New Music Friday Review. 26th: Dancing with All Your Exes and Godzilla in Flesh and Blood

"All Your Exes" by Julia Michaels

I feel like Julia Michaels may well be a one hit wonder in front of a microphone, she's really had nothing solo since "Issues"...yeah she had that insipid "If The World Was Ending" with JP Saxe last year but otherwise she's been releasing music without a lot of attention until this song and unfortunately Michaels is the worst part about this song because I really honest like the rock pop instrumental here but Michaels has none of the visceral power or edge in her vocal delivery to give the song the attitude it needs to really work, she sounds like she's singing in front of a completely different flatter instrumental so yeah points for the instrumental but that's about it.

Rating: 5/10

"Godzilla" by The Veronicas.

Well this is a bit more like it! The Veronicas find their way to a rock sound with a song that could easily belong on their debut album and unlike Julia Michaels, Jess and Lisa Origlasso sound fantastic on this song. Yeah, the lyrics are a bit benarle but this considerably better than anything The Veronicas have done in the recent past, I love how wild the guitars are, they remind me of Hole at times. This is pretty damn great...check it out!

Rating: 8/10

"Flesh and Blood" by Jimmy Barnes

Most Americans know him as the screaming cowboy in the sky in the video for Kirin J. Callinan's "Big Enough" alongside Alex Cameron and Molly Lewis but Jimmy has a new album coming in July of 2021 with this being the lead single from it and while it's not as good as the best songs from :"My Criminal Record" ("Shutting Down Our Town" is still a great song), I still like this a fair bit because for thing it plays toward heartland rock territory and Jimmy sounds good here...not bad at all...check it out if you are curious.

Rating: 7/10

"Dancing With The Devil" by Demi Lovato

So the one thing I've gotten lately from the recent and pretty unsuccessful stream of singles in recent months from her which according to her fans can be blamed on her label's poor promotion of her music (I pin some of it to the songs not being good) but anyway this new song is one that's from her new album being released tomorrow and it's not bad, it reminds me a bit of "Expectations" by Lauren Jauregui in terms of its production, its classy and yet still gives room to Demi's vocals. The lyrics hint at the hell and back Demi has gone through over the past couple of years so yeah I am definitely curious for the album. Nice job.

Rating: 7/10

Good 1992 Vibrations. 29th March: One Dream Alone in November Rain

This week is frenetic and probably one of the busiest weeks of the year so far, there's a tonne of new entries including one in the top ten and songs that are making some dramatic moves up the chart so lets begin as normal with the top ten where the number one didn't change...it's still "Saltwater" by Julian Lennon however it's coming under pressure from the massive sales of "Marvellous" by The 12th Man feat. MCG Hammer.which climbed eight places to number two this week mostly due to the Cricket World Cup generating an interest in cricket related content.

Vic Reeves & The Wonder Stuff also riding momentum up two places to number three, at the moment I am not sure if it's a player for number one but am happy to see it doing well, it's a good song.

Then we get to the new entry at number four from U2 called "One", we'll get to the song's quality a bit later but it got here thanks to strong sales and could very well climb higher in the weeks ahead but it was enough to push "Tip Of My Tongue" by Diesel down one spot to number five.

All this action above caused "Love You Right" by Euphoria down three spots to number six as I said last week, this looks to be leaving the top ten.

Stuck at number seven is "I Can't Dance" by Genesis, it's staying steady mostly due to it not closing the margin to the songs in front of it.

"Rocket Man (I think it's going to be a Long Long Time)" by Kate Bush collapsed down to number eight as sales suddenly fell apart.

The same can almost be said for "Remember the Time" by Michael Jackson which slid three places to number nine. 

Rising ten places to join the top ten is "Get Ready For This" by 2 Unlimited at number number ten.

Gains

Red Hot Chili Peppers raced into the top ten this week jumping eight places to 19 with "Under The Bridge" while Rick Price snags biggest gainer of the week with "Not A Day Goes By" jumping from 41 to 23 and that was about it. 

