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deadcactuswalking · 3 years

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 04/09/2021 (Kanye West’s ‘DONDA’)

Last week, I predicted that whatever happened this week, we wouldn’t have to worry about Kanye because that album wasn’t released on Friday. Turns out Donda was released on Sunday instead and debuted with record-breaking streams, debuting on top of the UK Albums Chart. The #1 is still “Bad Habits” dodging ACR for a 10th week at the top, so bear with me as I welcome you back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

Rundown

Let’s get straight to the point. There was a lot of movement this week on the UK Singles Chart, with our first section of nonsense being relegated to the notable drop-outs, songs exiting the UK Top 75 – which I cover – after five weeks on the chart or a peak in the top 40. First of all, our Doja Cat vs. Official Charts Company ruleset battle continues, as “Kiss Me More” featuring SZA is slightly less of a streaming presence than another Doja Cat song debuting this week, so whilst the song, still on ACR, returned last week, it dropped out once again – all in the top 40. Otherwise, our drop-outs are mostly from last week’s debuts, though Lorde’s “Solar Power” also drops out from the album-propelled return last week. Our remaining drop-outs are some pretty big songs, though, as “Dumb Love” by Mimi Webb, “Oliver Twist” by ArrDee and “Our Song” by Anne-Marie and Niall Horan all exit the top 75. Knowing Drake, they’re not coming back. Yeah, prepare for that next week.

Then we move onto our notable losers, songs dropping more than five spots in their chart position this week compared to last, with “Wasted” by Digga D and ArrDee at #13, “Visiting Hours” by Ed Sheeran at #17 off of the debut (It’s a shame since it’s his best song in years), “Wid It” by Tion Wayne and ArrDee at #27 off of the debut (Not a good week for ArrDee), “I GUESS I’M IN LOVE” by Clinton Kane finally getting a Wikipedia page at #28 off of the debut, “Rumors” by Lizzo featuring Cardi B at #35, “I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE” by Maneskin thankfully losing at #37, “Holiday” by KSI preparing for its vacation outside the top 40 at #38, “Verdansk” by Dave at #39, seemingly waiting to join “In the Fire” at #54. Really, pretty much everything lost here, like “traitor” by Olivia Rodrigo getting ACR’d at #43, “Beggin’” by Maneskin at #44, “Pain” by PinkPantheress at #45, “By Your Side” by Calvin Harris featuring Tom Grennan at #46, “Chosen” by Blxst and Tyga featuring Ty Dolla $ign at #47 (though it’s growing on me). We also have “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” by Lil Nas X at #50, joining a club nearby of songs which make you think, “wow, it’s still here?” like “Levitating” by Dua Lipa at #51 and “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd at #56, as well as some more losers like “jealousy, jealousy” by Olivia Rodrigo at #55, “Excuses” by Mentis featuring Kate Wild at #61, “Rollin’” by MIST featuring Burna Boy at #63, “All I Know So Far” by P!nk at #65, “BED” by Joel Corry, RAYE and David Guetta at #66, “Love Again” by Dua Lipa at #69 and finally, “Life Goes On” by PS1 featuring Alex Hosking at #75.

So, did anything gain? Well, we have a select few and I’m not entirely sure what to think of them. “Love Tonight” by Shouse continues its traction to #58, “Psycho” by Maisie Peters gets a #2 album boost up to #57, “If You Really Love Me (How Will I Know)” by David Guetta, MistaJam and John Newman digs its way up to the top 40 at #40, “Butter” by BTS re-enters the chart at #32 thanks to a bizarre remix with Megan Thee Stallion, “Cold Heart” (PNAU Remix) by Elton John and Dua Lipa somehow climbs up to #23 and “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals gets a bizarre boost to #18, thanks to... something or other. I genuinely have no idea for this one. At least I understand “Kiss My (Uh Oh)” by Anne-Marie and Little Mix making the top 10 at #10, even if I may not be a big fan. I’m not even counting when it comes to Little Mix top 10s anymore.

