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deadcactuswalking · 2 years ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 08/04/2023 (Tyler the Creator’s ‘CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST: THE ESTATE SALE’, Jisoo)

We see a third #1 in three weeks, as for the first week, Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding take the throne on the UK Singles Chart with “Miracle”, becoming Harris’ 11th #1 track and Goulding’s fourth (excluding charity singles). The duo finally reaches the #1 spot after years of top 10 collaborations like “I Need Your Love” and “Outside”, and it’s a damn great song, probably my favourite #1 of the year so far, so I’m far from complaining. With that out of the way, welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

Enough about the #1, let’s get to the real star of the show as we start, as always, with the notable dropouts: songs exiting the UK Top 75 – which is what I cover – after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This was one of those mildly dull and less busy weeks, so there’s not much going on in the dropouts, but we do say farewell to all of Lana Del Rey’s tracks as well as “Love Again” by The Kid LAROI and “LET GO” by Central Cee, neither of which I care about too much.

As for what’s filling in the gaps, well, we have “Lavender Haze” by Taylor Swift returning to #70 and as for our notable gains, we see boosts for “Afraid to Feel” by LF SYSTEM for whatever reason at #64, “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen at #59, “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers because of course at #58, Luke Combs’ cover of “Fast Car” up big off of the debut at #54, “Oh Baby” by Nathan Dawe and Bru-C featuring bshp and Issey Cross at #36, “Here” by Tom Grennan at #31, “Hell n Back” by Bakar at #28, “Can’t Tame Her” by Zara Larsson at #27, “Mother” by Meghan Trainor at #22 (Augh), and some big gains within the top 20, those being “REACT” by Switch Disco featuring Ella Henderson and the late Robert Miles at #15 and “Whistle” by Jax Jones featuring Calum Scott at #14.

This week’s top five on the UK Singles Chart consists of “Calm Down” by Rema at #5, “People” by Libianca reaching a new peak of #4, last week’s chart-topper, “Eyes Closed” by Ed Sheeran, falling down to #3, “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus at #2 and of course, “Miracle” at #1. Now for our batch of new arrivals, which evidences a slightly slower week but still with some songs of interest as we actually span four continents, starting of course with Europe... if we still count as part of that.

NEW ARRIVALS

#75 – “Make Me” – Borai & Denham Audio

Produced by Borai & Denham Audio

I’ll bite: who are Borai & Denham Audio? Well, Borai is a Bristol producer whose real name is the... oddly funny “Boris English” and Denham Audio is a group out of Sheffield, and they both make breakbeat so naturally my ears perked up immediately when I saw this charting, even though it’s a song from 2019 by two seemingly unknown artists. Hell, it did get a 2023 reissue and we’re probably getting more quality from the unknown guys than the A-listers so, is it any good? Well, obviously, I’m going to approve of it in some regard – it samples one of the best dance-pop songs of all time, “U Sure Do” by Strike which in itself is a fascinating mish-mash of samples that already charted. Strike took the vocal from singer Donna Allen’s debut single “Serious”, which hit #8 here in 1986, and the synth from Belgian duo Cubic 22’s 1991 hit “Night in Motion”, which peaked at #15. What was created was a song of childlike euphoria, which used its sparse production to great effect by only choosing what was necessary for the track to go off. It’s an adorable dancefloor filler that ended up out-peaking its source material at #4 in 1995. Strike didn’t last long afterwards but “U Sure Do” is immense, with one of its less regarded aspects perhaps being its more confused verses, with the corny “Let’s do it” vocal, echoing delivery and hypnotic bass. Whilst “Make Me” doesn’t make use of the verses necessarily, it does emulate the deliriousness by placing Allen’s vocal onto a joyful loop not dissimilar to the original before picking it apart in a muddy, treadmill break with racketing drums and the leads playing second-fiddle to a warping bass, whilst that mesmerising loop professing love plays just on top. It takes a song that was pure joy and makes it feel kind of cosmic and alienating, which is an interesting and kind of fitting take for post-pandemic EDM. It’s not the most intricate breakbeat I’ve ever heard, but it matches its thesis pretty excellently and I’m a sucker for pretty much anything that sounds like this so I hope the sample is enough to help this stick around past a couple weeks. It’s pretty solid.

