This is the first of a regular series in which I’ll conduct some amateur analysis on the biggest tracks in pop music. Because the world needs more opinions from middle-aged white men.
Every couple of weeks, I’ll force myself to repeatedly listen to Spotify’s top streaming song in Australia and dissect what it is people seem to love about these songs. Wish me luck.
The first cab off the rank is at least palatable: Kill Bill by SZA, from her SOS album released last December. It’s currently got a sizable lead over Sam Smith’s Unholy with 225,951 daily plays in Australia.
SOS recently broke the record for the most weekly streams for an R&B album. How we define R&B in 2023 is anyone’s guess, though.
The appeal of this song is pretty straightforward. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. It’s the juxtaposition of a syrupy torch song with casual murder that’s sucked people in.
Specifically, the chorus is doing the rounds currently on TikTok:
I might kill my ex, not the best idea
His new girlfriend's next, how'd I get here?
Musically, there’s nothing particularly adventurous here, with a melody that treads the line between melancholy and hopefulness over an A#-D-G-E chord progression.
The intro is built around a woozy mellotron which aids the song’s subtle psychodrama. This is unlikely a real mellotron, but the use of mellotron is striking because it’s a sound we subconsciously link with old television dramas.
The original mellotrons were pretty magical (and expensive) machines as they were pre-digital synthesisers. Rather than digital recreations of instruments, the mellotron had hundreds of tape loop recordings of actual violins, flutes, trumpets, etc. Every time you hit a key, it would play a corresponding piece of tape, and the sound was like an Uncanny Valley orchestra.
The beauty of the mellotron for television was that a music department could score all of their shows at a fraction of the price of hiring a real orchestra. As a result, the mellotron now conjures images of 60s TV melodrama.
That odd warble of a mellotron was also seized upon by musicians at the height of the original psychedelic era in the mid-60s. Perhaps the most recognisable mellotron is in the intro of Strawberry Fields:
While melodrama and psychedelia leverage the mellotron in different ways, it’s an effective instrument to stir up mixed emotions or an in-between vibe. Psychedelic music is never completely sad or happy. It reflects the real human experience, which is often just meh.
Since the boom of new psychedelia in the 10s, vintage 60s instruments have made a comeback because they’re a signpost for the original cool that the 60s/70s now represent in popular culture. In addition to the mellotron on the track, there’s also a cascading guitar line that wouldn’t be out of place on an early Tame Impala album (or a Beatles album).
That brings us to the other musical component that’s front and centre in the mix - the drums. They’ve got that classic 90s hip-hop sound we all love, which was, in turn, influenced by classic 70s samples.
You know who loves a classic drum sound? Kevin Parker, and he’s arguably had more influence than anyone over how drum sounds are recorded and produced over the past decade.
SZA is an expert curator of these types of diverse influences to create what can only be described as a mood. Her music best fits into Alt-R&B - which could be code for black music for white people or vice versa, but either way, it’s chill pop music with universal appeal.
Her conversational rhyme singing and soft falsetto on top of hip-hop beats are her signatures. This has made her the new jewel in the crown of Top Dawg Entertainment (particularly since Kendrick Lamar moved on to start his own label). And that association with rap’s coolest label gives her the bonafide street cred that other pop artists lack.
With Spotify’s curated playlists now the modern-day radio station, tunes like these do well because they can be included in dozens of categories. SZA is currently featured on nearly 50 different Spotify-generated playlists, including titles like:
Big on the Internet
Chill Hits
Feelin Myself
sad hour
BBE
Pitchfork can also say this is a great album by an important black artist, while commercial radio can still play it right next to Ariana Grande or Taylor Swift.
Is it a good song? To a current generation of scorned lovers, it’s certainly a timely salve in their hour of need. The whole thing is clever enough to feel unique yet formulaic enough not to alienate a broad audience.
Personally, the song is, at best inoffensive, but it wouldn’t rise above background music. Having listened to it a dozen times now, it’s already worn out its welcome, but I’ll no doubt be hearing much worse this year.
Can’t wait.