Singles In Your Area: w/c Jul 7
New tracks from Lewis Capaldi, Chance The Rapper, Nilüfer Yanya, RIIKI REID, Ethel Cain, Foo Fighters and For Those I Love, plus a few thoughts on Bob Vylan
A few songs I was listening to while imagining worse things to get the Glastonbury crowd chanting in unison …
New This Week!
ABSOLUTELY - "I Just Don't Know You Yet"
Hot 40 Singles: #16
Born Abby-Lynn Keen, ABsolutely is the sister of soul singer Raye, and specialises in something called ‘alien pop’ - essentially noise pop that sounds a bit weird. I actually thought this song had the kind of bombastic quality that makes Miley Cyrus’ best work so engaging, but maybe that’s just me.
AESPA - "Dirty Work"
Hot 40 Singles: #15
From the record label that brought you Girls’ Generation, Exo and TVXQ comes AESPA, another collection of beautiful women who look bored and dance to, honestly, a pretty catchy production. I liked this one.
ALEX WARREN AND ROSÉ - "On My Mind"
Hot 40 Singles: #10
Kiwi singer Rosé joins forces with current man of the hour Mr Alex Warren for another worship band-inspired acoustic ballad. Rosé does her best but she can’t overcome Alex Warren’s by-the-numbers songwriting.
ALISON GOLDFRAPP - "Hey Hi Hello"
Oh, well, hi there Alison! The eponymous duo behind hits like “Ooh La La” and “Rise A White Horse” are on indefinite hiatus, so Alison Goldfrapp is taking a bit of time to make her own music - and if you liked Goldfrapp, I have some really good news: you’ll probably like Goldfrapp.
CASUAL HEALING - "Misty Mountain"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #08
Another dose of catchy acoustic reggae from Casual Healing.
CHANCE THE RAPPER - "Tree (ft Lil Wayne, Smino)"
Chance drags Lil Wayne and Smino along for a taste of his upcoming mixtape Star Line Gallery, leveraging some heavy bass and an India.Arie sample into an ode to cannabis. Fun fact: this song is better than every song on Lil Wayne’s recent album.
DIPLO & BAILEY ZIMMERMAN - "Ashes"
Hot 40 Singles: #31
Another fairly standard pop-country track from Zimmerman, which begs the question: what did Diplo contribute aside from his name? There are about a thousand producers who could’ve made this song.
DON TOLIVER - "FWU"
Hot 40 Singles: #13
Southern trap with a ton of autotune. I didn’t like this.
Canadian rapper and recent trauma victim Drake releases a track addressing the fallout of the Kendrick feud and calling out fake friends like (checks notes) Lebron James?! The basketball player in Los Angeles?!
The second single from Cain’s upcoming second album of the year, titled Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, is a synth pop throwback that steps up in the back half with electric guitars and a desperate upper register vocal. Probably my favourite track of the week.
I’m a little confused what is going on with the Foos lately: singer Dave Grohl was the centre of attention in late 2024 after coming out in support of Kamala Harris, then later admitting he had fathered a child outside of his marriage, then drummer Josh Freese announced in May that he’d been fired without any real explanation, even jokingly suggesting ten reasons for his dismissal including ‘Never even once tried growing a beard’ and ‘Could only name one Fugazi song.’ This new track? It’s fine, a fairly run-of-the-mill rock ballad of which there are usually 2-3 per Foos album. No sign of a drummer in the video though.
FOR THOSE I LOVE - "No Scheme"
Spoken word artist and electronic producer David Andrew Balfe released his debut album in 2021 and it was phenomenal, intense writing spoken over equally intense beats and synth word in his thick native Dublin accent. I can’t even tell you how excited I am that he is back.
KARAN AUJLA & IKKY - "At Peace"
Hot 40 Singles: #11
Punjabi rapper Karan Aujla surrounds himself with wild beasts, including horses, tigers, motorbikes, and at least one chef.
KATSEYE - "Gameboy"
Hot 40 Singles: #12
The multinational girl group released an EP last week, also landing the track "M.I.A" in the Hot 40 Singles chart at #20. I’m starting to understand their music is just an excuse to do a dance routine, but what are we doing here, team - this one gave me “Gangnam Style” vibes, and not in a good way.
LAUFEY - "Lover Girl"
Hot 40 Singles: #25
Icelandic-Chinese singer Laufey Lín Bing Jónsdóttir’s latest is the closest she’s come yet to Bjork’s playful and ethereal style - and I love that this lyric video includes the chords, in case you want to figure out what Amaj7(#11) or G#7(sus4) sounds like and play along.
LEWIS CAPALDI - "Survive"
Hot 40 Singles: #08
Fresh off a controversy-free surprise performance at Glastonbury, Capaldi is back with a rather gorgeous and emotionally vulnerable ballad touching on some of the challenges he has faced since hitting the big time. Stardom, man.