Losers

So with eight new entries, a lot of songs took tumbles this week including some that were already on the way out like "Cream" by Prince and the New Power Generation which collapsed down from 31 to 50, "Do You Feel Like I Feel" by Belinda Carlisle slipped from 42 to 49 while "Black or White (The Clivilles & Cole (C&C) Remix)" dropped eight places to 48.

Unfortunately "O.P.P" by Naughty By Nature dropped nine places to 47 while "Peace" by Sabrina Johnston also slipped nine to 44 and Jimmy Barnes cover "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" plunged from 36 to 43.

In more bad news "Stars" by Simply Red got shot down from 29 to 37 while Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" slipped ten places to 33 and "Come As You Are" by Nirvana" plunged from 25 to 31. 

"Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Me" by George Michael and Elton John collapsed from 14 to 27 as it looks to be on its way out anyway while Clivilles and Cole's cover of "Ptide in the Name of Love" dropped nine places to 21 and CeCe Peniston's "Finally" got hit with a seven place drop to 20.

New Entries

There's EIGHT new entries this week but let's start with...

45. “Insanity" by Oceanic

So Oceanic a pop trio hailing from England released this song in 1991 and its only just now hitting the Australian singles chart, it peaked at number three in the UK. "Insanity" is this dance euro pop song that in all honestly doesn't do much for me and while lead singer Jorinde Williamas has plenty of energy, the instrumentation just doesn't match that energy.  I don't know, its not precisely bad but there are better Euro dance pop cuts out there and more than half the time I am skipping this so yeah...next.

42 “Dream Alone” by Killing Time

Killing Time are an Australian hard rock band with this EP hitting the ARIA singles chart this week so how are Dream Alone? I like the instrumentation with lot of guitars and drums but I suspect the guitars are turned up way too loud and almost smother the vocals to a degree almost to where they've put the vocals so low in the mix...granted it's not like the vocals are bringing any kind of intense hard rock energy to the song either so yeah...pass.

40. “Baby Love” by Dannii Minogue

So for this week's charting cover, we get Dannii Minogue covering a 1986 song from American singer Regina that peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at number ten so of course Dannii decided to bring this song to Australia and...you know what? The cover here might well be better than the original. The original tends to have the percussion overpowering the result of the instrumentation to a degree where as in the Dannii cover, the percussion is more tastefully done and supports Dannii's vocals so yeah I like this. Good job, Dannii!

39 “Coloured Kisses” by Martika

Oh boy, I remember the last time I covered a Martika song here...it didn't go well so I'm a little nervous as to what we have here...and really while the instrumentation is more restrained as Martika sings about her lovers kisses being coloured...which is a bit weird especially when a kiss is a kiss with no colour attached to them until Martika decided to attach colours to kisses over bright and slightly annoying pop production...the ridiculous lyrics make what is an otherwise bland song interesting...I guess...I wonder how Martika would describe puce kisses though...

34. “November Rain” by Guns ‘n’ Roses

Oh thank god...a song that doesn't blow ass and yeah...this song is unfettered AWESOME. It's an absolute rock epic with Axl Rose telling the story of love that isn't mutual or reciprocated with the basis of the song coming from a short story written by Del James and features two of the best guitar solos in rock music. Coming in at almost nine minutes, this song is a rock epic. I love this and hope its absolutely huge!

30. “Stay” by Shakespear Sister

Oh 1992, haven't we done enough of the bland shitty ballads already? "Stay" comes from former member of Bananarama Siobhan Fahey and American musician Marcella Detroit and my god the first half of this song is bland and really kind of boring with Detroit begging her partner not to leave him over this really bland piano with the song only getting interesting when Fahey enters the picture and the song kicks into a more rock type of structure but I really don't care much for this. NEXT! 

26. “Way Out West” by James Blundell and James Reyne

Second cover of the week with counry artist James Blundell and former Australian Crawl frontman James Reyne collaborating on this cover of a 1973 hit by The Dingoes and yeah this is a really good cover...the song tells the story of fly in fly out miners in rural Western Australia. Blundell and Reyne sound great together and tell the story of the song well and the instrumentation works well here with guitars having a more country twang to them...this is a really damn good cover. This needs to be a hit! Check this out!