#63 – “SORRY NOT SORRY” – Tyler, the Creator

Produced by Tyler, the Creator

California rapper Tyler, the Rapper released a deluxe version of his 2021 album CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST subtitled THE ESTATE SALE, and honestly, a lot of the tracks should have been on the standard version – if you take six of the best tracks from the standard and six of the bonus tracks, you get a great, mostly concise bombastic and thoughtful rap album, but alas, this isn’t a perfect world so there’s a lot of filler in the standard album that honestly makes the deluxe tracks sound a lot more refreshing, especially this one, which acts as the closer and probably should have always acted as the closer to the album as it sums up a lot of the general mood and thesis of all versions of the album: an unapologetic retrospective on his career thus far that he’s not afraid to brag about but also try and understand in greater context of his progression as a human. It would be pointless to sit here and pick apart this one three-minute verse because all of the sarcasm is balanced with sincerity and whilst it may make him seem unlikeable at times when he talks about social issues, that is a result of a lot of overthinking, which I can be guilty of with Tyler’s music before. Ultimately, the lyrics here are a genuine stream-of-consciousness that finds itself trickling into many different aspects of his life and career, whether it be his relationships, his mother, Odd Future or his signature McLarens, and the most it could ever feel is honest. It can be very difficult as a celebrity to separate those who have your best interests in mind to simply haters in it for self-gain, especially when confronted with the two on a daily basis, and people often being one of the two depending on the day, and “SORRY NOT SORRY” is a deeply personal song for sure, but on a grander scale, feels like an examination of that. It helps that this is a drumless track – not the lack of percussion, but rather the genre – wherein Tyler is rambling over a beautiful, lo-fi sample, with an occasional ramping up of tensions that allows DJ Drama to go really over-the-top in his ad-libbing, which sounds oddly emotive and vulnerable this time around. Fittingly for its subject matter, it’s a warm sample layered with backing vocals and those moments of intensity that push you further from reaching Tyler as a human before you can come back and try and understand... yet the song ends with him blocking you out once again. The way this is accentuated with DJ Drama saying “we really mean it this time” is the cherry on top of this nuanced, complex and openly hypocritical narrative that is compelling throughout and absolutely one of Tyler’s best songs. It’s one verse, with barely any drums and a whole lot of flow switches, so I very much doubt it’ll last past this one week, but it’s an excellent track nonetheless.

#61 – “Cupid” – FIFTY FIFTY

Produced by Sung Il Ahn, Adam von Mentzer, Mac Fellander-Tsai and Louise Udin

K-pop girl group FIFTY FIFTY have had their breakout in the western world with this new single “Cupid”, and it seems to be a more natural streaming push rather than any sales nonsense. If that’s where K-pop is going, then I suppose I’ll have to learn these girls’ names like I did for BLACKPINK – more on them later – but I honestly think don’t think this single will go anywhere far, at least for now. It was brought to my attention before it charted and whilst I prefer it to a lot of K-pop, I still can’t fully enjoy it. This is mostly because of how there are so many nu-disco songs that sound like this out there, and maybe outside of the sound being oversaturated, I’d enjoy this a bit more... but this is potentially too clean and cutesy, even if the harmonies are pretty gorgeous in that chorus. The maturity with this lighter, more relaxed disco sound kind of flies out of the window with the rap verse, so we end up with a song that in either its Korean or English version doesn’t really bring anything interesting to the table despite its competency. I can’t say it’s bubblegum because it’s not all that optimistic about love, but it definitely feels like it’s lacking – it’s kind of like a lounge track, but if it went further into that relaxed route, maybe slowing the tempo, getting rid of the stupid rap verse, we could have something pretty good here but, as is, it’s silently competent.

#60 - “UNAVAILABLE” – Davido featuring Musa Keys

Produced by Magicsticks

Nigerian singer Davido released his newest album Timeless last week, which hit #10 on the albums chart, and the breakout hit from it in the UK seems to be this track featuring South African musician Musa Keys, and surprisingly enough, not the track with Skepta. Did the UK make a good choice with this one? Well, I like the groovy Afrobeats rhythm that picks the pace up a bit as well as the lo-fi samples added in the intro, which I kind of wish continued instead of just acting as producer tags as they would definitely fit amidst the distant group vocals and oddly rubbery, squibby bass – almost reminding me of dubstep – that sounds really interesting and I actually love it given how bass-heavy and rhythm-focused this song is. The hook is a basic call-and-response melody about being unavailable and emotionally stoic, and whilst I wished there was more detail – maybe there is further into the album – it sounds genuine and honestly purposefully isolating with Davido’s Auto-Tune-drenched frustration in the verse transcending language in a really instinctual, guttural way and knowing what Davido’s been through recently with the death of his son, it hits pretty hard, even if I’m not personally a fan. I might be if I check out more after this as I’m really impressed by this. Even our guest, Musa Keys, brings their flailing falsetto harmonies to both a smooth verse and an outro that sounds like hyperventilating. I’m surprised by how much I like this but please do check it out if you haven’t: it’s a vulnerable and infectious track that I’d really like to hear more of – if anyone is willing to lead me towards Davido tracks or Afrobeats songs in general that sound this cold and lonely, it’d be greatly appreciated.

