2000 Sound: 16th January. New number one

So this week we saw even more chaos with shifts in our top ten and shifts up and down the chart which makes me think this year could be a wild ride but unlike last week, the number one is affected because we got a new number one that being "I Try" by Macy Gray which climbed nine places to reach the top of the Australian chart summit and I have no idea how long it will stay there.

It jumped ahead of both "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65 which dropped to number two and "Don't Call Me Baby" by Madison Avenue which dropped to number three. Both songs look to be on their way out out of the top ten...finally...

M2M rose one place to number four with "Don't Say You Love Me" while Killing Heidi's "Mascara" jumped two places to number five as it shapes as the challenger to "I Try" for number one.

What won't be challenging for number one is "Will 2K" by Will Smith which fell three places to number six as did "Waiting for Tonight" by Jennifer Lopez which slipped three places to number seven.

Alice Deejay's "Better off Alone" is the first of three songs new to the top ten this week jumping three places to number eight Vanessa Amorosi's "Absoliitely Everybody" which rose four places to number nine this week.

Finally Len's "Steal My Sunshine" rose two places to number ten and looks set to be a massive hit this year.

Gains

Not too many big gains this week with S Club 7's "S Club Party" looking like it might well be a top ten hit after it gained eight places to 20.

"I See You Baby" by Groove Armada broke into the top 20 climbing from 27 to 19 however the biggest gain of the week belongs to Aleesha Rome's "Search My Heaven" which jumped from 49 to 33 this week.

Re- Entries

Just one re-entry with R.E.M back at number 46 with "The Great Beyond"

Losers

The Vengaboys holiday in Ibiza inside the top 50 looks over as "We're Going to Ibiza" drops 12 places to 50 while "Weir" by Killing Heidi dropped ten places to 34 and S Club 7's "Bring it All Back" slipped ten to 18.

Europe's "The Final Countdown 2000" dropped seven places to 40

New Entries

The biggest new entry comes from Metallica with Michael Kramer and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra with an orchestral version of "Nothing Else Matters" at 28.

Deadstar are in at 43 with "Deeper Water", this song has some traction on radio so we'll see what happens.

Finally Salt 'N' Pepa have hit the chart again with "The Brick Song Versus Gitty Up" at number 44.

Saturday Song Review: What do you get when you mix Avril with Sigrid? Torine's "Make U Cry"!

This is a bit of a weird choice especially when it's considered Khalid, Halsey, Selena Gomez etc all dropped new music on Friday but I wanted to write about something I actively liked especially after the hyper negativity of the debut edition of this series and while the song I am going to write about today isn't on the the New Music Friday AU and NZ Spotify playlist, it was one I felt I just had to talk about especially given who she reminds me of.

So who is Torine? She's an Norwegian EDM/pop act that broke on to the scene last year with "Dancing In My Sleep" in Norway and has worked with Alan Walker, a DJ/producer who has been hugely successful across Europe with "Make U Cry" being the third song Torine has released.

Okay, if you can imagine taking Avril Lavigne's delivery on some of her slower songs and Sigrid's enchanting vocals then Torine would fit somewhere in the middle, Torine really does sound like Avril on the verses here.

As for "Make U Cry" as a song? It's got some solid guitar with the very European esque electronic production, it's really not bad and while the lyrics are probably the only area of the song that are a bit of an issue (in that they feel as though they don't really scratch the surface of the issues here) but for a short pop song, it's effective, I really enjoyed this and would take whatever Torine has in store for us over ehatever The Chainsmokers did with that god awful "The Reaper" song with Amy Shark. 

So yeah check out "Make U Cry" by Torine. Looking forward to hearing more.

Rating 8/10

ARIA Singles Top Ten/Chart Review: 6th January 2020

So all the Christmas songs left and what we have is kind of interesting plus with Justin Bieber's terrible new song showing up next week, this week kind of felt like it was back to normal and by back to normal, I mean "Dance Monkey" by Tones and I back at number one for a 22nd week.

Dua Lipa is back at number two with "Don't Start Now", I am not certain if it can go number one, needs sales and streaming to pick up but the fact that these two songs are stalling the momentum of "Roxanne" by Arizona Zervas is really a good thing because the only thing holding up "Roxanne" right now is streaming, it's really behind on sales right now.

J'd say it's vulnerable to "Memories" by Maroon 5 which returned to number four but that spent the week also bleeding on streaming even as its sales hold up well. "Circles" by Post Malone is also showing signs of weakness as well as it jumped back up to number five, it slipped on streaming and sales aren't there for it.

