We’re back with another round – 11 songs chosen by our players, and you get to listen and vote for your favourites. This is the playlist post – once you’ve played the tracks go check out the POLL POST.

The theme this time is a very fun one – “NOT THAT ONE!” – songs which have famous titles you might associate with a different track. But it’s not that track, and it’s nothing to do with that track. What is it? That’s why you’re listening!

You’re strongly advised to use the YouTube playlist this week – tracks 2, 3 and 11 on it aren’t on the Spotify one.

There is a Spotify one though!

Here’s our parade of doppelgangers.

1. MACHINEHEART ft VANIC – “Circles”: A single on Columbia (2015)
2. LIL KIM – “Fuck You”: From the Ms. G.O.A.T. mixtape (2008)
3. TUB-THUMPER – “Kick Out The Jams”: A single on Alaska (1974)
4. ERICK THE ARCHITECT ft LOYLE CARNER & FARR – “Let It Go”: From the Future Proof EP (2021)
5. PLASTISCINES – “Loser”: From LP1 (2014)
6. KATE DAVIS – “Monster Mash”: From Fish Bowl (2023)
7. FATBACK BAND – “Night Fever”: From Night Fever (1976)
8. BARBARA & ERNIE – “Play With Fire”: From Prelude To… (1971)
9. LES RYTHMES DIGITALES – “Sometimes”: From Darkdancer (1999)
10. LOVEBITES – “Stand And Deliver”: From Judgement Day (2023)
11. SARAH WEBSTER FABIO – “Work It Out”: From Boss Soul (1972)

We’re back! I was ill over December and into January with a bunch of viral and post-viral maladies which left me bedridden for quite a while and forced me to pare back all organised fun (and writing) to the minimum – basically getting up poll matches before returning to my fainting couch. The League was a sad casualty of this malaise.

But I am – touch wood – a good deal better, so we can restart and get stuck into the final 3 rounds of this season. Which is FINELY POISED, as you’ll see from the results below.

Not that the results of Round 5 were finely poised – far from it. THE SUPERIMPOSERS’ “Chasing Christmas” and Mighty Mark’s “What I Want For CHRISTMAS” were bunched up with the pack but still did enough to get bronze and silver respectively. But NICOLE ATKINS was way out in front with “Every Single Christmas”, a second dominant win in a row for player Mondosalvo!

The results shake up the leaderboard a bit – Joe Kay is now sole leader, but only by a single point ahead of Mondosalvo. Ed Still slips from 1st to 3rd but again, only by one point. Exciting stuff as we get stuck into Round 6, “NOT THAT ONE” (famous titles which aren’t the famous songs).

Round 7 will be a lead in to the Black Pop History Month 1978-1981 poll on Twitter – nominations for which are tomorrow (Sunday 14th) – our players will find 11 more new discoveries from the era for you…

This is the POLL POST for Round 5 of the League Of Extraordinary Tracks – and the theme is 21st Century Christmas records!

Here’s how to vote:

1. Listen to the 11 tracks in the playlist post
2. Choose up to FOUR favourites and vote for them below but –
3. DO NOT VOTE for any tracks you knew before the poll!

That’s all – best of festive luck and thanks as ever to our 11 nominators for their seasonal selections.

HO HO HO it’s the League Of Tracks CHRISTMAS SPECIAL. As his topic pic, Santa Jel chose “21st Century Christmas Records”, and our 11 nominators have brought the festive goods.

As usual this is the Playlist post, and once you’ve listened to these 11 songs – a compact stocking-full at 36 minutes – you should go vote for your favourites in the POLLS post.

For the first time all 11 tracks are on Spotify as well as YouTube so take your pick!

Our line up is:

1. GUILLE MILKYWAY AND THE JELLY JAMM SOUND ORCHESTRA – “Holding Hands Around The World”: from the 2012 compilation A Christmas Gift For You From Elefant Records
2. HI-5 – “…Santa Wear Your Shorts!”: from 2001’s It’s A Hi-5 Christmas
3. NICOLE ATKINS – “Every Single Christmas”: a 2020 single!
4. METROPOLE ORKEST ft CARO EMERALD – “Something For Christmas”: from 2017’s MO x Caro Emerald by Grandmono EP
5. SARAH NIXEY – “Christmas Without You”: a 2012 single!
6. THE SUPERIMPOSERS – “Chasing Christmas”: from 2011’s Christmas Again! If You Want It EP
7. MIGHTY MARK – “What I Want For CHRISTMAS”: a 2023 single!
8. THE X-MISSES – “She Gave Me Hell For Christmas”: from 2018’s Christmas Reminiscences
9. KACEY MUSGRAVES & LEON BRIDGES – “Present Without A Bow”: from 2016’s A Very Kacey Christmas.
10. IRMA THOMAS – “Christmas Without The Creole”: from the 2004 compilation Christmas Gumbo
11. CHILLY GONZALES ft JARVIS COCKER & FEIST – “Snow Is Falling In Manhattan”: from 2020’s A Very Chilly Christmas

A tricky theme caused nominators some difficulty but listeners had less of a problem this week, with a very clear winner in the side projects and line-up changes round.

Third place went to New Order offshoot THE OTHER TWO but! this was in fact a ringer put in by me to replace a missing track so it scores no points (sorry Mark!). So the bronze actually goes to synthpop rivals PROPAGANDA with the song from their difficult second LP. Silver goes to EKKAH, the side project of two Arcadian Kicks members. And the runaway winner this week was V/Z with “Habadash” – a collaboration between Valentina Magaletti (V) and Zongamin (Z) which is also a 2023 jam, always nice to see those do well.

Congratulations to Mondosalvo on snagging those 12 points, which puts him into joint 3rd on the overall leaderboard, while at the top previous sole League Leader Joe Kay is joined by Ed Still. Halfway through and things are still very tight…

Round 5 is our Christmas Special, with 11 21st Century Christmas songs to pick from – that’ll be up later today. Round 6 will be “No, not that one” – tracks which share a title, but nothing else, with a very famous song. Russ Abbott’s “Atmosphere”, your time is now.

Here’s where you can vote in the latest round of the League Of Extraordinary Tracks! Our theme this week is ALL CHANGE! – line-up changes, collaborations, and side projects.

How to join in? It’s simple:

1. Go to the Playlist Post and hear the 11 new tracks.
2. Vote for UP TO FOUR of your favourites but remember – you should only vote for songs you didn’t already know!