Monday, 1 March 2021

Good 1992 Vibrations: 1st March: I Think I Love You Again Tonight

 Okay so we've got a bit of a steady week here and yet glancing at the top ten, I feel like we're in for a couple of shake ups soon? Let's get this show on the road starting with the top ten where yet again...unfortunately...Euphoria remain at number one with "Love You Right" but it's leaking sales and coming under significant pressure from "Saltwater" by Julian Lennon at number two which is gathering momentum to challenge.

Behind these two is "Justified & Ancient" by The KLF which climbed one spot up to number three, it pushed past "Let's Talk About Sex" by Salt 'N' Pepa which dropped one place to number four.

This left "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" by George Michael & Elton John stuck at number five and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at number six.

In some good news, "Remember The Time" by Michael Jackson climbed five places to join the top ten at number seven. Thrilled about this as the song damn great.

Stuck at number eight is "The Globe" by Big Audio Dynamite. Kind of surprised this has hung around the top ten if I am to be honest.

Also rising into the top ten is Diesel's "Tip of My Tongue" up three places to number nine. Again, another great song in the top ten, maybe 1992 is starting to look good finally?

Then bringing up the end of the top ten we have "Finally" by Cece Peniston still at number ten and really starting to clog up the chart.


Gains

So the gains this week are pretty awesome..."Dizzy" by Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff jumped from 24 to 12...YAY!

I'm also fine with "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to be a long long time)" by Kate Bush up nine spots to 14.

What thrilled me was "It's Only Natural" by Crowded House leaping from 41 to 19! AWESOME!

"I Can't Dance"  by Genesis slid up seven to 30.


Losers.

So let's deal with these quickly because there's quite a few beginning with former chart topper "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred which plummeted from 35 to 49 this week while Color Me Badd's "All 4 Love" skidded down 10 places to 48. 

Metallica's "The Unforgiven" hit a ten place slide to 48 as did Roxette's "Spending My Time" to 44, 

Pleasingly "If You Go Away" by NKTOB suffered an eleven place drop to 42 while "Come to Me" by Diesel fell back nine to 38 (Am fine with this, it's had a really damn good run)

In good news, "I Adore Mi Amor" by Color Me Badd slumped six places to 30...can it just disappear from the chart altogether though...

Guns 'n' Roses cover of "Live and Let Die" dropped from 25 to 32 while "Ain't No Sunshine" by Rockmelons feat Deni Hines plunged eleven spots to 28 and "Black or White" by Michael Jackson dropped eight spots to 27. 

"Cream" by Prince and The New Power Generation fell out of the top ten down to 16.


New Entries


46. "Get Ready for This" by 2 Unlimited

Okay, this is a bit weird. 2 Unlimited are a dance act that are comprised of two Belgian producers that created the duo in The Netherlands with this being their debut single and...it's fine? I mean, it's a good hype anthem and the rapping has a good flow and energy to it for it being 1992 and I do like how the production is toned back to suit the female vocals. It's fine enough and is better than some of the other dance cuts I've heard in 1992 so far.

39. "Again Tonight" by John Mellencamp

So I've made no secret that "Jack & Diane" is one of my favourite songs, I love the story telling in the song and there's several other songs in John Mellencamp's discography that I like as well so how's "Again Tonight"?

Honestly? I am a little disappointed, more because this feels like Mellencamp slipping into Bryan Adams impersonation mode, this song feels like a Bryan Adams song in every single sense of the word from the production to Mellencamp's crooning on the hook...geezus....if I wangted to listen to Bryan Adams, I'd listen to "Can't Stop This Thing We Started"...thanks.


37. "I Think I Love You" by Voice of the Beehive

Ahh another group I have to explain so turns out Voice of the Beehive are an American alternative pop rock trio from California with this song being the second single from their sophomore album called "Honey Lingers" and it seems they are providing us a cover of the song by The Partridge Family that was released in 1970 and peaked at number one in Australia in 1971 so we've got our cover song of the week here, folks!

Now I should warn you I don't care for the original at all...the song has always felt somewhat mediocre to me but regardless how's the cover? Well, they did something with it that's for sure, they've turned the pop song into this alt pop rock thing that's not quite as weird as it seems to want to be. The vocals really don't do much for me here either, there's some nice vocal harmonies but it does feel like something Bananarama would have done after mangling The Beatles.

