One of my best new finds of 2022 is the young British singer-songwriter Charley Hullah, who goes by just his last name, stylized as HULLAH. I learned about the handsome and talented London-based artist as a result of being a guest moderator for the BBC Music weekly song competition Fresh On The Net, for which he’d entered his single “Chasing Trains”. I loved the beautiful song the moment I heard it, and chose it as one of my five top picks out of the 170 entries. (Three others of those top five have also appeared on my Weekly Top 30: “Deception” by Hannah Reem & Noodle Beard, which reached #1 in late April, “The Hurt Within” by Holy Coves and “La Cienega” by Chief Springs, which is still on this list.) Now in its 15th week on my list, I’m thrilled to finally place “Chasing Trains” at the top. HULLAH’s compelling lyrics, haunting melody, sparkling atmospheric synths and ethereal vocals are gorgeous, and I love this song more with every listen.
In other chart developments, Two Feet moves up three spots to #3 with his smoldering song of desire “Tell Me The Truth”, and Florence + the Machine, The Black Keys, Harry Styles, Spoon, Sam Fender and Bob Moses continue to dominate the top 10. Caamp climbs three spots to #9 with their lovely “Believe”, Weezer‘s optimistic “A Little Bit of Love” also moves up three to #11, and Lizzo‘s delightful “About Damn Time” leaps 14 spots to #12. Making their debut this week are “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)” by Arcade Fire, and the brilliant “Lin Manuel” by New York-based indie rock band Onism E.
CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (2)
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (1)
TELL ME THE TRUTH – Two Feet (6)
WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (3)
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (4)
WILD – Spoon (5)
SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER – Sam Fender (8)
BLOODRUSH – The Amazons (10)
BELIEVE – Caamp (12)
LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (9)
A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE – Weezer (14)
ABOUT DAMN TIME – Lizzo (26)
2am – Foals (15)
SLEEP – Gooseberry (7)
SYNCHRONIZE – Milky Chance (17)
THAT’S WHERE I AM – Maggie Rogers (18)
LA CIENEGA – Chief Springs (11)
VIRGINIA (WIND IN THE NIGHT) – The Head and the Heart (13)
SHUT OFF THE LIGHTS – Bastille (16)
CLOSER – The Frontier (22)
LONELY – Sea Girls (23)
BEDS ARE BURNING – AWOLNATION feat. Tim McIlrath (24)
THE FOUNDATIONS OF DECAY – My Chemical Romance (25)
ON MY KNEES – RÜFÜS DU SOL (19)
IN THE MIRROR – The Interrupters (28)
WARNING SIGNS – Band of Horses (29)
DISTANCE – Mount Famine (20)
DESPERATELY WANTING – Brian Lambert & Marc Schuster (30)
No matter how often I listen to “My Love” by Florence + the Machine, my love for it (no pun intended) only grows stronger, and the gorgeous song maintains a firm grip on the #1 spot for a third week. Moving up two notches to #2 is “Chasing Trains” by London singer songwriter HULLAH, another beautiful song I never tire of hearing. In other notable chart movements, my favorite artist Two Feet jumps six spots to #6 with his darkly sexy “Tell Me The Truth”, and Ohio band Caamp leaps 10 spots with their lovely song “Believe”.
Three new songs make their debut this week: “About Damn Time” by Lizzo, her first ever appearance on my chart, enters at #26. I know she’s one of the most popular artists around today, but none of her previous songs have really appealed to me until “About Damn Time”, and I can’t resist its infectious 70s dance groove. At #29 is “Warning Signs” by the wonderful Band of Horses, whose songs never disappoint. And bringing up the rear is “Desperately Wanting”, a haunting collaboration by prolific and talented singer-songwriters BrianLambert and Marc Schuster.
