BILLCSMUSIC BLOG

#BILLCSTop30 #472 – December 14/15

Two weeks sometimes goes by in a flash when life keeps you busy… and so we have a busy new chart as well!

The Top 10

So North America wasn’t being left out after all, as Adele announced tour dates, including 4 in my city Toronto – next October! So it should come as no surprise that Adele’s “Hello” remains on top for a third appearance (that’s 6 weeks). Have you got any money on who might succeed her at the top either in two or four weeks?

While Adele calls out from the other side for her former flame somewhere in California, DNCE party it up by the waves with “Cake By The Ocean” being one of 2015’s sheer delights for entertainment value alone, as it holds at #2 for Joe Jonas and company, from the EP Swaay.

Cali has it all wrapped up in spades with the Top 3 as it’s summertime in Los Angeles when Matthew Koma and The Knocks search for dream girl in “I Wish (My Taylor Swift)” (video up top), up a notch to #3.
Brandyn Burnette’s “Nothing At All” cruises 7-4 to give the chart some edgy, blues-rooted progressive soul for the mind and body 🙂

https://soundcloud.com/brandynburnette/nothing-at-all

“Black Water” by Lucien Dante lands at #5 just in time for the release of a cool, sometimes head-scratching animated lyric video that definitely helps you understand the song much more. But it’s Lucien’s vocal that’s one-of-a-kind – alternately forlorn and sexy with bursts of joy and energy.

The Top 10 was cleaned out a bit with four new arrivals:
- There’s no time in a day when the honest emotion of “Lost (Stripped)” by Brandyn Burnette doesn’t strike you. No matter how you’re feeling or what you’re doing, the song will affect you differently, and that’s part of its beauty. It soars 12-7.
https://soundcloud.com/brandynburnette/lost
- I still haven’t seen “Spectre”, but I continue to revel in the amazing vocal by Sam Smith in “Writing’s On The Wall”, which rises 11-8.
- The wonder of the vocal and lyrics in Mako’s “Smoke Filled Room” always catch my attention, and in its Elephante remix the song climbs 13-9.
- New Order acquires its first Top 10 song on my chart since 2005 with “Plastic” from the top notch Music Complete album jumping 14-10.

Movin’ On Up

MAX (Schneider) has another EP on deck this month called Wrong, available for pre-order on iTunes. His pairing with rapper Jared Evan on “Ms Anonymous” climbs 15-11.

Clinton Washington’s soaring vocal on “Heart Beats Loud” leaps out of the speakers whenever it’s played, and moves up 19-13 for “The Voice” season 7 contestant.

Right behind is the would-be-bitter taste of revenge of “Over” by Goldhouse that’s set to a slamming dance rhythm. It rises 20-14.

Get yourself high with “A Higher High” courtesy of pop singer Nathalie Archangel. The Billboard Dance Club Play hit climbs 23-18.

The fastest riser on the chart is a song that I believe should be played everywhere and anywhere in dance clubs throughout the world. “The Shadow Of The Moon” by Rozalla and House of Virus has great lyrics with an unbeatable hook, which is why it moves 29-19 🙂

Uh-oh… Matt and Kim are now on Snapchat, which can only mean many snippets of fun and mayhem, M&K style. The frenetic 2:11 of “Make A Mess” climbs 28-21.

The gorgeous retro 90’s dance music rhythm and melody blessed with a Bright Light Bright Light vocal spells great things for “Lost In Feelings” by Final DJS, moving 30-23.

Premieres

It’s an insane mix of Portuguese lyrics (based on poetry!), an irrefutable guitar hook, and a slinky beat that will draw you on to the dance floor. By all rights “Drinkee” by New York duo Sofi Tukker should be the talk of clubs, and I’m going to help out with that by premiering it at #20.

It wasn’t my most favourite song from River Tiber’s When The Time Is Right EP when it dropped this past Fall, but the hip hop/soul anchor of “Waves” and its graceful flow are completely compelling. While former #1 “Let You Go” now sits at #6, “Waves” bows at #24 for the Toronto band.

Kendal Thompson appeared on this chart last year with the very catchy “Be Mine”. The Toronto singer is back again at #26 with a soulful slice of pop that would be right up Rihanna’s alley called “Secret” from Kendal’s new EP One. Give a listen right here.