34. "Alive" by Pearl Jam

Dear god...I hope I can find some quality here,...maybe with American grunge rock band Pearl Jam with this song being their debut single from the band and well...yeah, it's grunge rock which given the success of an act like Nirvana this year so far, I'm really not surprised another band would break through with sort of sound and you know what? "Alive" is really damn good.

The song is the opening song of a trilogy following the story of a young man who finds out the man he thinks is his dead father is actually his step father (geez...this blog entry turned into Maury Povitch or Jeremy Kyle pretty quick) as his mother's grief leads her to having an incestuous relationship with the son (Ew). The band's lead vocallist Eddie Vedder has said the lyrics are in part true and in part fiction...it's a gripping song (I love a song that tells a story). 

The instrumentation also play up the darkness and add to the story that Vedder is telling so yeah I recommend this. Check it out.


17. "Foreplay (EP)" by Candy Harlots

I saw the title of the EP and the name of the band and instantly my stomach sunk even before I heard the song...geezus christ...really? Turns out Candy Harlots are a glam metal band that hail from Sydney and were originally known as Helter Skelter wuth this being their first thing to hit the charts...

So I'm going to keep this brief...the instrumentation is impressive with the pounding drums and a guitar solo that's not band bbut the lead vocallist sounds like he spent time listening to Bon Jovi,,,there is no power or presence in his vocal delivery. Not impressed at all, I'm dipping.


So that wraps up the week, worst of the week is going to "Again Tonight" by John Mellencamp for being disappointing. Best is going to "Alive" by Pearl Jam. Hopefully next week is much better than this...


Sunday, 28 February 2021

ARIA Singles Top Ten/Chart Review: 1st March: Love Songs ain't for 9pm, Martin & Gina!

 So my bad feelings about popular music in 2021 are increasing mostly thanks to this week where we got a couple of shifts that point to some bad signs ahead and honestly the bad news starts right from the top where "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals took the number one, it's got streaming on lock right now and sales are fine. It pushed past "Drivers License" by Olivia Rodrigo which pretty much slipped across the board on sales and streaming.

However it stayed above  "Without You" by The Kid Laroi which returned to number three switching places with "Calling My Phone" by Lil Tjay and 6Lack

"The Business" by Tiesto at number five and "Save Your Tears" by The Weeknd at number six remained steady. I am not sure if these two songs will get any higher but we'll see. 

Much to my annoyance "Goosebumps (remix)" by HVME and Travis Scott climbed two places to number seven. Just why this audio nightmare is climbing is beyond me.

The last three songs are all hits that are fading naturally with "Mood" by 24K Goldn and Iann Dior down one place to number eight, "Levitating" by Dua Lipa and DaBaby down one to nine and "Head & Heart" by Joel Corry and MNEK down one to number ten


Gains

Well at least "Up" by Cardi B is up seven places to number 12 while "Astronaut in the Ocean" by Masked Wolf up a massive 22 places to 25.

Fleetwood Mac rebound six places to 30


Losers

"Afterglow" by Ed Sheeran and "Willow" by Taylor Swift both slipped nine places. "Afterglow" to 33 and "Willow" to 37. 

Sadly "Prisoner" by Miley Cyrus and Dua Lipa slipped eight to 40 and in not so sad news "Holy" by Justin Bieber feat. Chance The Rapper also down eight to 41.

Finally in disappointing news, "Good Days" by SZA went down six places to 18.


Drop Outs 

The drop outs aren't surprising with "Love Story (Taylor's version)" by Taylor Swift, "My Ex's Best Friend" by Machine Gun Kelly feat. Blackbear and "Take You Dancing" by Jason DeRulo gone.


New Entries

Three new entries this week, we start off with...

50. Martin & Gina by Polo G

Okay so I don't how this happened or how it got here now in February 2021 when this was a minor hit in the USA last year but hey I'll take it. Polo G is an American rapper, singer and song writer hailing from Chicago with this song being the best song from his album "The Goat" because yeah "Martin and Gina" is fantastic with it's sweet guitar rollick and Polo G comparing his relationship with this girl to a couple amed Martn and Gina from a US sitcom called "Martin". I am so glad this finally turned up on the Australia charts. Let's make this a hit...I'm down for it.