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (1)
CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (4)
WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (2)
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (5)
WILD – Spoon (6)
TELL ME THE TRUTH – Two Feet (12)
SLEEP – Gooseberry (3)
SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER – Sam Fender (9)
LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (7)
BLOODRUSH – The Amazons (11)
LA CIENEGA – Chief Springs (8)
BELIEVE – Caamp (22)
VIRGINIA (WIND IN THE NIGHT) – The Head and the Heart (10)
A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE – Weezer (16)
2am – Foals (17)
SHUT OFF THE LIGHTS – Bastille (18)
SYNCHRONIZE – Milky Chance (19)
THAT’S WHERE I AM – Maggie Rogers (20)
ON MY KNEES – RÜFÜS DU SOL (13)
DISTANCE – Mount Famine (15)
THE HURT WITHIN – Holy Coves (14)
CLOSER – The Frontier (24)
LONELY – Sea Girls (25)
BEDS ARE BURNING – AWOLNATION feat. Tim McIlrath (26)
THE FOUNDATIONS OF DECAY – My Chemical Romance (29)
ABOUT DAMN TIME – Lizzo (N)
DECEPTION – Hannah Reem & Noodle Beard (21)
IN THE MIRROR – The Interrupters (30)
WARNING SIGNS – Band of Horses (N)
DESPERATELY WANTING – Brian Lambert & Marc Schuster (N)
Florence + the Machine‘s cinematic “My Love” holds the #1 spot for a second week, while TheBlack Keys‘ “Wild Child” remains at #2. Brooklyn band Gooseberry climbs a notch to #3 with their wonderful “Sleep”, and London artist HULLAH moves up to #4 with his ethereal and moody “Chasing Trains”. British band The Amazons‘ “Bloodrush” climbs four spots to #11, Two Feet jumps seven spots to #12 with his smoldering “Tell Me The Truth”, and Caamp’s “Believe” leaps eight spots to #22. Two songs make their debut this week – the epic “The Foundations of Decay” by My Chemical Romance, their first new music in eight years, and the buoyant “In The Mirror” by Los Angeles ska punk band The Interrupters, entering at #29 and 30, respectively.
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (1)
WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (2)
SLEEP – Gooseberry (4)
CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (5)
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (3)
WILD – Spoon (6)
LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (7)
LA CIENEGA – Chief Springs (8)
SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER – Sam Fender (10)
VIRGINIA (WIND IN THE NIGHT) – The Head and the Heart (9)
BLOODRUSH – The Amazons (15)
TELL ME THE TRUTH – Two Feet (19)
ON MY KNEES – RÜFÜS DU SOL (11)
THE HURT WITHIN – Holy Coves (13)
DISTANCE – Mount Famine (14)
A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE – Weezer (17)
2am – Foals (18)
SHUT OFF THE LIGHTS – Bastille (20)
SYNCHRONIZE – Milky Chance (21)
THAT’S WHERE I AM – Maggie Rogers (22)
DECEPTION – Hannah Reem & Noodle Beard (12)
BELIEVE – Caamp (30)
ANIMAL – Partisan (25)
CLOSER – The Frontier (27)
LONELY – Sea Girls (28)
BEDS ARE BURNING – AWOLNATION feat. Tim McIlrath (29)
I LOVE YOU – Fontaines D.C. (16)
WHAT, ME WORRY? – Portugal. The Man (23)
THE FOUNDATIONS OF DECAY – My Chemical Romance (N)
Vulture Party is a Scottish three-piece who, in their own words, play “disquieting Alt Pop for the socially conscious“. Based in Falkirk, a smallish city located roughly halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh, the band consists of Louise Ward, David King and Dickson Telfer. Having both a male and female vocalist deliver their thought-provoking lyrics also gives their already fascinating sound even greater nuance and depth.
