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popentertainmentconcertreviews · 6 months

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Paul Russell, P1Harmony, GUNNAR, Charlieonnafriday, (G)I-DLE & Teddy Swims – Jingle Ball Village 2023 – KIA Forum – Los Angeles, CA – December 1, 2023

It’s a rarity to hear roaring cheering while you’re still on your way to the concert venue. However, enthusiastic fans showed up strong for iHeartRadio 102.7 KIIS FM’s 2023 Jingle Ball Pre-Show — some even traveling from different countries and lining up since 5AM in order to catch a glimpse of their favorite artists on stage.

The annual pre-Jingle Ball event enlists the top up-and-coming artists to conduct a Q&A or perform on stage for a dedicated crowd full of fans.

Powerhouse vocalist Teddy Swims took to the stage first — serenading the audience with his soulful vocals that allowed for his raw talent to shine through. While Swims initially gained notoriety by uploading cover songs of classic hits onto YouTube in 2019, it didn’t take long for him to be signed to a label and grow on a massive global scale. Yet, he hasn’t forgotten his sincere appreciation for his fans, saying genuine thanks for coming out to see him sing.

To maintain the exciting momentum, K-pop girl group (G)I-DLE then came onto the stage for a special Q&A. Their incredible stage presence, ranging from striking their best badass poses to getting the fans to sing their hits, made everyone go wild. They freshly completed their second worldwide tour, the “I Am Free-ty World Tour,” spanning 18 countries this year, where they highlighted their meticulous choreography and catchy pop tunes.

Next up was up-and-comer, charlieonnafriday, a rising hip-hop songwriter that quickly amassed a dedicated fanbase on social media with his talent. His captivating energy on stage was apparent as he seamlessly switched between upbeat and more mellow songs that displayed his musical versatility as an artist. He recently was seen opening for Tate McRae’s “Are We Flying” tour and is embarking on his own European tour in April 2024.

Hitting the stage afterwards was California native, GUNNAR, a pop-rock newcomer that has nailed how to command the audience’s attention. He started his set by immediately launching off of the drum platform, jettisoning a few feet into the air all while strumming chords on his electric guitar. The energy for the rest of his set only increased from there. GUNNAR most recently opened for Maroon 5’s sold-out tour across Europe and the U.K.

South Korean boy band, P1Harmony, then proceeded to take the stage amidst a sea of diehard fans who raised up their handmade signs and threw up hearts with their fingers for their favorite group member. With their energetic and catchy tunes sung effortlessly by the group, accompanied by their impeccable dance moves in perfect sync, it’s no surprise P1Harmony has garnered such a large global fanbase with their talent.

Closing out the pre-Jingle Ball show was rapper and singer-songwriter Paul Russell, the ever-exuberant and charming performer that keeps you smiling throughout the entire performance. His energy impressively matched that of the crowd, as he delightfully ran across the stage to engage with all sides of the audience and invited everyone to sing along to the chorus of his songs. Russell first skyrocketed into the public eye when the snippet of his song, “Lil Boo Thang” went viral on TikTok in the summer of 2023. Since then, he was signed to Arista Records and has continued to release songs that infuse a mix of funk, pop, R&B, and hip-hop.

Keep your eye out for the 2024 Jingle Ball Pre-Show lineup for more opportunities to catch incredible emerging artists like these!

Larisa Jiao

#Paul Russell #P1Harmony #GUNNAR #charlieonafriday #(G)I-DLE #Teddy Swims #2023 #Concert Reviews #Jingle Ball Village #KIA Forum #Los Angeles #Larisa Jiao

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deadcactuswalking · 8 months

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 14/10/2023 (Drake's 'For All the Dogs', Nines' 'Crop Circle 3', Lovejoy)

Content warning: mentions of sex, violence, anxiety and SO. MUCH. DRAKE.

