Chart Review: 9th August 2024

Making sense of a nation’s musical tastes

We’re coming up on the dog days of summer at this point, and the battle for the season’s dominance may have taken a fresh twist. Actually it’s pretty clear who’s won it, with a certain neon green album capturing the zeitgeist to such an extent that people who really shouldn’t be commenting on it feel obliged to do so, all the while garnering massive critical acclaim, but the UK singles chart hasn’t always borne out the same story… or has it?

At (37) is another cut off Billie Eilish’s latest record, this time “Wildflower”. This is kind of the centrepiece of the album, a downtempo soft rock number that lets Elish flex, to the extent that an artist of her deliberate moody restraint can flex. It starts in her most comfortable mode - sad ‘n’ quiet - and builds from brooding to a surprising amount of heft and hurt. I feel like Eilish’s album has been a little underrated on release - not that I’ve kept coming back to it but I rate her highly, even if it’s not stuff I spend a great deal of time listening to. Maybe those who are more familiar with her work felt it was just more of the same. Anyway remember that name because she’ll be relevant later. 

At (35) - and one of only two brand new tracks this week - is a song that makes me glad I’m bothering to peruse the charts on a weekly basis. I can’t imagine how I would otherwise have heard of Hanumankind or his new track “Big Dawgs”. Firstly I’d note this track gives a feature credit to the producer, Kalmi, which is a pretty decent thing to do (and worthwhile in this instance as, for all that the performance is fun, it’s really made by the swelling, super hyped buzzsaw beat). 

Hanumankind and Kalmi are Indian, with the former finding a degree of success in his homeland before this track broke worldwide. It seems the “hook” of sorts has a touch of the novelty, i.e. have you ever heard Indian hip hop before, and I’ll admit that factor did intrigue me in the first instance, but this is just a quality song. Hanumankind is rapping absolutely nothing of substance but he’s got charisma for days and an interesting flow - it seems he’s spent a lot of his life in Texas and combines that southern swagger with an accent I’d struggle to put my finger on. And as noted, that beat is just relentless, maximalist stuff, heavy drums, synths that cut like blades. If nothing else, it’s going straight on the running playlist, and I’ll keep an ear out for these dudes. 

Some more house music that’s not really my cuppa at (31), in the form of “Somedays” by Sonny Fodera, featuring Jazzy and D.O.D. I have actually heard of Fodera, though I couldn’t have told you anything about him. I assume Jazzy is the vocalist because the latter is apparently a DJ, though I don’t know what he’s bringing to the table here. This is about as forgettable as music gets for me. It’s Jet2 advert stuff. I’m not at all versed on house music, and there’s probably some stuff I’d actually be into; it’s not that I hate this, it’s that it oozes straight out of my head the moment it goes in. 

Now onto the main event. Another of my crap pop theories has gone down the toilet - Sabrina Carpenter has not managed to clutch the top spot all the way through to her album release. In at the top spot is Charli XCX with Billie Eilish on the remix of “Guess”, a track from the expanded edition of Brat. This deluxe release is just part of how good the release strategy for this album has worked. Quite a lot was made of Eilish’s comments about the unnecessary glut of ever-so-slightly tweaked extended album releases we see nowadays; the comments seemed to be aimed at Taylor Swift, who has been known to hit double figures in variations on the same record. XCX gave her album the special edition treatment under the banner Brat And It’s THe Same But There’s Three More Songs So It’s Not, which is such smart business. 

Brat was a critical darling instantly but the commercial success has burned a tad more slowly. None of the pre-release singles hit big over here, but the Lorde collaboration garnered column inches. That one was vulnerable and moving; this one’s pure smut and nonsense. “Guess” works smart not hard - it’s all minimal techno, a thumping, stripped back beat, and Charli and Billie muttering and whispering about underwear - their own, each other’s. 

XCX and Eilish have done a fantastic job of getting folks hot under the collar and then delivering not much. The video seemed to promise action; instead it’s a bit of dancing around, then Billie driving a bulldozer. It’s not the best song on the project by any stretch, but it’s still a cracker. The cohesive sound of Brat is superb. I assumed this one was produced by A.G. Cook, but it’s actually some dude called The Dare - he apes those immensely deep driving synths that made “Von Dutch” so good. It’s a song tailor made to soundtrack all kinds of steamy stuff at clubs and beyond nationwide.

Pick of the week: Hanumankind feat. Kalmi – “Big Dawgs”