Top 30 Chart Update, 6/30/2014: What is this Chart?

by Chad Clemens on June 30, 2014

Posted in: Music

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Sorry to keep y’all waiting! Finally, after a month and a half long hiatus, WRMC is up and running for the summer! That means new shows, new DJs, new additions to automation playlists and, most importantly, a whole slew of incredible new music to backdrop whatever sort of summer you’ve been confined to – the stuffy office life, greenhorn ranch-hand, the ‘summer off’ spent finding yourself; whatever it is, we’ve got the right album for you! We’ll be updating the blog each week with a word or two about what we here at the station think is the tits, tops, the bees’ knees, etc., so please check in and make our work meaningful! As for this past week…

Topping the charts are the Montreal-based, post-punk band Ought whose debut record More Than Any Other Day has blasted through the station halls more than any other album (ha) since May. Savvy and smart, these recent college grads display a momentous fervor for life with poise, nerves and slight seriousness that never once approaches overbearing. Tapping into influences as far reaching as drummer Tim Keen’s classical violin training to Ben Stidworthy’s childhood Wham! obsession, Ought have forged an unique, urgent sound of their own, and we can’t get enough.

At #2, A Sunny Day in Glasgow make a triumphant return with their gorgeous, towering fourth album Sea When Absent that shifts their old dreamy, shoegaze-y roots upward toward a broader world of grandiose psych-pop and space-rock influences to make a brilliant and light yet no less satiating record.Parquet Courts round out the top three with Sunbathing Animal, the follow up to 2012’s excellent Light Up Gold, which prominently features thick, energized and melodic guitar riffs that blend early shout-singing punk styles with a southern blues-y (read: ‘classic’) rock and roll sound.

Beyond our best of the best, this week’s top ten was mostly dominated by big names with stellar new releases: Mac Demarco with his breezy, summer-soaked stoner smash Salad Days; Sharon Van Etten delivering her most emotionally raw and devastating performance yet in Are We There; Lana Del Rey displaying surprising poise and self-awareness on her darkly languid Ultraviolence; and White Lung’s blaring 22 minutes of metal-infused, in-your-face P-U-N-K punk with Deep Fantasy, to name a few.

For those desperately seeking out deeper cuts, there’s plenty more gems to mine through outside the Top Ten. At 15 sits Owen Pallett’s hauntingly beautiful In Conflict showcasing complex arrangements and dense lyricism that is unrivaled by anything else in our charts. Alex G puts on a strong effort in his jangly label-debut DSU that harkens back to the essential acid-tinged lo-fi Elephant 6 recordings. Ben Frost confronts listeners with the deconstructed innards of melody and sound with A U R O R A. If those don’t quite suit your fancy then check out our full Top 30 chart to find something you’ll really love.