They released their debut single “New Humans” in 2019, followed a few months later with “Sun Dance”, then dropped their eponymous debut album Vulture Party in April 2020, just as the pandemic turned the world upside down and brought everything to a crashing halt. Undeterred, they began writing and recording songs for their second album Archipelago, and in July 2021, they released “Afterlife”, the first of a series of singles to be included on Archipelago. They followed up with “Iso Disco” this past January, and now return with “Blood Wolf Moon“, the third single off the forthcoming album, to be released later this summer on the not-for-profit independent record label Last Night From Glasgow.
About the song, the band explains “‘Blood Wolf Moon’ is a contemporary take on European werewolf folklore where, through isolation and lack of human connection, people were labelled as outcasts, leading to their basic need for love not being met. Our theme for the song and music video is a werewolf searching for human contact and finding love through music and dance. Despite the subject matter, the tune is upbeat and buoyant, influenced in part by European dance and pop.”
Musically, the song calls to mind some of the great European dance-pop songs of the 80s, with its deep, pulsating bass and drum-fueled beat, overlain with sweeping, almost psychedelic synths, sparkling keyboards, edgy guitar notes and crisp percussion. Louise and David’s intertwining vocal harmonies are really marvelous too. I love this type of synth-heavy dance music, and “Blood Wolf Moon” fills the bill quite nicely.
The delightfully silly video, filmed, directed and edited by Neil McKenzie of Keep it Creative, shows Louise as a campy werewolf who’s also a big Dolly Parton fan, sneaking around and trying to take part in a line dancing society event where David and Dickson are participating. She finally succeeds in the end, fitting in with the other dancers.
I love the music of British band Florence + the Machine. Fronted by singer-songwriter Florence Welch, their sound is a glorious blend of indie rock, baroque pop, folk, art rock and soul. Their gorgeous song “My Love” takes over the #1 spot on my Weekly Top 30. The third single from their new album DanceFever, Welch told Rolling Stone that she initially envisioned the song as a “sad little poem” to be performed acoustically, but later transformed it into a number she describes as “Nick Cave at the club.” In an interview with BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show, she commented “Sometimes the biggest dance songs, I think, have a really sad core to them.” The song was co-written by Glass Animals vocalist Dave Bayley, with whom she collaborated on Dance Fever along with Jack Antonoff. The video for “My Love” was directed by Autumn de Wilde, who also directed the videos for the previous two Florence + the Machine singles “King” and “Heaven Is Here”. In the video, Welch is shown performing a concert in a pretentious nightclub, where she hypnotizes and immobilizes people, then arranges them in dances. Very baroque and cinematic.
In other chart developments, the songs at #s 3-7 remain in their same positions, while two beautiful songs – “Virginia (Wind in the Night)” by The Head and the Heart and “Seventeen Going Under” by Sam Fender – enter the top 10. Debuting this week are “Beds Are Burning”, a terrific remake of the Midnight Oil classic by AWOLNATION, featuring guest vocals by Rise Against lead singer Tim McIlrath, and “Believe” by American folk band Caamp, making their first appearance on my Weekly Top 30.
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (2)
WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (1)
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (3)
SLEEP – Gooseberry (4)
CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (5)
WILD – Spoon (6)
LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (7)
LA CIENEGA – Chief Springs (10)
VIRGINIA (WIND IN THE NIGHT) – The Head and the Heart (11)
SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER – Sam Fender (12)
ON MY KNEES – RÜFÜS DU SOL (13)
DECEPTION – Hannah Reem & Noodle Beard (8)
THE HURT WITHIN – Holy Coves (14)
DISTANCE – Mount Famine (16)
BLOODRUSH – The Amazons (17)
I LOVE YOU – Fontaines D.C. (9)
A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE – Weezer (20)
2am – Foals (21)
TELL ME THE TRUTH – Two Feet (25)
SHUT OFF THE LIGHTS – Bastille (22)
SYNCHRONIZE – Milky Chance (23)
THAT’S WHERE I AM – Maggie Rogers (24)
WHAT, ME WORRY? – Portugal. The Man (15)
BROKEN HORSES – Brandi Carlile (18)
ANIMAL – Partisan (28)
BLACK SUMMER – Red Hot Chili Peppers (19)
CLOSER – The Frontier (29)
LONELY – Sea Girls (30)
BEDS ARE BURNING – AWOLNATION feat. Tim McIlrath (N)
For my final review that I’ll be writing for the foreseeable future, I’m featuring an amazing band with a fascinating name, Onism E. The brainchild of California-born, Texas-raised and now New York City-based singer-songwriter Eline Chavez, the term “Onism” can be defined as “The awareness of how little of the world you will actually experience.” Inspired by groundbreaking female rockers like Joan Jett, Bonnie Raitt and Melissa Etheridge, Eline draws from her experiences living in vastly different places to create her own distinctive style of edgy and soulful indie rock, expressed through her honest, often biting lyrics and fierce vocals.
