Ukraine Top 10 (Chart A Course #2)

When I called the UK's music scene "homogenous" last time, I was in no way exaggerating. It has taken just two editions of this new series to prove to me how right I was, and how diverse the pop music of the wider world is in comparison to my home. For this, the second edition of this exciting new series, I'll be taking a look at the Top 10 songs from the YouTube & Airplay charts in Ukraine right now, assigning each track a rating and counting them down in the order they appear in the chart, and not the order of my preference. It's a pretty simple concept, and extremely rewarding (for me at least), and I hope it inspires some of you to check out some music that's out of your comfort zone, but still very accessible. Right, enough with the introductions, it's time we chart a course to Ukraine...

Ukraine is a country situated at the edge of Eastern Europe, gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, but boasting a far more copious past as a historic centre of Slavic culture, particularly its capital city of Kyiv. It's a country known for its fertile soils, vast plains and steppes, but also for the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, and for its divided nature both geographically and demographically, with many of its inhabitants claiming Russian ethnicity, whilst the majority strives to align itself more with the rest of Europe. As such, it's culture and music is often more of a combination than an amalgamation of both, and it seems that more than anything else music is able to bridge the tense gap between Ukraine and Russia, with a few Russian artists on this Ukrainian Top 10.

10

"Take You Dancing"

Jason Derulo

My Rating: 7/10

For as prominent as my distaste for the majority of Jason Derulo's music is, I'm not exactly disappointed that this was the singular American song to make it into the Ukrainian Top 10 for the week I'm covering their charts. Let me make myself clear here, because I'm not proclaiming this to be a fantastic song, although what I will comfortably do is defend one of modern music's least consistent performers, at least just for this song. What makes this special in comparison to his other hits? Well, the most obvious thing is the instrumentation itself, trading out his signature plastic-sounding digital horn solos with playful guitars and an organic, groovy bassline, introducing a typically single-minded but far less sleazy Derulo who's a whole lot more likeable here than on literally any of his other songs. Oh, and his pig-squeal of a falsetto? Thank goodness that's put in check here.

9

"Кобра"

The Hardkiss, MONATIK

My Rating: 8/10

When I first heard this, I was taken aback that something as stridently outside the mainstream palette could be so popular, and if I'm completely honest I'm still not over it. I'm not trying to make this out as a particularly original or inaccessible track, for all intents and purposes this is just an electro-rock track, not hugely creative and certainly not tearing down any boundaries, just here, existing, but exploding in brazen technicolour, feeling like a direct throwback to the captivating action movie themes of the 90s, when it was more important to show off with synths and to sound massive than it was create something commercially viable like in the 80s. Now, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want it to go further, to strive for more outright weirdness, more off-kilter drum patterns, more peculiar synth flourishes, more experimentation, but I'm still more than happy with what I've got.

8
"Эйя"

Канги

My Rating: 5/10

Канги (or Kangi) seems to be a rising a rising star within the Russian pop scene, and with this song here is perhaps revealing an interesting pattern or trend within the music. Similar to the last song, "Эйя" is a definite throwback to the sound of the 90s, the repetitive guitar riffs and chanted vocals reminiscent of the britpop and rock-leaning pop of the time, and the record scratches, rewinds and glitchy moments scattered across the track especially feel borrowed from that era, and I'd be surprised if anyone disagreed with me in calling the bridge the highlight of the song with its captivating, ascending bass sounding like a cross between a helicopter and a prolonged riser in an EDM piece. Outside of that though, I'm not particularly a fan, finding the vocals and incessant chants and crowd backing vocals obnoxious and annoying, and the majority of the song just too standard to be redeemed by the bridge.

7

"Мріяла"

Юлия Думанская

My Rating: 8/10

Юлия Думанская (or Julia Dumanskaya) is a Ukrainian singer with a penchant for performance, spending as much time playing sports and dancing as she did making music, with the latter being the path she ultimately chose to pursue, although she was initially trapped working in a group before deciding to go it alone. Judging from this song alone, I'd say this was the right decision, a sweeping divot into synthpop with a polished, modern beat that's contrasted by the retro flavour of the synths themselves, sounding purposefully disjointed in a way I love, her pitched vocals in the post-chorus matching this perfectly and creating an atmosphere that's tightly controlled in the verses, explodes briefly with the chorus before being sent into disarray, a genuinely fantastic progression that puts a lot of synthpop to shame for not possessing the structural creativity this song does.

