Bleachers – Rollercoaster
Jack Antonoff, putting the fun. into the pop side project.
Peach – On My Own
Hooked on classics: charting pop music's use of Symphony No.5 by Jean Sibelius. Wait, come back!
The Blue Nile – Headlights on the Parade
Niall on the 'Nile. It had to happen eventually.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Don’t Come Around Here No More
Pop stars: leading more interesting lives than you and I since, well, forever.
Five Star – There’s a Brand New World
1988, and Five Star become a Leather Proposition.
Birdie – Folk Singer
Summer is coming.
Japan – The Art of Parties
1981. There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?
SHeDAISY – Passenger Seat
In any other industry, a knock-off might be considered a bad thing. In pop, as Dan Poliak explains, it's often anything but.
Alphaville – Forever Young
First there was the Power Ballad. And then, thanks to Alphaville, came the NUCLEAR POWER BALLAD.
AC/DC – Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Dan Poliak, invoking the memory of the Spice Girls to make a point about AC/DC and the Fist Pump Anthem. Business as usual then.
Mint Juleps – Docklands
Girl Power, a decade early: it's the brilliant Mint Juleps.
The Boomtown Rats – Never in a Million Years
No more champagne and the fireworks are through - the holiday season may be over, but Stewart can still spare a thought for a song that was lost in the Christmas rush 34 years ago.
St. Lucia – Dancing on Glass
Behold! Into the Popvoid's Single of the Year for 2015: the very wonderful St. Lucia and the amazing "Dancing on Glass".
The Divine Comedy – Our Mutual Friend
We've all woken up in a stranger's bed with a sense of deep shame. Only The Divine Comedy would dare set that to an orchestra.
Mew – She Came Home For Christmas
Disturbing talk of blindfolds! Family trauma! CHIME-Y BITS! It's a Mew Christmas... *books flight to Denmark*
Low – Just Like Christmas
Christmas time is here -and there's no better way to kick it off than with a faintly depressing song about snowfall not amounting to very much. The gorgeous, timeless and plain brilliant Just Like Christmas by Low.
Parralox – Sharper Than a Knife (Pete Hammond Remix)
In which we imagine a PWL theme park, complete with a rampaging gene-spliced Sinitta.
Heart – Magic Man
America had loved them for a decade, but in the UK there was a total eclipse of Heart until 1987.
Chromeo – Lost On the Way Home (feat. Solange)
A (chart) countdown conundrum for the ages: why isn't Solange a superstar?
La Roux – Let Me Down Gently
Pop abhors a vacuum, so it's a brave person who takes five years to follow up their debut album. Stewart on the bulletproof (but not time-proof) La Roux.
