#digga d

content warning: language, discussions of toxic relationships and gang violence

Rundown

As always, we start our week with the notable dropouts, which are songs exiting the UK top 75 (that’s what I cover) after five weeks within the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we bid adieu to a lot of our… novelty-esque returns from Halloween week, namely “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, “This is Halloween” by Danny Elfman and the citizens of Halloween from The Nightmare Before Christmas, “Spooky, Scary Skeletons” by Andrew Gold, “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett & the Crypt-Kickers, “Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell featuring uncredited vocals from Michael Jackson, whose “Thriller” is also out along with “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker, Jr. and a few songs that fell out more naturally or due to ACR and three-song rule, like “Chapter 16” by Dave featuring Kano (more on the former later), “When Did You Get Hot?” by Sabrina Carpenter, “Make Me Feel” by oskar med k and finally, “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” by Billie Eilish.

Filling out the space would happen to be more novelty, with the official re-entry of Christmas songs into the top 75 starting this week, thanks to “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey and “Last Christmas” by Wham! appearing at #51 and #50 respectively, right next to each other like the supervillain duo they are. Jokes aside, both are great songs and it should tell you how the charts will be looking awfully soon. Of course, if you wanted an even greater indicator of whatever sighworthy stuff is happening this week, look no further than “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls in the top 40 at #39 or notable gains for “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers at #46 or even three-song rule switching out Sabrina Carpenter’s Pokémon from battle as “Manchild” returns to #38. Our other returns include “Eternity” by Alex Warren, “Victory Lap” by Fred again.., Skepta and PlaqueBoyMax at #69 (more on Fred later), “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” by ROLE MODEL at #57 then both “MAYBE.” and “You Stole the Show” by SIENNA SPIRO at the satisfying #45 and #54 respectively (new peaks for the latter three)… it really is just RE-ENTERING THE CHARTS more than anything today. Our other notable gains include “Messy” by Lola Young at #66, “DAISIES” by Justin Bieber at #63, “Gone Gone Gone” by David Guetta, Teddy Swims and Tones and I at #49, “Waterfalls” by James Hype, Bobby Harvey and Sam Harper at #48, “People Watching” by Sam Fender at #47, “4 Raws” by EssDeeKid at #43, “undressed” by sombr at #42, “Berghain” by ROSALÍA, Björk and Yves Tumor at #36 (more on ROSALÍA later), “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan at #35, “Something in the Heavens” by Lewis Capaldi at #34, “Think About Us” by Sonny Fodera, D.O.D and Poppy Baskcomb at #33, “back to friends” by sombr at #30, “wgft” by Gunna and Burna Boy at #27, “12 to 12” by sombr at #26 (good week for him, actually), “Century” by EsDeeKid at #21 (Scouse jerk approaches the top 20, fair disclaimer), “Folded” by Kehlani at #20, “Phantom” by EsDeeKid and Rico Ace at #17 (SCOUSE JERK HAS BREACHED CONTAINMENT), “A Couple Minutes” by Olivia Dean at #15 and “Die on this Hill” by SIENNA SPIRO at #13.

Then for our top five on the UK Singles Chart, starting with Olivia Dean, who has “So Easy (to Fall in Love)” at #5 and “Man I Need” at #4, below "WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!" by RAYE at #3 and “Golden” by “HUNTR/X” (the voices of EJAE, AUDREY NUNA and REI AMI) from the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack at #2, with Taylor of course at #1. Now to rush through our new entries for the week! I will actually try to keep it brief for once, no bait and switch or ironic loophole, I will actually try and write an episode that is of a reasonable length, I’ve had a somewhat busy week and I’m not insane [citation needed].

