Mic Waters

Sodium Day (🇿🇦 2018).

A sketchy comedy about a class in a struggling South African school. It was a bit ragtag, but still fairly funny, and it's always interesting to see different aspects of the world.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCxE...

Phew, I was beginning to worry that Christine was a teaser for "Expert in a Dying Field"! Which would've been almost as... traumatic as your Sopranos teaser! (I will never listen to "WAP" the same way again.)

Hmm, no Doctor Who this Christmas. Maybe it's time to face The 12 Days of Christine again.

Ah, and here's my, uh, song 101!

Only fell out of contention on the very last day because I had another Chappell Roan pick, and because I felt she might just not need another 5 points, so I could give them to a new / borderline song.

I saw this popping up regularly in the picks, so I revisited it... and immediately thought "Why isn't this in my top 50!?"

I almost HM'd it in October, but I left it till the end because I thought that, y'know, Dua Lipa might not need boosting...

Not a bad first day, fair amount of variety, 5/6 Neil Kulkarni & 5/6 Ice Spice compliant, yeah?

None of my picks yet, but one 11 down (disappointing) and one 10 (obscure, unsurprising).

(Fingers crossed but) Looking forward to even more variety and even some of my picks over the next few days!

Yeah, I may be setting myself up for an overload there...

And tbf, Saeed hasn't had the time to update his own playlist either! So I was just putting the extras songs in a queue, and then I thought "Oh, maybe some other people would like to hear these too."

45 best Arabic songs of 2025 so far

<Some months later> Doing that thing where I try to listen to every song from 2025 in time for end of year lists, so I added a dozen more of Saeed Saeed's picks to a playlist.

Think Saint Levant's "Exile | معاكي" (evocative!) and Bosa's "A new shore | Shatt Gadeed | شط جديد" (dreamy!) are my faves.

Oh, I thought this was just going to be a clip, I didn't expect the whole thing! Thanks!

There's a new version of The Big Fight on Netflix now. I was worried it might be modernised and shmaltzified, but it's actually modernised but still faithful - and it's got a really fun English dub too.

And here's my #theTwen2ie5 flag parade (only for the top 50 I'm afraid):

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
🇰🇷🇰🇷🇰🇷🇰🇷🇰🇷
🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸
🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬
🇸🇪🇸🇪🇯🇵🇯🇵🇬🇭🇬🇭🇹🇷🇹🇷
🇦🇴🇦🇺🇨🇩🇨🇱🇪🇬🇫🇷🇮🇲🇮🇳🇲🇾🇳🇦
🇳🇱🇳🇿🇵🇹🇵🇾🇸🇩🇹🇭🇹🇿🇺🇦🇻🇳🇽🇰

And finally, the traditional playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/3Xp...

I should post my #theTwen2ie5 honourable mentions. Well, here's my whole 100 in fact. Almost all of my HMs were already picked by other voters, and several were exciting new discoveries. Thanks all!

Yeah, I was hoping to find some new tunes in the "medium vote range" - but there was no medium vote range! Think I only got a third of the way through your 2025 playlist alone - and I fear several of the 2025 tunes I HM'd only had one vote.

(Though there were of course many good picks. *Many*.)

I almost dropped John Vuli Gate because I thought it might be a wasted HM - I think it only had one post? But then I thought that other people might be thinking the same thing, so...

And <whispers> I'm not a _huge_ fan of Atmos Blaq, but it looked like it was on the brink, and I do like it, so...

Good selection! Akira is obviously a classic of the artform. And I don't think I've actually ~watched~ Asterix in Britain... but if you asked me for my four favourite novels of all time...

I guess this was an especially memorable night - I went there several times, but my other memories are more - fragmentary. Definitely saw Timo Maas there. Must've been to some d'n'b nights too. I recall being freaked out by the unisex toilets (weird!). And tea and bacon rolls in a market caff after.

So banging that I can still remember it 25 years later! Proper mind-blowing / mind-expanding / my god, it's full of stars stuff.