Same could be said of "Ride It" by Regard which climbed back to number six but again this song is n shaky footing and is vulnerable to "Blinding Lights" by The Weeknd which looks as though it finally has some momentum behind it at number seven, this song is a monster on sales and is catching up on streaming, fully expect this to be top five at next chart update.

Tones and I's second song in the top ten 'Never Seen the Rain" climbed back to number eight on good sales because streaming is messy at this point.

Same could be said for "Good as Hell" by Lizzo which came back at number 9 and "Adore You" by Harry Styles which returned to number 10.

Gains
The biggest gain this week came from Travis Scott's "Highest in the Room" which climbed from 36 to 15 probably off the release of JACKBOYS album.

"Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X climbs 11 places to 16 and strangely "My Oh My" by Camila Cabello and DaBaby rose eleven places to 25.

"Castles" by Freya Ridings got a boost from 37 to 29 this week while "Post Malone" by Sam Feldt feat Rani jumped from 41 to 33 and 'Trampoline" jumped nine places to 35 for SHAED.

Re- entries

A couple of re-entries this week with the best of those being 'How Do You Sleep?" by Sam Smith at 47, "Yellow Hearts" by Ant Saunders at 48 and "Teeth" by 5 Seconds of Summer at 49.

Losses
Unsurprisingly the big loss came for Juice WRLD's 2018 hit "Lucid Dreams" as it plummeted 20 places to 22. "Own It" by Stormzy feat. Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy dropped six places to 46, The Weeknd also dropped six places to 36 with "Heartless" (although I think people have realized "Blinding Lights" is the better of the two new songs The Weeknd released).

The other real big loser was "Watermelon Sugar" by Harry Styles which fell eleven places to 23.

Drop Outs

All the Christmas music fell off the chart this week so apart from that we also unfortunately lost "Lover" by Taylor Swift.
It wasn't a good week for Harry Styles with his lead single 'Lights Up" along with album tracks "Falling" and "Golden" making their exits along with "Bandit" by Juice WRLD and Young Boy Never Broke Again.

New Entries

So we got five new songs on the chart this week with the biggest coming from New Zealand's Benee with "Glitter" at 34, this song seems to have a bit of traction on streaming so we'll see what happens especially if sales start to match it.

Riton finally hits the chart with "Turn Me On" feat. Oliver Heldens and Vula, a track that samples Yazoo's famous melody on 80s smash hit "Don't Go".

A song that was big in the UK last year has finally reached the Australian chart that being "Sorry" by Joel Corry at 40.

Don Toliver's "No Idea" is in at 43 and finally 'Purple Hat" by Sofi Tukker at 50

I like the look of the top ten at the moment, its not perfect (still two pretty awful songs in the top five), anyway expecting Justin Bieber to enter the chart along with a couple of bushfire relief appeal songs so we'll see what happens when the chart updates on Saturday at 5pm

2000 Sound: 9th January 2000. Uh...What the hell happened?

We have...unmitigated chaos on the chart this week, a LOT happened so we better get right to it, the only thing that didn't change was that "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65 spent a ninth week at number one.

Madison Avenue climbed one place to number two with "Don't Call Me Baby" but from there? Well at number three is the first of several songs to climb into the top ten, Will Smith's "Will 2K" which rocketed up 13 places to number 3 somehow.

Jennifer Lopez has another top 5 hit with "Waiting for Tonight" jumping 5 places to number 4 while M2M up seven places with "Don't Say You Love Me" to number five (the song is off the Pokemon movie soundtrack)

UK boyband Five have climbed five places to claim the number six slot with "Keep On Movin'" wile making the biggest move of the week is Aussie band Killing Heidi as "Mascara" flies into the top ten from 38 to to number 7, its shaping as a potential future number one.

S Club 7 were one of the victims of all the shuffling with 'Bring It All Back" dropping four places to number 8 while  Cliff Richard's "The Millennium Prayer" was hit the hardest this week as it fell seven places to number 9

Finally "I Try" by Macy Gray drops three places to round out this week's top ten at number ten.

Gains

Already talked about some of the big gains in the top ten but the big gains were also in amongst the rest of the chart especially as "I See You Baby" by Groove armada has hit 27 from 40 this week while "Better off Alone" by Alice Deejay has hit 11 from 24 and "Steal My Sunshine" by Len hit 12 from 28!.