4. “One” by U2

So here's the biggest new song of the week coming from one of the biggest bands in the world and honestly this is actually a song inspired by an inspired guitar riff from The Edge and the band on the verge of falling apart over tensions about the musical direction the band were taking in recording their upcoming album as "One" is an intensely bleak but hopeful song about sometimes the only way out of a situation is to get help from another person and also support each other through life, its a song that gets to you

So yeah it's a decent week overall but I'm giving best of the week to "November Rain" by Guns 'N' Roses and joint honourable mention to "Way Out West" by James Blundell and James Reyne and "One" by U2. Worst of the week goes to "Dream Alone" by Killing Time

ARIA Top Ten Singles/Chart Review: 29th March. Nothing But Bieber's Justice

Sigh...This entire chart review is basically going to revolve around Justin Bieber and his new album "Justice" because it's the main talking point this week. Bieber has all the new entries most of which aren't even the best songs on the album and even caused a couple of songs to jump hard but anyway let's get into all the action with the top ten where "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals continues to squat at number one for a fifth week which is weird to me given it's such a weird nothing of a song.

Justin Bieber makes his presence felt at number two with "Peaches" feat. Daniel Caesar and Giveon thanks to really good streaming but that's all it's really got at the moment however it did push "Without You" by The Kid Laroi down one spot to number three, "Drivers License" by Olivia Rodrigo down to number four and "The Business" by Tiesto down to number five.

Rising seven places to number six off the back of the album release is "Hold On" by Justin Bieber. Again streaming was mostly where this song benefited and a lot is going to be dependent on how the deluxe album does.

Climbing one spot to number seven  is "Astronaut In the Ocean" by Masked Wolf, its actually got some sales behind it as well as streaming so this could be a player for number one soon.

All of this pushed "Cover Me in Sunshine" by Pink and Sage Willow Hart back two spots to number eight while the surprise come with the sudden four place collapse of "Goosebumps (remix)" by HVME feat Travis Scott to number nine...ouch. 

Wrapping up the top ten is "Save Your Tears" by The Weeknd which fell three places to number ten.

Gains

Well outside of the top ten, there was the eight place gain by "Anyone" by Justin Bieber to 13 thanks to the album release in the only major gain this week outside the top ten.

Re Entries

Both re entries are from Justin Bieber with "Holy" feat. Chance The Rapper back at 21 and "Lonely" by Benny Blanco back at 47

Losers

"What's Next" by Drake took the biggest hit this week down eleven to 34 with "What's Next"...kind of telling just how these Drake songs aren't sticking around...it could rebound next week but I'm not so sure.

"Lasting Lover" by Sigala feat. James Arthur down nine to 46 while "Streets" by Doja Cat slipped seven to 19 while "Fly Alway" by Tones and I down eight to 26

Drop Outs

Couple of big ones this week with 2020 hits like "Rockstar" by DaBaby feat. Roddy Rich and  "What You Know Bout Love" by Pop Smoke

Then there's songs that will likely make the 2021 year end like "34+35" by Ariana Grande and "Therefore I Am" by Billie Eilish.

The non starters gone are "Wants and Needs" by Drake feat. Lil Baby, "On the Ground" by Rose and "Looking for Me" by Paul Woolfor feat. Diplo and Kareen Lomax.

New Entries

So I am introducing album bomb rules this week so if five or more songs from one album enter the chart then I will cover the top three new charting songs from that album plus any tracks that qualify for best or worst of the week.

So with there being five new entries all Justin Bieber album tracks, the two songs that aren't best nor worst of the week are "Off My Face" by Bieber at 42 and "2 Much" at 40.

