November 9th, 2018
European Border Breakers Chart 9 November 2018
Do you rather look at the future than the past?
Are you interested in new European music, or even new European artists?
Are you curious which emerging artists manage to be successful outside their home country?
Would you like to hear all the future hits in one place?
Look no further: the answer to all of these questions can be found in the European Border Breakers Chart. Every Friday around noon a fresh chart lists the 100 most popular songs, based on the conditions above.
This week, the Top 100 counts 28 (re)entries, exactly half of which are total newcomers. Among those 14 are songs by Kara Marni (pictured) and Hrvy, that I recommended here before, and a further 12 tracks that are about to develop into tomorrow’s hits. This is the complete list:
#8: NOTD feat. Felix Jaehn, Georgia Ku & Captain Cuts – So Close
#23: Armoo feat. 6ix9ine – Bozoo
#28: Dodie – If I’m Being Honest
#32: Hrvy – I Wish You Were Here
#33: BRYN – Bailiffs
#58: Clara Luciani – La Baie
#62: Zilla With Her Eyes Shut – Cut Me Boy
#63: B.E.D. – White Coats
#64: Nylenda – Fires Light
#72: Everyone You Know – Our Generation
#81: Invisible Minds – Yo Mae Leh
#84: Kara Marni – Move
#90: Pip Blom – Hours
#100: Victor Leksell – Tappat
For the full Top 100, click the ‘EBBChart’ tab in the top menu of this blog (loading of the PDF may take a little while). More charts, like the Tips (ranking the tracks that are on their way to the Top 100), the Airplay Chart and the Streaming Chart, are available at www.europeanborderbreakerschart.eu, where you can also listen to all of the tracks and watch their videos, as well as share them via social media.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Sunflower Bean – Come For Me
Julia Cumming, Jacob Faber and Nick Kivlen, who form Sunflower Bean, are a bunch of busy bees. After delivering their second album Twentytwo In Blue last March, they’ve been touring constantly. In the meantime, the New York band also managed to record a new EP. It’s called King Of The Dudes and set for release on 25 January 2019.
The EP is preceded by the single Come For Me, which they recorded with pop producer Justin Raisen, who worked with Charli XCX, Santigold and Sky Ferreira before. This collaboration results in a somewhat poppier vibe, while the song still sounds self-assured and rebellious.
Speaking about Come For Me, Julia Cumming says: “This song was inspired by inner strength, power, and sexual freedom. In 2018 there is no time to waste and no time for shame. This song is a declaration of that. Do you really want to come for me? Do you really want to waste my time? The song is a dare, a threat, and a beckoning.”
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Saint Raymond – Echo
As an artist, British singer-songwriter Callum Burrows uses the moniker Saint Raymond; the word ‘Saint’ was in the street where he grew up, and Raymond was the name of his grandfather (true story).
Young Blood, I Want You, Be There, and Great Escape are my favourite feel-good anthems amongst his earlier work, but Saint Raymond is back with a new favourite. Echo is another fun, upbeat track, of which Burrows says: “The song is about how opposites in a relationship are sometimes what makes it work.”
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Nona – Last To Know
Talented young Dutch singer Nona (born Nona van der Wansem) made quite an impression with her first single It’s Alright. My blog about it was the second-most read in the month of release (July), while it was my most-read recommendation in the months of August and September. In October, it was still in the Top 10.
On her soulful debut, Nona’s powerful voice made her sound like a re-born Amy Winehouse, who’s certainly one of her musical heroines (excusez le mot). However, she also loves hip hop and pop, citing DJ Premier as an influence. Her new, more poppy single Last To Know, shows she likes Fleetwood Mac as well. It looks like Nona is an all-round artist to reckon with.
Can’t wait to hear her debut album, that she recorded in the United States. When it comes out, I’ll make sure you’re the first to know!
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Eckhardt & The House – Funeral
For those who grew up in the 1980s (like me), the current eighties revival must be music to their ears. Thanks to the use of vintage instruments and sounds, many contemporary songs have something instantly recognizable.
Take Eckhardt & The House, for instance, who’s If She Cannot Talk and Put Me In A Cape I recommended here before. They just released their twelfth single Funeral and I can’t help but hearing a mash-up of Falco’s Der Kommissar and Tom Tom Club’s Wordy Rappinghood in it. Which were brilliant and revolutionary songs, by the way.
Funeral is another slickly produced funk pop tune. At the same time however, lyrics like “Let’s have a funeral for all the sad news, let’s bury it all” and “We read the papers, read the facts, they bomb the desert, we pay tax” show social engagement (and even cynicism) as well.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Wildcard (week 45):
Jade Bird – Love Has All Been Done Before
Ever since her debut single Cathedral, I’ve been a Jade Bird fan. She started her career singing covers of songs by the likes of Pixies, Beyoncé and Drake, but switched to originals upon the release of her debut EP Something American, in the summer of 2017.