NEW ARRIVALS

#72 – “I am not a woman, I’m a god” – Halsey

Produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

So Halsey released one of the best albums of the year last week... yeah, it’s not what I expected either, but a grittier production courtesy of none other than Nine Inch Nails really propels some of Halsey’s best writing to date as she deconstructs what femininity means to her after and during the experience of her pregnancy. It’s fascinating and a pretty cinematic listen, which means it’s only fitting it couldn’t debut a song in the top 40 because this chart hates me. “Girl is a Gun” has been on repeat for me personally, but here we have the song promoted by a music video, as you’d expect, and whilst it’s not one of my favourites off of the record, it’s pretty damn solid. Over pulsating electronic production, Halsey finds herself flickering through extremities in desperate need of finding a destination or a middle ground. I wish the mixing didn’t cut into the impact of that otherwise anthemic chorus, but I think the pre-chorus logically makes the most impact here, with its drawn-out vocal melodies backed by an almost mocking synth line. Unlike most of the songs here, Halsey doesn’t deliver a really theatrical bridge which really completes the song, rather repeating the pre-chorus in a way that makes the song feel slightly unfinished for me and hence that final chorus doesn’t really hit at all, especially with the vocal mixing. This still sounds good sonically, and I’m a sucker for anything from Nine Inch Nails so I’ll take this, but there were better tracks. “Easier than Lying” and “Darling” were right there, guys.

#70 – “GYALIS” – Capella Grey

Produced by Capella Grey

So Capella Grey is another rapper-turned-TikTok-soundtrack, this time from New York and what it doesn’t have in a chorus, it has in a Boogie wit da Hoodie remix because of course it freaking does. In terms of instrumentation, it’s a glorified remix of “Back That Azz Up” as Capella croons about having women at his feet in not-even-half-Patois. It turns out he at least produced and mixed all of this himself and wow, you can tell as this sample chop is lazy and the vocals are layered so loudly, yet somehow the 808 bass still drowns him out in awkward mastering. Everything here just sounds like a separate idea barely compiled together in one song, but really, what is to expect when this is just a poor guy beginning to make his own brand of pop-rap and one of his worst loosies ends up getting picked up by TikTok? It’s kind of sad, if anything, I’m sure the guy has better music in the works on SoundCloud or whatever. For now, though, I’m pretty confident in saying I’m not a fan.

#59 – “2 Chains” – Headie One

Produced by Twintwo and M1OnTheBeat

Hey, Headie, I have an idea on some promotion for this song: make some remixes with everyone you can think of EXCEPT 2 Chainz, and then by the time there’s six separate remixes, you can get 2 Chainz on to have the first verse on some edited-together posse cut. Wait, that sounds like too much effort and money wasted on what is essentially a meme. I mean, at least this song is better than “GYALIS”, mostly because this has some genuinely cinematic production as whilst the 808 bass mastering is just as awkward here, it does lead to a pretty heavy-hitting drill beat by the time everything kicks in, even if the song doesn’t really have that intense of a drop or anything. It just chugs along and Headie One, whilst more confident than other British rappers in his lane, tends to have much of his content run together, especially if he’s going to make the same Weeknd wordplay in both verses. I like the line about release dates, that’s pretty clever, and I’ll always appreciate opposition to Trident (look it up). Otherwise, this is just another drill track, if pretty competently put together, but we’ll have better drill coming up from the most unexpected of places later on.