23. "As I Am" by Justin Bieber feat Khalid

So one of the things I have noticed with Justin Bieber is that he likes to get features on his songs (there's quite a few on the album and honestly I kind of feel like for Bieber and his lack of charisma and personality that isn't punchable that is a bad idea when you absolutely know that he is very likely going to get blown out of the water by his collaborators and it's kind of the case in point where Khalid is more easily able to lean into the instrumentation and groove here to the point where I forgot Bieber was even on the song, granted, I am not sure the pianos really work that well and Bieber shouting "TAKE ME AS I AM" over that weirdly warped beat on the chorus and how the beat overwhelms Khalid's verse. The potential is there but yeah I'll pass.

22. Unstable by Justin Bieber feat The Kid Laroi

So I am going to make no bones about this but I don't like The Kid Laroi all that much, I think he is trying to rip way too hard from his mentor Juice WRLD rather than find his own particular style or sound and here sounds very much like it's in the Juice WRLD knock off vein but unlike Juice WRLD's better songs, it's got absolutely no energy and just falls flat over that acoustic guitar and watery piano. Plus the song feels like a fragment and feels too monotone rather than the instability that Bieber and The kid Laroi are singing about. Again this could have been better.

2. Peaches by Justin Bieber, Daniel Caesar and Giveon

So this song is an r'n'b song with a bit of groove, two artists like Daniel Caesar and Giveon on it along with the least interesting part of the song...Justin Bieber. "Peaches" has the sort of R'n'B that Bieber could have put into his previous album :"Changes"!. 

The song serving as an ode to Georgia with the state's peaches being a central theme to the song and the state also being the birthplace of Martin Luther King which doesn't make the excerpts of MLK's speecches earlier on on the album okay, Bieber?

Giveon and Daniel Caesar are really the only reason to want to return to this song and even then I'd rather listen to Giveon's new album anyway.

But yeah "Peaches" is still the best of the week easily. "Unstable" gets the worst of the week. As for next week: I've no idea as New Music Friday was overloaded with big names releasing new music, Bieber released a deluxe edition of "Justice" so we may well get another smaller album bomb...joy...might also get Taylor Swift working wth Maren Morris, Lil Nas X and Demi Lovato, we''ll find out on Friday at 5pm AEDT

New Music Friday Review: 19th March That Brass Summer of an Obsessed Billionaire in Pocket

 "Obsessed" by Addison Rae

Addison Rae is a social media personality where videos of her dancing on Tik Tok garnered attention and enabled her to start a singing career with this song being her first single and I am not going to mince words here the song is a steaming pile of crap, the lyrics are a simplistic look at how this other person is 'obsessed' with her and that this other person isn't alone because she's just as obsessed with herself as they are with her, it's got all the self congratulation and none of the self awareness that could make a song like this perversely interesting and the music is this flat generic affiar that doesn't even match the attitude Addison Rae is trying to sell albeit unconvincingly....this is garbage. Don't let this shit chart!

Rating: 1/10

"Brass In Pocket" by Teddy Geiger

Okay Spotify, nobody asked for this...NOBODY asked for The Pretenders classic "Brass in Pocket" to be stripped of what made the song work in the first place which is the energy and confidence of Chrissie Hynde confidently using her body to make guys NOTICE her. This cover sounds fucking miserable, it just lacks the swagger that makes the original great. 

Rating: 1/10

So we're off to a bad start but it does get better with...

"Billionaire" by Delta Goodrem

Well this is an interesting song...another single from the soon to be released new album "Bridge Over Troubled Dreams" and sees Delta Goodrem exploring a move to a more pop meets Americana meets country sound for a song where she reveals she didn't start drinking alcohol until she's 27 and how she's led with her heart and rather than marry some ridiculously rich man, she's going to work hard to make herself a billionaire. I like this a lot even if it does feel like another self empowerment song but instrumentation works here so yeah I'll take this.

Rating: 8/10

"That Summer" by Kaylee Bell and Josh Miranda

Sooo it's weird to see a song about summer released during autumn but none the less it actually makes sense here because Kaylee Bell and Josh Miranda have collaborated on a song that's reminiscing on a summer hook up that fizzled out for whatever reason and now they are left remembering the good times they had together. I like the country rock/pop production here too and Kaylee Bell has a terrific voice.

