Intro & 2024: Part 3 - UK Top 10 Singles (The 1st 3/4 of 2024)
- kevpalowe8
- Mar 18
- 18 min read
Updated: Mar 20
THE SINGLES – JAN-SEPT 2024:
Noah Kahan “Stick Season” (#1 for 7 weeks)
So this was it! Day 1. Track 1 of my 1st playlist. I had an expectation in my head of ‘today’s pop music’ – hit play.... and that expectation was immediately shattered. This was #1 in the charts that week. A nice bit of folk-pop complete with banjos and mandolins. Not a bad little number either.
Jack Harlow “Lovin On Me” (#1 for 3 weeks in 2023)
I like the stark arrangement, the underscoring bass, and the way the non-singer sings along to the refrain-like sample as if encouraging us to have a sing-a-long, whatever our capability. I like the tracks structure. Its all sandwiched between a single statement of a sample. This is 1st stated, followed by Harlow rapping over it, then singing along to it. Then the sample and bass drop out leaving Harlow rapping over the beat. The bass returns for 2 stanzas of rap before this whole thing repeats. It’s alright, you know, for what it is. Very reminiscent of Justin Timberlake.
Cassö, Raye & D-Block Europe “Prada”
This is more like what I was expecting. I do quite enjoy it tho. It’s fun, I like the way the vocal is passed around, the fast paced busy lyrics – each line ending with ‘a-ha’, it’s very short with high energy. It actually a remix by Cassö of a track from a D-Block Europe album that features Raye’s vocals.
Tate McRae “greedy”
Now – this is interesting because I didn’t get along with this track particularly at first. It was the 1st track I ditched my rules for and deleted it from my playlist before it left the top 10. However, just recently I heard the track on the radio – then it was stuck in my head. I went back for a listen and found I liked it. (I also listened to some more McRae - she’s alright). So, what had happened? I’m not entirely sure, but I think it might be evidence that my ‘listening-ear’ has re-tuned itself somewhat as a result of this project........ which is interesting.
Tyla “Water”
I really like this track. It’s amoung the best I’ve heard in the UK Top Ten Singles Chart this year. She’s a South African artists dubbed ‘the Queen of Popiano’. Now, I’ve no idea what THAT means but I detect many elements; jazz, funk, soul etc, with a laid back vocal style, perhaps ‘lounge music’. I believe there’s a genre known as ‘deep house’ that this might fall into. Its quite different and very interesting.
Dua Lipa “Houdini”
Although I was not really aware at the time – this was the beginning of the Dua Lipa story. Initially when I saw Dua Lipa was in the top ten I thought ‘ugh!’. Because, the only thing I could put the name Dua Lipa to was “Cold Heart”. That’s the track with Elton John vocals lifted from “Sacrifice” next to Dua Lipa singing lines from “Rocket Man” and some additional new material. I’m not a fan.I did know and like “Be The One” and “One Kiss” but didn’t know they were Dua Lipa). So I was coming from a negative perspective. But that opening distant thudding beat, followed by her ‘OK’ and that strange almost unperceivable bass figure in the opening really drew me in. Then enter the key chords and this great 80s pop/ 70s disco sound with a modern edge pulses along. The melodic figure of the verse and 2nd half of the choruses are pretty good, and in places where the melody is a little lacking, there are great rhythmic figures. I like the way the chorus is in two halves; the 1st a simple statement of the singer being unobtainable ‘catch me or I go Houdini’ (with the simple melody and rhythmic drive), the 2nd a ‘however’ that offers hope, ‘if you’re good enough to find a way......’ with its softer rhythm but more vibrant melody. Towards the end the harmonic backing shifts but the melody remains the same............ and I always like it when that happens. Finally I really like the interesting guitar-like sound that drives the track to its closure. In week one, this stood out as a winner for me.