#52 – “family ties” – Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar

Produced by Kendrick Lamar, Baby Keem, Cardo, Outtatown, Roselilah, Deats, Jasper Harris and Frankie Bash

No, that unexpected place is not Kendrick Lamar, because that would be awesome and “family ties” is anything but. Enlisting seven other producers, Baby Keem is making his first really big splash onto the chart with his Kendrick Lamar collaboration, which is fitting since they’re both cousins and seemingly business partners. None of that is really discussed on “family ties”, as Baby Keem, known to drone on in his own songs and waste as much time as possible everywhere else, needs three separate beats to be able to keep my interest and he can barely do that, even if some of these more triumphant horn-lead trap bangers are pretty epic beats that would usually carry any rapper. The bounce is just not impactful here given how oddly the bass cuts in and Baby Keem can barely stay on one idea of a flow before awkwardly switching to an equally uninteresting Kendrick Lamar impression. Oh, and after a cloudy interlude, Kendrick Lamar joins Baby Keem to repeat himself on the worst beat here, relying on a really odd, bassy glitch rather than any kind of knock. Sure, Kendrick’s delivery is a lot more unique and confident than Keem, his wordplay is on a different level as are his rhyme schemes and content... but I can’t help but feel that Kendrick just showed up here for the sake of it. He calls himself the vaccine for the rap game because... well, he can get away with that, and I do enjoy when he trades bars with Keem, mostly because it pretty comically gets Keem to overstate his non-existent bars. This is a waste of time but I’m glad hip-hop heads were able to get their brains thawed out of the cryogenics for the Kendrick verse at least.

#42 – “Get Into It (Yuh)” – Doja Cat

Produced by Sully and Y2K

New week, new song only here because of the three-song rule, but at least this one is pretty good albeit kind of stupid, as Doja delivers her signature yelp in a way Playboi Carti wishes he could, given all the layered, unique and charisma-fuelled deliveries behind that chorus alone. Her partner is both Ed Sheeran and Batman in the first verse and the second verse is just a manic run through the beat with some insane pace. This is all over a pretty cute yet unchanging beat by the “Lalala” guy (although he’s been a talented producer behind people like Yung Gravy for years) and honestly, whilst there’s not much to say about it, it’s one of my favourites from Planet Her. It’s an infectious, almost insidiously catchy hook and the verses are short, borderline satirical and to the point, dripping in personality. I hope this actually sticks around.

#36 – “My Heart Goes (La Di Da)” – Becky Hill featuring Topic

Produced by John Wilkinson and Topic

Becky Hill released an album because everyone’s looking for an album from faceless EDM-pop singers, and it’s hard not to think this song debuting in the top 40 – our last song before Kanye – is just 2021’s version of Eurodance. It takes house trends of the then-current day and fizzles them into a pretty slick pop production and structure with a bunch of nonsense lyrics. It’s only missing a bad rapper and not crediting any of the actual singers, which I’m sure Becky Hill wouldn’t be that upset about considering her first big hit. What is there really to say about the same anti-climactic bassy slap-house drop? Becky Hill sounds good here, but really, that shouldn’t be what I’m clinching for on a song like this. Whatever groove there was feels cheapened by all of the non-atmosphere surrounding it and it ends after barely two minutes. If this album was entitled Boiling Popular Music Down to its Basic Essentials, well, I await in anticipation for the deluxe edition.