New Entries

#75 – “Buckle” – Florence + the Machine

Produced by Aaron Dessner and Florence Welch

A sign of a slow week, if the Goo Goo Dolls weren’t enough, should be that an album over a week old that already had an album impact is debuting album cuts… at #75. Oh, and that the next debut is a similar situation with an album a few weeks older. I still haven’t heard the newest Florence record but there has been more promise shown in the charting tracks here than with previous albums so I was cautiously optimistic going into this one. In this folksier cut co-written with Mitski, Florence Welch laments a relationship that is difficult because of the lack of attention and communication but when the two are physically together, that ache doesn’t really dissipate but it sticks to her, with her self-confidence so in tatters – with alcoholism and therapy both somewhat failing to lead to any respite – that she is still attached to this person as a “buckle on [their] belt”, with the insecurity of aging as a woman also making this unstable relationship feel even worse on her part in the bridge. Much like the rest of the album’s cuts that I’ve heard, there is some framing of the relationship in the context of performance but much less so, with Dessner’s production bringing Welch’s lyrics closer to the ground and I think that as a result, this really resonated with me. I don’t find the instrumentation inspiring at all – I would personally envision this content as a much longer dirge of a track that degrades or builds up just to remove its elements with a shatter and switch-up – but Ms. Welch’s echoing, pained voice over the acoustics comes off as a really heartfelt struggle to get over the unhealthy dynamic in this song. I love the duality of the chorus’ opening lyric “'Cause I'm stupid and I'm damaged, and you're a disaster / When you walk into the room, oh, none of it matters” – with the “’cause” both leading from the verse into the chorus and acting as a perhaps sarcastic explanation for the chorus’ second line, that songwriting detail, even if it’s a stretch of interpretation, did strike me. Maybe the abrupt ending makes a bit more sense within the album, but it is really disappointing as a ballad about a relationship like this that doesn’t offer any solution since that hopelessness could be more effective if we experience the drowning as much as the uneasy float. Hey, I’m not a Florence fan, but at least I can take something lyrically from it which has honestly been their strong point for me, and without Danny L Harle’s synth intrusions on this one unlike “Sympathy Magic”, I don’t think I was going to take much more than just it being a well-written and performed track, even if it doesn’t really grab me as much as it could by going further.

#72 – “No Weapons” – Dave featuring Jim Legxacy

Produced by Jim Legxacy, Santan, Jo Caleb, Kyle Evans and Jonny Leslie

“No Weapons” is far from the conceptual level of “Chapter 16” – and in fact does not really have the conscious angle most Dave tracks do – but it’s still my second favourite track off of The Boy Who Played the Harp. Though much of the track is disconnected from the Christian themes of the album – so far in fact that Dave whisper-raps about putting a BBL on a BMX and delivering hilarious but distracting bestiality wordplay – Legxacy’s main hook flipping Isaiah 54:17 into “no weapon that’s been fashioned against me shall prosper / my [gnarly dudes] had to take a risk and prosper” is a clever tie-in of the album’s thematics with the defiant flexing of this track in particular, especially when that hook is sung so beautifully. Legxacy isn’t that trained of a singer but the double-tracked, organic sing-songy approach works perfectly over a glade of drained guitar and pitch-shifted vocal loops that slots into an rhythm mixing drill with Afrobeats, a genre that has always embraced fun group deliveries over impressive solo performances. It makes sense, therefore, that Dave and Jim trade off like old friends on this one, which is one of my favourite elements of this album, the playing off between Dave and his co-stars, with which he has a lot of chemistry. The final lines of Dave’s much longer second verse end on a note of carrying a legacy on from his mother’s words in his prayers to his niece’s name on a lease, which is sweet and reminiscent of the opening track “History”, though of course that comes after letting some social media personalities called the “Clemont Twins” (I recently became a bit of a Destroy Lonely fan and the knowledge that I’ve accrued from this is of negative value to me) do both him and his dawg/dog because “the allegations are dark” and then immediately looking back up to God for forgiveness for even trying to pull off that devious punchline. Honestly, the unholiest part of the song might be the promise that he’s going to pop in for a Carpool Karaoke with James Corden because they live on the same estate. I would say “jokes aside” but really, the jokes are an integral part of why this song works, with a lighthearted, carefree sentiment and plenty of great comedic timing from the usually deadpan Dave making for a go-to chill track for me. There’s not that much to it, but that’s probably why it’s on the album.

#61 – “bandaids” – Katy Perry

Produced by Justin Tranter, Sean Cook, Russ Chell and Eren Cannata

Sigh. So Katy Perry has a new single out. Sure. At least she’s smart enough to not have Dr. Luke in tow this time, though this may more be a result of 143 showing how it’s potentially as damaging to that sly comeback as it was to Perry’s fried attempt at such. In this song, Justin Trudeau’s girlfriend tries to be Julia Wolf, singing over an awkward loop that gets flown under guitars and slightly blown-out drums, which doesn’t really work for Perry at this point in my opinion – that chorus, especially the section where she stretches out the “-ation” scheme, is a difficult listen, and the verse melodies are about as inspired as they are sonically as the line “we were perfect ‘til we were-‘nt, now we’ve got too many splinters” is lyrically. I do like some of the maturer content, particularly the bridge that references “Never Really Over” and signals that whilst she may no longer be with her ex-partner Orlando Bloom, the love they made (particularly their child) was worth the time spent in the end, seeing it as an amicable and reasonable breakup that brought them both some great times and a new responsibility that she wouldn’t think of leaving, even with the tie that she has to an old relationship, because no separation of a relationship that close is final, tying in somewhat to the “bandaids for a broken heart” conceit. It is a shame the song just sounds like shit. Perry’s left out to dry over dull, pieced-together pop rock from the producers who made Kid Cudi’s most recent album, FREE, which sounded not far from this, as far as soulless radio filler goes. Do people even want this kind of thing on the radio anymore? I don’t know. I just don’t think it’s worth hearing unless you’re really interested in Katy Perry as a person and even then, it doesn’t give you that much to chew on you can’t take from listening to “Never Really Over” and reading a TMZ article.