It's also the first time I heard Fischerspooner's "Emerge", and the only time I heard a particularly hammering version of "The Roof Is on Fire" that I never found again.

Name your top 4 80s films:

Blade Runner [Ridley Scott, 1982]
The Breakfast Club [John Hughes, 1985]
Kiki's Delivery Service [Miyazaki Hayao, 1989]
Twin Peaks [pilot] [David Lynch, 1989]

Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you've been to:

Dave Clarke [Fabric, 2000]
Pulp [Magna, Rotherham, 2002]
Orbital & Doctor Who [Glastonbury, 2010]
Eurovision 2013 [Malmö, Sweden - we stayed in Copenhagen, er, Denmark]
ABBA [London, 2022]

The I Feel Love of our times. The sun rising, the speaking in tongues, the emergence from isolation. The times, the places, the world, the future, the now.

✨🌟12 points🌟✨

#theTwen2ie5 #50
"Osama"
Zakes Bantwini, Kasango
Sep 2021 🇿🇦
youtu.be/CNUnzNLEkKA
NK✔️IS✔️

Seems to me that the Hasbro version's wearing a facemask and surgical scrubs... and is that even a tiny headtorch?

Because, y'know, he's a ninja... *consultant*.

I'm in London. You're in Paris. Let's pick a spot with easy access. Like - Marseilles!?

But it's not about the destination, it's about the journey.

⭐It really is 11 points long⭐

#theTwen2ie5 #49
"Somewhere near Marseilles [マルセイユ辺り]"
Hikaru Utada
Jan 2022 🇯🇵🇺🇸
youtu.be/_FL7ahAmdp8
NK✔️IS❌

Lest anyone thinks I've gone all folksy.

(Wait. What? Ukrainian what? Ukrainian fo-!?)

Now, more than ever, Слава Україні. Героям слава!

⭐11 points⭐

#theTwen2ie5 #48
"Shum [Шум] [Eurovision version]"
Go_A
Mar 2021 🇺🇦
youtu.be/U7-dxzp6Jvs
NK✔️IS✔️

Can't argue about Heat, but there's only four films from this century on the list!

What would you've picked instead? (Gonna add some of these to my watchlist.)

I kinda feel that there's a very specific number of points I should give a band named f5ve...

Is it the critics' choice because it's long and autobiographical? Dunno, I just know the telling holds my attention so well that I don't notice it's been going on so long.

⭐It's 11 points long⭐

#theTwen2ie5 #47
"All Too Well [10 minute version]"
Taylor Swift
Nov 2021 🇺🇸
youtu.be/tollGa3S0o8
NK✔️IS✔️

Just posting my second CMAT pick and I suddenly realised I forgot to reply! Sorry!

Yeah, I really thought she'd be safely through. Shows what I know.

I also posted a first set of bonuses at the halfway point, hoping to encourage votes, but similarly no noticeable effect. Shows what I like...

The ABBA-esque piano and the ohh-oh-ohs tell you it's all about to go wrong, and then the gaslighting begins and the self-recrimination but where could you turn now? May as well keep on for

⭐11 points⭐

#theTwen2ie5 #46
"I Don't Really Care for You"
CMAT [#2]
Feb 2021 🇮🇪
youtu.be/maxmLGDbqBQ
NK✔️IS✔️

And yet more of my favourite things!
* Female singers!
* Not in English!
* Gorgeous, glittering electropop!
* People's pop!

#theTwen2ie5 #45
"Meherbaan [मेहरबान]"
Reet Talwar
Feb 2023 🇮🇳
youtu.be/3pro1m-bRJw
NK✔️IS✔️

That's true... and conversely, I'm not sure how strategic my bonuses for Cha____ will be!

Think I'll meet you halfway with this, meet you at the HMs.

(Is that a wasted HM? Not sure that'll get it anywhere near the line. But I still want to say "I like this too!" Maybe I could just reply to your pick and literally say, uh, I like it too!)

Burial: truly the double chicken nugget of pop!