Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa continue to rule the singles chart. Arctic Monkeys get their sixth number one album in six releases.
Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa continue their reign at the top of the singles chart. Arctic Monkeys get their sixth successive number one album.
Calvin Harris and Dual Lips get a fifth week at number one with One Kiss. It is now Harris’s second longest running number one, behind only the six weeks achieved by the Rihanna-assisted We Found Love in 2011.
The rest of the top five is also unchanged from last week. Drake’s Nice For What is at number two, Ariana Grande’s No Tears Left To Cry at three, Lil dicky and Chris Brown’s Freaky Friday at four and Anne-Marie’s 2002 at five.
Childish Gambino’s This Is America climbs into the top ten at number six. Shawn Mendes climbs eleven places to number ten with In My Blood, giving him a fourth top ten hit seven weeks after the song entered at number thirteen. David Guetta and Sia also climb into the top ten at number nine with Flames.
Arctic Monkeys released their sixth album last Friday (11 May), Most bands of their ilk still tend to do rather less well than pop acts on streaming sites. However, streams of the album have been high enough to see three songs from the album reach the top forty. Once again there would have been more if the Official Charts Company had not applied a limit of three songs per artist in the chart. The three successful songs are Four Out Of Five (number eighteen), Star Treatment (23) and One Point Perspective (26). They bring the band’s tally of top forty singles up to fifteen.
The highest new entry not by the Arctic Monkeys is by four of the most successful female artists of recent years - Rita Ora, Cardi B, Charli XCX and Bebe Rexha. Girls is Ora’s eighteenth top forty hit in a little over six years, Cardi B’s sixth in under a year, Charli XCX’s ninth in five years and Rexha’s sixth in four years. It enters at number 22. Charli XCX has now had hits with a song called Boys and one called Girls. It remains to be seen whether she tries to complete the set with a cover of a Blur song. She has also had a hit with Boys in China having re-recorded the song in Mandarin.
Years & Years get their seventh top forty hit with If You’re Over Me at number 38. It comes from their forthcoming second album Palo Santo.
Selena Gomez enters at numbr 39 with Back To You. The song comes from the soundtrack of the controversial Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why. The second season of the drama was made available this week.
Shakka and Aluna George’s Man Down stays at number forty. This would not normally be particularly noteworthy, but it does mean that Aluna George have still failed to get beyond number 39 with each of their last three top forty singles.
Yxng Bane’s Vroom continues to rev up without really living up to its title. After spending two weeks at number 36 it has now spent the last five weeks alternating between numbers 31 and 32.
There was a time when a chart review at this time of year would have a section on songs from the year’s Eurovision Song Contest. After downloads were included in the chart that review even extended to more than just the UK entry and the winning song. The last time the UK entry and the winning song were one and the same was, of course, long before the days of legal downloads. However, any streams of Eurovision songs tend to have fizzled out within a day or two of the contest meaning that none of the songs has made the top forty.
That means that, once again, the UK entry has not been a top forty hit in this country. SuRie was highly praised for the way she carried on with her performance after an idiot ran onto the stage and snatched her microphone. However, that praise didn’t seem to make much difference to the votes on the night. The song did feature in the iTunes top ten for a day or two but that is no longer enough for a top forty hit. The song’s place in the bottom three on Saturday night led to the usual accusations of anti-British sentiment but these people have never explained why a song that is not particularly popular in the UK should be expected to do well in the rest of Europe.
When Arctic Monkeys started to make their name in the middle of the last decade they were hailed as the first act to establish themselves using the fledgling phenomenon of social media. That strategy proved so successful that their debut single, I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor went straight to number one, as did the follow-up When The Sun Goes Down. It was, therefore, no surprise that their first album, Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not, entered at number one and stayed there for a month.
The world being as it is there were, of course, some cynics suggesting that their lyrics were far too sophisticated to have been written by a frontman, Alex Turner, then still in is teens. That cynicism was never shared by many and the band have gone on to headline Glastonbury and release four more albums, all of which also topped the chart. Turner has also released two albums as part of Last Shadow Puppets; once again, both of them reached number one.
