Thursday, 9 January 2025

ARIA Singles Chart Review: 6th January. Don't Stop Believin' just Linger on that Notion and BMF

We're back in action for 2025 and the ARIA chart has reset post Christmas to something that actually kind of shows that not much changed during the week the Christmas music took over the charts because back at number one is "APT" by Rose and Bruno Mars granted this is riding the impact of the rerlease of her new album late last year but this still has solid enough sales and streaming to keep the number one spot ahead of the increasingly annoying "That's So True" by Gracie Abrams which has streaming but it's not enough to overtake "APT"

"Die With A Smile" by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga is at number three thanks to having good sales but it's streaming isn't anywhere it needs to be to take the number one, it could start falling with stronger songs behind it.

"Birds of a Feather" by Billie Eilish hangs in at number four, it's in a pretty similar positon to "Die With a Smile' just with streaming a little steadier than sales. Another former chart topper "A Bar Song (Tipsy) by Shaboozey sits at number five and like other songs above it, looks to be on the downswing.
 
In what is shaping as the first truly big hit of 2025, "Messy" by Lola Young is at number six thanks to streraming and sales being decent, this has radio traction and should continue to stick around which is great to see because I like the song.

Now I would like to attribute the rest of this top ten down to people listen to end of 2024 end of year playlists of their most played songs because explains why "Beautiful Things" by Benson Boone continues to plague the top ten like the antibiotic resistant venereal diesease it is at number seven, "Espresso" by Sabrina Carpenter at number eight, "I Had Some Help" by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen at number nine and "Taste" by Sabrina Carpenter at number ten.

There's literally no point talking about losses and drop outs as there were no losses and all the drop outs were just Christmas music.

Gains

Let's go through the gains because there were songs that did stick around last week outside the current top ten but outside that so "Good Luck Babe!" by Chappell Roan rose from 45 to 11, "Sailor Song"  by Gigi Perez climbed from 42 to 12, "Lose Control" by Teddy Swims continues to not live up to its name on the charts by jumping from 44 to 13.

Re-Entries

The re entries make up over three quarters of the chart this week so I'm only going to cover the re entries of songs from last year not older songs that probably should be rissoled off the chart if ARIA had some actual recurrency rules in place.

Lets start backward with "I like the way you kiss me" by Artemas at 50, "Prada" by Casso, Raye and D-Block Europe at 49, "Scared to Start"  by Michael Marcagi at 45, "Guess" by Charli XCX feat. Billie Eilish at 44, "End of Beginning" by Djo at 43, "Bed Chem" by Sabrina Carpenter at 42 and "Ain't No Love in Oklahoma" by Luke Combs at 41

Then there's "Bad Dreams" by Teddy Swims at 39, "Wildflower" by Billie Eilish at 38, "Pink Skies" by Zach Bryan at 37, "Million  Dollar Baby" by Tommy Richman at 35, "Hot to Go!" by Chappell Roan to 33 and "Stumblin' In" by Cyril (really should include Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman...) at 30,

At 29 is "The Door" by Teddy Swims, "I Love You, I'm Sorry" by Gracie Abrams at 22, "Please Please Please" by Sabrina Carpenter at 21, "Stick Season" by Noah Kahan at 20, "Stargazing" by Myles Smith at 19,  "Too Sweet" by Hozier clocked back in at 17, "Timeless" by The Weeknd and Playboi Carti at 16, "Luther" by Kendrick Lamar (and SZA) at 15 and FINALLY "Austin" by Dasha at 14.



New Entries

Four new entries this week and quite unbelievably, we're starting off with...

47. "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey

Yeah, I am floored I am covering this in 2025 but as it turns out that even with this song considered a classic of 80s even with all the overplay, it wasn't a hit in its original run in Australia in 1981/1982, peaking at number 100 on the Kent Music Report charts and since then has been recording increasingly larger peaks outside the top 50 over the years until 2025 was the year it broke into the top 50. 

I am not going to shit on the song because it is an absolute classic that I know a lot of people absolutely adore and it got more fans courtesy of it being covered by ?Glee" and for many the song is a bit of an anthem but its just not a song that I have a personal attachment to as the lyrics strike me as weird anda the hook doesn't do as much for me at all.


46. "Linger (Sirius XM Sessions)" by Royel Otis 

So are we only going to acknowledge Royel Otis exist when they cover somebody else's songs now are we? Come on, they  have "Velvet" and "FOAM" which are two great songs from "Pratts and Pains" which deserve to be hits but okay putting all that aside, how is this cover of The Cranberries hit "Linger"?

It's fine however I don't think it's anything that would make me switch from the wonderful original where Dolores Riordan (may she rest in peace) just delivers an incredible vocal performance where as the vocals on this cover just don't hit the mark for me but again I stress, this cover isn't the worst thing I have ever heard, it just more feels inessential from a duo whose own music is better thsn this cover.

Just saying.


27. "...BMF" by SZA

So this is the only song that charted from the deluxe edition of "SOS" which is a bit of a surprise, would have thought "30 for 30" with Kendrick Lamar would have charted but oh well, we did end up getting one of the better songs from it even as it interpolates "Girl From Ipanema" on the hook (SZA, you aren't being slick with that and you aren't getting away with it!) but it's actually done well, it sounds like a breezy summer pop song, I will say that the interpolation might see some people getting annoyed with it if it sticks around but I like it. Check this out.


18. "The Days (NOTION Remix" by Chrystal, Not
Well, this feels a somewhat random breakthrough. Chrystal is a British singer hailing from Manchester, her song "Waves" attracted attention from BBC 1Xtra which garnered her comparisons to Lily Allen with this remix from UK dance artist Notion and well I really don't care that much for Notion's remix of the song, it just feels too busy and Chrystal vocals already remind me way too much of Bebe Rexha in the most annoying way possible...nasal and all so no, this isn't particularly good.

That's our week and yeah..."BMF" by SZA just runs away with the best of the week. Worst is going to "The Days (Notion Remix" by Chrystal and Notion. 




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