“Riot” is a complete change of pace from SVE’s previous single, the powerful and languid dark ballad “Talking To The Walls” (which reached #18 on my personal chart earlier in the year). This talented NYC-based singer shows here that she can compete with women on the commercial pop spectrum such as Sia, Kesha and Katy Perry! Beautifully produced, it zeroes in on how strong SVE’s natural and high-ranging can sound in an EDM-flavoured uptempo setting while incorporating many melodic changes to shake up the mix and keep you listening. It’s not going to take long for the music world to recognize that SVE should be heading places. Oh, and I hope a dance mix might be forthcoming! 🙂
There’s always a hopeful side to situations involving loss, and The Autumn Project’s latest single “My Brother” is about just that. The accompanying video, beautifully shot by Ryan Nolan, shows carefree distractions through the eyes of children, and to me the underlying message is why adults can’t deal with loss in a similar way. Unfortunately we’re too bound with responsibility and concern for others, and children deal with it differently, making you want to go back to that time when we didn’t understand so much. The kids in the video do a fabulous job, and it thoroughly compliments the gentle acoustic song and its message from The Autumn Project (aka Toronto-based Freddie Mojallal). “My Brother” is available as a single or as a part of Freddie’s album Tired Love on iTunes.
I tipped you off to the joyous and sincere folk-oriented pop sounds of Knoxsville TN based Lyonn (aka singer/songwriter Tyler Gelrud) about a month ago, when I wrote about his EP Promenade. The video for “Just Say Hello” was about to be shot, and has now arrived! I must say that this absolutely adorable video pulls off probably everything that it wanted, especially for an independent effort. It’s just a great, winning story about a guy trying every which way to catch the attention of a girl sitting and reading under a tree in a park in the centre of town. Even with the help of his wingman and others, of course, it’s to no avail, until the magic answer of the story is revealed. And even though we’ve known all along what that is, sometimes it’s how you get through the story that’s most interesting! I guarantee you will smile and get caught up in “Just Say Hello”. Major score for Tyler and his Lyonn team 🙂 Promenade and “Just Say Hello” can be found for purchase on iTunes.
From a forthcoming debut album for Cole Plante, the 17 year old American producer/DJ who’s been touring across North America and is prominently featured on the show “Wolf Watch” (seen right after “Teen Wolf”) comes a summery slice of bliss for your car stereo, “Before I’m Yours”. This one skews Katy Perry-styled pop more than a harder Avicii-styled dance record, so it’s also clearly aimed at radio play. But the pairing of The Summer Set’s Brian Logan Dales and new singer Brix makes “Before I’m Yours” stand out in the crowd, giving the song a bright, romantic vibe. It’s a great lead in for an album, and in these days of younger and younger EDM performers like Martin Garrix, I expect it to get significant notice from North American dance clubs, which is great news for Cole Plante. “Before I’m Yours” is a fine companion to songs like Afrojack’s “Ten Feet Tall” or Zedd’s “Find You”.
So I hadn’t yet figured out the deal about 15 year old Shawn Mendes and how his initial single “Life Of The Party” bounded onto Billboard’s Hot 100 into the Top 25. It only appeared for a week but that was enough. Shawn Mendes is from Pickering, Ontario, where I once lived. In fact up to this past school year anyway, he went to my son’s girlfriend’s high school. At some point she was talking about him but without naming names. Then my daughter told me that was him. And I suppose when you get almost a million and a half followers on Twitter and a record deal with Island, something must be up. It’s more than “Life Of The Party” too. From his new self-titled EP comes “Show You”, and this is as good a dose of teenage empowerment as it gets. He’s got a great voice and seamlessly pulls off a song that has to be sung-rapped quickly. The rapped break at the 2/3 point is the only low point, it’s been done too many times and adds nothing to the song. But Shawn will get the love of the lasses and also nods from the guys with “Show You”. Be prepared to hear Shawn Mendes and “Show You”, well, just about everywhere, for the rest of 2014. And Austin Mahone had better watch out on tour – our boy could steal the stage from you.
Late last week before I took off to NYC, I alerted you to the latest by Toronto’s own Corey Niles, and said I would follow up on official release. Well “Get To Know You” (featuring Ish) hit the streets on Monday, accompanied by the lyric video above. Knowing the blast that was Corey’s earlier single “Rollercoaster”, I certainly expected that after the gentler “Just The 2 Of Us” he might slam as hard, and “Get To Know You” does just that.
But it all really wouldn’t come together if the vocals and jam-packed production weren’t so on point! Corey’s voice gets deep down in it after both the minute and two minute marks. Singing the word “baby” a bazillion times doesn’t always work, but the urgency here makes it memorable. And as I mentioned previously, Ish’s complimentary break makes the song that much sweeter, sealing the deal just before it ends.