To help deliver her message, Eline has enlisted three talented Texas musicians – Chris ‘Lefty’ Vargas on guitar, Chris ‘CeeRod’ Rodriguez on bass, and Raj Arenas on drums. The energy and inspiration they contribute helps elevate Onism E to even greater musical heights, and together, their warm, welcoming approach and riveting live performances have enabled them to form a strong positive relationship with their fans. Since the release of their debut single “Love You More” in August 2019, they’ve dropped several more outstanding singles, as well as an album Survivors in February 2021. Now they’re back with a brilliant new single “Lin Manuel“, a song inspired by Eline’s struggles of trying to make it as a musician during the uncertainty of the pandemic.
The song is darkly beautiful and melodic, with a moody, almost progressive vibe. The arrangement and instrumentation are pretty spectacular too. CeeRod lays down a sensuous throbbing bassline, while Raj keeps pace with his flawless drumming that goes from restrained to explosive and back again. Then there’s Lefty’s gorgeous intricate guitar work, which is positively mind-blowing. Wow, this man can play, coaxing shimmery notes, wobbly psychedelic riffs and screaming distortion from his six-string, seemingly with ease. All this incredible music serves as a dramatic backdrop for Eline’s powerhouse vocals, which she delivers with an impassioned conviction that’s downright chilling. “Lin Manuel” is a magnificent track in every sense of the word.
I asked Eline why she chose to name the song after the talented singer-songwriter, composer, playwright and actor, to which she kindly responded: “I’ve always found Lin [Manuel] an inspiring individual. He’s been one of those people that just kept going and working to make his dream happen. As an indie artist, I gravitate towards people like him because his story resonates with me. It’s about the everyday struggle where I question my place in this industry – ‘What am I doing? Should I keep playing? Should I keep working towards this goal?’ I know it’s a common artist struggle but during the pandemic, that voice got louder and I started questioning my next steps. I kept thinking…what would Lin do right now, what would Tom (Petty) or Bruce (Springsteen) do? The answer was always the same. Keep going. Keep writing. Keep believing.”
Those sentiments are beautifully articulated in her poetic lyrics: “Broken glass and shattered ceilings, I’m still waiting for my season they tell me you will one day see. But darkness comes and darkness goes, and I’m still all alone here with my dreams. / Lin Manuel reminded me that freedom comes at a cost for those who believe in. But I’m so scared of failing, I rarely sleep, I rarely sleep. And we’re all just working for better days, but sometimes I wanna scream!“
Skar de Line is the solo music project of singer-songwriter, producer and composer Oskar Abrahamsson, a talented, handsome, thoughtful and creative artist born and raised in Sweden and now based in London, England. Fascinated by the concept of boundaries and the human obsession for self-understanding, he fuses his love for cinematic soundtracks by such composers as Hans Zimmer, Junkie XL and Ramin Djawadi with hip-hop, rock and electronic metal to create dark, unconventional music that takes the listener on a sonic adventure while giving us a lot to think about. He writes, performs, records and produces all his own music, as well as writing, directing and editing all his music videos.