Teddy Swims “Lose Control”
There’s no doubt that, technically speaking this track was head and shoulders above the rest and I certainly was not expecting to hear anything like this. It was clear from the outset that this was a wonderful singer. But, the song writing is absolutely top-notch too. Great traditional R&B / Soul feel with a modern take sprinkled in. This one is definitely competing for the top spot of Kev’s Favourites Of 2024.
Ariana Grande “Yes.... And?”
M’eh
Noah Kahan & Sam Fender “Homesick”
A decent track. A much ‘rockier’ offering from Kahan which made me think it was more of a Sam Fender track but actually its originally a Kahan solo effort that can be found on the ‘Stick Season’ album.
The Weeknd, Playboi Carti & Madonna “Popular”
I’m not fussed about the track but I will take this opportunity to talk about The Weeknd for a moment. In the 1st week I took a look at the album chart. I’d heard of The Weeknd and his ‘best of’ collection was there. Brilliant – an opportunity for me to get to grips with an artist. The 1st handful of tracks I’d heard before...... and they’re great....... I was impressed........ I was even thinking along the lines of a modern equivalent of Michael Jackson or Prince. But, as the collection went on I realised I was wrong. It seems he is one of those artists who for every 1 great track there are at least 9 moderate or poor ones. However, I don’t think he cares what I think...... Here’s why. The ‘best of’ was released in the UK in Feb 2021. I reported this on my friend Simon Ore radio show in July this year and at that point, with the exception of 1 week, it had always been in the album chart at no lower than #32. 108 of those weeks (so over 2 years worth) were in the top ten. It peaked at Number 2 and its run has continued to date .................. By any standards, that is pretty impressive, no?
Benson Boone “Beautiful Things” (#1 for 2 weeks)
When I first heard this track I thought ‘of all the tracks I’m hearing, this should be #1’..... and then it was. It’s amoung my favorites of the year.
YG Marley “Praise Jah In The Moonlight”
You know what, its not one of the best reggae tracks ever but I was really nice to have a track like this in the UK top ten and on my playlist. Again, it wasn’t something I was predicting to hear.
Beyoncé “Texas Hold ‘Em” (#1 for 5 weeks)
I viewed this, initially, as a great little track. It shot in at #9 and I thought, ‘that’s great, should be #1’.... and then it was. However, a few weeks later I discovered this was Beyoncé launching the release of a ‘Country album’. Ugh! I hate when artists do this sort of thing. X sings show tunes. X does Swing. X does big band. Classic Heavy Metal group do Reggae. Even ‘Merry Christmas from X’. Or whatever. 9 times out of 10 the results are very poor. Beyoncé’s Country album was not an example of the 1 in 10 either. That shouldn’t really mar that this track, standing alone, is a good little number....... but it kinda does.
Dua Lipa “Training Season”
So I was experiencing the 2nd offering from Dua Lipa. I found it to be an enjoyable pop song. However, I was noticing something of a formula with the way Dua Lipa’s tracks were put together. Micro-structurally you could almost map this with “Houdini” one on top of the other. Furthermore, the melodies were actually very similar, both are based heavily around a 5-4-3-2-1 descending minor-scale. Those things aside, it’s a good track. Although “Houdini” had dropped out the top ten, I hadn’t yet deleted it from my playlist as I liked it so much. So, I was now listening to 2 Dua Lipa tracks at least once every day. That becomes important as this story unfolds.
Djo “End Of Beginning”
This was actually released a few years earlier and took some time to gain traction. This is apparently known as a ‘sleeper hit’. I was finding this is not uncommon these days as “Stick Season” (above) had a similar progression. It’s actually Joe Keery who is also known for playing Steve Harrington in “Stranger Things”. It’s amoung my favourite tracks I’ve heard. It has a decent melody that features interesting ‘alien’ notes (notes that don’t fit obviously with the current harmony (or chords) being used), some unusual phrasing and rhythmic choices that throw the ear off, such as extended or diminished phrases or a sudden emphasis on an off-beats. It’s a track that really caught my attention and intrigued me right from the 1st listen. I look forward to hearing more from Djo...... but have failed to get round to it yet.