Corey Niles is one of a handful of singer/songwriters who lead the way with R&B in Canada. “Get To Know You” is a solid pop/hip hop song that should easily make friends at radio stations across North America. Listen for it… and get it on iTunes!
I’m a tad late due to vacationing in New York City but there’s plenty brewing on the new chart that’s of interest!!
Fancy That, Another New #1
It’s probably one of the more obscure songs to top my chart, but you owe it to yourself to check out “Electrify The Night” by House Rockerz, Davis Redfield and vocalist Carl Man below. It’s one energetic romp with great lyrics that will connect to the music lover and club goer inside you 🙂 Right now, I’m only aware of it being available on a European dance compilation “House Rockerz – Feiern ist wichtig! Vol. 2” released by Kontor Records.
The Rest of the Top 10
That clever, swirling Steve Smart & Wildfunk remix of “Little Me” by Little Mix finds its way to the dance-filled Top 5 at #4!
I’m hoping that the fun “This Could Be Something” by Sweden’s Anton Ewald and Denmark’s Medina finds its way to international clubs and radio, it’s too irresistible to pass up. It climbs 9 to 5 🙂 Watch the video right here! I don’t know why it can’t be made available on You Tube or Vevo…
The last chart’s fastest riser, “Time Has Come” by Finland’s Hannis, makes another big bold move 13-6, and should find itself easily in the Top 5 in two weeks.
“Good News (For People Who Love Bad News)” (below) takes Zorro Blakk & fellow vocalist Deniz Olivieri to a new peak of #7! El Zorro is also moving up the chart further down with “Big City Girls (Don’t Fall In Love With Small Town Boys)” at #18 as well!
Also new to the Top 10 are Charli XCX’s soon-to-be-seminal-summer-song “Boom Clap” at #8, and Kongos’ rollicking “Hey I Don’t Know” at #9 🙂
Movin’ On Up
UK alt.rock performer E-Mute’s intense, rocking “Miracle” climbs up a few more notches to #12!
Don’t be surprised if more songs from Adam Tyler’s deluxe edition of Shattered Ice start appearing on the chart soon! In the meantime, “Knew You Better” continues to rise up 18-13.
Sam Dickinson’s deluxe edition of The Stories That Occurred is coming soon, and just ahead of that is the classic-sounding “When You Left Me”, moving up the chart 19-14.
The fastest riser on the chart is no surprise at all, “I Believe” (27-16), the new single by Bright Light Bright Light from his album Life Is Easy. North American audiences will now be able to see Bright Light Bright Light open for Elton John on select dates 😀
We should see Simone Denny’s new album The Stereo Dynamite Sessions Volume One later in the year, but for now enjoy the change of pace for her with the torch ballad “Your Love Fades Away”, climbing 20-17. It’s available on iTunes.
Two of the three performers at #1 this week have their own collaboration jumping up 28-23 – “Music Gods” by Davis Redfield and UK singer Carl Man. This one’s available on iTunes.
New to the Chart
I’ve written about all three recently, so that’s always a good sign for songs to start appearing on the chart 🙂
Dutch producer/DJ Afrojack and American singer/songwriter (Stephen) Wrabel collaborate on “Ten Feet Tall”, bowing at #20, it’s gorgeous and affecting lyrical dance-pop which I still think you will hear soon on your local Top 40 radio station.
“No Fun” by Australian duo The Presets is more fun than a lot of songs you will hear right now. It’s got a great playful funky groove to it that’s different from the lads’ last efforts, while retaining the big stadium-like anthemic feel of many of their songs. It arrives at #21 as a single available on iTunes.
Another slice of funky business, early 80’s style, is “Stranger” by New York producer/DJ Chris Malinchak, pairing up with versatile Mikky Ekko, who has never sounded so soulful. It debuts at #22.
The full chart can be found further down the page…
Listen for My New Music Pick Of The Week onD-Moos.com!
As many of you are already aware, after many years away from the microphone, I am now pleased to be back as a voice on D-Moos.comCanada’s National Internet Radio Station, which mainly plays a selection of oldies, mostly from the 50’s to the 90’s, with soon to be more intrusions from the 2000’s and other new music.
Do listen in for my New Music Pick of the Week feature onD-Moos.com8 times per day starting at 2:05 AM EST on Mondays, and while the station is only live in the evenings from 9:00 pm to midnight (with my long-time musical partner in crime “The Musicman” James Rogers), you can hear my voice at other odd times, particularly if you’re an oldies loving night owl on the weekend overnights 🙂
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.
