22 June 2018
Ireland’s chart-topping singles of the mid-to-late-’10s have been mostly a litany of bland, basic, trop-house-flavoured EDM-pop. ‘Solo’ is similar in particular to Dua Lipa’s ‘IDGAF’ earlier that year in serving up big talk and a timid chorus F-bomb. Clean Bandit know how to top the charts with innocuous dance-pop, though their trademark strings are less prominent here than on ‘Rather Be’. The post-chorus warped vocal hook (by Kamille, already a successful songwriter for Little Mix and later for Mabel) was by now de rigueur to add a bit of vaguely ‘exotic’ Insta-tourist colour to these trop-house hits.
Demi Lovato had a high profile at the time but was going through the wringer personally, so I suspect a bit of public rubbernecking gave ‘Solo’ the final bit of exposure it needed to top the charts. Everything here is competently done, but the whole thing is safe, anodyne, and ultimately forgettable. ‘Solo’ spent just a week at number one in Ireland, so as with ‘IDGAF’ I get the consolation of enjoying some nominative determinism. Surely, though, things at the top of the Irish charts would get better – right? Right?
