#BILLCSTop30 #671 – July 31/23

The end of July brings a busy new chart, with several songs making key moves while others depart. And there are four debuts, led by two Canadians who were already on the chart with other songs, as well as a British dance music queen and a promising new artist from Colorado and based in L.A.

Check out my ONLINE RADIO SHOWS below too as they are increasingly tied in with this blog.  As most of you know, I host 3 online radio shows – The Big 20 and two iterations of Your Weekend New Music Mix – and produce 2 online radio segments – my new music and retro picks of the week – that are all pre-recorded.

Matoma featuring James Droll, "Won't Follow You Home"

Matoma and James Droll continue at #1 for a second appearance with the unique and thoughtful “Won’t Follow You Home”.

Conan Gray, "Never Ending Song"Alesso, "Without You"Coming up right behind are Conan Gray’s “Never Ending Song” (3-2, above) and “Without You” by Alesso (6-3, also above). So who will succeed Matoma at #1?  Alesso also has a catchy new release featuring singer John Newman, who you know from 2014’s “Love Me Again”, and it’s called “Call Your Name” (below). They just performed it at the Tomorrowland music festival in Belgium.

Alesso, John Newman, "Call Your Name"

Revelries "Down on You"

Revelries’ “Down on You” has its eye on the Top 5 as it rises 8-7.

Ben Ellis, "Ed's House"

A charming indie song that could, Ben Ellis’ “Ed’s House”, climbs once more, up 10-8!

TELYKast & Georgia Ku, "You Got Me"

The only new song to enter the Top 10 this week is the second Top 10 entry for TELYKast with vocalist Georgia Ku, “You Got Me”, which also climbed to the top of the national dance radio chart this week!

Benson Boone, "Coffee Cake"

Below the Top 10 is where the chart starts to get interesting this week. I haven’t been able to get Benson Boone’s “Coffee Cake” (from his EP Pulse) out of my head for a few weeks, so appropriately it’s the Fastest Riser on the chart, up 24-12.

Jessie Ware, "Begin Again"

Jessie Ware’s sophisticated disco of the album That! Feels Good (nominated this year for a Mercury Prize in England) and the single “Begin Again” (above) climbs 17-14, as “Freak Me Now” is issued as a single featuring the always unpredictable Róisin Murphy (below).

Cash Cash, "Bleach (Move On)"

Another song I always look forward to hearing is Cash Cash’s “Bleach (Move On)”, which soars 25-16. You can listen to the song in a zingy new VIP remix by the guys, above.

Ryan Shepherd feat. Heather Janssen, "Move It (Control My Mind)"

“Move It (Control My Mind)” is one of the best new party dance songs for summer by producer Ryan Shepherd and fellow Canadian, vocalist/songwriter Heather Janssen. It has a big liftoff this week, moving 26-17.

Troye Sivan, "Rush"

Troye Sivan’s “Rush” is already a Top 30 hit in the UK, but I’m expecting dance radio to get behind this one, and it climbs 27-19.

Francesco Yates, "Little Rockstar"

The Highest Debut on the chart at #23 is “Little Rockstar”, the title track from the recent EP by Toronto’s Francesco Yates. It’s now charting concurrently with “Thunderbomb” (up 16-12) and becomes Francesco’s 8th overall chart entry. It’s also available now in a snazzy acoustic version captured in a home video style.

Luis Torres, "Freak Like Me"

Toronto dance producer Luis Torres is sitting snugly in the Top 10 with fellow Canadians DLMT and Rico 56 with “Wildfire” (7-6). This week, his rollicking dance anthem “Freak Like Me” lands on the chart at #27.

Hazell Dean, "100% Pure Love"

UK dance music queen Hazell Dean had five UK Top 40 hits in the 80’s, including two classic #4’s “Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)” and “Who’s Leaving Who”. and also had two US dance/disco Top 10’s in “Searchin’ (I Gotta Find A Man)” and “Jealous Love”/”Evergreen”. She has never stopped making music and I have written about her songs in these pages before. But her new original, “100% Pure Love” (in its Dean & Ware Lava Lamp Mix) – not to be confused with the Crystal Waters classic – is a fierce one, and it arrives on the chart at #28. You won’t be able to stay still to “100% Pure Love”!

