“KCSU’s Top 10 Songs Spinning This Week” is written by the KCSU Music Directors and describes the top artists that your local 90.5 FM DJs are playing this week! This article is updated weekly on Sundays and discussed on their show, “KCSU Weekly Gem Countdown,” which airs every Monday from 12-1 p.m. During the show, you can learn more about each musician or band before tuning in to the top 10 countdowns on Mondays, in which the music directors present to you the latest songs topping the charts and breaking down each song’s sound and feel.”

*=Brand new to the charts this week!

1. Hippo Campus — Alt/Indie — (7 spins of “Boys” off of their 2022 album release “LP3”)

Hippo Campus formed in 2013, with members that include Jake Luppen, Nathan Stocker, DeCarlo Jackson, Zach Sutton and Whistler Allen. They explained their track “Boys” to Genius. They stated, “It was about this party I went to where I had all these crazy experiences and then woke up feeling like, ‘I need to change my life right now.’ The next day I went to New York and came back, hung out with our new manager and felt slightly better. It’s like that feeling when you’re drunk and the you wake up hungover and you hate yourself.”

2. *Rex Orange County — Alt/Indie — (6 spins of “OPEN A WINDOW feat. Tyler, the Creator” off of the 2022 album release, “WHO CARES?”)

Alex O’Connor, also known as Rex Orange County, is an alternative indie singer who has changed the game when it comes to indie pop music. According to his Spotify, he “is a gifted singer/songwriter known for his literate, quirky brand of bedroom pop that combines jazz, hip-hop and soul influences. O’Connor was still a teenager when he first gained attention online in 2015 for his self-produced album ‘bcos u will never b free.'”

3. Snail Mail — Alt/Indie — and (6 spins of “Headlock” off of the 2021 album release “Valentine”)

Snail Mail, real name Lindsey Jordan, is an alternative indie rock singer songwriter from Maryland. At only seventeen years old, Jordan released her debut album, “Lush” in 2018. According to her Spotify, “her natural ability to be many things at once resonated with a lot of people. The contradiction of confidence and vulnerability, power and delicacy, had the impact of a wrecking ball when put to tape.”

Jordan explained the track “Headlock” off of her newest album to Genius. “‘Headlock’ isn’t about losing someone so much as it is about really losing myself in a relationship. … With that line ‘Thought I’d see her when I died,’ I’m saying that the end goal of dying in this case would be to be reunited with this lost love. It came from a real dark spot that I was in.”

4. CMAT — Pop — (6 spins of “Geography Teacher” off of the 2022 album release, “If My Wife Knew I’d Be Dead”)

CMAT is on our charts twice! “Geography Teacher” is one of the sadder songs on CMAT’s newest album, “If My Wife Knew I’d Be Dead,” with a banjo being one of the main instruments. CMAT explains to Genius that, “my producer had a banjo and I started playing it and he was like, ‘I didn’t know you could play the banjo.’ … At the time, I was playing ‘Geography Teacher’ like a lot of other songs on the record, and he was like, ‘Should we not just do ‘Geography Teacher’ on that?’ We tried it, and it was perfect.”

5. CMAT — Pop — (5 spins of “I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby!” off of the 2022 album release, “If My Wife Knew I’d Be Dead”)

CMAT is an Irish country/pop singer and songwriter. During an interview with NME Magazine, CMAT explains her style as “Dolly Parton meets Weird Al Yankovic, mixed with Katy Perry.”

CMAT’s third sing;e, “I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby!” describes the feeling of having no control over your life. CMAT explains to Genius that the song is “mainly about urban isolation — about having all the freedom and resources to do whatever you want but still choosing to do nothing out of deeply-embedded social anxiety and detachment from your own emotions.”

6. *The Lumineers — Folk — (4 spins of “A.M. Radio” off of the 2021 album release, “Brightside”)

The Lumineers are a Denver-based folk trio that consists of Wesley Schultz, Neyla Pekarek, and Jeremiah Fraites. According to AllMusic, “their self-titled 2011 EP earned them (much success and) a management deal, and they soon decamped to Seattle to record their debut album.” Their hit song, “Ho Hey” helped their debut album peak at number two on the Billboard Top 200 Charts, leading them to earn two Grammy nominations.

The song, “A.M. Radio,” however, comes from their newest EP, “Brightside.” In the song, they discuss early mornings with their love and has feeling of the sunlight through their beautiful instruments.

7. *The Lumineers — Folk — (3 spins of “Remington” off of the 2021 album release, “Brightside”)

The Lumineers are on our charts twice! According to their Spotify, “Brightside (is) The Lumineers’ fourth studio album … (and) marks The Lumineers’ first new music in more than two years as well as the band’s most joyous and spontaneous piece of work thus far.”

8. *Wet Leg — Alt/Indie — (3 spins of “Being in Love” off of the 2022 album release, “Wet Leg”)

Wet Leg is alternative indie pop duo that consists of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers. As their Spotify puts it, “amidst a night of hazy scenes in their native Isle of Wight, (the two) found themselves at the summit of a ferris wheel. They decided to start a band.”

The duo released its brand new album this year, and it contains the synth-heavy indie rock pop song “Being in Love.” Teasdale told Genius about the song: “People always say, ‘Oh, romantic love is everything. It’s what every person should have in this life.’ But actually, it’s not really conducive to getting on with what you want to do in life. I read somewhere that the kind of chemical storm that is produced in your brain, if you look at a scan, it’s similar to someone with OCD. I just wanted to kind of make that comparison.”

9. *A Fawn at Dawn — Alt/Indie — (3 spins of “Take Me With You I’ll Never Get There on My Own” off of the 2022 album release, “We Should Catch Up”)

A Fawn at Dawn originated in Quebec City, Canada, by singer, songwriter and guitar player David Lamothe in 2018. According to the band’s Spotify, they released their first EP, “belongings,” in March 2018. During the pandemic, the band began to write its latest release “We Should Catch Up,” and according to Tiger Bomb Promo, it is “chock full of melodies, sometimes between a nursery rhyme and a pop anthem.” The band only has about 50 monthly listeners on Spotify, but we are excited to watch their career grow!

10. Beach House — Alt/Indie — ( 2 spins of “New Romance” off of the 2022 album release, “Once Twice Melody”)

Beach House is an alternative psychedelic rock duo consisting of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally. According to AllMusic, the duo “met in Baltimore’s indie rock scene and formed Beach House in 2004.” In August of 2006, the duo released its self-titled debut album and “earned favorable reviews as well as comparisons to Nico and Mazzy Star.” According to SubPop, “Once Twice Melody was produced entirely by Beach House, a first for the band.”

Beach House explains its track “New Romance” to Genius: “our protagonist did something wrong. They try to reach out to the other person but are ignored for a while. Finally the two meet and realize amicably the protagonist has changed considerably (to) where the relationship does not work anymore, and presumably they part ways.”

The Music Directors can be reached at music@kcsufm.com