ATB's "Don't Stop" is up to 17 from 34 this week while "Pray" by Tina Cousins is one of the smaller gains this week up to 16 from 23

Losers

A lot of the losers are 1999 songs on their way out so "Sister" by Sister2Sister hit 15 from 6 and "Smooth" by Santana feat. Rob Thomas dropped to 14 from 5.

Meanwhile "Burning Down the House" by Tom Jones and The Cardigans burnt its way down from 13 to 20.

"That's the Way It is" by Celine Dion is going in the wrong direction by dropping eight places to 22.

"Weir" by Killing Heidi got hit hard dropping 14 places to 24 as did former chart topper "Last Kiss"  by Pearl Jam which stumbled 12 places to 32.
Savage Garden's "I Knew I Loved You" hit the skids to 34 from 21 while Ricky Martin is shaking his bon bon all the way down nine places to 36 with "Shake Your Bon Bon"

Dropping eight places is The Vengaboys holiday song "We're going to Ibiza" to 38 while Backstreet Boys drop from 22 to 43 with "Larger than Life" and "I Got a Girl" by Lou Bega loses all its momentum to 46.


New Entries

So we have a lengthy list of new arrivals with the highest debut of the week belonging to Christina Aguilera's "What a Girl Wants", her follow up to "Genie In a Bottle" which was huge in 1999. "What A Girl Wants" is in at 21.

Speaking of second singles, S Club 7 are back with their new single "S Club Party" at 28 as "Bring It all Back" prepares to leave the top ten.

It was a hit in 1987 but Europe are trying to repeat their success with "The Final Countdown 2000" in at number 33.

TLC's new single "Dear Lie" is in at number 37 while American DJ/producer Paul Johnstone is in at 39 with "Get Get Down"

Aussie popstar Aleesha Rome hits the ARIA chart at number 49 with 'Search My Heaven".

Finally British DJ Moby is in at 50 with "Why Does My Heart Feel so Bad?"

Saturday Song Review: "Yummy" by Justin Bieber...a gastronomic disaster of a song

Justin Bieber is back with a new single entitled “Yummy” after spending some time away from music…okay, not completely away, he has been a guest artist on others songs like “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, the two DJ Khaled songs/posse cuts that I’ve completely forgotten about and “10,000 Hours” by Dan and Shay last year, “Yummy” is the first single from the new album that’s supposed to be coming this year and with Bieber looking to go down the R ‘n’ B lane, I was kind of interested so what did we get from the Biebs on “Yummy” and was it a delight to the ears?

Honestly, “Yummy’ is the sort of song that leaves you with that feeling in the pit of your tummy that this meal is not at all yummy and a complaint needing to be delivered to the chef or the chefs that cooked this up because what Justin Bieber has served up as his lead off single for a brand new album is some of the most bargain barrel and lazy trend hopping I’ve seen in some time, there is no creativity on display in the instrumentation AT ALL with pop fused with trap that fucking Post Malone did better on “Hollywood’s Bleeding”. “Yummy’ doesn’t even give have a satisfying pay off within the instrumentation among the pop/trap drear.

Although considering those behind the production include Sasha Sirota (featured artist on Zac Brown’s atrocious song “Swayze”) and Poo Bear (also has a credit on the last Zac Brown Band album) its not really surprising the instrumentation and production on this song suck.

The boring instrumentation means we’re forced to focus on the lyrics and honestly? The lyrics are terrible with that chorus being one of of the most bargain barrel and lazy I’ve heard in some time, he repeats “yummy-yum” six times and ‘babe’ six times, I mean come on THREE people (In this case Bieber, Ashley Boyd and Poo Bear) sitting around a table should be able to come up with a better chorus than this:

 “Yeah, you got that yummy-yum

That yummy-yum, that yummy-yummy

Yeah, you got that yummy-yum

That yummy-yum, that yummy-yummy

Say the word, on my way

Yeah babe, yeah babe, yeah babe

Any night, any day

Say the word, on my way

Yeah babe, yeah babe, yeah babe

In the mornin' or the late

Say the word, on my way”

Also I can’t help but think that “Yummy-yum” is rhyming slang for “eating out’ and I don’t mean at a restaurant or fast food (think sexual innuendo and then be completely grossed out)

Also if the song is about his wife Hailey then why the hell does he call her a stallion in the first verse? A stallion is a male horse!.

The prechorus contains the proverbial bragging about money with Justin begging Hailey to help him spend the millions they have between him (like his fans could connect to having millions of dollars and yet again the instrumentation doesn’t much that feeling of that much god damn luxury.

