Jessica Mauboy - Fallin' Jon Bellion - All Time Low Jonas Blue feat. William Singe - Mama Julia Michaels - Issues Justin Bieber & BloodPop® - Friends Justin Timberlake - CAN'T STOP THE FEELING! Katy Perry feat. Skip Marley - Chained To The Rhythm Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE. Kesha - Praying Khalid - Young Dumb & Broke Kygo & Selena Gomez - It Ain't Me Lady Gaga - The Cure Lauv - I Like Me Better Liam Payne feat. Quavo - Strip That Down Little Mix - Touch Logic feat. Alessia Cara & Khalid - 1-800-273-8255 Lorde - Green Light Louis Tomlinson feat. Bebe Rexha & Digital Farm Animals - Back To You Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber - Despacito Macklemore feat. Kesha - Good Old Days Macklemore feat. Skylar Grey - Glorious Maggie Lindemann - Pretty Girl Maroon 5 feat. SZA - What Lovers Do Marshmello x Khalid - Silence Martin Garrix & Dua Lipa - Scared To Be Lonely Martin Garrix & Troye Sivan - There For You Miley Cyrus - Malibu Milky Chance - Cocoon Mura Masa feat. A$AP Rocky - Love$ick NEIKED feat. Dyo - Sexual Niall Horan - Slow Hands P!nk - What About Us Peking Duk feat. Elliphant - Stranger Pnau - Chameleon Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still Post Malone - I Fall Apart Post Malone feat. 21 Savage - rockstar Post Malone feat. Quavo - Congratulations Rag'N'Bone Man - Human Rita Ora - Your Song Robin Schulz & David Guetta feat. Cheat Codes - Shed A Light Sam Hunt - Body Like A Back Road Sam Smith - Too Good At Goodbyes Selena Gomez - Bad Liar Shawn Mendes - There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back Snakehips & MØ - Don't Leave Starley - Call On Me (Ryan Riback Remix) Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do The Chainsmokers - Paris The Chainsmokers & Coldplay - Something Just Like This The Chainsmokers feat. Halsey - Closer The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - I Feel It Coming The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - Starboy Train - Play That Song Vance Joy - Lay It On Me ZAYN & Taylor Swift - I Don't Wanna Live Forever ZAYN feat. Sia - Dusk Till Dawn Zedd & Alessia Cara - Stay
And to write the same thing I've been writing mild variations on for the last year and a half: If you wish to participate in this game, you must select your ORDERED Top 25 to 40 favourite selections in this list and memo them to me by 6pm AEDT on Wednesday. Best of luck to your favourites!
=#97. Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso feat. Florida Georgia Line & watt - Let Me Go
Points - 0 Current Voters - 0 Top Vote - N/A
=#97. Halsey - Now Or Never
Points - 0 Current Voters - 0 Top Vote - N/A
=#97. Imagine Dragons - Believer
Points - 0 Current Voters - 0 Top Vote - N/A
=#97. Robin Schulz & David Guetta feat. Cheat Codes - Shed A Light
Points - 0 Current Voters - 0 Top Vote - N/A
=#95. Alessia Cara - Scars To Your Beautiful
Points - 7 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #34
It is very lovely to come back from a break to see quite a turnout here! You would not realise it from this initial posting but that's largely because this is the first time in about a year we've had a non-curated list, which means songs can get in here with no invested interest from anyone here. Because of that we have 4 songs that received zero votes. The first of which is Hailee Steinfeld's bizarre algorithm pop monster that has evidently done what would be expected of it and not excited anyone a great deal as "Let Me Go" ties at #97. The next one I am a bit surprised by which is Halsey's "Now Or Never", I feel like "Bad At Love" might have done quite well here so I guess "Now Or Never" didn't quite click the same way. We've then got the first of two Imagine Dragons songs, one whose success you might underestimate as it spent nearly the whole year on the chart but mostly in the bottom half, but filled with questionable production & lyrical choices is "Believer" at #97. Lastly we have a song that really actually shouldn't be here #uzikhalidgate and makes no use of its artificial finish at #100 in the ARIA EOY. The much sought after collaboration between Robin Schulz, David Guetta & Cheat Codes lands higher than its ARIA EOY position by virtue of not being the only song on 0 votes. Now we get to the songs that received some level of interest, firstly we have recent Grammy winner Alessia Cara for her now 2+ year old single "Scars To Your Beautiful" at #95. It is far from the last time we'll see her, and far from the last time she'll be inspirational to us all.
Evidently in this break I've forgotten what I'm doing with ties because I should have put Alessia in the same post as Bliss N Eso as they are very much tied at #95. It's followed by two songs on the same points but not tied, firstly Jon Bellion's divisive "All Time Low" at #94, and then David Guetta's considerably less evocative "2U" at #93. Dance music continues to fall a bit flat here with Kygo & Selena Gomez's chopped & screwed "It Ain't Me" landing at #92, and then we have Alessia Cara with the intended commercial pushed version of "How Far I'll Go" which unlike with Frozen actually did get more traction than the movie version because Spotify playlists.
#87. The Chainsmokers & Coldplay - Something Just Like This
Points - 24 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #28
#86. Rag'N'Bone Man - Human
Points - 32 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #22
If you're feeling nostalgic for better times, this is the section for you. First we've got Macklemore lamenting those very times alongside Kesha at #90, the first of two entries for both artists, and then for those who miss those bands of old, we've got Train & Coldplay still trucking along with "Play That Song" at #88 and "Something Just Like This" at #87. If you think like that but you're also adventurous to try new artists, you probably bought a copy of Rag'N'Bone Man's "Human", the title track of which lands at #86. Oh and that Hailee Steinfeld song I always forget about is at #89.
#84. Clean Bandit feat. Sean Paul & Anne-Marie - Rockabye
Points - 40 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #24
#83. Lauv - I Like Me Better
Points - 44 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #1
#82. The Chainsmokers feat. Halsey - Closer
Points - 48 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #14
#81. Sam Hunt - Body Like A Back Road
Points - 48 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #7
We didn't get a clean sweep of Cheat Codes or The Chainsmokers in this round but they did not go particularly well. Perhaps The Chainsmokers can use the excuse of "Closer" being a big hit in 2016, although it barely fared better in last year's game landing at #77. For Cheat Codes, they are uncredited but largely responsible for the success of Maggie Lindemann's "Pretty Girl", which undermines the message so much I'm surprised that there isn't a video of the remix on YT with an instagram model and millions of views. Which ever version you're inclined to, it's in at #80. Clean Bandit also struggle a bit crossing over into a second year with "Rockabye" landing at #79. No excuses for the last two though, Lauv's bizarrely popular "I Like Me Better" landing at #83, and Sam Hunt's "Body Like A Back Road" at #81.
You might scratch your head at some of what hasn't left, and remember we've already hit quite a points threshold, so all of these are rather popular, your top 80:
Adele - Water Under The Bridge Amy Shark - Adore Andy Grammer - Fresh Eyes Bruno Mars - 24K Magic Bruno Mars - That's What I Like Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean & Migos - Slide Calvin Harris feat. Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry & Big Sean - Feels Camila Cabello feat. Young Thug - Havana Charlie Puth - Attention Cheat Codes feat. Demi Lovato - No Promises Childish Gambino - Redbone Clean Bandit feat. Zara Larsson - Symphony Dean Lewis - Waves Demi Lovato - Sorry Not Sorry DJ Khaled feat. Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper & Lil Wayne - I'm The One DJ Khaled feat. Rihanna & Bryson Tiller - Wild Thoughts Drake - Passionfruit Dua Lipa - New Rules Ed Sheeran - Castle On The Hill Ed Sheeran - Galway Girl Ed Sheeran - Happier Ed Sheeran - Perfect Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You Flume feat. Kai - Never Be Like You French Montana feat. Swae Lee - Unforgettable FRENSHIP & Emily Warren - Capsize Future - Mask Off Harry Styles - Sign Of The Times Imagine Dragons - Thunder J Balvin & Willy William feat. Beyonce - Mi Gente James Arthur - Say You Won't Let Go Jason Derulo feat. Nicki Minaj & Ty Dolla $ign - Swalla Jax Jones feat. Raye - You Don't Know Me Jessica Mauboy - Fallin' Jonas Blue feat. William Singe - Mama Julia Michaels - Issues Justin Bieber & BloodPop® - Friends Justin Timberlake - CAN'T STOP THE FEELING! Katy Perry feat. Skip Marley - Chained To The Rhythm Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE. Kesha - Praying Khalid - Young Dumb & Broke Lady Gaga - The Cure Liam Payne feat. Quavo - Strip That Down Little Mix - Touch Logic feat. Alessia Cara & Khalid - 1-800-273-8255 Lorde - Green Light Louis Tomlinson feat. Bebe Rexha & Digital Farm Animals - Back To You Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber - Despacito Macklemore feat. Skylar Grey - Glorious Maroon 5 feat. SZA - What Lovers Do Marshmello x Khalid - Silence Martin Garrix & Dua Lipa - Scared To Be Lonely Martin Garrix & Troye Sivan - There For You Miley Cyrus - Malibu Milky Chance - Cocoon Mura Masa feat. A$AP Rocky - Love$ick NEIKED feat. Dyo - Sexual Niall Horan - Slow Hands P!nk - What About Us Peking Duk feat. Elliphant - Stranger Pnau - Chameleon Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still Post Malone - I Fall Apart Post Malone feat. 21 Savage - rockstar Post Malone feat. Quavo - Congratulations Rita Ora - Your Song Sam Smith - Too Good At Goodbyes Selena Gomez - Bad Liar Shawn Mendes - There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back Snakehips & MØ - Don't Leave Starley - Call On Me (Ryan Riback Remix) Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do The Chainsmokers - Paris The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - I Feel It Coming The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - Starboy Vance Joy - Lay It On Me ZAYN & Taylor Swift - I Don't Wanna Live Forever ZAYN feat. Sia - Dusk Till Dawn Zedd & Alessia Cara - Stay
Contribute to this chaos by submitting your Top 20 to 32 selections from here and submitting them to me by 6pm on Friday. You are free to join in if you didn't play in round 1, and if you did, you are free to change or not change your voting order. Also for those interested, I should post the ACI voting tonight.
#80. Louis Tomlinson feat. Bebe Rexha & Digital Farm Animals - Back To You
Round by round: 74-80
Points - 34.4 Current Voters - 0 Top Vote - N/A
#79. Jessica Mauboy - Fallin'
Round by round: 69-79
Points - 45.4 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #26
#78. Sam Smith - Too Good At Goodbyes
Round by round: 80-78
Points - 48.2 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #23
#77. Maroon 5 feat. SZA - What Lovers Do
Round by round: 66-77
Points - 50.6 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #12
#76. Snakehips & MØ - Don't Leave
Round by round: 68-76
Points - 52 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #5
I'm sure the question on everyone's minds was about who is the least popular member of One Direction, incidentally it wasn't as much of a closed case as you'd think but of course it's Popjustice favourite Louis Tomlinson, who kicks off this round at #80 with "Back To You". Jessica Mauboy has the highest charting Australian song released in 2017 (unless Pnau climb higher this weekend) with #79's "Fallin'", while after narrowly winning a Sam battle, Sam Smith finishes at #78 with his first #1 hit "Too Good At Goodbyes". NEIKED have the first of their two entries in this round with "What Lovers Do" at #77, while Snakehips have "Don't Leave" at #76, but fret not because they barely grasped their way into the Hottest 100 so they'll be back next fortnight. Last edited:
#75. ZAYN & Taylor Swift - I Don't Wanna Live Forever
Round by round: 79-75
Points - 53 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #14
#74. Cheat Codes feat. Demi Lovato - No Promises
Round by round: 75-74
Points - 54.6 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #21
#73. Post Malone - I Fall Apart
Round by round: 70-73
Points - 58.8 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #13
#72. Liam Payne feat. Quavo - Strip That Down
Round by round: 77-72
Points - 59 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #14
#71. Logic feat. Alessia Cara & Khalid - 1-800-273-8255
Round by round: 76-71
Points - 62.2 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #27
In fact, ZAYN was losing the 1D battle initially with "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" starting at #79, just improving now to #75. He does have a 2nd track coming so really after round one, the least popular 1D member was Liam Payne, whose "Strip That Down" was right near the bottom too, but improves a bit more to #72. It's the first track out for Quavo but I imagine he'll be back. Cheat Codes however have run out of chances with "No Promises" their highest at #74. Post Malone opens up his salvo aptly with "I Fall Apart" dropping down to #73, while also in this post is that Logic song that I only have good things to say about.
Nothing says 2017 quite like the 2016 Hottest 100, so here's a bunch of tracks from there. First up it's Amy Shark's "Adore" at #70, but she's also joined by Milky Chance at #67 and Peking Duk at #69. Everyone should be delighted to know that we're only just now losing the first of Ed Sheeran's 5 tracks with "Happier" having snuck into the ARIA list but doing a bit better here at #68. But maybe I should say 6 tracks because James Arthur's attempt at cornering the same market, "Say You Won't Let Go" lands at #66. Perhaps this weekend Australia finally will.
#65. DJ Khaled feat. Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance The Rapper & Lil Wayne - I'm The One
Round by round: 65-65
Points - 72 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #12
#64. Andy Grammer - Fresh Eyes
Round by round: 67-64
Points - 73.6 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #19
#63. Macklemore feat. Skylar Grey - Glorious
Round by round: 58-63
Points - 73.8 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #11
#62. Mura Masa feat. A$AP Rocky - Love$ick
Round by round: 63-62
Points - 75 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #17
#61. The Chainsmokers - Paris
Round by round: 64-61
Points - 78 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #6
Quavo's back! This time with just a few more friends on DJ Khaled's "I'm The One" at #65. Justin Bieber still has 2 tracks left to appear while DJ Khaled has 1. A song I forget was a hit around this time because it feels much older, Andy Grammer's "Fresh Eyes" lands at #64, followed by Macklemore's highest entry and proud new part of my iTunes collection, "Glorious" at #63. Mura Masa gives us another 2016 track with "Love$ick" at #62 while The Chainsmokers run out of luck right before the finish line again, this time with their highest track "Paris" at #61.
Starting to reach the big hitters of the list with less space to fit in. Here's 60 songs of which 20 will be scrambling to find a place but ultimately failing to do so:
Adele - Water Under The Bridge Bruno Mars - 24K Magic Bruno Mars - That's What I Like Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean & Migos - Slide Calvin Harris feat. Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry & Big Sean - Feels Camila Cabello feat. Young Thug - Havana Charlie Puth - Attention Childish Gambino - Redbone Clean Bandit feat. Zara Larsson - Symphony Dean Lewis - Waves Demi Lovato - Sorry Not Sorry DJ Khaled feat. Rihanna & Bryson Tiller - Wild Thoughts Drake - Passionfruit Dua Lipa - New Rules Ed Sheeran - Castle On The Hill Ed Sheeran - Galway Girl Ed Sheeran - Perfect Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You Flume feat. Kai - Never Be Like You French Montana feat. Swae Lee - Unforgettable FRENSHIP & Emily Warren - Capsize Future - Mask Off Harry Styles - Sign Of The Times Imagine Dragons - Thunder J Balvin & Willy William feat. Beyonce - Mi Gente Jason Derulo feat. Nicki Minaj & Ty Dolla $ign - Swalla Jax Jones feat. Raye - You Don't Know Me Jonas Blue feat. William Singe - Mama Julia Michaels - Issues Justin Bieber & BloodPop® - Friends Justin Timberlake - CAN'T STOP THE FEELING! Katy Perry feat. Skip Marley - Chained To The Rhythm Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE. Kesha - Praying Khalid - Young Dumb & Broke Lady Gaga - The Cure Little Mix - Touch Lorde - Green Light Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber - Despacito Marshmello x Khalid - Silence Martin Garrix & Dua Lipa - Scared To Be Lonely Martin Garrix & Troye Sivan - There For You Miley Cyrus - Malibu NEIKED feat. Dyo - Sexual Niall Horan - Slow Hands P!nk - What About Us Pnau - Chameleon Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still Post Malone feat. 21 Savage - rockstar Post Malone feat. Quavo - Congratulations Rita Ora - Your Song Selena Gomez - Bad Liar Shawn Mendes - There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back Starley - Call On Me (Ryan Riback Remix) Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - I Feel It Coming The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - Starboy Vance Joy - Lay It On Me ZAYN feat. Sia - Dusk Till Dawn Zedd & Alessia Cara - Stay
If you wish to participate here, submit your Top 15 to 24 selections to me by 6pm on Monday and I will do the normal bidding. From this round on, songs will retain 25% of their points from the previous rounds, so I hope you like messy decimal numbers.
Fresh from performing at today's Super Bowl, we kick off this round by kicking out P!nk, whose latest inevitable ARIA #1 ended up proving itself quite well as a worldwide hit, that being "What About Us" at #60. The clock has finally stopped ticking for Zedd & Alessia Cara's "Stay" which lands at #59, next to another big dance collab, Marshmello & Khalid's "Silence". Khalid still has another song to come, which is the same story for Bruno Mars with his Grammy Award winning "That's What I Like" at #57, while Martin Garrix finally takes his first hit via his Troye Sivan collab "There For You" at #56. As a small teaser that will be borderline redundant depending on how you read through these posts, one of these 3 artists will lose their other entry before this elimination session is over.
How can we not be at the very pointy end right now with these colossal hits falling?! Well I'll tackle the one exception as we go back to back on international dance producers teaming up with Australian vocalists, as Jonas Blue recruits William Singe of The Collective to make an international hit out of "Mama" at #55. Despite getting no votes at all for "Believer", Imagine Dragons fair better with "Thunder" landing up at #54. We then halve the count of Sheeran left in this contest, taking out the biggest two actually, with "Shape Of You" at #53 and "Perfect" at #51. Incidentally, "Shape Of You" was one of the last songs to even get a single vote in the first round which could have seen a very quick exit. Sandwiched between the two is the song that just knocked "Shape Of You" off #1 on Japan's Spotify, interrupting its 364 day reign at #1 to make way for Camila Cabello's "Havana".
#50. Jason Derulo feat. Nicki Minaj & Ty Dolla $ign - Swalla
Round by round: 42-50-50
Points - 118.61 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #12
#49. Dean Lewis - Waves
Round by round: 54-54-49
Points - 119.5 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #3
#48. Starley - Call On Me (Ryan Riback Remix)
Round by round: 52-52-48
Points - 119.66 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #9
#47. Bruno Mars - 24K Magic
Round by round: 35-46-47
Points - 120.07 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #8
#46. Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do
Round by round: 50-48-46
Points - 120.85 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #2
So after 3 consecutive #1 hits, we kick off the top 50 with Jason Derulo's ode to swallowing his load, something so gross that I only typed it because it rhymes, though certainly "Swalla" proved marketable landing at #50. Dean Lewis manages to sneak "Waves" through into the top 50 at #49, same going for another Australian entry from Starley, with the Ryan Riback remix of "Call On Me" at #48, no doubt pleasing those who want a bit more punch to their production or just like alliterations. The title track to the greatest album of the arbitrary 12 month window decided upon by the Grammys, as decided upon by the Grammys, Bruno Mars checks out early at #47 with "24K Magic", losing out to probably the only #1 hit that puts a mentally ill celebrity on blast, Taylor Swift's only appearance here with "Look What You Made Me Do" at #46.
Seemingly finding its biggest success in Australia was Miley Cyrus's comeback single "Malibu" which also fairs well in this game landing at #45. Adele's here to represent 2015 music in 2018, with the last single released from "25", "Water Under The Bridge" finding a way in at #44. Otherwise hey this round's been pretty good to 1D solo members except oh no, Harry Styles checks out at #43, and ZAYN at #41, leaving only Niall left to carry the flag. In the middle of that is a 3rd Justin Bieber entry, "Friends" at #42 leaving just the big one left to come.
Just 40 songs left so there's no hiding from the elimination line now, as 20 of these songs have to go next round:
Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean & Migos - Slide Calvin Harris feat. Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry & Big Sean - Feels Charlie Puth - Attention Childish Gambino - Redbone Clean Bandit feat. Zara Larsson - Symphony Demi Lovato - Sorry Not Sorry DJ Khaled feat. Rihanna & Bryson Tiller - Wild Thoughts Drake - Passionfruit Dua Lipa - New Rules Ed Sheeran - Castle On The Hill Ed Sheeran - Galway Girl Flume feat. Kai - Never Be Like You French Montana feat. Swae Lee - Unforgettable FRENSHIP & Emily Warren - Capsize Future - Mask Off J Balvin & Willy William feat. Beyonce - Mi Gente Jax Jones feat. Raye - You Don't Know Me Julia Michaels - Issues Justin Timberlake - CAN'T STOP THE FEELING! Katy Perry feat. Skip Marley - Chained To The Rhythm Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE. Kesha - Praying Khalid - Young Dumb & Broke Lady Gaga - The Cure Little Mix - Touch Lorde - Green Light Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber - Despacito Martin Garrix & Dua Lipa - Scared To Be Lonely NEIKED feat. Dyo - Sexual Niall Horan - Slow Hands Pnau - Chameleon Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still Post Malone feat. 21 Savage - rockstar Post Malone feat. Quavo - Congratulations Rita Ora - Your Song Selena Gomez - Bad Liar Shawn Mendes - There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - I Feel It Coming The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - Starboy Vance Joy - Lay It On Me
Make your mark and make sure your favourite doesn't end up at #21 or something like that. Submit your Top 10 to 16 selections to my memo inbox by 6pm on Wednesday to make sure you get a fully counted vote. Best of luck.
Starting things off with an amendment of sorts. Not from me obviously, I've never made a mistake. But FRENSHIP's "Capsize" really should have been in the 2016 End Of Year charts, and is just fortunate that it kept persisting enough to make it in 2017, and lands reasonably well at #40. Post Malone has appropriately spent all his time hopping around the 30s with "Congratulations" to end at #39, while Julia Michaels was more lucky to make this round with "Issues" ending at #38. Also lucky was Demi Lovato who nearly fell out last round, but did end up improving a little to #37 with her biggest solo hit to date, "Sorry Not Sorry" at #37. Lastly we have the gradual descent of Charlie Puth's "Attention" which at the very least landed on some nice even numbers along its way to #36.
#32. J Balvin & Willy William feat. Beyonce - Mi Gente
Round by round: 37-37-35-32
Points - 153.24 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #9
#31. Clean Bandit feat. Zara Larsson - Symphony
Round by round: 39-36-38-31
Points - 155.94 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #2
Lady Gaga scored her first ARIA top 10 hit in 6 years with "The Cure" last year, which finds favour here to land at #35. It of course only barely snuck into that top 10 while the next two songs were ingrained for months. I'm talking about Khalid's highest entry "Young Dumb & Broke" at #34, and The Weeknd's "Starboy" at #33, the latter of which probably lost some voting prominence due to featuring in last year's game. There's a near miss of a top 10 hit that outdoes all those songs though, with J Balvin & Willy William's surprising Latin crossover hit "Mi Gente" at #32, followed by Clean Bandit's highest entry here, "Symphony" at #31.
#28. Martin Garrix & Dua Lipa - Scared To Be Lonely
Round by round: 38-39-31-28
Points - 165.61 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #5
#27. Pnau - Chameleon
Round by round: 24-27-29-27
Points - 175.39 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #4
#26. Ed Sheeran - Galway Girl
Round by round: 28-25-23-26
Points - 175.55 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #2
Need some more 2016 in your 2017 countdown? Well NEIKED has the answer for you with "Sexual" at #30, but perhaps more blatantly, we have Flume's now 2 year old "Never Be Like You" still resonating at #29. Landing surprisingly high at #28 is Martin Garrix's "Scared To Be Lonely", the first of two tracks we'll be seeing here from Dua Lipa, while Pnau have their belated 2016 track that didn't hit the ARIA top 50 until 2017, becoming the biggest Australian hit of the year with "Chameleon" at #27. Lastly we have yet another Sheeran track with "Galway Girl" landing at #26.
#24. Katy Perry feat. Skip Marley - Chained To The Rhythm
Round by round: 27-18-22-24
Points - 180.7 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #2
#23. Post Malone feat. 21 Savage - rockstar
Round by round: 25-23-27-23
Points - 186.43 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #8
#22. Rita Ora - Your Song
Round by round: 23-19-21-22
Points - 204.35 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #5
#21. Selena Gomez - Bad Liar
Round by round: 12-11-11-21
Points - 205.59 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #2
Pnau may have had the biggest Australian hit of the year, but the highest one in this list is surprisingly from Vance Joy, whose "Lay It On Me" has been steadily climbing the list to finish at a strong #25. We've then got some songs that were otherwise challenging for top 20 spots but naturally missed out. Katy Perry's sole entry (a weird prospect a year ago) "Chained To The Rhythm" at #24, and Rita Ora's "Your Song" at #22. Post Malone gets his highest entry at #23 with "rockstar", sadly not making some synergy at #21. Instead that honour goes to Selena Gomez who despite my maniacal wishes, drops hard out of an otherwise safe position, making for a rare case of a song whose round by round listing is a palindrome.
And so we arrive at the final 20, the much beloved hits that have survived this long
Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean & Migos - Slide Calvin Harris feat. Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry & Big Sean - Feels Childish Gambino - Redbone DJ Khaled feat. Rihanna & Bryson Tiller - Wild Thoughts Drake - Passionfruit Dua Lipa - New Rules Ed Sheeran - Castle On The Hill French Montana feat. Swae Lee - Unforgettable Future - Mask Off Jax Jones feat. Raye - You Don't Know Me Justin Timberlake - CAN'T STOP THE FEELING! Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE. Kesha - Praying Little Mix - Touch Lorde - Green Light Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber - Despacito Niall Horan - Slow Hands Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still Shawn Mendes - There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - I Feel It Coming
Have your final say on these proceedings by submitting your Top 5 to 8 selections to me by 6pm on Friday. I will also post the ACI very shortly for those who do that.
The lesson to be learnt here is that proximity to Lorde on the alphabetical chart does not correspond to much vote splash (or maybe Lorde's next?!) as the other L artists kick us off, firstly with Little Mix's song "Touch" which I forgot was a 2017 hit, and Luis Fonsi's song "Despacito" which nobody could forget was a 2017 hit. Last edited:
#17. French Montana feat. Swae Lee - Unforgettable
Round by round: 11-13-12-16-17
Points - 190.06 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #5
While skirting ever close to falling out last round, Childish Gambino was a constant sight in the top 20 for this game with "Redbone", one of only 3 songs that spent every single week of 2017 on the ARIA Chart, and the only one of those 3 to land a good spot here. We've then got French Montana's banger/sad boi anthem for 2 lines, and by French Montana I mean Swae Lee who steals the show on "Unforgettable" which lands at #17.
Some years ago you might have accused Future of riding on Drake's coat tails to success, but it's a curious event here where they're actually pretty close together on their own. Future still takes the runner up position but lands much higher than I'd have expected with "Mask Off" at #16, sitting behind of course Drake's "Passionfruit" at #15. Both of these songs will get a second chance in the next QLVG.
#13. The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - I Feel It Coming
Round by round: 18-21-20-14-13
Points - 208.47 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #1
The run of hip-hop jams does not stop however, as next up we've got the highest appearance for DJ Khaled, finding strong favour for "Wild Thoughts" at #14. Then it's back to the trendy times of 2016 making for a rare context where "I Feel It Coming" is rated above "Starboy" as it lands at #13.