Rating 7.5/10

Good 1992 Vibrations: 22nd March. Not A Day Goes By when I Can't Dance to Marvellous

Well this feels like a pretty conventional week here with there being a fair amount of movement in the top ten and outside the top ten as well so may as well dig right in and begin where there's no change which is right at the very top with "Saltwater" by Julian Lennon keeping the number one spot for now...I'm not certain if there's anything that can challenge it at the moment,

It may not come from our new number two that being Kate Bush with "Rocket Man (I Think it's Going to be a Long Long Time)" which got a sales boost this week to hit number two surprisingly. Didn't think this song would take off like it has in the last few weeks but regardless it pushed "Love You Right" by Euphoria down one spot to number three, it looks like it's pretty much done with its run. 

Remaining at number four for another week is "Tip Of My Tongue" by Diesel but its starting to come under pressure from "Dizzy" by Vic Reeves & The Wonder Stuff which rose two places to number seven and it also brought "Remember The Time" by Michael Jackson up two places to number six with it! Nice to see!

The first of the two big stories that lie within the top ten is at number seven with "I Can't Dance" by Genesis as it climbed six places to reach the top ten. I still like this song so I am okay with this being here.

Salt 'n' Pepa slipped two places to number eight with "Let's Talk About Sex"..that song is pretty much on the way out.

What did surprise me though was the six place collapse to number nine for "Justified & Ancient" by The KLF...that came out of nowhere.

Wrapping up the top ten is the eight place rise for "Marvellous" by the 12th Man to number ten, this has some wild moment thanks mostly to the ongoing Cricket World Cup which is in the finals now so of course this song has gotten huge.

Gains

So not vey many big gains outside of our top ten however "Alive" by Pearl Jam climbed into the top twenty rising from 22 to 16 while "I Think I Love" by Voice of the Beehive climbed from 21 to 17 (this cover gets worse every single time I hear it) 

2 Unlimited continue to climb, this week "Get Ready for This" jumped fourteen places to number 20 while "Come As You Are" by Nirvana jumped ten spots to 25 and "Under the Bridge" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers raced up eleven spots to 27. 

Most of these gains are pretty awesome...happy to see "Under the Bridge" climbing especially.

Sticking around a lot longer than I thought is "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" by Belinda Carlisle...I honestly forgot this song existed about a minute after I heard it.

Also "Ghost of a Texas Man by Concrete Blonde somehow rose twelve places to 32...ewww.

Losers

It's a busy week on this side of things so like always we'll begin at the bottom and work our way up so Freaked Out Flower Children slipped six places to 49. "Black or White" by Michael Jackson stumbled down ten places to 46 while the Clivilles & Cole remix of the song got hit with an eight place drop to 40.

"Ain't No Sunshine" by The Rockmelons feat. Deni Hines fell eight places to 48 while "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" by Rozalla collapsed from 23 to 39 and "Cool Jesus" by Maybe Dolls fell from 31 to 37. 

Jimmy Barnes cover of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" fell from 29 to 36...unfortunately, "If You Were with Me Now" by Kylie Minogue and Keith Washington slipped from 26 to 33. 

Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" skidded from 15 to 23 while sadly, "It's Only Natural" by Crowded House tumbled from 16 to 22.

"Finally" by CeCe Peniston slipped from 9 to 13, it's not had the most convincing run ever.

New Entries

Just three new entries this week beginning with...

41. "Not A Day Goes By" by Rick Price

Okay so this is the lead single from Australian singer songwriter Rick Price's upcoming album called "Heaven Knows" and honestly it's not bad...I like the guitars and the dramatic swell behind the instrumentation on the song as Price wonders why he is so clingy and why he can't stop thinking about where this girl and wants this girl to tell him how he can get her off his mind and why he never hears from her, its full of yearning and wanting answers..yeah it's a bit clingy lyrically and we don't really get any hints as to why she left. Still good song...check it out.

