It's ok for once, but clearly, it can only happen once.
It was tough finding a favourite song to nom, most of them have been nommed before.
Just pick a good song. What's the deal with "favourites" ? There is 60 years worth of popular music to choose from (rock, etc) plus all kinds of weird shit, niche music (dance, blues, jazz, classical, etc), experimental stuff, electronic, etc…
People who struggle finding a nom for the open theme can make it easier for themselves by pretending the theme is "Songs that begin with the letter K" or "Songs released in the year 2004"… FMD, what's the issue?
I have a radical yet simple approach to voting. I give my votes to the songs I like best.
TBH, I don't understand why people (music-lovers) are so stuck on "favourite songs" like they're ice-cream flavours or football teams.
I don't really understand how people can rank their "favourite songs" with any degree of accuracy. It's not like we're measuring competitors in the long jump. I usually have a few songs which I could 5, 4 or 3 votes to. Splitting them becomes very arbitrary. I'll give bonus points to a new song, or a "virgin nom", or to a great old song I haven't heard in years and forgotten all about.
There's a shitload of music which does something for me and there's a shitload of music which does nothing for me. And this changes all the time. I don't really have a fixed opinion on music. I may remember that I love Black Sabbath or AC/DC and hold a soft spot for heavy rock from the 70's and 80's, for example. But that doesn't mean I love each song with the exact same amount of fervour every time I listen to them.
Something I liked last week/last month/last year/20 years ago may not have the same effect on me if I listen to it today. My taste changes over time. My moods change all the time. There's no science to it.
Some songs are great on 1st/2nd/3rd listen but lose their lustre with repeat listens. Other songs are growers. Some music seems impenetrable the first few times you hear it, but then it becomes clear on the 5th or 6th listen. Songs I once put in the "hate" category turn out to be not bad at all when I listen years later. (For me, Culture Club's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" is an example of this from a previous round.)
I reckon I "hated" and "loved" music when I was young, but as the years tick by, this all evens out. I tend to be less extreme and pick the good & bad from all types of music.
So I can't really relate to Plugger35's stated approach where he doesn't bother listening to the songs he "already knows" and turns his nose up at most of the unfamilar stuff and basically votes on memory.
I don't mean to sound pretentious or over-analytical about it, but saying "I give my votes to the songs I like best" is simplistic. That's what we all do. We all just have our own way of arriving at that conclusion.