#56 – “Reliquia” – ROSALÍA

Produced by ROSALÍA, Noah Goldstein, Dylan Wiggins and Caroline Shaw

ROSALÍA’s LUX is a brilliant album, one with a degree of sonic ambition that actually measures up to the cultural and at times linguistic depths it ventures into. Pretty much every track is impressive, there are plenty of themes to sift through as an entire album experience… but I haven’t necessarily been able to explore that as much yet, I first listened to it on Wednesday and haven’t been able to sit down on repeated listens and probably get into it the way I think it deserves and other people should, beyond just translating the lyrics and enjoying the music. I will, however, try my best with its two charting album cuts, the first being the second track (and first song on the album with a more solid pop structure), “Reliquia”. Helping LUX reach an impressive #4 on the albums chart, “Reliquia” was influenced by the saint Santa Rosa de Lima and her relics, or reliquia. Considered South America’s first saint, parts of her body and her personal items have been preserved over the years and shared across the world for Catholics, who will exhibit items such as her prayer book and rosary when celebrating her life, with letters, testimonies and portraits of her also being preserved and being enshrined into Catholicism in South America. The idea of relics are what ROSALÍA uses to implement the theme into her life, over some of the breezier strings on the record, as she sings about parts of herself that are, thanks to events in her life, connected to certain areas of the world (“I lost my tongue in Paris”, “my smile in the UK” – okay, we’re not that bad, but you get the point), with the use of the word “lost” indicating a self-image that has separated from these essential moments in her life, aspects of her body, but what has never left her is her heart, which is what gives the chorus its passion alongside the rise of soaring strings and ROSALÍA’s incredible performance. I love how the promise of “I’ll be your relic” and the strings surrounding them are interrupted by a kick drum that acts as a knocking on the door, questioning the security of her heart sticking with her and not detaching from her and settling itself in something – or someone – else as everyone else has. “Reliquia” is a beautiful song that sets up some of the album’s conceits very well and perhaps more importantly for me, ends with an out-of-nowhere breakcore-classical fusion from none other than Venetian Snares, who is one of many notable contributors to this track – composer and songwriter Caroline Shaw, Ryan Tedder, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of Daft Punk, to name a few – this album feels as massive as its scope sometimes but most of the tracks are built on softer, delicate moments that expand and eventually implode like how this piano-led bridge flies into scurrying breakbeats compressing the reassuring but perhaps not entirely true line in the bridge, “it’s only a moment”.

#53 – “La Perla” – ROSALÍA and Yahritza y Su Esencia

Produced by ROSALÍA, Noah Goldstein and Dylan Wiggins

Placed right after lead single “Berghain”, “La Perla” is a duet with the Washington trio Yahritza y Su Esencia, referring to lead singer Yahritza Martinez and her brothers who play in the urban sierreño genre of regional Mexican music, with Yahritza being just 15 when the group first broke out on social media in 2022, amidst the surge in regional Mexican artists like Peso Pluma and Grupo Frontera. It should be of no surprise to anyone that this is their first time appearing on the UK charts. Right after the distorted Yves Tumor dejectedly begs “fuck you ‘til you love me” on “Berghain”, we are treated to a much smoother but also much bitterer lament about an “emotional terrorist” who is the track’s namesake: “La Perla”, or “a pearl”, one that ROSALÍA implores you to be careful with, and given it’s a duet with the much younger Yahritza, there’s a sense of it being a talk between a woman who had her heart broken before and his new flame, although Yahritza isn’t any less clued up on the guy being a red flag, delivering some of the more adventurous scathes on his character like “whoever stays with you gets drained / always self-invited” and her brilliant verse wherein after you’re treated to this guy who “doesn’t know what it means to pay taxes” and has no use in seeing a therapist, psychologist or even psychiatrist because he lies more than he speaks (which is a great line, indicating that even his body language is a complete façade) and that they’ll build him “a monument to dishonesty”. Yeesh. Of course, this is a way of mirroring ROSALÍA’s softly-spoken but wackier put-down that he possesses the Olympic gold medal “for the biggest jerk” and stands on a podium of disappointment. This is sung over a slightly deceptively easy-going ranchera guitar with twinkles and orchestral backing that wraps around to call in light, filtered percussion and a dread that looms over the domestic scene, with the stabs through the second chorus, punched against Yahritza’s higher, younger register, implying an innocence and hope in this guy that is lost with every stretch, rendering the natural response to that no longer a heartbreak but ROSALÍA’s exhausted, almost pitying chuckle that leads into the bridge. Given the linguistic diversity of LUX and its pointing towards historical eras and geographical locales as influences to tell paralleling stories, the line “loyalty and faithfulness are languages he’ll never understand” is a fantastic inclusion. It’s unlikely that we hear more from the album on the charts given the lack of many obvious singles or at least something that could capture the UK’s attention beyond the first week, but I’m happy to see any of it here in the first place and I will sit more with the album in the coming weeks, it’s one of my favourites of the year already.