¥$, Rich the Kid & Playboi Carti “Carnival”
Although it’s not my thing (and I find some of the lyrics really problematic) I quite liked the sound of it, especially the crowd-like vocal backdrop as if there’s a stadium of people belting out the bass line. Some of the rapping style is great too. I don’t really know enough about this genre to say anything meaningful.
Ella Henderson & Rudimental “Alibi”
NO! I. Do. Not. Like. This. A dreadful reworking of the 90s classic ‘Gangstas Paradise’ which itself was a reworking of Stevie Wonders ‘Pastime Paradise’. Love both those tracks. Hate this one.
Ariana Grande “We Can’t Be Friends”
This one feels ‘technically’ better than the previous single in its song-writing effort. But, everything about it feels corny and cliché. It’s like a GCSE music student’s essay in song-writing and they’ve done everything as instructed by the teacher. So – technically proficient. But – where’s the soul? The flare? That said, I do like the ending (and I don’t mean that in a jokey ‘glad the song is over ha ha ha’ kinda way).
Michael Marcagi “Scared To Start”
Really good solid song-writing. This is somewhere amoung my favourites of the year.
Future, Metro Boomin & Kendrick Lamar “Like That”
I kinda like it. It’s really not my genre but I enjoy the skill and the style of this one.
Hozier “Too Sweet” (#1 for 2 weeks)
This was another one where, after a few listens, I thought ‘this should be #1’...... and then it was. It has an absolutely infectious beat and bass groove, decent melody, catchy-chorus (but not in a corny way) and interesting lyric about a relationship that appears to be crumbling because the other person is just too nice for the singer. Absolute top-notch song-writing delivered from what seems to be a very solid singer/performer.
Interesting, Hozier had a big hit 10 years ago with “Take Me To The Church” and tends to have been something of a folk artists whose lyrics have religious/political leanings. Since that hit, he’s stayed around but very much in the background propped up by a niche following. For this track he seems to have abandoned this territory....... and obviously it’s worked. This is a contender for Kev’s favourite of the year.
Olivia Rodrigo “Obsessed”
I quite like Rodrigo. I believe this cracked the top ten because her album started streaming more. This is something I’ll talk about elsewhere but I’ll introduce here. The introduction of streaming into the chart began with no rules. A few have been introduced along the way. But, having no rules meant that ANY streaming counted, So, tracks that are not officially released as ‘singles’ count. Album tracks can, and often do, frequent the singles chart.
Artemas “I Like The Way You Kiss Me”
This is pretty good to be fair. It’s got a traditional euro-pop feel to it.
Beyoncé “Jolene”
No. Just......no. (Album track streaming)
Beyoncé & Miley Cyrus “II Most Wanted”
And no again. (Album track streaming)
Dasha “Austin”
Amoung my favourites of the year. A very solid track. I’d describe it as good pop with significant country leanings. It has a decent melody and there’s great ‘attitude’ in the subtly hard-hitting lyrics, great singing, and a great ‘unplugged’-style arrangement. It’s definitely one to check out if you haven’t. This spent 21 weeks in the top ten!!
Sabrina Carpenter “Espresso” (#1 for 7 weeks)
At first, this was a ‘m’eh’ track for me. However, after a week or two of listening I found it was growing on me. After another week or 2 I found I was looking forward to listening to it. It’s perfect pop really. The melody is at least half-decent, as is the lyric in which the singer compares herself to a shot of Espresso, and it’s tempo is perfect as it’s fast enough to fill a dancefloor yet slow enough to give it a cool/chill feel.
