And we’re off! Voting in The Lux Familiar Cup 2023: Baguette Dilemma Round is open for 4 weeks from Sunday 14 May to Sunday 11 June 2023. If you weren’t around in 2019, 2015 or 2011, this round is pretty straightforward. You’ll be presented with two songs. Simply click on the one you prefer. That’s all there is to it! You’ll then get a chance to do it again. And again. And again.
If you don’t know one of the songs, please click ‘skip’, even if you have strong opinions about the other song. Only vote if you know both songs, and have a preference. Give up whenever you like. Come back later and do some more.
If you want to listen to any of the songs before voting…
…there’s an index to them on Spotify here
…and an index to them on YouTube here
Note: CtSO reserves the right to cancel ALL the votes from anyone who votes a ridiculous number of times. Ten votes is fine. A hundred is fine. Even a thousand, if you’re enjoying it that much. But 10,000, as someone with nothing better to do tried last time? That’s a no from us. This is supposed to be just a bit of harmless fun. There are 220 songs, and you won’t see the same song many times, so the chances of you being able to vote a specific song into or out of the top 32 are pretty minimal.
What happens next?
Scoring will be by win percentage, excluding skipped matches. After the voting closes, 32 songs will qualify for the knockout stages starting later in the summer. These will consist of the highest-scoring 6 songs from each of these eras in the band’s history: 1985–1993, 1995–2000, 2001–2008, and 2011–2022 (all have about the same number of songs) …joined by the 8 songs with the highest scores not qualifying through the process above.
- Previous: The Lux Familiar Cup 2023 – Tournament Preview
- Next: The Lux Familiar Cup 2023: Baguette Dilemma Round results
- Feedback: Email Chris at chris@chrisrand.com
Two fat feet (out of retirement)
WHO DARES WAKE ME AT THIS TIME
14 May 2023
D list paul ross
Wasn’t me but props (as the kids say) as always to CTSO for yet another seamless and very enjoyable (apart from the decisions) Baguette Dilemma round.
15 May 2023
Golden biscuit winner
Terminus to win thanks to the full-knee replacement demographic
15 May 2023
TWO FAT FEET
Is there a word for the half hour of so of discombobulation you feel when you realise you accidentally voted for a song you don’t like over one you do, thus wrecking the whole tournament?
15 May 2023
Dick Quax Running Shoes
Any exciting intrigue in the pool games yet? I have had ‘Stavanger Töestub’ facing off against ‘Slight Reprise’.
15 May 2023
Golden biscuit winner
How can Visitor For Mr Edmonds be in there?
And why did someone upload it to Youtube?
15 May 2023
Golden biscuit winner
Bad Losers on Yahoo Chess
Evening Of Swing (Has Been Cancelled)
Skip
Favourite child?
15 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Gulp. I quietly launched this on Saturday, and by Sunday lunchtime it had had about 2000 matches voted on, mainly I suspect from people who’d just stumbled upon it here. Then – after lunch on Sunday – I mentioned it on Twitter, and later in the afternoon, emailed out to recent commenters and subscribers on this site, and mentioned it on a couple of Facebook groups. It’s been highlighted on social media by the likes of Nige Tassell, Andrew Harrison and Robert Bathurst, bless ’em all.
And 24 hours after the first announcement, we’ve already had over 141,000 matches voted on.
15 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Despite votes coming in at nearly ten per second at one stage, things are working out smoothly, I can report. The Top 10 songs at this early point don’t contain too many surprises, nor do the bottom 10. The song with the most ‘skips’ (the least known, I guess) is the one I’d expect. My favourite song is failing to crack the top 50, again, and another from my top 5 is languishing outside the top 100. You bastards.
15 May 2023
EXXO
Bless ’em maybe, but the more folks who forward it on the wider web, the less likely it is that you’ll actually get voters who know every song?
15 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Always a possibility, but there’s no evidence that any significant numbers of people are taking part and making lots of random choices. It’d be a bit boring!
A lot of visitors are giving it one vote then not going any further (presumably as they realise it’s not for them) but the impact of this is minuscule anyway; it’ll be background noise which will not favour any particular song. The vast bulk of voting is from people who’ve made tens or even hundreds of votes already and might well make more. There’s a lot of skipping going on too, which is great.
15 May 2023
Mr Galbraith
Fantastic work Chris, you have made voting on a mobile SO easy that I find myself doing so at almost every opportunity now, at work, walking the dog, queueing in shops etc. I’m definitely racked up my century already!
15 May 2023
EXXO
They won’t tend to be random choices, though. They’ll tend to be choices for whichever they know – and therefore ‘like’ more. Plenty of skipping probably doesn’t mean as much skipping as there should be if one song is unknown.
15 May 2023
schoon
I just voted for Epiphany.
15 May 2023
Jeff dreadnought
I’ve been using this round as an opportunity to re-read the entire thread for each song before voting. It is proving to be an edifying and entertaining exercise and is helping me to make informed choices. It’s going to take a while, though.
15 May 2023
Pete
I don’t know how i got this email about the vote in the first place though i’m not complaining . i did just try to vote but can’t find where to do so .
.. for Albert Hammond Bootleg ..
i actually have one … well it was a release of some of Albert’s music that was unauthorised . i’m still curious as to how HMHB came to write or even think about writing the song
All the best
15 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
You can’t vote for specific songs Pete, in this round there are just random matchups!
15 May 2023
Irish Niall
Is there a set number of pairings that are offered or do we just keep choosing preferences til we’re told it’s dinner time/our turn to cook dinner/bedtime/time to get up/time to go to work/time to get back to work?
