My prediction of the charts exploding into life in April and May didn’t exactly go to plan. Instead we’ve got a few country songs, some more foreign stuff, and three singles from established big acts, none of which are exactly setting the world on fire. Oh well, hopefully the law of averages means we’ll get more to talk about in the second half of the year. Onwards.
“Double Fantasy” by The Weeknd ft. Future
Peak #18, Current #73
I am so fucking tired of The Weeknd. He churns out the odd banger of a single but beyond that nothing about him has ever appealed to me and he’s now created a TV series called The Idol which has already been widely panned for being a horror show of trashy misogyny, something that won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s paid attention to his music.
Anyway we have this song from the soundtrack where he naturally teams up with Future to ramp up the woman-hating to the max. Honestly this track’s biggest crime might be that it’s not nasty enough. On some level I might’ve appreciated this if it was truly gritty and raw, maybe like his version of Nine Inch Nail’s Closer for example. But instead it’s a really cleanly produced, drab, trap-pop song with boring melodies, a mediocre Future verse and lyrics that are still uningratiating but not in an effectively dark way, it’s just faintly unlikeable. Please leave us alone for a bit.
4/10
“Cupid” by FIFTY FIFTY
Peak #17, Current #20
Unless I’m forgetting something, this is a bit of a first. It’s a K-pop single that has actually become a slow-burning hit rather than debuting high and gradually fading away. It comes from a girl group who have only existed for six months, yet the sped-up version of this song has gone mega TikTok-viral, landing them a big hit.
It’s a fairly decent song. Plenty of nu-disco gloss and a simple chorus that goes over quite nicely. The vocals are a bit anonymous for a four-person girl group and the translated lyrics are slightly odd in places but overall it plays out very smoothly. Not really something I’ll remember but I wouldn’t mind if this came on the radio.
6/10
“Wild As Her” by Corey Kent
Peak #40, Current #N/A (recurrent)
This is one of those instances where a country song takes ages to reach the top 40 and then falls back below #50 and goes recurrent in the same month, but it’s still eligible under my rules. Little bit of back story here, this was actually co-written by Morgan Wallen back in 2017, then first released by a Canadian singer called Tyler Joe Miller last year, before becoming a hit when covered by Corey Kent who has been around since 2016 but without much success until now.
Both versions of the song are very mid. It has one of those drum-heavy choruses that sounds straight out of 2014 bro-country and the composition is generally very forgettable. I’m also not hearing anything in Corey’s vocals to indicate why this version was a hit over the original. Meh.
5/10
“Next Thing You Know” by Jordan Davis
Peak #37, Current #39
Speaking of forgettable country, it’s Jordan Davis. Cheap shots aside, this is probably the most I’ve ever liked one of his singles. It abandons the noisy pop clutter of his usual material for a gentler, swooping sound that better accentuates the melody and places the emphasis on Jordan’s delivery rather than a stuttering drum machine.
And I’m impressed by the songwriting as well which tells the story of a couple’s life from moving in together through to having grandkids. This is a bit of a clichéd topic but I’ll be damned if it isn’t done well, and I am a sucker for this sort of thing. If there’s anything holding this back from greatness it’s probably that Jordan’s voice is a bit too youthful to really convey the wise perspective of the song and the track lacks any sort of twist to the story that could’ve added a real gut-punch moment. Nonetheless, I’m surprised how much I enjoy this song and Jordan even has a writing credit so fair play to him.
7/10
“Tennessee Orange” by Megan Moroney
Peak #30, Current #41
Now this is a song that’s been on my radar a long time and has finally got its moment on the Hot 100. It’s the breakthrough single for Georgia singer Megan Moroney who impresses with her rich, smoky voice. It tells the story of how she, a fan of the college football team Georgia Bulldogs falls for a boy who is a fan of their rivals, the Tennessee Volunteers, which incidentally is a very lame name for a sports team. Apparently this is some huge deal which is hilarious to me as a non-American. Like we’re literally talking about university sports teams, in the UK nobody other than the people who actually play cares at all about this stuff, imagine passionately following a sports team that’s just fellow students, very weird.
Anyway, putting that aside the story is very cutely told and the whole “I’m wearing Tennessee Orange for him” thing is a pretty neat hook. Apparently much of the interest in this song stems from the fact that it’s apparently about Morgan Wallen, something that Megan has not exactly denied and why would she, it’s good for her career.
Incidentally Morgan wrote a sort of response track to Tennessee Orange on his latest album called Tennessee Fan which I honestly think is a better song all round, both compositionally and in terms of lyrical detail. This is still a pretty decent song but hearing Morgan’s response did kind of make me think that maybe I’m appreciating this more for the novelty of the lyrics than anything since his track is really a level above. Decent track regardless.
6.5/10
“Religiously” by Bailey Zimmerman
Peak #40, Current #48
Following his massive success last year Bailey Zimmerman has pumped out a debut album with this being the opening track, title track and lead single (discounting Fall in Love and Rock and a Hard Place which are included on this album but were also on his EP). This feels like a mediocre song that is elevated into some sort of quality by the conviction with which Bailey performs it. A chorus relying so heavily on the one word line “religiously” shouldn’t work at all but it kind of does thanks to his gruff belting. Nowhere near as memorable as his breakthrough hits though.