The Full Chart

Listen to the songs or watch the videos using the links on the pictures on the pretty and detailed web edition of my chart. Go on, have a look and listen/watch 🙂

Listen to the BILLCS Top 30 Songs on Spotify!

Click on this link to take you there, and follow me on Spotify 🙂 BILLCS Top 30 Songs

Planet Radio Canada is back! You can hear me online on http://www.planetradio.ca every Monday at 10:00 pm EST counting down a Toronto Top 10 chart from yesteryear!

@missMollyMoore has star power with her debut EP “Shadow Of The Sun”

MOLLY MOORE, Shadow Of The Sun (EP)

Regular readers of this blog know how intrigued I am by the variety of songs that L.A.-based singer Molly Moore has brought to us in 2015. “Natural Disaster” courted my ears for most of the year before its official release this past summer and an effervescent Win & Woo remix, which got it to #14 on my chart. “Don’t Believe It” was darker and more geared towards alternative/college rock à la Banks. Both of these fine songs are included in Shadow Of The Sun, produced by Molly’s guy Brandyn Burnette, as is lead off single “Peace Of My Heart”, which grapples with a variety of emotions and about which I wrote about recently (Molly’s self-directed video above). “Come Fly” plays at a deliberate pace, with vivid imagery leading us to the destination. The title song sounds like it could be a long epic but focuses instead on a pristine vocal. But it’s “Blood. Sweat. Tears” (live acoustic clip below) which is the record’s defining song and show’s the singer’s versatile star power. It’s unlike anything Molly has ever written. Honesty, commitment, and emotion all try to lead the way at various times in this struggle of love. Molly’s voice at times recalls Jessie Ware at her best, and at other times, the subtleties of Sarah McLachlan (also apparent to me on the title song). Shadow Of The Sun is a compelling and powerful six song premiere into the talented world of Molly Moore. Listen to the full EP below and pick it up on iTunes.

Watch the dance floors fill up with “Age Of Innocence” by @iamtheElephante featuring Trouze and @DamonSharpe

ELEPHANTE featuring TROUZE and DAMON SHARPE, “Age Of Innocence” (free download)

L.A.-based producer/DJ Elephante (aka Tim Wu) is on a real roll as of late with remixes of Mako’s “Smoke-Filled Room” and Nathan Sykes’ “Over And Over Again” leading the way. This time he pairs up with fellow L.A. producers Trouze (a duo) and Damon Sharpe (you know him best from Jennifer Lopez’s “Love Don’t Cost A Thing”, among many others!!) to make a huge-sounding song with immense positive appeal, “Age Of Innocence”. It’s songs like these that get us through our darkest personal or societal moments, and I suppose the best comparison might be to either Zedd’s “Clarity” or “Find You”, equally feel-good songs into which you can just lose yourself. “Age Of Innocence” (also in a spiffy Hellberg remix below) is riveting progressive house that you’ll want to hear again and again. Good thing that – it’s a free download at the above link! Enjoy!!

Music for sunny days: “Dreamin'” by @iamEmbody featuring @CamdenCoxmusic

EMBODY featuring CAMDEN COX, “Dreamin'”

When I last wrote about Lithuania-born, London-based producer Embody, he was working great things with UK soul singer A*M*E. A year later and he’s totally crushing it with tropical-themed deep house to help get a lot of us through the winter months with “Dreamin'”, featuring UK singer Camden Cox. The combination is irresistible – a Caribbean-sounding trigger guaranteed to make you bounce while Camden’s playful vocal makes those flashes of dreamy beaches and palm trees almost in reach. I don’t see “Dreamin'” in my iTunes store so hopefully it will be a matter of time. So check out yours and enjoy this song above as it sneaks up on you!

@Jeronimomusic partners up with @Mlissamusic for “So Right”

JERONIMO DASILVA featuring M’LISSA, “So Right”

He’s got a rabid set of fans in his native Netherlands and Germany that eat up his live shows and buy his songs, which, since his 2012 album One Kiss, have been made available only as singles. Now billed as Jeronimo DaSilva (to avoid confusion with a German singer), he is paired up with fellow Dutch singer 18 year old M’lissa for the ballad “So Right”. She’s got the wicked range and elegance, and he’s got the earthy, gritty and sincere charm (as well as some new facial hair) to offset each other beautifully. While the song is a great showcase for both, my only complaint is that M’lissa’s powerhouse voice sometimes overtakes Jeronimo’s when it should be running in parallel. But all in all, after jumping from feel good novelties and singalongs to even a cover of Laura Branigan’s “Self-Control” earlier this year, “So Right” definitely places Jeronimo into a better direction that his fans will continue to enjoy. Check your iTunes for this one (it’s not yet available in my country).

