There’s no strategy to sugarcoat it: MNEK’s long-awaited debut album Language underperformed in its first week, utterly lacking the Billboard 200 chart. The 23-year-old singer-songwriter-producer has expressed disappointment throughout social media: “ok i told my mgmt not to send me the sales or whatever and so they didn’t – but i’ve seen someone’s tweeted it and i am a bit gutted, kinda fucked it,” he tweeted.
MNEK has motive to be disheartened. The album is a tour de pressure of unclockable hooks and manufacturing wizardry. For an artist who has labored with a roster of worldwide acknowledged stars that’s extra thrilling than most award present line-ups — Madonna, Beyoncé, Christina Aguilera, Diplo and BTS, to call a number of — and has a strong fanbase amongst Pop Twitter, it’s curious why MNEK’s debut didn’t make extra of an impression.
It’s clear that MNEK is aware of his place within the music world. High-profile collabs be damned, the singer is conscious that informal followers nonetheless don’t know the way to say his title. He hilariously corrects them with an excellent skit on Language: two occasion women sing alongside to “Never Forget You,” his 2015 team-up with Zara Larsson earlier than one of many girls professes her love for “Em-Neck.” “It’s ‘M-N-E-K’,” her buddy corrects her. “Sounds like an STD.”
This playfulness shines all through Language. On “Correct,” he flexes his resume as a triple risk: “You hear the bass through the speakers/ Now you wanna hear the rest/ Who wrote this song?/ Who made this beat?/ Well take a guess,” he brags, seemingly smirking all the time he was within the studio. And on album spotlight “Girlfriend,” he reads a closet-case fuckboi to fiflth: “Neither you nor your story’s straight.”
On prime of MNEK’s good wordplay, Language is a masterclass in manufacturing. The singer doesn’t cover his turn-of-the-century inspirations; in actual fact, he shared a playlist of pop and R&B tracks that influenced the document, together with early P!nk (“There You Go”), a Spice Girls deep minimize (“Denying”) and two tracks from Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope (“Empty” and “Go Deep”). The period’s sound is current all through the skittering beats and multiplex harmonies of Language, maybe most obvious in “Paradise,” which options the enduring guitar riff from Ultra Naté’s 1997 membership staple “Free” undulating all through the monitor.
So why didn’t audiences concentrate? The most blatant clarification: his id. MNEK is a female, homosexual, black man making pop music. Sadly, that’s nonetheless revolutionary. “Queer artists have been celebrated across major media outlets all yr (it’s #20GAYTEEN in spite of everything!), however are hardly catching on the charts. Even Troye Sivan, the chosen poster youngster of the the queer pop motion, is struggling to catch a break on the charts. His lead single off final month’s Bloom capped at No. 80 on the Hot 100, whereas subsequent singles — together with a duet with Top 40’s it lady Ariana Grande — missed the chart utterly. With the notable exception of Halsey, LGBTQ artists are in every single place — besides on the charts.
But MNEK’s sexuality isn’t the one factor working in opposition to his crossover reputation. A fast skimming via the highest of this week’s Hot 100 and it’s straightforward to see that dance-rooted pop music doesn’t have the presence it used to. There are outliers, however trap-infused hip-hop guidelines the charts, making it tough to interrupt new pop acts. Even Dua Lipa, arguably the most important pop star to interrupt out prior to now yr, took a minute to catch traction. Her self-titled debut landed at No. 86 on the Billboard 200 upon its June 2017 launch. Eight months later, the album hit a peak of No. 27. (It’s price noting that MNEK additionally co-wrote Lipa’s international smash “IDGAF,” which famous a No. 49 peak on the Hot 100.)
That mentioned, MNEK’s may take a look at his fellow Brit’s trajectory for a little bit of optimism. She is proof that first-week numbers aren’t indicative of an album’s potential, particularly for a newcomer in in the present day’s pop music panorama. Charli XCX, too, is proof {that a} pop artist can keep a gradual quantity of curiosity whereas being all however absent throughout the US charts.
With a correct stateside push — full with tv appearances the place he can showcase his sassy allure — this album marketing campaign is salvageable. A significant opening slot for a tour or a serious co-sign from one in all his famous person collaborators may additionally do wonders to extend his profile.
Another ray of hope: music developments don’t final lengthy. As the pendulum swings away from extra simplistic sounds, we’ll inevitably find yourself listening to music with extra sonic complexity. While there’s no predicting what that may sound like, current buzzworthy singles by Rina Sawayama and Nina Nesbitt (“Cherry” and “Loyal To Me,” respectively) wouldn’t sound misplaced on a playlist amongst turn-of-the-millennium fare like Destiny’s Child, Aaliyah and Jennifer Lopez. Given his related admiration for the intricate melodies and syncopated, layered rhythms from the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, if there’s any justice, the longer term will sound like MNEK.
