I love synthpop songs with a good dance groove, and the collaborative single “Essence”, by young Danish DJ and electronic house music producer Refeci and Canadian-American singer-songwriter and musician Shimmer Johnson, fits the bill quite nicely. The mesmerizing song holds the #1 spot on my chart for a second week. The Foo Fighters‘ exhilarating “Rescued” remains at #2 for a second week after spending three weeks at #1. Sliding into third place is the beautiful “Leaving” by Michigan singer-songwriter Au Gres (aka Joshua Kemp), and “Why” by supremely talented British alt-rock band Future Theory moves up to #5. Olivia Rodrigo‘s biting “Vampire” (pun fully intended) enters the top 10 at #9.

Two wonderful songs make their debut this week. Entering at #28 is the hauntingly beautiful “Daylight” by American singer-songwriter David Kushner. A relative newcomer to the music business, in just a year and a half, his songs have already racked up more than 725 million streams on Spotify alone, thanks to some of them going viral on TikTok (a platform I rarely look at, but is far and away the most popular for young people). In an interview with webzine Paper, Kushner remarked “TikTok has played the biggest role in my music career. It started as a fun thing. I definitely had not planned to market my music. …after writing “Miserable Man”, I decided to just leak the song on the platform. I didn’t expect that the next day I’d wake up to a couple hundred thousand likes. Not even a few weeks later, “Mr. Forgettable” did the same thing. At that point, I knew that TikTok would be a powerful tool to be able to connect with new people.”  Released in April, the gospel-like “Daylight” has already been streamed over 387 million times on Spotify.

The second debut is “I Don’t Believe In You” by Texas-based singer-songwriter Brian Lambert, entering at #30. The powerful song, which I reviewed a month ago today, is a reimagining of the original track written and performed by Jr Moz Collective (aka singer-songwriter Mike Mosley, who played guitar, bass and synths on the track, with drums by Paul Prater).

1. ESSENCE – Refeci & Shimmer Johnson (1)
2. RESCUED – Foo Fighters (2)
3. LEAVING – Au Gres (4)
4. RESCUE ME – Dirty Heads (3)
5. WHY – Future Theory (6)
6. PINEAPPLE SUNRISE – Beach Weather (7)
7. THE NARCISSIST – Blur (8)
8. PSYCHOS – Jenny Lewis (10)
9. VAMPIRE – Olivia Rodrigo (11)
10. NOT STRONG ENOUGH – boygenius (5)
11. IN MY HEAD – Mike Shinoda & Kailee Morgue (9)
12. HELLO – GROUPLOVE (12)
13. WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE – Joy Oladokun & Noah Kahan (15)
14. STUCK – 30 Seconds to Mars (16)
15. PUPPET SHOW – Beck Black (17)
16. SAY YES TO HEAVEN – Lana Del Rey (21)
17. KID – The Revivalists (13)
18. EAT YOUR YOUNG – Hozier (14)
19. EMPTY NEST – Silversun Pickups (18)
20. SPELLBINDING – The Smashing Pumpkins (23)
21. BONES – HEALER (24)
22. WALK THROUGH THE FIRE – The Frontier (25)
23. ORBIT – Gooseberry (26)
24. OVERRATED – dwi (27)
25. LAST TIME EVERY TIME FOREVER – Grian Chatten (28)
26. CALL ME WHAT YOU LIKE – Lovejoy (29)
27. GOOD VIBRATIONS – MISSIO (30)
28. DAYLIGHT – David Kushner (N)
29. DUMMY – Portugal. The Man (20)
30. I DON’T BELIEVE IN YOU – Brian Lambert & Jr Moz Collective (N)