#TheTwen2ie5 Day 35 16. CASSÖ x RAYE x D-BLOCK EUROPE - ”Prada” (23, UK) The second greatest stuck at No 2 hit of the decade, a smash and grab dance track which crams a whole messy night into 2 minutes 13 seconds youtu.be/zFMYL0XQ3lA?...

You have until TONIGHT (or realistically Tuesday morning) to vote in these! The B Sides especially deserve your attention :)

They are the Bash Street Kids of rock (albeit not as cool)

Found some unused Waterstones gift cards (!) which quickly became used Waterstones gift cards

IDK if I was 16 but sometime in my teens I had a brief phase of imagining I was a sensitive soul who would never enjoy going to the pub

Watching THE LOWDOWN (which is terrific) and this came on the soundtrack (also terrific, A1 use of music) and I immediately thought "this is the kind of thing @helenehoffman.bsky.social wins @peoples-pop-polls.bsky.social Golden Beats with" www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pTC...

Generation Reynolds Girls and proud of it (I like FM now tho)

Blog update: In February 1986, Andrew Eldritch reached the indie number one spot with a record put out to prohibit Wayne Hussey from using a Sisters of Mercy related band name. Effectively a legal block on 45, it's as dull as reading dense legislation, but the drama behind it; that's another story.

#TheTwen2ie5 Day 34 17. LIA LIA - “I’m A Moth!!” (22, Germany) She’s a moth!! youtu.be/T7zHk_IQHow?...

And here's the #BPHM8285 B-SIDE FINAL GROUP - exactly the same deal, 32 songs, pick your fave 10 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

#BPHM8285 It's the FINAL GROUPS of BLACK POP 1982-1985 32 songs, pick and (ideally) rank the best 10 of them for me to countdown next week Here's the A-SIDE selection docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

#TheTwen2ie5 Day 34 18. PINKPANTHERESS - “Illegal (Nia Archives Remix)” (25, UK) PP’s charming retro-00s bubblegum is moreish enough on its own but greatly enhanced by Nia Archives throwing the kitchen sink at it youtu.be/h-VvUPp6BgE?...

It's quietly reached this stage without my needing to promote it but a shout to my MAIN NOMINATION "365 Is My Number / The Message" by King Sunny Ade, am acoustic ditty where the bottom falls out and takes you into gorgeous ambient dubspace, first time I heard it I thought it must be a modern remix!

it’s the EUROVISION VOTING bit of the Black Pop 82-85 poll - pick your favourite 10 bangers from the final 32 (and then do it all over again for the B-Sides)

I had a fairly miserable realisation about AI and individual harm which is that for pro-AI people the assumption is that this technology is like the automobile - society will ultimately arrange itself around it, which includes tacitly accepting some level of mass casualties

In your heart you know you want to hear Janet doing some bangers more than some nonsense about a spider

lmao this is incredible, strong contender for one of the least useful charts ever made you could do this with anything, draw a straight trend line plus one exponentially up and one exponentially down average baseball fastball pitch speed in 2050: 0mph, 105mph, or 1000000mph

Not now, carnivorous death ball

#TheTwen2ie5 Day 32 19. SHO MADJOZI - “Chale” (23, South Africa) The “shooting in the gym” part is apparently a lift from Drake, making this ecstatic banger the guy’s most valuable and significant contribution to music youtu.be/Ut3lDyGoqVU?...