#15 – “Off the Grid” – Kanye West

Produced by Kanye West, DAVID x ELI, Sloane, Ojivolta, AyoAA and 30 Roc

The roll-out for Donda has been insane and drawn-out more than I ever possibly thought it could have been but thank God for Universal supposedly releasing the album without his permission this week, although I doubt any record label would release an album on a Sunday with no cover art and no explicit version as well as several obviously unfinished songs. For me and many other Kanye fans, it didn’t matter as we finally had some new Kanye to chew on, and given the feature-length runtime and track number, it was a lot to digest. Sadly, the Globglabgalabgab didn’t chart on “Remote Control” and the best tracks on the album, “Jesus Lord” and “Come to Life” are nowhere to be seen, but thanks to the three-song-per-artist rule, we do have three songs by Ye in the top 15, starting with “Off the Grid”, my favourite of the three. “Off the Grid” has existed for a while in several forms, being played at each listening party and at some point featuring a ruthless Pusha T reference verse, but now on release, it’s pretty excellent. Sure, the vocal mixing is straight-up confusing and the transition from chorus to the last verse just sounds like a mistake to me, with that chorus becoming increasingly incoherent on Kanye’s end, but the rest of it is just so hard. I love the eerie blend of intimidating synths and the way the trap percussion transitions into a Brooklyn drill beat with some of the most booming 808s of Kanye’s career right after Playboi Carti delivers one of the most unfitting features on this Jesus album. After Carti’s bizarrely suicidal verse, we get an excellent Fivio Foreign feature as the friend of the late Pop Smoke delivers the verse of his life, despite the censorship, as he reflects on the pros and cons of fame and how it affects the interactions he has with everyone around him, with some excellent use of subtle religious imagery to paint the picture. Most importantly, he just keeps GOING. “They call me a product of my environment, I tell them that I’m what God produced” is one of my favourite lines on Donda and probably one of the best presentations of the idea Kanye has always had when making religious music. It’s really good to hear Kanye so confident and effortless in his verse on a drill beat, too, as one of his best ever verses in terms of pure energy and agitated bragging is present on this track. The moment the drums come in after half the verse being over the synth ambiance is one of the heaviest-hitting moments during the entire nearly two hour album. The verse is also Kanye’s most memorable non-secular verse so far, detailing why he wore the mask for much of the roll-out, bragging about drinking Holy Water (because I’m sure Jesus would have loved to hear that), and talking to God every day because that’s his bestie. It’s this type of ludicrous Kanye verse I’ve really missed and haven’t really seen in action since 2018’s “I Love It” with Lil Pump. Overall, despite some slip-ups in mixing and not really a structure to speak of, this hardcore drill track goes on for five and a half minutes and is somehow one of the most rewarding songs from the album on repeated listens. Now where it gets a bit messier is...

#11 – “Jail” – Kanye West

Produced by Kanye West, E*Vax, Sean Solymar, MIKE DEAN, Ojivolta, 88-Keys and Dem Jointz

What makes Kanye special is his ability to curate, not necessarily his production or rapping skills. Donda therefore feels disappointing as a result of it being a messy and overlong experience that relies more on moments carried by his guest stars than it does at portraying an authentic look into wherever Kanye is at right now. “Jail” is also a mess in itself, given that it’s a practically drum-less pop rock track with two versions combined to form this #11 placement. They’re both five minutes because of course they are, but “Jail” features a verse from JAY-Z, which of course comes after Kanye whining near-incomprehensible phrases over MIKE DEAN’s guitars, wherein the only coherent thought he sticks to is “I’ll be honest, we’re all liars”. His plead for God to send him bail when he goes to prison for the mistakes he’s made and sins he’ll repent would be poetic if he didn’t follow it up with “Don’t you curse at me on text, why you try to hit the flex?” because meaningless strings of words where Kanye gets angry at swearing is clearly second verse material. JAY-Z’s verse is pretty mediocre, with his voice not really blending on such a minimal yet electric beat, especially if his verse, whilst clever, is so staggered and slow flow-wise. I love his references to Kanye’s back catalogue but otherwise, the content is meandering and Jay really should have been on another track; I can see him filling in for Kanye on the last verse of “Jonah”. The track ends with a metallic drum beat that goes nowhere inside or outside the context of the album. The second version, or remix, entitled “Jail, Pt. 2”, is primarily unchanged. Marilyn Manson provides backing vocals because on his musical tribute to his mother, he needs to have as many people who hate women on it as possible. JAY-Z’s verse is replaced by a DaBaby verse only added because DaBaby said he would vote for Kanye in the election, and despite spending the majority of his verse in a “woe is me” narrative asking for you to care about cancel culture ruining his career for being a bigoted moron in public several times, at least he has a good flow and a lot of energy and it’s pretty funny hearing what I think is Marilyn Manson doing his ad-libs. It’s obviously a more problematic version of the song but honestly, I prefer DaBaby’s verse and Manson’s vocals are an improvement over just Kanye in any situation, so “Jail, Pt. 2” might just be better for me.