#11. Calvin Harris feat. Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry & Big Sean - Feels
Round by round: 08-08-07-10-11
Points - 216.76 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #1
While not managing to match the vocal performance of force of Ed Sheeran's "Shape Of You" according to Grammy voters, Kesha lands much higher in this game with "Praying" all the way up feat remy ma at #12. It's followed by what is just now the first of 2 appearances for Calvin Harris, who very nearly landed both in the top 10, but just slipped out with "Feels" at the last moment.
#10. Shawn Mendes - There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back
Round by round: 17-14-18-13-10
Points - 234.43 Current Voters - 5 Top Vote - #3
#9. Dua Lipa - New Rules
Round by round: 09-07-08-08-09
Points - 239.53 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #1
Making a surprise charge into the top 10 is Shawn Mendes which surely proves that "There's Nothing Holdin' [Him] Back" except for the 9 songs that managed to score more points. The first of which is Dua Lipa's "New Rules", the highest entry from our returning champion of the 2016 game, not quite able to repeat the effort.
We did it reddit. Also Niall Horan is here at #7 to prove himself the most popular solo One Direction member by the basis of comparing the very selective selection of songs that were included in this. Anyway, the post punk revivalist classic of the mid '00s, "Slow Hands" lands at #7.
Now I'm not saying that songs should be removed from the universe, but if there was a song that was sitting above "Feel It Still" every single round, and it was removed from this list, pushing Portugal. The Man up one spot each round, "Feel It Still"'s round by round trajectory would be a Fibonacci sequence. On the other hand there is nothing remotely interesting to say about Jax Jones' trajectory which began and ended at #5 for "You Don't Know Me".
The suspense is over for sadbois aka Frank Ocean fans because the highest song in this ranking list that ISN'T in the Hottest 100 is "Castle On The Hill", meaning that "Chanel" gets to see both sides of the equation by having me pretend it was a Hottest 100 entry next fortnight. But it will have some tough competition as it will include a second run for Kendrick Lamar's "HUMBLE." which lands up at #3, and feels really weird to be his only song in this list, but he's got more on the way soon.
#2. Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean & Migos - Slide
Round by round: 04-03-02-02-02
Points - 331.02 Current Voters - 6 Top Vote - #3
#1. Lorde - Green Light
Round by round: 01-01-01-01-01
Points - 488.22 Current Voters - 9 Top Vote - #1
I feel like if Kendrick were in the top 2 this could have felt more suspenseful because I could readily believe "HUMBLE." getting enough voting swell to challenge the top spot. Instead we have a top two which it's very hard to see swapped around the other way. Rightly so because this competition was never close at any point. And hey, Frank Ocean's here again, this time in company with Calvin Harris and the members of Migos who weren't left off "Slide" at #2. But obviously Lorde was #1 from the get go and nothing was going to change that. The only curiosity I'll note is that in the first round, it had 11 voters, which tied it with Portugal. The Man & Dua Lipa, however Lorde managed to hold on to every single one of them, because she technically still has 11 voters if you count those who haven't voted since round 1. That "Green Light", you wanted it.
So with Lorde winning, we have to retire "Green Light" so we don't have the temptation to make it win the next game, which will of course be the Hottest...101 of 2017. It'll also be the week that I open up the floodgates for the Qualifying thread again. I'll be looking for your favourite songs of 2017 that haven't been in either of these two games.
ACI will also take any and all calls, but enjoy your weekend.
I'm not saying that me posting these early in the morning will become a theme, but it does give me ease of mind in case someone's waiting for me to post it and I'm sleeping well past midday. So without further adieu I present the 2017 Hottest 101 list without "Green Light":
Alex Lahey - Every Day's the Weekend Alex Lahey - I Haven't Been Taking Care of Myself Alex the Astronaut - Not Worth Hiding Allday feat. Japanese Wallpaper - In Motion alt-J - In Cold Blood Amy Shark - Blood Brothers Amy Shark - Weekends Angie McMahon - Slow Mover Angus & Julia Stone - Chateau Angus & Julia Stone - Snow Arcade Fire - Everything Now Baker Boy feat. Kian - Cloud 9 Baker Boy feat. Yirrmal - Marryuna Ball Park Music - Exactly How You Are Big Shaq - Man's Not Hot Billie Eilish - Bellyache Bliss N Eso feat. Gavin James - Moments Boo Seeka - Does This Last BROCKHAMPTON - SWEET Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean & Migos - Slide CamelPhat & Elderbrook - Cola Camp Cope - The Opener Charli XCX - Boys Cub Sport - Chasin' DMA's - Dawning Drake - Passionfruit Dune Rats - 6 Pack Dune Rats - Braindead DZ Deathrays - Shred for Summer E^ST - Life Goes On Flight Facilities feat. Emma Louise - Arty Boy Flume feat. Kučka - Hyperreal Frank Ocean - Chanel Future - Mask Off Gang of Youths - Blood {Like A Version} Gang of Youths - Let Me Down Easy Gang of Youths - The Deepest Sighs, the Frankest Shadows Gang of Youths - What Can I Do If the Fire Goes Out? Haim - Want You Back Hayden James - NUMB (feat GRAACE) Hockey Dad - Homely Feeling Holy Holy - True Lovers Jack River - Fool's Gold Kendrick Lamar - DNA. Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE. Kendrick Lamar feat. Rihanna - LOYALTY. Kendrick Lamar feat. Zacari - LOVE. Khalid - Saved Khalid - Young Dumb & Broke Kim Churchill - Second Hand Car King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Nuclear Fusion Kingswood - Golden Lil Uzi Vert - XO TOUR Llif3 Logic feat. Alessia Cara & Khalid - 1-800-273-8255 Lorde - Homemade Dynamite Lorde - Liability Lorde - Perfect Places Macklemore feat. Skylar Grey - Glorious Mallrat - Better Meg Mac - Low Blows Meg Mac - Maybe It's My First Time Methyl Ethel - Ubu N*E*R*D & Rihanna - Lemon Nothing But Thieves - Amsterdam Ocean Alley - The Comedown Odette - Watch Me Read You Paul Dempsey - Edge Of Town {Like A Version} Peking Duk & AlunaGeorge - Fake Magic Peking Duk feat. Icona Pop - Let You Down Pnau - Go Bang Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still Post Malone feat. 21 Savage - rockstar Queens of the Stone Age - The Way You Used to Do San Cisco - Hey, Did I Do You Wrong? Skegss - Got on My Skateboard Snakehips & MØ - Don't Leave Stormzy - Big for Your Boots Tash Sultana - Electric Feel {Like A Version} Tash Sultana - Murder to the Mind Tash Sultana - Mystik The Jungle Giants - Bad Dream The Jungle Giants - Feel the Way I Do The Jungle Giants - On Your Way Down The Jungle Giants - Used to Be in Love The Killers - The Man The Presets - Do What You Want The Rubens - Million Man The Smith Street Band - Birthdays The Smith Street Band - Passiona The Wombats - Lemon to a Knife Fight The xx - Say Something Loving Thundamentals feat. Hilltop Hoods - 21 Grams Thundamentals feat. Mataya - Sally Touch Sensitive - Lay Down Vallis Alps - Oceans Vance Joy - Lay It on Me Vera Blue - Mended Vera Blue - Regular Touch Winston Surfshirt - Be About You Yungblud - I Love You, Will You Marry Me
We already know how the nation (and to a lesser extent, the world) voted, but how will you vote. It will surely be different and not just because the voting system is totally different. Because here, I'll be asking you to vote for your top 25 to 40 selections here and in order. Submit your vote by 6pm on Wednesday so I will be able to include it.
#98. Logic feat. Alessia Cara & Khalid - 1-800-273-8255
Points - 1 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #40
#97. Meg Mac - Maybe It's My First Time
Points - 10 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #31
#96. Tash Sultana - Murder To The Mind
Points - 12 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #37
With diverse opinions, we've resulted in just 2 goose eggs, one of them I almost saved. Incidentally, it was last year that I saved Kingswood from the heap with "Creepin'", but "Golden" didn't get the same luxury and ends up tied at #99 with what is surely the best Rubens Hottest 100 in half a decade, "Million Man". Onto the point tallies though only by the narrowest amount we've got Logic scoring a whole 1 point. Then it's some popular solo female artists with their 2nd biggest songs of the year, Tash Sultana with "Murder To The Mind" at #96 and Meg Mac's "Maybe It's My First Time" living up to its name at #97.
You can't say they're not consistent, after landing at #95 on the ARIA EOY game, Bliss N Eso are once again #95 with "Moments". We stay in the world of Australian pop rap with Allday looking ever so dapper on "In Motion" at #94, and Thundamentals gifting Mataya her 2nd Hottest 100 top 10 appearance with "Sally" at #92. Filling the Australian reggae void left by Sticky Fingers in 2017 is Ocean Alley's "The Comedown" at #93. Lastly, why why why Amy Shark must feel like a million man with "Blood Brothers" landing in the 90s.
Topping and tailing this post is everyone's favourite blaze lords Dune Rats, with "6 Pack" at #90 and "Braindead" at #86. They are extremely out of place in this very chill Australian section. We start that with Winston Surfshirt's very high ranking "Be About You" at #89, and then some other tracks that just snuck in, Boo Seeka's "Does This Last" at #88 and Angus & Julia Stone's "Snow" at #87.
Alex The Astronaut was clearly asking for Hottest 100 related misfortune here as she just yesterday announced a tour with #102 finisher Stella Donnelly. "Not Worth Hiding" represents her here at #85. I'm also extremely surprised to see Thundamentals get their highest entry with "21 Grams" but also extremely satisfied that it lands on a multiple of 21 in #84. Peking Duk have their first impression in this list with "Let You Down" at #83, no doubt hoping to redeem that with their other entry, but time is up in this game for Angie McMahon & Cub Sport, who land at #82 & #81 with their sole representatives.
the entree has been served, now we're left with 80 songs still powering on:
Alex Lahey - Every Day's the Weekend Alex Lahey - I Haven't Been Taking Care of Myself alt-J - In Cold Blood Amy Shark - Weekends Angus & Julia Stone - Chateau Arcade Fire - Everything Now Baker Boy feat. Kian - Cloud 9 Baker Boy feat. Yirrmal - Marryuna Ball Park Music - Exactly How You Are Big Shaq - Man's Not Hot Billie Eilish - Bellyache BROCKHAMPTON - SWEET Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean & Migos - Slide CamelPhat & Elderbrook - Cola Camp Cope - The Opener Charli XCX - Boys DMA's - Dawning Drake - Passionfruit DZ Deathrays - Shred for Summer E^ST - Life Goes On Flight Facilities feat. Emma Louise - Arty Boy Flume feat. Kučka - Hyperreal Frank Ocean - Chanel Future - Mask Off Gang of Youths - Blood {Like A Version} Gang of Youths - Let Me Down Easy Gang of Youths - The Deepest Sighs, the Frankest Shadows Gang of Youths - What Can I Do If the Fire Goes Out? Haim - Want You Back Hayden James feat. GRAACE - NUMB Hockey Dad - Homely Feeling Holy Holy - True Lovers Jack River - Fool's Gold Kendrick Lamar - DNA. Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE. Kendrick Lamar feat. Rihanna - LOYALTY. Kendrick Lamar feat. Zacari - LOVE. Khalid - Saved Khalid - Young Dumb & Broke Kim Churchill - Second Hand Car King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Nuclear Fusion Lil Uzi Vert - XO TOUR Llif3 Lorde - Homemade Dynamite Lorde - Liability Lorde - Perfect Places Macklemore feat. Skylar Grey - Glorious Mallrat - Better Meg Mac - Low Blows Methyl Ethel - Ubu N*E*R*D & Rihanna - Lemon Nothing But Thieves - Amsterdam Odette - Watch Me Read You Paul Dempsey - Edge Of Town {Like A Version} Peking Duk & AlunaGeorge - Fake Magic Pnau - Go Bang Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still Post Malone feat. 21 Savage - rockstar Queens of the Stone Age - The Way You Used to Do San Cisco - Hey, Did I Do You Wrong? Skegss - Got on My Skateboard Snakehips & MØ - Don't Leave Stormzy - Big for Your Boots Tash Sultana - Electric Feel {Like A Version} Tash Sultana - Mystik The Jungle Giants - Bad Dream The Jungle Giants - Feel the Way I Do The Jungle Giants - On Your Way Down The Jungle Giants - Used to Be in Love The Killers - The Man The Presets - Do What You Want The Smith Street Band - Birthdays The Smith Street Band - Passiona The Wombats - Lemon to a Knife Fight The xx - Say Something Loving Touch Sensitive - Lay Down Vallis Alps - Oceans Vance Joy - Lay It on Me Vera Blue - Mended Vera Blue - Regular Touch Yungblud - I Love You, Will You Marry Me
But unlike Beatrice's epitaph, the subsequent twilights feature just as many eliminations, so you'll want your favourites to be safe in the top 60 to proceed. Do so by submitting to me your Top 20 to 32 selections by 6pm on Friday. I will have the ACI up tonight, and there's also a qualifying game on right now. If you have any qualifying game suggestions, I am all ears.
=#79. Flight Facilities feat. Emma Louise - Arty Boy
Round by round: 78-79
Points - 33 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #22
=#79. Tash Sultana - Mystik
Round by round: 80-79
Points - 33 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #22
#78. Holy Holy - True Lovers
Round by round: 79-78
Points - 34 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #19
#77. Kendrick Lamar feat. Rihanna - LOYALTY.
Round by round: 68-77
Points - 35 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #6
#76. E^ST - Life Goes On
Round by round: 77-76
Points - 36 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #21
If you're adverse to change, then fret not because we've started off with another tie. And it could have been a contribution to Wednesday's tie because Flight Facilities' "Arty Boy" was actually the last song to get off the ground with its first vote in round 1. It sits alongside Tash Sultana's 2nd entry "Mystik" ending her reign of original material. Higher up are some triple j stalwarts of late with their first major breakthroughs, Holy Holy at #78 and E^ST at #76, while in the middle we have the first of Kendrick's 4 entries, matching up with the countdown order as it's "LOYALTY." at #77.
Essentially a highly antipodean section here. Continuing the run of first time entrants, we've got Jack River at #75 and Skegss at #74. The Wombats may as well be Australian at this point and they've got "Lemon To A Knife Fight" at #73, followed by Hayden James' recent top 50 hit "NUMB", and Kim Churchill's 3 year lapsed return to the countdown at #71 with "Second Hand Car".
#70. Tash Sultana - Electric Feel {Like A Version}
Round by round: 71-70
Points - 44 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #19
#69. The Jungle Giants - Bad Dream
Round by round: 70-69
Points - 50 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #20
#68. Alex Lahey - I Haven't Been Taking Care Of Myself
Round by round: 69-68
Points - 53 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #17
#67. Kendrick Lamar feat. Zacari - LOVE.
Round by round: 63-67
Points - 54 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #10
#66. Odette - Watch Me Read You
Round by round: 64-66
Points - 55 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #13
Running for about 8 minutes is Tash Sultana's 3 minute long cover of "Electric Feel" which lands at #70, while the fitting rank goes to The Jungle Giants who just now lose their first entry with "Bad Dream". Alex Lahey also takes a hit with "I Haven't Been Taking Care Of Myself" at #68 with another song on the way, while Odette's first ever single is "Watch Me Read You" at #66. Just like the first post, this almost entirely Australian section is broken up by the 4th song being by Kendrick Lamar, this time it's "LOVE." at #67.
The Smith Street Band took the unlucky #21 slot for a 2nd year in a row, though fortunately for them they also got a 2nd entry so there's not just "Birthdays" to represent them at #65. Vallis Alps sit at #62 which I can't note much about except that they're surrounded by the cavalcade of songs that triple j didn't really play in 2017. There's Post Malone at #64 falling a bit shy of his ARIA game performance, while Big Shaq's "Man's Not Hot" is at #63 to keep up the Hottest 100's fine tradition of not taking itself too seriously. If you do wish to take yourself seriously, you've got Macklemore's "Glorious" at #61.
In an actual Hottest 100, this would be the section where you start to have concern over whether or not your favourites will make the list at all, but that does not apply to this as we are fully aware of the top 60 which are these songs:
Alex Lahey - Every Day's the Weekend alt-J - In Cold Blood Amy Shark - Weekends Angus & Julia Stone - Chateau Arcade Fire - Everything Now Baker Boy feat. Kian - Cloud 9 Baker Boy feat. Yirrmal - Marryuna Ball Park Music - Exactly How You Are Billie Eilish - Bellyache BROCKHAMPTON - SWEET Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean & Migos - Slide CamelPhat & Elderbrook - Cola Camp Cope - The Opener Charli XCX - Boys DMA's - Dawning Drake - Passionfruit DZ Deathrays - Shred for Summer Flume feat. Kučka - Hyperreal Frank Ocean - Chanel Future - Mask Off Gang of Youths - Blood {Like A Version} Gang of Youths - Let Me Down Easy Gang of Youths - The Deepest Sighs, the Frankest Shadows Gang of Youths - What Can I Do If the Fire Goes Out? Haim - Want You Back Hockey Dad - Homely Feeling Kendrick Lamar - DNA. Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE. Khalid - Saved Khalid - Young Dumb & Broke King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Nuclear Fusion Lil Uzi Vert - XO TOUR Llif3 Lorde - Homemade Dynamite Lorde - Liability Lorde - Perfect Places Mallrat - Better Meg Mac - Low Blows Methyl Ethel - Ubu N*E*R*D & Rihanna - Lemon Nothing But Thieves - Amsterdam Paul Dempsey - Edge Of Town {Like A Version} Peking Duk & AlunaGeorge - Fake Magic Pnau - Go Bang Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still Queens of the Stone Age - The Way You Used to Do San Cisco - Hey, Did I Do You Wrong? Snakehips & MØ - Don't Leave Stormzy - Big for Your Boots The Jungle Giants - Feel the Way I Do The Jungle Giants - On Your Way Down The Jungle Giants - Used to Be in Love The Killers - The Man The Presets - Do What You Want The Smith Street Band - Passiona The xx - Say Something Loving Touch Sensitive - Lay Down Vance Joy - Lay It on Me Vera Blue - Mended Vera Blue - Regular Touch Yungblud - I Love You, Will You Marry Me
It's time to cut the stragglers however. To the point where you can only select a Top 15 to 24 from this lot. Get it in to me by 6pm on Monday for it to be included. I hope you enjoy your weekend and possibly get in your contributions to the ACI or the qualifying game.
#59. Queens Of The Stone Age - The Way You Used To Do
Round by round: 43-49-59
Points - 72.25 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #5
#58. DZ Deathrays - Shred For Summer
Round by round: 49-56-58
Points - 72.5 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #8
#57. Khalid - Young Dumb & Broke
Round by round: 56-52-57
Points - 75 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #9
#56. Baker Boy feat. Kian - Cloud 9
Round by round: 45-44-56
Points - 76.25 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #10
Continuing to rack up entries as they approach their 2nd album release, we've got DMA's here at #60 and their many rhymes for "Dawning". We've then got Hottest 100 veterans in Queens Of The Stone Age, the only band that can lay claim to still landing on the poll a decade and a half after taking the top spot, coming through with "The Way You Used To Do" at #59. The rest of this lot is much more modern, with DZ Deathrays only on their 2nd entry ever with "Shred For Summer" at #58, while Khalid loses his first solo entry with his highest ranked track, "Young Dumb & Broke" at #57. Baker Boy's order is more in order, with "Cloud 9" opening proceedings at #56.
IT WOULD SEEM THAT AMY SHARK VOTERS FELT TOO MUCH RELIEF OVER THE WEEKEND TO KEEP HER FROM GETTING ELIMINATED...although in saying that she did climb a little to #55 with "Weekends". We then continue the run of artists I don't have much to say about as Meg Mac takes her highest entry to #54, and the number you should save for Khalid is #53 for "Saved". After just barely getting through the last round, The Smith Street Band are up a fair bit to #52 with "Passiona", while Vera Blue is just getting started with her first track "Regular Touch" at #51, keeping up with even more cases of artists not landing highest with their biggest song.
Vance Joy doubles his finish from the ARIA game to land just in the top half with "Lay It On Me" at #50. For those disillusioned by all these wild new artists, there's a bit of a throwback with The Presets at #49 with their first Hottest 100 entry in half a decade. After much bouncing around, we end up with what I thought could have happened in the actual Hottest 100, with two Jungle Giants tracks right next to each other, "Used To Be In Love" at #48 and "On Your Way Down" at #47. Lastly is Lil Uzi Vert's wonderful "XO TOUR Llif3" at #46.
Ball Park Music proved they are not little fish at all as they improved their highest ever Hottest 100 position from #19 to #18 with "Exactly How You Are", which finds its potty-mouthed self at #45. We've then got some songs I wasn't sure would get any votes, but have ended up quite highly, as Mallrat takes her first ever entry "Better" to #44, while San Cisco are in the more stalwart position with "Hey, Did I Do You Wrong?" which comes to #43. Future's back with diminishing returns on his ARIA EOY game performance with "Mask Off" landing at #42, while Paul Dempsey covers a song I love dearly and takes it to #41 here. I can at least brag that the original has done better in this context as it finished at #2 in the 2016 Favourites game last year.
This leaves us with 40 tracks still in the running
Alex Lahey - Every Day's the Weekend alt-J - In Cold Blood Angus & Julia Stone - Chateau Arcade Fire - Everything Now Baker Boy feat. Yirrmal - Marryuna Billie Eilish - Bellyache BROCKHAMPTON - SWEET Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean & Migos - Slide CamelPhat & Elderbrook - Cola Camp Cope - The Opener Charli XCX - Boys Drake - Passionfruit Flume feat. Kučka - Hyperreal Frank Ocean - Chanel Gang of Youths - Blood {Like A Version} Gang of Youths - Let Me Down Easy Gang of Youths - The Deepest Sighs, the Frankest Shadows Gang of Youths - What Can I Do If the Fire Goes Out? Haim - Want You Back Hockey Dad - Homely Feeling Kendrick Lamar - DNA. Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Nuclear Fusion Lorde - Homemade Dynamite Lorde - Liability Lorde - Perfect Places Methyl Ethel - Ubu N*E*R*D & Rihanna - Lemon Nothing But Thieves - Amsterdam Peking Duk & AlunaGeorge - Fake Magic Pnau - Go Bang Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still Snakehips & MØ - Don't Leave Stormzy - Big for Your Boots The Jungle Giants - Feel the Way I Do The Killers - The Man The xx - Say Something Loving Touch Sensitive - Lay Down Vera Blue - Mended Yungblud - I Love You, Will You Marry Me
Be sure to vote your favourites, Gang Of Youths or otherwise, by selecting your Top 10 to 16 selections from this portion of the list, from which I will eliminate another 20 on Wednesday after 6pm, which is when I would need your votes in by. The qualifying game is finished already, so I can't plug that, but I do have a new poll for you to help decide what the next one should be. http://www.strawpoll.me/15104052
This elimination set kicks off in the most British fashion possible, firstly with Stormzy's "Big For Your Boots" at #40 and then Yungblud's "I Love You, Will You Marry Me" at #39. Antipodean fever is only slightly eased off after as it's followed by US band The Killers who are of course most popular in the UK, with "The Man" landing at #38. At #37 is N*E*R*D's "Lemon" which I've got info hot off the press that explains why triple j shortens the pause http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/drive/lemon-n.e.r.d./9470852 Then we arrive at the wildcard performer with Frank Ocean's not-actually Hottest 100 entry "Chanel" at #36.
Landing just one spot higher than she finished in the Hottest 100, Alex Lahey has her highest entry here at #35 with "Every Day's The Weekend". Pnau finally got a top 10 finish in the Hottest 100 which definitely has nothing to do with the fact that "Go Bang" caught on a little bit quicker than "Chameleon", nonetheless "Go Bang" lands at #34 here. Speaking of artists who have landed at #11 in the Hottest 100, next up is America's favourite boyband BROCKHAMPTON with "SWEET" at #33. Gang of Youths finally take their first hit in this contest with their cover of The Middle East's "Blood" at #32, while the #100 finisher in the poll has performed considerably better here as "Don't Leave" takes #31.
#29. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Nuclear Fusion
Round by round: 24-22-30-29
Points - 127.06 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #7
#28. CamelPhat & Elderbrook - Cola
Round by round: 28-30-28-28
Points - 127.69 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #5
#27. Hockey Dad - Homely Feeling
Round by round: 31-29-29-27
Points - 131.44 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #3
#26. Peking Duk & AlunaGeorge - Fake Magic
Round by round: 35-26-26-26
Points - 134.75 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #2
Not since Eminem & Rihanna has there been such a pro-laying down* anthem, but Touch Sensitive delivers on that front and takes the #30 spot here. King Gizzard released about 12,000 songs in 2017, but they had just one song to garner attention here, and it does quite well as "Nuclear Fusion" lands at #29. Getting some crossover success with their massive club/roofie anthem, CamelPhat & Elderbrook take "Cola" to #28, followed by the second ever Woolongong band to land at #6 on the ARIA album chart, with Hockey Dad taking "Homely Feeling" to #27. Peking Duk have their highest entry here at a much more respectable position than their first, as "Fake Magic" takes #26.
*yes I know it's not grammatically correct, don't @ me
Drake was looking good to land in the top 20 two games in a row, but "Passionfruit" falls at the last hurdle and instead takes #25. Sitting strong amongst mostly veteran hitmakers is I believe the youngest artist to ever make the Hottest 100 (as in, present age), Billie Eilish with "Bellyache" at #24. Of those veterans, we have alt-J onto their 3rd album and continuing to find success, though this time only with "In Cold Blood" at #23. While not *quite* matching up to her actual Hottest 100 success, Vera Blue still performs commendably, this time with "Mended" instead taking her top gong at #22. Then juuuust missing by less than 2 points, Haim have their sole representation with "Want You Back" at #21.
And so this takes us to the final hurdle, as these 20 songs that are surely all equally likely to take the top spot, battle it out
Angus & Julia Stone - Chateau Arcade Fire - Everything Now Baker Boy feat. Yirrmal - Marryuna Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean & Migos - Slide Camp Cope - The Opener Charli XCX - Boys Flume feat. Kučka - Hyperreal Gang of Youths - Let Me Down Easy Gang of Youths - The Deepest Sighs, the Frankest Shadows Gang of Youths - What Can I Do If the Fire Goes Out? Kendrick Lamar - DNA. Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE. Lorde - Homemade Dynamite Lorde - Liability Lorde - Perfect Places Methyl Ethel - Ubu Nothing But Thieves - Amsterdam Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still The Jungle Giants - Feel the Way I Do The xx - Say Something Loving
Take your picks, as the songs will need your votes to land as highly as possible. Select just your Top 5 to 8 from this lot and submit it to me by 6pm on Friday. I could always use more votes on the poll for the next qualifying game http://www.strawpoll.me/15104052 and I will try to get the ACI posted up tonight as long as Billboard actually update their chart on time.
You may have noticed so far in this game there haven't been any Lorde songs. In case you were wondering that some rabid Lorde fans had spammed up my inbox with votes, I can nip that in the bud as "Homemade Dynamite" now shows up at #20. She sits next to another artist who hadn't appeared yet, though partly because they only had one song to appear, that being The xx at #19 with "Say Something Loving".
Camp Cope are about to release their very good 2nd album, which is appropriately opened up with "The Opener" which lands here at #18. But then subverting the expectation of lead singles performing the best, we've got Angus & Julia Stone taking "Chateau" to #17.
While it was a more quiet year for Flume in 2017, there was still quite a lot of fanfare for "Hyperreal" which lands at #16. Next up is Arcade Fire's "Everything Now" at #15, a song that unfortunately shares its name with Arcade Fire's worst album.
