It's another Sunday, so let's take another look at the top 10 songs on 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: www.youtube.com/c/NewAlternative40Chart).
- Phoebe Bridgers - Nothing Else Matters
- Unknown Mortal Orchestra - That Life
- Sufjan Stevens And Angelo De Augustine - Back To Oz
- Jungle - Truth
- Big Thief - Little Things
- Jungle - All Of The Time
- Bleachers Ft. Lana Del Rey - Secret Life
- James Blake - Say What You Will
- Courtney Barnett - Before You Gotta Go
- The War On Drugs - Living Proof
The news this week is that we finally got Big Red Machine out of the top 10. Nothing against Aaron Dessner or Justin Vernon, but they've been dominating the chart all summer and I for one am a little tired of their collaborations with mainstream pop-stars (Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, etc.) at the top of a so-called "alternative" chart. On a positive note, five new songs debuted in the top 10 this week, and they're actually not all bad (one is, but I'll let you guess which one that is).
So to kick things off, here's our new No. 1, Phoebe Bridgers' cover of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters.
Get used to hearing Metallica covers, because the band has released The Metallica Blacklist, a whole album of 53 cover tracks. In addition to Bridgers, the album features artists as diverse as Mac DeMarco, Weezer, St. Vincent, and My Morning Jacket, and includes several different renditions of Nothing Else Matters, including one by Miley Cyrus with support by Elton John and Yo-Yo Ma. I have a feeling we're in for more Metallica covers this year.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra's That Life moves up from the No. 3 spot to No. 2, but although it may be my personal favorite song in this week's top 10, I posted it here last week. Our new No. 3 is a new track from Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine's album, A Beginner's Mind (Reach Out, the first song released from the album, peaked earlier this summer at No. 6 on the chart). While Back to Oz debuts at No. 3, another track from the album, Fictional California, also debuted on the chart this week, that one at No. 18.
So with Phoebe Bridgers grabbing the No. 1 spot, last week's No. 1, Jungle's Truth, falls to No. 4. But not to worry, Jungle fans. Another Jungle track, All of the Time, debuts at No. 6 on the Alternative 40.
Sandwiched between Jungle's Truth at No. 4 and their All of the Time at No. 6, Brooklyn's Big Thief has the No. 5 song with Little Things.
Last week's No. 2 song was Bleachers' Secret Life featuring Lana Del Rey (like Dessner and Vernon of Big Red Machine, Jack Antanoff of Bleachers tries to gives female pop stars a patina of indie credibility with his tracks). This week Secret Life falls to the No. 7 spot. Last week's No. 4 song, James Blake's melodramatic Say What You Will, is now our new No. 8. And last week's No. 6 song, The War of Drugs' Living Proof, is now No. 10.
Courtney Barnett's Rae Street from her upcoming LP Things Take Time, Take Time fell off the chart last week, but another track from the album, Before You Gotta Go, debuts as our new No. 9 track.
Probably riding Before You Gotta Go's coattails, Barnett's Rae Street has resurfaced on the Alternative 40 at No. 36.
What else? Unknown Mortal Orchestra's remix of Arlo Parks' Too Good is still on the charts at No. 21, although her original track has fallen off the Alternative 40. The Linda Lindas are still hanging in there for the fourth straight week with Oh! at No. 26 (No. 28 last week), while Caroline Polachek's Bunny Is a Rider is still there at No. 37.
That's it for this week. I won't subject you to another lecture on the artistic shortcomings of popular music this time. I think the one "bad" track this week (have you spotted it yet?) does that task for me.
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