Last August, her single Uh Huh was a Carte Blanche Music Wildcard and later that month, I witnessed her live with only her guitar and great voice at the Lowlands festival. She came, saw and conquered. Alas, Dutch radio was probably looking the other way at the moment, but thanks to support from radio stations in northern Europe, Uh Huh is currently a well-deserved Top 3 hit in the European Border Breakers Charts.
Without further ado, Jade Bird just released her new single Love Has All Been Done Before, a tune that goes down well at her concerts as well. The song starts off sweet enough, but already after a few lines, there’s no more holding back and the track builds up to an explosive chorus. Sounding like she ate a handful of gravel, Love Has All Been Done Before is easily her most energetic and rocky single to date.
While we’re eagerly awaiting Bird’s debut album to land early in 2019, we give her new single wings by making it her second Carte Blanche Music Wildcard in a row.
In the Wildcards 2018 playlist you can find all of this year’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcards so far.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Aviator Stash – Shot Song
Music is a medicine. Heartache? Loss? Bad mood? Music makes it more bearable and helps to heal the wounds. How appropriate then, that San Diego based indie band Aviator Stash named their upcoming second album Prescribed (out on 16 November).
Singer/guitarist Greg Kellogg explains: “It has a strong theme about loved ones and friends losing themselves to mental health problems. The tone of most of the album is very bright and happy which is the metaphor of so many people trying to hide behind what’s really happening in their heads and portrays everything is fun and one big party!”
Shot Song is the album’s new single. The recipe: a feel good funky guitar riff, catchy lyrics and a little sarcasm. Kellogg: “Shot song is the ultimate bar/party anthem that highlights a time when a friend conducts a party foul and takes her shot before you take yours.”
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Sophie & The Giants – Waste My Air
Glad you guys like Sophie & The Giants as much as I do! Last week, I could reveal that my recommendation of their single Bulldog was the most read Carte Blanche Music blog in October. In the meantime, the band also managed to enter the European Border Breakers Chart with the song.
Last week, singer Sophie Scott, guitarist Toby Holmes, bass player Bailey Stapledon and drummer Chris Hill released their first EP Adolescence. In a week and a half, opening track Waste My Air has developed into the band’s most popular song on Spotify. Four tracks into their career, it is indeed their most accessible tune so far. I wouldn’t be surprised if (radio) playlist curators would pick it up, enabling Sophie & The Giants’s well-deserved definitive break-through.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Ruby Bones – Not Enough
Ruby Bones are an indie rock band from New Jersey, consisting of singer-songwriter Chris Fox, drummer James Janocha, and bassist FC Spies, who managed to achieve Billboard chart success with their self-released eponymous debut album, last year. Since then, they’ve been picked up by an indie label, that contracted them to release a trio of EPs.
The first of those, Laser, has just come out. It features three high energy rock songs, all of them graced with great hooks and melodies, culminating in huge shout along choruses. First single Not Enough is a fine example!
The band comments on the song: “Not Enough is about one side of a couple never being able to meet the needs of the other, no matter how hard they might try. The song is musically more light-hearted than the last record, while still keeping the wordplay and big hooks intact.”
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
Werner’s Weekly (week 45)
Before the digital revolution, release strategies in the music business were clearly structured; the big-shot artists all came up with new material in October and November, well-placed to fully benefit from the tradition of exchanging presents at Christmas. The start of each new year was the best moment for emerging artists to drop new music, as the established ones had already shot their bolt in the months before.
However, things have changed since the arrival of – especially – the streaming platforms. They lowered the bar to put out music to a potentially worldwide audience, causing a diarrhoea of releases throughout the year, particularly on New Music Fridays. Personally, I love it, but the downside is, that we’re now in a situation of quantity over quality…
This is where Carte Blanche Music comes in! Each week, I listen to as many new songs as I can, but I only add the best tracks to my Carte Blanche Music Spotify playlist. Those additions are then narrowed down into my alphabetically ordered ‘best of the best’ list Werner’s Weekly, which is your compass to the music that matters.
This week’s edition is below, with links to my original recommendations. You can listen to the songs via the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar.
- The Proclaimers – Then It Comes To Me (Wildcard this week)
- Isaac Gracie – Show Me Love (Wildcard last week)
- Arthur Adam – O
- Clean Cut Kid – Emily
- Club Drive – Satisfied
- Reel Big Fish – You Can’t Have All Of Me
- Roads To Roam – Believe
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Has been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, he developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart.
