Chart Review: 16th August 2024

Making sense of a nation’s musical tastes

Not unlike post-Saddam Iraq, the Top 40’s long term undisputed ruler has been removed, and now it feels like everything’s up for grabs. There’s churn galore this week, and while there are only a few brand new tunes, there’s some pretty interesting stuff in there. 

At (38) is Gracie Abrams with “I Love You, I’m Sorry”. I’ve been snooty when it comes to the two or so songs I’ve heard from her before, which have been a bit too breathy and bland. This one’s breathy alright, but it’s so much better than the tune with Taylor Swift or that other dull one. The melody is top drawer and the presentation’s a bit like mid-’00s Sufjan Stevens. Which is a pretty sweet spot as far as I’m concerned. I keep waiting for the song to take a huge leap up in volume and intensity (thereby ruining it), but it never really does. It picks up a bit as she stacks the various vocal stems, but she steers clear of the epic feel that a lot of producers seem to find necessary these days. 

From a fantastic earworm of a chorus to perfectly pitched lyrics that find a fine balance between carefully oblique and slice of life observational, I think this is a corker of a song. This kind of sad soft rock/folk balladeering is so hard to get right because you’ve got so little room for error - you need to be Boygenuis level to sustain this for an LP - but as a song, it’s a belter. I also note that this, like Swift’s recent gear, is co-written by the one guy out of The National; I would say fortnightly I chuckle to myself about how much more money he has than the rest of his bandmates. 

In at (27) is Madonna with “Like A Prayer”. Amazingly, this one is also down to the Deadpool & Wolverine movie, a film I cannot imagine seeing but has managed single handedly, or double handedly, or single hand and one clawedly, to stick two tracks into the UK Top 40.

There’s not much one needs to say about this song; it’s an all time classic, a track that goes uncensored on the radio but sounds a trillion times naughtier and sexier than any of the tunes whose audio gets dipped every fifth word. The gothic opening is fantastic, and that bizarre bouncing bass is amazingly late-’80s but somehow doesn’t date the music in the way, say, Springsteen’s Born In The USA-era synths do. It’s so funny to imagine the Catholic church feeling the need to boycott this track back in the day. Such idiotic reactionary nonsense. Anyone who slags off Madonna really needs to give their head a shake; there aren’t 15 bands or artists with a song like this, I’d suggest. 

Rather predictably, “Guess” has been deposed sharpish, falling to (4). I like this tune but it’s far from the best Brat-related track and I do think a large part of its success has stemmed from the video. Still, it’s an important chapter in the Brat Summer story, especially as far as these shores are concerned. It also seems XCX has one more Brat remix on the way, with the featured artist thought to be Chappell Roan. I’m all on board for that.

Billie Eilish’s record has continued to slow burn, with “Birds Of A Feather” all the way up to (2). It’s one of the safer and more typical cuts from the record, but it’s a good one all the same. Sabrina Carpenter’s two tunes, meanwhile, have dropped down to the mid-10s. She’s either going to have a big resurgence next week when her LP finally drops - or she hasn’t quite timed her run right. I think it’ll be the former. 

So that means it’s another brand new number one, this time in the form of Chase & Status featuring Stormzy. While “Backbone” is the first C&S song I could definitely say I’ve listened to, this pair have been around for decades, so I’m sure I’ve come across them before. This is their first chart topper, and it’s pretty good! Firstly it’s refreshing to have something so totally different at Number One, after a spring and summer dominated almost entirely by pop or folky soft rock. This is aggy D&B with all the drops and double time bits you could wish for. 

More importantly, it’s got Stormzy in his usual commanding form on the mic. If there wasn’t a rapper in the mix, I think I’d still like this to some extent. The lads obviously know what they’re doing and there’s plenty of tension and release for the drama and the hype. But I’m a big fan of hearing a rapper spit over a non-hip hop beat, and this combo’s a winner. To be heard over the track and add to it, you need someone with the presence of a Stormzy, and he seizes the opportunity to puff his chest on a big noisy beat. He’s not doing much technical, but that’s clearly the right decision - he’s just getting the song over with machismo. Good stuff all round.

Pick of the week: Gracie Abrams - “I Love You, I’m Sorry”