Calvin Harris and Sam Smith spend a fourth week at number one with Promises. Eminem makes it four weeks at the top of the albums chart.
Another static week at the very top of the charts as Calvin Harris and Sam Smith still have the number one single and Eminem continues to rule the albums chart.
Once again there is no change at the top of the singles chart as Clavin Harris and Sam Smith grab a fourth week at number one with Promises. It thereby becomes Smith’s longest-lasting chart-topper.
There is an equally familiar look to the rest of the top three. Benny Blanco and pals stay at number two while Kanye West and Lil Pump are still at number three with I Love It.
Loud Luxury and Brando fall one place to number four with Body, swapping places with Marshmello and Bastille who are now at number four with Happier.
In the last few years we have seen a number of albums consisting of old recordings with an added orchestral backing. The most successful of them have been the two Elvis Presley collections. Before that there have been hit singles combining two vocalists, often from different generations. This week’s highest new entry is by two people born in the 1990s, both of whom are dead.
Lil Peep, born Gustav Åhr, died of a drugs overdose in November 2017, a few months after the release of his first album. Following Åhr’s death XXXTentacion, formerly and formally known as Jahseh Onfroy, recorded some new verses to add to Lil Peep’s Sunlight On Your Skin. Now, and following Onfroy’s death earlier this year, the song has been renamed Falling Down and it enters the chart at number ten. It is Lil Peep’s first foray into the UK charts and provides further evidence that many people are still willing to listen to XXXTentacion despite all the signs that he was not a very pleasant person.
After two weeks at number eleven Jess Glynne’s All I Am climbs to number nine. All eleven of her top forty hits have reached the top ten; seven of them have gone all the way to number one.
Possibly the most famous example of a single being released to respond to another song is that of Frankie’s F.U.R.B which was a response to Eamon’s I Don’t Want You Back. Both songs were dreadful and both went to number one in 2004. The latest example of the genre came earlier this month when Machine Gun Kelly released Rap Devil in response to a track on Eminem’s new album. Not afraid that this could become very tedious very quickly, Eminem has recorded a response to the response. The result, Killshot, is a new entry at number thirteen. As a consequence The Ringer has fallen foul of the three-song limit and has dropped out of the chart altogether from last week’s number 17.
When Rita Ora celebrated her 21st birthday in November 2011 she was just another aspiring singer. By the time of her following birthday she had three UK number one singles to her name. Since then she has had a fourth chart-topper and seen her tally of top ten singles increase to 12. Her latest attempt to add to those numbers is Let You Love Me, a new entry at number fourteen. Even if it climbs no higher it gives her an 18th top forty single.
French Montana gets his sixth top forty single in eighteen months as No Stylist enters at number 21. Some bright spark decided that recruiting Drake as a guest artist would be a good idea so the Canadian sees his haul of top forty singles increase to 41 in eight years. One day he might record something good.
Fans of the brilliant BBC comedy W1A may find it hard to note the existence of a song called Better without thinking of Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville) and his equally hapless colleagues. It is, of course, unlikely that Khalid had Director of Better Anna Rampton (Sarah Parish) in mind when he recorded Better. Quite what he did have in mind before recording such a dreary number, surely only he knows. Regardless, the song is a new entry at number 31.
Much has been written over the course of this decade about the lack of songs by guitar bands in the singles chart In recent weeks Panic At The Disco have provided a rare exception. High Hopes climbs to number seventeen this week. Panic At The Disco are now joined in the chart by Mumford and sons who enter at number 40 with Guiding Light. It is their first appearance in the top forty since Believe in 2015.
Eminem spends a fourth week at the top of the albums chart with Kamikaze. Three of his eight previous number one albums have spent longer at the summit - his Curtain Call compilation (still a regular visitor to the top forty nearly thirteen years after its release and at number 23 this week) and studio albums Recovery and The Eminem Show.
The Greatest Showman soundtrack climbs back up to number two to extend its run in the top three to 37 weeks. Even Ed Sheeran’s ÷ only managed thirty consecutive weeks in the top three although it has spent 47 weeks there in total.
Returning to the subject of the frequent laments over the state of the singles chart, one notable, and very welcome, departure from the norm in recent years was the appearance of Christine And The Queens in the top forty with Tilted. The song was originally recorded in French (under the title Christine) but was rewritten and renamed for the English version of the album.
That album Chaleur Humaine initially flopped in the UK before entering the top ten in June 2016 and climbing to number two six weeks later. This week Christine And The Queens (essentially a pseudonym for Héloïse Letissier) return to the chart at number three with album number two Chris.
WARNING: This section may contain traces of bias. On a Saturday night in December 2003 some emotional Suede fans gathered for what was billed as the band’s final gig. It came after their fifth album, A New Morning, had failed to set the chart world alight. There was, however a glimmer of hope at the end of the gig as singer Brett Anderson told us that there would be a new Suede album.
