James Arthur spends a second week at the top of the singles chart. Craig David gets a second number one album, sixteen years after the first.
James Arthur gets a second week at the top of the singles chart. Craig David’s comeback album goes to number one.
After climbing to the summit last week, James Arthur gets a second week at number one in the singles chart with Say You Won’t Let Go. Zayn Malik’s Pillowtalk thereby regains its position as the only song to spend a solitary week at the top in 2016. As recently as 2014 nearly 30 songs topped the chart for just seven days. That was down to twelve songs last year. Barring a sudden rush in the last three months of 2016, there will be significantly fewer again this year.
Last week’s highest new entry, The Weeknd and Daft Punk’s Starboy climbs one place to number two. The previous chart-topper, Closer by Chainsmokers featuring Halsey, slips to number three and Calvin Harris’s My Way completes stays at number four. Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj climb one place to number five with Side To Side.
While Zayn Malik only managed to top the chart for a week, that looks like being more than his former bandmate Niall Horan can do with his debut solo single. This Town is a new entry at number nine. Perhaps he would have done better if he had launched his solo career with a more interesting song. Whether One Direction ever get back together again remains a matter for speculation, but we can confidently predict that further solo output, from Horan and the rest, will follow.
After gaining their first number one single with Closer, a song that featured the vocal talents of Halsey, Chainsmokers enter at number 24 with another featured artist in tow. Their chosen partner this time is Texan singer-songwriter Phoebe Ryan. She has written songs for Britney Spears and other, less well-known, singers.
There is a new entry at number 34 for Swedish producer Victor Rådström, performing under the pseudonym Neiked. The song, Sexual, features vocals from Dyo who, as Ms D had three top ten hits alongside Wiley. Those three songs peaked at positions that were successive powers of three. If she is to continue that trend, Sexual will stall at number 27.
Among the songs climbing the chart this week Dua Lipa’s Blow Your Mind is up seven places to number 31 and Hailee Steinfeld’s Starving rises nine places to number 28. Craig David and Sigala climb sixteen places to number 23 with Ain’t Giving Up. There is more on the man from Southampton later. Cheat Codes and Dante Klein fall three places to number 39 with Let Me Hold You (Turn Me On). That isn’t particularly remarkable in itself, but the song has now spent six weeks in the top forty without going any higher than number 36.
Sia’s Cheap Thrills sticks around for a 33rd week in the top forty. Drake’s One Dance has been around for 27 weeks. The latter song dropped out of the top forty sales chart last week.
This week the Official Charts Company (OCC) added further evidence to support Drake’s claim to be the king of streams in 2016. In the past few weeks it has ben evident that the chart performance of his Views album has been heavily supported by streams. Last week it was at number six in the Official Chart, but was only the 63rd best-selling album of the week, behind a 1971 Pink Floyd album. On Tuesday, the OCC published the top forty songs of the year so far. Unsurprisingly, the list was topped by One Dance. However, it is not the best-selling song of the year to date. With only just over half-a-million actual sales so far (despite spending an eternity at number one), it is over 100,000 sales behind Lukas Graham’s 7 Years.
Drake’s album is the second most-streamed album of the year so far (behind Justin Bieber’s Purpose), but is not in the top ten best-sellers. That list, as well as the overall chart, is topped by Adele’s 25, also the best-selling album of 2015 by a huge margin. David Bowie features twice in the overall list, at number three with Blackstar and at number five with the 2002 Best Of Bowie collection.
Craig David’s first album, Born To Do It released in 2000 when he was just nineteen, became the fastest-selling debut album by a British male solo artist. That album clocked up 23 weeks in the top ten; the next two releases managed just one week each. After his career suffered a large downturn, including a 2008 Greatest Hits set that didn’t even make the top forty, he could have tried to revive it in a number of different ways. He could simply have followed a lot of other artists and joined the heritage circuit, forever playing his old material. He might even have tried writing a few new songs, but songs that could just as easily have been released when he was in his prime. Alternatively, he could have taken part in shows such as If I’m A Celebrity, What Am I Doing Here? Instead, he chose to write new music fit for the middle of the second decade of the 21st century.
That strategy has paid off in spectacular fashion. He returned to the top forty singles chart early this year and has since added a further three top forty hits to his record. Now, with Following My Intuition, he has gained his second number one album, sixteen years after his first.
