Played my first open mic two nights ago, PLUS started recording my own stuff! WOW ! HAPPY MARCH ! 🍀

Katy never changed 🍌

EP : DUAL

YA DISPONIBLE EN SPOTIFY ✅️

Tate McRae’s existence feels like witnessing the daydream of a back-up dancer where she self inserts as a popstar

I’m taking thirst traps in the mirror in my room

Now I’m lame

It’s such a shame

I used to be so super cool

I think it’s possible that most of the pop music I know, I only know by having searched for the sources of the catchiest snippets from soundclown mashups

I wonder (Where are you now) by Elowen Star. Check out her music on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, and Amazon. #elowenstar #popmusic #musichits #catchymusic #dancemusic @elowenstar1

Listen on Spotify, YouTube music, Apple, Itunes, Amazon, and more!

It was so iconic but I think it became overlooked becuz it came out in 2024 and like everyone was releasing in 2024 and it was a late year release so it got pushed to the side and also becuz it’s an album about death, motherhood, chronic illness, and so many other things that the casual listener could be turned off from but I adore it due to how relatable like half of that album is. I love like how she did so many genres like she did rock (lonely is the muse, dog years, ego) country (hometown), pop (lucky, panic attack) and so many more like she’s so versatile it’s insaaane. Also yes her impersonating badlands was so iconic (even tho hurt feelings is my least fav lol) but god it currently writing an essay and a deep dive on preachers daughter by Ethel Cain and I’m thinking abt doing more whe im finished with that and TGI is for sure on my list becuz there’s so much to dissect.

Great Calypso music

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Sabrina Carpenter brought the same stage structure from Chicago’s Lollapalooza to festivals in Latin America.

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 14/03/2026 (Harry Styles’ Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally)

Charts all the time. #1, occasionally – including this week! Harry Styles debuts “American Girls” at the top of the UK Singles Chart, becoming his fourth #1 single. Welcome to this “star-dazzling” episode of REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

content warning: language

Rundown

As always, we start with our notable dropouts, which are songs existing the UK Top 75 (that’s what I cover) after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we bid farewell to: “Always Everywhere” by Charli xcx, “NUEVAYoL” by Bad Bunny, “What You Saying” by Lil Uzi Vert, “YUKON” by Justin Bieber getting a move-on and “Messy” by Lola Young.

Now as for our re-entries, we have a quite a few at the very bottom here: “Plastic Cigarette” by Zach Bryan at #75, “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan at #74, “NO BATIDÃO” by ZXKAI and slxughter at #73 (sigh) and “That’s So True” by Gracie Abrams at #70, followed by our notable gains, those being “Stay (if You Wanna Dance)” by Myles Smith at #66, “MAYBE.” by SIENNA SPIRO at #60, “Iris” by The Goo Goo Dolls at #57 (yep, one of those weeks, check out the new Steve Aoki remix if you’re not in the business of self-respect), “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone at #51 (I like the song, I can’t defend this still being around), “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers at #47 (oh, come on), “E85” by Don Toliver at #44, “Steady” and “The Sick” by Bella Kay at #49 and #33 respectively, “White Keys” by Dominic Fike at #19, “Into the Groove” by Madonna at #18 and finally, “Dracula” by Tame Impala at #17.

The top five on the UK Singles Chart starts with Harry Styles, whose album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally becomes his third to top the UK albums chart, with “Ready, Steady, Go!” debuting at #5, “Aperture” up to #4 and of course, “American Girls” is at the top. Meanwhile, “iloveitiloveitiloveit” by Bella Kay is at #3 and “Rein Me In” by Sam Fender and Olivia Dean is at #2. Now let’s look into our smaller list of songs debuting below before we get to Harold.

