29 July 2016 'Cold Water' gives Justin Bieber his fourth Irish number one single and a total of 22 weeks at the top of the Irish charts, all within twelve months. It's also the second chart-topper in Ireland for the partnership of Major Lazer and MØ in just over a year. All these tracks sound … Continue reading Major Lazer ft. Justin Bieber and MØ – ‘Cold Water’ →

13 May 2016 Nils Sjöberg here joins Bernard Webb, Christopher, Ann Orson, and Ron Dunbar & Edythe Wayne in the rank of hit songwriters who were pseudonyms of already-famous acts. While the Harris-Sjöberg writing team may have never, ever got back together for further hits, 'This Is What You Came For' at least reunites the … Continue reading Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna – ‘This Is What You Came For’ →

6 May 2016 Entertaining as the Kendrick - Drake beef has been, I have one teensy reservation: it's only Drake. Surely there a worthier foe for the lacerating rhymes of Pulitzer Prize laureate Kendrick Lamar than Toronto's most prominent rapper since Snow. Drake is hardly the Napoleon of rap, not least because the Napoleon of … Continue reading Drake ft. Wizkid and Kyla – ‘One Dance’ →

1 April 2016 Sia's public standing doesn't seem to have recovered from the controversial depiction of autism in Music, the 2021 movie she co-wrote, co-produced and directed. Matters weren't helped by Sia's initial response to such criticism: effing and jeffing at disgruntled autistic people on her socials. Her 2017 Christmas single 'Snowman' returns to the … Continue reading Sia ft. Sean Paul – ‘Cheap Thrills’ →

25 March 2016 Back in 1992 The Shamen had to invent a spurious Dickensian oddball called Ebeneezer Goode to get their ode to ecstasy onto the radio, TV and top of the charts. No subterfuge required in free-thinking 2016 - at least not in the lyrics. I felt a bit hoodwinked, though, to discover that … Continue reading Mike Posner – ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’ →

19 February 2016 You may recall the Irish connection here. Lead singer Lukas Forchhammer had an Irish father - a Mr Graham, hence the band name. '7 Years' is about him. You may therefore also recall '7 Years', unfortunately. Nizlopi's 'JCB Song' mashed up with 'In The Year 2525' and The Script, performed by an … Continue reading Lukas Graham – ‘7 Years’ →

5 February 2016 Well, here we are now: the first One Direction solo single and chart-topper, and it's not by Harry. With hindsight, even with 1D mania and the sensation of Zayn's departure the stakes here were quite low; all his first freelance track has to be is better than the solo debuts by Robbie … Continue reading Zayn – ‘Pillowtalk’ →

27 November 2015 It would have been a baller move indeed, and in keeping with his apparently homeopathic levels of tact and decorum, if Justin Bieber had styled out his 2013-14 string of high-profile misdeeds as a series of promo events culminating in the release of a track called 'Sorry': a Super Bowl half-time ad … Continue reading Justin Bieber – ‘Sorry’ →

30 October 2015 One-off Bond title song aside, how do you follow 'Someone Like You'? With something like 'Someone Like You', of course! In fairness, the whole world loved 'Someone Like You' to the point that it overshadowed Adele's other hits and defined her sound. So, why not give the people what they want? Also, … Continue reading Adele – ‘Hello’ →