First of all, apologies for the delay in posting these results – I had a big backlog of admin (and actual work!) following a bout of illness last week. Fortunately I’m feeling better now and the League can move into its final round – but first, the RESULTS of Week 7.

It was another tightly packed round with the eventual winner pulling ahead thanks to the final voter. But I’m happy to announce the medals – BRONZE goes to Michelle McAdorey’s meandering, mesmeric “Mona”. SILVER goes to Natalia Lafourcade and her epic “Azul”. But the winner this week is ASHA PUTHLI with “Lies”, her 1973 cover of the J.J.Cale track.

As you’ll see from the table, once again our Gold medal nominator is ACTUALEE SIMPSON – which puts him on an outrageous 74 points from a possible 84, a full 25 ahead of his nearest competitor with only 12 to play for. In other words – and it’s been the likely outcome from week 3 or so – we have a League Of Pop Season 1 Winner.

Prize announcements will wait for next week, but let me just mention now that the tournament design was absolutely not meant to allow this kind of run – Actualee is just that good at picking obscure Golden Beats. Huge congratulations!

Of course there’s still one more chance for everyone else to get a gold – the Week 8 Finale which is songs from this year. That will be up tomorrow morning for an extended run. The medal-winning songs in that will automatically go through to the January World Cup Of 2023 – no nominations needed.

This is the Week 7 poll for the League Of Extraordinary Tracks! How do you take part?

FIRST! Go and listen to the songs chosen in the playlist post.

SECOND! Exclude from consideration any that you already knew!

THIRD! Work out which FOUR songs (or up to four) you like best!

FOURTH: VOTE FOR THEM!

This poll will run until Saturday 6PM UK time – plenty of time, but don’t miss out.

Then come back next week for the GRAND FINAL in which our nominators choose songs from 2023.

Poll fans of the universe, I am delighted to return from holiday with WEEK 7 of the League Of Extraordinary tracks! This penultimate round is all songs with four letter titles and as with the original 4 Letter Words poll I’ve arranged the playlist in straightforward alphabetical order. Both Spotify and YouTube are complete but if there are gaps where you are let me know in the comments.

Once you’ve listened to these excellent selections make your choices in the poll post.

1. NewJeans – “ASAP”*: From 2023’s Get Up EP
2. Natalia Lafourcade – “Azul”: From 2009’s Hu Hu Hu
3. Lo-Fi-Fnk – “City”: From 2006’s Boylife
4. Neneh Cherry & The Thing – “Dirt”: From 2012’s The Cherry Thing
5. Kristin Hersh – “Hope”: From 1998’s Strange Angels
6. The Marias – “Hush (Still Woozy Remix)”**: Remix of a track from 2021’s Cinema.
7. Laura Jean – “June”: From 2014’s Laura Jean
8. Asha Puthli – “Lies”: From 1973’s Asha Puthli.
9. Pinkshift – “Mars”: From 2021’s Saccharine EP.
10. Michelle McAdorney – “Mona”: From 2000’s Whirl.
11. Raavi – “Nora”: From 2020’s Don’t Hit Me Up.
12. The 2 Bears – “Work”: From 2012’s Be Strong.

*- Abbreviations are fine if they sing it as a word in the song, which NewJeans do at least once.

** Remixes are fine as long as the title change is confined to the parentheses, as here!

We’re back! I had an excellent holiday and return with renewed RESULTS POSTING VIGOUR, so let’s see the outcome of the 2008 poll.

It was a tight one, which makes the points allocation feel especially unfair, but that’s the nature of the game – a very closely packed round.

The bronze – and the 8 points – go to Baltimore Jacks for Danez vs Rifhes’ glitchcore take on New Order. Silver goes to actualee simpson for Camille’s “Canards Sauvages”, moving him tantalisingly close to victory. But Dan Bright-Amaya still has a mathematical chance of overtaking him, and gets his first DOUZE POINTS for Buika‘s hit “No Habrá Nadie En El Mundo”. Congratulations to Dan and Buika and a hearty thankyou to all our players.

Round 7, Four-Letter Words, will be up on Sunday.

LEAGUE OF TRACKS ADMIN!: I’d hoped to only have one skip week on holiday but it looks like that won’t be the case. So we’ll be back with Four Letter Words in two Sundays’ time, and 2023 the week after that. The upshot of that, though, is that I can keep this one open for longer – so I’ve extended it over the weekend. Tell your friends! If you’re a 200-and-h8er tell your enemies too!

This week’s poll takes us back to 2008 – a turbulent year, and a controversial pop poll which led to the “MGMT Clause” to prevent two tracks by the same band meeting in the semi-finals ever again. Today’s poll is however a MGMT-free zone, as our nominators have dug up a bunch of hopefully new-to-you tracks.

As usual, please vote for UP TO FOUR of these songs. And only vote for tracks you DIDN’T PREVIOUSLY KNOW.

To actually hear them all, check out the playlist post

This week we’re revisiting the year 2008 – a decade-and-a-half (and an extensive pop poll) behind us, how does it look and what can we still unearth? Our nominators have risen to the challenge with a dozen tracks. Two of them are either YouTube-only or only on Spotify in some territories, so don’t miss out on those! Once you’ve had a listen, go vote in the poll post.

1. WALE – “The Opening Title Sequence” (from The Mixtape About Nothing)
2. SPARK IS A DIAMOND – “Check Your Lease, You’re In Fuck City” (from Try This On For Size)
3. FREE BLOOD – “Quick And Painful” (from EP1) – only on Spotify in some regions
4. THE HELIO SEQUENCE – “Can’t Say No” (from Keep Your Eyes Open)
5. DANEZ vs RIFHES – “See U Falling” (from Geekcore Vol.1) – not on Spotify
6. MORGAN GEIST – “Most Of All” (from Double Night Time)
7. LIL BOOSIE – “I Ain’t Comin’ Home Tonight” (from Lil Boosieanna)
8. SOMEONE STILL LOVES YOU BORIS YELTSIN – “Glue Girls” (from Pershing)
9. ROY HARGROVE – “Starmaker” (from earfood)
10. AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB – “All My Love” (from The Golden Age)
11. BUIKA – “No Habra Nadie En El Mundo” (from Nina De Fuego)
12. CAMILLE – “Canards Sauvages” (from Music Hole)