5.5/10
“Area Codes” by Kali
Peak #33, Current #33
Fuck off please, not again. Area Codes is a classic song by Ludacris and Nate Dogg, check it out, it’s great. Kali is a Georgia rapper, and on this evidence not a good one. This takes the original track, strips out the phenomenal groove and replaces it with some dry ass finger snaps and bass hits, and takes out two of the best rappers of their era and replaces them with some irritating brat. It sucks ass, it’s probably even worse than Coi Leray’s Players, there is nothing cool about flipping this to a woman, you don’t look cool or in touch for praising this because it’s by an upcoming female rapper, you look like a moron with no taste in music. STOP SAMPLING CLASSIC SONGS TO MAKE TERRIBLE SONGS.
2/10
“All My Life” by Lil Durk ft. J. Cole
Peak #2, Current #7
This is probably the biggest story of the month. Only Durk’s best mate Morgan Wallen stood between this and a number one debut. J Cole and Lil Durk feels like a match-up that should’ve happened before now but somehow hasn’t, and it marks the lead-off single from Durk’s latest album Almost Healed.
There’s a lot to like about this track. The sombre piano and trap skitters brings a bit of an old school serious vibe, as does the children’s choir that sings the chorus. Durk’s verse is pretty solid talking about trying to better himself and systemic change that’s needed to help others he knows who are still struggling. Then J Cole comes in and delivers the pick-me-up that was needed with the latest in a string of strong features. Whilst I do find a lot of his own music quite dull I do find it oddly comforting when he comes in on a guest verse. He just always sounds so comfortable and authoritative, like you know you’re in safe hands and his lyrics about young rappers being killed and then their names used for clout are undeniably on point.
All in all this is maybe a little too dreary to keep me coming back to it and the sound of children’s voices do tend to grate after a while, but I thought this was a solid track.
6/10
“Need a Favor” by Jelly Roll
Peak #40, Current #40
One of the surprise success stories of last year, Jelly Roll has one foot in the Nashville door thanks to Son of a Sinner, and country radio tends to reward artists with at least a couple of follow-up hits, hence we have this single from his upcoming album.
The lyrics describe a situation where he only talks to God when he needs help, and he knows it’s not good but still asks if he can be saved, which presumably he can since God tends to be generous like that. It’s OK. I think it just lacks a lot musically compared to his previous single. The instrumental is very generic country-rock and the delivery doesn’t strike the same emotive tone. The bridge is probably the best part of the song where his vocals shine more and there’s a bit of gospel atmosphere, but in general it’s nothing special.
5/10
“AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM” by Beyoncé ft. Kendrick Lamar
Peak #38, Current #38
Beyoncé continues her renaissance era by pushing this remix as her next single. I inadvertently skipped over her previous hit Cuff It as it just dodged around my rules for reviewing so I’ll have to catch up on that at the end of the year.
This is the first Kendrick verse in a year and it’s nice to hear him back with a very charismatic and engaging performance. That being said, the breast reduction line was extremely wack, it’s lyrically pretty scatter shot, and I don’t feel like the way the song opens with the Kendrick verse and then drops back into the original song works particularly well or gives much cohesion.
As for the original song, the icy production has some decent atmosphere to it but I have the same issues as I do with the majority of renaissance. Melodically it’s monotonous, I’ve never been a fan of Beyoncé rapping, and for a track with such a provocative title it’s a bit of a let down to get yet another song about her grinding in her jeans, told for some reason through a drug dealing metaphor. Production quality is there, vibe is there, energy is there, but it still doesn’t add up to something I’d listen to.
6/10
“Mourning” by Post Malone
Peak #36, Current #36
So it turns out Chemical wasn’t just a promo track for a greatest hits album after all, but in fact a lead single for a new album dropping in July. I’m perfectly happy for Post to drop a new album this soon; when you have a mediocre album that doesn’t connect you may as well move right on rather than let it linger.
To me this sounds like a Beerbongs & Bentley’s B-side. Something about the way he sings it along with the hazy production courtesy of Andrew Watt and Louis Bell yet again reminds me a lot of that era, especially songs like Rich & Sad. I actually like that album quite a lot but I don’t really think this a great song. The hook is kinda whatever, the verses are just filling space and the lyrical themes are something he’s been over several times before.
Not bad, I certainly prefer this sound to the sound of his previous record, but it’s not a great sign of this is the strongest material on the album.
5/10
“TQM” by Fuerza Regida
Peak #35, Current #35
Another one of these Mexican songs with horns that won’t shut up and no discernable hook. For what should be such a huge regional breakthrough, the actual music is remarkably uninteresting.
4/10
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“WHERE SHE GOES” by Bad Bunny
Peak #8, Current #8
Fucking WordPress piece of crap broke on me, I can’t be arsed typing this bit out again but it’s decent.
6/10
May average: 5.3/10
Worth listening to: Nothing here, “Cruel Summer” is nearly top 40 let’s go for that.
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