Kenya Grace’s first chart hit is also her first chart-topper as “Strangers” hits #1! It’s a pretty big week, with or without Drake, and this is REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

As always, we start the episode off with our notable dropouts, which as I always explain are always the songs exiting the UK Top 75 - which is always what I cover - after spending five weeks in the region or peaking in the top 40. “Always” by Bon Jovi is not included, but we do see the loss of some 2023 hits like “TRIPLE THREAT” by Headie One, K-Trap and Clavish, “Slime You Out” by Drake featuring SZA (thanks to the three-song rule - though it’s a toss-up whether this one will actually come back), “Tension” by Kylie Minogue, “Feel It” by Jazzy, “TELEKINESIS” by Travis Scott featuring SZA and Future, “Speed Drive” by Charli XCX and “Little Things” by Jorja Smith, as well as some old songs that won’t go away temporarily going away, those being “Dog Days are Over” by Florence + the Machine and “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi.

What’s always infinitely more interesting are the gains, of which there aren’t all too many this week. We do see the biweekly return of a Fleetwood Mac song with “Dreams” at #73, and then for our notable gains, we see boosts for “Escapism.” by RAYE featuring 070 Shake getting what must be a third or fourth wind at #54, “Back on 74” by Jungle at #30, “I Remember Everything” by Zach Bryan featuring Kacey Musgraves at #29, “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan at #28 and “ecstacy” by SUICIDAL-IDOL at #26. I’m not really complaining either, most of these are great songs. Finally, in the top 10, Sonny Fodera and Clementine Douglas grab their first ever top 10 hit with “Asking” at #10, also granting MK’s his second as a credited artist - it did surprise me how he’d only grabbed one before.

This week’s top five on the UK Singles Chart consists of two Drake songs at the tail: “IDGAF” featuring Yeat at #5 - yes, seriously, Yeat is in the top five - and “First Person Shooter” featuring J. Cole at #4. Otherwise, we have “greedy” by Tate McRae at #3, “Prada” by casso, RAYE and D-Block Europe at #2 and of course, “Strangers” at #1. Now to run through the new songs, of course finishing with Drake but starting far from it.

NEW ARRIVALS

#75 - “Lil Boo Thang” - Paul Russell

Produced by Sean Cook

I am getting older. Not too quickly, and I’m still young but I am aging gradually like everyone does. I also feel like I’m getting a tad more sociable, a bit more willing to put myself out there. This song samples “Best of My Love” by the Emotions, a classic disco track that is used extensively and liberally in this new song. It peaked at #4 in 1977, and I’m not THAT old, not that being old enough to remember the hits of 1977 would make my criticism less valid or anything. Hell, this song does have some new things about it - it’s not two minutes thanks to TikTok attention spans, and he makes references to the NBA 2K games - though even those are 24 years old now. Yet despite that… I think I want to hug this guy at a wedding we’re mutual invitees of, ask him about how his life has been since I last saw him a couple years ago, and make 15-year-old in-jokes we’ve had since we went to school. Everyone has an inner middle-aged person in them, I think this song takes it out of me. It’s been bubbling up for a while and it is pure joy. The guy can barely sing but it doesn’t matter because of the fast, rap-like melodies and the delightful jazzy soundbed, as well as that undeniable groove that may be very plastic, but still gets me excited. If I heard this at an outdoor party full of those 35 and over (and sadly, their kids), I’d have to go to the back and to the front. The bridge with him interpolating the Emotions sample and the computer-esque vocoder just to tick of all the boxes is adorable too. This song is cute, it’s a jam, you young whipper-snappers just wouldn’t get it.