6

"Поруч"

KAZKA, ALEKSEEV

My Rating: 6/10

This piece of Ukrainian pop has me conflicted. On the one hand, the production is flawless. Now, I don't give that compliment away casually, but I'm not kidding when I say this is, far and away, one of the best produced, most perfectly constructed songs I have every heard. The vocals are always given the space to dominate the track as they should, but each instrument feels represented, purposeful, given their own due in specific, orchestrated moments that highlight just how immaculate the track is. So, you might be wondering, why am I conflicted? Well, that would primarily be down to the vocalists themselves. Are they bad singers? No. What they are is uninteresting, sounding incredibly sincere but lacking any real emotion or expression. On a song so precise and calculated, vocalists who sound much the same is a recipe for boredom, and as much as I want to love this song, I can't.

5

"moLOko"

Loboda

My Rating: 7/10

Taking a pretty blatant influence from Latin pop to deliver yet another throwback to the sound of the 90s, primarily due to the interpolation of Santana and Rob Thomas' defining hit "Smooth" in the chorus, used surprisingly well here, the rest of the instrumentation largely feeling build around it, serving as a departure from her typically tight EDM and dance tracks, but a welcome one that definitely suits her voice. More than that, this seems to be an emotional moment for her, recalling the words of her mother's advice with slightly clichéd but no less heartfelt lyrics delivered in a breathier, more sultry tone than usual, working with the instrumentation to create a pleasant, if unmemorable listen. The outro's great.

4

"неболей"

Basta, Zivert

My Rating: 8/10

Strange. Another track bridging the gap between the cold drama of Eastern European pop with the rhythms of Latin pop, this time around going on all in for a five-and-a-half minute epic. Now, whilst that length is a little pointless, particularly due to the song's lack of variation, it also doesn't get tiring or stale, offering a more complete fusion than the previous song, immersing itself in both sounds to create something that feels timeless and unique, all whilst wearing its influences on its sleeve and being as novel as it is. I don't find myself with much to say here, I'm impressed but not overwhelmed by a song that's unique but not original.

3

"Cristal & МОЁТ"

Morgenshtern

My Rating: 7/10

This seems to either be everyone's favourite or least favourite Russian rapper, a man making short, intensely punchy, minimalistic trap pieces with the catchiness of "Gucci Gang" but without the droning, drugged out and brain-numbing vocals of Lil Pump. In fact, it's Lil Pump that Morgenshtern gets compared to the most, I think a little unfairly. Aside from the differences I've already mentioned, the beats on your average Morgenshtern song don't sound half-abandoned once the producer's found something simple, memorable and hard, instead having strong, sample-based foundations and many quirks and moments of 'ear candy', the whistles, pauses and skips that keep this track from just being one tedious loop, fleshing it out and helping it become genuinely fun, and thoroughly enjoyable, although not quite comparable to last year's incredible "Ice".

2

"gorit"

DORAFEEVA
My Rating: 6/10

Everyone seems capable of making Lady Gaga songs better than Lady Gaga at the moment, and this is one of those songs, a polished dance-pop track that shows early promise in the verses and pre-chorus before turning very by-the-numbers as we move into the chorus, a fine enough piece of radio filler that I feel like had the potential to go further, to capitalise on the wonky background sounds that find themselves drowned out and replaced by the boring synth bass of the chorus. Still, it's more engaging than the majority of Gaga's last album, and I'd take this over "Rain On Me" any day.

1

"Ягода малинка"

Хабиб

My Rating: 3/10

Another rising star in the world of Russian pop, another chanting, laddish anthem, this one seeming more suited to a twenty second dance or transition on TikTok than the rowdy bar setting of "Эйя", what Хабиб has achieved here is in finding a way to instantaneously annoy me, the looping guitar so atrociously basic, so insultingly bland and flavourless, so painfully clean, and that's before the thumping kick drums come in, hitting without fail on every. single. beat. and driving me mad in the same way that 5SOS's "Lonely Heart" did back when I reviewed that trainwreck of an album last year, it's incompetent overuse of a kick drum destroying whatever vibe it had and sending it spiralling into the wormhole of trivial pop hits. All you have to do is look at the cover art for this to know he's begging for attention, and that's unfortunately the feeling the song gives me above all else.

When I said I was impressed with Lebanon's Top 10 last time, my only point of reference was the UK and US charts. That may have been an intriguing parallel and a coincidental improvement, but the Ukraine charts right here? This is something special. For me to truly dislike just one of the 10 songs? That's something inconceivable for me when it comes to pop music, and not a feat I'll be forgetting anytime soon. What interested me most however was the overwhelming influence of 90s pop music, particularly as from my experience it is the 80s that the world (and especially the UK and US) seem so infatuated with currently. It was, I suppose, a refreshing change of pace, although the individual quality of these songs cannot be overlooked. Originality might be lacking, but creativity was certainly not.

Adding up the scores gives us a strong 65/100, an impressive 9 points higher than last time, indicative of the more consistent highs of this chart. The question is - where will we be visiting next time?

Listen to the Ukrainian Top 10 here

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