Anderson’s solo career failed to produce any major hits. He also had a brief reunion with Suede’s original guitarist Bernard Butler under the name The Tears. A clear indication of his lack of solo success was the number of Suede songs he ended up playing in his live shows.
Hope that there really would be a new Suede album rose when the band (still without Butler alas) re-formed in 2010 for a one-off concert at the Albert Hall as part of Roger Daltrey’s series of benefits in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. The band had already shown their support for cancer charities when they donated the Mercury Prize money for their debut album to the cause. The success of that Albert Hall gig (no doubt attended by many people who had ben at the “final” gig at the Astoria) encouraged the band to play more live dates and, ultimately, record that new album.
The comeback album, Bloodsports, reached the top ten to demonstrate that there were still plenty of people out there willing to buy a Suede album. Three years later they released Night Thoughts and Suede fans really started to get excited. Many fans compared it favourably with Dog Man Star, their second album (the last with Butler) and the one considered by a large number of Suede aficionados as their finest work.
Now they have come back with their eighth album, The Blue Hour, and it is another classic, even if its running time is a little short of an hour. The renewed commercial success continues as the album enters at number five. It is their first top five album since Head Music topped the chart in 1999.
Saul Hudson, better known as Slash, was a founder member of Guns ‘n’ Roses. Although the band officially continued after his departure, they didn’t actually release any new material until he returned to the band after an absence of twenty years. In the intervening period Slash released a solo album and participated in a number of projects with other musicians. In more recent years he has been working with Myles Kennedy (from the band Alter Bridge) under the name Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. That outfit’s new album, Living The Dream, enters at number four.
Joining Slash on the list of members of rock bands releasing solo material last week was Billy F Gibbons of ZZ Top who will celebrate their fiftieth anniversary next year. Whether anyone else feels like celebrating the occasion remains to be seen. Gibbons released his first solo album, Perfectamundo, in 2015 to a massive wave of indifference. Nine years on he has had another go, with rather more success. The Big Bad Blues is a new entry at number nineteen.
After over a decade of mostly modest success in the albums chart (and no significant success at all in the singles chart) Josh Groban had a number one album in the UK in 2015 with Stages, a collection of songs from Broadway musicals if the title was not enough of a clue. His new album, Bridges, includes several of his own compositions (albeit with co-writers) as well as covers of Bridge Over Troubled Water and Snow Patrol’s Run. It enters at number six to give him a third successive top ten album in the UK.
Every few months I face the task of finding something to say about blues guitarist ad singer Joe Bonamassa. In the almost ten years that I have been writing a chart commentary he has been extraordinarily prolific. The appearance of Redemption at number seven means that Bonamassa has now had fourteen top forty albums in approximately eight years. In his spare time he has also managed to record four top forty albums as part of Black Country Communion.
It is an oft-repeated cliche that the reason for a major artist leaving behind a large amount of unreleased material is probably that it is rubbish. The latest artist whose record company are putting that to the test is Prince who died in 2016. The album, Piano and a Microphone 1983 includes a cover of a Joni Mitchell song and an 87-second version of his epic hit Purple Rain. It enters at number twelve suggesting that many fans decided not to bother.
Irish folk band Villagers’ career so far can be summed up with the phrase “Critics love them, most music buyers have never heard of them”. Their first two albums were both nominated for the Mercury Prize and the third, while missing out on a Mercury nomination, won Best Album in the 2016 Ivor Novello awards. Undeterred by a lack of commercial success, they are back with a new album, The Art Of Pretending To Swim. It enters at number 28.
The day before the release of The Art Of Pretending To Swim the 2018 Mercury Prize was awarded to Wolf Alice for Versions Of A Life. The album was released almost exactly a year ago and reached number two in the chart. Its Mercury Prize success sees it re-enter at number fifteen.
Chip, aka The Artist Formerly Known as Chipmunk, enters at number seventeen with Ten10. The presence of guest artistes such as Jme, Samphas and Not3s suggests that the album is probably not going to appeal to me.
The opening lines of Brockhampton’s Wikipedia entry do not exactly inspire confidence that they are set to amaze the world with a series of stunningly original albums. The words “American musical collective”, “formed partially through an online forum” and “describe themselves as a boyband” set off more klaxons than in the average episode of QI. The fact that they released three albums in 2017 (none of which troubled the charts) suggests desperation rather than Joe Bonamassa-like productivity. Still, somebody must like them as their fourth album, Iridescence, enters at number twenty.
It seems that barely a week goes by without an album by a band from Brighton entering the chart. This week’s representatives of the south coast city are Black Honey whose eponymous debut album lands at number 33.
Jess Glynne’s I Cry When I Laugh re-enters at number 38. Kylie Minogue’s Golden returns at number 40.
Published on: 2018-09-28 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 469275 Views
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