Chart Review: 4th October 2024

Making sense of a nation’s musical tastes.

Another week with precious little new stuff, unfortunately, so we’ll cover that off and then have a look at what’s standing the test of time. I meant to do that last time we had a paltry week but I got distracted by that atrocious Coldplay track, which shouldn’t be happening this time around.

At (39) is “Going Crazy” by Nines, a cut from his ostensible final album. He’s making quite a big deal about how this is it for him (including some testimonials of sorts from fans and colleagues at the start of the video), though I’m not quite sure why he’s calling it a day. Anyway I like Nines quite a lot - not that I have my ear to the ground by any means but he’s one of my faves on the current UK rap scene. I haven’t listened to the new record Quit While You’re Ahead yet, but this is a smart single that suggests he is indeed calling it a day while he still has plenty to offer. 

Nines certainly has deeper and/or harder tunes than this one, which tackles the pretty basic subject of Having A Nutty Girlfriend, but he’s got the skill and charisma to get off some fresh stuff, including a genuinely funny bar about a handstand. The beat sounds great, too - there are a fair few credited producers, but they’re obviously all on the same page. It’s got a ‘90s R&B feel with a quality vocal sample. It would simultaneously stand up on its own as an instrumental, but isn’t overstuffed to the point that Nines’ presence gets lost in the mix. The tune isn’t a classic, but it’s a smart combo of invitingly playful and genuinely well crafted.

The only other new stuff we’ve got is the next teaser from the reborn Linkin Park’s new album. “Heavy Is The Crown” is at an impressive (18), another reminder of this band’s impact and longevity. As a quick tangent, for whatever reason I watched a clip from The Departed yesterday in which Jack Nicholson said “heavy is the crown”, and then as now I have to get pedantic and say: that’s not the phrase. It’s “heavy is the head that wears the crown”. All you’re saying there, surely, is that the crown is literally heavy. It’s the same idea I suppose but it feels as though the quote has been diluted in terms of both meaning and sound. 

Anyway this is pretty decent. This feels more like the Linkin Park I’m familiar with (i.e. the first album), with a much less poppy approach to the melody and the tried and tested formula of semi competently rapped verses and big anguished choruses. Indeed Mike Shinoda appears to be using exactly the same flow as he did on “In The End”, and probably most of their other songs. We won’t dredge up the stuff about new singer Emily Armstrong’s questionable antics, but she really does fit right in here. The chorus is a big bellow-fest with plenty of self pity and anguish (all pleasingly thematically consistent), and she’s well up to the task. Amusingly quite a lot of the comments are timing how long she holds one scream for (17 seconds if you’re asking) and doling out praise accordingly. Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and assume it hasn’t been tampered with. 

I have a feeling all the controversy will have essentially blown over by the time the record comes out in mid-November. There’s clearly an appetite for new Linkin Park gear, and if the songs aren’t to my taste, they don’t seem to be a gigantic step down in quality from their turn of the millennium peak. I’d be genuinely interested to hear how Armstrong tackles the old stuff when they play live. 

Scanning the rest of the charts, I see that Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” made it almost an entire year inside the Top 40. Even with the significance of the charts severely diminished in this day and age, that still feels pretty remarkable. It dipped out for the past fortnight, but it’s back at (40), having first entered on 13th October 2023. Number One that week? Kenya Grace, on whom unfortunately I have no opinion. 

Sabrina Carpenter’s “Taste” tops the charts again. There’s something to be said about the fact that the only Carpenter songs that have hit the Top 40 have been those released as singles, whereas when Eilish and Swift dropped albums, fans evidently picked their faves and sent them up the charts. I don’t know what there is to be said about that, exactly, and I think Carpenter’s LP was the best of the three, but there’s something observable about how these fan bases consume music. Or maybe not.

Pick of the week: Nines - “Going Crazy”