45. Your Love (9pm) by ATB, Topic and A7S

Sigh...another song going down the path of remembering late 90s dance, this time this song samples wholesale from ATB's 1999 hit "9pm (Till I Come)" and honestly I feel like while this song is fine it might well have the same thing for me as "Breaking Me" which I actually got really tired of toward the end of 2020 (I blame the overplay on radio a lot) and there's just not enough re contextualization of the sample which makes me feel like I'd rather listen to the original and even then I don't like the original so yeah...this gets a skip for me.

22. Love Songs Ain't for Us by Amy Shark feat. Keith Urban 

Another single from the upcoming sophomore album from Amy Shark called "Cry Forever" which is released on 30th April, this time with Keith Urban on board and Ed Sheeran with a co write on the song and boy, you can absolutely tell this is a Ed Sheeran song in the writing that said Amy Shark delivers the song well and when that chorus hits with enough almost country swell to make it work. I kind of like this probably more than I should. I will also say that it's unfortunate that Keith Urban wasn't given a verse on the song, this song had duet opportunities to explore from both Amy and Keith's perspectives. 


I am giving worst of the week to "Your Love (9pm) by ATB, Topic and A7S...that song does nothing for me. Best is going to "Martin & Gina" by Polo G because I'd love to see that song get big...its damn good.

Next week...I'm not sure, it could be a pretty quiet one but we'll find out on Saturday at 5pm AEDT



Thursday, 25 February 2021

New Music Friday Review: 3, 2, 1... Stop for a Minute

"3, 2, 1" by 24kGoldn

So 24kGoldn is going to eventually have to expand on making rip offs of "Mood" and as much as I like the ridiculous "Coco" feat DaBaby...that song feels and sounds like "Mood" with different lyrics so how is 24kGoldn's latest effort called "3, 2, 1"?

Well it's about as catchy as you'd expect from 24kGolden but the lyrics feel like the same subject matter as "Mood" where 24kgoldn is cussing out this girl as he is confused over her feelings toward him and lying even with the rock production sounding good here. I am getting the feeling that 24kGoldn needs to change up his material soon. Also why does this song sound like Fall Out Boy merged with Panic! At the Disco?

Rating: 6/10


"Overdrive" by Conan Gray

I made no secret of my disdain for "Maniac"...I wasn't comfortable with the lyrical sentiment of the song at all and I wasn't so crash hot on the album "Kid Krow" either so I wasn't expecting much from Gray's new single "Overdrive" but it turns out the song is really damn good. There's a pop sensibility to the song that makes the song work so much better than previous songs like 'Maniac".

"Overdrive" sounds incredibly big as a pop song possibly can as the lyrics talk about escaping from the worries of the world and freedom all while finding love unexpectedly. It's actually reminiscent of a lot of the pop I heard in the early 2000s. I like it!

Rating 8/10


"To The Island" by Crowded House

So here's the second single from the upcoming 7th Crowded House studio album called "Dreamers Are Waiting" which is released on 4th June and honestly I actually like this one a lot! This actually feels like Crowded House have dipped a little bit into the sound of Split Enz as Neil Finn sings about escaping to an island...the song was written pre pandemic but honestly I think that has been everyone's wish to escape to an island during this pandemic, right?

Look, just check this out, it's good. 

Rating: 8/10

"Way Less Sad" by AJR

What is not good is A fucking J fucking R. Seriously? How is it that this shit is into their FOURTH fucking album cycle where by the writing is still skin crawlingly repulsive and makes the band sound like bloody Kevins (I don't know the name of the make version of Karens) and it's not like the music here redeems anything and the gang vocals make this sound even more generic and worthless like its stuck back in 2017. Just listen to anything else other than this.

Review: 2/10

So uh...I kind of saved the best till last.


"Stop for a Minute" by Polish Club

Now this is more like it. This is the catchiest pop rock song I have heard in ages and mainly because I feel like this song reminds me a LOT of Mariana's Trench although I will stress Novak doesn't quite have the vocals of Josh Ramsey but still this thing is a banger straight out of the late 80s just recorded in 2021 but still this is damn awesome and a lot of fun. 

CHECK THIS OUT!

