UK Top 20 Ranked (Summer 2020)

Greetings fellow machines! This is DalekTurret32 here with my UK Top 20 ranking of the season.

I have been a bit late on this. I was going to do this in the middle of July but there were some small album bombs (consisting of three tracks) that disrupted the Top 20. And since there may be another one with Taylor Swift’s new album next week, I thought now might be a good time to do so.

There isn’t a lot of stuff to say about the charts since my Spring 2020 ranking, as they have been pretty static lately, mostly due to COVID-19. There have, however, been a few interesting moments such as Bring Me The Horizon and FKA twigs entering the Top 40 (first time they’ve done so since 2014).

This week, we've got a UK garage throwback, watermelons in the summer and three Drake songs.

Here are the tiers ranked from worst to best, for those who are new to my ranking

BAD

Poor

Mediocre

(↑the three ratings above won't pop up a lot)

Mixed

Okay

Solid

Swell

Excellent

GOLDEN

Mixed tier

20. StaySolidRocky - Party Girl

The piano sounds melancholy, but it doesn’t really fit the song’s themes of partying. I don’t like StaySolidRocky’s low range vocals either.

19. DJ Khaled feat. Drake - Greece

So DJ Khaled and Drake released two songs this month. Let’s get to Greece first. Wow, that vocal effect on Drake’s voice does not sound good!

The lyrical content is mostly okay; he’s wanting to buy luxurious items for his girl and take her to Greece. Before the outro, we get a guitar touch that sounds nice. Unfortunately, the lyrics in the outro are the opposite, as we see Drake deflect blame onto his girl since he was trying to treat her nice. It comes off as unnecessarily defensive.

18. Pop Smoke feat. 50 Cent and Roddy Ricch - The Woo

I first heard Pop Smoke on the Travis Scott project JACKBOYS, in which he featured in the album closer Gatti. On that song, he succeeded in getting the listener hyped up with his ad-lib filled chorus.

I heard both of his Meet The Woo mixtapes following his untimely death. I thought the first one was decent, while the second one was weaker. A few weeks ago, his posthumous studio album Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon was released. It was alright; slightly better than Meet The Woo Vol. 2. There were some drill bangers on the album, but there were also some R&B influenced love songs in there that I didn’t really like, and this is one of them.

50 Cent brings in an awkward Trix reference and how he and his girl ruined the seats of a private jet. Pop Smoke’s verse is better, but I’m not a huge fan of the vocal effect used on his singing voice (especially when he elongates ‘woo’ in the chorus). I’d say my favourite of the verses is Roddy Ricch, but even then, I’m not too huge on his parts.

Unlike Party Girl, the instrumentation fits the tone of the song. Also helps that the guitar touches sound pretty pleasing and establish a solid rhythm. 

Okay tier

17. Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo - Savage Love (Laxed - Siren Beat)

Jason Derulo has come back thanks to TikTok, and he has grabbed his first UK number one since Want To Want Me in 2015. 

I quite like the siren beat with its reggaeton style, even if its chord progression is too similar to Despacito.

In the song, Jason Derulo finds out that his lover only used him to get back at an ex. He still wants her love even though she doesn’t care. I don’t know why he would go back to this one-sided relationship because it’s most likely that it won’t work.

16. Sam Fischer - This City

I wasn’t expecting this song from two years ago to spend a lengthy run in the Top 40, let alone the Top 20, but here it is.

The lyrical content is okay, mainly focusing on heartbreak and finding yourself. However, the clicking sounds on the guitar become distracting. Sam Fischer also does a post-chorus which doesn’t work as well with just vocals and a guitar. Okay song, even though I’m getting a bit bored of it.

15. Headie One x Drake - Only You Freestyle

Drake teams up with Headie One to do a drill track like he did for War. 

I like War! It’s probably my favourite off of his recent mixtape. I don’t like this one as much, but it’s alright. Drake starts off fine, but he slips off-beat near the end of his verse. Headie offers a better verse, even if it’s mainly about brand names, shooting and stabbing people, and a girl ‘giv[ing] headie headie’.

The best part about this has to be the choral vocals that go with the beat. Even if they just loop throughout the song, they sound really good.

14. Chris Brown and Young Thug -  Go Crazy

The production here is the best part of the song as it gives a pleasant summer feel thanks to the guitar arrangements. In the mix is a sample of Brag Rap by The Showboys, a New Orleans bounce track from 1986 that brought the influential Triggerman beat. The lyrics, on the other hand, aren’t that good.

