Chart Review: 2nd August 2024

Making sense of a nation’s musical  tastes.

Not a huge amount of new gear in the charts this week, but what little we have is, for the most part, pretty interesting stuff. An exception to the rule is “Free”, the new one from Calvin Harris featuring Ellie Goulding, who are regular collaborators. I’m sure the pair of them are perfectly nice, but I can’t readily think of two highly successful artists who interest me less. Goulding’s voice is alright and Harris is clearly a competent chap on the Pro Tools or whatever he uses to make his music, but this kind of stuff really sparks nothing whatsoever in me. 

This new track is designed as a laid back summer jam, but it’s so laid back as to seem that no one involved is really trying. Goulding’s voice floats over the mix; she probably contributes maybe eight lines which are then chopped up and manipulated in a variety of ways, drawing out her falsetto and pasting it over drum breaks. You’d imagine that was maybe half an afternoon’s work in the studio for her. It’s a bit of a Schroedinger’s guest singer - it doesn’t really need to be Goulding featuring on this track, but without that name recognition, this song is just nowt. Harris’ instrumental is piano-led and old school sounding; it’s sunny and perfectly pleasant but I can’t really imagine anyone clamouring to hear it in any circumstance. 

Far more interesting is “Gen Z Luv” by Central Cee at (34). He’s continuing to have one of the best managed rises in music at the moment, dropping a conceptually coherent track and accompanying music video and announcing his first studio album (just the title at this time, no release date to speak of). I don’t know that this is necessarily the best song I’ve heard from Cee, but I really like the the idea behind it - as the title suggests, it’s a tribute to finding someone via the modern means of social media etc. He’s always confident enough to put himself and his lyrics front and centre on the song, and I like the minimalist beat with its occasional honks of heavy bass. His myriad references to the algorithm and IG and the FYP (which I had to look up) comes close to overkill, but he doesn’t quite cross that cringe boundary. It’s a sweet track (much better than his dreadful love from earlier this year) and a smart approach that I’m surprised I haven’t heard before. 

*NSYNC have wriggled back to (30) with the classic “Bye Bye Bye”. I was wondering what’s prompted that, then pulled up the video on YouTube: the title has been amended with “(Official Video from Deadpool and Wolverine)”, so that answers that one. That strikes me as some cynical business on the part of whoever now owns this tune (it having come out on the now-defunct Jive Records back in 2000), but needs must. That does make quite a lot of sense, as Timberlake and Ryan Reynolds strike me as somewhat similar blokes. The wording of that title suggests this video is linked in some way to Deadpool And Wolverine, which it isn’t, but that’s not worth losing much sleep over.

Anyway the song’s still pretty great. I like the rather harsh pop sounds of this era that Britney et al would utilise. It all sounds a little industrial and metallic, the clanging orchestra hits and plonky bass synths. Justin’s very much front and centre here and primed to break out - I don’t know if he took the lead all the time or just on the promising hits - but the voices all merge nicely, a bit of organic material over the top of this super quantised, Terminator-like production. Not to get all back in my day about it but these songs are so carefully put together structurally, with killer hooks and pre-choruses before big bouncing bit everyone remembers. I’m sure it’s put to memorable use in Deadpool And Wolverine, a film I’ll never see. 

We’re just two weeks away from Post Malone’s country album, which now has a list of tracks (a frightening 18 of the buggers) available. All but two include a featured artist, and his third single boasts a big one, the fast car-driving Luke Combs. “Guy For That”, dropping at (26), is basically exactly the same idea as those other two songs, i.e. twangy, polished country with a big name guest star and a ridiculous, pandering list of genre signifiers in the lyrics. For all that I think this stuff’s quite cynical, I quite like this song. It’s much better than the Blake Shelton one, which is shit. It’s about being broke and lovelorn, with nods to guns and bibles and trucks and so forth. Combs’ verse is a bit more out there - he’s on about a time machine, for some reason. I was listening to Shania Twain’s breakout LP in the week and it’s not a million miles from that sound. There’s something to be said for how artists once tried to cross over out of country, and now they’re trying to cross over into it. I shudder to think how long this album’s going to be. I’ll guess for the record at 72:13. 

Sabrina Carpenter’s at the top again with “Please Please Please”, while “Espresso” has crept back up a spot to (8). Chappell Roan and Billie Eilish make up the rest of the Top 3, which really isn’t a bad set of artists. I could see Roan’s “Good Luck Babe” getting there, but I’d still plump for Carpenter to hold it until the album drops in four weeks. 

Pick of the week: Central Cee - “Gen Z Luv”