Gabe James "College"

The fourth new entry at #29 is “College” by indie singer/songwriter Gabe James, who charted just over a year ago with the delightful “Gracie” (#13). “College” is more of a snappy diss-bop and shows Gabe’s versatility in both performing and songwriting.

ONLINE RADIO SHOWS

You can hear me and many of my blog choices on this growing list of online radio stations and features! 

Radio GTA

Listen to The Big 20 from 10pm to Midnight EST on Wednesdays as “The Musicman” James Rogers and I bring you the latest in new songs.  The show also repeats on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. EST and Sunday mornings at 2:00 AM EST. You can hear recent episodes of The Big 20 at this link.

On Saturdays and Sundays from Noon to 6pm EST I bring you “Your Weekend New Music Mix” six hours of commercial-free music from the 2000’s including many song choices from this blog.

At Midnight EST on Saturdays, you can also hear my new “Retro Pick of the Week” on Russ Horton’s amazing “Top 40 Timeline” oldies show.

Halton Hills Online

“Your Weekend Music Mix” has a second home on Saturday and Sunday evenings from 8pm to Midnight EST! It’s a different mix from Radio GTA’s show, and like that one it is also commercial free.

“The Big 20” also airs on this station at 6pm EST Saturdays, and my “Retro Pick of the Week” plays on Russ Horton’s “Top 40 Timeline” at 4pm EST.

The 3D Variety Show by Planet Radio Canada

I’m featured Tuesdays between 7 and 7:30 pm EST with my New Music Pick of the Week which debuts every week on “The 3D Variety Show” with “The Musicman” James Rogers, and I also join occasionally for looks at music from our past through some live segments.  A repeat of “The 3D Variety Show” airs on Wednesdays at 7pm EST on Radio GTA.  My pick of the week airs more than 25 times during the week and you can view its schedule by clicking here.  You can hear recent episodes of The 3D Variety Show at  this link.

Addictive Energy 

This is a weekly show hosted by Hunter Wilbur that airs on several online stations but is anchored at Mix88.ca on Saturdays beginning at 8pm EST.   You can hear recent episodes of Addictive Energy at this link.

FM 108

You can also listen to my “Retro Pick of the Week” on Russ Horton’s “Top 40 Timeline” on this station at 6pm EST Saturdays. 

For other details about all of the shows, such as dates and times of broadcasts, go to my home page and scroll down to the bottom right side! The schedules are up-to-date.

It’s All Italian… Yes It Is: New EP Mi Senti by @RoisinMurphy

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ROISIN MURPHY, Mi Senti (EP)

One of the most unique projects of the year thus far, for those of you who don’t mind hearing music in another language, is Mi Senti, a six song EP of songs sung in Italian by none other than Róisín Murphy.  Being married to an Italian I’m sure must have been an impetus for tackling songs in that language, but she apparently has been fascinated by it for a long time.  The result is a lovely, moody, mainly chilled out and occasionally danceable release that will certainly please fans of the singer.  Róisín is at her best and immersed in the songs, which, if you speak another language, you know is very hard to do.  The best ones here are the opener “Ancora Ancora Ancora”, the laid back disco of “Ancora Tu”, and the mysterious cabaret-flavoured “Non Credere”.  Open your ears folks and give a listen to the entire EP below.  It’s available on iTunes on May 28.  Give this terrific article a read for more background.

 

@Maighreadsings Returns with Powerful Electropop “Sooner”

Maighread

MAIGHREAD, “Sooner”

A year after “In The Beginning”, her collaboration with Disco Damage, became one of the highlights of Volume 1 of the dance/EDM compilation This Beat Is…Poptronik!, London-based, Ireland-born electropop singer Maighréad is back with “Sooner”.  No matter the remix or radio edit version, “Sooner” works because of Maighréad’s striking voice.  The song takes some of the best qualities of Annie Lennox, as well as fellow Irish singers Sinéad O’Connor and Róisín Murphy – power, resonance, grace – and Maighréad owns them all the way through “Sooner”, creating dancefloor bliss in the process.  Hear the Extended and Fik & Hurr remix below, and pick up “Sooner” on iTunes.