#BILLCSTop30 #471 – November 30, 2015

The new chart is crammed with new music on the rise that is deserving of your attention! Three debuts add to the fun 🙂

The Top 10

Yes, I am in Camp “Hello”. Adele gets a second appearance at the top. I’m not sure when she will give it up or to whom, always fun to wait and see.

Joe Jonas and DNCE get a personal best on my chart with “Cake By The Ocean” rising to #2. It tops Joe’s own “Make You Mine” from 2012, which peaked at #3. The band was a wild party in Toronto a couple of weeks back (photo below). I’m waiting for their new song “Naked” to surface on an upcoming release.

It’s one of those clever songs that you just want to learn the lyrics so that you can sing along. “I Wish (My Taylor Swift)” by The Knocks & Matthew Koma rises 6-4.

While Dan Talevski’s “My Religion” appears to have peaked at #5, I didn’t want to go without highlighting his beautiful, completely on-point recent acoustic cover of Adele’s “Hello”. Pretty flawless and the best I’ve heard of several. Available for free download at Dan’s Soundcloud page too!

Chicago’s Lucien Dante has held a steady pace in the Top 10 as the unique sound of “Black Water” climbs to #6, from his album Our Of We. “Black Water” is still available as a free download.

There’s plenty of competition ahead but Brandyn Burnette’s “Nothing At All” from his Made Of Dreams EP is a force to be reckoned with on the chart as it soars 14-7.

https://soundcloud.com/brandynburnette/nothing-at-all

Movin’ On Up

It’s been more traditional fare than ever for Sam Smith so it hasn’t really captured the hearts of radio listeners, but you cannot deny his supurb performance on the “Spectre” theme “Writing’s On The Wall”, which moves up to #11.

I’m going to take advantage of a live acoustic clip that Brandyn Burnette posted of “Lost (Stripped)”, which rises 20-12. It features his talented gal Molly Moore (who co-wrote it) – completely honest, earnest talent at work here. The original appears on Brandyn’s Made Of Dreams EP.

The fastest riser on the chart is the joyous Elephante remix of Mako’s “Smoke Filled Room” which vaults 26-13. It’s one of those unassuming songs in its original mix that benefits from this killer remix, which is also a free download below.

Ms Anonymous is the title song from the recent EP by MAX (Schneider) featuring Jared Evan that shoots right up through the middle of the chart, landing at #15 from #25. MAX is touring throughout the USA in various cities in December.

Their new album Astoria definitely harkens back to the Masterpiece Theatre days, full of great songwriting and Josh Ramsay powerhouse vocals. “One Love” is the single release and it rises 19-16.

There’s already a new single coming from Nathalie Archangel, after peaking within the Top 25 on Billboard’s Dance Club Play chart with “A Higher High”, which continues to climb here 27-23.

Debuts

I have to recall the fun concert in May by Matt and Kim, who always put on a fine high energy show. It’s only 2:11 but “Make A Mess” is a bubbly, jazzy, almost ska-sounding bit of fun from their New Glow album, and it arrives at #28.

I’m hoping club DJ’s will latch on to Rozalla’s “The Shadows Of The Moon” in the same way they did “If You Say It Again” earlier this year, which got to #3. This pairing with producer/DJ’s House Of Virus is irresistible for the dance floor, and bows at #29 (from the same songwriting team of Nathalie Archangel’s “A Higher High” too!).

The last debut would not have sounded out of place at all on either of Bright Light Bright Light’s album releases to date. As a featured artist, Rod Thomas teams up with German producer/DJ Final DJS for “Lost In Feelings” at #30. And it’s a free download too!

The Full Chart

Listen to the songs or watch the videos using the links on the pictures on the pretty and detailed web edition of my chart. Go on, have a look and listen/watch 🙂

Listen to the BILLCS Top 30 Songs on Spotify!

