#44: Little Mix - Black Magic
Released - May 21st 2015
Highest UK Chart Position - #1
Spotify streams to date: 533,968,603(!!!)
First Heard - On release
I am ashamed to say that, over the last 20 years, and especially the last decade or more, i have largely missed out on chart pop. I can blame a lot of it on illness, in that i’m never sat in front of the TV with other people nor stuck in the car with them either, and so i avoid the kind of community experience which means that you know what’s in the charts whether you like it or not. But part of it is just to do with the fragmentation of entertainment in general: the radio station I listen to has its own “hits” now and the places I look for music on the internet are often as clueless as I am about stuff outside their lane. As such, I know next to nothing: I could perhaps vaguely tell you what Call Me Maybe and Get Lucky sound like but I wouldn’t swear to it, and while I’m sure I’ve heard New Rules and Shake It Off (and I’m pretty sure that I enjoyed them too), I can’t remember a note of either. This is not to be snobby - I like pop music, I really do! - but there’s just a lot going on these days and this stuff tends to slip past you unless yr paying attention. But just once in a while, I surprise myself by actually noticing something and so here we are.
I have no idea why I heard Black Magic when it came out, because I haven’t regularly known what was at number one since about 2006. But I remember looking up the video for some reason and it blew me away completely, certainly enough that I’ve got the (really quite good) Get Weird album on my computer somewhere too (don’t let them other suckers hate on you!). At first, my main takeaway was its vibes-based similarity to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, which is a dangerous place to go in a post Blurred Lines-case world (I think I heard Blurred Lines just the once - not feeling too bad about that tbh). But this is not merely a cheap rip off (tbf it is a bit of a cheap rip off, just not merely so): the stomping bridge and four lines each girl group dynamics make it a bullishly modern update of an earlier era, albeit one with enough familiarity that the styles compliment rather than clash. And above all, it’s simply a wonderful and exciting pop song. I feel like I’m being played as I enjoy it - as surely it must have been at least in part created to gain some wider appeal beyond their younger fanbase - but as the pleasure centres of my brain light up every time they shout “HEY!” and the tears well in my eyes at the “falling in love” coda, I have to admit that they won fair and square. Black Magic is the secret potion in itself and, as my third and final number 1, it’s also (alongside King Kunta (#43)) another satisfyingly popular jewel to decorate this otherwise rather obscure end of the list with. Now just watch someone split the vote with Shout Out To My Ex.