Highly different circumstances result in two songs that landed in the 11-20 section of the Hottest 100 replicating it here. The Jungle Giants just crept into the top 20 last round with "Feel The Way I Do" and ended up a tidy #14, but Baker Boy was actually at the top of the table last round, and is quite unlucky to land at #13 due to losing some votes and also there being generally close scores.
Back at it again, we've got Lorde at #12 with her much less obvious single among her entries, "Liability", while at #11 is the purest form of a single since it doesn't have an album to call home yet, Charli XCX's "Boys", which was recently subjected to a bizarre sense of camaraderie when both Charli XCX & Wolf Alice played the same two songs in both of their Like A Version sets.
Landing in the top 10 two games in a row for these next two, though slightly lower than last time as well. We've got Portugal. The Man seeing their way into the Hottest 100 top 30 with so little airplay that I think triple j were playing their 2011 material more, with "Feel It Still" taking #10 here, behind the actual winning song, "HUMBLE." which is not even Kendrick Lamar's highest song in this game.
We've got mostly big names and big songs in this top 10 but to buck that trend just briefly, Nothing But Thieves have excelled with a relatively low profile to take "Amsterdam" considerably higher than its Hottest 100 finish, to end up at #8. Next to it we have the only song that every single person voted for in round 1, despite never getting higher than #4. Methyl Ethel lost a lot of those votes in the end but still held up strong at #7 with "Ubu".
Consistently landing just slightly above "HUMBLE.", Kendrick Lamar has his highest polling song indeed end up being "DNA." at #6, while another big gun in this game also finishes up, as Lorde's highest entrant here is "Perfect Places", coming somewhat close to a back to back victory at #5.
#3. Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean & Migos - Slide
Round by round: 09-08-11-11-03
Points - 267.45 Current Voters - 6 Top Vote - #1
I have the slightest suspicion that some people here like Gang Of Youths. I only mention this because they land at #4 with "Let Me Down Easy", which was their highest entrant in the Hottest 100 but is not even their highest here. Then we breed another certain familiarity, with Calvin Harris having the highest placing song in the last game that was eligible here, he naturally posed quite a challenge for the top, and while a slight loss on the last game, he's only gone from #2 to #3 with "Slide" so I can't imagine there are many complaints from him and his cohorts.
#2. Gang Of Youths - The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows
Round by round: 01-01-01-03-02
Points - 280.92 Current Voters - 5 Top Vote - #2
#1. Gang Of Youths - What Can I Do If The Fire Goes Out?
Round by round: 03-03-03-02-01
Points - 289.63 Current Voters - 5 Top Vote - #1
The other slight reason that I suspect people might like Gang Of Youths is because I've got the result in front of me, and rather I've had similar results in front of me for the past fortnight. I specifically want to note that for the first three rounds, the band held down a trifecta, the order of which didn't even change either. It put "The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows" in a good position to take the top spot until it was challenged last round and only could recover to #2. So instead of Gang Of Youths, they have to take consolation that they have lost to Gang Of Youths, whose lead off single had the most dedicated high voters all the way through. "What Can I Do If The Fire Goes Out?" actually appeared very recently when we were considering lead singles at the end of last year, finishing at #9. This time with all its Hottest 100 success appraised, though it was only the 3rd highest polling of their tracks, it does the best here. But will it be replicated on Sunday's combined aus-charts EOY? I guess you'll find out soon!
Thanks as always to all who voted, especially this time around where I nearly had no missed votes throughout the whole proceedings. Next week we'll finish off the run of 2017 polls as we go through all your favourite songs that haven't already featured in these lists.
The next qualifying game has also been decided, and we'll be looking into songs that feature colours in their titles.
The ACI is also taking votes, but the combined EOY isn't anymore, so now is the time to get hyped about that on Sunday afternoon!
Not sure when I'll be next awake so let's get this one going now. Just like last year, it's a look into all those songs not in the first two games. Some of them you may have heard yesterday, but some are even deeper cuts, which is not to put them out of contention!
Amber Mark - Heatwave Angus & Julia Stone - Oakwood Brett Young - Like I Loved You BROCKHAMPTON - BOOGIE Camila Cabello feat. Quavo - OMG Cardi B - Bodak Yellow Carly Pearce - Every Little Thing Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut To The Feeling Carmouflage Rose - Late Nights Chris Brown - Questions Dan Sultan - Hold It Together Dan Sultan - Kingdom Dean Lewis - Lose My Mind DJDS feat. Amber Mark & Marco McKinnis - Trees On Fire Ecca Vandal - Broke Days, Party Nights Ed Sheeran - Supermarket Flowers Ed Sheeran - What Do I Know Father John Misty - Pure Comedy Fluir - Only One Gang Of Youths - Fear And Trembling Gang Of Youths - The Heart Is A Muscle George Maple - Kryptonite Gorillaz feat. Grace Jones - Charger Gorillaz feat. Vince Staples - Ascension Grace Mitchell - Now Gretta Ray - Towers Haiku Hands - Not About You Haim - Little Of Your Love Heaps Good Friends - Olympic Sneakers Jamiroquai - Automaton Jax Jones feat. Demi Lovato & Stefflon Don - Instruction Jay-Z - 4:44 Jessie Ware - Midnight Katy Perry feat. Nicki Minaj - Swish Swish Kelly Clarkson - Love So Soft Kesha feat. The Dap-Kings Horns - Woman King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Rattlesnake King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - The Lord Of Lightning King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Sleep Drifter Kira Puru - Tension Lana Del Rey - Love Little Mix - Is Your Love Enough? Little Mix feat. Machine Gun Kelly - No More Sad Songs Lorde - Writer In The Dark Manchester Orchestra - The Alien Maty Noyes - London Melody's Echo Chamber - Cross My Heart MGMT - Little Dark Age Middle Kids - Never Start MØ - Nights With You Mura Masa feat. Bonzai - Nuggets Niall Horan - Too Much To Ask Old Dominion - No Such Thing As A Broken Heart P!nk - Beautiful Trauma Paramore - Fake Happy Paramore - Hard Times Paul Kelly - Firewood and Candles Perfume Genius - Slip Away Phoenix - Ti Amo Rae Morris - Atletico Rae Morris - Do It Ricki-Lee - Not Too Late Rita Ora - Anywhere Royal Blood - Hook, Line & Sinker Royal Blood - Lights Out Ruby Fields - I Want Sam Smith - Pray Sampha - (No One Knows Me) Like The Piano Samsaruh - Golden To Thrive Sigrid - Strangers sleepmakeswaves - Tundra Sløtface - Galaxies Slowdive - Sugar for the Pill SOPHIE - It's Okay To Cry Spoon - Hot Thoughts St. Vincent - Los Ageless St. Vincent - New York Stella Donnelly - Boys Will Be Boys Stella Donnelly - Mechanical Bull Sum 41 - Goddamm I'm Dead Again Superorganism - Something For Your M.I.N.D. SZA feat. Travis Scott - Love Galore Tame Impala - List Of People (To Try And Forget About) Taylor Swift - ...Ready For It? Tears For Fears - I Love You But I'm Lost The Go! Team - Mayday The Killers - Run For Cover The Killers - Tyson vs Douglas The National - Carin At The Liquor Store The National - Day I Die The National - I'll Still Destroy You The National - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness The War On Drugs - Holding On Tired Lion - Cinderella Dracula Tove Lo - Disco Tits Tove Styrke - Say My Name Vera Blue - Lady Powers WAAX - Wild & Weak Wolf Alice - Don't Delete The Kisses Wolf Alice - Planet Hunter
You know the drill, but if you don't, it's calling for you to submit to me your Top 25 to 40 selections here by 6pm on Wednesday, after which I will do the necessary culls, and before which I'll open the qualifying game.
Possibly due to the nature of this fortnight's list, what we've got here is what feels like a record in regards to high scoring songs getting eliminated in round 1, so don't feel disheartened because it wasn't easy to get through this round! Case in point that we're already well ingrained into double digit points from the very bottom of the list, which belongs to upstarts Superorganism who are poised to release their debut album later this year, backed by their breakout hit "Something For Your M.I.N.D." at #100. In contrast to them, they're followed by two indie veterans, with The Go! Team's "Mayday" at #99 and Spoon's "Hot Thoughts" at #98. Similarly we've got The Killers at #97 with the first of their two entries here, "Tyson vs Douglas", while we keep the bookends fresh as Carly Pearce has her country radio #1 peaking debut single "Every Little Thing" at #96.
Throwback to a wild time last year, Camila Cabello released two new singles at once, and initially the more popular one was "OMG" which lands at #95. The other single was some other track called "Havana". We've got even more veteran-y veterans in this set too, as through this game I learnt that Tears For Fears put out a quite good single last year and it lands at #94, while Slowdive also had a comeback album with a few popular singles to it, "Sugar For The Pill" representing them here at #91. Sam Smith gets extra spiritual with "Pray" at #93, while Carmouflage Rose is definitely an Australian rapper which might not be obvious if you heard #92's "Late Nights".
#88. Tame Impala - List Of People (To Try And Forget About)
Points - 45 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #11
#87. Old Dominion - No Such Thing As A Broken Heart
Points - 48 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #16
#86. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - The Lord Of Lightning
Points - 50 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #14
Keeping up the nostalgia, we've got Sum 41 with a song whose solo makes me want to play Guitar Hero again, as "Goddamn I'm Dead Again" lands at #90. Thoroughly absent from the last two games, The National stake their claim and then some with this game as they've got 4 songs in play, the first of which is "I'll Still Destroy You" landing at #89. Tame Impala's "Currents" is two and a half years old now, but they've more recently released new material from those sessions, namely "List Of People (To Try And Forget About)" at #88. Old Dominion have a streak of getting exactly one country radio #1 hit every year from 2015 to 2018, 2017's contribution "No Such Thing As A Broken Heart" takes the group to #87 in their first ever QLVG appearance. Then it would feel wrong not to include some King Gizzard in this game since they've got 5 albums worth of material to choose from. The first of their 3 entries here is "The Lord Of Lightning", which no doubt benefits greatly from the serendipity of sharing its name with a boss in Super Mario Odyssey.
#83. DJDS feat. Amber Mark & Marco McKinnis - Trees On Fire
Points - 54 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #5
#82. Kesha feat. The Dap-King Horns - Woman
Points - 55 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #18
#81. Tired Lion - Cinderella Dracula
Points - 55 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #15
Gorillaz had many collaborators on their latest album "Humanz", the most timely of which here is surely Grace Jones who has just been in the country touring, and appeared on #85's "Charger", the first of two Gorillaz entries in this game. Speaking of artists with two entries, Little Mix check out at #84 with "Is Your Love Enough?", which was added to "Glory Days" on a deluxe edition and cracked the UK top 50 despite not being a properly promoted single. At #83 is DJDS, one of the latest production duos to break out as an artist in their own right, having previously produced several songs on Kanye West's "The Life Of Pablo", their own song "Trees On Fire" appears here. The current single on Kesha's "Rainbow" is her wild and upbeat collaboration with the Dap-Kings, "Woman" which lands at #82, and finishing this round off we've got Western Australia's finest Tired Lion, whose debut album last year was led by #81's "Cinderella Dracula".
Suffice to say that your favourites may not be as safe as you'd expect, but 20 songs have to go out next from this set of 80:
Amber Mark - Heatwave Angus & Julia Stone - Oakwood Brett Young - Like I Loved You BROCKHAMPTON - BOOGIE Cardi B - Bodak Yellow Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut To The Feeling Chris Brown - Questions Dan Sultan - Hold It Together Dan Sultan - Kingdom Dean Lewis - Lose My Mind Ecca Vandal - Broke Days, Party Nights Ed Sheeran - Supermarket Flowers Ed Sheeran - What Do I Know Father John Misty - Pure Comedy Fluir - Only One Gang Of Youths - Fear And Trembling Gang Of Youths - The Heart Is A Muscle George Maple - Kryptonite Gorillaz feat. Vince Staples - Ascension Grace Mitchell - Now Gretta Ray - Towers Haiku Hands - Not About You Haim - Little Of Your Love Heaps Good Friends - Olympic Sneakers Jamiroquai - Automaton Jax Jones feat. Demi Lovato & Stefflon Don - Instruction Jay-Z - 4:44 Jessie Ware - Midnight Katy Perry feat. Nicki Minaj - Swish Swish Kelly Clarkson - Love So Soft King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Rattlesnake King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Sleep Drifter Kira Puru - Tension Lana Del Rey - Love Little Mix feat. Machine Gun Kelly - No More Sad Songs Lorde - Writer In The Dark Manchester Orchestra - The Alien Maty Noyes - London Melody's Echo Chamber - Cross My Heart MGMT - Little Dark Age Middle Kids - Never Start MØ - Nights With You Mura Masa feat. Bonzai - Nuggets Niall Horan - Too Much To Ask P!nk - Beautiful Trauma Paramore - Fake Happy Paramore - Hard Times Paul Kelly - Firewood and Candles Perfume Genius - Slip Away Phoenix - Ti Amo Rae Morris - Atletico Rae Morris - Do It Ricki-Lee - Not Too Late Rita Ora - Anywhere Royal Blood - Hook, Line & Sinker Royal Blood - Lights Out Ruby Fields - I Want Sampha - (No One Knows Me) Like The Piano Samsaruh - Golden To Thrive Sigrid - Strangers sleepmakeswaves - Tundra Sløtface - Galaxies SOPHIE - It's Okay To Cry St. Vincent - Los Ageless St. Vincent - New York Stella Donnelly - Boys Will Be Boys Stella Donnelly - Mechanical Bull SZA feat. Travis Scott - Love Galore Taylor Swift - ...Ready For It? The Killers - Run For Cover The National - Carin At The Liquor Store The National - Day I Die The National - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness The War On Drugs - Holding On Tove Lo - Disco Tits Tove Styrke - Say My Name Vera Blue - Lady Powers WAAX - Wild & Weak Wolf Alice - Don't Delete The Kisses Wolf Alice - Planet Hunter
The best way you can assure things go your way is to make sure to vote, because at the very least all of those songs will get 40-9 points more than they otherwise would. Specifically you should be voting your Top 32 to 20 selections and memo it to me by 6pm on Friday. The qualifying game is well under way, and I'll try to post the ACI tonight.
#77. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Rattlesnake
Round by round: 80-77
Points - 57 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #9
#76. Chris Brown - Questions
Round by round: 73-76
Points - 57 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #6
Noted Cerulean City bridge enthusiast Mura Masa kicks off today with "Nuggets" at #80. We've then got a bit of a lesser known cut from the latest Angus & Julia Stone album, "Oakwood" at #79. At #78 is a lovely pop song that is insanely familiar to me, Fluir's "Only One". King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have the first single released off their 5th most recent album at #77, as "Rattlesnake" continues to rattle me. And then we've got Chris Brown interpolating Kevin Lyttle on his egregiously short-running "Questions" at #76.
One of the biggest eligible hits for this in terms of being one of the nearest misses for the Hottest 100, we've got Dean Lewis at #75 with "Lose My Mind". Then at #74 is "Say My Name" by an artist whose name is particularly difficult to pronounce (it's like tu-va steer-kay), Tove Styrke. Jamiroquai started the proceedings off aptly since "Automaton" was exactly where it landed in the combined EOY proceedings, but it's dropped off a bit to instead land at #73. With two songs in the running, St. Vincent has her first, "New York" land at #72, followed by Ruby Fields who just released her debut EP, containing breakout hit "I Want".
In what can only be considered the nicest of results, we have two songs here tied at #69. Firstly it's Rae Morris's current ACI hit "Atletico", followed by Sweden's finest, Sløtface, with one of their less brattish sounding tunes "Galaxies". Because I can't get enough of promoting recent released, Stella Donnelly only just released the music video for her not-KOL-related "Mechanical Bull", which is the first of her two entries at #68. Then at #67 is Brett Young who just released his debut album about a year ago, netting two country #1 hits, the second of which is "Like I Loved You". At #66 is Jay-Z who just this year dethroned Diddy to be the richest musician in the US, coming close to a billion net worth. Not much of that is down to the release of his 13th studio album, but "4:44" was not without its acclaim and has the title track landing at #66.
Something of a surprising song to have turned up on the ARIA Charts for just a week, Maty Noyes has the delightfully kooky "London" at #65. At #64 is Amber Mark who just today released a quite good new single, but is here with 2017's "Heatwave". Things get extremely emotional and serious afterwards, with Perfume Genius at #63 and Sampha at #62, but because we exercise diversity of options here, they're followed by Katy Perry's "Swish Swish" at #61.
BROCKHAMPTON - BOOGIE Cardi B - Bodak Yellow Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut To The Feeling Dan Sultan - Hold It Together Dan Sultan - Kingdom Ecca Vandal - Broke Days, Party Nights Ed Sheeran - Supermarket Flowers Ed Sheeran - What Do I Know Father John Misty - Pure Comedy Gang Of Youths - Fear And Trembling Gang Of Youths - The Heart Is A Muscle George Maple - Kryptonite Gorillaz feat. Vince Staples - Ascension Grace Mitchell - Now Gretta Ray - Towers Haiku Hands - Not About You Haim - Little Of Your Love Heaps Good Friends - Olympic Sneakers Jax Jones feat. Demi Lovato & Stefflon Don - Instruction Jessie Ware - Midnight Kelly Clarkson - Love So Soft King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Sleep Drifter Kira Puru - Tension Lana Del Rey - Love Little Mix feat. Machine Gun Kelly - No More Sad Songs Lorde - Writer In The Dark Manchester Orchestra - The Alien Melody's Echo Chamber - Cross My Heart MGMT - Little Dark Age Middle Kids - Never Start MØ - Nights With You Niall Horan - Too Much To Ask P!nk - Beautiful Trauma Paramore - Fake Happy Paramore - Hard Times Paul Kelly - Firewood and Candles Phoenix - Ti Amo Rae Morris - Do It Ricki-Lee - Not Too Late Rita Ora - Anywhere Royal Blood - Hook, Line & Sinker Royal Blood - Lights Out Samsaruh - Golden To Thrive Sigrid - Strangers sleepmakeswaves - Tundra SOPHIE - It's Okay To Cry St. Vincent - Los Ageless Stella Donnelly - Boys Will Be Boys SZA feat. Travis Scott - Love Galore Taylor Swift - ...Ready For It? The Killers - Run For Cover The National - Carin At The Liquor Store The National - Day I Die The National - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness The War On Drugs - Holding On Tove Lo - Disco Tits Vera Blue - Lady Powers WAAX - Wild & Weak Wolf Alice - Don't Delete The Kisses Wolf Alice - Planet Hunter
Help the ones you love, determine a Top 15 to 24 from this bunch and submit it to me by 6pm on Monday. The qualifying game is also presently running, as is the ACI so do what works for you and have a productive and/or relaxing weekend.
#58. Little Mix feat. Machine Gun Kelly - No More Sad Songs
Round by round: 58-60-58
Points - 94.75 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #2
#57. Father John Misty - Pure Comedy
Round by round: 55-52-57
Points - 96.25 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #9
#56. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Sleep Drifter
Round by round: 63-56-56
Points - 100 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #5
No longer able to electric feel anything, MGMT released an ode to depression in "Little Dark Age" landing at #60. Speaking of throwbacks to 2008, we've got a Killers song that was initially written a decade ago, only finally manifesting last year as the 2nd single to "Wonderful Wonderful", which gives The Killers their highest entry here at #59. At #58 is Little Mix going full trop pop for "No More Sad Songs", something of a lesser hit for them which they amended for the next single by remembering to recruit a rapper that Britons actually like. Taking things in a far different direction, is the title track to Father John Misty's "Pure Comedy" album at #57, while I must give my deepest condolences as I now have to stop the King Gizzard catalogue jokes as they get their highest entry at #56 with "Sleep Drifter".
Doing quite well in this game, Dan Sultan got 2 songs through to this round, the first of which is "Kingdom" checking out at #55. Perhaps considerably outdone by The National who come in at #54 with "Day I Die", and still holding onto two more entries within the top 50. We've then got a section that can only be described as extremely me, as we go to Australia's thriving (no pun intended) indie pop scene courtesy of Samsaruh at #53 and Kira Puru at #52. Finishing off the first half by doing far better than I expected is Phoenix with "Ti Amo".
#46. Jax Jones feat. Demi Lovato & Stefflon Don - Instruction
Round by round: 44-44-46
Points - 114 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #5
Showing everyone how it's done, Royal Blood had but two entries in this list and they've landed them both in the top 50, firstly lead single "Lights Out" at #50. We've then got Gretta Ray with her 3rd consecutive single that starts with 'I...', as "Towers" takes #49. George Maple kicks things up a gear with "Kryptonite" at #48. If you haven't heard of Heaps Good Friends then just Google it, but they land at #47 with "Olympic Sneakers", sitting behind Jax Jones' secondary club banger of 2017, "Instruction" at #46.
If there are any Americans here reading this right now, welcome to those of you who are reading this IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIIIIIGHT, which is appropriate as Taylor Swift takes "...Ready For It?" to #45, 1 spot higher than "Look What You Made Me Do" was in the ARIA game. She sits alongside good friends Paramore who have the first of their two entries at #44 with "Fake Happy". And speaking of artists taking a considerable step back from the sound that they're known for, SOPHIE comes in at #43 with the very tender "It's Okay To Cry". Having less expectations to defy is Cardi B with her major label debut single "Bodak Yellow", which went all the way to the top in the US charts, with the big surprise being that 6 months later she'd end up with 5 huge hit singles at the same time. Lastly, our list of artists with multiple entries still to come shrinks down to just 3, as The National are back again with "Carin At The Liquor Store" at #41, but how high can they get with their last entry?
It's still not clear who's going to take this title, just that it'll be one of these 40 songs
BROCKHAMPTON - BOOGIE Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut To The Feeling Dan Sultan - Hold It Together Ecca Vandal - Broke Days, Party Nights Ed Sheeran - Supermarket Flowers Ed Sheeran - What Do I Know Gang Of Youths - Fear And Trembling Gang Of Youths - The Heart Is A Muscle Gorillaz feat. Vince Staples - Ascension Grace Mitchell - Now Haiku Hands - Not About You Haim - Little Of Your Love Jessie Ware - Midnight Kelly Clarkson - Love So Soft Lana Del Rey - Love Lorde - Writer In The Dark Manchester Orchestra - The Alien Melody's Echo Chamber - Cross My Heart Middle Kids - Never Start MØ - Nights With You Niall Horan - Too Much To Ask P!nk - Beautiful Trauma Paramore - Hard Times Paul Kelly - Firewood and Candles Rae Morris - Do It Ricki-Lee - Not Too Late Rita Ora - Anywhere Royal Blood - Hook, Line & Sinker Sigrid - Strangers sleepmakeswaves - Tundra St. Vincent - Los Ageless Stella Donnelly - Boys Will Be Boys SZA feat. Travis Scott - Love Galore The National - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness The War On Drugs - Holding On Tove Lo - Disco Tits Vera Blue - Lady Powers WAAX - Wild & Weak Wolf Alice - Don't Delete The Kisses Wolf Alice - Planet Hunter
Make a mark on how that all goes down, by selecting your Top 10 to 16 choices from this and sending them to me by 6pm on Wednesday. I may be a bit late with the results as apparently my power is going to be off for most of that day. Otherwise use the opportunity to get in on the qualifying game which looks like it'll be finishing up within 24 hours. I also have new qualifying possibilities to be voted on here until it's announced at the end of the game https://www.strawpoll.me/15203653
While starting strong in the early rounds, Tove Lo falls a little behind with "Disco Tits" at #40 the only song to not get at least 3 votes. Stella Donnelly also takes a bit of a fall but I'm more impressed she's gotten as high as #39 with a song like "Boys Will Be Boys", shout out to International Women's Day tomorrow. Yet again Haim get up to the 4th round, this time on the other side of the posting equation with "Little Of Your Love" at #38. Having had a highly successful 2017, Paul Kelly finds some love here with "Firewood and Candles" at #37, followed by perpetually breaking out Sigrid with "Strangers" at #36.
Fans of tidy alliterations will be pleased to see that WAAX have made it all the way to #35 with "Wild & Weak". They're yet to put out a full length album, but they sit next to two 2018 debutants, firstly Rae Morris who has released hers, and Middle Kids whose album is coming out in a month or so. Then we've got some stalwarts as Royal Blood have the 2nd single from their 2nd album land at #32, while Gang Of Youths, shock horror, do not have the top 2 all to themselves this time, but the opening track to their 2nd album does land at #31. Last edited:
Landing higher than you'd ever expect a 7 minute psych rock odyssey that isn't "Let It Happen" to get, Melody's Echo Chamber's "Cross My Heart" kicks off the top 30 at #30. We've then got some much cleaner pop grooves from Grace Mitchell's "Now" at #29, followed by Manchester Orchestra's compelling narrative of "The Alien" at #28. After a long line of non-charting songs, we actually have a hit single next courtesy of Niall Horan's "Too Much To Ask" at #27, and lastly we've got Dan Sultan performing very well here with "Hold It Together" at #26.
And the hits that weren't quite hits enough to qualify for the previous lists mostly get bigger here as we face the last cut off before the last round. A song that with a little more outreach, could have conceivably made both prior games, but instead ended up on neither, MØ's "Nights With You" lands at #25. Vera Blue comes very close to matching her performance in the previous game as she once again lands in the top 25, this time with "Lady Powers" at #24. P!nk's got the title track to her unsurprisingly very successful latest album "Beautiful Trauma" at #23, while a very passionate voterbase of nearly all #1 votes sees Ricki-Lee almost bolt from the bottom of the standings into the last round with her rather underrated chartwise "Not Too Late" at #22. Then we've got Wolf Alice sitting at #21 donned by the fact that they have another song that did make the top 20 so there just wasn't room for the both of them, but nonetheless it's a strong finish for "Planet Hunter" at #21.
And this 6 week venture of the season opening of QLVG comes to a close now, as we have the last 20 songs in contention:
BROCKHAMPTON - BOOGIE Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut To The Feeling Ecca Vandal - Broke Days, Party Nights Ed Sheeran - Supermarket Flowers Ed Sheeran - What Do I Know Gang Of Youths - The Heart Is A Muscle Gorillaz feat. Vince Staples - Ascension Haiku Hands - Not About You Jessie Ware - Midnight Kelly Clarkson - Love So Soft Lana Del Rey - Love Lorde - Writer In The Dark Paramore - Hard Times Rita Ora - Anywhere sleepmakeswaves - Tundra St. Vincent - Los Ageless SZA feat. Travis Scott - Love Galore The National - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness The War On Drugs - Holding On Wolf Alice - Don't Delete The Kisses
This means one last chance to stake your claim for supremacy as represented by the songs that you have a particular liking to that warrants wanting to provide that support. Said support can be provided by form of a Top 5 to 8 vote into my inbox by 6pm on Friday. Also do please vote in the ACI if you want to, and do please vote in the poll for the next qualifying game, because it helps my self-confidence when I see high vote numbers on the poll https://www.strawpoll.me/15203653
With a lot of strong middling votes, SZA had a really great start to this game with "Love Galore" though unfortunately runs out of nearly all of her votes to end up at #20, also I can confirm as of yesterday that "Ctrl" is still really good. Meanwhile in 'how is this in the top 20' territory, we've got the blistering post-rock stylings of sleepmakeswaves, the first of 4 Australian artists in this top 20 with "Tundra" at #19.
