Chart Review: 3rd May 2024

Making sense of a nation’s musical tastes.

This week I learned that any one artist or group can have a maximum of three songs in the Top 100 (as primary artist) at any given time. I had no idea - that presumably explains why Taylor Swift didn’t completely dominate proceedings last week, though such restrictions on a process that should in theory be objective does kind of make the UK singles charts for entertainment only. A kayfabe Top 40, if you will. Despite these limitations, you’d still expect the momentum of Swift’s latest record to take up plenty of real estate at the top of the charts. 

We’ll get to that in due course - indeed probably sooner rather than later, because there are a grand total of two new tracks in this week’s chart, plus a couple of return entries. The latter two come courtesy of Amy Winehouse, with mass interest presumably renewed by that bad looking biopic. “Back To Black” and “Valerie” are at (39) and (38) respectively - though I note that “Valerie” is actually credited to Mark Ronson featuring Winehouse. That’s probably fair enough - the heft of the track comes from Ronson’s lightly soulful arrangement, with Winehouse strong as ever on the vocals but not given an enormous amount to work with. 

I’ve never particularly liked this song (spare a thought for The Zutons, whose original has been usurped like nobody’s business, not that their version is all that great), though I understand why people do. It’s one of those instant wedding playlist tracks, like “Hey Ya!” and “Uptown Funk” before and after it. Everyone of every age will have a little boogie to “Valerie”; it’s so ubiquitous that you’d have to be mad to actually put it on by choice, but it’s well produced and inoffensive.

“Back To Black”, meanwhile, is a far more interesting song in every way. Firstly, by virtue of being written by Amy Winehouse rather than The Guy From The Zutons, the lyrics are spicy, sad, and quotable. She has a great economy of language and can sell her pain like nobody’s business. The track, again produced by Ronson, is a great retro cut, moody and almost menacing with its saloon bar piano. Winehouse’s lyrics dwell on sadness and hurt, but you get the feeling revenge could soon follow.

At (31) is an intriguing little curio, “Million Dollar Baby” by Tommy Richman. From doing a little reading, it appears Richman is one of those supposed overnight successes who has actually been chipping away at this game for almost a decade. This track’s a cracker, an overstuffed funk number combining retro vocals and synths and modern sounding drum programmes. There are bits of Parliament in the screeching, p-funk keyboards, gelling nicely with Richman’s mumbled, Soundcloud-style delivery. It’s an oddity that seems to be picking up steam precisely for its oddness. I could stand to hear a fair bit more of this. 

Then, we’re onto the Top 10. Swift unsurprisingly occupies her designated three spots. “Down Bad” has already dropped six places to (10), and the LP’s title track has been replaced with “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart”. I quite like this one - it digs into her public persona in an interesting fashion, which I feel isn’t something she does too often. It’s sort of a humblebrag (though it’s not enormously humble), detailing how, even in the midst of an emotional breakdown, she’s still extremely professional when it comes to performing in stadia the world over. I think if you’re a star in such rarified air as she is, there’s not much point trying to be relatable, so this feels like a genuine insight to me. It also has a bit of an Erasure feel which works for me. 

At (1), though, it’s Sabrina Carpenter with “Espresso”, knocking “Fortnight” to (2). I have to say this has cracked me up. I gushed about this tune a couple of weeks back and I see it has since become the song of the summer-elect. A lot of folks have made the same observation as me, i.e. the lyrics are bananas (one bit I didn’t catch the first time around but have since got on board with is the bit about how she’s “working late / ‘cause I’m a singer”, which is so, so funny). Even when they’re not bananas, it’s a deliriously shallow tune about being absolutely great and knowing it.

It is simply a hoot that this has knocked the deeply personal music of T Swift from the top spot after a single week - not least given the summer has barely shown signs of starting in the UK. That’s not to denigrate either artist - “Espresso” is a meticulously crafted tune even if the lyrics aren’t saying so much and Carpenter’s performance is star power incarnate. But if you’d poured your heart into your lyrics and pushed the product like Swift has to get beat by “that’s that me espresso”, you’d be miffed to say the least. What a tune man. 

Pick of the week: Tommy Richman - “Million Dollar Baby”