At the start of the year, it is unlikely that anybody would have predicted a week when James Arthur was at number one in the singles chart with Craig David atop the albums chart - and that would have had nothing to do with the fact that they both have forenames as a surname. Nevertheless, that is where we are.
It is probably Bon Iver’s fate to be remembered - if they are remembered at all - as the band who wrote Skinny Love which became a big hit for Birdy. Their version of the song was on their debut album, For Emma Forever Ago, which just failed to make the top forty. The follow-up, simply titled Bon Iver, reached number four in 2011. They return this week with their third album, A Million, a new entry at number two.
A few weeks ago, Ward Thomas reached number one with their album Cartwheels. They are followed into the chart this week by another British country music duo, The Shires. The Shires had a top ten success with their debut album Brave last year, becoming by some accounts the first British country act to have a top ten album. They can now boast a second top ten album as My Universe enters at number three.
While information on the exact ages of The Shires is hard to find, it is safe to assume that their combined age is probably less than Van Morrison’s 71 years. He was well into his forties before he reached the top forty albums chart for the first time with Whenever God Shines His Light. Even then he had to enlist the help of Cliff Richard to achieve that feat after nineteen solo albums failed to make it. Those albums included Astral Weeks, an album that regularly features near the top of critics’ lists of the greatest albums of all time but which didn’t even reach the top 75 until last year, 48 years after its release. His 36th studio album, Keep Me Singing enters at number four, making it his most successful studio album for a decade.
Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool completes the top five, re-entering the chart after the release of a vinyl version of the album.
Slaves, the punk due from the decidedly unpunkish town of Tunbridge Wells, reached the top ten with their debut album Are You Satisfied? last year, and also picked up a nominatin for the year’s Mercury Prize. They took themselves off to California to record their second album, Take Control, and employed former Beastie Boy Michael Diamond as producer. The album lands at number six.
Van Morrison isn’t the only artist in this week’s list of new entries whose chart success is in contrast to their standing with music critics and other musicians. The Pixies have been cited as influences by the likes of Blur, Nirvana and Radiohead, but have never had a major hit album. Several of their releases have made the top ten, but none of them spent very long in the chart. Despite releasing classics such as Debaser and Monkey Gone To Heaven, they have never had a top twenty single.
The band broke up acrimoniously in the early 1990s, just as some of the bands they influenced were starting to enjoy success. They re-formed a little over a decade later to play some live dates, but they didn’t record any new material until the release of Indie Cindy in 2014, their first album since Trompe Le Monde in 1991. They haven’t waited quite so long before releasing album number six, Head Carrier, a new entry this week at number seven.
After topping the chart last week, Passenger’s Young As The Morning Old As The Sea topples to number eight.
If no albums chart is complete without a Swedish metal band, most albums charts have been incomplete in the whole of the last sixty years. This week’s chart is a rare exception as Opeth are at number eleven with Sorceress, their twelfth release and the fourth to grace the top forty.
Among the many derivations of band names, the name of a song by someone else has been a popular choice. Radiohead famously named themselves after a Talking Heads song. Scottish band Deacon Blue took their name from a song by Steely Dan. Their first chart hit was with the single Dignity in 1988. They followed that up later the same year with Real Gone Kid, probably still their best-known song. The following year they topped the albums chart with When The World Knows Your Name, the first of four top ten albums in four years. A Greatest Hits set went to number one in 1994, but that was to be their last appearance in the top ten. They have a new entry at number thirteen this week with their ninth studio album, Believers.
Solange Knowles continues to suffer from “lesser-known sister syndrome”. Beyonce’s little sister’s new album, A Seat At The Table, is new at number seventeen.
Before there was Crimewatch, there was Police 5, presented by Shaw Taylor. As far as I am aware, Joanne Shaw Taylor is not a relative. Her sixth album, Wild, is at number nineteen. In the summer she toured with Joe Bonamassa whose latest album entered the chart last week.
With so many new entries in the albums chart, it is the fate of some of them to be dismissed in a wrap-up section at the end of this week’s commentary. American singer Banks is at number 24 with The Altar while American Band by Drive-By Truckers is at number 29. The Mission are at number 38 with Another Fall From Grace, their first top forty album since Masque in 1992 and nearly thirty years after their first chart entry.
Published on: 2016-10-07 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 29328 Views
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