Rating 9/10

Tuesday, 23 February 2021

Good 1992 Vibrations: 23rd February Mustang Sally slow that Mustang down Euphoria Loves You Right at Number One

What a frustrating week this was...but let's not waste any more time and get straight into the top ten where we have a brand new number one courtesy of Euphoria's "Love You Right". now it got to top spot because it managed to keep up it's sales momentum...Honestly I'm not that happy about this song being number one but ehh, at least "Saltwater" by Julian Lennon which rose two places to number two and looks like it may well challenge for number one sooner rather than later...I hope...

All this pushed "Let's Talk About Sex" by Salt 'n' Pepa off the number one spot back to number three as it's sales fell away and means its coming under significant pressure from "Justified and Ancient" by The KLF up three places to number four which is great...pleased that this is doing so well.

However it's rise puts "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" by George Michael Elton which slipped two places to number five this week as the song peaked on sales. 

Staying steady at number six is "Smells Like Teen Spirit"  by Nirvana which really is consistent on sales right now nothing more however that wasn't the case for Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" as it slipped two spots to number seven.

Rising one spot to number nine is Big Audio Dynamite II's "The Globe" which is becoming quite the hit right now while staying at number ten is Ce Ce Peniston's "Finally"


Gains

We have a lot of gains this week so let's begin at number 11 and work our way down because I am thrilled that "Remember The Time" by Michael Jackson is catching on as it climbed from 18 to 11...it'll be top ten soon, folks.

The same can be said for "Tip Of My Tongue" by Diesel which rose seven places to number 12...again, excellent.

What I'm not so thrilled about is that "Diamonds & Pearls" by Prince & The New Power Gaeneration jumped from 21 to 13...seriously?

In one of the bigger surprises of the week though, U2's "Mysterious Ways" got a second wind and jumped from 24 back into the top twenty at 18. I'm find with that I like the song.

"Dizzy" by Vic Reeves & The Wonder Stuff jumped eleven places to 24 off it's debut last week as did Crowded House's "It's Only Natural" jumped from 49 to 41, both these getting healthy rises is great but why on earth did "Don't Talk Just Kiss"by Right Said Fred leap from 40 to 27? Wasn't "I'm Too Sexy" embarrassing enough for you all?

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Jimmy Barnes got a ten place boost to 28 while "I Can't Dance" by Genesis climbed nine spots to 47.

Losers

Richard Marx looks to be on the way out with "Keep Coming Back" down nine spots to 48 while "No Son of Mine" by Genesis skidded six to 50.

Color Me Bad's "All 4 Love" plunged ten spots to 38...Good. "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred had his sexy meter fail taking a crash from 29 to 35. 

Diesel's "Come to Me" slipped six places to 29 while "Black or White" by Michael Jackson stumbled seven to 18.


New Entries

Four new entries to sift through this week, let's begin with....

47. "Feel So High" by Des'ree

So this is the debut single for British singer songwriter Des'ree, it peaked as high as 13 on the British official charts so of course, it would take until late February for the song to make its way onto the Australian charts but anyway it's here so what did we get? Honestly, not impressed, that percussion slathered all over the top of the song kills it and distracts from Des'ree herself and yeah she's got a nice vocal delivery and all but when the production is this clunky and this lazy, it ruins what could have been a solid song. Next!


46/ "Stars" by Simply Red

Well here's another song that was on the UK charts in 1991 and only just hitting the Australian charts now, "Stars" is the second single from Simply's Red album entitled 'Stars", it got as high as number eight in the UK so I was curious about this one especially as Simply Red have had consistent hits now for a couple of years and yeah, this one is probably the most wistful yet dreamy I've heard Mick Hucknall on a Simply Red song with instrumentation to match. I love how the guitars interplay to create this dreamy sense of atmosphere with Hucknall crooning his way through the song hoping his special other hears him. I'll take it!

43. "Mustang Sally" by The Commitments/Andrew Strong

So I thought we were all done with covers for a bit until I looked up the origins of this song, turns out it was originally written and recorded in 1965 by Mack Rice, the song got picked up and covered by Irish singer Andrew Strong for the film "The Commitments' and yeah I like this! It's catchy, plenty of fun and Strong delivers the lyrics well, I can see why the film loved the song. Good job by Andrew. Hope this sticks around.