15 May 2023
FEATURELESS TV PRODUCER STEVE
I think I know what your favorite is, CtSO, and you can count on me to vote for it every chance I get. (Can you rig this thing to give me more chances to vote for it? I won’t tell anyone.)
16 May 2023
FEATURELESS TV PRODUCER STEVE
And on a note of pedantry, for some reason “I Was A Teenage Armchair Honved Fan” is showing up in the voting as “I was a teenage armchair Honved fan.”
It’s no big deal of course, but given this site’s usual devotion to the tiniest detail of perfection, it’s rather jarring to see it pop up like that.
16 May 2023
Dick Quax Running Shoes
The title of ‘Honved’ appears like that in the 2019 ‘Baguette Dilemma’ Round table, too, when it finished 90th. Who knows what it could have achieved with capitals?
16 May 2023
Brumbiscuit
If we’re going to be even more pedantic, I’d suggest ‘Honvéd’, not ‘Honved’.
On a related note, I get mildy annoyed by football commentators who say ‘Se-vee-ya’ when pronouncing ‘Sevilla’, trying to sound sophisticated. Stick to ‘Seville’ or say ‘Se-bee-ya’, would be my advice. It’s Castilian in Andalusia, mate.
16 May 2023
dr DEsperate
Some South Americans (particularly Argentinians) pronounce the “ll” as “sh”, so Gonzalo Montiel would say “Se-bee-sha.”
16 May 2023
BAD LOSER
As someone who ‘Loves watching Barca’ (after over 40 years going to football matches I saw my first riot at Espanyol on Sunday), I hate it when they say ‘Bay-arin’ and ‘Cucu-raya’ for the former Arsenal right back and current Chelsea left wing-back instead of using the Catalan pronunciation for both.
16 May 2023
dr DEsperate
I’d expect a few more entries from now on, @CtSO: Lammo’s just given a shout-out to the LFC23 on his R6M programme.
Uh-oh – CtSO
16 May 2023
Primark FM
I demand a recount
16 May 2023
EXXO
Haha I heard Lammo mention he would play some HMHB on his show and then I had to go out to play cricket – I suspected somehow that he was gonna spread the word on this and attract more folks that know as many as 6 or 7 HMHB songs but mainly JDOG 😀
16 May 2023
dr DEsperate
They should at least know ‘Left Lyrics in the Practice Room’ now, as he played it before directing his listeners to this website and this competition.
17 May 2023
Exxo
Well anything is possible, in a world where Minnie the Kid Critic appears to have just closed out the Today programme on Radio 4 with some piss-poor reading aloud about Beyonce.
17 May 2023
MULDOON LIVES!
Voting like a madman, not a far journey for me. Please tell me when I can stop.
17 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Steve Lamacq’s shoutout is at 2:25:30 here.
17 May 2023
MULDOON LIVES!
He indeed let the light shine on the lux.
17 May 2023
Golden Biscuit Winner
Not long now until Blur albums are called Darren…
18 May 2023
IRISH NIALL
Anyone else feel deeply conflicted when songs that are similar both thematically and structurally get paired?
I’ve been staring at a prospective monkey knife fight involving RSVP and The Coroners Footnote for about 5 minutes and I just can’t choose.
19 May 2023
professor Abelazar Woozle
Yes, I’ve already had a couple that I skipped because it was easier than making a decision. At least in the Baguette Dillemna stage we can do that…
19 May 2023
IRISH NIALL
I just voted for Oblong of Dreams over We Built This Village On A Trad. Arr. Tune and I feel like I’ve entered some new chapter of my life.
None of this is Kansas Toto. Not one fuckin bit of any of this is Kansas.
26 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Well, we’ve reached the halfway stage and over 300,000 votes, I kid you not. Still two weeks left though, and songs are moving up and down the scoring table, albeit at a decreasing rate, as you’d expect. Every one of the 24,090 combinations of songs has occurred at least twice now, incredibly. Keep voting!
https://lux23.site/
27 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
If you get any of these ties in the next few hours, you’ll probably be just the third human in history to see them paired up. Vote carefully.
£24.99 From Argos v The Bastard Son Of Dean Friedman
99% Of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd v Man of Constant Sorrow
Albert Hammond Bootleg v Oblong of Dreams
Bad Review v Deep House Victims Minibus Appeal
Bad Review v Mars Ultras, You’ll Never Make The Station
Blood on the Quad v Reasons To Be Miserable (Part 10)
Breaking News v On Finding The Studio Banjo
Give Us Bubblewrap v Upon Westminster Bridge
Gubba Look-a-likes v Upon Westminster Bridge
Hair Like Brian May Blues v With Goth On Our Side
Mileage Chart v Monmore, Hare’s Running
Rod Hull Is Alive – Why? v Terminus
Stavanger Toestub v Theme Tune For Something Or Other
Styx Gig (Seen By My Mates Coming Out Of A) v Time Flies By (When You’re A Driver Of A Train)
27 May 2023
Transit full of Keith
Never understood why “£24.99 From Argos” and “Nove on the Sly” didn’t perform better in past Luxes Familiar. They’ve stood up very well in the pairings I’ve been getting. Likewise underrated: “Prag Veg At The Melkweg”, I’d love to hear that get a live outing.
27 May 2023
EXXO
I’m thinking of adding a sweepstake to the Llangollen form where you have to guestimate how many times the phrase “I(‘ve) don’t/can’t/never understand/ understood why” precedes comments about LF Cup ties.
27 May 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Well the rest of us are all enjoying the commentary.
27 May 2023
dr DEsperate
Though I(‘ve) don’t/can’t/never understand/understood why.
(That’s 2.)
27 May 2023