It’s time once again to analyze the airwaves and find out if your favorite new releases will be lighting up your local station’s playlist during the month. Which tunes will climb to the top and which ones will hit a stop? Here’s a selection of new singles being serviced in January from four different radio formats in the second part of this month’s Radio Report:
ALTERNATIVE (*), TRIPLE A (**)
BRIAN FALLON – “A Wonderful Life” (January 12) (*)
Label: Island/Republic
35-year-old Fallon is the leader of the The Gaslight Anthem, a New Jersey act whose last two albums debuted in the top five on the Billboard 200. The quintet is currently taking a hiatus, but Fallon is looking forward to seeing his first solo album reach stores in a few months. It’s called Painkillers. His tour across the States and then into Europe begins on January 7 and concludes on April 20.
HALF MOON RUN – “Turn Your Love” (January 12) (*)
Label: Glassnote
The four man Montreal band have been hitting the Alternative survey in their homeland since 2012, and they’ve already had a few hits in Canada. Why are we so late to the party? Anyways, “Turn” is currently in the top ten up there, and that should give it a good opportunity to succeed here. The single is taken from an album titled Sun Leads Me On, which was a minor hit in some territories.
PANIC IS PERFECT – “You’re Alive” (January 12) (*)
Label: Strange Loop
This San Francisco act released an EP last year called Behind Your Eyelids, and a single from it, “Go Go Go”, managed to land on a few radio stations on the Alternative panel as an independent release. It’s also nearing four million streams on Spotify, thanks to a heavy playlist presence in South America. “Alive” faces some heavy competition on that date, but it’ll likely grab a handful of adds.
TRANSVIOLET – “New Bohemia” (January 12) (*)
Label: Epic
Sarah McTaggart and the guys of this L.A. quartet have been a buzzing group for several months now. Their self-titled EP includes online hits like “Girls Your Age”, which was huge on Hype Machine in 2015 in its original form and in remixed form, and this track, which officially heads to radio during the month. Some blog singles don’t translate at radio, it’s true, but this is too good to ignore.
EVERYTHING EVERYTHING – “Distant Past” (January 19) (*)
Label: Big Picnic/RED
In the eight years that this English act has been together, they’ve managed to place a handful of minor-charting singles into the top 100 in the United Kingdom. This was one of them; it reached #88 last year as the leadoff single from Get To Heaven. Perhaps that statistic would make some wary of trying it at radio in another country. However, I think it’s a chance worth taking for this release.
FLORENCE + THE MACHINE – “Delilah” (January 19) (*)
Label: Republic
Singles “What Kind Of Man” and “Ship To Wreck” entered the top ten at this format from the How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful era, which is a first for the band, but it’s unclear if they’ll be able to score a third in a row. Sure, their four Grammy nominations in both song and album categories support another release, but it doesn’t seem certain right now. No, it’s not a hot Tom Jones cover.
GRACE MITCHELL – “Nolo” (January 26) (*)
Label: Republic
We last featured Mitchell in September when her song “Jitter” was being serviced to the Alternative format. Sadly, the song didn’t go far, and it just missed the top 40 on my own personal chart. Luckily, with it being a new year and all, the singer has been given a second chance with this song, which is the most streamed cut from her Raceday EP. We hope radio says “Yes” to “No”, you know?
Which of these new singles would you like to see on top of the charts? Let me know! Comment below or click the “Get Social!” tab to find PGTC on social media.
POP! Goes The Charts 