In October 2019, Skar de Line released his debut single “In Charge”, a fascinating orchestral electronic song about the human need to understand and control our surroundings, followed a year later by “Satisfied”, which explored the concept of satisfaction, posing the question “do we get satisfaction from being right, or merely by the act of searching for what we think we want?” The intensely dramatic song ended up spending 10 weeks on my Weekly Top 30 from January through March of 2021. (I reviewed both singles, and you can check them out by clicking on the Related links at the end of this post.)
Now he’s back with another single “Reset“, a dark and cinematic song that sees him continuing to explore new musical sounds by pushing beyond his comfort zone. He explains that the song “is built on my need to be better. A wish to constantly evolve, but also a fear that nothing ever will be enough. This is a journey out of this mental prison, in order to try to find something that I believe in, something I can hold on to forever.” He further elaborated on his Instagram page “Does every circle, even the ones we’ve created ourselves, hold us back? No matter how positive they are meant to be? As I looked around the room, I knew myself well enough to know that in my search to be better, this moment was just a phase, and would not mean anything in the next moment once I’ve grown beyond it. But I didn’t know if I really could accept that and let that happen, or if I, in this moment, could be more than that… Just take what I needed from myself.“
“Reset” opens on an eerie note, with sounds of Skar de Line’s echoed breathy gasps, which are soon accompanied by a distant rumbling bass and gently ticking drums as he sings in a rather ominous voice “Every time I open my eyes I kill an old version of mine. But I’m not a murderer, no, I’m a maker./ Every time I close my eyes, I am already set to reset.” From there, the music gradually builds as the breathy gasps continue, with the addition of dark orchestral synths and sharp percussion, creating a strong aura of tension along the way. His vocals turn more menacing as the tension continues to build, finally exploding into a bombastic cinematic crescendo, highlighted by a hauntingly beautiful angelic chorus that he states serves to “lift us out of the darkness“.
The brilliant video, filmed mostly in black and white and sepia tones, pays homage to the neo-noir black-and-white art style, and reflects the claustrophobic sentiments expressed in the lyrics. Skar de Line is dressed in black amidst a dark background, representing him feeling deeply trapped in the dark mental prison from which he wants to break free. His mind’s eye envisions a setting sun in a world of color, symbolizing a sense of freedom that still eludes him, and pushing him to fulfill his wish to climb out of this cycle that holds him back.
Not a lot of changes from last week on my latest Weekly Top 30. The Black Keys hold at #1 for a second week with their raucous “Wild Child”, while Florence + the Machine‘s “My Love” closes in at #2. British five-piece Chief Springs enter the top 10 with their lovely song “La Cienega”, named after the famous boulevard that runs through West Hollywood and Los Angeles. The lone new debut this week is “Lonely” by British band Sea Girls, who’ve been around since 2015, but I sadly didn’t learn about until a few weeks ago.
WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (1)
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (3)
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (2)
SLEEP – Gooseberry (6)
CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (7)
WILD – Spoon (8)
LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (5)
DECEPTION – Hannah Reem & Noodle Beard (4)
I LOVE YOU – Fontaines D.C. (10)
LA CIENEGA – Chief Springs (13)
VIRGINIA (WIND IN THE NIGHT) – The Head and the Heart (16)
Follow No One is the collaborative music project of two highly accomplished musicians from different parts of the world, with two completely separate musical backgrounds – singer/songwriter and pianist Rich Hall, who’s originally from Nashville, Tennessee, but now based in Denver, Colorado, and guitar virtuoso Pedro Murino Almeida from Lisbon, Portugal, but with roots in Brazil. Rich began performing at a young age in theater, but found his true calling in writing and performing music. Pedro was classically trained in music composition, with a successful career involving his own musical acts, and his work has been featured in film and video.