MINA TINDLE - "Heaven Thunder (ft Sufjan Stevens)"
French singer-songwriter Mina Tindle taps into her inner Bon Iver, dragging Sufjan Stevens - enjoying a boost following the re-release of 2015’s Carrie & Lowell - along for the ride. “Heaven Thunder” starts as a lo-fi track before expanding like a deep breath, strings and vocal layering joining the fray.
MIRAGE - "Before The Night"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #06
Bay Of Plenty group Mirage do themselves a huge favour here with a bi-lingual version of their track “Before The Night” which starts off a fairly straight-forward reggae-pop track, but pops when it switches to Te Reo in the second verse and manages to hold on to that momentum through the end of the song.
Yanya is about to set out with Lorde on her upcoming Ultrasound World Tour, forming maybe the best 1-2 touring pair of the year. “Kneel” is a cut from the Dancing Shoes EP, a grungy guitar and a maraca-sounding drone combining with her airy vocals and sparse strings to create something special.
RENEÉ RAPP - "Mad"
Hot 40 Singles: #17
I’m not sure what to make of this one. “Mad” plays as overtly sexual - lyrically, Rapp sings about the frustration of arguing rather than having sex (‘All of the time you wasted in your head / We could've been having sex’), but it lacks conviction or authenticity or something. Fun track but it feels off.
Another fantastic track for the week: Reid captures that unnameable change of season feeling - realising that the good days are gone, that whatever we had is changing, that the honeymoon is over, her strained vocal in the chorus giving a sense of desperation. And by working the fruit motif into the video, she links it back to her earlier feel-good-hit-of-the-summer style singles. Fantastic stuff.
Also new this week:
Lorde:
The entire Top 11 of the Official Top 20 Aotearoa Singles chart this week was made up of the 11 songs from Lorde’s new album Virgin, which I reviewed last week. Its the kind of response that makes the muted local media coverage look even worse and even more out of touch in hindsight.
"Broken Glass"
Official Top 20 Aotearoa Singles: #08"Clearblue"
Hot 40 Singles: #06 / Official Top 20 Aotearoa Singles: #09"Current Affairs"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #03 / Hot 40 Singles: #03
Official Top 20 Aotearoa Singles: #05 / Official Top 40 Singles: #28"David"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #04 / Official Top 20 Aotearoa Singles: #07"Favourite Daughter"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #02 / Hot 40 Singles: #02
Official Top 20 Aotearoa Singles: #03 / Official Top 40 Singles: #24"GRWM”
Official Top 20 Aotearoa Singles: #11"If She Could See Me Now"
Official Top 20 Aotearoa Singles: #10"Shapeshifter"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #01 / Hot 40 Singles: #01
Official Top 20 Aotearoa Singles: #01 / Official Top 40 Singles: #11
Oh, one more thing:
Okay, death is probably a bit extreme - but so is all the rest of the furore around Bob Vylan’s set at Glastonbury last week, and the ‘death, death to the IDF’ chant they led. Lost in all of this: the crowd were chanting right along with singer Bobby Vylan (his partner on drums and programming is Bobbie Vylan).
In a statement over the weekend, the duo clarified: ‘We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine,’ adding that their government doesn’t want to discuss the genocide of the Palestinian people, and that ‘The more time they talk about Bob Vylan, the less time they spend answering for their criminal inaction’.
The fact is that Palestine is closing in on 60,000 fatalities since October 7, 2023 - estimates have it around 80% civilian and a third (31%) children. Over 200 deaths are aid workers; nearly 200 are journalists and media; and over 100 are academics. Meanwhile, Israel has so far lost less than 2,000 souls in total, and less than half of those are civilian. The Hamas attack that instigated this genocide caused less than 1,200 fatalities. Israel has responded fifty-fold.
The Israeli Defence Force - under the orders of the Israeli government - has gone so far beyond what could be considered fair in the wake of the October 7 attacks that they’re not even on this planet anymore. What is happening in Palestine is a genocide. I completely believe that this is the popular opinion of the majority of people and governments across the globe have spoken out against the IDF, and repeatedly called for a ceasefire. But they keep hitting the wall of a demonic United States government that has repeatedly vetoed action by the UN.
Death is a strong word, for sure - and nobody wishes the death of people fighting for the IDF. But the IDF as an institution, and the government that orders it, need to be stopped. It’s just that ‘international intervention that stops the IDF’ doesn’t have the same ring to it when you have a Glasto crowd chanting it.
| Official Top 40 Singles | Official Top 20 Aotearoa Singles |
| Hot 40 Singles | Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles | Radioscope 100 |
| r/Indieheads | TheNeedleDrop | Pitchfork | 13th Floor | Sniffers |
Thanks for reading, folks.
I’ll be back later in the week!
Chris xo
Firing Freese from Foos feels freaking foolish.