Chart Review: 2nd Feb 2024
Making sense of a nation’s musical tastes
I can’t recall when I’ve last genuinely taken an interest in the charts. Setting aside the odd glimpse at the Christmas #1 race (Joe McElderry vs RATM; the Gary Jules incident), I’ve filed the Top 40 under Not My Business ever since I took a proper interest in music and nailed my colours firmly to the alt-rock/indie mast.
As I’ve grown up and become less prescriptive with my tastes, though, I’ve decided to delve back in and find out what’s going on. In the interim, the metrics have changed completely. We’ve moved through several formats since my last check in, with physical and digital purchases giving way to streaming services and TikTok (whose ability to make and break a song I sort of understand but not really).
All this means that it’s not necessarily the most cutting edge, newest-of-the-new stuff that occupies the top spots in the charts. Songs can have second and third lives without the record labels making it so, having been picked up from movies or online trends. Each week I’ll be taking a look at the UK Top 40, identifying trends where I can, and figuring out where we are as a nation of cultural consumers.
An early observation: the pop charts seem to suffer from a dearth of good new pure pop. In the top 15 we’ve really only got Dua Lipa’s “Houdini” (11) and Ariana Grande’s “Yes, And?” (5). I like both of these a lot, particularly the former, but even these tracks are laden with retro influences. Grande’s tune is “Vogue” redux (with a bit of “Material Girl” for good measure) and seems to be trying to recapture the snap of “Thank U, Next” with that title (and/or Ariana has gotten into improv) but I really like the layered, cooing vocals and the spiky chorus.
Elsewhere we’re quite thin on the pop ground. I don’t like Justin Timberlake’s new song at all, and more than one song is built on egregiously lazy sampling. Kygo & Ava Max’s “Whatever” (27) is dashed off, but it’s Ella Henderson’s “Alibi” (24) that I really disliked. It’s Inception sampling here, Henderson singing over the melody from “Gangsta’s Paradise” which itself interpolated a Stevie Wonder hook. The chorus also uses the lyric “you ain’t got no alibi,” so we can throw Daphne & Celeste into the mix while we’re at it.
The dance offerings are much more promising. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Kenya Grace’s “Strangers” (34). I know zilch about dance subcategories but the people of YouTube are calling it liquid D&B, which sounds pretty fitting to me. It’s hushed and restrained, with sinister undertones in the bass and a skittering but never overwhelming beat. Even more surprising was “Prada” (6) by Casso, Raye, and D Block Europe (I’m only familiar with Raye out of that crew). This kind of Euro-club music has never appealed to me, but I thought this was cracking. It stands out massively in this week’s chart thanks to its energy and gleefully decadent, empty lyrics (I’ve since seen Raye perform a piano-led, censored version which doesn’t work at all).
The older tracks remaining in or reentering the chart make for an interesting musical landscape. Sam Fender’s “Seventeen Going Under” (40) is exhibit A in my working theory that we’re now in an age of great sincerity. It’s not for me at all, this stuff, but the song’s been in the charts for 91 (ninety one) weeks, and I do understand the appeal. More fun is “Homesick” (8), Noah Kahan’s collaboration with Fender, an even more shameless Springsteen rip off than solo Sam and all the better for it. I have no idea why Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten” (13) is so high up there but I was happy to hear it.
Most notably, Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder On The Dancefloor” is all the way at (2) off the back of its use in the film Saltburn and resulting rediscovery. For all the issues I had with that film (which I did find very entertaining for the record), it used music brilliantly throughout, and Ellis-Bextor’s signature song feels so ripe for a second life that it’s surprising it hadn’t happened already.
For the indie fans, there’s a one-two punch of Last Dinner Party’s “Nothing Matters” and Mitski’s “My Love All Mine All Mine” at (22) and (23) respectively. The former are the first big hype band of 2024; I’ve heard the debut record and I like it, though there are better tracks on it than this one. As for Mitski, I think this particular song has come to mainstream attention through some combo of TikTok and Spotify algorithms, but she’s parlayed it into a period of great success - well deserved, too.
Maybe the most enjoyable outlier, though, is YG Marley with “Praise Jah In The Moonlight”. This dude doesn’t even have his own Wikipedia page, though it should be noted he’s the son of Lauryn Hill and the grandson of Bob, so he’ll probably be OK. This track came to prominence after he joined his mum onstage during her tour. It’s great: proper warm oldschool reggae, again completely distinct from anything else in the charts.
The majority of the rest of the Top 40, then, is made up of very sincere, mostly roots- or country-based men. On the strong end of the spectrum we have Zach Bryan, whose collab with the excellent Kacey Musgraves, “I Remember Everything” (18) is a highlight of his pretty good if overlong self titled album. On the other end is Benson Boone, whose “Beautiful Things” (11) is the worst song I’ve heard for a long time. The singing style is very modern, performatively emotive and forced. Once we’re past a dull acoustic intro, the song explodes into ‘90s rock as Boone yelps for his life. It’s big, arena-ready fare - I see Boone was discovered by one of Imagine Dragons which isn’t surprising. It’s probably the type of music I like the least in the world.
At (1) is Noah Kahan with “Stick Season” for the fifth week on the trot. I didn’t know they made this kind of singer anymore, the folksy, banjo-adjacent indie guy in the Mumford and Lumineers vibe. It’s not for me but I absolutely can see the appeal. Some of the lyrics are dreadful (he sings the word “alcohol” like he’s reading it for the first time) and every aspect of it feels massaged to feign authenticity, down to a really weird video that’s just Kahan standing and looking mournful around a small town. I don’t know what a stick season is. The chorus is undeniable; this guy seems on top of the world.
Pick of the week: YG Marley - “Praise Jah In The Moonlight”