New Entries

#67 – “God Was Showing Off” – Bruno Mars

Produced by Bruno Mar and D’Mile

That is not a typo, or at least not mine. On desktop Spotify, or at least whatever update version I’m on, the production credits list this song as being produced by Bruno Mar, with an invisible performer credit to the strings conductor Larry Gold. I don’t exactly know what’s going on there, maybe I’m just bugged, but either way, this is the fourth track on Mar’s The Romantic, in the mid-section of the record which generally contains its highlights. Though not my favourite, “God Was Showing Off” is very nice, though like the rest of the tracks from the album, don’t give me too much to discuss. You can read the last episode to hear more of my thoughts on the album as a whole but I am a sucker for horn sections and this is a warm, full-sounding set of horns for sure, with a Spanish count-in and Daniel Rodriguez on the congas giving it the Latin soul flavour present on The Romantic overall. The conceit of the song is incredibly dumb, really, and I don’t say that to make fun of the song, I mean that the content Bruno is selling is completely lovestruck, making goofy puns about how when God created this woman he’s singing to, he was flexing his… skills of human creation, I guess. It even has a corny spoken word passage that leads into a chant of “Hallelujah” in the bridge. It’s kind of adorable, you could probably make some kind of point about the religious angle if you really want to get into the weeds of a track that repeats the phrase “flexin’ up in Heaven”, but I don’t think that’s necessary. “I bet you could walk on water, can’t you, girl? And then you could turn that water into wine”. It may be a little derivative, it doesn’t really have a dramatic moment that really pushes it over the edge, but it’s a light-hearted track that Bruno could probably have sleep-walked but decided to full-send which I always respect with him, even when he’s making songs about gorillas. Okay, actually, I don’t respect that one.

#53 – “Talk to You” – ANOTR and 54 Ultra

Produced by ANOTR, Jackson Shanks and Hank Korsan

Okay, I’ll bite: who the Hell are Anotr and 54 Ultra? Are those even people or Xbox usernames? So, ANOTR are a Dutch DJ duo who released this track alongside an announcement for the return of what seems to be some kind of festival project, No Art, whilst the song’s vocalist 54 Ultra is a Latin soul act based in New Jersey and turns out I’ve already listened to both of these acts, who both have songs in the millions of streams. 54 Ultra I only technically heard without knowing because he produced a track off of Kali Uchis’ latest album but ANOTR have literally been reviewed on this series before. I suppose they really must have been that anonymous, but “Relax My Eyes” with Abel Balder peaked at #33 in 2023 whilst “Paint the Town Red” by Doja Cat was #1 and yes, I did check out my old review. Get this: when I reviewed “Relax My Eyes”, I also said “Okay, I’ll bite: who the Hell are these people?”. I did not line that up, I promise, I just did not remember, though on revisiting that song, it’s a pretty nice song with more organic disco elements than you typically get in house. Given 54 Ultra’s a soul act, I expected the same for this and yeah, we get a super slick guitar riff making up the back of the track alongside a solid house groove. Despite the funk guitar not coming in at the start of the track, it’s still pretty immediate with the initial keys – what isn’t is 54 Ultra, who does some kind of Joji impression though much less laidback and closer to a kind of 80s talk-singing than the singer whose voice he just instantly reminded me of. What will take you by surprise is the brief vocoder break in the chorus, coming alongside a sudden sprinkle of super sugary synths, it’s basically bubblegum. Obviously, on a track like this, the lyrics are mostly just vague lines about love and dancing, but I do appreciate how the structure centres the track around a repeating verse between the two choruses, with quieter sirens and a lead vocal that gets increasingly filtered, eventually reaching full vocoder cheese as the drums pick back up into gear and none of that sickly sweet nonsense ends up back in the guitar rhythm that essentially just got Ctrl+V’d into the end to replace all the tension that had been made. It’s a super breezy track, almost reminds me of some classic French house, I really hope this sticks around. Hey,  maybe I should stop forgetting these guys exist and check out more of their damn music.

#43 – “New Religion” – Bebe Rexha and Faithless

Produced by Punctual, Neave Applebaum, William Lansley and Bebe Rexha

As you may have been able to guess from the co-lead artist, our story starts in 1995, but let’s stick to the present for now. Bebe Rexha described “New Religion” as her “love letter to music”, particularly the dance music that helps her during rough periods of depression by just making her feel something. One of her first singles since going independent, Rexha’s fans were who convinced her to include a bridge, the part of the song that gained some viral traction, because after her last project excluded bridges to fit in with the era of shorter songs, her fans complained and she retroactively added the section to the song. The track will appear on the upcoming Dirty Blonde coming in June, with music videos for all of its 13 tracks ambitiously filmed within just three days.