There are some issues with Sabrina Carpenter. The 1st is the seeming persistent problem of a male dominated pop-music industry where a female artists career is entirely in control of a male team. The 2nd is a theory that streaming platforms and their algorithms are geared towards ensuring the success (and therefore multi-million money-making potential) of certain artists or tracks at the bidding of producers/record companies etc.. This is achieved in a tightly controlled way that was nowhere near as possible before streaming. This is not only regardless of any actual talent or quality (which was arguable always the case in pop music) but also regardless of whether anyone is actually choosing to listen or not...... which is genuinely more concerning. Sabrina Carpenter is thought to be a prime example of this. In fairness, I think I’ve experienced what the upholders of this theory are talking about. I will address this in a different section.
Dua Lipa “Illusion”
By the time this came out, because I happened to be listening to Dua Lipa so much for this project, I had been identified by Spotify as a ‘Top Fan’ of Dua Lipa. This qualified me for some sort of ‘early access’ to purchase a limited edition hard copy of her up and coming album..... at a fairly significant cost. ‘Yes!!’ I thought. ‘I’m doing it! It’s working! I’m Gwimming!!!!!!!!’ It was here that I started embracing ‘Top Dua Lipa Fan’ as some sort of identity. At this point, whether I ACTUALLY liked her anymore than anyone else was irrelevant.
It’s a good track and broke the mould a bit in the sense that it didn’t have quite the same formula I had identified with “Houdini” and “Training Season”. The mirco-structure is not the same, the melody isn’t based on the descending minor scale. I really like the rhythmic figure of the backing music with its accentuated syncopation that contrasts the melodic line. While I wasn’t sure about the way the melody line meanders at the end of the choruses, I realised that it sets things up for quite a striking a cappella ending.
Perrie “Forget About Us”
One of the Little Mix crew. This starts well. The rhythm of the opening before the beat drops in is quite intriguing and throws you off a little. But, once the beat comes in its all fairly standard pop and the intrigue is somewhat lost.
Taylor Swift & Post Malone “Fortnight” (#1 for a week)
I’m going to do a little section on Taylor Swift so I won’t say loads here. It’s hardly an exiting track and probably works better in the context of her album. In fairness, it wasn’t initially released as a single and it’s appearance in the singles chart was because her album was streaming like crazy. It suffers from some of the melodic limitations that I find in her music. However, there's also a severe lack of dynamism that is NOT at all typical of Swift. It also gave me an unfairly bad impression of Post Malone (coupled with his single ‘I Had Some Help’) which I will address in a mini-review of his album in a later section.
Taylor Swift “The Tortured Poets Department”
It’s OK. I prefer it to “Fortnight”
Taylor Swift “Down Bad”
Although the melody is a little monotonic I do like this one. Definitely my favourite of the 3 Swift tracks that hit the top 10 that week.
Shaboozey “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Big contender for my favourite track of the year. I noticed this climbing the charts before it entered the top ten. I assumed it was some sort of novelty track if you look at the artist name and track title. When I heard it for the 1st time, I could see it wasn’t ‘novelty’ but wasn’t massively convinced by it. But, it really did grow on me. A sort of ‘drinking song’ with a country feel. I’ve noticed that drinking songs/sea shanties etc., have been something of a trend in recent years. This is a brilliant number! Love the lyric too.
Taylor Swift “ I Can Do It With A Broken Heart”
It’s pretty good.
Tommy Richman “Million Dollar Baby”
Another contender for my top track of the year. It’s got a ‘Prince’ feel to it. A nice mix of R&B, hip hop, funk, and possible a little disco sprinkled in. Definitely recommend a listen.
Kendrick Lamar “Not Like Us”
It’s alright.
Post Malone & Morgan Wallen “I Had Some Help”
M’eh.
Billie Eilish “Lunch”
I had assumed that Billie Eilish was simply another pop artists like Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa etc. But it turns out, at least based on the album she released this year that she’s more of an ‘arty’-type and rather versatile. Again, I don’t think anything was officially released as a single so these are the album tracks that streamed the best. This ones a slightly ‘rockier’ number.