34. "You Showed Me" by Salt 'n' Pepa

So this song has a bit of a history, it was originally released as a single by The Turtles at the end of 1968 which was to be their last big hit in the US, its now been given pop/hip hop cross over version by Salt 'N' Pepa in 1991 and took its sweet damn time to reach the Australian charts...look it's fine and bringing in new jack swing for their version of the song is inspired and does improve it on the original but still I am not sure how much I'll be coming back to this...it's catchy but Salt 'n' Pepa have done better.

19. "Human Touch" by Bruce Springsteen

So this is the lead single from the upcoming album of the same name and really this is just another decent Bruce Springsteen song. It's not quite got the fire power of his singles from the 80s but yeah it's a gentle song that kicks up a gear going into the final bridge and chorus where Springsteen is genuinely wanting somebody else to talk to or as he calls it "human touch"...yeah this connects for me a good way...check it out if you are curious.

And that's this week...worst goes to "You Showed Me" by Salt 'N' Pepa...it's not that bad...it's just the song that I didn't connect with all that much. I think "Human Touch" just edges out "Not a Day Goes By' for best of the week. 

ARIA Singles Top Ten/Chart review: 22nd March. Quiet week On The Ground

Sigh...this week was fairly quiet but a significant one too given that this was the first time that ARIA have announced their charts on a Friday (I still think the reasoning is fairly asinine...is it really that significant to be the first country every week to announce the top 50 most popular songs in the country every week? Really?) but I also welcome a quiet week given we're likely to be hit by a Justin Bieber album bomb next week.

Regardless of what day the chart is being announced nothing changed at the very top where "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals spent a fourth week at number one, it's got streaming on lock right now and sales are fine enough.

Streaming was enough to see "Without You" by The Kid Laroi return to number two this week, its just not bridging the margins to "Heat Waves" at all but it did push "Drivers License" by Olivia Rodrigo back to number three this week as it's streaming and sales start to waver. 

That leaves a gap for "The Business" by Tiesto which remained at number four but it's doing better on sales than "Drivers License" and if it can get a boost on streaming than it may just climb higher.

Rising one spot to number five unfortunately is "Goosebumps" by HVME and Travis Scott mostly thanks to streaming of course.

Getting a two place gain is Pink and Willow Sage Hart's "Cover Me in Sunshine" to number six mostly thanks to being an absolute giant sales and the sort of consistent streaming that has seen this become entrenched in the top ten. Nice to see.

It pushed past "Calling My Phone" by Lil Tjay and 6lack which tumbled two spots to number seven as streaming has kind of fallen off hard for this song...its weird that the hype only lasted a week for this.

Then we have a new arrival to the top ten coming from Masked Wolf with "Astronaut in the Ocean" up three to number eight this week. This could climb higher thanks to streaming. 

The Weeknd's "Save Your Tears" remains at number nine mostly because streaming is not competitive with the songs above it and sales aren't enough anymore

Also new to the top ten this week is "Leave the Door Open" by Bruno Mars, Anderson Paak and Silk Sonic which got a three place boost to number ten. Great news! Let's hope it keeps climbing.

Gains

The gains are a bit all over the shop here..."Streets" by Doja Cat rose ten to number 12 while "Hold On" by Justin Bieber rose six places to 13 (this will go top ten next week with the album release), "Heartbreak Anniversary" by Giveon up nine spots to 16. All of these are fine gains....the songs are all decent to pretty good.

However not so thrilled about the pretty generic "Friday" by Riton and Nightcrawlers feat. Mufasa and Hyperman also up ten to 19. Also AJR's "Bang" up four places to 46...WHY?

However the weirdest gain for the week was the something of an eleven place rebound for "Watermelon Sugar" by Harry Styles to 36. Possibly off the back of the Grammys but who knows?

Losses

Unsurprisingly the biggest losses came for Drake songs that debuted last week although if I am Drake, I'd be a little concerned with "What's Next" collapsing sixteen places to 23 while "Wants & Needs" feat. Lil Baby got handed a fifteen place drop to 30...ouch!

Drop Outs

There's one significant drop out here with former record breaking chart topper "Dance Monkey" by Tones and I dropping out of the top 50 after 92 weeks on the chart!

