Hey guys, welcome back to Musical McCool, my weekly series dissecting the Irish charts!
After the madness of last week, this one feels like much more of a cooldown... which is ironic, considering 2 huge bands FLOODING our Top 10 thanks to recent new and concerts in Ireland. And if it weren't for the Homegrown Charts, this could have been one of my all-time shortest editions.
The Top 10
So yeah, we do have 6 new entries in the Top 10, but I don't expect a single one of them to last long.
1. Taste - Sabrina Carpenter [LW: #1 / WOC: 2]
2. Good Luck, Babe! - Chappell Roan [LW: #3 / WOC: 22]
3. Please Please Please - Sabrina Carpenter [LW: #2 / WOC: 13]
4. Birds of a Feather - Billie Eilish [LW: #4 / WOC: 16]
5. The Scientist - Coldplay [LW: #20 / WOC: 3]
6. Don't Look Back in Anger - Oasis [LW: #14 / WOC: 5]
7. Live Forever - Oasis [LW: #17 / WOC: 2]
8. We Pray - Coldplay [LW: - / WOC: 1]
9. A Sky Full Of Stars - Coldplay [LW: #18 / WOC: 68]
10. Wonderwall - Oasis [LW: #15 / WOC: 3]
So yes, Sabrina's Taste remains firmly at number 1, but outside of the Top 4, it's ALL Coldplay and Oasis! Considering how many people have been talking about the Coldplay concerts and the brothers reuniting, queueing up to get tickets, I guess I makes sense, but I'm still shocked just HOW big of an impact this has had over not 1 but 2 weeks of this show.
The only new song here is the new Coldplay single We Pray, which we'll discuss in a bit, everything else here is a long-running song from a while ago, 1 of which has been floating around the bottom of the charts on and off for years. I mean they're all good songs, I just don't see them sticking around.
The Punished and the New
To quote Charli, Brat Summer is officially over...:
So sad.
Otherwise, the only other losers of note were In The Modern World by Fontaines DC fell back to 58, Lonely Island by Amble dropped back down to 84, and H.O.O.D. by Kneecap dropped immediately to 91, because sure, let's promote the British artists over the Irish ones, fuck off!
Continuing that trend with our winners, Something Just Like This by Coldplay & The Chainsmokers shot up to number 13, but at least Zach Bryan's 28 recovered hard to 39! Then Favourite by Fontaines DC returned at 56 - still not crazy about it, but glad it's here - and Lies Lies Lies by Morgan Wallen recovered to 65, sadly dragging Thinkin Bout Me back up to 87.
That's about it, so let's get into our only 2 new arrivals:
Title: We Pray by Coldplay, Little Simz, Burna Boy, Elyanna & Tini
Position: #8
You know, maybe my choice to say that Coldplay had already peaked last week was a little premature. After all, they're a huge - some would even say decade-defining - act that has continued to see success in the 2010s and the 2020s with hits of varying sizes. Just when you think they're gonna go away, they come back swinging.
And while you can make all the arguments you want about how well their sound has evolved, especially when leaning a little bit more political here and there, this particular collaboration was said to be a show-stopper, with Little Simz, Burna Boy, Palestinian artist Elyanna, and Argentinian singer and actress, Tini, all coming together for a simple mantra, with a bunch of explicit verses about trying to get through the day in a world that feels like it's on fire ALL THE TIME! And considering Coldplay has consistently been outspoken about being pro-Palestine, I have seen a few people championing this as the new Hind's Hall, a pro-Palestinian protest.
And I can see that. It may not be as explicit as Macklemore, but it's still definitely supposed to get a reaction, certainly with their choice of collaborators.
And look, I think the orchestral mix is pretty grandiose, Chris Martin serves as a bit of a background actor to everyone else here. - sort of like a DJ Khaled who brought everyone together - but that works for a song like this, especially considering he knows that his voice should not be the loudest one here. And for what it's worth, even though I think the production is a little muddy, and Chris's vocals can feel buried on that hook, I do think that this song works pretty effectively for what it's going for. It's a little too simplistic lyrically and I have the feeling it's just not going to stick around in the way that some other songs like this with stronger hooks might have done, but knowing that they performed this live in Dublin, that's pretty cool that they're willing to share something like this on a public stage and put their money where their mouth is, even pushing it as the next single for their album It's got problems, but I ultimately support it.
Title: Baby I'm Back by The Kid LAROI
Position: #86
So by the looks of it, the deluxe edition of that last Kid LAROI album is doing marginally better than the original version. Turns out that when you water down your personality to appeal to TikTok algorithms, you tend to appeal to more people, that's kinda sad.
That being said, this is fine enough. When I heard the Baby Come Back sample, I was ready to throw hands, but LAROI has pretty good energy, the compressed guitar still sounds decent across from that piano line, and that sample IS potent, even if him flipping it for a more braggadocious "I'm back bitch" song, almost in response to the original, is a choice that's mildly creative, but could have been better fleshed out.
Still, I do like the personal touches to the writing - the first verse does a LOT of the heavy lifting - and the hook is passingly catchy, so yeah, not bad.
So since there are only 2 songs this week, neither bad, but neither of which I was crazy about, I'm just going to forego Best and Worst of the week, it doesn't seem right somehow.
National Treasures
And now it's time for our new entries to the Homegrown Top 20. And I'm quite sick as of writing this, so let's make this quick:
Title: I Cried I Wept by KingFishr
Position: #8
Okay, a more fast-paced, upbeat Kingfishr song, I was down for that! Wish it didn't slow down so much on the verses, and I'm not sure why our lead singer sounds like he's belching his words, but this is something new from the band, keep experimenting. I mean no matter how bad you may sound while trying new things, you'll practically always fare better than:
Title: Can't Even Hate You by Cian Ducrot
Position: #12
Yet another whiny Cian Ducrot song about how his love isn't reciprocated, where he claims he loves her so much, that he can't even hate her for rejecting him. Gross, guilt-tripping, fucking bite me, GOD THIS GUY SUCKS.
Title: The Only Lie I Ever Loved by Derek Ryan & Olivia Douglas
Position: #19
Fun little sing-along duet between 2 artists with a decent amount of chemistry, that can feel a bit too jaunty for the kinda miserable subject matter about missing out on happiness in your past, but is still so pretty with that goddamn accordion.
Title: The Woman From Balahadereen by The 2 Johnnies
Position: #20
This is a raucous, ridiculous fast-paced love song about the titular woman, all about getting messily drunk on a bender to win up the courage to settle down forever with the woman of his dreams. Cute and ridiculous, with a pretty genuine moment about missing all the Irish people who feel they have to leave this country to make a living, what's not to like?
And that's our week! If you've heard any of the albums or songs discussed today, let me know in the Comments, along with what you thought of all 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!
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