Ed Sheeran completes three months at the top of the singles chart and tops the albums chart for a fifth week.
Ed Sheeran tops both charts for a fifth week.
Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You tops the singles chart for a thirteenth week. It is a sign of the times that - even in a year when Easter is quite late - when Good Friday dawns next week the first new number one of the year will still be at the top of the chart. In the past we might have expected several chart-toppers and maybe even a number of different styles. Still, having entered at the top, there is only one direction for Shape Of You to go. It’s just a matter of when the harrying finally results in a new number one.
Sheeran also hold the runner-up slot with Galway Girl spending a fifth week at number two. Clean Bandit and Zara Larsson continue their progress up the chart as Symphony climbs one place to number three, exchanging positions with Drake’s Passionfruit. Chainsmokers and Coldplay’s Something Just Like This returns to the top five at number five.
Kendrick Lamar has his first top forty hit as lead artist for three years with Humble at number 21. He is another artist (along with, for example, George Ezra) to drop his surname and use just his two forenames. Lamar’s actual surname is Duckworth, so perhaps he will find the time to do some writing with someone called Lewis one day. Leona seems to have plenty of time on her hands at the moment. They can then call their songwriting technique the Duckworth Lewis method. (That’s a cricket joke for the non-sports fans.) It might be better if he tried working with somebody who can write a decent song. Even by his standards, Humble is atrocious.
On a nice, bright sunny day (in Poole at least), it is perhaps fitting that a song called Heatstroke is a new entry, landing at number 25. The song is by Calvin Harris who has now had 29 top forty singles in a ten-year chart career. His collaborators this time are Pharrell Williams and Ariana Grande who are no strangers to chart success themselves. Somebody called Young Thug also receives a credit. He also appeared on two of the Drake songs that failed to reach the top forty last month.
After releasing two albums in successive weeks earlier this year American rapper Future gets his first hit single as lead artist with Mask Off at number 33. His previous singles chart appearance was as featured artist on Maroon 5’s Cold which re-enters at number 39.
Jason Derulo returns to the singles chart after an absence of about a year (nothing like long enough some might say) with Swalla at number 34. He could have added the adjective Fat to the title to make it sound as if it was a tribute to an American singer. He is joined by Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign which is rarely a good thing. This “song” is definitely not a good thing. Returning to the lovely weather, remember that one swalla doesn’t make a summer.
Two Ed Sheeran songs (Barcelona and Nancy Mulligan) and five Drake songs drop out of the top forty this week, leaving them on eight and three songs respectively. As well as the new entries, there are three re-entries, including the Maroon 5 song mentioned above. The highest is Little Mix’s No More Sad Songs at number seventeen, a month after entering at number 39 before dropping straight back out again. Starley’s Call On Me is back at number 32.
Ed Sheeran’s ÷ remains at the top of the albums chart thereby giving a fifth consecutive week at the top of both charts. The last artist to do this with the same album and song was James Blunt in 2005 with You’re Beautiful (single) and Back To Bedlam (album). The all-time record was set by Cliff Richard whose soundtrack to The Young Ones and the song of the same name topped the charts for six consecutive weeks in 1962. It was matched by The Beatles in 1963 when their Please Please Me album and the single From Me To You were at number one together.
The first person to do this particular chart double was Elvis Presley in 1961. In January the GI Blues soundtrack album was at number one and, for four weeks, Presley also topped the singles chart with Are You Lonesome Tonight. In March, with GI Blues back at the albums chart summit (having been displaced by South Pacific for a week) he had the number one single with Wooden Heart. South Pacific then returned to the top for a further week before GI Blues got its revenge. Wooden Heart was still top of the singles chart and Presley went on to notch up a further four weeks topping both charts. GI Blues’ run at the top lasted for a full twelve weeks, leaving time for a third single, Surrender, to share the honours, again for four weeks.
Rag ‘n’ Bone Man’s Human climbs back up to number two while Drake’s More Life remains at number three.
The first thing to determine when discussing a new Jamiroquai album is whether the name refers to an individual (Jay Kay) or a band. In the early days (the early 1990s) the name was generally used to refer to Jay Kay, but it now seems to cover the whole band, albeit one whose only ever-present member is the man born Jason Cheetham. Despite some lengthy gaps between releases they have an impressive record of reaching the top ten with every studio album, all but one of them making the top three. This success continues with the release of their eighth album, Automaton. The title track was released as a single earlier this year but failed to reach the chart, perhaps because people were put off by the unusual pronunciation of the title. Maybe the stress on the third syllable and the pronunciation of that syllable was meant to be a tribute to the Prime Minister. In any event, the album enters at number four.
Take That’s Wonderland falls three places to number five.
Goldfrapp’s name is another that has sometimes caused confusion over whether it is a person or a band. However, in this case, it has always referred to the duo fronted by Alison Goldfrapp. The confusion stems largely from the fact that the other half of the duo, Will Gregory, is generally even more publicity shy than Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys. Their seventh studio album, Silver Eye, enters at number six.
Some artist names immediately sound a warning that they are probably going to be terrible. The fact that the name Kidz Bop Kids really does belong to a group of children sets off further alarm bells. With an inevitably ever-changing line-up, the American version of the group has released a string of albums in their home country. Now there is a British version and their debut album is a new entry at number seven. Among the recent hits tackled by these moppets are Cake By The Ocean, Can’t Stop The Feeling and One Dance.
In most weeks Mastodon would probably win the award for the band whose name most gives away their genre but most weeks don’t have a Kidz Bop Kids release. Mastodon, a metal band if you hadn’t guessed, are at number eleven with their seventh album, Emperor Of Sand. It fails to become their second top ten album following 2014’s Once More ‘Round The Sun.
Bob Dylan brings his tally of top forty albums up to 58 with Triplicate at number seventeen. It is another collection of classic American songs including As Time Goes By as well as a host of less well-known songs. Last weekend he finally picked up the Nobel Prize for literature that he was awarded last year for his own compositions. He is not the first Nobel laureate to have a hit album. Shortly after his death in 1965, a collection of Winston Churchill speeches reached number six. Many of his most famous speeches were made in the House of Commons at a time when broadcasting from the House was not allowed. Therefore, he repeated the speeches in a studio to preserve them for posterity.
It is easy to forget that, before he became Prime Minister, Churchill’s career had largely been one of failure. Among the jobs he had held with a certain lack of distinction was First Lord of the Admiralty, a post long-since abolished but which oversaw, among other things, naval affairs. Yes, it’s this week’s tortuous link was we come to Let The Dancers Inherit The Party, the new album from British Sea Power at number 21.
Stone Foundation enter at number 25 with Street Rituals. The album was produced by Paul Weller who also provides vocals on one of the tracks. It has done rather better than Weller’s most recent album, the soundtrack to Jawbone which got no higher than number 44 last month.
The highest re-entry is another old album re-released in a new edition. Fleetwood Mac released Tango In The Night in 1987, five years after their previous album. It went straight into the top ten and eventually topped the chart six months later. The album includes some of their best-known songs, Little Lies and Everywhere. It remains the last album recorded by the most successful line-up of the band. The revamped version is at number 23. Their most famous album, Rumours, released ten years before Tango In The Night, climbs four places to number 28.
Sia’s This Is Acting is back at number 31, Catfish and the Bottlemen return at number 37 with The Ride and Elbow re-enter at number 39 with Little Fictions, not to be confused with the aforementioned Little Lies.
Published on: 2017-04-07 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 28638 Views
|