The other drop out was "Lemon Pepper Freestyle" by Drake feat. Rick Ross.

New Entries

Two new entries this week...starting with...

39. "Telepatia" by Kali Uchis

So Kali Uchis has finally broken onto the ARIA Singles top 50 after some sporadic success in her native United States with this song getting a boost courtesy of Tik Tok (of course it did) and well I think I like the production here more than anything else, it's smooth and sultry fitting in with the lyrics sung in Spanish by Uchis about a long distance relationship except I'm not sure why I just can't connect this sort of song ompletely for some reason that I am not getting. It's not bad though. Check it out if you are curious.

31. "On the Ground" by Rose

So Blackpink's Rose is stepping out on her own with "On the Ground" being one of two new songs she released and well...this is actually better produced than what she is accustomed to with Blackpink which kind of makes sense considering Jon Bellion is one of the writers and producers on the track, the song itself reminds me of Avril Lavigne to a degree as "On the Ground" sees Rose reflect on being apart of a major K pop group and realizing that what is really important in life lies within herself. I like this more than I should check it out.

So yeah, "On the Ground" by Rose gets best of the week. No worst of the week as "Telepatia" is not bad at all. Next week...maybe a Justin Bieber album bomb, we'll find out when the chart updates at 5pm on Friday. 

New Music Friday review: 12th March. First Time Feels for Cutthroat Potions

So before we dive into this week's reviews of new singles, there's some news that was announced by ARIA on Monday that the revealing of the ARIA charts for the week will now take place on Friday at 5pm, I would think it's most likely to align with New Music Friday but otherwise this shift does feel like its for the inane and petty reason of being the first country to reveal their charts every week, what this means for the blog is that the updates for the 2021 charts and beyond will likely go up on the blog on Saturday. 

Anyway, let's get into it and we may as well begin with the garbage this week...

"Cutthroat" by Imagine Dragons

I weirdly had hope the two new Imagine Dragons songs that they released on Friday would be good so when I heard both "Follow You" and this song...oh boy. The reason I am not focusing on "Follow You" is because its an easy to ignore piece of bland grocery core that will get radio airplay because it's safe and relatively inoffensive however "Cutthroat" might just be the worst thing (I can't call it a song) that Imagine Dragons have possibly ever made. Not only does NONE of the instrumentation not fit together well but the hook has Dan Reynolds doing the sort of in your face screaming that leaves me torn between being incredibly uncomfortable to wanting to turn the song off/..this might be worse than Florida Georgia Line's "New Truck.

Rating: 1/10

Anyway onto something much much better...

"Potions" by Summer Thieves

Well okay when I say much better, this at least the production from NZ pop band Summer Thieves is better, the instrumentation sounds like they goes together and sounds like a fucking coherent song even though 'Potions" really doesn't have a strong crescendo or build into its chorus which is something that's way too common in modern pop music these days and that's kind of disappointing given the song's subject matter about finding a path in life and navigating that path through life, it's a bit rote and basic but after I've heard from Imagine Dragons...I'll take it.

Rating: 6/10

"First Time" by Illenium feat. Iann Dior

So ever since his guest appearance on 24KGoldn's "Mood, I've been keeping an eye on what Iann Dior has been doing and in this case he is the featured artist on an EDM/rock cross over track from Illenium and in all honestly I don't mind this. The chorus is catchy even if the lyrics are odd...Dior hasn't met this girl yet he likes her vibe? How does that work, I don't think it's quite Illenium's best but it's still pretty good...check it out

Rating: 7/10

"Feels" by WATTS feat. Khalid

Nashville based singer/songwrier Watts released this song back in 2018 independently, a song that Khalid heard and got in contact with Watts which resulted in this collab...and yeah this is fantastic although I do wish the feeling that is driving both of them insane was a little more fleshed out but this is the best Khalid has sounded on anything since "Better" in 2019 mostly because the production is right up his alley. Yeah, check this out because it's really damn good.

Rating: 8/10