Billie Eilish “Chihiro”
I doubt anyone would stream this as a stand alone track. I really really like it. But, if definitely works better in the album’s context. I’ve got mixed feelings about album tracks making it into the singles chart via streaming but this track supports its advantages. It was nice having something very different on my top ten playlist (although I was listening to the album quite a lot in any case).
Billie Eilish “Birds Of A Feather”
This track ended up being the most successful track of her album. I actually think its one of the least interesting tracks on the album but its a nice number which probably explains in success. So since the release of an Ed Sheeran album a few years back that saw him overtake the whole top ten and beyond of the singles chart, a new role came into play so an artist can only have 3 of their tracks in the top 100 (where they are the lead artist). The 3 Eilish album tracks were all found earlier in the album. This was the same for the Taylor Swift tracks. This suggests less and less streaming the further along the album you go, which doesn’t do the albums any favours. Also, I’d say this shows that the inclusion of album tracks doesn’t work – it proves nothing about the individual tracks. People just happen to be streaming them in order to listen to the album. In the album chart, a certain percentage of an album has to be streamed by an individual to count.... so why do individual tracks hold such weight in the singles chart? I feel bad for pointing this out because I don’t wish to damper an artist’s success. However, I feel comfortable using Eilish as an example because her album hung around for ages, so was clearly popular anyway. (Her album is also part of the statistics relating to a surprise growth in physical sales this year). “Birds of a Feather” also continued to be in the top 10 for months eventually peaking at #2 – so clearly a popular track. So I don’t think I’m taking anything away from Eilish by pointing out these problems. As I mentioned above, the single “Chihiro” is a little weird. I don’t believe people would ever stream this as an individual track– it’s arty, interesting, and I love it. But it’s just part of the album. Its Top 10 Single success is a massive red herring. However it was amazing to have this different and interesting track in the top ten.
Central Cee & Lil Baby “Band4Band”
While hip hop is not a genre I’m very ofay with, I found this track very enjoyable. I like the dramatic impending doom sound of the backing music. I like the rapping style. In many hip hop tracks the beat ‘drops’, as they say, towards the beginning - but it’s really played around with here. It’s not present for an unusually large chunk of the track, it half drops in at points, dips out momentarily at others, and in places it sounds like it’s coming back in but then doesn’t. At the end it sounds like it’s climaxing for a final big section but then the track suddenly ends. Very interesting. Thumbs up from me.
Myles Smith “Stargazing”
You know what? This wad a strange one for me. I can’t find anything concrete to criticise. It’s good song writing – strong melody, good lyric etc. I can see why it’s appealing and people love it. So I should like it, right. I just couldn’t get on with it. I think (but I’m not sure it’s just this) it’s because I’m a fan of Coldplay, and this guy (or at least this track) seems to be an essay in all of Coldplay’s quirks. Don’t try and pretend you’re Coldplay to me mate!
Eminem “Houdini” (#1 for 2 weeks)
It’s Eminem. Complete with ‘guess who’s back’ etc. It’s deliberately done as he’s killing off the Slim Shady character. But still. It’s just Eminem. That’s about all you can say.
Sabrina Carpenter “Please Please Please” (#1 for 5 weeks)
Interestingly, technically speaking I should probably say this is a better track than ‘Espresso’. The melody is much more varied, it develops much more, and the arrangement is far more interesting. I think the lyric tells a more interesting story too, where the singer at first seems like they may be a victim of a bad relationship but then sounds more and more like a psychopath as the track progresses. However, it all feels a little on the tacky side, and it lacks the cool/chill vibe that made “Espresso” the track it was.
Chappell Roan “Good Luck, Babe!”
Rising up the charts very slowly and only just failing to crack the #1 spot but certainly threatening it for a extended period of time. It’s a decent song to be fair. I like the engineered slowing down at the end that makes the track stand out somewhat.