Getting a handy boost last round, Ed Sheeran went from having nothing in the top 20 to being the only artist that landed twice in the top 20, which is perhaps even more commendable considering that he had no shortage of ineligible hits in this game. Naturally it's two different shades of Sheeran, as first up is non-partisan anthem "What Do I Know" at #18, followed by heartfelt balladry in "Supermarket Flowers" at #17, the latter of which being very timely as it just re-entered the ARIA Charts last week.
To continue this Haiku Hands' "Not About You" takes #16
Meanwhile showing the very different methodologies of this list and the combined list, the latter requiring higher tier support, something that Gorillaz didn't have with "Ascension" even though it had a lot of big fans, means that it's able to get all the way to #15 without even suffering a real deflation.
On a largely very hazed out album, The War On Drugs retained a more conventional radio single by way of "Holding On" which pays off here with more widespread appeal for a #14 finish. The same could somewhat be said of Wolf Alice (though arguably "Beautifully Unconventional" takes that ironic title) with their blissed out love song "Don't Delete The Kisses" taking #13, making you wonder which of their songs truly was unlucky /r/im13andthisisdeep
Round by round: 205.84 Current Voters - 4 TOp Vote - #2
#11. Paramore - Hard Times
Round by round: 16-16-16-17-11
Points - 217.4 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #5
Once again we had an artist making a commendable effort to go back to back in this game but unfortunately for Gang Of Youths, their bid ends here with "The Heart Is A Muscle" at #12. Also performing very well with two songs in play was Paramore, though they have the advantage of still being allowed their lead single in the proceedings since the powers that choose what is and is not a hit single can be cruel. Nonetheless, "Hard Times" found its audience and lands at #11.
For a bit of a surprise entrant into the top 10, we've got another song that just briefly grazed the ARIA Chart, as Kelly Clarkson's "Love So Soft" loses no momentum and vaults up to #10. Then we've got a song that chose the wrong round to do its random bullet, as St. Vincent returns to her usual place of #9 with "Los Ageless" after briefly challenging higher territory. How can anybody have a top 5 spot and lose it and not lose their mind too?
Round by round: 269.79 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #2
If my memory is not deceiving me, we still have 3 former winners of this game in the running here, or that is I say we had 3 former winners because 2 of them have gone down in the space of this post. One that looked (to me) like a real chance of repeating that feat was Lorde, who just like every other game this year, was very much in the fray and had "Writer In The Dark" leading the way for most of the contest. As it were, she takes a bit of a fall here though it's not as bad as it looks as one more vote (even at #8) would take her right back to #2. Then for not quite as recent a winner we have Carly Rae Jepsen, who nonetheless is very good at landing in the top 10 of aus-charts related lists. This time around it's the dreaded soundtrack single except it's actually far better than that title implies and "Cut To The Feeling" lands at #7.
Rita Ora had decent odds going into this as she arguably had the biggest hit of 2017 that got away with eligibility since it was released too late in the year to accumulate the sales to make the ARIA EOY, and for that matter, with a delight of a song like "Anywhere". She did make a claim to it last round too, but can't quite catch up and lands at #6. So instead she lands behind a much less successful British chanteuse in Jessie Ware, who I suspected might collapse at one point, but managed to hold her mid-top 10 position the entire way to get "Midnight" to finish at #5.
Who says this game can't offer up surprises, with the highest Australian entrant here coming from an album that didn't even crack the ARIA top 100 on release. But it does follow a blueprint set by Sia in terms of party anthems for people who don't have any money, though in this case much louder and befitting of the fact it's an Ecca Vandal song, as "Broke Days, Party Nights" comes in at #4. It could hardly be more different to the song it precedes however, as ever popular Lana Del Rey gets what I imagine without checking has to be her 2nd best ever performance in this game with "Love" all the way up at #3, and it easily could have gone to #2 for that matter...
#2. The National - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness
Round by round: 04-04-04-01-02
Points - 282.81 Current Voters - 5 Top Vote - #1
#1. BROCKHAMPTON - BOOGIE
Round by round: 02-02-02-03-01
Points - 332.57 Current Voters - 7 Top Vote - #1
...because #3 and #2 are separated by a whole 0.03 points. Suffice to say it's a peculiar turn of events. While the Hottest 100 is prone to debates about vote splitting, there were several points in which the band with the most entries in this game, The National, still managed to get ahead of the entire pack with "The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness", and it even finished the last round at #1 by a margin of 50 points. The sways of voting work in mysterious ways though because it finishes ousted from the top by pretty much the same margin, losing out to a song that has always been in the fold, but never the top of the table. It's also amusingly a song that could hardly ever manage to be made ineligible for this list no matter how popular it was because it was released in the middle of December, after the Hottest 100 cut off and with no feasible chance to make the ARIA EOY in time. But this is at the bottom of the post so you all know I'm talking about BROCKHAMPTON and the opening track to "SATURATION III", "BOOGIE", which perhaps is aided by a lack of saturation as despite many massive singles they released last year, it's the only one that was in this game. Something of an improvement from "SWEET" landing in #33 in the last game, and it gives us a 3rd chance this year to ponder back to back wins as they will be featured in the next game.
Here is my usual thanks for the participation which is very much the lifeblood of this game. And speaking of said participation, I can now announce that the next qualifying game will be the curious case of chronologic diversity as we've got any song released in a year ending in '0'.
Also usual stuff, the ACI is open, I hope you enjoy your weekend, and look out for the colours game next week.
I hope nobody here is secretly the mime from Powerpuff Girls because I provide an exceedingly colourful experience through these 100 songs for the new game
AC/DC - Back in Black Alannah Myles - Black Velvet Ali Barter - Hypercolour Amy Winehouse - Back to Black Bat For Lashes - All Your Gold Ben Lee - Something Borrowed Something Blue Biffy Clyro - Black Chandelier Billy Idol - White Wedding Birds of Tokyo - White Witch Blanke feat. Samsaruh - Blue Bob Dylan - Tangled Up in Blue Booker T and the MGs - Green Onions BROCKHAMPTON - GOLD Caribou - Silver Chris Isaak - Blue Hotel CHVRCHES - Clearest Blue Coldplay - Violet Hill Coldplay - Yellow Counting Crows feat. Vanessa Carlton - Big Yellow Taxi Cyndi Lauper - True Colors Deep Purple - Black Night Delta Goodrem - Out Of The Blue Destiny's Child - Brown Eyes Dido - White Flag Disclosure feat. AlunaGeorge - White Noise Donovan - Mellow Yellow Dune Rats - Red Light Green Light Eiffel 65 - Blue (Ba Ba Dee) Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails Red Wine Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal Foster The People - Don't Stop (Color On The Walls) Frank Ocean - Pink + White Gorillaz - White Light Groove Armada - Purple Haze Guy Sebastian - Gold Hole - Gold Dust Woman Icehouse - Electric Blue Iggy Azalea feat. Rita Ora - Black Widow Jason Aldean - Big Green Tractor Jessie J - Big White Room Jurassic 5 - What's Golden Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx - Gold Digger Keith Urban - Blue Ain't Your Color Kelly Clarkson - Behind These Hazel Eyes Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker The Berry Klaxons - Golden Skans KT Tunstall - Black Horse and the Cherry Tree Ladyhawke - Black White & Blue LeAnn Rimes - Blue Let's Eat Grandma - Hot Pink Limp Bizkit - Behind Blue Eyes Little Mix - Black Magic Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat Madonna - True Blue Manchester Orchestra - The Gold Max Frost - White Lies Missy Higgins - The Sound Of White Muse - Supermassive Black Hole My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade Neil Young - Hey Hey My My (Into The Black) New Order - Blue Monday Pearl Jam - Black Primus - Wynona's Big Brown Beaver Prince - Little Red Corvette Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale Psychedelic Furs - Pretty In Pink R.E.M. - Orange Crush Rae Sremmurd feat. Gucci Mane - Black Beatles Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar Ryuchi Sakamoto & David Sylvian - Forbidden Colours Sam Sparro - Black And Gold Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun Spandau Ballet - Gold Spiderbait - Black Betty Split Enz - I See Red Stan Walker - Black Box The Badloves - Green Limousine The Beatles - Blackbird The Clash - White Riot The Drones - Shark Fin Blues The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Purple Haze The Killers - Where The White Boys Dance The National - Pink Rabbits The Preatures - Blue Planet Eyes The Rolling Stones - Paint It, Black The Stranglers - Golden Brown The War On Drugs - Red Eyes The White Stripes - Blue Orchid Toby Keith - Courtesy Of The Red White and Blue Trial Kennedy - Colour Day Tours Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl Vanessa Williams - Colors Of The Wind Visage - Fade To Grey Will Smith - Men In Black Wiz Khalifa - Black and Yellow Wolf Alice - St. Purple & Green You Am I - Purple Sneakers
If you are both new to this experience and have also not read the above portions of the thread, then to participate, you simply need to select your Top 25 to 40 from this lot and submit it to me by 6pm on Wednesday.
This time around we've got two null scorers. Both rather old songs with the first being Donovan's massive '60s hit that could really pass for mid '00s indie folk, "Mellow Yellow", sitting alongside Hole's version of a big Fleetwood Mac song "Gold Dust Woman", which is clearly the spiritual opposite of "Black Magic Woman", a Santana song that was made a hit by Fleetwood Mac covering it. We then stay in the '90s for a bit with an even bigger hit, Will Smith's theme song to the film of the same name, "Men In Black" at #98, followed by a more lightweight entry from Australia, The Badloves' "Green Limousine". Sitting somewhere in the middle of those ideas, though ahead of them, we've got the final coronation song from Australian Idol, which proved one of the biggest digital sellers ever from the series, Stan Walker's "Black Box" at #96.
#93. KT Tunstall - Black Horse and the Cherry Tree
Points - 7 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #34
#92. Bob Dylan - Tangled Up In Blue
Points - 9 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #35
#91. Vanessa Williams - Colors Of The Wind
Points - 11 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #32
Missing out on chart history by a small margin is Wiz Khalifa's first US #1 hit "Black and Yellow", which was actually the 999th #1 hit on the Hot 100. Speaking of US charts, we've next got something of a breakout hit for Jason Aldean, and his biggest for a couple of years, "Big Green Tractor" at #94. KT Tunstall's "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" lands at #93 which I imagine is a well known song despite not charting particularly well around the world. Bob Dylan has "Tangled Up In Blue" from his classic "Blood On The Tracks" album at #92, followed by Vanessa Williams' theme from Pocahontas, "Colors Of The Wind" at #91.
=#87. Toby Keith - Courtesy Of The Red White and Blue
Points - 18 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #23
#86. Primus - Wynona's Big Brown Beaver
Points - 20 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #28
Such is the infection of US spelling systems, we have some back to back 'color' even involving an Australian artist as Keith Urban has one of the biggest singles from his latest album, "Blue Ain't Your Color" at #90. At #89 is a track I recognise from Jessie J's debut album even though it's not one of the half dozen singles released, "Big White Room". Next up is a tie at #87, the most American of ties as we've got Toby Keith's "Courtesy Of The Red, White & Blue" sitting side by side with a bonus track on The Killers' 2nd album, "Where The White Boys Dance". And then we stay in the US just a little longer as things get just a tiny bit more silly courtesy of Primus with "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver".
#81. Rae Sremmurd feat. Gucci Mane - Black Beatles
Points - 29 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #26
Excuse me while I point out that The Jimi Hendrix Experience have landed at #85 with "Purple Haze", which is not the last time we'll see a song with that very specific title. It's not a cover, but something that is, is Spiderbait's "Black Betty" landing at #84. And if you think that's a bad segue, I can strive to continue by pointing out we've got another black song via The Beatles' "Blackbird" at #83. Up next is one of the newest songs in the list (I can't exactly verify right now if it's quite the newest, it might have missed out by about a week), another Australian entry as two up and comers in Blanke & Samsaruh team up for "Blue" at #82. It's beaten out by the moderately more well known "Black Beatles" from Rae Sremmurd at #81.
This leaves 80 songs to carry on the colour game into round 2
AC/DC - Back in Black Alannah Myles - Black Velvet Ali Barter - Hypercolour Amy Winehouse - Back to Black Bat For Lashes - All Your Gold Ben Lee - Something Borrowed Something Blue Biffy Clyro - Black Chandelier Billy Idol - White Wedding Birds of Tokyo - White Witch Booker T and the MGs - Green Onions BROCKHAMPTON - GOLD Caribou - Silver Chris Isaak - Blue Hotel CHVRCHES - Clearest Blue Coldplay - Violet Hill Coldplay - Yellow Counting Crows feat. Vanessa Carlton - Big Yellow Taxi Cyndi Lauper - True Colors Deep Purple - Black Night Delta Goodrem - Out Of The Blue Destiny's Child - Brown Eyes Dido - White Flag Disclosure feat. AlunaGeorge - White Noise Dune Rats - Red Light Green Light Eiffel 65 - Blue (Ba Ba Dee) Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails Red Wine Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal Foster The People - Don't Stop (Color On The Walls) Frank Ocean - Pink + White Gorillaz - White Light Groove Armada - Purple Haze Guy Sebastian - Gold Icehouse - Electric Blue Iggy Azalea feat. Rita Ora - Black Widow Jurassic 5 - What's Golden Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx - Gold Digger Kelly Clarkson - Behind These Hazel Eyes Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker The Berry Klaxons - Golden Skans Ladyhawke - Black White & Blue LeAnn Rimes - Blue Let's Eat Grandma - Hot Pink Limp Bizkit - Behind Blue Eyes Little Mix - Black Magic Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat Madonna - True Blue Manchester Orchestra - The Gold Max Frost - White Lies Missy Higgins - The Sound Of White Muse - Supermassive Black Hole My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade Neil Young - Hey Hey My My (Into The Black) New Order - Blue Monday Pearl Jam - Black Prince - Little Red Corvette Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale Psychedelic Furs - Pretty In Pink R.E.M. - Orange Crush Ryuchi Sakamoto & David Sylvian - Forbidden Colours Sam Sparro - Black And Gold Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun Spandau Ballet - Gold Split Enz - I See Red The Clash - White Riot The Drones - Shark Fin Blues The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1 The National - Pink Rabbits The Preatures - Blue Planet Eyes The Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar The Rolling Stones - Paint It, Black The Stranglers - Golden Brown The War On Drugs - Red Eyes The White Stripes - Blue Orchid Trial Kennedy - Colour Day Tours Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl Visage - Fade To Grey Wolf Alice - St. Purple & Green You Am I - Purple Sneakers
Now is your chance to impact the proceedings, as I call out for you to submit your Top 20 to 32 selections to me and my inbox by 6pm on Friday, after which I'll do this whole thing again with 20 more songs most likely getting the cut. As for other things, the qualifying game is ongoing, and I'll try to make the ACI list tonight.
Just slipping through last round was Ladyhawke who still resides at #80 with the lead single to her 2nd album, "Black White & Blue". That's the most modern song we'll have in this set as we go way back to the world of '60s crooners via Chris Isaak's "Blue Hotel" at #79. A lesser known cut from Gorillaz most popular album, they've got "White Light" at #78, sitting next to the very similarly named "White Riot" from The Clash at #77. Then we've got a well known track by a not as well known name in "Green Onions" at #76.
To change things up a bit we've got Destiny's Child with a more tender ballad in "Brown Eyes" at #75. It starts off a set of songs whose colours all begin with the letter B, as it's followed by a double dosage of early to mid 2010s, firstly Biffy Clyro's "Black Chandelier" at #74, and then the title track to The Preatures' debut album "Blue Planet Eyes" at #73. It ends up on a drastic shift to classic rock after that, with what is on most weeks the highest selling song on this list, AC/DC's "Back In Black" at #72, and then Deep Purple's "Black Night" at #71.
#68. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1
Round by round: 65-68
Points - 42 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #22
#67. Trial Kennedy - Colour Day Tours
Round by round: 64-67
Points - 44 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #15
#66. The Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar
Round by round: 62-66
Points - 46 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #15
Sounding like a completely different band to what they are now (apart from the subject matter), Dune Rats land at #70 with "Red Light Green Light". For the first of two songs to be eliminated today with a single word title, LeAnn Rimes takes "Blue" to #69. Things get considerably less succinct transitioning to The Flaming Lips with "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1" at #68. Going to some late 2000s Aussie rock we've got the tremendously underrated Trial Kennedy with "Colour Day Tours" at #67. Then it's the occasionally underrated Rolling Stones, depending on the perspective, who take the first of their two entries, "Brown Sugar" to #66.
Currently receiving the most attention it's gotten in many years, Missy Higgins' "The Sound Of White" takes the #65 slot. Meanwhile when I suggested the other day that "Blue" might be the newest song in this list, it's because I forgot about Let's Eat Grandma, whose "Hot Pink" was released just this year and has found enough of an audience to take #64. Staying relatively modern, we've got the lead single to Manchester Orchestra's latest album, released last year, "The Gold" at #63. Split Enz are at their most frenetic with "I See Red" at #62, while at #61, we once again end the dream of a back to back win, as BROCKHAMPTON take one of their very rare songs to actually include the title in the lyrics, "GOLD" at #61.
*insert new way of saying that there are 60 songs left in the game*
Alannah Myles - Black Velvet Ali Barter - Hypercolour Amy Winehouse - Back to Black Bat For Lashes - All Your Gold Ben Lee - Something Borrowed Something Blue Billy Idol - White Wedding Birds of Tokyo - White Witch Caribou - Silver CHVRCHES - Clearest Blue Coldplay - Violet Hill Coldplay - Yellow Counting Crows feat. Vanessa Carlton - Big Yellow Taxi Cyndi Lauper - True Colors Delta Goodrem - Out Of The Blue Dido - White Flag Disclosure feat. AlunaGeorge - White Noise Eiffel 65 - Blue (Ba Ba Dee) Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails Red Wine Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal Foster The People - Don't Stop (Color On The Walls) Frank Ocean - Pink + White Groove Armada - Purple Haze Guy Sebastian - Gold Icehouse - Electric Blue Iggy Azalea feat. Rita Ora - Black Widow Jurassic 5 - What's Golden Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx - Gold Digger Kelly Clarkson - Behind These Hazel Eyes Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker The Berry Klaxons - Golden Skans Limp Bizkit - Behind Blue Eyes Little Mix - Black Magic Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat Madonna - True Blue Max Frost - White Lies Muse - Supermassive Black Hole My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade Neil Young - Hey Hey My My (Into The Black) New Order - Blue Monday Pearl Jam - Black Prince - Little Red Corvette Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale Psychedelic Furs - Pretty In Pink R.E.M. - Orange Crush Ryuchi Sakamoto & David Sylvian - Forbidden Colours Sam Sparro - Black And Gold Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun Spandau Ballet - Gold The Drones - Shark Fin Blues The National - Pink Rabbits The Rolling Stones - Paint It, Black The Stranglers - Golden Brown The War On Drugs - Red Eyes The White Stripes - Blue Orchid Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl Visage - Fade To Grey Wolf Alice - St. Purple & Green You Am I - Purple Sneakers
If you see this list of songs and feel some level of investment within it, then see to it that you contribute to the order in which I will type out their titles next week. Select your Top 15 to 24 from this lot and submit to me by 6pm on Monday. Also feel free to contribute to the qualifying game and the ACI if it intrigues you.
We start things off purely in the 21st century with the eliminations. First off is Frank Ocean's popular "Blonde" track "Pink + White" featuring uncredited Beyonce backing vocals at #60. We've then got Iggy Azalea who scored a pretty big hit with "Black Widow" which lands at #59, though hits of this size have completely eluded her since. Jurassic 5 have their party starter "What's Golden" at #58, followed by one of Ali Barter's earliest singles "Hypercolour" at #57. Lastly we turn to CHVRCHES' second album with the bombastic "Clearest Blue" at #56.
#54. Ryuchi Sakamoto & David Sylvian - Forbidden Colours
Round by round: 41-54-54
Points - 80.65 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #4
#53. Guy Sebastian - Gold
Round by round: 67-56-53
Points - 83.75 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #1
#52. Neil Young - Hey Hey My My (Into The Black)
Round by round: 50-58-52
Points - 86.85 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #12
#51. Spandau Ballet - Gold
Round by round: 53-35-51
Points - 88.75 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #18
Now we get far more vintage with this next set, with the exception of Guy Sebastian, though he is here with one of his more throwback sounding singles in "Gold" at #53. At #55 we've got The Psychedelic Furs with their song "Pretty In Pink" which was made slightly more famous via the film of the same name. Speaking of soundtracks, we have "Forbidden Colours" following it at #54. I've now gotten further understanding of the 1994 #100 song in the Hottest 100 thanks to Neil Young's song "Hey Hey My My" from which the hook is interpolated, while we finish things off with the 3rd "Gold" in the last 10 songs, this time the much more famous Spandau Ballet track.
The lead off single to their 4th album, Muse kick off the first half with "Supermassive Black Hole" at #50. At #49 is Icehouse's biggest hit and what I think is the 7th highest Australian #1 single in this list, "Electric Blue". Next up is one of Disclosure's early singles, "White Noise" at #48, followed by a recent album track from Wolf Alice which the band (or one member) described as their favourite on the album, and it also turned up on my shuffle playlist a couple hours ago. Lastly is a Hottest 100 one hit wonder in Max Frost and his instant hit "White Lies" at #46.
Going back to the always wonderful "Hi Fi Way" days, You Am I have "Purple Sneakers" land at #45. That's the oldest song in this set as we rush to the 21st century again for the rest. Firstly The White Stripes at #44 with "Blue Orchid". For another stunner of an album track we've got Caribou's "Silver" at #43, while Limp Bizkit's cover of The Who takes #42. Surpassing my expectations in this game is Bat For Lashes whose "All Your Gold" just narrowly misses the next round at #41.
With the more niche entries weeded out, we're left with just the 40 biggest songs in the bunch
Alannah Myles - Black Velvet Amy Winehouse - Back to Black Ben Lee - Something Borrowed Something Blue Billy Idol - White Wedding Birds of Tokyo - White Witch Coldplay - Violet Hill Coldplay - Yellow Counting Crows feat. Vanessa Carlton - Big Yellow Taxi Cyndi Lauper - True Colors Delta Goodrem - Out Of The Blue Dido - White Flag Eiffel 65 - Blue (Ba Ba Dee) Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails Red Wine Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal Foster The People - Don't Stop (Color On The Walls) Groove Armada - Purple Haze Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx - Gold Digger Kelly Clarkson - Behind These Hazel Eyes Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker The Berry Klaxons - Golden Skans Little Mix - Black Magic Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat Madonna - True Blue My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade New Order - Blue Monday Pearl Jam - Black Prince - Little Red Corvette Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale R.E.M. - Orange Crush Sam Sparro - Black And Gold Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun The Drones - Shark Fin Blues The National - Pink Rabbits The Rolling Stones - Paint It, Black The Stranglers - Golden Brown The War On Drugs - Red Eyes Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl Visage - Fade To Grey
Time to deem who is worthy of making the finals, as you determine your Top 10 to 16 entries from this lot and submit them to me by 6pm on Wednesday. The qualifying game is just about over so make sure you get your favourites in safely. Also please vote in the new poll for the next game, which I didn't have time to think of ideas for so I just snagged a bunch of losing choices on very old previous polls. Naturally I'm very open to hearing suggestions https://www.strawpoll.me/15314679
Prince has had two songs in the running from the beginning, and now he loses the first, which is "Little Red Corvette" at #40. We've then got Lorde represented for the 4th game in a row but this time she doesn't make the final round with "Yellow Flicker Beat" landing at #39. Ending up a bit higher than I'd have expected, Ben Lee takes "Something Borrowed, Something Blue" at #38. This post ends up in the land of eyes, firstly the brown variety from Van Morrison at #37, and then the hazel variety from Kelly Clarkson at #36.
#33. Foster The People - Don't Stop (Color On The Walls)
Round by round: 42-33-29-33
Points - 129.88 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #8
#32. The National - Pink Rabbits
Round by round: 12-30-27-32
Points - 137.29 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #1
#31. Little Mix - Black Magic
Round by round: 49-17-13-31
Points - 141.63 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #3
And now out of the blue, that tangent is over we go to a blue tangent starting with Delta Goodrem's "Out Of The Blue" at #35. I've also just noticed the other blue song has been typeset incorrectly in this game the entire time, though it hasn't hurt Eiffel 65's opportunities to land at #34. At #33 is what was Foster The People's 2nd biggest US pop hit until about a week ago, with "Don't Stop" landing at #33. After big success in the last game, we go back to the previous National album which sees "Pink Rabbits" landing at #32, and lastly Little Mix have one of their biggest hits, "Black Magic" at #31.
#28. My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade
Round by round: 10-19-23-28
Points - 146 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #2
#27. Cyndi Lauper - True Colors
Round by round: 60-21-17-27
Points - 151.91 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #9
#26. Madonna - True Blue
Round by round: 32-18-21-26
Points - 153.25 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #4
Billy Idol started strong with a lot of voters, though not many high votes which results in "White Wedding" landing at #30. Also consistently landing in the top 30 but not the top 20, Birds of Tokyo have one of the slightly deeper cuts on their 2nd album, "White Witch" at #29. With a steeper slide, My Chemical Romance take #28 for "Welcome To The Black Parade". Cyndi Lauper only had a more fleeting time in the top 20 but gets the spoils of having "True Colors" just slightly higher at #27. She sits next to an even bigger '80s superstar as Madonna takes "True Blue" to #26.
If you ever considered ordering a sandwich with Coldplay bread then...why would you do that, but if you want the closest simulation, then come to this post, where Coldplay sit at both #25 and #21, firstly with the more recent but still now about 10 years old "Violet Hill", and then just missing out with "Yellow". Between this we have potentially learned that it don't matter if you're black or white, which you could interpret as meaning it is preferable to be an actual colour, because all of these eliminations fall under that realm. Amy Winehouse has the sombre "Back To Black" at #24, Eskimo Joe have a bit of a hard fall to #23 with "Black Fingernails Red Wine", and then Fleet Foxes have "White Winter Hymnal" whose slight recovery could only take it back up to #22.
Now that I've gotten past that lengthy hurdle of typing a lot of things, I can relax by just copy/pasting the list of the 20 songs that remain in the final round
Alannah Myles - Black Velvet Counting Crows feat. Vanessa Carlton - Big Yellow Taxi Dido - White Flag Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Groove Armada - Purple Haze Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx - Gold Digger Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker The Berry Klaxons - Golden Skans New Order - Blue Monday Pearl Jam - Black Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale R.E.M. - Orange Crush Sam Sparro - Black And Gold Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun The Drones - Shark Fin Blues The Rolling Stones - Paint It, Black The Stranglers - Golden Brown The War On Drugs - Red Eyes Visage - Fade To Grey
You might think to yourself that it's a fine looking list of songs, but that particular order doesn't strike you as optimum. You might also by chance think it's perfect because you choose all your musical preferences based on alphabetical order. Either way, the list won't resolve itself like this so you best choose your Top 5 to 8 selections and submit them to me by 6pm on Friday, after which a winner will be crowned in a not-so-ceremonious way.
Also that poll where I forgot to capitalise a letter in the title is still going https://www.strawpoll.me/15314679 and I'll try to set up the ACI tonight
I have been prudent to count up that there are 9 different colours represented in this final 20. As of this post there's one less as one of the few unique representations was orange via R.E.M.'s "Orange Crush" which goes out first at #20. It sits aside the much more fruitful gold of Klaxons' "Golden Skans" at #19.
