Chart Review: 28th June 2024
Making sense of a nation’s musical tastes
We’re peaking seriously early this week, at (40) with Chappell Roan’s “Red Wine Supernova”. I think Roan could be the most exciting pop star on the scene at the moment. This song has been making its way steadily up the lower reaches of the charts and has now cracked the Top 40; similarly “Hot To Go” and “Good Luck Babe” are six places up apiece, resting at (33) and (7). This seems to be a fully organic progression for an artist who, as I’ve noted, dances entirely to her own tune and isn’t always exactly mainstream America friendly. It’s cool as fuck that people have music like this to relate to, and for someone who doesn’t necessarily relate - like me - it’s just excellent pop.
“Red Wine Supernova” is the best of the three. Again this is on the album I listened to earlier this year and I can’t comprehend how it didn’t lodge straight into my brain. It’s more heavy, synthy retro-pop, a superb melody buoyed further by Roan’s cheerleader-like chants and ad libs that are campy but totally natural. It’s got a brilliant chorus that you can imagine fans absolutely shrieking to (something Sabrina Carpenter is maybe missing) and is a showcase for her genuinely brilliant vocals. There’s a rising vocal run at the end that just sounds immense, and some smutty double entendres to spice things up. Belter.
“Yes, And?” aside, Ariana Grande’s latest LP didn’t provide too much to trouble the charts for long, but “The Boy Is Mine” has now landed at (39). This is a pretty decent song, if not one that I find enormously memorable. I like the relative restraint in Grande’s vocals, as well as the technique she uses a lot on this record to stack up her voice. When she harmonises with herself it sounds like a wall of really clear ice. It’s cool when the track slows down before the chorus; other than that, the instrumental is a bit boring.
Talking of songs that are a bit boring, Gracie Abrams featuring Taylor Swift is at (37) with “Us”. I don’t think Adams is for me. While I won’t suggest she has a bad voice, I’m not into her singing style, that hushed, detached, moody approach that Lana Del Rey popularised. It works when Lana does it because you can genuinely believe Lana doesn’t give a fuck. The finger picked guitar is quite nice because it sounds like Carrie & Lowell-era Sufjan. It builds up to a big, ever so Taylor chorus. Maybe I’m being a bit hard on this one, there’s nothing wrong with it, but like Swift’s latest record to a lot of people, it’s on the bland side.
Post Malone continues to tee up his country album, which drops in August, with second single “Pour Me A Drink” (34). This is a rinse and repeat job from the first single, subbing out Morgan Wallen for Blake Shelton and a song about mutually destructive drinking habits in a relationship to a song just about drinking. It comes across to me like Malone trying to prove that he can be a country star by throwing himself into it with both feet. It could not be more paint by the numbers but I like that it’s full blooded pop-country, rather than trying to make some country-trap hybrid. Inessential to say the least.
I think I’ve got my head around “Kehlani”, Jordan Adetunji’s (29) entry. Kehlani is a name I’ve heard; when this was played on the radio I assumed they’d featured on this track. Instead it’s a song by Jordan Adetunji which is about, or named after, Kehlani. I don’t think this is for me necessarily but there’s certainly something to the track. I’ve no idea how you’d pigeonhole it but it’s dark, poppy and weird, with Adetunji’s voice (presumably) manipulated to skitter over the throbbing bass. Quite cool stuff, I could see it taking off.
With Brat picking up more momentum with every passing week, Charli XCX has garnered one of her best singles returns from the album with “Girl, So Confusing” at (28). I’m not 100% sure but I think it’s the version with Lorde that we’re talking about, or at any rate the discourse around the re-release with the New Zealander is the reason for the spike in interest. The track itself is fantastic, buzzing and clubby but melancholic and gripping. The Lorde feature is the real headline news, though; apparently the pair have had if not a beef then a bubbling animosity or uncertainty around each other, and they get it all out there and clear the air in genuinely emotional fashion across a three minute pop song. It’s a reverse Drake/Kendrick situation. Commendable stuff on all fronts.
Infinitely less interesting is the new one by Coldplay. I was thinking about the arc of Chris Martin and co while I was listening to this yesterday (because it isn’t possible to actually focus on this drizzling, lazy song). It was cool to hate Coldplay, then it became so hack to slate them that they actually became trendy and started to hang out with Beyonce. Surely the worm’s going to turn on that one soon enough. It’d be nice to grill Martin over what this song’s about. “I feel like I’m falling in love / Maybe for the first time,” he sings. He was married (to the mother of his children!) for 13 years, and has been with his current partner for seven. I’m not one to write off Coldplay wholesale - plenty to like on those first two records - but this is an absolute nothing of a song.
Tommy Richman’s second single “Devil Is A Lie” is at (21). I quite like this guy because he’s really drilled into his persona. His vibe seems to be that of a weird cokey kid with a flair for retro sounds, everything sounding a little rinky dink and homemade but seriously well observed and catchy. Based on absolutely nothing, I reckon he’s not at all like the rather sinister figure he conjures up on these tracks, on which he’s swaggering and obnoxious. There’s a bit of Neptunes to his beat here (and some Pharrel to his falsetto on “Million Dollar Baby”). I don’t know how this would sustain over an album but he knows what he’s up to here.
Sabrina Carpenter with the double at the top again, “Please Please Please” clinging onto (1). I’ve said this before but she and her team are getting everything right so far (even down to the odd bit of controversy, like the album cover art she seemed to just steal from a photographer).
Pick of the week: Chappell Roan - “Red Wine Supernova”