Rexha was on Faithless’ album last year so it makes sense they’d grant her the sample, which comes from their 1995 progressive house classic “Insomnia” from their debut album Reverence, written by the band’s members Sister Bliss, Rollo Armstrong and the late Maxi Jazz who, despite his memorable rap verses on the track, wasn’t actually an insomniac. He had recently suffered a painful dental injury and his electricity meter was going out but all of this will still make you lose sleep and it naturally struck a chord with clubbers. Personally, I find the radio edit super lacking but the original track over eight minutes does a much better job at reflecting a sleepless night, mirroring Underworld’s approach at the time which were super lengthy builds followed by a bit of an explosion by the end, as described by Sister Bliss herself. You can read more about the making of “Insomnia” here if you’re interested. It was a surprise hit for the group, peaking at #27 on its initial release, quickly disappearing then reappearing on the charts with a much higher peak of #3 upon re-release in 1996, whilst the Spice Girls’ “Say You’ll be There” was #1. “Insomnia” would intermittently re-appear from 1997 onwards, with a long chart run from 2005 to 2006 (thanks to a remix tied to their greatest hits album… though not actually on it) and most recently appearing in 2015. It even crossed over Stateside during the 90s, which was impressive for a UK house act and across all versions, “Insomnia” spent 64 weeks on the UK Singles Chart… and now, technically, I guess a 65th.

How does “New Religion” treat the sample? Well, you’ll immediately hear the iconic synth melody in both the lead pads and the verse and chorus melody, wherein Rexha does an “I’m Good (Blue)” sticking in lyrics to the melody. Sadly, very little of the atmosphere from “Insomnia” remains though I can see why the song actually does a lot to respect the original’s themes. “I can’t get no sleep” becoming a bit of a signature line for club culture at the time exemplifies dancing as a release, even if that good time is just another reason why you’re not getting any sleep, though I think Maxi Jazz made a great decision not to include that in the original lyrics which are focused on the domestic, the final synth drop (alongside all the atmosphere preceding it) being a representation of the mental anguish that being sleep-deprived can come with. So what Rexha is doing is part taking the subtext into the text, part reappropriating Maxi Jazz’s sleepless suffering to reflect her own depression and I honestly love that conceptually. At the end of the day, though, it is just a clunky remix of a classic song that feels tailor-made for a UK club night and UK radio. The drums hit well enough and the vocals are super-processed with some really clunky lyrics – I understand the “new religion” conceit but it results in some choice lines like “I found my purpose in the churches filled with neon lights” that just seem a little on-the-nose in the way that, sure, a lot of house music is, but specifically not “Insomnia”. Maxi Jazz’s defeated rap is straightforward but it’s not really got a conceit or hook in the way Bebe Rexha’s song does so, for many other reasons as well, it ends up feeling a little realer. I don’t know, I like the concept of what this means for her, I like the goofy turntable-like vocal chop at the end which does bring some very 90s energy to an otherwise plastic, sleek house track. Without the “Insomnia” sample, it really would just be any old Punctual beat. I wish there was a little more to all of it but it at least does have an interesting enough connection to the track it’s riffing from – both outside and inside the lyrics – and I’ll take that over any old dance sample flip. Hope it works out for her on the charts.

#5 – “Ready, Steady, Go!” – Harry Styles

Produced by Kid Harpoon

I haven’t given Harry’s awkwardly-titled new record that many listens since its release but as someone who was basically never impressed with Styles’ dull throwback stuff – neither the 70s glam rock, disco or 80s new wave pastiches he lazily tried out in the past – I was pretty happy with his blend of progressive house, 90s alternative dance and even some Britpop elements. Now is that partly because I’m, as I’m going to eloquently state, an “alt-dance Andy”? Yeah, that probably plays a part, but I liked how the album’s arrangements built in a less conventional way, with the best songs pulling themselves in and out on Harry’s signature restraint and having slightly wonky progressions that help the gooey synths feel surprisingly subtle. The earlier section of the album particularly had some oddly rounded-out songs, including a few that followed the trend of “Aperture” of sounding pretty cool past the two-minute mark but having a rough way getting there and no idea what to do with the rest. That’s pretty much my opinion on the decent third track, “Ready, Steady, Go!”.