A constant sitter in the top 10...until this round, Soundgarden have their biggest hit "Black Hole Sun" finishing its residence at #18. Sitting aside it is the second oldest song left in the running with Procol Harum's ageless smash hit "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" at #17.
Staying with the oldies for a bit longer, we come to the title track to Elton John's classic "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" album at #16, a song that is soon to be covered by Queens of the Stone Age for an Elton John covers album. Sitting alongside it is the ahead of its time early '80s hit "Fade To Grey" from Visage at #15.
Finishing the run of oldies is the oldest of all, at least in the top 60, as The Rolling Stones' highest track finishes up at #14, it being "Paint It, Black". Then with one of the most rickety runs of the game, Kanye West ends up at his Hottest 100 ranking of #13 with "Gold Digger".
Proving you don't even have to be released as a single to break through, Pearl Jam net a #12 finish with the most popular non-single on their debut album, "Black". Just outside of the top 10 after a healthy run inside of it, The Stranglers take their memorable baroque pop hit "Golden Brown" to #11.
But those top 10 dropouts had to make way for something, so in the lucky zone we have The War On Drugs, who spent the last 3 rounds at #11, but finally now break through with "Red Eyes" to take the #10 spot. Sitting alongside them is the first song that was qualified into this game, Dido's still resonant "White Flag" at #9.
#7. Counting Crows feat. Vanessa Carlton - Big Yellow Taxi
Round by round: 54-24-16-13-07
Points - 227.88 Current Voters - 5 Top Vote - #2
But if we want to talk about mid 2000s tracks I didn't really expect to see up this high, here's a treat for you. The Drones have "Shark Fin Blues" which was once voted by Australian industry higher ups as the greatest Australian song of all time, and does remarkably well here to land at #8. The latter part of that can be said for Counting Crows, whose cover of "Big Yellow Taxi" started with a middling position, but proved to have more fans than I realised and climbed all the way up to #7.
At long last we have two songs representing the same colour in the same post, though it's hard to imagine a pair of songs that take a more radically different approach to it. At #6 we have Kendrick Lamar tackling race relations on "The Blacker The Berry", and at #5 is Alannah Myles' ode to Elvis Presley on her massive hit "Black Velvet".
Now I said there were surprises before, but they probably all pale in comparison to the fact that there is an abundant amount of fanfare for Groove Armada here, or at least enough to let me see them whine up to #4 with "Purple Haze", honestly I didn't even think this would have been the highest ranked song of that name going into this game. It does however sit a reasonable amount behind the top slots, so we finally move into the serious contenders for the top as #3 has our highest multi-colour representative, Sam Sparro's "Black and Gold".
But to finish off the proceedings, we had a head to head battle with two behemoth hits of the mid-80s. In the runner up position, as they were in all but one round, we have New Order, formed from the ashes of Joy Division and going in a wildly different direction with their music, which culminated in the highest selling 7" single of all time, "Blue Monday". Joy Division previously won the game last year with "Love Will Tear Us Apart", so had they gotten to the top here, it would substantially increase the amount of people who have won multiple QLVG titles, which as it stands includes just Drake, Q-Tip & Dave Grohl. We cannot add to that list just yet however, as it's another first time winner here, and it goes to the song that has been leading the race the entire time, "Purple Rain" by Prince & The Revolution.
As per usual, I thank all participants for being the lifeblood of this game. Coming up next week will be the round of only songs from years that end in '0'. The next qualifying game has been voted as Songs/Artists that start with the same letter, which can lead to all manner of variety in the roughly 1/26 of all music that it encompasses. In the meantime, the ACI is open for votes, and I hope you have a lovely weekend.
I am obviously very awake as I type this, this list of songs from years that end in '0'
3 Doors Down - Kryptonite A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It? Aaliyah - Try Again Afrojack feat. Eva Simons - Take Over Control Anastacia - I'm Outta Love At The Drive In - One Armed Scissor Black Sabbath - Paranoid Britney Spears - Lucky Cat Stevens - Father And Son Children Collide - My Eagle Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas Cold Chisel - Cheap Wine Creedence Clearwater Revival - Long As I Can See The Light Creedence Clearwater Revival - Who'll Stop The Rain Crystal Castles feat. Robert Smith - Not In Love David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes Deerhunter - Helicopter Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence Derek & The Dominos - Layla Destiny's Child - Independent Women Pt. 1 Destiny's Child - Say My Name Ed Sheeran - The A Team Elvis Presley - It's Now Or Never Eminem feat. Rihanna - Love The Way You Lie Faith No More - Epic Five For Fighting - Superman (Its Not Easy) Foals - Spanish Sahara Foo Fighters - Generator Free - All Right Now George Harrison - My Sweet Lord Goldfrapp - Lovely Head Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill Gypsy & The Cat - Jona Vark Heart - All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You James Taylor - Fire and Rain Jessica Mauboy feat. Jay Sean - What Happened To Us Jimmy Barnes - Lay Down Your Guns Johnny O'Keefe - She's My Baby Jon Bon Jovi - Blaze Of Glory Joy Division - Atmosphere Kanye West - POWER Kanye West feat. Pusha T - Runaway Katy Perry - Teenage Dream Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg - California Gurls Kylie Minogue - Spinning Around Lifehouse - Hanging By A Moment Lo-Tel - Teenager Of The Year Machine Gun Fellatio - Unsent Letter Madison Avenue - Who The Hell Are You? Madonna - Music Madonna - Vogue Matchbox Twenty - If You're Gone Melanie - Lay Down MGMT - Flash Delirium Miike Snow - Billie Holiday Motor Ace - Death Defy Motorhead - Ace Of Spades Operator Please - Logic Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Dance The Way I Feel OutKast - Ms. Jackson Pixies - Velouria Pretenders - Brass In Pocket Queen - Another One Bites The Dust Radiohead - How To Disappear Completely Radiohead - Idioteque Ratcat - That Ain't Bad Ray Charles - Georgia On My Mind Ride - Vapour Trail Rihanna feat. Drake - Whats My Name? Rocky Burnette - Tired Of Toein' The Line Roxette - It Must Have Been Love Samantha Mumba - Gotta Tell You Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U Sonic Youth - Kool Thing Spiller feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) Split Enz - I Got You Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster (Jammin') Stone Temple Pilots - Sour Girl Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime Tame Impala - Solitude Is Bliss The Avalanches - Since I Left You The Beatles - Let It Be The Charlatans - Then The Corrs - Breathless The Cure - A Forest The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You The Falling Joys - Lock It The Masters Apprentices - Turn Up Your Radio The National - Lemonworld The National - Terrible Love The Script - Nothing The Shadows - Apache The Shirelles - Will You Love Me Tomorrow They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul Tim Buckley - Song To The Siren Toni Braxton - He Wasn't Man Enough WALK THE MOON - Anna Sun Warpaint - Undertow You Am I - Damage
Stake your claim, in terms of songs to be voted for, by selecting your Top 25 to 40 picks from this lot and sending them in to me by 6pm on Wednesday.
#96. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Long As I Can See The Light
Points - 17 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #25
As I relish this being the second last time for 6 months that I have to have this all ready at 3pm, I present the opening results. With the blood of both the slave and the master, Operator Please take "Logic" to #100, the only song unable to register a vote. Following that is The Masters Apprentices with their highest charting single "Turn Up Your Radio" at #99, and then we go right back to 2010 for Children Collide's "My Eagle" at #98. The Corrs only UK #1 "Breathless" lands at #97 while CCR have the first of their 2nd entries here at #96, with "Long As I Can See The Light".
Representing the biggest gap on offer in this list, the next two songs are separated by half a century in age. Gypsy & The Cat with arguably the biggest single they put out in 2010, "Jona Vark", and The Shadows with one of the biggest songs of 1960, the instrumental "Apache" at #94. For a different kind of huge single, Derek & The Dominos' "Layla" bursts in at #93 in all of its grandeur. The script is flipped once more as Warpaint mellow things out with "Undertow" at #92, and then Jimmy Barnes has some relatively late career fire burning with "Lay Down Your Guns" at #91.
For a very late inclusion into this list, Rocky Burnette takes #90 with "Tired Of Toein' The Line". Then there's another huge timeline gap as Johnny O'Keefe's "She's My Baby" sits side by side with Deerhunter's "Helicopter" at #89 & #88. We keep up a pattern of having an Australian entry on every 2nd song as The Falling Joys' "Lock It" takes #87, and then MGMT have one of their most wild tracks ever, "Flash Delirium" at #86.
This last set of entries serves as a transition from hard rock to soft rock, Free's classic rock staple "All Right Now" starting things off at #85. WALK THE MOON's breakout single "Anna Sun" takes #84, and then it's a bad time for Clark Kent-related entities, as 3 Doors Down have "Kryptonite" at #83, sitting right next to the song which may well have been confused with it, Five For Fighting's "Superman (It's Not Easy)" at #82. Finishing it off, we kind of ruined the Australian pattern, but we do end on another one on an odd number no less, as Lo-Tel's 2000 hit "Teenager Of The Year" takes #81. Last edited:
You have 80 songs to continue into the next round and they are these 80 songs that I'm about to copy paste below this sentence.
A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It? Aaliyah - Try Again Afrojack feat. Eva Simons - Take Over Control Anastacia - I'm Outta Love At The Drive-In - One Armed Scissor Black Sabbath - Paranoid Britney Spears - Lucky Cat Stevens - Father And Son Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas Cold Chisel - Cheap Wine Creedence Clearwater Revival - Who'll Stop The Rain Crystal Castles feat. Robert Smith - Not In Love David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence Destiny's Child - Independent Women Pt. 1 Destiny's Child - Say My Name Ed Sheeran - The A Team Elvis Presley - It's Now Or Never Eminem feat. Rihanna - Love The Way You Lie Faith No More - Epic Foals - Spanish Sahara Foo Fighters - Generator George Harrison - My Sweet Lord Goldfrapp - Lovely Head Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill Heart - All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You James Taylor - Fire and Rain Jessica Mauboy feat. Jay Sean - What Happened To Us Jon Bon Jovi - Blaze Of Glory Joy Division - Atmosphere Kanye West - POWER Kanye West feat. Pusha T - Runaway Katy Perry - Teenage Dream Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg - California Gurls Kylie Minogue - Spinning Around Lifehouse - Hanging By A Moment Machine Gun Fellatio - Unsent Letter Madison Avenue - Who The Hell Are You? Madonna - Music Madonna - Vogue Matchbox Twenty - If You're Gone Melanie - Lay Down Miike Snow - Billie Holiday Motor Ace - Death Defy Motorhead - Ace Of Spades Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Dance The Way I Feel OutKast - Ms. Jackson Pixies - Velouria Pretenders - Brass In Pocket Queen - Another One Bites The Dust Radiohead - How To Disappear Completely Radiohead - Idioteque Ratcat - That Ain't Bad Ray Charles - Georgia On My Mind Ride - Vapour Trail Rihanna feat. Drake - What's My Name? Roxette - It Must Have Been Love Samantha Mumba - Gotta Tell You Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U Sonic Youth - Kool Thing Spiller feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) Split Enz - I Got You Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster (Jammin') Stone Temple Pilots - Sour Girl Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime Tame Impala - Solitude Is Bliss The Avalanches - Since I Left You The Beatles - Let It Be The Charlatans - Then The Cure - A Forest The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You The National - Lemonworld The National - Terrible Love The Script - Nothing The Shirelles - Will You Love Me Tomorrow They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul Tim Buckley - Song To The Siren Toni Braxton - He Wasn't Man Enough You Am I - Damage
Make an impression on how this will turn out by selecting your Top 20 to 32 picks from this lot and submitting it to me by 6pm on Friday. The qualifying game is going, and I remembered to post the ACI early for once this week so all is pretty chill right now.
Perhaps made more famous by This Mortal Coil, the original version of "Song To The Siren" by Tim Buckley kicks off this set at #80. Sticking with 1970, it's followed by perhaps James Taylor's most well known song "Fire and Rain" at #79, and they're still not along as there's also Melanie's "Lay Down" from the same year at #77. The other two entries are a bit more modern. The National with the opening track to their 2010 album, "Terrible Love" at #78, while Samantha Mumba has what is a big nostalgia hit for me in "Gotta Tell Me" at #76.
But the splash of 1970 & 2000 entries continues, this time leaning more on the latter side. We've got local rockers Motor Ace at #75 sitting side by side with the moderately more popular Foo Fighters with "Generator" at #74. Despite being written in 1962, The Chiffon's "He's So Fine" lands at #73, next to one of the first singles by The Charlatans, "Then" at #72. Lastly we return to the year 2000, with one of You Am I's last top 50 hits, "Damage" at #71.
#70. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Who'll Stop The Rain
Round by round: 56-70
Points - 66 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #12
#69. Sonic Youth - Kool Thing
Round by round: 60-69
Points - 67 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #12
#68. Elvis Presley - It's Now Or Never
Round by round: 59-68
Points - 67 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #10
#67. Eminem feat. Rihanna - Love The Way You Lie
Round by round: 41-67
Points - 69.4 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #18
#66. Tame Impala - Solitude Is Bliss
Round by round: 57-66
Points - 70 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #7
CCR finish their run here with yet another 1970 song as "Who'll Stop The Rain" takes #70, surely the most apt thing to happen today. In saying that, there is the fitting #69 landing for Sonic Youth's "Kool Thing". With one of his finest vocal performances, Elvis Presley's "It's Now Or Never" takes #68, which means in this very context, we can say that Eminem is the best thing since Elvis Presley as he's 1 spot higher at #67. Going back to their first album, Tame Impala take "Solitude Is Bliss" to #66.
#62. Crystal Castles feat. Robert Smith - Not In Love
Round by round: 63-62
Points - 76.6 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #8
#61. Jon Bon Jovi - Blaze Of Glory
Round by round: 51-61
Points - 77 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #7
Britney Spears had one of the biggest selling albums of the year 2000 with "Oops!...I Did It Again", and it's represented in this list just by the song "Lucky" that takes #65. Something of a surprise performer their first time in QLVG, 2 years later The Shirelles have more modest landings with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" at #64. Ride were lucky to make it through to this round at all but they nearly snuck into the next round as well, with "Vapour Trail" climbing to #63. There's some Cure somewhere later on this list, but Robert Smith strikes out on his own, alongside Crystal Castles at #62 with "Not In Love", while just missing out at #61 is Jon Bon Jovi with the only song he's written to be an Australian #1 single "Blaze Of Glory".
And the 60 songs that have been spared these past two eliminations are these 60 songs
A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It? Aaliyah - Try Again Afrojack feat. Eva Simons - Take Over Control Anastacia - I'm Outta Love At The Drive-In - One Armed Scissor Black Sabbath - Paranoid Cat Stevens - Father And Son Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas Cold Chisel - Cheap Wine David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence Destiny's Child - Independent Women Pt. 1 Destiny's Child - Say My Name Ed Sheeran - The A Team Faith No More - Epic Foals - Spanish Sahara Goldfrapp - Lovely Head Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill Heart - All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You Jessica Mauboy feat. Jay Sean - What Happened To Us Joy Division - Atmosphere Kanye West - POWER Kanye West feat. Pusha T - Runaway Katy Perry - Teenage Dream Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg - California Gurls Kylie Minogue - Spinning Around Lifehouse - Hanging By A Moment Machine Gun Fellatio - Unsent Letter Madison Avenue - Who The Hell Are You? Madonna - Music Madonna - Vogue Matchbox Twenty - If You're Gone Miike Snow - Billie Holiday Motorhead - Ace Of Spades Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Dance The Way I Feel OutKast - Ms. Jackson Pixies - Velouria Pretenders - Brass In Pocket Queen - Another One Bites The Dust Radiohead - How To Disappear Completely Radiohead - Idioteque Ratcat - That Ain't Bad Ray Charles - Georgia On My Mind Rihanna feat. Drake - What's My Name? Roxette - It Must Have Been Love Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U Spiller feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) Split Enz - I Got You Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster (Jammin') Stone Temple Pilots - Sour Girl Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime The Avalanches - Since I Left You The Beatles - Let It Be The Cure - A Forest The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You The National - Lemonworld The Script - Nothing They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul Toni Braxton - He Wasn't Man Enough
Who knows how the rest of this can unfold? Not even me really because the list has already proven pretty volatile just in this 2nd round. The best way to solidify positions for your favourites would be to submit your Top 15 to 24 selections to me by 6pm on Monday AEST, that's right, I can comfortably sleep in an hour longer on these days from now on which is the most important thing. But apart from that, we can always use more qualifying votes, the ACI is open, and I hope you have a safe and enjoyable Easter weekend, which for some of you gets to be an hour longer than usual.
Starting things off is close to the newest song in the entire list, just by virtue of being released on a 2010 album in the latter half of the year, The Script coming in at #60 with "Nothing". The release dates are relatively spread out in this set as the only double up is the back to back of 2000 tracks at #59 & #58 with Stone Temple Pilots & Machine Gun Fellatio. Pretenders take us back to the start of the 1980s with their sole UK #1 hit "Brass In Pocket" at #57, while for Heart they had their only AU #1 hit with "All I Want To Do Is Make Love To You", which finds itself at #56.
For just the space of the 2nd round, it could be said that we were falling even more in love with Lifehouse, though "Hanging By A Moment" winds up at #55. Sitting next to it is the oldest song on the list, as we go 57 years back in time for Ray Charles' "Georgia On My Mind". Goldfrapp have their slightly more recent debut album's opening track "Lovely Head" at #53. A fun discovery for me in this game was the Pixies' "Velouria" at #52, while the more familiar Madison Avenue and their #1 hit "Who The Hell Are You?" takes #51.
Inventors of shoegaze [citation needed], Ratcat have their huge Aus #1 track "That Ain't Bad" kick off the top half at #50. Stevie Wonder's "Master Blaster" takes #49, though has consolation as the preferred reggae track about jammin' according to people who read my Twitter feed https://twitter.com/LOOFRunDry/status/979338862139813890 A popular catalogue seller of late, Cat Stevens' "Father and Son" is in at #48, while Miike Snow's "Billie Holiday" ascends from bonus track obscurity to #47 finish. We finish this post with the hard rock classic from Motorhead that re-entered the UK charts 2 years ago after Lemmy passed away, "Ace Of Spades" at #46.
#44. Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg - California Gurls
Round by round: 54-42-44
Points - 128.3 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #11
#43. Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Round by round: 47-33-43
Points - 129.9 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #7
#42. Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence
Round by round: 50-41-42
Points - 131.4 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #5
#41. Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
Round by round: 34-48-41
Points - 133.45 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #5
Yes you can...find A Tribe Called Quest at #45 with the hip hop classic "Can I Kick It?". 2010 was a big year for Katy Perry but she's quite unlucky here to lose two tracks just before the elimination cut off, "California Gurls" at #44, and the following single "Teenage Dream" at #41. Sitting in the middle is Simon & Garfunkel's ever enduring "Bridge Over Troubled Water" at #43, while Depeche Mode had one of the most acclaimed albums of 1990 with "Violator", notably containing the song "Enjoy The Silence" which takes #42.
Here's the 40 songs that have proceeded beyond the eliminated ones, so take your anger out on them and not me, who merely counts them
Aaliyah - Try Again Afrojack feat. Eva Simons - Take Over Control Anastacia - I'm Outta Love At The Drive-In - One Armed Scissor Black Sabbath - Paranoid Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas Cold Chisel - Cheap Wine David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes Destiny's Child - Independent Women Pt. 1 Destiny's Child - Say My Name Ed Sheeran - The A Team Faith No More - Epic Foals - Spanish Sahara Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill Jessica Mauboy feat. Jay Sean - What Happened To Us Joy Division - Atmosphere Kanye West - POWER Kanye West feat. Pusha T - Runaway Kylie Minogue - Spinning Around Madonna - Music Madonna - Vogue Matchbox Twenty - If You're Gone Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Dance The Way I Feel OutKast - Ms. Jackson Queen - Another One Bites The Dust Radiohead - How To Disappear Completely Radiohead - Idioteque Rihanna feat. Drake - What's My Name? Roxette - It Must Have Been Love Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U Spiller feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) Split Enz - I Got You Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime The Avalanches - Since I Left You The Beatles - Let It Be The Cure - A Forest The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You The National - Lemonworld They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul Toni Braxton - He Wasn't Man Enough
Your duty for the surviving songs that you haven't yet disowned is to determine your Top 10 to 16 tracks and submit those selections to me by 6pm AEST on Wednesday. I also have a new voting poll I'd be happy to see you vote in https://www.strawpoll.me/15415447
Starting with the newest as we have cuts from two of the most acclaimed albums of 2010. Kanye West's "POWER" at #40 and the The National at #39 with "Lemonworld". Following that is one of the first #1 hits of the '80s with Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust" at #38, while The Avalanches have the title track to their first album "Since I Left You" at #37. In the increasingly limited set of the oldest songs left from 1970, we've got Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" at #36.
#35. They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul
Round by round: 15-40-37-35
Points - 149.10 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #8
#34. Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime
Round by round: 151.50 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #2
#33. At The Drive-In - One Armed Scissor
Round by round: 12-31-31-33
Points - 155.63 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #3
#32. Jessica Mauboy feat. Jay Sean - What Happened To Us
Round by round: 21-29-26-32
Points - 156.19 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #1
#31. Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill
Round by round: 16-21-22-31
Points - 157.06 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #7
Watching over you at #35 are They Might Be Giants with "Birdhouse In Your Soul". And you might ask yourself, where will Talking Heads land in this newest game with their song "Once In A Lifetime", and as the eliminations go by, we finally reach it at #34. But if you think that I will cut away from the allure of bad puns, then I regret to inform you that said station is very operational, and At The Drive-In are at #33 with "One Armed Scissor". With her highest entry in quite some time, Jessica Mauboy has "What Happened To Us" at #32, sitting next to another 2010 cohort from Gorillaz's 3rd album, as "On Melancholy Hill" takes #31.
Radiohead have been doing well so far with two tracks from their "Kid A" album, but now in one fell swoop, they're both out, as "How To Disappear Completely" takes #30 and "Idioteque" takes #27. To stay in the year 2000 just a little longer we have Madonna's "Music" at #29. Also back for a 2nd time tonight is Kanye West, once again from "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" with one of the biggest singles "Runaway" at #28. For a second #1 hit in this set, we've got the 2nd of Roxette's 3 #1 hits, "It Must Have Been Love" coming through at #26.
A US and UK #1 hit for Rihanna & Drake, though oddly enough only reaching #18 over here, "What's My Name?" takes #25 here as one of two very big improvers this round from songs that just made it through this round. The other one is Joy Division's "Atmosphere" which sailed from #40 last round to #22 this round, just part of its hefty ascent after nearly being eliminated in the first round. Cold Chisel's 2 day growth amounts to moving up 1 spot to #24 with one of their biggest hits "Cheap Wine". Foals have one of their least conventional, yet most popular singles, "Spanish Sahara" taking #23, while Madonna joins the league of Kanye West & Radiohead by having had 2 entries in this game that both left in round 4. "Vogue" is particularly unlucky after its potential top 10 berth turns into a #21 finish.
This brings us to the final 20 songs which have made it all the way to the final round:
Aaliyah - Try Again Afrojack feat. Eva Simons - Take Over Control Anastacia - I'm Outta Love Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes Destiny's Child - Independent Women Pt. 1 Destiny's Child - Say My Name Ed Sheeran - The A Team Faith No More - Epic Kylie Minogue - Spinning Around Matchbox Twenty - If You're Gone Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Dance The Way I Feel OutKast - Ms. Jackson Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U Spiller feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) Split Enz - I Got You The Beatles - Let It Be The Cure - A Forest The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You Toni Braxton - He Wasn't Man Enough
Who will be crowned victorious? Only you, the reader, and the remnants of you, the readers and voters of the previous round can decide. You just need to select your Top 5 to 8 choices and submit them to me by 6pm on Friday. The ACI is also open, and I will always be happy to see more votes in this poll https://www.strawpoll.me/15415447
#20. Afrojack feat. Eva Simons - Take Over Control
Round by round: 29-20-15-07-20
Points - 119.51 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #7
#19. Kylie Minogue - Spinning Around
Round by round: 20-06-10-04-19
Points - 185.23 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #5
Sometimes in this game we have quite a wide gap in this large round, like that one time that Lorde demolished everything. In stark contrast to that round, we've got a gap of just a little over 100 points between #19 and #1. Sitting outside of this conversation is Afrojack who I suppose is lucky to have been in this round but couldn't find much support for "Take Over Control". It sits alongside a slightly more consistent song if only because it has stood in the top 20 each round. On this, the day of Kylie Minogue's new album release, we've got "Spinning Around" at #19.
Back to back #1 hits from 2000 now as we follow Kylie with Anastacia and one of the absolute biggest hits of the year, "I'm Outta Love" at #18. For a different realm of the music world, though surprisingly the happier one in this sense, we've got Cocteau Twins and the ever-so-lush "Heaven Or Las Vegas" at #17.
The run of having a #1 hit in each post continues as we now go back to 1980 for Split Enz's biggest hit "I Got You" which has a bit of a dip from its start to land at #16, which means it sits next to another song that spent the first 3 rounds in the top 10, The Dandy Warhols with "Bohemian Like You".
Destiny's Child truly are independent women as they're the only artist with the honour of appearing twice in this top 20. The first of these is "Independent Women, Pt. 1" at #14. We also continue the #1 streak some more as the last 1970 track ends up at #13, The Beatles with one of their last hit singles, "Let It Be".
I regret to say that the run of #1 hits in posts were due to end because we only have 4 left in the running. We do get another set of vintage alternative rock next to turn of the century R&B/Pop though, this time around it's The Cure with the lengthy & brooding "A Forest" at #12, sitting just outside the top 10 alongside a big hit for Toni Braxton a little while after her career peak, with "He Wasn't Man Enough" at #11.
Ed Sheeran had big breakout success with his #2 hit "The A Team", speaking of which, Reece Mastin released a new EP today, but in terms of enduring popularity, Ed has well and truly had the last laugh and also does well here with "The A Team" at #10, his 2nd top 10 berth in this year of QLVG. Sitting next to it is a song that hit #1 on the ARIA Charts, a fact that still feels so strange to me, but hats off to Faith No More and "Epic" with its #9 finish.
#7. Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Dance The Way I Feel
Round by round: 40-12-11-16-07
Points - 219.51 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #3
After a middling start, Matchbox Twenty have somewhat surpassed expectations which sees "If You're Gone" rocketing all the way up to #8. It sits next to the last 2010 song in the contest, with Ou Est Le Swimming Pool's breakout hit "Dance The Way I Feel" at #7, which became their only major hit as their lead singer committed suicide while the song was in the charts.
#5. Spiller feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)
Round by round: 22-19-17-09-05
Points - 229.23 Current Voters - 3 TOp Vote - #7
Back to back 2000 megahits! Firstly Destiny's Child return with their top entry which is naturally their biggest hit "Say My Name" at #10, and it sits alongside another #1 hit in Spiller's "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)", the song with the distinction of being the first song ever played on an iPod.
Oh, that wasn't enough of the year 2000 for you? Here's two more helpings of it. Speaking of songs with famous distinctions, Aaliyah has a peculiar one as "Try Again" hit #1 in the US based solely on airplay, in an era where CD Singles weren't quite as prevalent and downloads were years away. In fact we've just swapped from AU #1's to US #1's as there's another US #1 in OutKast's "Ms. Jackson", the first of their 3 songs to hit #1 there, and an early leader in this game thanks to a wide variety of fans.