The chorus has Chris Brown claiming he is the one that can change this girl’s life, which can come off as opportunist. In his verse, he also brags about that girl doing ‘donuts on the dick’.

Young Thug on there is okay, despite some lines about leaving his dirty drawers and doing ‘bum-bum’ with his girl until she’s tired.

13. Juice WRLD - Wishing Well

Just a week after the release of Pop Smoke’s posthumous album, Juice WRLD’s own posthumous release Legends Never Die came out. I thought it was a pretty solid project, with some of my favourite Juice WRLD songs coming from that LP (we’ll get to one of them later on). The piano driven beat is okay, but I prefer the parts in the beginning and the end of the song in which the electric guitars were playing. The lyrics focus on Juice’s struggles with drug addiction and how it has affected his life. It’s sad considering his cause of death was drug-related. There are some lines that don’t fit the serious mood such as the Lauryn Hill reference and the line in which the Percocets are causing him to ‘itch like an anthill’.

Solid tier

12. DJ Khaled feat. Drake - Popstar

The other Khaled and Drake collaboration this week.

The beat is like Toosie Slide, but with a more polished, sustained synth. Alas, I feel like the vocals overpower the instrumental a bit.

Drake lists out his demands as he lives life as a popstar (and not a doctor. Shhh!). He also makes references to The Bodyguard, one of them being about him pulling up to ‘Whitney Houston, Texas’. The line about how he came to ‘fuck it up’ in the year 2020 amused me considering his huge chart success in 2016 and 2018 (both being even numbered years like 2020), as well as the music reviewing community’s feelings towards him.

11. DaBaby feat. Roddy Ricch - ROCKSTAR

I’m glad to see DaBaby finally get a Top 40 hit in the UK as a lead artist. It’s not up there with my favourite DaBaby songs (Baby Sitter, INTRO, Goin’ Baby), but it’s still solid.

The guitar line sounds like Koji Kondo recreating the chorus of Dirty Talk by Wynter Gordon (same chord progression but slower harmonic rhythm). DaBaby compares himself to a rockstar, but then says that he has a glock in place of a guitar. His verse focuses on his interactions with his family, as well as the Walmart shooting he was involved in and how it affected him. He also brings in a good flow switchup. Roddy Ricch is on there too and he gives a better verse than he did on The Woo.

Before we move on, why is there a person playing piano in the music video when the song doesn’t even use A piano?

10. Topic feat. A7S - Breaking Me

Some EDM for you, and it’s a song dealing with a breakup. It starts off with a guy not caring if his ex moves on with another man, but he soon reveals that he still has feelings over the breakup. The lyrics are solid for the most part, even though the guy gets clingy at times.

There are also some ‘la la la’ parts in the chorus that are good, even with A7S’ vocals sounding like they’re pitched down. While I like the sound of it, the vocal melody in the chorus sounds too similar to the chorus of Ocean Drive by Duke Dumont, which used that melodic line much better with its thicker textures.

Swell tier

9. Tion Wayne feat. Dutchavelli and Stormzy - I Dunno

Something about that guitar loop fills me with joy. It plays chords ‘i’ and ‘iv’ over and over, but it has that nostalgic feeling to it.

The chorus is a bit of a bop too, even if Tion Wayne is threatening you for touching his watch.

On the topic of Tion, while his verses are the weakest of the three, they’re pretty solid nonetheless, even if he brags about giving Ms. Banks babies and makes a callback to the ‘mm-mm’ part of Keisha & Becky (which was my least favourite part of that song). Dutchavelli brings a shouty performance that reminds me of Meek Mill in some way. My favourite of the verses has to be from Stormzy. He goes hard and sells his assertive brags really well.

8. AJ Tracey and Mo’Stack - Dinner Guest

This song samples the Dub Of Doom remix of The Nightcrawlers’ Push The Feeling On. It’s quite the surprise to see that there has been a handful of hip hop that have sampled this 90s club classic. Hotel Room Service by Pitbull, Wiggle It by French Montana feat. City Girls, House Party by MIST and Fredo. The last of which debuted on the same week as Dinner Guest.

