From the 255 original candidates, I distilled my own "favourites" playlist of no less than 45 songs, most of which I had never heard before -- this has *never* happened with a year poll before.

Of those 45, only 10 made it to the final 50 -- but that's not a bad result either!

Thanks, all!

Couldn't agree more! It's getting all the good bits (for various values of "good") without actually having to visit the comments there ourselves. Win-win.

Even when I don't like any of the songs in a match, I usually have no problem finding at least the most tolerable one and then voting for that. But this is the first group that I've had to leave unticked on the form, because I genuinely loathe each and every song here so much that I can't choose.

Croissant is such a happy gem. It's a very basic melody, and possibly goes on a bit too long. But it's never really boring, it's all over the place in a good way, and I love that 8-bitty bleeple-de-bleeple-de-bleep riff going on in the background. And the twirly-flutey bits. And the rapping. And...

I'm a big Robyn fan and was very excited for her new material; then was tremendously disappointed by Dopamine. But I'm happy that other people seem to like it so much. That tells me that it's just a wavelength mismatch, and not that Robyn has lost it, if you know what I mean. It's me, not her!

I adore 'Messy'. I am usually attracted much more to music than to lyrics, and in addition I tend to appreciate clever/funny more than heartfelt/sincere. But for some reason "A thousand people I could be for you and you hate the fucking lot" gets me right in the feels, every time. Music's good, too!

You betcha I am! *Somebody* here's got to be the one to nominate, vote for, and write comments about bog-standard mainstream acts that he genuinely, unironically enjoys listening to. (Without being blind to their faults, he feels he should add.)

Night Ranger may indeed be an apt comparison. They're genuinely one of my favourite 80s rock bands (in fact, I nominated "(You Can Still) Rock In America" in a previous Poll :-)), although I'd argue that they were in fact quite good, rising head and shoulders above the "most generic music" crowd.

I really liked the Turnstile track (I guess that means I'm hardcore now?), but I voted Self Esteem, because while I am not sure I actually *loved* I Do And I Don't Care, it certainly grabbed my attention from the first listen and hasn't let go yet.

There are an embarrassingly large number of young female artists who I, being old and unhip and grumpy, am rarely able to tell apart by their music alone. But it is surprising how often, when I hear something in that area that I *do* like, and I check out who the artist is, it's Miley Cyrus. Voted.

Satanized, rather to my surprise, is a wonderful earworm and gets my enthusiastic vote in this group. The vocals are Scorpions-lite, the music is 80s Spinal Tap hard rock 101 with not a single original idea, and for the love of Beelzebub don't get me started on those lyrics. But it's great!

Never thought I'd see the day! I've bounced off Destroyer so many times, but I think this may be the first time that I'm genuinely liking a Dan Bejar song without Carl Newpornographerman's production sensibilities applied to it. Fun title, too.

Broken by the Scream is kind of like Babymetal going through a difficult puberty phase isn't it? I enjoyed Bug as well, but not enough to me make me not vote for the scream.

Isaka is so marvellously chill. Exactly the sort of track I'd never in a million years come across if it weren't for these polls. Makes me very happy.

Aha! So this is where you all went!

I hadn't realised the PPP had been resurrected. I've been missing it *so* much. 2024-25 was one bleak desert of not-discovering-fun-stuff-outside-my-comfort-zone-anymore. Just one listen to the World Cup playlist's already remedied that.

Happy to have you back!