Really this would be an appropriate time to subvert the standard pattern of posting because this was basically a 3 horse race the entire way. Here though, it comes down to the work of two of the biggest obituaries in music for 2016. In the runner up slot we've got David Bowie who moved into the 1980s with style on his "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)" album, with its lead single "Ashes To Ashes". The winning song was possibly what you've been expecting though, and quite a noteworthy case in QLVG history as the closest we've gotten to a back to back win. Prince of course won the last game with "Purple Rain", and now he's back again behind the scenes having originally written & recorded "Nothing Compares 2 U", which is extremely obvious if you're familiar with Prince song titles. Of course it was Sinead O'Connor who made the song famous, and one of the biggest songs of 1990 which instantly resonated with the public and shot up to the top of the charts. This is the 3rd time the song has been featured, and in both those instances it was entrenched at the top of the list (though once it did crash out of the top 10 in the last round), similar to how it was with "Purple Rain". But now it retires and we take another huge song out of rotation.
Thank you for contributing to this game as your votes have brought the game to where it is at this very moment. There's no stopping this train though as next week on Monday we'll be heading to a new game concerning artists & songs who start with the same letter, which at the very least should look visually appealing.
With thanks to those who vote on the poll, we once again do not have a tie so I need to think of 5 more poll choices for next week (unless someone wants to suggest some of course), but the qualifying game for Tuesday will be non-top 50 hits (referring to Australia's charts of course), so maybe we'll have a more obscure winning song, or perhaps a very popular winning song that's just eligible on technicality. We'll find out in 4 weeks I suppose. Until then, the ACI is open, and I hope you have a good weekend.
This was a fun one to pull up songs for. The new round concerns songs that begin with the same letter as the artist who recorded them! Whether by accident or design, we've actually used an impressive 22 unique letters of the alphabet for this. If someone had nominated "Viceroy", "X" or "Quick And To The Pointless" we could have had 25. Don't ask me what to use for the letter Z Nonetheless, we've got a big mix of landmark songs outright, or songs by artists who are popular enough here to warrant slightly deeper cuts. Just for this game, I've modified my formatting on the artist names, taking 'The' away from the front which I think looks nicer on this list.
Adele - All I Ask Alex Lloyd - Amazing Art vs. Science - A.I.M Fire! Ash - A Life Less Ordinary Bachelor Girl - Buses And Trains Beastie Boys - Brass Monkey Beck - Beercan Ben Folds Five - Brick Bette Midler - Beast Of Burden Beyonce - Best Thing I've Never Had Big Scary - Belgian Blues Bjork - Bachelorette Bloc Party - Banquet Bluejuice - Broken Leg Blur - Beetlebum Bob Dylan - Blowin' In The Wind Bomb The Bass feat. Justin Warfield - Bug Powder Dust Bon Iver - Blood Bank Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe Cat Power - Cross Bones Style Chainsmokers, The feat. Halsey - Closer Chairlift - Ch-Ching Chet Faker - Cigarettes and Loneliness Christina Aguilera - Candyman Coldplay - Clocks Common Linnets, The - Calm After The Storm Cordrazine - Crazy Crowded House - Chocolate Cake Cure, The - Charlotte Sometimes Cure, The - Close To Me Dawin - Dessert Deerhunter - Desire Lines Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome - Dance Wiv Me Django Django - Default DMA's - Delete Elle King - Ex's & Oh's Everything Is Recorded feat. Sampha & Owen Pallett - Everything Is Recorded First Aid Kit - Fireworks Gnarls Barkley - Gone Daddy Gone Go! Team, The - Get It Together Good Charlotte - Girls and Boys Green Day - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) Grimes - Genesis Hollies, The - He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother Housemartins, The - Happy Hour Huey Lewis and The News - Hip To Be Square Ice Cube - It Was A Good Day Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX - I Love It Imagine Dragons - It's Time INXS - I Send A Message John Lennon - (Just Like) Starting Over Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta Lana Del Rey feat. The Weeknd - Lust For Life LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge LeAnn Rimes - Life Goes On Lene Lovich - Lucky Number Live - Lightning Crashes M2M - Mirror Mirror M83 - Midnight City Mariah Carey - My All Marina and the Diamonds - Mowgli's Road Merril Bainbridge - Mouth Metallica - Master Of Puppets Middle Kids - Mistake Miranda Lambert - Mama's Broken Heart Muse - Muscle Museum My Chemical Romance - Mama Nas - N.Y. State of Mind Owl Eyes - Open Up Pendulum - Propane Nightmares Public Image Ltd. - Public Image R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe Regina Spektor - Real Love Republica - Ready To Go Rihanna - Russian Roulette Samantha Jade - Soldier Semisonic - Secret Smile Shins, The - Simple Song Sia - Soon We'll Be Found Sia - Stop Trying Siouxsie and The Banshees - Spellbound Spice Girls - Say You'll Be There Stevie Wonder - Superstition Sugababes - Stronger Susanne Sundfør - Slowly Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) Tame Impala - The Less I Know The Better Temper Trap, The - Trembling Hands The The - This Is The Day Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town Thirsty Merc - Tommy And Krista Ting Tings, The - That's Not My Name Underworld - Underneath The Radar Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Ur Life One Night Weeknd, The - Wicked Games Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go Who, The - Won't Get Fooled Again Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control
As per usual, you get to decide how this goes about. You've got until 6pm Wednesday to memo to me with your Top 25 to 40 selections on this list.
Update: things haven't improved yet so I'll delay the end of this round to Monday 6pm, though depending on how things turn out, it could take longer. Qualifying thread will persist as is.
Hey, good news, I believe they are, so I'll do my best to have this round's results on Monday, and that round will last until Friday, so we'll be on the usual schedule, just a week behind.
It's finally here. Rumour has it that my cursed system of rearranging 'The' bands caused my computer to malfunction in protest. I shall stick by my guns however. I'm sorry for keeping you waiting. Now we have the results that have not changed at all since Wednesday last week. There are no ties in the whole set, but we do have one non-scorer and it's from the Beastie Boys. It's "Brass Monkey" from their classic debut album "Licenced To Ill". Into the scoring territory, Semisonic have one of their better known songs that aren't "Closing Time" with "Secret Smile" at #99. Art vs. Science started their career off quickly with 4 consecutive years of Hottest 100 appearances, that ended with "A.I.M. Fire!" in 2011, which comes here at #98. Ash appear at #97 with "A Life Less Ordinary", a single that never made it onto a studio album. Lastly at #96 is The Who with their well known song by a not so obvious name, "Won't Get Fooled Again".
I believe we have Violent Femmes going into the next QLVG but for the time being we have a preview via Gnarls Barkley doing a cover of their song "Gone Daddy Gone" at #95. This is a very modern set but we break that up briefly with Huey Lewis & The News's "Hip To Be Square" at #94. Unknown Mortal Orchestra just released a new album, but we go back to their previous album for a strong highlight in "Ur Life One Night" at #93. We do go to the newest stuff at #91 as we have "Fireworks" from First Aid Kit's newest album they released in January this year. In between them we have the famed ambient band from Perth [citation needed] Pendulum, with their monster banger "Propane Nightmares" at #92.
#88. Lana Del Rey feat. The Weeknd - Lust For Life
Points - 31 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #25
#87. Bette Midler - Beast Of Burden
Points - 32 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #9
#86. Everything Is Recorded feat. Sampha & Owen Pallett - Everything Is Recorded
Points - 34 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #14
Featuring the Liza Minnelli, My Chemical Romance come at #90 with "Mama". At #89 is Ice Cube and his classic ode to a mysterious good day that was possibly January 20th 1992 though Ice Cube disputes this. Lana Del Rey delivers an ode to her favourite member of Migos with "Lust For Life" at #88, while at #87 is Bette Midler striking fear into would-be litterers with her cover of The Rolling Stones' "Beast Of Burden" at #87. Lastly at #86 we have an odd entity here as Everything Is Recorded is a moniker for the boss of XL Recordings and thus responsible for signing the likes of Adele. It's also a bizarre entity here because it's a self-titled song, although if you listen to it, Sampha doesn't actually say the title exactly, so this surely wasn't as planned as it might otherwise seem.
At #85 we have the original English version of "Despacito" [citation needed], as Susanne Sundfør provides another emotional pop banger in "Slowly". On a completely different spectrum of things, we have Beck with what is surprisingly his highest ever Hottest 100 ranking song (tied with "Devils Haircut", the much less obvious pick of "Beercan" at #84. At #83 we've got a runner up Eurovision entry from the Netherlands with the folksy "Calm After The Storm", while we finish things off with a pair of eccentric performers, firstly Siouxsie and the Banshees with "Spellbound" at #82, and then Lene Lovich's #2 peaking hit "Lucky Number" at #81.
It's taken a week, but we've brought it down to 80 songs now
Adele - All I Ask Alex Lloyd - Amazing Bachelor Girl - Buses And Trains Ben Folds Five - Brick Beyonce - Best Thing I've Never Had Big Scary - Belgian Blues Bjork - Bachelorette Bloc Party - Banquet Bluejuice - Broken Leg Blur - Beetlebum Bob Dylan - Blowin' In The Wind Bomb The Bass feat. Justin Warfield - Bug Powder Dust Bon Iver - Blood Bank Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe Cat Power - Cross Bones Style Chainsmokers, The feat. Halsey - Closer Chairlift - Ch-Ching Chet Faker - Cigarettes and Loneliness Christina Aguilera - Candyman Coldplay - Clocks Cordrazine - Crazy Crowded House - Chocolate Cake Cure, The - Charlotte Sometimes Cure, The - Close To Me Dawin - Dessert Deerhunter - Desire Lines Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome - Dance Wiv Me Django Django - Default DMA's - Delete Elle King - Ex's & Oh's Go! Team, The - Get It Together Good Charlotte - Girls and Boys Green Day - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) Grimes - Genesis Hollies, The - He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother Housemartins, The - Happy Hour Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX - I Love It Imagine Dragons - It's Time INXS - I Send A Message John Lennon - (Just Like) Starting Over Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge LeAnn Rimes - Life Goes On Live - Lightning Crashes M2M - Mirror Mirror M83 - Midnight City Mariah Carey - My All Marina and the Diamonds - Mowgli's Road Merril Bainbridge - Mouth Metallica - Master Of Puppets Middle Kids - Mistake Miranda Lambert - Mama's Broken Heart Muse - Muscle Museum Nas - N.Y. State of Mind Owl Eyes - Open Up Public Image Ltd. - Public Image R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe Regina Spektor - Real Love Republica - Ready To Go Rihanna - Russian Roulette Samantha Jade - Soldier Shins, The - Simple Song Sia - Soon We'll Be Found Sia - Stop Trying Spice Girls - Say You'll Be There Stevie Wonder - Superstition Sugababes - Stronger Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) Tame Impala - The Less I Know The Better Temper Trap, The - Trembling Hands The The - This Is The Day Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town Thirsty Merc - Tommy And Krista Ting Tings, The - That's Not My Name Underworld - Underneath The Radar Weeknd, The - Wicked Games Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control
I will try not to let it keep up this pace, but I will have to make for another slow round just so we get back on schedule (and also it's my semester break and I'd like to preserve that). So know that you have until 6pm on Friday to submit your Top 20 to 32 choices, and I will try to ready the ACI between now and then.
I open by presenting a curious fact. After their first two albums, Thirsty Merc had a bit of trouble capitalising on more than one hit single per album, although curiously they got their only New Zealand top 10 hit on their 3rd album with "Tommy and Krista", which is actually now by far their most played song on Spotify worldwide. It's in at #80 on this list. On a grander scale of success, we have John Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over" at #79, which was part of his set of 3 consecutive posthumous #1 singles in the UK following his assassination. The Ting Tings had a UK #1 of their own in "That's Not Their Name", which puts them as somewhat of an oddity of artists whose very first time in the UK Charts was at the #1 position, but then who isn't weird in that group of artists? We diversify things here with yet another decade as Bomb The Bass's '90s hit "Bug Powder Dust" comes at #77, and then we've got the very niche lettering choice from Yeah Yeah Yeahs and their tightly packed post punk revivalism in "Y Control" at #76.
I open by presenting a curious fact. After their first two albums, Thirsty Merc had a bit of trouble capitalising on more than one hit single per album, although curiously they got their only New Zealand top 10 hit on their 3rd album with "Tommy and Krista", which is actually now by far their most played song on Spotify worldwide. It's in at #80 on this list. On a grander scale of success, we have John Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over" at #79, which was part of his set of 3 consecutive posthumous #1 singles in the UK following his assassination. The Ting Tings had a UK #1 of their own in "That's Not Their Name", which puts them as somewhat of an oddity of artists whose very first time in the UK Charts was at the #1 position, but then who isn't weird in that group of artists? We diversify things here with yet another decade as Bomb The Bass's '90s hit "Bug Powder Dust" comes at #77, and then we've got the very niche lettering choice from Yeah Yeah Yeahs and their tightly packed post punk revivalism in "Y Control" at #76.
#75. Housemartins, The - Happy Hour
Round by round: 79-75
Points - 47 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #15
#74. Public Image Ltd. - Public Image
Round by round: 76-74
Points - 48 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #10
#73. Crowded House - Chocolate Cake
Round by round: 70-73
Points - 50.2 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #10
#72. Dawin - Dessert
Round by round: 65-72
Points - 50.8 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #11
#71. Chet Faker - Cigarettes and Loneliness
Round by round: 73-71
Points - 52 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #7
With their biggest self-penned hit, The Housemartins land here at #75 with "Happy Hour". From a similar era we've got another self-titled-ish song, this one much more conceivable as it was the first song released by John Lydon's other group Public Image Ltd, and they're here at #74 with "Public Image". For a relatively modern entry, we then go to Crowded House's "Chocolate Cake" from their classic "Woodface" album at #73. Baffling top 10 hit "Dessert" takes the #72 while Chet Faker finishes off this set with the potentially dangerous mix of "Cigarettes and Loneliness" at #71, the longest track on "Built On Glass".
Fresh from annihilating the universe at Coachella last weekend, Beyonce lands here at #70 with "Best Thing I Never Had". At the very nice position of #69 is M2M with the follow up to their biggest hit, "Mirror Mirror". INXS themselves have one of their most enduring hits "I Send A Message" at #68, while Bjork has the 2nd single from her very acclaimed "Homogenic" album, "Bachelorette" at #67. Lastly we have the lesser known of the two Cure songs in the mix of this game, "Charlotte Sometimes" taking #66.
Released in 2016 but still sitting on the ARIA Chart as recent as a week ago, The Chainsmokers have their biggest hit "Closer" at #65 here. We had a John Lennon song earlier tonight but he effectively doubles up as he also originally wrote "Real Love" before being re-recorded with the remaining Beatles, and then another decade later, covered by Regina Spektor, which is here at #64. It is an unfortunate truth that Blur did not reverse the ordering of their similarly titled song because it would be perfect here to go up against Good Charlotte, who win that duel by default by having their "Girls and Boys" follow the rules at #63. A song that may have you wondering where a general keeps his armies and if wondering 'can a match box?', The Go! Team make a nonsense of aesthetically pleasing grammar in this context, but land at #62 with "Get It Together". This round closes with the first of 2 Sia entries here, both mid-career era at that, which starts off with the very upbeat "Stop Trying" at #61.
It's been a long two weeks but I can finally present...your top 60
Adele - All I Ask Alex Lloyd - Amazing Bachelor Girl - Buses And Trains Ben Folds Five - Brick Big Scary - Belgian Blues Bloc Party - Banquet Bluejuice - Broken Leg Blur - Beetlebum Bob Dylan - Blowin' In The Wind Bon Iver - Blood Bank Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe Cat Power - Cross Bones Style Chairlift - Ch-Ching Christina Aguilera - Candyman Coldplay - Clocks Cordrazine - Crazy Cure, The - Close To Me Deerhunter - Desire Lines Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome - Dance Wiv Me Django Django - Default DMA's - Delete Elle King - Ex's & Oh's Green Day - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) Grimes - Genesis Hollies, The - He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX - I Love It Imagine Dragons - It's Time Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge LeAnn Rimes - Life Goes On Live - Lightning Crashes M83 - Midnight City Mariah Carey - My All Marina and the Diamonds - Mowgli's Road Merril Bainbridge - Mouth Metallica - Master Of Puppets Middle Kids - Mistake Miranda Lambert - Mama's Broken Heart Muse - Muscle Museum Nas - N.Y. State of Mind Owl Eyes - Open Up R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe Republica - Ready To Go Rihanna - Russian Roulette Samantha Jade - Soldier Shins, The - Simple Song Sia - Soon We'll Be Found Spice Girls - Say You'll Be There Stevie Wonder - Superstition Sugababes - Stronger Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) Tame Impala - The Less I Know The Better Temper Trap, The - Trembling Hands The The - This Is The Day Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town Underworld - Underneath The Radar Weeknd, The - Wicked Games Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
But here's the great news. Barring any unexpected circumstances, we're back on schedule, and I'll have the next round on the wildly rapid pace of 3 days from now, after 6pm on Monday which is when I'll need your Top 15 to 24 selections voted in by. The ACI is also ready to take votes in that's a thing, but enjoy your weekend, and I have a 100+ hour novel to finish off.
Straight from the dungeons of rap, today's proceedings begin with Nas's eternally classic debut "Illmatic" and the song "N.Y. State Of Mind" at #60. Following that is The Shins with what was their first new single in about 5 years at the time, "Simple Song" at #59. Following on from the legacy of Dana Lyons, Big Scary make a bad cow pun with "Belgian Blues" at #58. Speaking of the 1997 Hottest 100, we've got Cordrazine at #57 with their song I perhaps will be known to speak highly of, "Crazy". Lastly we break up this mellow Australian indie rock section via a very different approach to music with Miranda Lambert's "Mama's Broken Heart" at #56.
#52. Hollies, The - He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
Round by round: 49-51-52
Points - 88.75 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #5
#51. Mariah Carey - My All
Round by round: 51-50-51
Points - 92 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #1
LCD Soundsystem are not messing around when their first single tackles the existentialism of an aged music enthusiast, with "Losing My Edge" at #55 here. Proving very consistent in the rankings is Samantha Jade who gets "Soldier" to start, continue & end at #54. Speaking of artists who've had a stint of Australian reality TV singing contests, she's followed at #53 by Owl Eyes whose song "Open Up" turned 5 years old in the midst of this game, I can only hope a follow up is not far. Things get much less modern at #52 as The Hollies have "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" at #52, while Mariah Carey finishes off the first half with one of her many US #1 hits, and one of her finest vocal performances on "My All" at #51.
#46. Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
Round by round: 40-42-46
Points - 104.75 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #1
After an early elimination in the previous game with "Helicopter", Deerhunter return via the same album, but this time a respectable finish of #50 with "Desire Lines". Following that is my bizarre introduction to Marina and the Diamonds, "Mowgli's Road" at #49. To oppose introductions, we instead have goodbyes as Chairlift led their final album with "Ch-Ching" at #48. But then we're back to introductions as R.E.M. have the first song on their first album, and yet one of their absolute greatest all the same, "Radio Free Europe" at #47. Talking Heads finish things off with one of their most famous singles "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" at #46. Last edited:
Weird Twitter's favourite song, which is of course "The Boys Are Back In Town" rears its head in at #45. We go back to Cat Power's early career with the highly acclaimed "Cross Bones Style" at #44. Bon Iver have the bizarre statistic of having just 1 UK top 40 hit and it being "Blood Bank", which lands at #43. With her last top 10 single that I briefly thought was co-written & produced by Destiny's Child, LeAnn Rimes surpasses my expectations and takes #42 with "Life Goes On". Lastly we have Muse who enter this round almost by default as the title "Muscle Museum" is derived from words either side of 'muse' in the dictionary. By less than a single point, they miss the next round and take #41.
This leaves just 40 songs with the peculiar common thread of starting with the same letter as their respective artists
Adele - All I Ask Alex Lloyd - Amazing Bachelor Girl - Buses And Trains Ben Folds Five - Brick Bloc Party - Banquet Bluejuice - Broken Leg Blur - Beetlebum Bob Dylan - Blowin' In The Wind Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe Christina Aguilera - Candyman Coldplay - Clocks Cure, The - Close To Me Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome - Dance Wiv Me Django Django - Default DMA's - Delete Elle King - Ex's & Oh's Green Day - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) Grimes - Genesis Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX - I Love It Imagine Dragons - It's Time Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta Live - Lightning Crashes M83 - Midnight City Merril Bainbridge - Mouth Metallica - Master Of Puppets Middle Kids - Mistake Republica - Ready To Go Rihanna - Russian Roulette Sia - Soon We'll Be Found Spice Girls - Say You'll Be There Stevie Wonder - Superstition Sugababes - Stronger Tame Impala - The Less I Know The Better Temper Trap, The - Trembling Hands The The - This Is The Day Underworld - Underneath The Radar Weeknd, The - Wicked Games Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
There's one more elimination to go down before the final round, where half of this lot will not make it through. Do your best to ensure it works in your favour by voting your Top 10 to 16 selections from here and sending them to me by 6pm on Wednesday.
Starting off the top 40, Adele goes rather well with an album track, as from "25" we have "All I Ask" landing at #40. Rihanna gets especially true to alliterations as "Russian Roulette" is in at #39, while Australia's 2nd favourite automobile advertisement anthem, "Amazing" by Alex Lloyd takes #38. Breaking up this section of 21st century tracks is Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" at #37, while Imagine Dragons have their breakout hit "It's Time" finish at #36.
In timely fashion, we have current triple j feature artists DMA's with their breakout single "Delete" at #35. Bob Dylan lands in his usual region on this list, this time with "Blowin' In The Wind" at #34. The Weeknd performed at Coachella a couple weeks back, and even performed several "House Of Balloons" cuts such as "Wicked Games" which the audience was not having at all. We however have more respect for the vintage as it lands at #33. To be actually vintage, we go back to the early '80s with the band who exist purely to troll consistency in this list, The The have "This Is The Day" at #32. Lastly, Grimes has the ethereal "Genesis" at #31.
A rare case of an Alternative Songs #1 hit performed by a solo woman, Elle King's "Ex's & Oh's" finds favour at #30 here. Spice Girls have a handy boost with "Say You'll Be There" which has been on the cusp of elimination a few times now, but soars to #29. Also on the way up is Metallica's "Master Of Puppets" at #28. Sitting surprisingly high up amongst many huge named artists, is the much more humble presence of Australia's "Middle Kids", still yet to release their debut album which will feature "Mistake", which lands at #27. Then there's the even more obscure band Coldplay, with a deep cut called "Clocks" at #26.
Another lucky jumper, Sugababes shoot up to #25 with their moving ballad "Stronger". Ultimate Chad band Live have a similarly brittle moment with "Lightning Crashes" at #24, while Bruce Springsteen has one of his two famous 'Born' tracks, both of which feature in this list, starting with "Born In The U.S.A." at #23. A difficult piece of trivia is being able to name both of Blur's UK #1 singles, partly because one of them is the not at all obvious "Beetlebum" which lands at #22, swapping places with Underworld's "Underneath The Radar" at #21, an '80s one hit wonder I'm sure was never heard from again...
Bachelor Girl - Buses And Trains Ben Folds Five - Brick Bloc Party - Banquet Bluejuice - Broken Leg Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe Christina Aguilera - Candyman Cure, The - Close To Me Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome - Dance Wiv Me Django Django - Default Green Day - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX - I Love It Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta M83 - Midnight City Merril Bainbridge - Mouth Republica - Ready To Go Sia - Soon We'll Be Found Stevie Wonder - Superstition Tame Impala - The Less I Know The Better Temper Trap, The - Trembling Hands
But what could possibly take the crown this time? It'll be up to you and your Top 5 to 8 votes which are sent in by 6pm Friday to determine this, so perhaps act on that subtle hint.
The ACI is up, and depending on when you voted last round, you might have missed the QLVG voting link which I've remembered to post on time this time https://www.strawpoll.me/15559197
To start off the top 20, we've got two songs that have spent their entire runs in the top 20. Starting things off is the oldest song in the top 20, Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious" at #20. The Temper Trap are an alliteration band in their own right, but they only partially commit to it with "Trembling Hands" which nets a #19 finish.
Now for some more consistent runs, we've got Icona Pop with their super slow burning worldwide hit "I Love It" which had all of its round by round positions within a range of 3, ending at #18. Christina Aguilera who is on the verge of a comeback with a new album, lands strongly at #17 with "Candyman" which only moved on the list once.
#15. Green Day - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)
Round by round: 08-10-12-12-15
Points - 161.71 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #3
I was at least somewhat surprised to see such heavy support for Bachelor Girl at the start of the game, and it never wavered with them ending up at #16 with "Buses and Trains". Less surprising is another 1998 hit single from Green Day, their biggest hit "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" which lands at #15.
Representing the duality of the ARIA Chart, the two songs back to back have very different chart peaks, firstly Django Django with their biggest hit "Default" which reached the massive peak of #100, and takes #14 here, and they are of course followed by the slightly more popular #1 hit from Merril Bainbridge, "Mouth" at #13.
Giving us a run of 3 consecutive Australian artists with very different approaches to music, we have Bluejuice at #12 with their platinum seller "Broken Leg", followed by Tame Impala with the Trevor-tastic "The Less I Know The Better" at #11.
While the prior pairs of artists have typically been very different, and that applies again, we can at least say these two have collaborated before. Having just announced an Australian tour, Kendrick Lamar kicks off the top 10 with "King Kunta" at #10, but evidently the greatest of the two is Sia who lands at #9 with "Soon We'll Be Found".
In contrast to my slow unveiling of these results, for well over 2 decades Republica have been "Ready To Go", and rightly so, as they can celebrate a #8 finish for their enduringly popular hit. A bit more recent, but coming up on a decade old, we've got the first ever UK #1 for both Dizzee Rascal, and current holder of #1 Calvin Harris, with the two seamlessly blending together for "Dance Wiv Me" at #7.
The Cure prove themselves to be especially demonic as this QLVG has them land firstly at #66, and now #6 as their highest entry comes in the form of "Close To Me". They're followed by Bloc Party who have their highest appearance to date, as "Banquet" lands in the top 10 for a second time to date, but this time at a new high of #5.
Our closest contender to scoring a 2nd QLVG win this time around is Carly Rae Jepsen, who proves popular with the earlier part of her career as "Call Me Maybe" takes #4. Following that is a song that once got within 10 points of #1, but instead lands at #3, as noted Geoff Harvey fans Ben Folds Five have "Brick" land strongly.
It looked to be a locked down top 3 for the entire time here until a last round switch. Akin to the 1999 AFL Premiership Season, we had a potential chance of 3rd placed "Born To Run" coming up from behind and snatching all the glory. It ended up rather close as just one vote given or taken would swap the top 2. It's a fine performance for Bruce Springsteen, but one that perhaps settles "Born To Run" as the unluckiest song in QLVG history as it has appeared in 3 games now, and every single time landed at #2. It was a redemption arc however though as its opponent is also a former runner up and 2 time top 10 finisher. The closure this time goes to M83's "Midnight City", the song that was leading the entire time, though not always with a particularly convincing lead. A close lead in the running though does not particularly matter as long as it's able to retain it all the way to the end, becoming the latest champion song.
It's been a long time thanks to my PC troubles but after 3 weeks we've finally finished this round and I thank you for sticking with me through it.
I also thank you for voting in the latest poll, and we've got a comfortable lead for 'Songs that begin with 'The'', so I hope your sorting systems don't exclude the word, or you just have a good memory of some of them. Otherwise enjoy your weekend and possibly vote in the ACI if you want to.