The song’s title points towards its narrative about an unpredictable relationship going much faster than expected and leading to some imbalances between the two in not just how they’re feeling about the relationship but how their brains are wired and hence how they react to the relationship. I don’t exactly know who “Leon” is in the chorus but having a friend to call and vent to or just feel more relaxed with compared to even the most freeing, euphoric moments with Harry, is probably really worthwhile to his partner for some downtime. Though they call Leon “only in [Harry’s] head” which I genuinely have no idea what that means. Leon is referred to as an “it”, assuming these subsequent lines are connected, meaning that “Leon” might just means a broader safe space that she tries to seek comfort in but regardless spends that time with Harry, a space where she can be free, joyous… but if the relationship’s going so fast, maybe not so safe? “You’ve got enough while we do too much” could also point to what the chorus is referring to, that the idea of “Leon” – the idea of his partner’s existing comfort and safety without him – only exists as a tension in Harry’s head, a paranoia that she will be… you know what, I don’t think he’s saying anything. Part of what I liked about the album were some of the subtle abstractities in the lyrics that are faced against minimal, bassy grooves and a plenty few stretched-out vocal fragments you can hear in the intro and chorus on this song. I was basing my transcription of the lyrics based on Genius which was based on the official lyric video, but the first half of the chorus is practically mumbled and the second half is distorted to shit, with neither fitting perfectly in even “official” interpretations. I think that this is the song’s greatest strength though! The unpolished murmur over acoustics are flattened immediately by his distorted vocal, Tom Skinner’s heavy drums and incessant beeping synth – I think the vocals are reflective more so of a blur that reaches to vague ideas of words, doesn’t really get there, because the relationship’s momentum has no time for articulating what exactly is happening. After the two-minute mark, the song devolves into a mantra of “ready, steady, go!”, incorporating some more faint yelling (panned across the mix) and some jaunty keys straight out of a children’s theme song. It’s an interesting little song though on its own fails to really feel complete, given the following track, “Are You Listening Yet?” (more on that in a little bit), has a more effective build and fits more solidly with the album’s themes. “Ready, Steady, Go!” is almost a first take for what some of the ideas across the album could sound like and it was too catchy not to leave on the cutting room floor.

#1 – “American Girls” – Harry Styles

Produced by Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson

This one… yeah, whatever progression or deviation from how I typically receive Styles’ records that was present in the rest of the album is just void here, this song’s the easy dud and also the easy hit. Described by Harry as “quite a lonely song in a lot of ways”, the track arrived with a stunt-filled music video and an explanation of the lyrics (not that they really needed any), being that Harry is still single and exploring – what he saw as “having all the fun” – whilst his closest friend don’t just hook up with American girls, they get married and settle down, prompting Harry to think about where and how he wants his life to develop. Now, I’ve never held much weight in Harry Styles being a compelling popstar or compelling songwriter, let alone person, and this song is therefore possibly the least interesting thing to me conceptually, though to be fair to Harry, the magic that people find with their long-time partners is an aspirational bond that isn’t far from what he looks for in some other tracks from the album though struggles to confront them. Hell, “Are You Listening Yet?”, possibly my favourite ever solo song from Harry, at its core has the same tension as “American Girls”: confront and reflect yourself and your own habits, don’t just absorb yourself in the wash, ask yourself questions about your life that you can’t afford to ignore. I think my problems here are twofold – firstly, the song’s just stiff as shit with those tistling drums, the chorus melody being so flat and sold in a register I don’t really like from Harry, the melodic elements being limited to some basic piano, wonky outro synths and a watery mix that drenches every lethargic moment. Secondly, the framing is focused specifically on the girls and trades any of the insight that Harry could have brought to the song (and has kind of done outside of the song itself) for frankly lazy lyrics that emulate the level of airheaded self-awareness you’d get from hair metal. The song, as described by Harry, doesn’t really exist in the same sense, it just flounders into nothing with a sorry excuse for a bridge. It’s not awful to me because there’s simply not much to it but it’s kind of close for also that exact reason. Give me something, Harold.

My other favourites from the album I hadn’t mentioned were “Taste Back”, “The Waiting Game”, “Season 2 Weight Loss”, “Pop” and “Carla’s Song”, and who knows? We may see some of these chart in the next few weeks if they become fan favourites with three-song-rule switcheroos, just like Bruno this very week, but for now, I guess we’ll have to stick with “American Girls”. If you want a song I like about the same topic – even with the same title – check out John B’s dated satirical synthpop tune from 2002 about the girls in California making him hornier. Following that, never trust my taste on anything again.

Conclusion

Well, wasn’t that a hoot? Kind of a lowkey week but Best of the Week goes to ANOTR and 54 Ultra for “Talk to You”. Bruno Mars can take the Honourable Mention for “God Was Showing Off” and it is a shame that, whilst nothing here is a Dishonourable Mention, Harry Styles snabs Worst of the Week. I liked that album but “American Girls” is like a black hole early in the track listing, I’m surprised I still sat through – you probably have “Ready, Steady, Go!” to thank for that. The Pussycat Dolls are going to debut at #1 next week, that’s my prediction, fuck you. Thank you for reading, rest in peace to Zeph Ellis, and I’ll see you next week.

GOOODDBYYYEEEEEEEEEE MEANS THAT YOU’RE LOSING ME FOR LIIIIFEEEEE