A long-time favorite artist of mine, on both a professional and personal level, is The Frontier, the music project of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jake Mimikos. Based in northern Virginia, the talented, gracious and hard-working guy skillfully blends elements of pop, folk, rock and electronica to create memorable and pleasing songs about love, relationships and loss. Delivered with comforting pitch-perfect vocals, Jake’s lyrics are honest and relatable; there’s just something about his songs that makes them so addictive, and I’ve found that they continue to grow on me more with every listen.

Since 2015, he’s released an impressive number of songs, and I’ve loved them all. Three – “Dark Places”, “Can We Go Back” and “Closer” – have reached #1 on my Weekly Top 30 charts, while “Sleep” and “It’s You” both reached the top 4. His latest single, “Walk Through The Fire“, now becomes his fourth single to top my chart. Serving up three minutes of infectious toe-tapping grooves and beautiful jangly guitar notes, the song is a plea to a loved one for a second chance: “Everyone falls sometimes. Dying to stay alive. Everyone has their fight. It’s how we walk through the fire.”

In other notable chart developments, the beautiful “Francesca” by Hozier moves up three spots to #3. A whopping four songs enter the top 10, the first of which is the poignant auto-biographical song “ONE MORE TIME” by pop-punk veterans Blink-182, which is also the highest-debuting song this week, entering my chart at #7. The other three, all of which advance 4 spots, are “Daydreams and Algorithms” by British artist Eleanor Collides, at #8, “Loving You” by L.A. dream pop band Cannons, at #9, and “Running Out of Time” by Tennessee pop-punk band Paramore, at #10. For a second week, “HONEY (ARE U COMING)?” by Italian rock band Måneskin, is the biggest upward mover, jumping 10 spots to #11. And finally, besides Blink-182’s new song, the other debut is the wonderful “Evicted” by Chicago alt-rock band Wilco, which enters at #30.

1. WALK THROUGH THE FIRE – The Frontier (2)
2. KISSES – Slowdive (1)
3. FRANCESCA – Hozier (6)
4. DIAL DRUNK – Noah Kahan (5)
5. GOOD VIBRATIONS – MISSIO (3)
6. OVERRATED – dwi (4)
7. ONE MORE TIME – Blink-182 (N)
8. DAYDREAMS AND ALGORITHMS – Eleanor Collides (12)
9. LOVING YOU – Cannons (13)
10. RUNNING OUT OF TIME – Paramore (14)
11. HONEY (ARE U COMING?) – Måneskin (21)
12. ODYSSEY – Beck & Phoenix (7)
13. WHEN WE WERE CLOSE – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (16)
14. BAD IDEA RIGHT? – Olivia Rodrigo (17)
15. SAY YES TO HEAVEN – Lana Del Rey (8)
16. PINEAPPLE SUNRISE – Beach Weather (9) 21st week on chart
17. OVERCOME – Nothing But Thieves (18)
18. PULL ME THROUGH – Royal Blood (19)
19. UNDER YOU – Foo Fighters (20)
20. CALL ME WHAT YOU LIKE – Lovejoy (10)
21. FORGIVING TIES – Deer Tick (11)
22. MY KINDA GIRL – The 23s (23)
23. DARLING – Western Jaguar (24)
24. THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND – Bad Omens (25)
25. HOLD ME LIKE A GRUDGE – Fall Out Boy (26)
26. CANNONBALLERS – Colony House (15)
27. MORE THAN A LOVE SONG – Black Pumas (28)
28. SUMMER OF LUV – Portugal. The Man feat. Unknown Mortal Orchestra (29)
29. THE SHAMEFUL – Amongst Liars (30)
30. EVICTED – Wilco (N)