Had my own version of the Squidward eye opening meme when I went to bed and realised I hadn't prepared this post like I usually do. I hope this slightly late post does not affect your work flow
Adamski - Killer Alex Adair - Make Me Feel Better Alicia Keys - If I Ain't Got You Alpine - Foolish Amy Meredith - Young At Heart Andy Prieboy - Tomorrow Wendy Animal Collective - FloriDada Ash - Oh Yeah Ball Park Music - Exactly How You Are Beastie Boys - Sabotage Berlin - Sex (I'm A ....) Beyoncé - Countdown Bon Iver - Skinny Love Calvin Harris - Ready For The Weekend Cher Lloyd - Sirens Daft Punk - Something About Us Dane Rumble - Always Be Here Demi Lovato - Give Your Heart a Break Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms Eminem feat. Dina Rae - Superman Fall Out Boy - Sugar, We're Goin' Down Flume feat. Jezzabell Doran - Sleepless Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen Gang Of Youths - Magnolia Garbage - Bleed Like Me Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains Goldroom - Embrace Gotye - Hearts a Mess Gretta Ray - Drive Happy Mondays - Step On Hilltop Hoods - The Nosebleed Section Howie Day - Collide Interpol - Obstacle 1 Jake Bugg - A Song About Love Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity Jay-Z & Kanye West - Ni**as In Paris Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye Jessica Mauboy - Then I Met You Keane - Somewhere Only We Know Keri Hilson - Energy Kylie Minogue - Fever Lana Del Rey - National Anthem LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House Leah Haywood - Summer of Love Led Zeppelin - Kashmir Little Mix - Salute Madeon feat. Passion Pit - Pay No Mind Mariah Carey - Bye Bye Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy Matchbox Twenty - Long Day Maxïmo Park - Our Velocity MGMT - Time To Pretend Michael Paynter - Weary Stars Mikhael Paskalev - I Spy Muse - Knights Of Cydonia Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea Nirvana - Lithium Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World P!nk - Just Like a Pill Pearl Jam - Better Man Pet Shop Boys - Love Comes Quickly Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes Phil Bailey & Phil Collins - Easy Lover Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here Prefab Sprout - When Love Breaks Down Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees Radiohead - Karma Police Ricki-Lee - Happy Ever After Rihanna - Love On the Brain Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend Sam Hunt - Leave The Night On Savage Garden - Hold Me Shihad - Pacifier Sigala & Ella Eyre - Came Here For Love Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars Sugababes - About You Now Tamar Braxton - Love and War Taylor Swift - Teardrops On My Guitar The Cloud Room - Hey Now Now The Corrs - So Young The Cure - Just Like Heaven The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger The Lightning Seeds - Pure The Naked and Famous - Punching In A Dream The National - Mistaken For Strangers The Pixies - Where is My Mind? The Prodigy - Out Of Space The Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The U.K. The Sundays - Can't Be Sure The Thompson Twins - Love On Your Side The Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun The Whitlams - No Aphrodisiac Tinashe - Superlove Toni Braxton - Let It Flow Tool - Stinkfist Tori Kelly - Should've Been Us Wham! - Club Tropicana Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
Since I didn't mention it at the top like I usually do, these are all (I hope) songs that aren't top 50 hits in Australia. For the voting procedure, I ask that you select your Top 25 to 40 selections and send them in to me by 6pm on Wednesday.
Sorry for my consistent lateness this week. The round of non-top 50 hits starts off in a big way with a #1 hit...from the UK. Producer Adamski striking gold with up and coming vocalist Seal for "Killer" which is unlucky to score no points. Staying in the same era for #99 we've got the Happy Mondays' "Step On", which is a reworking of a John Kongos song that if you're from Australia, you might best know as a #1 hit in the late '80s by The Party Boys. But if you want some actual '80s material, look no further than #98 as Philip Bailey & Phil Collins' big collab hit "Easy Lover" oddly did not catch on in Australia. Similarly, the Thompson Twins were on their way to a big hit here with "Hold Me Now", but prior single "Love On Your Side" didn't chart high here, and lands at #97. Lastly is Eminem's surprisingly strong catalogue seller from "The Eminem Show", "Superman" at #96.
The Lightning Seeds are an easy fit for this game because they never cracked the top 50 in Australia, the closest they got (still not very close) was with "Pure" which lands here at #95. Next is Shihad with the song that they briefly were renamed to, "Pacifier" at #94, while Peter Gabriel has "In Your Eyes", a song that didn't really get a full worldwide single release (though still charting lowly in Australia), and takes #93 here. Michael Paynter cracked the Australian top 50 with just one song, and later on he recorded "Weary Stars" that hits #92 here. Finishing up this post is Berlin with an early single, "Sex (I'm A...)" at #91.
Trip hop also rans Sneaker Pimps at least manage to their name a strong single in "6 Underground" which lands at #90. Next we have a very valid inclusion for a different reason, as Alex Adair has what I believe is the first #51 peaker in this list with "Make Me Feel Better" at #89. Next is Leah Haywood who managed 3 top 50 singles from the same album, but couldn't extend that to a 4th single, "Summer Of Love" which takes #88. I'm not remotely surprised Dire Straits couldn't get the title track to "Brothers In Arms" into the top 50 but I'm sure they were doing ok enough to be happy. They're in at #87, followed by The Corrs' "So Young" at #86.
#84. LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
Points - 41 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #18
#83. Ash - Oh Yeah
Points - 44 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #14
#82. Lana Del Rey - National Anthem
Points - 46 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #12
#81. Pet Shop Boys - Love Comes Quickly
Points - 47 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #12
Another song I'm quite surprised to see didn't crack the top 50 here, Wham! land at #85 with "Club Tropicana". Then on a different scale of success, LCD Soundsystem are here with what is their only song to chart here at all, "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House" landing here at #84. We're about as far as possible from the start of the summer, but oh yeah, Ash are here at #83. Lana Del Rey's most commercially successful album "Born To Die" is not without popular tracks that didn't crack the chart, such as "National Anthem" at #82, while Pet Shop Boys had their follow up single to "West End Girls" not quite catch on in the same way, here "Love Comes Quickly" lands at #81.
Alicia Keys - If I Ain't Got You Alpine - Foolish Amy Meredith - Young At Heart Andy Prieboy - Tomorrow Wendy Animal Collective - FloriDada Ball Park Music - Exactly How You Are Beastie Boys - Sabotage Beyoncé - Countdown Bon Iver - Skinny Love Calvin Harris - Ready For The Weekend Cher Lloyd - Sirens Daft Punk - Something About Us Dane Rumble - Always Be Here Demi Lovato - Give Your Heart a Break Fall Out Boy - Sugar, We're Goin' Down Flume feat. Jezzabell Doran - Sleepless Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen Gang Of Youths - Magnolia Garbage - Bleed Like Me Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains Goldroom - Embrace Gotye - Hearts a Mess Gretta Ray - Drive Hilltop Hoods - The Nosebleed Section Howie Day - Collide Interpol - Obstacle 1 Jake Bugg - A Song About Love Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity Jay-Z & Kanye West - Ni**as In Paris Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye Jessica Mauboy - Then I Met You Keane - Somewhere Only We Know Keri Hilson - Energy Kylie Minogue - Fever Led Zeppelin - Kashmir Little Mix - Salute Madeon feat. Passion Pit - Pay No Mind Mariah Carey - Bye Bye Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy Matchbox Twenty - Long Day Maxïmo Park - Our Velocity MGMT - Time To Pretend Mikhael Paskalev - I Spy Muse - Knights Of Cydonia Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea Nirvana - Lithium Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World P!nk - Just Like a Pill Pearl Jam - Better Man Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here Pixies - Where is My Mind? Prefab Sprout - When Love Breaks Down Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees Radiohead - Karma Police Ricki-Lee - Happy Ever After Rihanna - Love On the Brain Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend Sam Hunt - Leave The Night On Savage Garden - Hold Me Sigala & Ella Eyre - Came Here For Love Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars Sugababes - About You Now Tamar Braxton - Love and War Taylor Swift - Teardrops On My Guitar The Cloud Room - Hey Now Now The Cure - Just Like Heaven The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger The Naked and Famous - Punching In A Dream The National - Mistaken For Strangers The Prodigy - Out Of Space The Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The U.K. The Sundays - Can't Be Sure The Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun The Whitlams - No Aphrodisiac Tinashe - Superlove Toni Braxton - Let It Flow Tool - Stinkfist Tori Kelly - Should've Been Us Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
But in case you've forgotten the voting process, you're to select your Top 20 to 32 tracks and submit them to me by 6pm on Friday after which I'll do the votey county thingy. I'll also try to have the ACI list ready very soon.
We start this round off with two producers on their way to world domination. Firstly Flume with his breakout hit "Sleepless" at #80, and then Calvin Harris from the slightly less modest position of having had a UK #1 hit prior, following it up with "Ready For The Weekend" that lands at #79. Also in the early career range we've got "When Love Breaks Down" from Prefab Sprout's 2nd album at #78. But on the complete other side of things, we've got Ball Park Music already well established in their... ball park, and recently scoring their highest ever Hottest 100 position with "Exactly How You Are" which lands at #77, followed by some good old post punk revival from Maxïmo Park and "Our Velocity" at #76.
Following on we've got a decidedly modern set, starting off with Sam Hunt at #75 with "Leave The Night On", and just a couple years prior to that was Goldroom's "Embrace" at #74. The one tie in the batch here gets me extremely nostalgic for 2010, as Dane Rumble and his brand New Zealand sound with "Always Be Here" shares the #72 spot with The National and one of their earlier cuts, "Mistaken For Strangers". We then make a trip back to 2013 as Mikhael Paskalev provides another ARIA #51 hit in "I Spy".
An infamous case of a mismanaged band that had a hit on their hands, under different circumstances, The Cloud Room could have one of the defining indie hits of the 2000s, but instead their breakout "Hey Now Now" hasn't even cracked 1 million plays on Spotify, though it does respectably enough to take #70 here. The odd pairing of Madeon & Passion Pit takes the fitting finish of #69, while Nirvana cover one of David Bowie's finest which I'm trying to resist nominating in the current game, at #68. Jake Bugg sings "A Song About Love" from his 2nd album at #67, while Animal Collective's most recent album netted them an out of nowhere ACI top 10 hit, "FloriDada" which takes #66.
With their enduring (at least in the UK) stadium anthem, The Fratellis land "Chelsea Dagger" at #65. The ARIA Charts spent a decade being rather kind to Garbage and their 2005 album "Bleed Like Me" actually netted two top 50 hits, though not the title track which fits at #64 here, the first of their two entries in this game. At #63 is Taylor Swift with "Teardrops On My Guitar", her 2nd ever Hot 100 entry, of which she now has roughly 100 to her name. Toni loses the Braxton battle this time around with "Let It Flow", which was packaged with her US #1 hit "You're Makin' Me High" at #62. Lastly we have Keri Hilson not quite able to make an immediate strike with her first solo single "Energy", though a decade later it still finds favour here at #61.
The competition heats up with just these 60 songs continuing to outpace the dreaded elimination line.
Alicia Keys - If I Ain't Got You Alpine - Foolish Amy Meredith - Young At Heart Andy Prieboy - Tomorrow Wendy Beastie Boys - Sabotage Beyoncé - Countdown Bon Iver - Skinny Love Cher Lloyd - Sirens Daft Punk - Something About Us Demi Lovato - Give Your Heart a Break Fall Out Boy - Sugar, We're Goin' Down Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen Gang Of Youths - Magnolia Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains Gotye - Hearts a Mess Gretta Ray - Drive Hilltop Hoods - The Nosebleed Section Howie Day - Collide Interpol - Obstacle 1 Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity Jay-Z & Kanye West - Ni**as In Paris Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye Jessica Mauboy - Then I Met You Keane - Somewhere Only We Know Kylie Minogue - Fever Led Zeppelin - Kashmir Little Mix - Salute Mariah Carey - Bye Bye Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy Matchbox Twenty - Long Day MGMT - Time To Pretend Muse - Knights Of Cydonia Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea Nirvana - Lithium P!nk - Just Like a Pill Pearl Jam - Better Man Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here Pixies - Where is My Mind? Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees Radiohead - Karma Police Ricki-Lee - Happy Ever After Rihanna - Love On the Brain Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend Savage Garden - Hold Me Sigala & Ella Eyre - Came Here For Love Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars Sugababes - About You Now Tamar Braxton - Love and War The Cure - Just Like Heaven The Naked and Famous - Punching In A Dream The Prodigy - Out Of Space The Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The U.K. The Sundays - Can't Be Sure The Whitlams - No Aphrodisiac Tinashe - Superlove Tool - Stinkfist Tori Kelly - Should've Been Us Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
But who's straggling and who's sitting pretty? Honestly there's a bit of a lack of an obvious leader at the moment. Your votes will certainly shake it up though if you provide a Top 15 to 24 to me by 6pm on Monday, and only if you do that. If you are also in the mood of shaking up vote based lists, the ACI awaits your call, and I will see you after this weekend which I hope treats you well.
#57. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Round by round: 47-49-57
Points - 86 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #2
#56. Tori Kelly - Should've Been Us
Round by round: 58-52-56
Points - 86.25 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #6
Starting things off in a wild manner, it's a breakthrough single for The Prodigy that spent quite a while in the UK top 10, but nowhere near that here, "Out Of Space" taking #60. However quite near the top 50 here was Franz Ferdinand's "The Fallen", yet another #51 peaker to find a place in this game, and yet another to miss the top 50 on this list. A similar sort of incident in the UK chart, we had Cher Lloyd with one of the first notable cases of a song missing the UK top 40 due to the addition of streaming, as "Sirens" had peaked at #41 there, and #58 on this list. But to counter all this is a song that has never been anywhere close to a top 50 chart, Neutral Milk Hotel's "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea". Lastly is Tori Kelly with the follow up to her breakout ARIA hit "Nobody Love" which couldn't quite scale the same heights, but lands at #56 here.
One of her first singles to not make the top 50 (though relatively close), Ricki-Lee takes #55 with "Happy Ever After". SPEAKING OF AUSTRALIAN IDOL FINALISTS, we've then got Jessica Mauboy with "Then I Met You", which may not have made the top 50, but along with the rest of The Secret Daughter soundtrack, has done remarkably well for her recently. Amy Meredith cracked the top 50 just once in a big way with "Lying", though they also made the top 100 with the adjacent singles, the latter being "Young At Heart" which takes #53. Then another incredibly successful album that didn't really need this to go top 50 to justify anything, Savage Garden have "Hold Me" at #52, while finally the unlucky song to miss the top 50 of this list of unlucky non-top 50 hits is Little Mix's total jam "Salute".
Now I don't imagine I have enough authority to claim that the songs that make the top half of this list are honourary top 50 hits, but maybe if I put the idea forth it could well spread, and then before you know it, I'll be the one writing the ARIA Charts, filling them with all sorts of inaccuracies until I'm booted out. To avoid getting side-tracked, Tamar Braxton starts us off with "Love and War" at #50, while Demi Lovato has a big US radio hit that never got a major push here, "Give Your Heart A Break" at #49. Next is a long chart runner for Sigala & Ella Eyre from last year, "Came Here For Love" at #48. While Daft Punk are best known for defining the sound of the summer, they have a more tender side to them sometimes showcased on "Something About Us" at #47, a sound that is nothing like Violent Femmes and their biggest hit "Blister In The Sun" at #46.
At the point of her career where it was difficult to chart more than 1 top 50 hit per album, "Bye Bye" came very close but not quite for Mariah Carey, though solace here with a #45 finish. The Sundays on the other hand only once ever made the top 50 so it should be less of a surprise that "Can't Be Sure" didn't get there. Kylie Minogue has the title track to "Fever" which I'm very familiar with from the time, though not a commercial hit single which lands at #43, while Andy Prieboy has a curious distinction of a song that was released after a cover version of it had already been released by Concrete Blonde, though the lead singer does feature on his version of "Tomorrow Wendy" at #42. Lastly we've got The Sex Pistols falling just short with "Anarchy In The U.K." at #41.
Here you have the 40 songs that have managed to stay ahead of those songs I just posted before
Alicia Keys - If I Ain't Got You Alpine - Foolish Beastie Boys - Sabotage Beyoncé - Countdown Bon Iver - Skinny Love Fall Out Boy - Sugar, We're Goin' Down Gang Of Youths - Magnolia Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains Gotye - Hearts a Mess Gretta Ray - Drive Hilltop Hoods - The Nosebleed Section Howie Day - Collide Interpol - Obstacle 1 Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity Jay-Z & Kanye West - Ni**as In Paris Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye Keane - Somewhere Only We Know Led Zeppelin - Kashmir Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy Matchbox Twenty - Long Day MGMT - Time To Pretend Muse - Knights Of Cydonia Nirvana - Lithium P!nk - Just Like a Pill Pearl Jam - Better Man Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here Pixies - Where is My Mind? Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees Radiohead - Karma Police Rihanna - Love On the Brain Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars Sugababes - About You Now The Cure - Just Like Heaven The Naked and Famous - Punching In A Dream The Whitlams - No Aphrodisiac Tinashe - Superlove Tool - Stinkfist Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
But this list is about to get a lot shorter as we trim half of it away. Do your best to ensure the result favours you the most by selecting your Top 10 to 16 from here and submitting them to me by 6pm on Wednesday. Also by all means vote on this poll so we have something to do in the other thread next week. https://www.strawpoll.me/15650338
Nirvana started things off with an underperformance for probably their most popular song that was eligible here, "Lithium", though it saw a boost last round that has pretty much retracted this round, now down to #40. With the most consistency of anything in this post, we've got Hilltop Hoods with the incredibly popular, yet eligible, "The Nosebleed Section" at #39. We return to the world of #51 peakers with Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" at #38, while Led Zeppelin have one of the earlier eligible tracks, "Kashmir" at #37. Lastly here is yet another collapse in the list with the Pixies and "Where Is My Mind"? which got as high as #13 but finished at #36.
For a bit of a more modern section, we start with New Zealand's The Naked and Famous with one of the big singles from their debut album, "Punching In A Dream" at #35. From just a year later we've got another one of those hugely high selling songs that just happened to not crack the top 50, with Jay-Z & Kanye West's "Ni**as In Paris" at #34. Sugababes also have a highly popular song in another sense, where in the UK, "About You Now" was a multi-week #1 hit, but never pushed in Australia. In contrast to the many slipping songs so far here, Fall Out Boy have been slowly climbing up the list with "Sugar, We're Goin' Down" at #32. The Cure finish off this set with "Just Like Heaven" at #31.
Not known for many hit singles, Pink Floyd are very at home in this game, and have one of their more enduring tracks "Wish You Were Here" at #30. Similarly, Tinashe has only cracked the charts a couple of times, and lands at #29 with "Superlove". While still a regular top 50 visitor in the early 2010s, "Countdown" being one of Beyonce's more unconvenional singles was not one of them, and lands here at #28. To change things up briefly here, this post ends with two artists that have never cracked the top 50 in the first place, firstly Australia's favourite lo-fi 6 piece band Alpine with "Foolish" at #27, and followed by the pinnacle of Interpol's debut album, "Obstacle 1" at #26.
Robyn has made the top 50 before but in such a vastly different era that it makes Carly Rae Jepsen's career transition seem natural, with one of her more modern singles, "Call Your Girlfriend" here at #25. In another sense, Jeff Buckley's top 50 appearances fit as making more sense of the time than they do in hindsight, as he never made the top 50 with one of his biggest songs "Last Goodbye" at #24, nor another appearance later in this list. We stick to the '90s for the last of these eliminations, firstly Tool which at their most conventional, still doesn't find a way onto the chart, with "Stinkfist" at #23. Jamiroquai on the other hand, just hadn't quite broken through on the release of "Virtual Insanity" even though it's arguably more popular than many of their top 50 hits. Lastly is Garbage, whose debut album as a whole did the bulk of the selling power for them, meaning the ever popular alt rock anthem "Only Happy When It Rains" never cracked the top 50, and lands here at #21.
Alicia Keys - If I Ain't Got You Beastie Boys - Sabotage Bon Iver - Skinny Love Gang Of Youths - Magnolia Gotye - Hearts a Mess Gretta Ray - Drive Howie Day - Collide Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy Matchbox Twenty - Long Day MGMT - Time To Pretend Muse - Knights Of Cydonia P!nk - Just Like a Pill Pearl Jam - Better Man Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees Radiohead - Karma Police Rihanna - Love On the Brain Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars The Whitlams - No Aphrodisiac Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
And so with this, the contenders close down and it becomes imminent that a winner will be championed of all these songs that were unable to become winners in that arbitrary celebration of chart success, by giving them an even more arbitrary celebration of list success. Decide who gets the listiest treatment by submitting your Top 5 to 8 from this lot and submitting to me by 6pm Friday. The poll for next qualifying game could do with some more attention here https://www.strawpoll.me/15650338 And I'll post the ACI soon (the pastebin link is already updated).
To commence these proceedings, we have truth, beauty, and a listing of The Whitlams' "No Aphrodisiac", one of the longest running non-top 50 hits of the '90s. On the other side of the coin is Gang Of Youths' "Magnolia", for which there's no way as far as I know could ever have had a chance of cracking the charts at all, but here it makes up for missing the Hottest 100 top 20 by just sneaking into the top 20 here at #19.
Speaking of Hottest 100 stuff, we started with The Whitlams, and now we move onto Muse's "Knights Of Cydonia", the 2nd of 4 eligible Hottest 100 #1's. Incidentally it was Muse's Hottest 100 win that gave the song its best ever sales week, which would have made it a top 50 hit if it was allowed in the chart. Following that we have Howie Day who is familiar to this category as the only other time he appeared in this game was when "Collide" placed 3rd for artists with no top 50 hits. With a lucky boost last round, he makes the final round again at #17.
Matchbox Twenty have had a lengthy string of hits spanning a decade and a half, but just before that was their first single "Long Day" which kicked off their chart history, and lands at #16 here. On the other hand, Radiohead had a launching off with their debut single in a big way, but their 2nd album proved their least successful chartwise. That album is where we find the first of their two entries today, "Fake Plastic Trees" at #15.
Despite an unconventional release strategy, Rihanna still had no shortage of success with her latest album "ANTI". Although a big hit in the US, "Love On The Brain" never got a real push here, though it was the first song from the album to enter my catalogue singles chart thingy, and is certainly popular here with a #14. In a similar sense, Pearl Jam's "Better Man" is one of the band's best catalogue sellers though curiously not released as a proper single, here it takes #13.
We stay in the '90s for a bit longer, where thanks in no small part to a delightful video, the Beastie Boys had their most enduring hit some 15 years into their career with "Sabotage" here at #12. Massive Attack on the other hand were some years away from their commercial peak when they released "Unfinished Sympathy" so it's fair to say that the song has only gained more of a reputation in the years following its release. Here it misses the top 10 by a very small fraction of a point.
And to start off that top 10 we go to the early 2000s. Firstly with Alicia Keys' 2nd album which oddly passed Australia by on the singles chart, though it sold respectively at the time. It's something that feels odd in hindsight as it houses some of her most well known tracks, including "If I Ain't Got You" which lands at #10. P!nk on the other hand has no such thing as a time when Australia was passing by her singles, which is why "Just Like A Pill" is only in here because it wasn't released as a proper single at the time in Australia (it was a UK #1 hit), and only belatedly charted many years later at the height of another P!nk album cycle. A constant sitter in the top 10 for this game, it finishes at its lowest position of #9.
Though if I recall correctly, it probably wouldn't have been a top 50 hit, "Skinny Love" is one of the highest selling songs not to ever chart in Australia purely because it wasn't let on the chart. While Birdy's cover was doing the rounds, it spent quite a while selling strongly week by week though, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a platinum seller at this stage. It's followed here by Radiohead whose "Karma Police" did chart, though not high enough as it often is difficult for the band to infiltrate the singles chart with post-album single releases. No doubt the #7 finish here is further cementing of its status as one of the band's most popular songs though.
Another one of the longest ever charters that didn't make the top 50 is MGMT's "Time To Pretend", which found itself caught up in the band's general buzz of 2008, but never had enough of the focus on itself, so it only steadily sold week by week. It's in prestigious company with Jeff Buckley's cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" which I believe only first charted in 2009 following its #3 result in the triple j Hottest 100 of All Time poll, and dashes right into the top 5 after spending the entire game in the 11-20 section.
After that grandeur, we get a bit more humble as #4 houses Gretta Ray's "Drive" which she wrote while in high school and pushed her onto many accolades; for fans of rhyming, she's about to tour with James Bay. It also never charted but did win her a hefty prize from the Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition which I imagine nets more of a profit than a chart position would. For Yeah Yeah Yeahs, their statement of love was much more brittle, and though somewhat of an anomaly in their usually more manic discography, "Maps" certainly carried the band onto extended success for the rest of the decade.
For anyone who is in the know about the ARIA Charts, I'm sure you'd agree that 2006 is an appropriate point to finish on. In a time when the physical single was on its last legs as the dominant format, but there was initial hesitation to introduce the new digital format into the charts, it was a time period where the charts arguably were at their most distant from reality, given that such a large chunk of sales were going unacknowledged. It gives you quite a few curiosities if you go through the charts, with stuff getting in that would never chart under any other circumstances, and part of that is because a lot of what could have been there, wasn't. Without a doubt, the most famous victim of this would be Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars", which never was released on a physical single in Australia, meaning that even when downloads were eventually allowed onto the chart, and it reached the very top of that chart, it was nowhere to be seen on the ARIA Chart. Such was the staying power of the song that it did eventually chart a year later when ARIA changed the rules, but by that point it wasn't big enough to be in the top 50. It kept charting though, and even though it had an arbitrary starting point, it remains as the longest charting song to not make the top 50, having spent over a year in the chart, a tally which it regularly increases over the years. It's certainly the most obvious song for inclusion in this list, but it doesn't quite pull off the win, as it rests just a few points behind another song that was released in 2006 to much less initial fanfare. Although I suppose the success of both of the songs can be compared as they did sit back to back in the top 10 of the 2006 Hottest 100. The era predates my knowledge a bit so I don't know how the song sold at the time, but I do know that it wasn't until 2011 that "Hearts A Mess" by Gotye finally graced the ARIA Charts, buoyed by him releasing another song to just a little bit of fanfare. But a song that may not have come into fruition at all had he not captured the hearts of so many with his eclectic production wizardry on it. When I started hearing it regularly in 2007 it was like nothing I'd heard before, and that's a statement that holds true today.
I ended up typing more than I had planned but that's partly because of the serendipitous results here that aligned as such to allow such word spam. That's all I've got to say for another fortnight though as it wraps up another game. I thank you all for voting, and I'll see you on Monday with the new game involving 'The' songs. I also thank you for voting on the poll, where our winner this time around is song titles with 5 or less letters, see you then!
Though it was a missed opportunity to nominate the vast majority of Manchester Orchestra's latest album, there is no shortage elsewhere of songs that begin with 'The'. Namely these 100 songs.