#60 - “TLC” - Digga D

Produced by P YouGotThat

Now we have a streak of four songs somewhere in the middle of the chart which I honestly don’t think I’ll have a lot to say about, not because they’re bad but because these are chart regular appearances just doing business as usual, and isn’t the album entries from Nines and Drake we have coming up, or a newcomer like Paul Russell, or a general oddity like a heavy rock song charting, which we will see later. It’s just business as usual, and this is especially true for Digga D. He is still on his whole late 90s-early 2000s US rap throwback style, this time directly sampling “Bumpy’s Lament” by Soul Mann & the Brothers, probably better known as the loop Dr. Dre used in “Xplosive” featuring Hittman, Six-Two, Nate Dogg and Kurupt, which appears on the iconic 2002. Whilst never released as a single, it’s a pretty iconic beat, and is still certified silver in the UK. Is it a good song? Well, not really in my opinion, at least outside of Nate Dogg, who improves every track he’s on tenfold, so maybe Digga D’s more subtle use of the sample under extra layers of horns and a particularly gross-sounding drill beat can do something more interesting with it? Yeah, not really, the hi-hats sound like fruits sticking to each other in the fridge, and Digga D is usually at least a bit more energetic than this. God, he’s actually one of the more lively UK drillers, but he says in the chorus how tired he is of fame, and it shows. This is a pretty depressing song if you consider that… well, it would be if he did anything interesting outside of that chorus which adds less potency to his flexing, sex bars and mockery of dead teenagers than I think he wants it to. This is just sad in a pathetic kind of way. At least the sample’s cool.

#59 - “Hey DJ” - Joel Corry

Produced by Joel Corry, Neave Applebaum and Punctual

Hey, Joel, I think you missed a feature credit somewhere. You may have dropped it on your way to Spotify, I believe you mean to credit Roc Star on the vocals? No? Okay, well, she’s about as faceless as she is nameless in her performance anyway, in a pretty typical Euro-trance throwback that at least has the cheesy synth builds and a pulsing Cascada-esque feel to it all, even if the washes of white noise and ambiance get a bit much since they’re not very aptly blended into the song, it just feels like the synth pads are full of flat air. In fact, flat would be a pretty apt way of describing this entire song. It’s a shame because I have a fondness for this kind of sound, yet this feels a bit too tight to work in that context, and way too unabashedly cheesy to work in any other.

#41 - “Me & U” - Tems

Produced by Guilty Beatz

Those of you who read my 2006 episode will know I am a big fan of the Cassie song of the same name, which of course isn’t sampled here, it’s just a coincidence. This is a much more chill Afrobeats single from Tems, and one thing that stands out to me at first is the opening line to the first verse: “For me to come out, it must mean I am at the door”. The continued sense of agency surrounding her relationship in the first verse and intro seems to erode in the second verse, as she makes herself a blank canvas for her lover. The sliding guitars and fluttering percussion, feeling almost manic in rhythm, really accentuates that something is deteriorating… but not necessarily in a bad way. Tems’ agency and self-consciousness dissolves not as a result of manipulation but simple comfort over hours and hours of being together with them, inferred by the constant chanting backing vocals intertwined into the beat and the really perhaps-too-repetitious lyrics. He still needs to prove himself though - she needs faith and he needs to show her some substance before she can fully be part of his “matter”. It’s a hypnotisingly cute mutual love song and of course, whilst I’d prefer a more climactic bridge or a chorus that consists of more than four words repeated ad nauseam, I completely get why the song is that way, and it kind of works for me. Not fully, but it’s close - this is good.

#39 - “You & Me” - JENNIE

Produced by Teddy Park

Oh, how I wish these two songs weren’t separated by “Calm Down” on the chart. Regardless, JENNIE may not seem like a chart regular but she is from the group BLACKPINK, of which we’ve heard solo efforts from before, with LISA, ROSÉ and JISOO all charting solo songs, and I actually liked all of them, some more than others, so I was excited to hear JENNIE’s addition to the BLACKPINK solo canon. Well, again, it’s not close to another song of this title I much prefer - this time by Disclosure - but it’s still okay. Perhaps stuck in 2019 given the vocaloid sample that provides much of the backing melody alongside the charmingly dated synths, snap percussion and JENNIE doing a bit of a Selena Gomez impression, but that’s not my least favourite era of pop, and the shimmering slide into the pre-chorus is a smooth, inspired transition that… oh, my God, they did it again. This is just like when I heard ROSÉ’s “On the Ground” - it starts off as an above-serviceable pop song before dropping into chaotic, almost industrial synths that have no reason to be there but elevate the song to really interesting territory, especially given the screech of those synths, factorial percussion and glass smashing that transforms this chorus from sounding completely sincere to either being a falsehood - kind of implied by the lyrics about not wanting to fall in love - or just grimy and sexy, and given the rap bridge about not blocking his “shots” and promising that she’ll be his last love that just looks better on her, yeah, I’m guessing it’s the second, and the bass-heavy devolution into a swinging screech not dissimilar to a bad squeak really sells it. This is a pretty damn great song, definitely not what I was expecting and whilst it won’t last, I think at least I’ll keep listening to this one.