42. "Cool Jesus" by Maybe Dolls

So here's the follow up to "Nervous Kids" from Maybe Dolls and I'm not really feeling this? The instrumental is fine enough but the vocals from Loene Carmen don't really stir anything or grab my attention, this feels like it needed some stronger vocals. Just saying.

That completes our week and the worst fell out easily this week...that's going to "Feel So High" by Des'ree while the best is going to Simply Red for "Stars" just ahead of "Mustang Sally" by The Commitments.


Sunday, 21 February 2021

ARIA Singles Chart Top ten/Chart Review: 22nd February. Love Story of Calling My Phone

 This week saw the top ten see something of a clean out and unfortunately, it looks like some of the quality that was in the top ten got replaced by...well....ugh...you'll see, it's rough however what's not so rough is that "Drivers License" by Olivia Rodrigo spent a sixth week at number one however its leaking ground on both sales and streaming which makes "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals a player for number one as its got streaming on side for a run at number one next week.

A new entry at number three for American rapper Lil TJ and 6lack with a song called "Call My Phone". Now apparently this became a thing off a tik tok meme but more about that later however this song got some insane streaming tis week that saw it debut so high.

It disrupted the top ten though with "Without You" by The Kid Laroi pushed back to number four as it just lost out on streaming/ The same goes for Tiesto's "The Business" down one to number five although I expect this song to stick around...unfortunately.

However up one spot to number six is "Save Your Tears" by The Weeknd thanks to good streaming although it probably gained because "Mood" by 24kGoldn and Iann Dior tumbled two places to number seven.

Also down two spots is "Levitating" by Dua Lipa feat. Dababy to number eight as it gracefully looks set to leave the top ten

Arriving to the top ten for the first time and is the unpleasant turd that is "Goosebumps (remix)" by HVME and Travis Scott up five places to number nine. Only one word for this...ewww.

Returning to the top ten is "So Done" by The Kid Laroi at number ten up one spot from last week.


Gains

Biggest gain of the week belongs to Ava Max with "My Head & My Heart" up to 12 spots to 29 which is some good news as I still really like the song. That was the only major gain outside of the top ten.

Losers 

Biggest loser of the week belonged to "What You Know bout Love" by the late Pop Smoke which tumbled ten spots to number 43.

A slew of songs fell six places including "Take You Dancing" by Jason DeRulo to 45, "Dynamite" by BTS to 42, "WAP" by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion to 34 and "Therefore I Am" by Billie Eilish to 31


Drop Outs

A bunch of 2020 hits fell off the chart including "Savage Love" by Jawsh 685 and Jason DeRulo, "Don't Start Now" by Dua Lipa, "For the Night" by Pop Smoke and "Midnight Sky" by Miley Cyrus

The only song I'd say is a bit of a non starter that fell off was "Monster" by Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber


New Entries

Five new entries on the chart this week, we begin with....

47. "Astronaut In the Ocean" by Masked Wolf

So this is your very definition of sleeper hit, this song was released 18 months ago only for it to blow up on Tik Tok this year, it's by a little known Australian MC who goes by the rap name Masked Wolf and well...this song is interesting mostly because the chorus reminds me a lot of what Juice WRLD was doing before he died while his flow on the verses reminds of Eminem, he is quick and while there's no real story here other than Masked Wolf showing that he has overcome mental health problems, he could have built the story a little better and the song itself feels pretty short but this is still better than I expected coming off it blowing up on Tik Tok so yeah check this out if you are curious.


27. "We're Good" by Dua Lipa

So Dua Lipa released the deluxe edition of "Future Nostalgia" and I got to be honest as somebody who loved the tightness of the pop on the standard edition of the album...the extra songs really didn't anything for me and "We're Good" kind of falls into that category of not having the tightness to it that makes for a great Dua Lipa song, it's not precisely bad but given what was on Future Nostalgia, disappointment hurts here.


21. "Love Story (Taylor's Version)" by Taylor Swift 

So here's the first of the newly recorded Taylor Swift songs with the first album to be re recorded and released to be "Fearless" on April 9th with Taylor's first Australian number one in 2008 "Love Story" the first re release single and...well I actually like this more than the original...for one thing the new version strips out a lot of the syuthetic elements that didn't mesh at all with Taylor's vocal and gives the song a much more organic country sound which is fantastic so yeah I am okay with this version. Good job Taylor. Now to if you can make "You Belong With Me" tolerable for me, you'll be doing brilliantly.