Influenced by such rock giants as Dream Theater, Alter Bridge, Foo Fighters, Queensryche and Styx, to name but a few, they draw from the classic hard rock that defined an era, while adding a fresh approach to create their own distinctive sound. Working remotely from their respective home bases in Denver and Lisbon, the duo released their debut EP, simply titled “5“, in September 2017, featuring five hard-hitting tracks (here’s my review). They followed up with several singles over the next few years, including an excellent cover of David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans” (which especially resonates with me at the moment, but I digress). In 2019, Follow No One was named Best Rock Act at the Nashville-based Josie Music Awards, the world’s largest all-genre, privately-owned award show.
Rich Hall & Pedro Murino Almeida
Now they return with their first full-length album FATE, a monumental concept work based on Hall’s real-life and near-death experiences that tested his faith, endurance and will to live. The album is an epic rock opera of sorts, featuring 17 tracks, 11 of which are songs and the other six spoken word pieces that drive the storyline forward. FATE‘s overarching theme is predicated on the question “If you lost everything you had, would you just give up or fight like hell to get it back?” The various tracks follow Hall’s journey from the depths of despair that culminated in a life-threatening health incident, to his self-redemption and healing that followed to get him to where he is today.
The album opens with “The Beginning Is in the End“, a spoken word piece that begins with sounds of someone gasping for air making a 911 call, then hanging up. We soon realize it’s Hall in a severe state of distress, recalling some important events in his life as he stares death in the face. Those events include happy times like the birth of his first son and his early career success (to which his father comments “You’re a lucky young man. This is one helluva place you got here, son. Just keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll be fine. But, if you want my advice, enjoy your time at the top of the mountain. You may not always be here“), as well as the devastating news that his wife is leaving him and taking their two sons with her.
Next, we’re launched headlong into the hard-rocking “No Happy Ever Afters“, in which Hall bitterly laments of feeling betrayed and abandoned, his life now in tatters: “Take everything you have, and all that you hold dear, and watch it disappear. It’s just me we’re talking about, but I don’t think we’ll ever speak again.” Almeida’s guitar-playing prowess is on full display as he lays down scorching hot riffs, backed with pummeling rhythms and explosive percussion. They keep the aural onslaught going full throttle on the appropriately blistering “Drowning in Fire“, which is followed by a spoken word interlude “Adding Insult to Injury” that chronicles Hall’s life spiraling out of control from destructive behaviors, and isolating himself from others to the point where his father sends the local police to check in on him.
As the album progresses, Hall’s story unfolds with the telling of the rupturing of a major blood vessel in his throat, detailed in the song “Hanging by a Thread” and spoken word track “ICU – Can You See Me“, in which his doctor tells him of the severity of his condition. Realizing he nearly died, Hall has an epiphany “You were on a hell of a ride, but soon you may be dead. Now you’re in that moment where the memories of your life are passing by. Better hope the man pulling the strings, is pulling for your side.”
He starts coming to terms with his life as it now exists and contemplates the path he must take going forward on “Erase Me“. A year later, his sanity reaching the breaking point, he just wants to run away from his pain, which he lays out on the exhilarating rocker “Just Drive“: “Ok, take a deep breath and just remember: Every mile you go is one mile away from where you were. So fuck it, just drive!”
Now we arrive at the title track and centerpiece of the album, “Fate“, an anthemic rock ballad in the style of some of the great rock ballads of the late 80s. Almeida’s guitar work is especially magnificent here, and nicely accompanied by Hall’s beautiful piano and keyboards. His vocals are particularly moving as he plaintively ponders whether all the hardship and pain he’s going through is pre-determined or totally random “Is it fate, that makes our tomorrow? Is it me, that determines it all? Could it be, through the pain and the sorrow, there is no choice at all?”
Hall’s journey toward his recovery and self-improvement encounters a few setbacks along the way. On the very poignant “No Christmas Without You“, he’s left heartbroken at the prospect of facing another Christmas alone, without his sons. This pain is expressed on the hard-rocking “Million Miles Away“, with Hall lamenting about how he feels that, no matter how much he’s moving forward, he still feels farther away than ever. “A million miles away, is not far enough to keep my heart away. The closer I am, the further you are to me.” For this track, bass was played by Tony Franklin, and Hall’s son Reagan sang backing vocals.