It's over: I've already depicted you as the seething broad gauge train, and myself as the smug narrow gauge!

hahaha Pat Mills for sure

I have applied SCIENCE to this match and concluded that Straight Outta Compton has four bangers, which beats Full Moon Fever's zero bangers

Major hurdle to the publication of Discourse 2000 1978 lifted ie I have finally brought myself to re-read Ant Wars, a powerful statement against racism expressed via doing a lot of it

A cool detail in The Cursed Earth is that the origin of SATANUS the T Rex is “cloned to be in a theme park but escaped and ate everyone” and this multi decade franchise hook is thrown away in a panel so Mills can get to the *really* fun stuff

Still on a mid 80s BBC crime classics tip after #EOD, I watched the first episode of the Joan Hickson MISS MARPLE - JH’s “I have chosen to live my life surrounded by idiots and the price I must pay is solving their murders” performance is great

#TheTwen2ie5 Day 31 20. NEWJEANS - ”Ditto” (23, South Korea) Production as delicate and shimmery as the skin on a soap bubble, this seemed like nothing for a few listens then suddenly I loved it youtu.be/Km71Rr9K-Bw?...

Watching the MONSTER anime, it’s so interesting which scenes work better and worse than the manga, top marks for making the children’s book actually creepy for instance

LAST CALL for votes in the A Side play offs - I’ll close them tomorrow

I have good news for Americans enjoying freakouts on X - we are now nine years into our most famous city being run by a friendly Muslim guy and the far right are still incapable of being normal about it even for a single day

I’ll take the goofy Bible stories and sexy basslines please

Every year we get closer to this happening on the news

#TheTwen2ie5 Day 30 21. GIRL K - “Girl K Is For The People” (21, USA) Anthemic indiepop banger - it should have been a huge hit! (so that it could be covered 30 years later in the Live Lounge in a style designed to bleach all hope from the human soul) youtu.be/RFrtycvVwnI?...

Actually one of the weird things in the article I read about it was the marketing guy saying (of last year’s AI effort) “look it tested well” which is surely the truth but a bit of a “marketers only say this when they’re VERY distressed” moment

Coke’s money saving claim for its AI commercial is weird in that they could just spend nothing, put out the pre-existing trucks ad and get exactly the same results, and we know this cos that is what they in fact did for about 25 years

#CoOpPlays Pet Shop Boys - Flamboyant, well this was a lovely surprise

The lesson is clear, american politicians must seek the approval of jadakiss on an individual basis.

Last set of polls before the final groups - if anyone still has unfulfilled Freak requirements then there’s a great opportunity for you in match B4

Watched Edge Of Darkness Pt 1 #EOD - really does feel like you’re watching a modern period drama, I kept having to remind myself that no, they hadn’t got the hair and cars “just right”

Oh, Dick Cheney died? Well-- *sees Bluesky mod around corner* What's really important is championing the open protocol.

#BPHM8285 It's the B-Side Play-Offs in BLACK POP HISTORY 1982-1985 16 tracks going head to head to fill the last 8 slots in the B-Side Final Group, and you get a bonus pick too. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

#TheTwen2ie5 Day 29 22. MEGAN THEE STALLION - ”Her” (22, USA) Cobra is picking up votes and will get an HM from me, but my favourite solo Megan track is this swaggering take on hip-house, a wonderfully cool miniature that leaves me wanting more every time youtu.be/u_v2Rv4l-C0?...

John Lewis used to release their Christmas ad imperiously late in November, how the mighty have fallen

OK but I can in fact believe 250k people were embarrassed enough to use a VPN to stream Drake

#BPHM8285 It's Play-Offs time in the BLACK POP HISTORY 1982-1985 poll 8 head-to-heads, make your choices for the tracks you want in the final group docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Finished SILO S2, so clearly very bingeable! Quite a lot of fannying around wasting the lead character's time and "aah but what about the power behind the power behind the power behind the throne" stuff but whatever, enough thrill-power there to be enjoyable

I spent my money on computer games, comics and D&D books and tended to rely on the radio and my mates for music so this was a late start. Who finally got me to part with money for a record? The thinking man's Limahl of course

#TheTwen2ie5 Day 28 23. DAVE X CENTRAL CEE - “Sprinter” (23, UK) Dave & Cench solve the male loneliness crisis by trading corny one liners over a lushly mournful Spanish guitar beat. Was baffled by this one’s popularity at first, then came to love it youtu.be/pSY3i5XHHXo?...

ah great Primal Scream are back.