One of my favorite Canadian artists is dwi, the music project of singer-songwriter and instrumentalist Dwight Abell, an immensely creative, talented and imaginative guy with a totally original sound and an endearingly quirky vocal style that make his music so uniquely distinctive. Based on the outskirts of Vancouver, British Columbia, he’s also the longtime bassist for Canadian alternative/power pop band The Zolas. He’s released two phenomenal albums – Mild Fantasy Violence in October 2021, which explored feelings of disconnect from the everyday normalities of relationships, addiction, politics and environmentalism, and Zoo Life this past July, which addressed Dwight’s childhood experiences in foster care, which he equates with being “taken away to a zoo”. (I reviewed both albums, which you can read here and here.)

One of my favorite songs from Zoo Life is “Overrated“, an incredibly infectious track featuring a poweful foot-stomping groove, gnarly bass, spacey synths and dwi’s wonderfully-crazed vocals as he ticks off a number of popular things in culture, like VR, Top Gun, licorice and 69, as well as passion, anger and temper, he feels are overrated. I love the song so much it’s risen to the top of my latest Weekly Top 30 chart. It’s his third song to top my chart, the previous two being “Good Friend” and “Party4One”. The surreal video shows dwi as a kind of gaming character, reflecting his life-long love of video games.

In other chart developments, “Good Vibrations” by another favorite act of mine, Austin, Texas-based MISSIO, enters the top 10 at #10. The biggest upward movers this week are “Cannonballers” by Tennessee indie rock band Colony House and “Forgiving Ties” by Rhode Island alternative folk-rock band Deer Tick, both of which jump six spots to #16 and 17, respectively. The sole debut, at #30, is “Pull Me Through” by British rock duo Royal Blood. The song is from their newly-released fourth studio album Back to the Water Below, which dropped September 1st.

1. OVERRATED – dwi (3)
2. PINEAPPLE SUNRISE – Beach Weather (1)
3. SAY YES TO HEAVEN – Lana Del Rey (2)
4. KISSES – Slowdive (6)
5. CALL ME WHAT YOU LIKE – Lovejoy (5)
6. THE NARCISSIST – Blur (4)
7. PUPPET SHOW – Beck Black (7)
8. BONES – HEALER (8)
9. WALK THROUGH THE FIRE – The Frontier (9)
10. GOOD VIBRATIONS – MISSIO (12)
11. LAST TIME EVERY TIME FOREVER – Grian Chatten (11)
12. ORBIT – Gooseberry (13)
13. DIAL DRUNK – Noah Kahan (14)
14. ODYSSEY – Beck & Phoenix (15)
15. FRANCESCA – Hozier (16)
16. CANNONBALLERS – Colony House (22)
17. FORGIVING TIES – Deer Tick (23)
18. DAYDREAMS AND ALGORITHMS – Eleanor Collides (21)
19. PSYCHOS – Jenny Lewis (10)
20. DAYLIGHT – David Kushner (20)
21. WHAT WAS I MADE FOR? – Billie Eilish (24)
22. LOVING YOU – Cannons (25)
23. RUNNING OUT OF TIME – Paramore (27)
24. WHEN WE WERE CLOSE – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (28)
25. BAD IDEA RIGHT? – Olivia Rodrigo (29)
26. OVERCOME – Nothing But Thieves (30)
27. VAMPIRE – Olivia Rodrigo (17)
28. WHY – Future Theory (18) 20th week on chart
29. RESCUE ME – Dirty Heads (19) 22nd week on chart
30. PULL ME THROUGH – Royal Blood (N)