Hey guys, welcome back to Musical McCool, my weekly series dissecting the Irish charts!
So I am back! I've been busy for a few weeks, devoting time to a lot of other hobbies, recovering from flu, hosting family, but nevertheless keeping up with music in my own time. And what better time to jump back in than on our quietest week in quite some time!
The Top 10
it's been quite a while, so let's recap what's been going on in our Top 10!
1. Good Luck, Babe! - Chappell Roan [LW: #1 / WOC: 20]
2. Birds of a Feather - Billie Eilish [LW: #2 / WOC: 14]
3. Please Please Please - Sabrina Carpenter [LW: #3 / WOC: 11]
4. Guess - Charli XCX (Ft. Billie Eilish) [LW: #4 / WOC: 3]
5. I Had Some Help - Post Malone (Ft. Morgan Wallen) [LW: #5 / WOC: 15]
6. Austin - Dasha [LW: #5 / WOC: 27]
7. Stargazing - Myles Smith [LW: #7 / WOC: 16]
8. Kisses - BL3SS & CamrinWatsin (Ft. bbyclose) [LW: #8 / WOC: 17]
9. Apple - Charli XCX [LW: #9 / WOC: 7]
10. Hot To Go! - Chappell Roan [LW: #10 / WOC: 17]
That's right, Chappell Roan's Good Luck, Babe! reached the number 1 a couple of weeks ago! This is AMAZING, and the best part is that it's not even her only song in the Top 10, Hot To Go! is at number 10!
Then you have Guess at number 4, which in any other year would probably be one of my favourite hits by FAR... but in 2024, when Lunch and the entirety of BRAT are right there, it's just a great song among titans.
Then Austin by Dasha is somehow still in the Top 10 at number 6 - don't know who could have predicted that, the boost from Electric Picnic honestly feels perfunctory - with new entries below it being the surprise hit Kisses by BL£SS & Ireland's own CamrinWatsin, and of course, Apple by Charli XCX, here thanks to massive TikTok and Insta trends. That last one might well be the "worst" song on BRAT, but that's really not saying much, it's SUCH an earworm! This year is goddamn terrific!
The Punished and the New
So while this may be a slower week overall, that doesn't mean there weren't a few shake-ups along the charts. For instance, similar to Dasha, Dial Drunk by Noah Kahan is back up to number 20 thanks to his recent Irish concerts, along with AC/DC's Thunderstruck and You Shook Me All Night returning to 34 and 42 off of THEIR recent performance. Same reason that the terrific Lonely Island by folk darlings Amble shot up to 58.
Then Pour Me A Drink by Post Malone and Blake Shelton is back at 69 off the back of a rather mutely received album, while Did It First by Ice Spice & Central Cee TANKED down to 82, along with G Stands For Geezer by Plenty in The Tank collapsing down to 84 (shame, it's pretty charming despite the clunky production). Yet neither one is as surprising to me as Why Why Why by Shawn Mendes falling down to 87, I genuinely expected that to surge up this week amid the obsession for these earnest acoustic boys like Noah Kahan and Benson Boone.
but now, we dive into our new arrivals, starting off with an odd one:
Title: Die With A Smile by Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars
Position: #13
I'll be real with all of you: I was not sure about this one at first. On first listen, this reminded me more than anything of 2010 Bruno Mars, a sound that still works pre-Grenade, but also gave us saccharine pieces of nothing like Just the Way You Are. And it CERTAINLY didn't work for Lady gaga, who spent that era being weird as fuck, and has only made it work on occasion later on in her career on songs like Shallows and Million Reasons. Point is, I didn't know if these 2 would have the chemistry to make this work... but call me a sucker for duets, because this is AWESOME!
Bruno normally only plays something this earnestly when he's doing parodies nowadays, but his earnestness here is complimented by KILLER production and a partner who MORE than matches that energy. Despite the subject matter, the song doesn't FEEL sad, but elated and triumphant, from those dreamy opening guitars, to the subtle yet essential bass, to the crunch of the drums, driving home that larger-than-life feeling of the song... and on that note, these 2 sound incredible! The harmonies are incredible, the vocals are impeccable, and that hook absolutely shoots for the stars! It's so overblown that I'd say you're SUPPOSED to smile at it, the kind of lovestruck melodrama that these 2 sell expertly.
In other words, for a song with essentially the exact same premise as Jp Saxe's If the World Was Ending, one of the WORST hits of the decade so far, this could have easily been bad, a regression of both artists' raw talent, and instead it turns out absolutely wonderful. Even in a year this good, this just appeals to too many of my own tastes for me to call it anything less than wonderful! GREAT song!
Title: Nobody's Soldier by Hozier
Position: #44
Man, Hozier really is on a roll this year! I loved Unreal unearth last year, but the extended edition has contained some of the best songs of his career so far! I'm still absolutely obsessed with Wildflower and Barley and Too Sweet and we already have a new extended project full of new songs to enjoy!