#31 – “DPMO” – Digga D

Produced by Benjamin Lasnier and Frederik Buchard

Oh, hey, it’s Digga D. Long time, no see for the controversial UK rapper who has been on probation and under some degree of legal surveillance for the past months (this Mixtape Madness article is particularly ridiculous about it), out of the public eye but with still enough star power to land a top 40 debut once he finally returned. Of course, this triumphant return is less than two minutes long and it’d be way too easy for me to joke about how stable any kind of remaining traction he has is using that. To be honest, I at least like this instrumental, using a stock house vocal loop and some soaring synth strings that would make for a good 90s house throwback but plumming them under a slightly off drill beat that with a more melodic rapper would work wonders. Digga himself is in the state of still referencing all his opps and finally being “back outside” but seeing himself as in chains and enslaved thanks to the conditions of his probation that he’s been under since his arrest in 2024 for drug trafficking. He's much less aggressively misogynistic and annoying than I remember him being, especially with the casual chorus and lighthearted post-chorus of “don’t piss me off” that is genuinely quite fun – I actually really love his Birdman couplet too, just for its shameless pop culture references that come together cleverly. Maybe Digga D’s time to himself has allowed for some growth there, maybe not, but it’s a decent song over a great instrumental that doesn’t need to awkwardly censor any of its lyrics – as a “first day out” type of tune, you really could do worse. Good stuff.

#22 – “Talk of the Town” – Fred again.., Sammy Virji and Reggie

Produced by Darcy Lewis, Fred again.. and Sammy Virji

Fred is back once again.. with another one-off collaborative single based prominently off of a sample with grey cover art, likely to add to his USB series of projects, and our final review is for the newest of these efforts, this time recruiting producer Sammy Virji, who debuted on the charts earlier this year with Skepta on “Cops & Robbers”, and Reggie, an Irish rapper whose 2022 track “Talk of the Town” is the namesake – and origin – of this new mix. Writing on his mailing list, Fred explained that the song came together in about 27 minutes thanks to consisting of basically three elements that “felt good from the jump and didn’t stop feeling good”, which is interesting to me given Fred’s less than inspired output as of recent that strikes me as having a similar process because of the samples just sounding like they worked and not coalescing into a satisfying structure but at the same time, some of Fred’s sound design gets in the way of the raw feeling of a track that just meshes together naturally. The original “Talk of the Town” is a pretty typical but catchy Irish drill track with a delivery that reminds me of Tion Wayne or Headie One though with energetic ad-libs and an even more basic-sounding instrumental – it does work, but it’s a raw track that could do with some Fred polish if he’s going to remix it into an EDM track with Mr. Virji. Instead of the UK bass styles he’s been working with for much of his charting output this year (as always, his singles have been pretty diverse), this is an electro house song! Somehow! With a stem-separated Reggie awkwardly puppeteered over a basic but pretty gnarly panning synth bass, including elements of the original drill beat that weren’t AI’d out (reminds me of my own beats), before an overly loud buzzy lead comes in for a brief intermission that sounds like it could be setting the song up for a stop-start structure that doesn’t work out because before we can get to that measure again, the Reggie vocal fizzles out for an actual build, wherein the static noise does most of the work as he didn’t want to add any more core elements, so there is no effective climax there until really later on. It’s just an eerie synth that sounds like it needs to be resolved at some point, plays with the stuttering Reggie vocal and stock four-on-the-floor for like a minute and change of edging, finding itself into a rhythm that sounds like it could have already dropped and I didn’t know… until we get some MIKE DEAN-esque synth wankery that is I guess what we were supposed to spend the last three minutes waiting for? The song then fades out, because this was likely played during a DJ set and doesn’t really need to have a finalised structure of any sort, though if you’re releasing it as a single, there’s no harm in, you know, finishing the damn song. What a waste.

Conclusion