With that track record it is no surprise that the announcement of a new Arctic Monkeys album - their first for five years - generated much excitement. Their previous album, AM, had been seen as a return to their original sound and sold more copies than all its predecessors apart from Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not. However, Turner is not one to rest on his laurels and the new album, Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, sees another change in direction for the band. Many of the songs seem to have been heavily influenced by writers such as Scott Walker (a major influence on Last Shadow Puppets’ debut) and Julian Cope.
It would be fair to say that this change in style has not been universally welcomed by the band’s fans. On the other hand, it has long been clear that Alex Turner would prefer to make the albums he wants to make rather than being accused of making increasingly inferior versions of the same album. It remains to be seen whether the album sells well in the long term. In the short term it maintains Turner’s excellent record with studio albums by entering at number one. It has become the fastest-selling vinyl album for 25 years.
Their fifth album, AM, climbs 29 places to number eleven and Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not re-enters at number eighteen.
The Greatest Showman soundtrack falls back to number two. Post Malone’s Beerbongs And Bentleys falls one place to number three. George Ezra’s Staying At Tamara’s slips one place to number five.
Charlie Puth started his UK chart career with two number one singles - as featured artist on Wiz Khalifa’s See You Again and as leda artist on Marvin Gaye, both in 2015. He followed that with a top ten album in February 2016. He had two top ten hits, Attention and How Long, last year and both songs feature on his second album Voicenotes. The album features contributions from Boyz II Men - who many people must have assumed had reached the end of the road about 20 years ago - and veteran singer-songwriter James Taylor. it enters at number four.
Despite releasing sixteen solo albums guitarist (and general instrumentalist) Ry Cooder is largely known as an accomplished session musician having worked with, inter alia, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison and Neil Young. He released his first solo album in 1970 but didn’t reach the UK charts until nine years later when his eight album, Bop Till You Drop, reached number 36. He reached the top twenty for the first time three years (and two albums) later as The Slide Area went to number eighteen, Now, at the age of 71, he reaches new heights with The Prodigal Son entering at number ten.
The fount of all knowledge Wikipedia describes Beach House as a dream pop band. That might suggest a certain laid back sound and listeners to their latest album, 7, might well agree with that description. Indeed some of the tracks are so laid back as to be almost comatose. Thankfully, other tracks have rather more life to them. The album enters at number sixteen, just failing to beat the number fifteen peak achieved by Bloom in 2012.
Whatever Jordan Carter’s strengths may be, spelling isn’t pone of them if his chosen moniker of Playboi Carti is anything to go by. The name of his album, Die Lit, could mean all sorts of things. It could be a threat to somebody called Lit or it might be a combination of French and German to give us The Bed. Regardless, the album enters at number 27.
Joan Armatrading enjoyed her first chart success when her third album spawned the hit single Love And Affection in 1976. While the next two albums both did well she didn’t have another hit single until Me Myself I, from the album of the same name, in 1980. She has continued to release albums since her heyday with the latest, Not Too Far Away, being her nineteenth. Helped by an appearance on Graham Norton’s show last week it enters at number thirty, her first top forty placing for a studio album since 1992.
Shawn Mendes’ Illuminate re-enters at number 34, one place ahead of Sam Smith’s The Thrill Of It All. The Moana soundtrack returns at number 39.
Abba Gold climbs three places to number fifteen. That brings its time in the top twenty up to 104 weeks, the equivalent of two years. Just fifteen other albums have spent as long in the top twenty. With the impending release of two new songs later in the year as well as the upcoming film Mama Mia 2, it is certain to accumulate the five additional weeks to overhaul Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black (105 weeks including the deluxe edition which charted separately) and Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells (108 weeks excluding the three weeks for the orchestral version). Thanks to zeuss at Buzzjack / orthon at Haven for that information.
Published on: 2018-05-18 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 280364 Views
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