Click on this link to take you there, and follow me on Spotify 🙂 BILLCS Top 30 Songs

Planet Radio Canada is back! You can hear me online on http://www.planetradio.ca every Monday at 10:00 pm EST counting down a Toronto Top 10 chart from yesteryear!

Dance this mess around: “Drinkee” by NYC duo @SofiTukker

SOFI TUKKER, “Drinkee”

NYC duo Sofi Tukker picked a great variation on a famous celebrity’s name, using their own names: Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern. And it looks like their debut single “Drinkee” is going to be the talk of the winter on the dance club circuit. It’s got this slinky R&B groove that will make you think of ZHU’s “Faded”, a guitar hook that recalls “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes, and a sultry vocal that’s singing… in Portuguese (but adapted from poetry by Brazil’s Chacal). And that really creates bliss on the dancefloor as you try to make sense of it all. “Drinkee” is very entertaining – perhaps you might look back to the first time you heard Enur & Natasja’s “Calabria” (only of course to realize that one was in fact rapped in English) – and Sofi Tukker are protégés of The Knocks, having been signed to their label Heavy Roc, with an EP on the way. I’m predicting great things for this one. Check it out below and pick it up on iTunes.

Toronto-based pop singer @KendalThompson drops EP “One” full of R&B flourishes

KENDAL THOMPSON, One (EP)

Kendal Thompson is a promising Toronto-based singer (from just outside of Toronto in Alliston) you may recall from past blog posts in early 2014, but more importantly when she issued her single “Be Mine” as a Valentine’s Day treat initially for free download. Accompanied by a sexy and intriguing video, “Be Mine” got to #16 on my personal chart. Kendal is back with a new release called One, after dabbling more on the side of acoustic pop and folk songs. The five songs in One are more in the vein of “Be Mine”, but instead of reaching back into bluesy influences, the focus here is on 90’s R&B/pop with dashes of jazz and blues. And because the days of Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, and Mary J. Blige have gone on to influence others, thus we hear more current inspiration in the styles of Rihanna or Beyoncé in Kendal’s music. Overall it’s an enjoyable record with the sizzle of “Burn” and “Run” in full gear, while the best is definitely saved for last. “Secret” is my favourite, joyous and engaging, featuring Kendal’s best vocal within, and could easily find a place on the radio. The One EP is a great showcase for a diverse performer who grows with every release and here finds her pop niche. Give a listen to the songs in One by clicking right here.

Minnesota rapper @callmeKarizma strikes a chord with “Euphoria”

KARIZMA, “Euphoria”

With his new song “Euphoria”, 20 year old Minnesota rapper Karizma wants everyone to know that it’s okay to fall in love. He’s all about peace, love, co-operation, unity – positive messages from someone who enjoys the stage but never feels that he’s above anyone else. He’s had his successes in the hip hop scene in the Twin Cities and deserves to breakout nation-wide. I caught Karizma (aka Morgan Parriott) opening up for MAX (Schneider) in concert last month, and his energetic and personable set was a breath of fresh air, sort of like the kinder side of Eminem. “Euphoria” (which revolves around a sample from “Radio” by Alkaline Trio) is a standout song and contrasts a downbeat melody with convincing lyrics that make you feel good. He calls his largely teen fans ‘losers’ because he cares – he’s been down and out, and knows how to rise above it, and they’re all in this together to have a good time. Give a listen to “Euphoria” below and be sure to catch a Karizma show when he comes to your city – guaranteed to make you smile.

L.A.’s @SugarJoans shows off her gorgeous range in “Nvr”

SUGAR JOANS, “Nvr”

You will undoubtedly remember Sugar Joans as a contestant from Season 7 of “The Voice” whose blind audition made mincemeat out of Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools”, among her many standout performances. And appearing on such a show is never about the winning when a song like “Nvr” comes out of nowhere and grabs your ears. Sugar comes from musical roots – her father is pop/R&B singer Joe Pizzulo, whose own striking voice was the lead on 80’s hits by Sergio Mendes, “Never Gonna Let You Go” and “Alibis”. Marry Sugar’s multi-octave voice with a chilled out EDM backdrop and you have a breakout when she goes to town with the strong, emotional and retrospective lyrics of “Nvr”. It might be a touch long at over 5 minutes long but it’s a fine story, and I would definitely enjoy hearing what some remixers might do with it for the dancefloor. You can pick up “Nvr” on iTunes.