The Finest Day by Coconut Shy Holds Fourth Position in the Melbourne Act’s Spotify Ranking
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The Finest Day by Coconut Shy Holds Fourth Position in the Melbourne Act's Spotify Ranking
A Tasmanian-Born Songwriter’s April 2023 Folk Single About Looking Forward After the Pandemic
The Finest Day holds fourth position among the most-played Coconut Shy songs on Spotify. The acoustic indie folk ballad came out on 7 April 2023. Two of the songs ranked above it arrived this summer. The third is Water, Water, the single that came before it in October 2022.
Coconut Shy’s The Finest Day sits in our pop playlist below, with the band’s coverage collected on the Coconut Shy profile. The single came to this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news sites. Press play on it, then read on for what its Spotify position shows.
Who The Finest Day Is For, From Campfire Folk Fans to Listeners Raised on Soft Rock Records
A fourth place needs careful reading. Spotify ranks an artist’s top tracks against each other, and it weighs how recent the plays are. So the list shows which songs listeners choose now, not how many listeners there are. Even so, three and a half years on, the single still ranks ahead of every song from the debut EP, Japan Town. That points to a clear audience.
The Finest Day is indie folk with a folk pop shape. A strummed acoustic guitar carries it, and a soft, close vocal sits on top. It takes its time, too, running past four and a half minutes without a rush. Toward the end, drums and bass build under the last stretch. Plastic Magazine singled out that moment for the depth it adds. Meanwhile, Good Music Radar picked out a ukulele cutting through the guitars.
The first audience is easy to name. Coconut Shy began as the stage name of songwriter Joseph Mackey, who describes the sound as easy-listening campfire music. In those early years the songs were played solo, with one voice and one acoustic guitar. So listeners who like a singer-songwriter with nothing between the song and the room will settle in within a minute.
Vance Joy, José González and an Older Soft Rock Lineage
Two other acts help place it. Vance Joy is the closest Australian reference. It is the first name on the sounds-like list of the project’s own triple j Unearthed profile, and Plastic Magazine pointed Vance Joy fans towards this single. Vance Joy built a worldwide audience on Riptide, the ukulele song from 2013. Fans of that light strum will find the same ease here. José González is the second reference point. The Swedish songwriter’s debut album, Veneer, set a hushed voice against a nylon-string guitar. Both Sinusoidal Music and Music Arena GH drew that comparison for The Finest Day.
There is an older lineage as well. Mackey has named James Taylor, Jeff Buckley and Dire Straits as influences, according to Unrecorded. Speaking to RGM, the songwriter traced a love of story-led lyrics to records heard at home as a child. Those included American Pie and Walking in Memphis. As a result, listeners raised on soft rock from that era have a way in too.
What The Finest Day Says About One Day Between a Hard Past and an Unknown Future
The idea at the centre of The Finest Day is easy to follow. Unrecorded described it as a song about moving from life before the pandemic into whatever comes next. It settles on one day that belongs to neither the hard past nor the unknown future. Then the chorus carries the hope, picturing grace at the door and the best day still to come.
Illustrate Magazine heard the same shift, a turn from dwelling on the past towards the future. In that reading, the future is met with joy rather than anxiety. In other words, the song looks back without sadness and forward without fear.
It has kept moving on stage, too. Mackey told RGM that a short guitar riff now follows the final line at live gigs. The idea came after the recording was finished. In the same interview, Mackey also wondered how it would sound with the full drumbeat running through the last chorus.
The Early Reviews That Carried The Finest Day From Melbourne to Readers in Brazil, France and Mexico
The first reviews arrived within days. Sinusoidal Music covered the single two days after release. Unrecorded followed and added it to its Folk This Way playlist. Good Music Radar, in turn, placed it beside Sufjan Stevens and Nick Drake.
Coverage then spread well beyond Australia. In Brazil, Music for All introduced Coconut Shy as a modern folk artist from Tasmania. It also noted the steady rhythm section under the acoustic strings. Os Garotos de Liverpool included it in a round-up of ten new singles. French readers found it through Iggy Magazine, which called the lyrics the strongest part of the song. In Mexico, End Sessions presented it as acoustic folk from Australia.
That spread matters for reading the ranking. A song covered in four languages had more than one route to new listeners. Most of those reviews are still online today.
Joseph Mackey and the Melbourne Rooms Around Coconut Shy
Coconut Shy started as a solo project, and its name comes from the old fairground game Mackey played as a child. The songwriter was born in Tasmania and was based in Naarm, or Melbourne, when the single came out. The project’s first release was the Japan Town EP. After that came Water, Water, and The Finest Day followed six months later.
The live circuit is local and built on small rooms. Illustrate Magazine reported a launch show at The Palace Hotel in Camberwell for a week before release. Both recent singles were billed for the set. Around the release of Water, Water, Mackey told Mesmerized of about eight years spent writing and performing original songs.
The songwriter’s view of building an audience is practical. Asked by RGM how to reach new listeners, Mackey said the best advice was to be genuine and consistent. In practice, that means sharing each song’s story: what it means, how it came together and how it felt. Because of that, this release comes with its own context. There is an official lyric video, and there are interviews that explain the song.
From a Solo Project to a Four-Piece Band in Naarm
The project has grown since. In 2025, Mackey formed a four-piece in Naarm with bassist Dylan Noble, lead guitarist Timothy Chivers and drummer Matthew Meehan-Lam, according to the band’s triple j Unearthed profile. The band is active now, too. Mayfield Blush came out in July 2026 and Small Steps (Paces) in August. Those two lead the ranking, as new releases tend to on a list that weighs recent plays.
BestMusic.News’s curator team: “The Finest Day saves its lift for the chorus, where the melody floats above the strummed guitar. That one move does the work of a bigger arrangement. It lets the song stay quiet for a long time and still hold a listener.”
For new listeners, The Finest Day is the right entry point. Start there, then go forward to the two summer singles or back to Water, Water and the Japan Town EP.
Stream The Finest Day on Apple Music, then follow Coconut Shy on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp and SoundCloud. Keep up with new songs and shows on the YouTube channel, Instagram, Facebook and triple j Unearthed.
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