Tag: Top Songs April 2025

Top 30 Songs for April 20-26, 2025

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Weekly Top 30's11 Comments
Photo by Olivia Rodriguez

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)

Top 30 Songs for April 13-19, 2025

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Weekly Top 30's8 Comments

Not many changes to my latest Top 30, as Fake Empire‘s “Imposter Syndrome” holds onto the #1 spot for a second week, and there are no new debuts this week. Sam Fender moves into second place with hs touching “People Watching”, while Texas-based singer-songwriter Brian Lambert moves up two spots with his sultry rocker “Take This Heart”. “Without A Doubt” by Kentucky-based “No Wave Post Punk” rock band Charm School enters the top 10.

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

Top 30 Songs for April 6-12, 2025

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Weekly Top 30's13 Comments

What a horrific week it’s been in America – and around the world, quite frankly – as our delusional, ignorant psychopath of a president precipitated a global financial meltdown with his pointless and insane tariffs, not to mention all his other illegal and incompetent actions. Be that as it may, at least we have lots of great music to drown our sorrows in, and my latest Top 30 is so good that every song belongs in the top five.

The darkly beautiful “Imposter Syndrome” by English alt-rock band Fake Empire dethrones Teddy Swims as it takes over the top spot this week. I loved it at first listen, and it continues to strongly resonate with me every time I hear it. I love the lush, haunting synths and The Cure-esque jangly guitars set to an enthralling beat and accompanied by arresting vocals. It’s the perfect song for sitting back with headphones and letting yourself be enveloped by its gorgeous soundscapes. To my mind, the lyrics seem to be about living lives that are inauthentic and controlled by other sociopolitical and cultural forces, leaving us acting like sheep, unable to be our true selves or even know who we really are: “Imposter syndrome. You’re sinking like a stone. How can you live when your life is not your own? Our lives are not our own.” Based in the south of England, Fake Empire consists of Simon Brookes, Les Black and Becky Bellinger, who together have been putting out music since 2017, all in the form of singles which now number 20 in total.

The beautiful anthem “People Watching” by English singer-songwriter Sam Fender moves up a notch to #3 this week. Included on his third studio album People Watching, which dropped February 21st, Fender wrote the song as a tribute to his friend and mentor Annie Orwin, who passed away last November. Describing her as being like a surrogate mother to him, he drew inspiration from his walks to and from the care home where she was a patient. He remained by her side at the end, sleeping on a chair next to her bed. He explained on his social media: “It’s kind of ironic because she was the one that gave me the confidence to go on stage, and always used to be like ‘why haven’t you mentioned my name in your acceptance speech’. But now an entire song (and album) connects to her. I hope that wherever she is now she’s looking down saying ‘about time kid’“. Fender co-produced the song and album in Los Angeles with Markus Dravs and Adam Granduciel of the American rock band the War on Drugs.

“Same Old Song” by Denver-based alterntive folk band The Lumineers finally enters the top 10 at #8, as well as “Time Waited” by American rock band My Morning Jacket at #9 and “Who’s a Fraud?” by English band Still Traffico, at #10. Debuting this week are songs by two long-time favorite acts of mine, the first of which is the beautiful “Laredo” by Texas-based singer-songwriter Leon Bridges. It’s the second single from his latest album Leon, which was released last October, and follows “Peaceful Place” which spent four weeks at #1 on my chart last fall. The second debut is “Barbarian” by L.A.-based alt-rock band AWOLNATION, from their sixth album The Phantom Five, which dropped last October. The song follows their previous single “Panoramic View” which spent 21 weeks on my chart last summer & fall, 12 of them in the top 10, and peaked at #3.

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