The sample is integrated into a beat that sounds like something D.A. Doman or DJ Mustard would produce. There was a similar D.A. Doman like beat on Floss, an AJ Tracey song which also featured Mo’Stack.

AJ brings in his usual charisma as he brags about being praised as a dinner guest by his (or his girl’s) parents. He also encourages a posh girl of his to tell her father that he’s a star and doesn’t care if that father is racist. Mo’Stack does similar flexing to AJ and his verse isn’t as good. There’s this line where he brings up the memory of him and his girl ‘touch[ing] in [his] bed’ and him comparing his White Air Forces to Aitch, but he does have some amusing lines on how he would call this girl perfect if she stops smoking. It’s also funny to hear both of them give a shoutout to Jorja Smith, since AJ’s biggest hit of last year sampled one of her songs.

I liked both of the previous AJ and Mo’Stack collabs (Fashion Week and Floss), and this one might be my favourite of them.

7. Juice WRLD feat. Marshmello - Come And Go

In this song, we see Juice WRLD try to better himself as a person as he struggles with his self-esteem. 

The chorus adds a great pop punk groove as Juice does his best to make this relationship work, since ‘this type of love don’t always come and go’. It’s a common thought in masculinity that love comes and goes, but Juice is more thoughtful in this situation, which is nice to hear.

In the 2nd chorus, it sounds like there was a build-up to a drop, but it turned out to be a build-up to another build-up, which came off as anticlimactic (good guitar line though). I do like how it sounds like a more rock version of the drop from Silence, as well as both drops having different melodic lines from each other.

My favourite off of the Legends Never Die album, and my favourite Juice WLRD song since Lucid Dreams.

Excellent tier

6. Regard feat. RAYE - Secrets

Looks like Regard is no longer a one-hit wonder! Like with Joel Corry following up his Monsta Boy rework with Lonely, Regard follows up his deep house rework of a Jay Sean song with an original song.

The song has a similar deep house production style to Ride It. It manages to give off a chill vibe like that song did. The instrumental break uses the same synth setting as the drop in that song, but there’s a different melody.

RAYE’s vocals blend better into the mix than the pitched down sample of Regard’s last hit. Her verses mainly revolve around falling out of love and suspicion. I also like the synth setting that comes in during the line ‘There’s something in his eyes / He’s keeping secrets’. The vibrant feel of the instrument matches the feeling of suspicion really well.

5. Joel Corry feat. MNEK - Head & Heart

Our new number one of the week! I liked MNEK’s collabs with Gorgon City, Zara Larsson and Years & Years from the 2010’s. He also put out some good solo stuff around that time, with Every Little Word and The Rhythm being my faves of his. His last Top 10 appearance was on Blinded By Your Grace Pt. 2 by Stormzy, which I love. And you know that ‘whatcha gonna do’ producer tag Jax Jones uses in his material? He provided it! 

We now cut to the present day, where Joel Corry teams up with him to make a simple song about what infatuation can do to you, such as singing songs you’ve never sung (I’m assuming they’re love songs).

The repeated usage of nonsensical words in the chorus fit better than in Lonely. In this case, the ‘ba-ba-ba-dum’ part is an earworm of a chorus which represents the sounds of a heart beating from that infatuation. 

4. AJ Tracey and Mabel - West Ten

After Ladbroke Grove became a big success, AJ Tracey decided to do another UK garage throwback, but instead of Conducta producing it, we have Fred again and Take A Daytrip handling it. The former of whom worked with Headie One on an album this year (I recommend you check out Smoke, the song they did with Jamie xx. It takes some influence from UK garage but with a much different style and it does so to brilliant results) and the latter of whom produced a handful of hip hop hits such as Kung Fu by YBN Cordae, Mo Bamba by Sheck Wes and Panini by Lil Nas X.

Mabel’s parts focus on her calling out a problematic ex for his complaints as she finds her own space and a new lover. Her chorus reminds me of Jorja Smith on On My Mind a fair bit (that’s the second time I brought AJ and Jorja into the same area of discussion). 

AJ comes through rapping like a UK Garage like he did on Ladbroke Grove. On the surface, it might seem he’s just flexing and showing off his flows, but his 1st verse shows how he worked hard to get the top and how this girl ‘kept him from winning’. It’s quite unusual to see both sides of the party in this concept brag about how they’ve made it to a better place since their breakup, but it’s also refreshing to hear.