Dance Into Spring, Spring Into Dance?: Mika & Ariana Grande, Pet Shop Boys, The Wanted, and Boris Dlugosch & Róisín Murphy

I swear the clubs and dance floors are gonna be hot this summer, given the music that keeps arriving to make our feet aflutter 🙂

MIKA featuring ARIANA GRANDE “Popular Song”

I know that zeroing in on a song from Mika’s The Origin Of Love album since last Fall may have been difficult, especially with the multiple videos which didn’t seem to help promote the album very well.  First, “Make You Happy”, then “Celebrate”, and more recently “Underwater”, whose video was spell-binding, until the end which left a rather poor aftertaste.  Nevertheless seeing Mika for the first time in concert a few weeks ago was a real treat, he is an amazing showman, and it was still so surprising to hear how many fans knew all the lyrics to his songs from Life In Cartoon Motion six years later.  The focal song for me from The Origin Of Love has always been “Popular Song”, with its playful inclusion of the chorus of “Popular” from the play “Wicked”, so much that I’ve already charted the song twice, in its original album version and then with this Ariana Grande version, which has now surfaced as a video.  If there’s a song to reignite interest in the album, it’s “Popular Song”, and this immensely fun and Tim Burton-inspired video (with its bullying theme undercurrent, note!), full of style and delightful ghastly humour.

PET SHOP BOYS “Axis”

Now that PSB have finally left Parlophone after their 25 years with them, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe return to the classic PSB sound of 20+ years ago with “Axis” from their upcoming album Electric, released on their own X2 label.  While “Axis” might be an official single, to me this is just PSB whetting our appetite for what are likely to be much, much different songs than on their last (and IMO weakest) album Elysium.  “Axis” is the buoyant, layered stuff that paved the way for current EDM/electronica, and it’s primarily an instrumental, which reminds me of many a PSB B-side.  Look for a second single to bring the Boys back in true style along with the album release.  Then there’s a tour which appears to be taking them everywhere, including my city (Toronto) on September 25.  Absolutely can’t wait.

THE WANTED “Walks Like Rihanna”

Say what you will about The Wanted, I think they’ve got a lot of strong vocal talent which is also blessed with songs from very good songwriters indeed.  “Walks Like Rihanna” may seem obvious but quite truly you will neither be able to escape this song in the coming summer nor will you be able to get it out of your heads.  And that’s what is setting the quintet apart from other current boy bands.  Not out for sale until June 23 unless that’s bumped up.

BORIS DLUGOSCH featuring ROISIN MURPHY “Look Around You”

“Look Around You” neatly joins songs about which I’ve been writing lately that might bring disco music back to its heyday.  Note: You will get sick of me saying this in upcoming blog posts, so be warned 🙂 Taking its cues from turn of the century house music – not surprising since German producer Boris last teamed with the essential Róisín around that time with “Never Enough” – “Look Around You” beckons you to move with a sultry and polished Róisín vocal.   More like this, please!  For sale on May 17.

Tuned-On! Top 300 of the 2000’s, Part 4 (150-101)

As the numbers get smaller, so the songs begin to be increasingly difficult to talk about without going into many superlatives, so I will probably save those for the Top 50 or so.   When I look at this group of 50 songs, I see mainly songs that energize me or affect me emotionally.  So for every rave up that is Madonna’s “Sorry” or George Acosta’s remix of “Just Another Day” or Nadia Ali’s “Love Story” or Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” or Alex Gaudino & Crystal Waters’ “Destination Calabria”, there is JC Chasez’s totally underrated and hurtin’ “Until Yesterday”, Stabilo’s almost-sinister “Flawed Design”, Darren Hayes’ very dark “I Like The Way”, Mary J. Blige & The Game’s heartfelt mashup “MJB Da MVP”, the emotions-run-wild in Mika’s “We Are Golden”, Florence & The Machine’s gothic “Rabbit Heart”, and the teen love’s growing pains in David Archuleta’s “Crush”.  Don’t discount the fabulous one-off’s that are “Jerk It Out” by The Caesars or “Summer Jam” by The Underdog Project either!

This will be my last update of this list until after December 29.  I’ll be away after Christmas for a few days but may blog about this and that if I have time.  Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it!

You can find the updated list right here – don’t forget to leave your comments!

Mix Pod Playlist

I discovered My Space has a new playlist compiler called Mix Pod, so I thought I’d give it a shot today.  The playlist has 20 songs that are current (mainly on my chart, and the usual suspects) or recent within the last few years.  Click on “Get Tracks” below, which will take you to the playlist page where you can hear the songs!  The tags below this post will tell you who’s on the playlist 🙂

MusicPlaylist
Music Playlist at MixPod.com