02 01 ELECTRIFY THE NIGHT House Rockerz featuring Davis Redfield & Carl Man 01 02 TIDAL WAVE Tristan Thompson 03 03 TELL IT TO MY HEART Jason Walker featuring Bimbo Jones 06 04 LITTLE ME (Steve Smart & Wildfunk radio edit) Little Mix 09 05 THIS COULD BE SOMETHING Anton Ewald featuring Medina 13 06 TIME HAS COME Hannis 08 07 GOOD NEWS (FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE BAD NEWS) Zorro Blakk featuring Deniz Olivieri 11 08 BOOM CLAP Charli XCX 12 09 HEY I DON’T KNOW Kongos 04 10 STAY WITH ME Sam Smith 07 11 THE DAY YOU LEFT Convulsic 14 12 MIRACLE E-Mute 18 13 KNEW YOU BETTER Adam Tyler 19 14 WHEN YOU LEFT ME Sam Dickinson 05 15 PROXY Martin Garrix 27 16 I BELIEVE Bright Light Bright Light 20 17 YOUR LOVE FADES AWAY Simone Denny 23 18 BIG CITY GIRLS (DON’T FALL IN LOVE WITH SMALL TOWN BOYS) Zorro Blakk 21 19 TRUST IT Nick Hagelin New 20 TEN FEET TALL Afrojack featuring Wrabel New 21 NO FUN The Presets New 22 STRANGER Chris Malinchak featuring Mikky Ekko 28 23 MUSIC GODS Davis Redfield featuring Carl Man 10 24 BACK HOME Andy Grammer 29 25 LOVE IN THE 21ST CENTURY Neon Trees 15 26 NOT IN THAT WAY Sam Smith 17 27 TEENAGER IN LOVE Neon Trees 22 28 ME AND MY BROKEN HEART Rixton 16 29 THIS IS DIRTY DVBBS & MOTi 26 30 SHE LOOKS SO PERFECT 5 Seconds Of Summer
This is an exclusive BILLCS Music Blog alert! Coming on Monday is the latest and perhaps greatest of three singles this past year from Toronto singer/songwriter Corey Niles. This time he returns to the form of his first deep n’ dirty hip hop single “Rollercoaster” (which featured Dru) for “Get To Know You”, and he brings along fellow Canadian Ish (known himself for solo work plus collaborations with Stef Lang, Faber Drive, Esthero, and Daniel Richter of Eleven Past One). Not only will “Get To Know You” sound great next to fellow Canadian R&B performers like Raghav or Massari, it will be the new flavour for you that you might find sandwiched on the radio between Usher and Chris Brown tunes. Corey’s distinctive voice is like grittier Drake, and the break by Ish sends the song home. I will be away for the next four days and not blogging, but I’ll have all of the details about “Get To Know You” next week 🙂
From two terrific new talents, we have acoustic versions of songs which of course are best known as pop/dance club hits.
EURIELLE, “Hey Brother”
Hot on the heels of her enthralling “Carry Me” short film comes UK singer Eurielle showing off her piano prowess with her take on Avicii’s “Hey Brother”. It’s a great choice to strip the busy production down to nothing and sing a song first sung by a man (Dan Tyminsky of Alison Krauss & Union Station). It also shows what a fine song it is outside of the bluegrass-inspired original melody. Sounding now more like a classical folk song, it allows us to see Eurielle perform, nailing it with her outstanding voice. And we’ll be hearing more of Eurielle when a full album or EP release comes our way later in the year. Watch below.
NICK HAGELIN, “Latch”
“Latch” has already been covered loads of times since its original release mid-2012 as recorded by Disclosure and Sam Smith. I love that original (which got to #1 on my personal chart) and when Nick Hagelin posted about his own acoustic guitar version, I knew it could be a perfect fit for him. Recording another version of that song is made even more difficult by the fact that Sam Smith did his own quintessential stripped away version which first appeared on his Nirvana EP. But Nick’s version is as solid as I would expect, performed live and outdoors, sealing the deal with his beautiful falsetto. And Nick always lends his good humour to his videos, even when outside forces beyond his control are at play (watch below and see what I mean). Writing about “Latch” is also a very good excuse indeed for me to refer you to Nick’s new and free EP City Lights, availablefrom his website, featuring “Trust It” (currently #21 on my chart) and the fun “Finest Clothes In Town” (which got to #5 a while back).
The Script return with the lead single from their upcoming fourth album No Sound Without Silence, “Superheroes”. Moving away from their well-established ballads but retaining their ability to empower, the trio has crafted with “Superheroes” an R&B-inspired rock anthem with an immediate singalong chorus that their rabid hardcore fans probably already know! I’ve seen the group’s powerful performance in concert and “Superheroes” also bodes well for The Script after what I would say was a less memorable (albeit successful) third album. These guys are taking in all of what they’ve learned over the years and they know how to deliver. Give a listen below. It’s now available on iTunes and I’m sure much radio play is forthcoming.
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