A Perfect Circle - The Outsider ABBA - The Winner Takes It All ABC - The Look of Love Ace of Base - The Sign Angus & Julia Stone - The Beast Ariana Grande feat. Mac Miller - The Way Ashanti - The Way That I Love You Backstreet Boys - The Call Band Of Horses - The Funeral Bette Midler - The Rose Biffy Clyro - The Captain blink-182 - The Rock Show Brandy & Monica - The Boy Is Mine Bruce Hornsby & The Range - The Way It Is Bruce Springsteen - The River Cheap Trick - The Flame Cher - The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) Christina Aguilera - The Voice Within Coldplay - The Scientist Daryl Braithwaite - The Horses David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World Disturbed - The Sound of Silence Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg - The Next Episode Dustin Tebbutt - The Breach Dusty Springfield - The Look Of Love Ed Sheeran - The A Team Elvis Presley - The Wonder Of You Eminem - The Real Slim Shady End Of Fashion - The Game Fastball - The Way Fleetwood Mac - The Chain Foo Fighters - The Pretender Frankie Goes to Hollywood - The Power of Love Gang Of Youths - The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Message Haim - The Wire Hoobastank - The Reason Huey Lewis and the News - The Power of Love INXS - The One Thing Jennifer Rush - The Power of Love Jessica Mauboy - The Day Before I Met You Jimmy Eat World - The Middle Joan Baez - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down Kasey Chambers - The Captain Kate Miller-Heidke - The Last Day On Earth Katy Perry - The One That Got Away Keith Urban feat. Carrie Underwood - The Fighter Kenny Rogers - The Gambler Lady Gaga - The Edge Of Glory Lily Allen - The Fear Mariah Carey - The Art of Letting Go Massive Attack feat. Hope Sandoval - The Spoils Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance Mental As Anything - The Nips Are Getting Bigger Michael Jackson - The Way You Make Me Feel Michael Jackson feat. Paul McCartney - The Girl Is Mine Midnight Oil - The Dead Heart Miley Cyrus - The Climb Missy Higgins - The Special Two Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Ship Song Nicki Minaj - The Night Is Still Young Nik Kershaw - The Riddle Panic! At The Disco - The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage Paramore - The Only Exception Placebo - The Bitter End Pony Up! - The Truth About Cats And Dogs (Is That They Die) Powderfinger - The Day You Come Powderfinger - The Metre R.E.M. - The Great Beyond R.E.M. - The One I Love Radiohead - The National Anthem Santana feat. Michelle Branch - The Game Of Love Sia feat. Kendrick Lamar - The Greatest Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence Snap! - The Power Space feat. Cerys Matthews - The Ballad Of Tom Jones Stereophonics - The Bartender And The Thief Suede - The Drowners The Beatles - The Long and Winding Road The Cat Empire - The Chariot The Cruel Sea - The Honeymoon Is Over The Decemberists - The Sporting Life The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get The Music - The People The National - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness The Smiths - The Boy With A Thorn In His Side The Supremes - The Happening The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work The Verve Pipe - The Freshmen The Walkmen - The Rat The Weeknd - The Hills Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town Thirty Seconds to Mars - The Kill (Bury Me) Timbaland feat. Keri Hilson & D.O.E. - The Way I Are Vanessa Amorosi - The Power Vitamin C - The Itch Wendy Matthews - The Day You Went Away Yazz & The Plastic Population - The Only Way Is Up Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey - The Middle
And if you need to read this bit at the bottom, I'll use this opportunity to say that votes are intended to go for Top 25 to 40 and in by 6pm on Wednesday, the usual business.
#97. Michael Jackson feat. Paul McCartney - The Girl Is Mine
Points - 16 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #25
#96. Mental As Anything - The Nips Are Getting Bigger
Points - 32 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #20
The time is now for me to start this. The first song to go out is the one that received no votes, to the disappointment of iTunes users around the country, is Disturbed's cover of "The Sound Of Silence", which is not the last time we'll see this song because the original version is also in the list. Speaking of shared titles, though not with the same song, Dusty Springfield's cover of "The Look Of Love" comes next at #99, followed by The Beatles with the last of their Hot 100 #1 hits, "The Long And Winding Road" at #98. We finish off in the '80s, first with the lead single to Michael Jackson's somewhat popular album "Thriller", while Mental As Anything's "The Nips Are Getting Bigger" follows at #96. Last edited:
#95. Joan Baez - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Points - 35 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #6
#94. The Cat Empire - The Chariot
Points - 35 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #14
#93. Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance
Points - 35 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #22
#92. Vanessa Amorosi - The Power
Points - 36 Current Voters - 1 Top Vote - #5
#91. Backstreet Boys - The Call
Points - 37 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #17
Covering The Band, Joan Baez had more success than anyone else with "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" at #95. At #94 is The Cat Empire with the first of their two Hottest 100 #100s, "The Chariot". Hinamizawa's favourite, "The Safety Dance" takes #93, finishing things off at the turn of the century, with Vanessa Amorosi at #92 and Backstreet Boys at #91.
Here's a terrible trivia question for you, which white rapper scored a UK #1 hit with a song that had a pro-gay marriage sentiment? The correct answer is of course Eminem with "The Real Slim Shady", which lands here at #90. We're then met with another artist that has just recently released a new album, A Perfect Circle, whose older material shines here at #89 with "The Outsider". Some familiar titles but different songs are back here with ABC's "The Look Of Love" at #88 and Snap!'s "The Power" at #86, and in the middle of it all is The Supremes' "The Happening" at #87. Last edited:
At #85 we've got the Stereophonics who want to tell you all the story about "The Bartender and the Thief". Nik Kershaw stops tending to a wounded knee to provide "The Riddle" at #84, Vitamin C has her essential top 10 hit "The Itch" sitting at #83. At #82 is one of the biggest hits of the year, with an Australian co-write surprisingly, as Zedd, Maren Morris & villages team up on "The Middle" at #82, finishing off with one of the biggest hits of the year...48 years ago, Elvis Presley's rendition of "The Wonder Of You" at #81.
ABBA - The Winner Takes It All Ace of Base - The Sign Angus & Julia Stone - The Beast Ariana Grande feat. Mac Miller - The Way Ashanti - The Way That I Love You Band Of Horses - The Funeral Bette Midler - The Rose Biffy Clyro - The Captain blink-182 - The Rock Show Brandy & Monica - The Boy Is Mine Bruce Hornsby & The Range - The Way It Is Bruce Springsteen - The River Cheap Trick - The Flame Cher - The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) Christina Aguilera - The Voice Within Coldplay - The Scientist Daryl Braithwaite - The Horses David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg - The Next Episode Dustin Tebbutt - The Breach Ed Sheeran - The A Team End Of Fashion - The Game Fastball - The Way Fleetwood Mac - The Chain Foo Fighters - The Pretender Frankie Goes to Hollywood - The Power of Love Gang Of Youths - The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Message Haim - The Wire Hoobastank - The Reason Huey Lewis and the News - The Power of Love INXS - The One Thing Jennifer Rush - The Power of Love Jessica Mauboy - The Day Before I Met You Jimmy Eat World - The Middle Kasey Chambers - The Captain Kate Miller-Heidke - The Last Day On Earth Katy Perry - The One That Got Away Keith Urban feat. Carrie Underwood - The Fighter Kenny Rogers - The Gambler Lady Gaga - The Edge Of Glory Lily Allen - The Fear Mariah Carey - The Art of Letting Go Massive Attack feat. Hope Sandoval - The Spoils Michael Jackson - The Way You Make Me Feel Midnight Oil - The Dead Heart Miley Cyrus - The Climb Missy Higgins - The Special Two Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Ship Song Nicki Minaj - The Night Is Still Young Panic! At The Disco - The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage Paramore - The Only Exception Placebo - The Bitter End Pony Up! - The Truth About Cats And Dogs (Is That They Die) Powderfinger - The Day You Come Powderfinger - The Metre R.E.M. - The Great Beyond R.E.M. - The One I Love Radiohead - The National Anthem Santana feat. Michelle Branch - The Game Of Love Sia feat. Kendrick Lamar - The Greatest Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence Space feat. Cerys Matthews - The Ballad Of Tom Jones Suede - The Drowners The Cruel Sea - The Honeymoon Is Over The Decemberists - The Sporting Life The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get The Music - The People The National - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness The Smiths - The Boy With A Thorn In His Side The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work The Verve Pipe - The Freshmen The Walkmen - The Rat The Weeknd - The Hills Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town Thirty Seconds to Mars - The Kill (Bury Me) Timbaland feat. Keri Hilson & D.O.E. - The Way I Are Wendy Matthews - The Day You Went Away Yazz & The Plastic Population - The Only Way Is Up
The way we go about this is the same as always. I ask you to submit a Top 20 to 32 from this list, and provided that you do that by 6pm on Friday, I use it as part of the tabulation to decide which songs carry on from here. I also plug the ACI for which the list is updated I just haven't done the post yet.
The time you relish each week has arrived, when we get to see if I can get through this all without making any typos due to my severe lack of proofreading. And if that's the way that you love this, then it's an appropriate way to start this list with Ashanti's "The Way That I Love You", a fresh and pleasant (re)discovery for me here at #80. Things carry on with several generations of rock that I'm very familiar with, firstly Suede's "The Drowners" at #79, followed by fellow Britons who do considerably better there than here, though this was Biffy Clyro's biggest hit here thanks to a TV spot, "The Captain" takes #78 here. Speaking of songs whose popularity has been improved significantly due to being used to promote something, we've got Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain", which I believe is the band's best selling song of the last few years thanks to the 2nd Guardians of the Galaxy film. Things end with a R.E.M.'s last '90s hit, given it was released in late 1999, as they manage to push the elephant all the way up to #76 for "The Great Beyond".
#72. The Smiths - The Boy With A Thorn In His Side
Round by round: 71-72
Points - 62 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #5
#71. Dustin Tebbutt - The Breach
Round by round: 71-71
Points - 63 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #7
blink-182 surely had some good times with the girl at "The Rock Show" last round, but now they end up at #75, just behind Angus & Julia Stone's runaway donkey, shout out to everyone else who couldn't decipher the song back in the day. The first of our verve-licious entries takes a bow, this being "The Freshmen" that were The Verve Pipe at #73. Making sure we represent 4 different decades in this post, we've got the old school Smiths at #72 and the new school Dustin Tebbutt at #71. Last edited:
#69. Santana feat. Michelle Branch - The Game Of Love
Round by round: 67-69
Points - 64 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #4
#68. Yazz & The Plastic Population - The Only Way Is Up
Round by round: 73-68
Points - 67 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #2
#67. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
Round by round: 66-67
Points - 68 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #7
#66. Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town
Round by round: 65-66
Points - 73 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #20
Returning to this game for the first time in close to 2 years, Bette Midler's "The Rose" doesn't quite make it as far this time, stopping off at #70. Soon-to-be mother Michelle Branch teams up with Santana in a strictly business sense at #69 with "The Game Of Love", while we've got something real, a Yazz record at #68, that being "The Only Way Is Up". The Gaslight Anthem disappointingly can't quite reach the nostalgic positions of their grandmother's stereo as "The '59 Sound" instead lands at #67, while Thin Lizzy take #66 with a very nice voting distribution.
#63. Cher - The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)
Round by round: 62-63
Points - 77 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #6
#62. Paramore - The Only Exception
Round by round: 47-62
Points - 77.2 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #17
#61. Huey Lewis and the News - The Power Of Love
Round by round: 61-61
Points - 79 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #4
With the 2nd biggest upward move in the entire list, it's still not enough to save INXS as "The One Thing" lands at #65. It sits behind The Decemberists' highly entertaining ode to "The Sporting Life" at #64. If Cher got any higher with "The Shoop Shoop Song", you might say she'd have gone further than the planes fly, instead landing at #63. And if that pun wasn't awful enough, I'm to point out that this entire elimination has been made up of songs that were in the bottom 20 from last round as well. However there is one exception to that, you might say that Paramore are "The Only Exception" as they slip down a fair bit to #62, falling behind the first of 3 "The Power Of Love"'s in this list, which is Huey Lewis's "The Power Of Love", evidently being too darn loud compared to the others.
The result of this elimination sequence is that we are left with 60 songs on the table, those 60 songs are these 60 songs
ABBA - The Winner Takes It All Ace of Base - The Sign Ariana Grande feat. Mac Miller - The Way Band Of Horses - The Funeral Brandy & Monica - The Boy Is Mine Bruce Hornsby & The Range - The Way It Is Bruce Springsteen - The River Cheap Trick - The Flame Christina Aguilera - The Voice Within Coldplay - The Scientist Daryl Braithwaite - The Horses David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg - The Next Episode Ed Sheeran - The A Team End Of Fashion - The Game Fastball - The Way Foo Fighters - The Pretender Frankie Goes to Hollywood - The Power of Love Gang Of Youths - The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Message Haim - The Wire Hoobastank - The Reason Jennifer Rush - The Power of Love Jessica Mauboy - The Day Before I Met You Jimmy Eat World - The Middle Kasey Chambers - The Captain Kate Miller-Heidke - The Last Day On Earth Katy Perry - The One That Got Away Keith Urban feat. Carrie Underwood - The Fighter Kenny Rogers - The Gambler Lady Gaga - The Edge Of Glory Lily Allen - The Fear Mariah Carey - The Art of Letting Go Massive Attack feat. Hope Sandoval - The Spoils Michael Jackson - The Way You Make Me Feel Midnight Oil - The Dead Heart Miley Cyrus - The Climb Missy Higgins - The Special Two Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Ship Song Nicki Minaj - The Night Is Still Young Panic! At The Disco - The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage Placebo - The Bitter End Pony Up! - The Truth About Cats And Dogs (Is That They Die) Powderfinger - The Day You Come Powderfinger - The Metre R.E.M. - The One I Love Radiohead - The National Anthem Sia feat. Kendrick Lamar - The Greatest Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence Space feat. Cerys Matthews - The Ballad Of Tom Jones The Cruel Sea - The Honeymoon Is Over The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get The Music - The People The National - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work The Walkmen - The Rat The Weeknd - The Hills Thirty Seconds to Mars - The Kill (Bury Me) Timbaland feat. Keri Hilson & D.O.E. - The Way I Are Wendy Matthews - The Day You Went Away
The end of a round calls for the start of a new round, at least it does when there are still sounds yet to be appraised. I'll leave that process to you provided that you select a Top 15 to 24 from it and send it to me by 6pm Monday. You can also do the ACI if you want, have a good weekend.
#58. Keith Urban feat. Carrie Underwood - The Fighter
Round by round: 50-48-58
Points - 87.8 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #17
#57. The Weeknd - The Hills
Round by round: 42-55-57
Points - 89 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #12
#56. Massive Attack feat. Hope Sandoval - The Spoils
Round by round: 60-56-56
Points - 91.75 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #14
The new week comes with a new batch of 20 songs to be eliminated. Incidentally not much has changed as we transition from "The Power Of Love" at #61 to "The Power Of Love" at #60. Following that, things get a little bit more dour with Fastball's "The Way" at #59, while Keith Urban's recently 2 year old "The Fighter" finds a place at #58. One of a small handful of songs to bump a single that followed it from #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, The Weeknd's "The Hills" sits at #57, while Massive Attack return to a prior collaborator with similar success on "The Spoils" at #56.
Sneaking into this round and then getting a little higher is Bruce Hornsby & The Range's "The Way It Is" at #55. Kenny Rogers' insanely strong catalogue seller "The Gambler" makes #54 while Katy Perry takes a big hit for the 6th single from "Teenage Dream", falling 30 places to #53. Thirty Seconds To Mars land at #52; this is my QLVG. While Mariah Carey finishes off the first half with "The Art Of Letting Go", which I believe is her most recent single to debut on the ARIA Chart.
#50. Space feat. Cerys Matthews - The Ballad Of Tom Jones
Round by round: 51-49-50
Points - 113.35 Current Voters - 2 Top Vote - #1
#49. Kasey Chambers - The Captain
Round by round: 52-51-49
Points - 115.25 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #2
#48. Radiohead - The National Anthem
Round by round: 54-52-48
Points - 116.25 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #3
#47. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get
Round by round: 49-44-47
Points - 117 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #14
#46. End Of Fashion - The Game
Round by round: 48-47-46
Points - 118 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #8
The sort of thing that could only exist in the '90s, where one said what about, the music of Tom Jones, she said I think I, remember that song and as I recall I think, this joke's gone on too long, so I'm noting that Space's "The Ballad Of Tom Jones" is #50. A 2nd "The Captain" lands here, courtesy of pre-hit making Kasey Chambers. Staying in that same time period is Radiohead's "The National Anthem" at #48. And if all of this has been too down-beat, here's The Mighty Mighty Bosstones to lift you up with "The Impression That I Get" at #47. Lastly is a curious bit of trivia as we have End Of Fashion's highest ARIA charting single, which is of course..."The Game" at #46.
#43. Timbaland feat. Keri Hilson & D.O.E. - The Way I Are
Round by round: 35-40-43
Points - 120.15 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #3
#42. The Cruel Sea - The Honeymoon Is Over
Round by round: 53-46-42
Points - 120.85 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #12
#41. Miley Cyrus - The Climb
Round by round: 44-50-41
Points - 121.35 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #5
Foo Fighters started off in the top 20 but they've fallen off a bit with "The Pretender" which finishes at #45. Also dropping a little, but I have to note that last round Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg were at #42.0, "The Next Episode" ends up at #44. The remaining list is loaded with ARIA #2 hits, but there are only 2 #1 hits left, with the 3rd highest being "The Way I Are" at #43. Reversing the trend of this post is The Cruel Sea whose "The Honeymoon Is Over" only climbed higher over time, ending up at #42, and Miley Cyrus nearly sneaks into the next round with the aptly named "The Climb" moving up to #41.
The competition is heated up, with these 40 songs still standing up strong.
ABBA - The Winner Takes It All Ace of Base - The Sign Ariana Grande feat. Mac Miller - The Way Band Of Horses - The Funeral Brandy & Monica - The Boy Is Mine Bruce Springsteen - The River Cheap Trick - The Flame Christina Aguilera - The Voice Within Coldplay - The Scientist Daryl Braithwaite - The Horses David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World Ed Sheeran - The A Team Frankie Goes to Hollywood - The Power of Love Gang Of Youths - The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Message Haim - The Wire Hoobastank - The Reason Jessica Mauboy - The Day Before I Met You Jimmy Eat World - The Middle Kate Miller-Heidke - The Last Day On Earth Lady Gaga - The Edge Of Glory Lily Allen - The Fear Michael Jackson - The Way You Make Me Feel Midnight Oil - The Dead Heart Missy Higgins - The Special Two Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Ship Song Nicki Minaj - The Night Is Still Young Panic! At The Disco - The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage Placebo - The Bitter End Pony Up! - The Truth About Cats And Dogs (Is That They Die) Powderfinger - The Day You Come Powderfinger - The Metre R.E.M. - The One I Love Sia feat. Kendrick Lamar - The Greatest Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence The Music - The People The National - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work The Walkmen - The Rat Wendy Matthews - The Day You Went Away
The time has come for you to get back into action for this game as we determine which are the next 20 songs to go, and which 20 songs will stay. Have a part in this by selecting your Top 10 to 16 tracks from here and sending them to me by 6pm on Wednesday. Also there's a new poll for the qualifying game here https://www.strawpoll.me/15739167
The way we start off this new round is with one of Michael Jackson's strongest catalogue sellers, "The Way You Make Me Feel" at #40. Then we flash forward 10 years to the very miserable run of UK #1 hits where The Verve snuck in a week for "The Drugs Don't Work" in between "I'll Be Missing You" and "Candle In The Wind 1997". We nearly manage a spectrum of 5 different decades in these results except that Bruce Springsteen's "The River" was released just at the start of the '80s, and the title track sneaks up to #38. One of the most evocative rock performances of the 2000s, The Walkmen have their biggest hit "The Rat" at #37, while Nicki Minaj goes to ballad territory for "The Night Is Still Young", doing well at #36.
#32. The National - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness
Round by round: 26-24-33-32
Points - 147.75 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #1
#31. Jessica Mauboy - The Day Before I Met You
Round by round: 28-34-31-31
Points - 154.39 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #1
Released as the first single from Midnight Oil's very successful "Diesel and Dust" album, "The Dead Heart" finds a pretty consistent sitting and finishes at #35. I will not stop saying this every time, but Hoobastank land at #34 and the reason is you. With a very visually pleasing round by round, R.E.M. have their highest entry this time around with "The One I Love" at #33. Proving they can hold their own against a whole history of music instead of just a year, The National's "The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness" returns at #32. Jessica Mauboy gets her highest finish so far this year with "The Day Before I Met You", in which she doesn't specify whether or not her time machine was originally a microwave.
#27. Pony Up! - The Truth About Cats And Dogs (Is That They Die)
Round by round: 29-26-34-27
Points - 163.68 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #1
#26. The Music - The People
Round by round: 27-27-29-26
Points - 165.76 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #4
Two of my most listened to artists ever collaborating for a big hit, Sia & Kendrick Lamar take "The Greatest" to #30. They only got to #2 though which is one less than Cheap Trick, who you might recognise if you've ever gone back to the very start of the database here as the first #1 for when the ARIA Charts took over as Australia's official chart. For the rest of this, we're into the 2000s with all sorts of passive-aggression. Placebo's "The Bitter End" slowly climbs to #28, while Pony Up! stand out just a little as a lesser known name at #27. An indecipherable hook is not enough to stop The Music from taking "The People" all the way up to #26.
#23. Panic! At The Disco - The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage
Round by round: 39-38-37-23
Points - 176.44 Current Voters - 5 Top Vote - #5
#22. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World
Round by round: 19-17-18-22
Points - 181 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #1
#21. Ace of Base - The Sign
Round by round: 23-19-19-21
Points - 181.13 Current Voters - 4 Top Vote - #1
Surprisingly, Brandy & Monica's collaboration "The Boy Is Mine" has been in this game twice before now and neither time did it even make it through the first round. Things are looking a lot better this time around as it lands at #25, sitting alongside one of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' most well known ballads "The Ship Song" at #24. Panic! At The Disco's only Hottest 100 entry ever has a big boost that nearly gets it into the finals at #23, while David Bowie takes the original version of "The Man Who Sold The World" 46 places higher than Nirvana did in the last game, to #22. Just missing out on the last round is Ace of Base, their 2nd most streamed song on Spotify, "The Sign" is bumped out by less than 1 point to #21.
The end is nigh. Unlike in the video game of the same name, you will not be able to skillfully subvert the need to go through the standard protocols to reach the end, instead we'll need to do further scrutinising of these 10 songs
ABBA - The Winner Takes It All Ariana Grande feat. Mac Miller - The Way Band Of Horses - The Funeral Christina Aguilera - The Voice Within Coldplay - The Scientist Daryl Braithwaite - The Horses Ed Sheeran - The A Team Frankie Goes to Hollywood - The Power of Love Gang Of Youths - The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Message Haim - The Wire Jimmy Eat World - The Middle Kate Miller-Heidke - The Last Day On Earth Lady Gaga - The Edge Of Glory Lily Allen - The Fear Missy Higgins - The Special Two Powderfinger - The Day You Come Powderfinger - The Metre Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence Wendy Matthews - The Day You Went Away
If you're a fan of the first half of the alphabet, I'm sure this is a treat for you. However it means you'll definitely need to make some tough culls to provide me a Top 5 to 8 list by 6pm Friday. Also don't forget to vote on the strawpoll https://www.strawpoll.me/15739167 and also do the ACI if that's a thing you do.
#19. Frankie Goes To Hollywood - The Power Of Love
Round by round: 55-32-20-17-19
Points - 159.44 Current Voters - 3 Top Vote - #2
The end is here, with the results locked in so that is definitively the way it's gonna be. Daryl Braithwaite's perpetually popular cover of "The Horses" starts things off at #20 with a gradual slide, but on the other side of things, Frankie Goes To Hollywood are one of the biggest improvers. Their 3rd UK #1 hit "The Power Of Love" started in the middle of the list but just kept climbing to reach the final round, ending up at #19.
One of the top 10 sellers of 2009, it's easy to forget that Kate Miller-Heidke's "The Last Day On Earth" was somewhat of an accidental hit, having been used on a TV promo causing so much demand that the label didn't have singles to press in time. Speaking of songs that got very big, very fast, Ariana Grande has her first single "The Way" which was an instant hit, doing well here at #17.
The one group to land two tracks in the final 20 (final 60 in fact) is Powderfinger. The first to fall is "The Day You Come" at #16. It's followed by one of a few big fallers in this set, Haim's "The Wire" which started in the runner up slot for 2 rounds but ends up at #15.
Constantly sitting in this part of the list for the entire game is "The Funeral" from Band Of Horses, arguably one of the more surprising songs to have over 100 million streams on Spotify. Sitting next to it is the other Powderfinger song of the list, "The Metre", which has been constantly tussling with "The Day You Come" but ends up on top.
You may not be aware of this but Ed Sheeran is very popular. So much so that the album containing "The A Team" is still in the ARIA top 50 right now and shows no signs of leaving any time soon. It is a surprising turn of events however as it's actually the song that led the pack initially, but now falls down to #12. Incidentally, it's beaten out by Missy Higgins who actually supported him on his recent Australian tour, with "The Special Two" landing at #11.
Lady Gaga barely snuck through to this last round with "The Edge Of Glory" but she hasn't let it go to waste. With one of the biggest point turn outs in this final round, she zooms up to #10, finishing behind another big climber, "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World. After lingering just inside the top 20, it shoots up to #9, I guess it just takes some time.
Keeping things much more steady, we have Christina Aguilera who has managed to cover every position from #8-#12, fortunately for her sake, finishing on the highest of those. We stay in the same time period for #7 with Coldplay's "The Scientist", the band's highest finish so far this year.
Evidently things have just been shuffling around constantly for this game. Following at #6 is another song that hadn't once been in the top 10 beforehand, but managed to maintain its votes, that being Lily Allen's second UK #1 single "The Fear". It's followed by the titanic single that is ABBA's "The Winner Takes It All".
A song I thought had a real shot at winning is Wendy Matthews' "The Day You Went Away", which managed to sneak up to the top spot at the end of last round. It was on shaky ground as evidenced by the fact that its highest vote is #5, if it had managed to maintain its votes it would have been in with a real shot. The same could be said of Simon & Garfunkel who were hoping to snatch the top spot. That in itself would have been an interesting turn of events because we'd then have the same song at #100 & #1 of this game, instead the original "The Sound Of Silence" takes #3.
#2. Gang Of Youths - The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows
Round by round: 03-03-01-02-02
Points - 251.85 Current Voters - 5 Top Vote - #1
#1. Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Message
Round by round: 06-08-07-05-01
Points - 284.73 Current Voters - 6 Top Vote - #1
Funnily enough, one of the songs I didn't rate a chance at winning ends up coming in 2nd. That's only because I felt that like "The Day You Went Away", it was a house built on sand and had the potential of plummeting once the voting limit got too tight. It wouldn't be the first time this has happened either because just like the first time it was played in this game, Gang Of Youths' "The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows" was #1 at one point in this game. Last time they lost to another one of their songs, but this time it's a different artist. It comes as a bit of a surprise to me but to cap off this ever shuffling top 10, we have a final round burst to the top for Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five's "The Message". This is not buoyed by any new voters, but rather weathering the storm of the final round better than any of its competitors. It is thanks to those of whom did not push it off the edge of their voting list, which it may or may not have been close to, that it comes up victorious.
It's been a rollercoaster of emotions for me today so I'm happy to have successfully gotten through typing all of this up. As always, I thank you all for participating in this game, and I shall see you next week with a new game concerning songs with very short titles. No doubt the game after that will be a bit different as all the songs will have parentheses, which tend to serve long song titles. Enjoy your weekend, do the ACI thing if you do that, and I'm out.
(Also I will absolutely try to remember to start new threads next week).
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Nonetheless, we've got a big mix of landmark songs outright, or songs by artists who are popular enough here to warrant slightly deeper cuts. Just for this game, I've modified my formatting on the artist names, taking 'The' away from the front which I think looks nicer on this list.