What's NEW? And the LATEST THING in ALTERNATIVE MUSIC? (Week of August 8)

 It's Sunday, so here are the top 10 songs from this week's Alternative 40 chart, as calculated from YouTube and Spotify streams, as well as selected blogs, shows, and playlists focusing on new alternative and indie music (source: https://www.youtube.com/c/NewAlternative40Chart).

1. Jungle - Truth
2. Bleachers (feat. Lana Del Rey) - Secret Life
3. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - That Life
4. James Blake - Say What You Will
5. Big Red Machine (feat. Robin Pecknold & Anaïs Mitchell) - Phoenix
6. The War On Drugs - Living Proof
7. The Vaccines - Alone Star
8. Hippo Campus - Sex Tape
9. Big Red Machine (feat. Ilsey) - Mimi
10. Clairo - Amoeba

Phoenix, the collaboration of Big Red Machine (Aaron Dessner of The National and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver) with Robin Pecknold (Fleet Foxes) and Anaïs Mitchell (Hadestown), drops from the No. 1 spot down to No. 5, and all the other songs they previously had in the Alternative 40 have all dropped off the chart by now.  But scientists have discovered a new Big Red Machine song, this one featuring pop singer Ilsey.  That song, Mimi, debuts on the Alternative 40 chart at the new No. 9.  Here it is, just to get it out of the way.

   

With Phoenix out of the No. 1 spot, Jungle's Truth moves up from No. 4 to the new No. 1, while Secret Life by Bleachers (Jack Antonoff), featuring indie pop singer Lana Del Rey, stays at the No. 2 spot.  I posted both of those songs here last week, so let's skip past them for now.

I've seen pleasingly quirky New Zealand transplants Unknown Mortal Orchestra several times, and they always put on a good show, so it's a pleasure to see them in the top 10 of the Alternative 40 chart.  Their song That Life knocks James Blake's melodramatic Say What You Will out of its former No.3 spot down to the new No. 4. 

With Big Red Machine now the new No. 5, the previous No. 5, The War on Drugs' Living Proof, drops  to No. 6.  Angel Olsen's cover of Men Without Hats' Safety Dance, last week's No. 7, drops to the No. 15 spot, and Alone Star, a new song by Anthony Fauci's band, The Vaccines, debuts on the Alternative 40 as the new No. 7.

I'm just joking. Of course Anthony Fauci's not in The Vaccines.  Fauci's in The War On Drugs and The Vaccines are an indie rock band that formed in West London in 2010 and which, as far as I can tell, contains no M.D.s. But speaking of medicine, the band Hippo Campus has a song Sex Tape debuting at the No. 8 spot.

Blackout by Baltimore punks Turnstile, Chvrches' Good Girls, and Parcels' Coming Back all drop out of the Alternative 40 top 10, and Amoeba, by Atlanta's Clairo, moves up from the No. 20 spot to the new No. 10.  If you're wondering now that Hippo Campus is No. 8 and Clairo is No. 10, what's No. 9?, re-read the intro to the first video posted above and please try to keep up and pay attention.

FWIW, Ameoba was produced by Jack Antonoff, who has the current No. 2 song as Bleachers and has produced for Taylor Swift, Lorde, St. Vincent, Lana Del Rey, and the Chicks, among others.  If you're a female pop singer searching for indie cred (or St. Vincent, who had indie cred but seems to be trying to cross over and become a pop star for some reason) and Aaron Dessner's not available, Jack Antonoff is your producer of choice.

What else is going on in the chart?  Arlo Parks' song, Too Good, moved up from No. 36 to No. 22, and the remix by Unknown Mortal Orchestra moved up from No. 17 to No. 16.  Caroline Polachek's Bunny Is A Rider, which fell off the Alternative 40 chart last week, returned at the No. 17 spot.  The Linda Lindas are still hanging in there with Oh! at No. 28.  Veteran EDM producer Tokimonsta debuted in the chart (No. 21) for the first time ever, and Montreal's TOPS have a song Party Again, debuting at No. 37.  Meanwhile, Sufjan Stevens & Angelo DeAugustine, Courtney Barnett, and Grouper all fell off the chart entirely.  

If my tone in the above sounded snarky at times, it probably because I don't particularly like most of these songs.  This is me trying to keep my ears and mind open, and not entirely seal myself off into the carefully curated Spotify playlist of songs selected especially for my taste.  Sooner or later, I may discover someone on these charts I actually like, but in the meantime, at least I know what's new and the latest thing in alternative music.