Chart Review: 5th July 2024

Making sense of a nation’s musical tastes.

A difficult job for yours truly this week as not only is there nothing brand new to consider, the two songs that have broken into the Top 40 from the lower reaches are both seriously short. Before we get to them, though, there’s a re-entry in the form of Dua Lipa’s “Houdini” at (38).

I watched Lipa’s Glastonbury set and was on the whole impressed. She seems to have gained primarily quite good feedback from the show, though I do think it fed into everything she gets slated for. She remains - deliberately or otherwise - a particularly unknowable pop star, either unwilling to give much of herself or uncomfortable with the idea. A good 95% of her stage patter consisted of shouting “Glastonbury, this is unbelievable!” or words to that effect; at one point she launched into a really long monologue about how she’d manifested this moment as a kid. She delivered it completely sincerely while acknowledging that “some” of the viewing public might not believe in manifestation, and then she just got on with the show. 

I don’t think she played so much from her moderately received third album - maybe as few as four tracks - but she did end with “Houdini”, so she obviously believes in this one. Rightly so, in my view - it’s a really decent track. I like the icy synths and the rolling bass, and I’m still strangely obsessed with the grit (and indeed phlegm) she puts in her voice to sing the word “Houdini”. I don’t know about it as a big Glasto Friday night closer, but I think it’ll stand the test of time. 

At (35) we’ve got what looks to me like a collection of numbers and letters signifying nothing - “Kisses” by Bl3ss and Camrinwatsin featuring Bbyclose. Whatever the ins and outs of all that, it’s not a bad song at all. It’s a little club bop - to my ear it sounds quite early ‘00s, though the bass synth is straight out of “Show Me Love”. It’s got a nice warmth to it and the hook’s not bad at all. On the fairly brief single version I’m listening to, I feel like it lacks a moment of real lift off - it’s not exactly dynamic, just bouncing along to a close in a manner that suggests a bit of that’ll do to the composition, but maybe there’s a club mix out there for those among us eager to take to the floor. 

At (30) is The Kid Laroi with “Nights Like This”. This dude’s a 20 year old singer and rapper from Australia who seems to have been putting out stuff that has charted or gained some traction since he was 15 or 16. It’s pretty good! It’s a 90 second woozy slow jam with pretty mumbley singing, which is your main indicator that it’s young person music. Beyond Laroi’s slightly anonymous vocals, the instrumental’s cool, flitting from trappy beats to boom bap with ominous low synths. The mood is obliquely troubled, flecked with fear and regret. 

There are some funny comments on the video, many of which are moaning that the song is short. Hey guys - sometimes songs are short! There’s also a trend I’ve been seeing quite a bit recently of folks making readers aware that they’re older, but still appreciate this modern music. Good on you! 

Sabrina Carpenter is at the top again with “Please Please Please”. We’re about eight weeks out from the release of her new album, so if they drop one more single tactically, they could conceivably lock down the charts all the way up to then. Interestingly the song’s producer, Jack Antonoff, seemed to take a veiled dig at Billie Eilish in the press this week. Antonoff and Carpenter are very much Team Taylor (with whom Eilish has had a degree of heat), so there could be a pop standoff for the ages coming. Anything to liven up these darn charts.

Pick of the week: The Kid Laroi - “Nights Like This”