15. "Cover Me In Sunshine" by Pink and Willow Sage Hart

Well then...I didn't see this coming especially as this is the best performing Pink song in a long time but put Pink in a studio with her nine year old daughter to record a song aimed at making people smile during a pandemic and I think there's a reason it debuted as high as it did because yeah less not mince words this is adorable and the production is acoustic guitar that can sound country if you squint. Yeah I'm not going to dunk this song, it is adorable and achieves what it sets out to do which is make people smile during a tough time in the world right now. Nice job from both Pink and Willow.


3. "Call My Phone" by Lil Tjay and 6lack

So the second hip hop song to get big on Tik Tok comes from two American rappers although it is mostly Lil Tjay's song with 6lack handling the hook all about the end of a relationship and Lil Tjay trying to make it clear to a girl that it's over and it's time for her to leave him alone and move on although it's not a good look when Lil Tjay says he might buy his 'new bitch' Dior (really, give yourself some time to get over the break up!)

Look the song is fine from a production standpoint even if it does sound a Pop Smoke song at points. I'll take it even if it's really only a solid song rather than excellent.

So that wraps up our week and there's no real clear stand outs one way or the other, I'm giving worst of the week to "We're Good" by Dua Lipa purely for being the most disappointing of the five new entries. Best goes to "Cover Me In Sunshine" by Pink and Willow Sage Hart just edging out "Love Story (Taylor's Veraion)" by Taylor Swift.

Next week: something from that deluxe edition release of Ariana Grande's album "Positions" and maybe the collab between Amy Shark and Keith Urban but we'll find out on Saturday when the chart updates at 5pm AEDT

Thursday, 18 February 2021

New Music Friday Review: 12th February: What it feels like when only love can save me now

 "Only Love Can Save Me Now" by The Pretty Reckless feat Matt Cameron and Kim Thayil

So this seems to pretty likely to be the next single from the recently released The Pretty Reckless album "Death by Rock n Roll" this time bringing on board Matt Cameron of Soundgarden and Kim Thayil of Pearl and also Soundgarden for this song as The Pretty Reckless are big fans of Soundgarden.

There was a reason for bringing the members of Soundgarden on board because this song is basically a homage to Soundgarden and the band's frontman the late Chris Cornell. The whole song souds like it's straight out of the 90s grunge era and Pretty Reckless frontwoman Taylor Momsen sounds fantastic. Also that guitar solo from (I think) Matt is AWESOME. Check this song and indeed the rest of that Pretty Reckless album, it's something special.

Rating: 9/10


"Take Me Away" by Morgan Wade

So American bluegrass, pop and rock singer Morgan Wade caught my attention late last year with "Don't Cry" and with this song...all I can say is don't sleep on Wade's album "Reckless" when it is released in March so yeah I am literally putting this here as a reminder to you all to check this amazing artist's work out and oh yeah, the song "Take Me Away" is outstanding.

Rating: 8/10


"What It Feels Like" by Nipsey Hussle and Jay Z

So I am a bit leery of writing about the work of artists released after they have died, mostly because I am always concerned that any new release is cashing in on the legacy the dead artist left as we've seen with XXXtentacion and Juice WRLD (Yes, it's getting to that point with Juice unfortunately) so this new song involving Jay Z and the late Nipsey Hussle kind of bothered me but than I learned that the track has been in the making when Nipsey died, it's taken eight years for the song to be released so was the wait worth?

Well...I think it was, I love the instrumentation and the energy that both Jay Z and Nipsey Hussle bring to the song, I don't think this will be a hit but it's still excellent and well worth your time checking out.

Rating 8/10

"Big" by Rita Ora, David Guetta and Imanbek feat. Gunna.

Okay...stop...just stop! Why do pop acts especially ones like Rita Ora feel the need to have the underwhelming presence of Gunna on their songs? I mean I half expect this sort of crap from Bebe Rexha's next album if that's ever going to happen but anyway back to this song and really...it's rubbish, the production squishes Rita Ora's vocals into this flat as hell monotone that's completely uninteresting combined with production from Imanbek and David Guetta that is really dime a dozen and doesn't fit at all with the song's title.