Hall takes on his depression on the spoken-word “Just a Dream“, a conversation with his father who also suffered from the mental illness, and the song “This Bastard“, giving a name to the emotional foe he vows to vanquish. Once again, Almeida lays down some blistering riffs, making this a pretty good rocker. On “Never Surrender“, he sings of not giving up and letting his problems and depression defeat him. Things are finally looking up as he picks his sons up at the airport when they arrive for a Christmas visit on “Airport – Reunidos“. I like how he tells them about his new music project with Almeida when they get in the car.
FATE ends on an optimistic note with “Let Love” a beautiful, cinematic rock anthem about the healing powers of love. Reunited with his sons, Hall jubilantly sings of how love, faith and forgiveness helped him to survive and find happiness. “I forgive you, I still love you / You know that anything’s possible, as long as you learn how to survive. Keep your dreams alive, there is nothing to stop you now. Now that you’ve learned how to die.” Almeida’s guitar work is spectacular, accompanied by Hall’s gorgeous piano and soaring strings that make this song one of the highlights of the album.
With FATE, Hall and Almeida have created an epic work of musical art. It’s an impressive accomplishment, for which they should be very proud.
Though their latest album Dropout Boogie has gotten mixed reviews, I love The Black Keys‘ lead single “Wild Child”, which knocks Harry Styles’ “As It Was” from the #1 spot after a two-week run. The rousing stomper sees them going back to their blues rock roots, highlighted by Dan Auerbach’s gnarly guitars and Patrick Carney’s muscular drumbeats. Though the simple lyrics are directed to a woman the singer wants to love – “I just wanna hold you at the end of every day. Girl, I wanna please you, oh, I’m needing you to stay. The sun is gonna shine if you would just come out and play. Baby, won’t you show me your wild child ways” – the outrageous video portrays Auerbach and Carney as guys who show up for menial jobs at an out of control high school, then add to the ensuing mayhem.
In other chart news, Florence + the Machine‘s gorgeous “My Love” continues its march toward the top, climbing a notch to #3. “Sleep” by Brooklyn four-piece Gooseberry, “Chasing Trains” by British singer-songwriter HULLAH, and “Wild” by Spoon all climb three spots to #6, 7 and 8, respectively, and Fontaines D.C.’s haunting “I Love You” finally enters the top 10.
Three songs make their debut this week. The first is “Seventeen Going Under” by British singer-songwriter Sam Fender, which enters at #19. The beautiful song was released in July 2021, and I ranked it at #44 on my Top 100 Songs of 2021 list, so when it started getting a lot of airplay a few months ago, I resisted placing it on my Weekly Top 30. But now that’s it climbing up the Alternative charts, I’m compelled to add it to mine too. The other two debuts are “Tell Me The Truth” by my favorite artist Two Feet, who just dropped his fourth album Shape and Form, and “Closer” by another favorite artist of mine, singer-songwriter TheFrontier.
WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (2)
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (1)
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (4)
DECEPTION – Hannah Reem & Noodle Beard (3)
LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (5)
SLEEP – Gooseberry (9)
CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (10)
WILD – Spoon (11)
WHAT, ME WORRY? – Portugal. The Man (6)
I LOVE YOU – Fontaines D.C. (14)
BROKEN HORSES – Brandi Carlile (8)
BLACK SUMMER – Red Hot Chili Peppers (7)
LA CIENEGA – Chief Springs (15)
ON MY KNEES – RÜFÜS DU SOL (16)
THE HURT WITHIN – Holy Coves (17)
VIRGINIA (WIND IN THE NIGHT) – The Head and the Heart (18)
ECLECTIC MUSIC LOVER 