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[ThePensmith]

Hello all, happy Friday. Time once again for my personal chart top 20 - are All Saints about to make it a hattrick at number one or have Dennis Lloyd or new entries from Andy Brown, Mabel and MNEK come snapping at their combats? Time to find out...


THEPENSMITH'S TOP 20 SINGLES CHART
Week ending 7th September 2018
© AM LIMITED 2018

1. (1) ALL SAINTS - After All
2. (2) DENNIS LLOYD - Nevermind
3. (HNE) ANDY BROWN - About Last Night
4. (7) JESS GLYNNE - All I Am
5. (8) CLAIRE RICHARDS - On My Own
6. (3) GEORGE EZRA - Shotgun
7. (4) SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR - Love Is You
8. (NE) MABEL - One Shot
9. (5) KYLIE MINOGUE - A Lifetime To Repair
10. (NE) MNEK - Correct


11. (6) WARD THOMAS - Lie Like Me
12. (NE) LSD - Thunderclouds
13. (13) CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS - 5 Dollars
14. (10) NIALL HORAN - Finally Free
15. (12) DANNY JONES - Is This Still Love
16. (9) RICK ASTLEY - Try
17. (11) KT TUNSTALL - The River
18. (14) GABRIELLE - Thank You
19. (15) THE SHIRES - Echo
20. (NE) NENEH CHERRY - Shot Gun Shack

Compiled from my own personal listening in the last seven days across streaming, digital and physical formats.

KEY

(1) - last week's position
(HNE) - highest new entry
(NE) - new entry

CHART COMMENTARY



It is very much as you were at the top end of my personal chart this week, as All Saints and Dennis Lloyd continue apace with 'After All' notching up it's third week at number one, whilst 'Nevermind' remains at number two for a second week. There's five new entries to my top 20 this week - three of those inside the top 10 - but only one of those stood any hope of trying to break the Saints-Lloyd duopoly, whilst there is another one outside the top 10 which currently looks like it might yet usurp it (more on this in a second).

As for this week's highest new entry, it's step forward Andy Brown, as the former Lawson frontman notches up his biggest solo single on my personal chart to date. With his former band of course, success came a little easier - five of their nine single releases between 2012 and 2016 that made my top 20 were number one hits for them. Until today, his debut 'Landslide' with The Shires' Chrissie Rhodes had been his biggest hit on his own, reaching #6 last November.



Subsequent releases 'Talk Of The Town' and 'Lay With Me' could only just make my top 20 earlier this year, reaching #15 and #18 respectively. In the meantime, he has left Decca Records who suddenly cancelled the release of his still to be unveiled album 'Cedarmont' in July, and has upped sticks independently with the master tapes of the album in hand. Based on this impressive top 3 debut for the punchy 'About Last Night', it seems that his decision to cut his major label ties has been vindicated in style.

Jess Glynne climbs three places to #4 as expected this week with 'All I Am', but we should also note the impressive performance of another star gone solo from their successful group. Claire Richards debuted strongly at #4 four weeks ago with 'On My Own', and now the release of some acoustic and remixed versions of the track has seen it regain its top 5 berth this week. If it stays around next week, the single will have spent longer inside my personal top 10 than all three of the singles she released with her Steps bandmate Ian 'H' Watkins as H & Claire sixteen years ago in 2002.

George Ezra dips outside the top 3 after an unbroken twelve week run with 'Shotgun', falling three places to #6. However, his next single 'Hold My Girl' is currently scheduled for a release date of October 18th, so it could be as short as a month before we see him back in there. MNEK's long awaited debut album 'Language' - out today - is heralded by the arrival of his latest single 'Correct' making an impressive entry at #10 this week. It is now his third top 10 hit, but his first single to make my top 10 since 'Never Forget You', his collaboration with Zara Larsson, made #2 just shy of three years ago in October 2015.



Now what of the record, you ask, which could yet be a future number one on my personal chart? Well that is the track which lands just shy of my top 10 this week, as LSD - not the narcotic, but a collaborative supergroup project of Labrinth, Sia and Diplo - enter at #12 with 'Thunderclouds'. Their first two releases, 'Genius' and 'Audio', failed to make my top 20 earlier this year, but thanks to this third single's use in the recent TV adverts for the new Samsung Galaxy smartphones, it starts off strongly, and is easily the most enjoyable and engaging record any of the artists involved has produced in a long while. Keep an eye on this one for sure.

And to finish up this week, a little bit of my personal chart history is made. We've had brother and sister, and father and daughter, and sister and sister chart before, but for the first time, we have an instance where both mother and daughter are enjoying top 20 success. It is daughter who wins out over mother for now, as Mabel - who made #8 with Not3s on 'Fine Line' back in February - scores her second top 10 hit entering at the same position with 'One Shot'. Her mum, Neneh Cherry, meanwhile, enters at #20 with 'Shot Gun Shack', the second release from her fifth studio album 'Broken Politics', out next month.