#37 - “Toxic” - Nines featuring Bad Boy Chiller Crew

Produced by ProdByDizzy, I Don’t Rap I Dress and Babycashy1

Those have got to be some of the worst producer names I’ve seen in recent times. Anyway, UK rapper Nines released his second album of the year with Crop Circle 3 - it reached #2 on the albums chart and we have two consecutive songs from it year. This one… well, it has the Bad Boy Chiller Crew on it for some reason. This does mean that they bring their style of blissful bassline production, with that wispy pitch-shifted vocal and twinkling keys shifting over the 2-step production. It’s a jumpy, bouncing beat with some cute sound effects and popping intricacies I can appreciate. The BBCC guys are just as they always are, but they fit the beat and ride it well, with their typical laddish delivery. Nines, however, still has a single flow and takes himself too seriously, so he is completely out of place despite carrying the hook! Every time the song gains momentum leading into the chorus, you get this sloppy rendition from Nines instead of any of the BBCC fun translating from the verses. That’s not to mention his droning, off-beat verse either. “I went jail and got bigger, like when Mario jumps on the flower”. Really? You make words sound good for a living, how is that what you come up with?

#35 - “I Do” - Nines featuring Tunde and Mugzz

Produced by Show N Prove, Jacob Manson and RJ Cherry

The amount of features on this album should be telling of what purpose Nines serves in UK rap. This is also much more typical Nines fare, with the whispery ad-libs, quick trap skitter, bad vocal mixing and dull deliveries from everyone involved, especially Mugzz who has nowhere near enough character to handle a basic chorus like that. To be fair to the producers, the wiry G-funk synths are pretty unique, and to be fair to Tunde, his flow is a bit better and more energetic than the others, but I’m picking at straws. There are no surprises to be heard here.

#27 - “Normal People Things” - Lovejoy

Produced by Psylla

Indie rock band Lovejoy are back with their newest single, and it’s probably their most concise, heavy claustrophobic jam yet. The song starts with the words “panic attack” and continues to sound just like you’d expect a British panic attack to sound like, with that tedious riff rinsing its anticipation over frustrated drumming, as Mr. Wilbur Soot delivers one of his least kept-together performances so far, with anxious lyrics, odd sampling and a lower-register moan that digs him well below the ground. The chorus propells the song further into anxiety, as despite the initially cathartic riff, Soot ends up gravelly whining the “hold your breath” mantra before a rapid screeching acceleration that brings us to the… kind of cringeworthy bridge. There’s one thing I don’t like about this song and it is the distracting nature of the lyrics, which is to be expected with Lovejoy but still doesn’t work nearly as well as it did in their EP from earlier this year, not because of a lack of subtlety but because there’s less to the song’s progression here. It’s difficult to swallow when it’s further contained in a two-minute single, but it’s still not far enough to make this song not click. It’s still good, still give it a chance, but I feel they have better stuff coming soon.

#6 - “Virginia Beach” - Drake

Produced by 40 and Harley Arsenault

Drake’s latest #1 album For All the Dogs is a bloated feature chock full of corny, misogynistic lyrics, depressively murky production and song ideas so frail they have to be confined to obsessive beat switches. It’s also my favourite Drake album. Outside of being comically pathetic and largely an embrace of that gross side of Drake he’s always at least tried to put up a guise for in the past, it’s also a damn good pop-rap album with unexpected turns, infectious hooks, smooth feature performances and hard beats as well as some genuinely touching lyrical moments, at least when he wants to bring them in. I won’t talk about the album at length here because this isn’t an album review show and we don’t know what else may be coming to chart in the coming weeks from it. So I’ll keep it pretty brief for these tracks, especially since they’re all good but not particular favourites off of the record. This is the opening track, generating much of its buzz from the fizzy Frank Ocean sample off of the filtered guitars and strings that coalesce into one melodious murk quickly snapped into place by a weirdly-mixed trap skitter and Drake’s loose, desperate complaining about this girl probably half his age who he, for whatever reason, is not with anymore. He’s off the lean and refusing to treat her better, despite the fact that she already has a boyfriend at the point she’s seeing Drake. He’s a complete douchebag in full nasal whining mode until the second verse which actually does a pretty cool switch-up by filtering the Frank sample further and introducing a looming synth as Drake continues to rap some of his corniest relationship bars yet. It’s “on sight like WWW, on site like dot com”? Sure, Aubrey.