#44 – “VOID” – Melanie Martinez

Produced by Melanie Martinez

Sigh, I’m posting this on Tumblr, Melanie Martinez’s breeding ground, so pray for me, but I still don’t like Melanie at all. I found the focus on childhood trauma remarkably uncomfortable and feigned for her first couple years in music, and the step beyond that with this third record, whilst appreciated, has not led to any more substance in the music, or at least not in the singles as I have yet to hear Martinez’s #2 album PORTALS and I’m honestly not sure if I’ll ever want to. This second single doesn’t change my mind either, with its staccato, doomer indie rock bassline and drums that feel just void – no pun intended – of any emotion or passion. You’d think a song that starts with a verse about panicking, spinning and being controlled by society injecting ideas into you would be less dull and unconcerned with its own plodding rhythm. The inner turmoil in the overlong chorus is interesting to hear considering... well, pretty much everything that regards Melanie Martinez, but it’s not delivered in a way that feels all that interesting or impassioned to me. Out of all things that Melanie has been – uncomfortable, awkward, long-winded and practically comical – boring was not one of them, but I guess that’s now checked off of the list. Again, I’m not a fan – much like “DEATH”, if I were into the lore, I think I’d understand and vibe with this a bit more, but to an outsider, and I understand I very much am on the outside looking in with Melanie, it’s not that worthwhile of a listen. Sorry.

#39 – “DOGTOOTH” – Tyler, the Creator

Produced by Tyler, the Creator

The lead single from Tyler’s deluxe album is much simpler in comparison to “SORRY NOT SORRY”, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile. The vintage keys sound great under the dirty South beat, especially with those signature semi-spacey synths Tyler adds to a lot of his production, and his delivery is some of his most confident and straightforward, as he inseminates his relationship problems into a lot of careless flexing in a way that’s honestly just fun, as he tells women never to follow advice from anyone with a lean gut. Each drop goes hard, and it’s pretty fun to hear Tyler (and DJ Drama) balance the celebration with Tyler’s confusion regarding his love life and trust issues that may undercut the verses but make the chorus a lot more instinctual and accessible than if it were also fully in flex mode. It’s nothing all that special for Tyler but with the smooth backing vocals, great unique mixing, it’s a type of banger that he doesn’t often deliver and I appreciate it as a lead single, since it’s a more well-constructed throwaway flex than a lot of the standard album, including its own lead single “LUMBERJACK”. Again, I would have loved for these deluxe tracks to end up on the original but alas, we don’t live in a perfect world, and this song is absolutely solid enough.

#38 – “FLOWER” – Jisoo

Produced by 24

Back to Korea we go with Jisoo, the fourth and final member of the K-pop quartet BLACKPINK to release a solo debut single, so maybe it was worth it learning everyone’s names. I’ve liked the solo efforts much more than the group work, mostly because they can be more focused, so I was kind of optimistic with this one and hey, it’s not half-bad. It’s a somewhat childish song in its minimal rhythm and staccato, literal “do-re-mi” verses (she actually says “ABC, do-re-mi”), but I feel like that works best for the pettiness of her shaming her partner for being the reason why their relationship fell apart. It’s the initial bitterness which she brings to an almost condescending pluck and snap beat with those stabs of synth feeling like exposés of this person, even if she’s not particularly biting unless the English translation isn’t doing it any wonders. The harmonies in the build-up are pretty sweet before leading to a vocaloid drop that is very 2017 but in a rather cute, inoffensive way. Most of my issues with the song are also elements of praise, in all honesty, but the conceit of nature that follows Jisoo throughout the track works pretty well, with the line “there was nothing left but the scent of a flower” being a pretty good pre-drop wham line. It’s a bit under-produced, sure, and Jisoo performs well but not uniquely... yet it’s catchy enough and it’s got a good rhythm and lyrical motif so I’m fine with this sticking around (if it does; this is K-pop we’re talking about), even if I’m not quite as impressed as I was with her bandmate ROSÉ.

Conclusion

Honestly, this was a pretty good week, though also one that had a strange fixation on all-caps titles. Even the worst songs were pretty inoffensive and there is some shockingly good stuff here too – Tyler, the Creator obviously runs away with Best of the Week for “SORRY NOT SORRY” and he was close to snabbing the Honourable Mention but I’ll actually make it a tie between “DOGTOOTH” and “UNAVAILABLE” by Davido featuring Musa Keys, which was a pleasant surprise. As for the worst, it should be obvious, with Worst of the Week going to Melanie Martinez for “VOID” even though that’s far from her worst track. It would feel pretty insincere giving a Dishonourable Mention given that these are otherwise decent songs, so I suppose that’s it for our week. Buckle up: Drake’s coming next. Joy. Just delightful. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next week!

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