3. Harry Styles - Watermelon Sugar

He’s still smashing it, even in the post-album phase of his singles run. Watermelon Sugar was originally released to promote the album a few weeks before its release. It originally peaked at #17 in January, but after a re-release in May (along with a music video. probably to make way for the summer), it managed to beat its peak by 12 places and might even reach a higher peak next week (Spoiler alert: It didn’t. With that being said… HOORAY! I MADE A WRONG PREDICTION!).

This is fitting for the season with its summer rock sound coming from the electric guitars. Harry Styles evokes imagery of fruit such as strawberries and watermelons to convey a scene of love. The lyrical content is really good in describing the scenario by keeping the details subtle with this kind of imagery. The ‘watermelon sugar high’ chorus maintains the fruitiness of the song, even if the ‘watermelon sugar’ part sounds ironically louder than the ‘high’ part. As we near the end of the song, we get some sublime trumpet sounds to go with the instrumentation. 

It’s no Adore You or Treat People With Kindness, but it’s still a great song. The musical equivalent to a juicy watermelon; fresh and very tasty.

GOLDEN tier

2. Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande - Rain On Me

This year, we saw Lady Gaga return to her pop sound after her dive into folk and country with Joanne, as well as her role in the 2018 film adaptation of A Star Is Born. I have yet to hear Joanne, but I have heard the ASIB soundtrack. ‘Twas really good! Her recent album Chromatica was also a great listen, and this is the definite highlight of the LP.

Lady Gaga starts off the song feeling miserable following a breakup. She displays this misery in the form of rainfall. Fortunately, she starts feeling more grateful that she’s still alive, and decides to go through the pain in order to get stronger. Ariana Grande then comes in with a verse on how you should live through your true self and even uses the rain to wash away her sins.

The song itself is a great piece of gospel house; the drop is especially worth dancing to. We also get a weird rap verse from Gaga to add to the song. I bet that when the clubs reopen, people will dance their asses off to this song when it comes up on the DJ’s playlist.

1. The Weeknd - Blinding Lights

Yeah, I know! It’s the third ranking in a row that this song has appeared at the top! Bit anticlimactic! But even after all these months in the Top 20, it still holds up well.

Mixed: 3

Okay: 6
Solid: 3

Swell: 3
Excellent: 4

GOLD: 2

Yeah! This is a step down from the last Top 20 I covered. The mode tier being the Okay tier may be evident of this. Hopefully for next season, we may get more great songs along the way.

Let's end off this section with three songs in the #41-#100 section that I would love to see break the Top 40.

3. Rosalia feat. Travis Scott - TKN (#41, 6 wks)

Throughout her career, Rosalia has taken the elements of reggaeton and turned it into her own unique style. While this isn’t one of my faves from Rosalia (MALAMENTE, A Pale, Con Altura and Aute Cuture are up there), it’s still a pretty solid song.

Rosalia brings in an assertive performance as she references the omerta. Travis Scott comes in and shows his infatuation towards her. The chorus is pretty catchy, though that loud banging comes out of nowhere.

2. Wallows feat. Clairo - Are You Bored Yet (#65, 5 wks)

In the area of indie/rock/alternative, we have had Top 40 entries from BENEE, The 1975, Gerry Cinnamon, and Bring Me The Horizon this year (and also Lewis Capaldi, since iTunes lists him as Alternative). This one might have the potential to end up in this category.

The song takes a look at both sides of the relationship. Dylan Minette wonders if it will remain stable for a long time and also tells his partner to be honest. The partner (played by Clairo) responds well to his questions and encourages him to be more open about his feelings.

Add that with dreamy instrumentation, and you’ve got yourself a really good song.

1. Love Regenerator feat. Steve Lacy - Live Without Your Love (#83, 1 wk)

Bit risky to go for a new entry, but screw it! 

In case you didn’t know, Love Regenerator is the new project from Calvin Harris in which he focuses on throwbacks to the dance music of the 90’s and 2000’s. 

The drum machine and bass synth maintain a really good pulse as Steve Lacy of The Internet sings about how he needs his girl’s love, but also accepts the fact that he gives her too much love. Harris adds an extra keyboard tone for variation, as well as an instrumental switch-up to some piano chords in the last verse.

It is unsure as to whether it will become as huge as One Kiss or Feels, but I will be glad if it makes it to the Top 40.

Chart used: https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/20200724/7501/