Jimin “Who”
M’eh
Jade “Angel Of My Dreams”
Another of the Little Mix crew. This is a whirlwind! When I first heard this my brain was all over the place. I remember thinking ‘hold on, fuck off a minute, what just happened?’. Structurally the main part of the tracked is sandwiched between a slower rendition of the chorus, which it is further sandwiched between a short intro and outro. The intro being a line from “Puppet On A String” and the outro being 2 extended chromatically ascending a capella notes. The lyrical subject is that of the singer’s love/hate relationship with the music industry. This is portrayed superbly through the music. The key shifts from major to minor depending on whether the singer is expressing a positive or negative point. The melody ascends as the singer expresses the aspects of her experience that she loves, but spirals downwards as she expresses the more exasperating side. In the first verse the singer talks/raps in a fairly expressionate manner as she negotiates the positive and negative aspects, whereas in the 2nd she is singing monotone, as if she has become a robot, while citing examples of how the success of her career has lined the pockets of others. There’s so much going on here in just over 3 minutes. Round of applause to everyone involved in its making.
There’s been a couple of times throughout the year when I’ve heard something and had to immediately message Simon Ore to tell him to give it a listen. This was one of them. This is a strong contender for my favourite of the year.
Bl3ss, CamrinWatsin & Bbyclose “Kisses”
Reminds me of 90s pop-dance tracks. It’s okay in that sense but nothing special.
Charlie XCX & Billie Eilish “Guess” (#1 for a week)
I like both artists, particularly Eilish. I’m not really sure about this track specifically, which was originally a solo XCX track on her album. Its not particular exemplary of either of them. But, I think its all just meant to be a bit of rude fun. Fair enough. I don’t skip it when it comes on, put it that way.
Charlie XCX “Apple”
I think its something of a surprise to myself that I gave Charlie XCX’s album a very decent mark as you’ll see in a later section. This track is an album track that was obviously streamed more and more so that it climbed the singles chart and eventually cracked the top ten. And, to be fair, it is one of the best tracks of the album.
Jordan Adetunji “Kehlani”
I like this. Going back to “Band4Band” where I was talking about the beat dropping in....... in this track the beat never drops in at all. It’s like a very extended introduction and then the track ends. Quite different. Worth a listen.
Chase and Status & Stormzy “Backbone” (#1 for 2 weeks)
I quite liked Stormzy before I started this project but more for his political comments than any music (because I hadn’t really heard any). This was hailed as the return of Drum and Bass to the top spot! That’s interesting because I didn’t realised the genre’s popularity had dipped. I quite like it.
Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars “Die With A Smile”
Nah, don’t bother. This track should be so much better as a collaboration of two acclaimed and established artists. I deleted this track from my playlist after a couple of weeks despite it still being in the top ten. I was so bored of it.
Chappell Roan “Hot To Go”
This is great fun. Can’t help but think of things like ‘....Mickey your do fine’. Can’t really fault it very much as a pop track. I think if you don’t like it on any level at all then I’m not sure I want to know you (lol).
Sabrina Carpenter “Taste” (#1 for 6 weeks so far)
All I can really think about this is ‘it’s not as good as the others’.
Linkin Park “The Emptiness Machine”
I don’t want to knock Linkin Park given the tragedy that struck the band a few years back. But, listening to this I just couldn’t help but think of phrases like ‘hey, 2001’s on the phone for ya’.
Sonny Fodera, Jazzy & D.O.D “Somedays”
This is not bad but the old man in me definitely came out here.........
‘Keep it moving on, yeah
Keep it moving on, yeah
Keep it moving, keep it moving
Keep it moving on, yeah
Keep it moving on, yeah
Keep it moving on, yeah
Keep it moving, keep it moving
Keep it moving on, yeah (yeah)’..............
....................... WELL FUCKING MOVE ON THEN!!!!!!!!!
Haha.
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