A kung fu fighter in a disco

Another experimental format, but of course. Check back every half hour as I count up to the WINNAH. 19 voters in total - about as much as for the Pop World Cup later rounds. I am hoping for higher totals in the Pop Open! But my workload caught up with my marketing (and reviewing!) skills so this was more of an epilogue than a climax to the League.

In fourth place...: TRACK 4: M2M - "Our Song", chosen by koganbot: 2 1st place votes, 4 2nd place votes. In his email when he submitted the song Frank mentioned that he'd sent it to a lot of people before, and indeed this was the only one I even theoretically knew.

In third place...: Track 1: DESTRA - "Independent Ladies", chosen by alexmacpherson: 4 1st place votes, 5 2nd place votes. A bold choice from the Lex, I thought, though this isn't as frenetic as most Soca. I was pleased to see it do well - led the field when I counted the first ten voters.

In second place...: Track 3: COOKIE CREW - "Born This Way", chosen by jeff_worrell: 6 1st place votes, 3 2nd place votes. My personal favourite of the four, keeps its infectious momentum going to the end.

In first place...: Track 2: HERBERT - "Moving Like A Train", chosen by inhibitorylinks: 6 1st place votes, 5 2nd place votes. The best individual performer in the League of Pop and so a worthy winner here, this was the most interesting and more-ish of the tracks for me, but ran out of steam (boom boom) towards the fifth minute. Even so would have got a 2nd place from me.

Well done Scott and thanks to the other three finalists.

Tomorrow you'll get five sexxxxxy traxx (ahem), anonymised and ready to vote on. If I can sort out some streaming media nonsense I will but I'll put them up as a zip too. GIRD YR LOINS.

OK, here's how this works:

1. Download this 25 Mb zipfile: http://www.sendspace.com/file/h96dqj

2. Listen to the tracks. Decide which you think are the two best ones.

3. Tomorrow I will post a poll and you can vote in it.

4. You can comment here or on the poll.

5. PLAYERS: Please do not reveal which track is yours!

Question: is 25Mb too much for a single download? I need to know for the Pop Open - if necessary I can cap the bitrates at 192 and keep the totals down that way.

Pop Open: 17 out of 41 tracks in - no single group filled as yet! Keep them coming!

fugitivemotel brings the curtain down on the Pop Premiership - triumph and heartbreak lurk below...the cut.

"i really enjoyed listening to all of these and it was hard to rank them. there were a couple of tracks that i absolutely hated on first listen which grew on me and which i actually liked by the time i ranked them (track 11 for example!) and some tracks which i quite liked at first but couldn't stand after a few listens (like track 1). there was a lot of variety here, and a lot of stuff i would never normally hear, but i really enjoyed it and would actually listen to it as a compilation cd.

anyway, without further ado, here's my rankings:

( The Verdict )

Results and reveals in a couple of hours.

blue_russian hands out the final scores. Who's won? Let's find out:

"Thanks to everyone for their submissions. The headline news is as follows: st least three teams went down in defeat, three teams played well but found our defense well- prepared. The other five of you, well, we'll see how the ref calls them...

( The Verdict )

Reveals at half-one-ish, I think, but maybe later.

The Judge is IN. dubdobdee says:

"So thx everyone and well done finding me stuff i didn't know -- not as hard as you might think, my knowledge is all big unexpected holes. Glee-count: high! Surprise-count: low but one definite mystery. Economy-count: haha 2 songs at or over the ten-min mark and one at nearly 7! Write-abt count: well about half of this stuff I could have written lots more about. Can't-write-about count: hmmm, we shall see shan't we?

( The Verdict )

To compound this week's tension I have left i. the track list and ii. my league table at home. However I will try and cobble together a reveal at four-ish.

There's been a fairly steady flow of final-week tracks. I'm not going to do anything with them until Sunday, when I have some free time at last, but get them to me when you can! I'll put the Chart Champ results up when I get them.

koganbot takes the witness stand:

"OK, here's where I tell you why if you're someone who doesn't download and listen to the League Of Pop zip files you're an incredible chump: It's because - for instance - the three songs I would excitedly collar people and tell them they have to listen to, and let's form a band that sounds like this, are TRACKS FOUR, FIVE, and ELEVEN, none of which took a winner's spot, and one of which even finished in last place! League Of Pop is even better than the Pop World Cup for prying open my sense of what's possible in the world of music. (Also demonstrates that Brits be strange, but that's a different subject.)

People have said here that the tracks early in the mix have an advantage over the others, tend to have a stronger impact. I find just the opposite: I like whatever I've heard most recently. So what I do is reorder these on my player in what I think is my order of preference, listening last to the ones I supposedly like least, then realize I like them more, move them up over the tracks that precede them, listen to those again, realize I like them more, move them up, listen to the others, then realize I like those others more, and round and round. This is why December year-end lists are total madness for me. Right now TRACKS ONE, THREE, and SIX are in a dead heat for the final winners' slot. Think I'll end up choosing the one least likely to knock me out of the playoffs with the most immediate emotional impact, but I won't know for sure until I hit send.

( The Verdict )

Admin: We are low on tracks for this week! Also my net connection at home is currently very erratic - if it stays that way I'll be able to download everything but may not be able to Sendspace it until I'm at work on Monday, sorry Mark and Mike. I will send reminders out today or tomorrow, and blue_russian and fugitivemotel, you need to get me the - gasp! - FINAL INTROS for Monday too.

Reveals shortly after Frank comments on the thread for the first time, since it's only fair he gets to see what everyone makes of everything before the curtain is pulled back.

Quick thinking required this week as bank holidays mean there's only a four-day turnaround. In the Pop Prem dubdobdee is aiming for a play-off place at least, whereas in the Chart Championship epicharmus gets the chance to play kingmaker. And you get the chance to play Kingmaker at him.

( Introducing dubdobdee )

( Introducing epicharmus )

Chew on that, submit yr tracks, get them to me by Friday if poss, leagueofpop@gmail.com, erm that's it.

[Poll #980780]

byebyepride pronounces! (I also have the Pop Prem results - want me to post them after I get back from lunch, or tomorrow?)

"Well like most competitors, I was absolutely thrilled to get the tracks, and amazed by how accurately most people had managed to gauge my taste. Obviously some of my track choices over the competition have been a giveaway, but I suspected my blurb last week wouldn't have been particularly useful. So thanks to everybody, and sorry I couldn't give all your tracks top marks! On first listening I think I liked all of them immediately -- except for one -- although a couple aren't standing up to repeated attention. A few stood out, but the middle and lower grounds were tough to pick apart. Anyway, over to the hotline in the newsroom where the results are coming in…

( The Verdict )

I am not exactly awash in Week 10 tracks, so keep them coming!

There might be a delay in the LoP week 9 sendouts - I've been too busy to send reminders and I've only just got round to collating the tracks. ALSO I totally forgot to ask for intros for next week's players :( Well, 8 weeks of smooth running isn't bad considering! In the meantime here's the standings after Week 8.

This week (last week) Played Won-Drew-Lost Points

( Standings )