#5 - “IDGAF” - Drake featuring Yeat

Produced by BNYX and Sebastian Shah

This is barely a Drake song. Most accurately, this is a Yeat song with a lengthy intro using warping progressive electronics wired behind a sample of trinkling pianos, beautiful sax and mystifying vocals provided by jazz band Azimuth, that has little purpose other than to be subverted as soon as Yeat comes in talking about having sex over a completely alien rage beat. Yeat’s vocals are modified beyond coherency at some points, he’s showered in ad-libs, and most importantly, he’s not Drake, who delivers a completely serviceable, one-take verse that quickly gets overshadowed by Yeat… kind of going off, in a uniquely Young Thug way, where you’re not impressed by any lyrics or flows but you are impressed by just the continued violent refusal to stop rapping. Nothing is said of any interest - of course not - but it goes hard enough, it has that extraterrestrial tone to it, and the completely incoherency of Yeat is actually quite a fascinating refresher from the track that precedes it, that being…

#4 - “First Person Shooter” - Drake featuring J. Cole

Produced by Coleman, Vinylz, Tay Keith, Boi-1da, FNZ and OZ

The two heavy-weights team up for the first time in over 10 years and of course, Cole runs away with the fantastic feature verse you always expect, rarely actually get but is never a surprise to hear. I’m far from a J. Cole fan but the man can rap, and rap he will, especially when he has something to prove, rapping about how he, Drake and Kendrick are the undisputed GOATs of their respective generation. Cole doesn’t even wait for the beat to come in, delivering some deadpan wordplay over the soul sample from Joe Washington as soon as the song starts. Drake then gives a respectful warm-up, essentially acting as Cole’s hypeman, though with an odd focus on child-related wordplay, and then over the explosive trap beat, Cole just chugs on in what feels both endless and effortless, making good use of silent moments to switch between flows, delivering punchlines honestly not that far away from Drake’s and with the increased energy the beat deserves. Of course, we then got what is now a typical Drake beat switch into an even harder Memphis rattle, as if Drake knew he got bodied and added an extra verse from himself so he’s not completely embarrassed. He holds his own pretty well though, with one of his more technically proficient and aggressive verses on the whole album, as well as stepping up his punchlines and flexes a bit thanks to Cole’s presence. It’s a rapid fire rappity-rap track so I have no expectations of it actually staying, but it is still a killer track.

Conclusion

With all that said, JENNIE gets Best of the Week for “You & Me”. Yeah, it’s not what I expected but it’s a fantastic track that really digs at what I like about K-pop whilst also just being a brilliantly constructed love song. And despite me loving that Drake album, not even “First Person Shooter” can get the Honourable Mention. Nope, that’s going to Paul Russell for “Lil Boo Thang”. Seriously. As for the worst, I mean this was a pretty good week - not even the Nines songs were that bad - so Digga D gets it handedly for “TLC” but Joel Corry grabs the Dishonourable Mention for “Hey DJ” mostly on just being lazy. Next time, we’ll see if any of this actually sticks the landing for a second. I have doubts about nearly all of it doing so but for now, thank you for reading, rest in peace to Rudolph Isley, and I’ll see you next week!

#pop music #song review #uk singles chart #drake #for all the dogs #yeat #j cole #lovejoy #nines #crop circle 3 #tunde #mugzz #bad boy chiller crew #blackpink jennie #tems #joel corry #digga d #paul russell

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