Brian Lambert is an affable, thoughtful and talented singer-songwriter from Denton, Texas who refers to himself as a “Friendly Neighborhood Rock and Roller”, and is also one of the most prolific musicians I know of. When Covid put a halt to playing live, he challenged himself to writing, recording and producing a new song every week for a year, an ambitious feat he went on to accomplish in 2021. Since then, he’s continued his prodigious output, writing and recording numerous songs both as a solo artist and in collaboration with a host of other musicians, including his frequent musical partner Marc Schuster (with whom he also has a side band called The Star Crumbles).

His lively, eclectic sound runs the gamut from rock’n’roll, indie folk and garage rock to grunge, punk and synthpop. In addition to a dizzying array of singles, he also released a terrific album Wild in September 2023 and EP Everything’s a Business in June 2024. I’ve featured him many times on this blog, most recently this past January when I reviewed his single “Take This Heart“. Inspired by the 90’s music of some of his favorite bands like Soul Asylum, the Goo Goo Dolls and Better Than Ezra, “Take This Heart” is a smoldering, foot-stomping garage rock banger of a love song. Brian wrote the music and lyrics, played all instruments and self-produced the track. I love it, and am pleased to finally place it at the top of my latest chart.

Entering the top 10 are “The Night Before” by The Black Keys, “Straight to the Ground” by Northern-Ireland rock act Unquiet Nights, and “Walls” by English singer-songwriter Frank Joshua, at #s 8, 9 & 10, respectively.

There are two new additions this week, the first of which is “Basic Being Basic” by Djo, the music project of American actor Joseph David Keery, known for his roles as Steve Harrington in the Netflix series Stranger Things and Gator Tillman in the fifth season of the crime drama series Fargo. The song is from his third album The Crux, which was released April 4th. His sleeper hit song “End of Beginning”, which went viral on TikTok and has been streamed over 1.4 billion times on Spotify, spent 15 weeks in my Top 30 last year, and ranks #43 on my 100 Best Songs of 2024 list. Djo is about to embark on a 36-date tour of the U.S. and Europe that will start in Salt Lake City on April 21st.

The second new entry, debuting at #30, is “Porcelain (Losing All My Patience)” by Irish alternative indie rock band Somebody’s Child, fronted by the charismatic singer-songwriter Cian Godfrey. The beautiful song is from their wonderful second album When Youth Fades Away, released on March 28th, and accompanied by an endearing video showing Godfrey singing and dancing to the song in London’s Waterloo Station. I don’t normally include videos for other songs on my charts other than the one at #1, but this one’s so charming I want to share it.

1. TAKE THIS HEART – Brian Lambert (3)
2. IMPOSTER SYNDROME – Fake Empire (1)
3. RUSHMERE – Mumford & Sons (4)
4. METAVERSE – Cage the Elephant (5)
5. TIME WAITED – My Morning Jacket (7)
6. PEOPLE WATCHING – Sam Fender (2)
7. SAME OLD SONG – The Lumineers (6)
8. THE NIGHT BEFORE – The Black Keys (13)
9. STRAIGHT TO THE GROUND – Unquiet Nights (11)
10. WALLS – Frank Joshua (12)
11. WITHOUT A DOUBT – Charm School (10)
12. SO COLD – Balu Brigada (9)
13. LUTHER – Kendrick Lamar & SZA (14)
14. BAD LARRY – Cloakroom (16)
15. MORTAL WOUND – The Veils (17)
16. THE TURNAROUND – DelCobras (18)
17. IT’S AMAZING TO BE YOUNG – Fontaines D.C. (19)
18. BAD DREAMS – Teddy Swims (8)
19. SNAKESKIN – NAVE (22)
20. POOR SAD INDIE EVERYTHING – Icarus Phoenix (23)
21. ANKLES – Lucy Dacus (24)
22. LAREDO – Leon Bridges (27)
23. WHO’S A FRAUD? – Still Traffico (15)
24. ARCHBISHOP HAROLD HOLMES – Jack White (26)
25. BARBARIAN – AWOLNATION (28)
26. YOU’RE MY DRUG – Talk in Waves (20) 19th week on chart
27. THE LINE – Twenty One Pilots (21)
28. THE FAITHFUL HEART – Wons Phreely (25) 21st week on chart
29. BASIC BEING BASIC – Djo (N)
30. PORCELAIN (LOSING ALL MY PATIENCE) – Somebody’s Child (N)