#7 – “Hurricane” – Kanye West

Produced by Kanye West, Nascent, Ojivolta, MIKE DEAN, Ronny J, BoogzDaBeast and DJ Khalil

Finally, we have Kanye’s only top 10 debut from his #1 album, Donda, “Hurricane”, a song without a real chorus that has been leaked for two years. The public just have impeccable taste, don’t they? This is probably the worst version of “Hurricane”, given that it’s been out in some form and produced in some form since Kanye was recording Yandhi, with a completely different beat that I personally preferred, as well as an ever-changing list of features. Nicknamed “80 Degrees” by his fans, the blend of distorted Kanye vocals on his reference track for the hook was honestly probably my favourite part of this track, and the six-minute edited version which includes just about every usable part of the leaks is one of my favourite ever Kanye tracks, as it has the now ill-fated “I could never be a slave” verse from Kanye as well as Ant Clemons’ buttery voice (surprisingly not present on Donda anywhere) and verses from Ty Dolla $ign, a clearly intoxicated Young Thug and a confident, hopeful Big Sean, listing his aspirations for the day Kanye got back with Hova. Of course, this happened, but Big Sean just had to get kicked off of the album for it. So, what did Kanye replace this grand six-minute epic of like five choruses and a rotating guest list for? Only the freaking Weeknd delivering a very different version of the chorus on each run-through, promoting his own “The Dawn” project in the meanwhile and cutting in between verses with some more angelic riffing. Honestly, I really don’t like how he’s here, which sounds odd but he sounds almost too perfect for “Hurricane”, a song I found most fascinating in how barren it was as a Yandhi leak. Lil Baby delivers a rags-to-riches verse in solemn cadence as always, but surprisingly, the person who really shines here is Kanye himself. The rickety trap production doesn’t exactly lead to a great foundation, especially since whoever produced the Sunday Service Choir has them cutting in and out really sharply on what used to be an impeccable hook, but Kanye does his best to re-coup his ownership of the song from Baby and The Weeknd. I love his “mm-mm-mm-mm-mm” flow, really bouncing off of the rising organs squashed behind 808s, and he has some of his best wordplay in recent years considering the lines about Yale and going off the rail despite making the best tracks. I feel like much of his verse is just a realisation for Kanye, before he goes back to his classic “blaming everyone around him for his problems” schtick and covering all of the demons revealed about himself during that verse, like his desperate seeking for love from his estranged wife and awareness that he’s wasting money and talent on ridiculous ventures for his home that he never truly considers home, in a corny punchline to end the verse. That’s classic Kanye right there, as he asks one of his most potent questions ever: “Who’s the busiest loser?”

Conclusion

The answer is me, clearly, since I wrote all of that about an album that’s just okay. I wish “Believe What I Say” charted, although it might next week if Drake doesn’t have as big of an impact as he could. For Best of the Week, it’s absolutely going to “Off the Grid” by Kanye West featuring Playboi Carti and Fivio Foreign – if “Hurricane” hadn’t been ruined for me because of the leaks simply being better, it could be here too, but for now the Honourable Mention goes to Halsey for “I am not a woman, I’m a god”. I did like most of the songs this week, honestly, mostly because Kanye made up a great deal of them, but Worst of the Week is going to Capella Grey for “GYALIS”, with a Dishonourable Mention for... honestly, “family ties” by Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar. Keem was useless on his Donda feature too, by the way, so you can’t say I’m picking favourites.

For next week, probably Drake is coming but hopefully some Little Simz on the way? Regardless, it’ll be remarkably uninteresting considering... you know, three Drake songs, but I’ll see you then. Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you next week!

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