And this... you know, I wouldn't quite say it stacks among those greats, but it's still really damn good! The main draw is that crunchier mix paired with Hozier's vocals, these's almost something garage-rocky about the production here, and Hozier sounds incredible over it, kind fo makes me wonder what an entire project of this would sound like. The only issue that that the annunciation can get a little lost in the mix, it took me multiple listens to figure out what was being said on the chorus, forget about the verses!
Still, say this had been the first Hozier song I'd heard all year, I would call this a VERY exciting and promising comeback, eager for more of this sound. As is, maybe Hozier does just need to give us some time to appreciate and enjoy the music he's given us for a while, because I like this more with each and every listen.
Title: Tonnta by Amble
Position: #79
So this is a song I'm actually quite familiar with, from a short EP that Amble dropped earlier on in the year. It's a solid little EP, just a bit too short for me to have highlighted before now. And that's kind of how I feel about this song too.
It's a sweet little tune, beautifully produced as always, with great acoustic interplay among all the guitars, and the lyrics are very short and sweet, basically 1 refrain repeated 3 times and a short bridge, all amounting to a song that's under 3 minutes. But that refrain is quite beautiful and inclusive, and the poetry is really pretty, so i do like this, even if it doesn't always feel like a full song, more of a closer to a larger opus.
So pretty good, I still love this band, but they've just made more complete songs than this in the past.
Title: New Woman by LISA (Ft. ROSALÍA)
Position: #83
LISA has kind of been killing it all year, with genre-bending songs that each feel distinct and full of interesting ideas, even when they don't appeal to my specific tastes. And pairing her up with ROSALÍA sounded like another creative match I hadn't predicted, so i was certainly curious.
And yeah, it IS interesting, and mostly in a really good way! The lyrics are the least interesting part for me, about being a brand new woman who is ready to take on the world, daring you to try to seduce her, if you can handle it! What i LOVE are the Spanish elements, as ROSALÍA's verse is entirely en español (I suck, I'm so sorry), as is most of her own hook. And there's no denying both of these woman have a ton of personality, with very good if unfortunately limited interplay, I would have loved if they shared a verse or something, or even just a bit of Korean.
But still, for what we did get, this has so many great ingredients! Keep it up LISA, and well played both of you!
Title: Pretty Slowly by Benson Boone
Position: #91
See, when I first heard Slow It Down, THIS is what I was expecting, a mid- to fast-tempo wigwag song with some screechy moments and very mundane content, not a fucking song about getting over the trauma of fucking a depressed and now very guilty Christian!
Anyway, for what it's worth, this song is perfectly fine, probably the most okay Benson Boone song to date. The only parts I hate are on the back end of the hook and the closer, where Benson's yelling gets irritatingly nasal! Otherwise, the song mostly sounds like a straight rip-off of Noah Kahan's Stick Season, before transitioning to a heavenward plea for meaning at the very end. At least the content's kind of interesting, about trying to figure out how far he's gotten from the guy he used to be, the guy she fell in love with and ultimately left him for no longer being... ouch.
And thing is, as bitter as he clearly is towards this ex... I get it? When the best decision for yourself is to leave a toxic part of yourself in the past, and people keep insisting you bring it back, those are NOT people you want in your life. Could have been better communicated and a bit less screechy, but otherwise, this might be his best single to date.
For that reason, I'm not awarding a Worst of the week, I eitehr really enjoyed everything here, or at the very least found the growth commendable! As for the Best, that's easy: Die With A Smile by Lady gaga & Bruno Mars wins it by a mile! Curious how it'll stand up to the incredible heights of this year so far by the time December rolls around, but I'm delighted to have it here regardless, please let this stick around, even just for a while!
National Treasures
And now it's time for our new entries to the Homegrown Top 20. And with 2 bands we've discussed recently, and positively to boot:
Title: Home Is Where The Hurt Is by The Script
Position: #20
Oh boy, I'm really not trying to be that guy who shits all over a popular Irish band who mean so much to so many people... but MAN they just don't do it for me.
Take this new song: the production is AWFUL, both in the instrumental mixing and the really tinny vocals. As for the lyrics... fuck's sake, Danny O'Donoghue is 44 years old, how is his writing still this fucking juvenile! The self-referencing to "the man who can't be moved", the truly hokey chorus - "they did all the fighting, but we bear all the scars" oh bravo, have a fucking Pulitzer - and the verses are full of these faux-deep platitudes that feel increasingly desperate to get you to feel something, anything, amid all the processed instrumentals! I've never liked The Script's songwriting, but MAN this new album roll-out has been rough to endure!
Call me a hater looking for excuses not to like this band, but I'm sorry, when your writing frequently reminds me of modern Machine Gun Kelly, only without swearing, that's NOT a good sign!
And that's our week! Next one will liekly cover the impact of Short and Sweet, so if you're excited for that, let me know in the Comments, along with what you thought of the songs covered this week. Don't forget to leave a Like if you enjoyed, and please make sure to follow me everywhere so you don't miss a thing, Subscribe to the blog to keep up with my weekly chart reflections, etc. I hope life's treating you well, and until the next time, I'm Fionn and this is The Social Tune signing off!
Commentaires