The song sucks is what I am trying to say. It's not the worst thing I've heard but wow...it's on the list of suck.

Rating: 3/10

Tuesday, 16 February 2021

Good 1992 Vibrations: 16th February. It's Only Natural that I'm Dizzy.

 So this week was interesting to say the least even if the top ten was partially stagnant and we only had three new entries but let's begin with the top ten because we've got an interesting battle going on but this week saw "Let's Talk About Sex" by Salt 'n' Pepa remaining at number despite a drop in sales, its now facing a challenge from 'Love You Right" by Euphoria which is gaining on sales but just not enough to take the number one spot...yet.

"Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" by George Michael & Elton John remained at number three mostly because it couldn't close the margins to the songs above it but it also means its under pressure from "Saltwater" by Julian Lennon which rose one spot to number four, this song has some momentum behind it and could be a player for number one soon.

Also rising one place to number five is Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" while "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana climbed two spots to number six as "Justified & Ancient" by The KLF remained steady at number seven.

However most of the above gains can be explained by the sudden collapse of "Cream" by Prince and The New Power Generation which tumbled four slots to number eight. Ouch.

We have two new arrivals to the top ten this week with Big Audio Dynamite II"s "The Globe" Breaking it on up five to number nine while Cece Peniston's "Finally" finally broke into the top ten up three slots to number ten


Gains

Let's deal with the good news first with the good to great debuts last week having massive gains like  "Remember The Time" by Michael Jackson rocketing from 42 to 15 and "Tip of My Tongue" by Diesel bolting up nine to 19!

The bad news is that Clivilles & Cole's bastardisation of U2's "Pride (O the Name of Love" rose nine to 16, "If You Go Away" by NKTOB jumping twelve spots to 26 and "I adore mi amor" by Color Me Badd jumped from 31 to 27 for no adequately explained reason.


Re Entries

Just the one re entry and that was from Sabrina Johnston with "Peace" at number 41


Losers

Again most of our big losers are 1991 songs with "All 4 Love" by Color Me Badd thankfully sliding six spots to 28, "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred (more on Right Said Fred in the new entries) down nine to 29, Roxette's "Spending My Time" slipped from 24 to 32, "Do Anything" by Natural Selection tumbled from 26 to 34, "There Will Never Be Another Tonight" by Bryan Adams down six to 36, "No Son Of Mine" by Genesis down nine spots to 44 and "Change" by Lisa Stansfield down seven to 47.

"Once Bitten, Twice Shy" by The Angels slipped seven spots off its debut last week to number 50.


New Entries

Three new entries this week, let's start with...

49. "It's Only Natural" by Crowded House

So here's the third single from Crowded House's album "Woodface" and yeah, this is excellent, granted its an oddly cheery upbeat song about death and reuniting wherever we go after we die. The guitars sound as organic as ever and Neil and Tim Finn's vocal harmonies are stunning as they are on several tracks on the album! Check this out!.


40. "Don't Talk Just Kiss" by Right Said Fred

Seriously? We indulged "I'm Too Sexy" as the weird novelty crap that it was and now we've got a second song from Right Said Fred on the chart and this is way worse than "I'm Too Sexy" because for one the lead vocals lack any charisma or personality that might make the song interesting and as for the lyrics...don't Talk, just kiss and let your tongue fool around" I think I'll pass on that. Ew. Skip this song.


35. "Dizzy" by Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff

"Dizzy" was originally a 1969 hit for Tommy Roe which peaked at number two so of course in 1992 the thing to do is have a cover recorded by comedian Vic Reeves and alternative rock band The Wonder Stuff and I actually like Vic Reeves version a lot better. 

The original felt too cloying plus that production has not aged well and sweet and I am not convinced that Tommy Roe sells the frustration of the song all that well.

However Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff give the song a bit of energy and bombast to turn it into this really fun rock jam plus it feels like Vic Reeves nailed the frustration and confusion of the lyrics a heck of a lot better. Check it out, it's not bad.

It's not that best of this week though, that's going to Crowded House for "It's Only Natural". Right Said Fred get worst of the week with "Don't Talk Just Kiss".

Next week...we could see a change for number one but we'll have to wait and see.