So the instrumentation and the lyrics are garbage, what about Justin Bieber himself? Well, it doesn’t help Bieber sings the chorus with the same amount of enthusiasm or passion that I have for putting on still damp socks, he sounds bored out of his mind, if this is a love song you’d think Bieber would insert some passion into his vocals especially on the chorus where midway through he leaps into a Post Malone cadence because somehow he has to make the song INTERESTING.

If Justin Bieber wants to go down the R’n’ B lane, he could do better by getting in contact with Usher or at least stars within the R’n’B fold that can make the songs smooth as all hell and sexier than this mess rather than working with Poo Bear who seems to get around as much as bloody Marshmello. 

"Yummy" isn't a good sign for what we might get on this new album because if it's more garbage like this than...oh dear.

Avoid this song like its got a food poisoning warning over it because you’ll end up with a bad tummy ache in the end.

Rating; 1/10

ARIA Singles Chart top ten: 30th December

So as per last year, I am only going to do the top ten because the chart this week the chart was invaded by Christmas songs which honestly I'd say is a good argument for the chart to go back to having a break over the Christmas/New Year period especially as all of the Christmas music will disappear next week.

However because we did get a chart this week, lets at least talk about the top ten where for the second year in a row, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey is the number one song having leapt nine places to take the top spot but it will be gone next week.

The most likely scenario is "Dance Monkey" by Tones and I which dropped to number two because of Christmas BUT will re-take the number one spot barring any slip ups because somehow this song is still very strong on streaming and digital sales.

Wham leap 23 places to number 3 with "Last Christmas" while "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas" by Michael Buble also made a climb from 32 to 4.

Dua Lipa slipped from number two to number five with "Don't Start Now". This like the rest of the top ten will rebound next week.

'Roxanne' by Arizona Zervas dropped three places to number six, "Memories" by Maroon 5 dropped three places to number seven and "Circles" by Post Malone which slipped three places to number right

Also taking a plunge this week was "Ride It" by Regard which hit number nine and "Never Seen the Rain"  by Tones and I round out the top ten at number ten.

So back to normal next week with the chart. ARIA look to have had a slip up on Twitter this afternoon but those tweets have been deleted, the updated chart will be released at 5pm AEDT tomorrow.

2000 Sound: January 2nd. Eiffel 65 sit on top but challengers coming

Happy New Year and welcome to the new millennium, folks and taking a look at the very top of our chart this week...nothing changed because for an eighth week Eiffel 65 sit at number one with "Blue (Da Ba Dee)", now this song has some challengers coming which we will get to further down the top ten but this song still is solid on sales to keep it ahead of "The Millennium Prayer" by Cliff Richard number two...seriously.

Madison Avenue is one of Four Australian acts inside the top ten this week with their former number two smash "Don't Call Me Baby" stuck at number three again this week but it remained ahead of TV/pop group S Club 7 and their debut hit "Bring It All Back" which remains at number four.

Santana and Rob Thomas US smash number one single "Smooth" jumped one place to number five. Great song, would like to see this go to number one, it jumped past Aussie pop sisters Sister 2 Sister and their hit "Sister" dropping on place to number six.

"I Try" by Macy Gray remains at number seven while "Absolutely Everybody" by Vanessa Amorosi remains at number eight.

Now we have two songs that make their appearance inside the top ten with Jennifer Lopez jumping up two places for the very appropriate New Years Eve song "Waiting for Tonight" at number nine.

Rounding out the Top Ten is Killing Heidi's "Weir' which also climbed two places to number ten.

Gains

Lou Bega's follow up to "Mambo No. 5", "I Got A Girl" umped from 44 to 31 this week which is interesting to say the least.

Also interesting Len's "Steal My Sunshine" climbed from 34 to 28 this week while Pearl Jam's "Last Kiss" is up six places to 20.

Finally Celine Dion's "That's the Way It Is" (her most modern pop song) is reaping rewards its up to 14.

Re- Entries

Just the one re-entry this week and it comes from Foo Fighters with "Learn to Fly" back at 48.

Losers

I mentioned Lou Bega in the gains, well his massive number one hit "Mambo No. 5" fell ten places to 44 this week while "Venus Or Mars" by Jackson Mendoza dropped 8 places to 49. 

Aussie group Ilanda are also on the slide with "Tasty" hitting 35 down ten places from last week while Joanne BZ's "Are You Ready?" dropped eight places to 50

No new entries this week being the first week of the year, looking forward to hearing what 2000 has to offer.