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Adele still rules the singles chart
Adele's Easy On Me is at number one for a fifth week. Taylor Swift gets her eighth successive number one album,

Adele spends a fifth week at the top of the singles chart.Taylor Swift’s latest re-recorded album goes to number one.

On the day she releases her latest album, Adele gets a fifth week at the top of the singles chart with Easy On Me. It matches the five weeks at the top achieved by Someone Like You in 2011 although those weeks were not consecutive. It seems reasonable to assume that Easy On Me will be joined by two more Adele songs in next week’s chart.

Ed Sheeran’s Shivers remains at number two; he is also at number four with Bad Habits. Arrdee is still at number five with Flowers (Say My Name).

While we wait for two new Adele songs next week, this week we have three new entries from Taylor Swift. They all come from the re-recorded version of her 2012 album Red, the latest in her series of re-recordings following a dispute with her original record company. The highest placed of the three songs, All Too Well, appeared twice on the new version of the album, once in a straight copy of the original and once in a new extended ten-minute version. Sales and streams of both versions have been combined for chart purposes and it (they) enters at number three. She is also at number 22 with the title track (which got to number 26 in 2012) and at number eighteen with State Of Grace (number 36 in 2012).

We still haven’t reached the end of Juice Wrld’s posthumous releases, nearly two years after his death. Perhaps, though, the title of the latest of them, Already Dead, is a sign that this will be the last. We can always hope. It enters at number 25 to give him an eighth posthumous top forty hit.

TikTok strikes again with the week’s final new entry. A 17-year-old going by the name of Gayle is at number 40 with ABCDEFU. It isn’t great.

Sam Fender’s Seventeen Going Under, the title track from his fabulous recent album, climbs thirteen places to number nine. His first top forty hit (from two number one albums) has now become his first top ten entry.

At the start of the week, it looked as if we might see a tight race at the top of the albums chart after two weeks when the number one finished streets ahead of the rest of the field. That changed in the course of the week when the latest Taylor Swift re-recording, Red, suddenly took a comfortable lead. Why? It was largely down to the sudden appearance of 30,000 signed copies of the album.

Signed copies are, of course, nothing new. However, this particular release raised a few questions, not the least of which was the timing. Why were they not released at the same time as the main release? After all, if Taylor Swift did indeed sign them all herself, she cannot possibly have done them in just a few days. Therefore, they were either signed over a period of months, meaning that there was no reason for the delay apart from getting fans to buy a signed copy having already bought an unsigned one, or she didn’t sign them all herself. As it is, I can’t help feeling that there will be more signed copies than unsigned, making the unsigned copies more of a rarity and, therefore, potentially more valuable.

The original release of Red marked a move away from Taylor Swift’s country pop beginnings, a move that significantly widened her appeal beyond the USA. It was her first number one album in the UK and every release since, including two re-recordings, has also topped the chart. Her eight number one albums brings her level with Kylie Minogue. Madonna is the only solo female artist ahead of them, with twelve chart-topping albums.

Before the sudden appearance of all those signed (or not) Taylor Swift albums, it was likely that Abba would get a second week at number one with Voyage. After that move, it falls to number two. The 45 ½ years between Abba’s first number one album and their latest is the eighth longest span in chart history. Five acts have had a span of over fifty years. The gap of two months shy of forty years between successive number one albums is a new record. My thanks to Colin (zeuss at Buzzjack, orthon at Haven) for that information and my apologies for not including it last week. Unfortunately, I didn’t read the email until after posting last week’s commentary.

Ed Sheeran’s = is at number three.

Releasing albums in multiple formats has become increasingly common. The lack of opportunities for acts to perform live in the last 18 months or so (thus depriving musicians and record labels of their biggest source of income) has perhaps made it an even more attractive ploy. Whether it represents a way of ripping off fans is a matter of opinion. After all, those fans know they are effectively buying the same product multiple times. On the other hand, it can be seen as exploiting loyal fans who want to own everything their favourite artists release.

Leaving aside the belated signed copies, Taylor Swift is a long way from the biggest offender (if you think that way) when it comes to multiple formats. As a solo artist, she cannot adopt the ploy of releasing the same CD with multiple versions of the artwork, each featuring one of the band’s members. Two bands have regularly pulled off this trick and this week they both enter the chart with retrospective compilations.

The last months of the calendar year have always been a popular time for greatest hits releases although they have been less common since streaming made them almost redundant, apart from as Christmas presents. Little Mix’s set, under the name Between Us, is at number four. No, a new track from the album (a tried and tested way of persuading fans to buy the album) is at number 35 in the singles chart.

While many greatest hits sets carry the most unimaginative of all album titles, Greatest Hits, others are a play on the title of one of their singles or the name of the act. In some cases, the act could almost have been specifically named in the expectation of a greatest hits set at some point. One such act is The Wanted who were unable to call their compilation Most Wanted. It enters at number eight.

Many of Rod Stewart’s recent albums have been collections of cover versions of classic American songs. His latest set, though, comprises mostly self-penned (or co-penned) songs. The Tears Of Hercules, a new entry at number five, is his 37th top ten album in a career spanning over fifty years and his 47th top forty album. Stewart is one of the artists to have had a longer span between number albums than Abba. He is seventh in the list with a span of 48 years and three months.

Silk Sonic, collectively Bruno Mars and Anderson. Paak are at number nine with their new album An Evening With Silk Sonic. Their single Smoking Out The Window climbs sixteen places to number twelve. Leave The Door Open, which reached number 20 earlier this year, returns at number 31.

Bristol rock band Idles are at number six with Crawler, their third top ten album in three releases. The Reytons, from Yorkshire, are at number eleven with their debut album Kids Off The Estate. Liverpool rock band Red Rum Club (named after a racehorse so famous that even I have heard of him) are at number 34 with How To Steal The World.

Two solo artists with very different approaches to music have new albums in the chart this week. Damon Albarn started his chart career as the singer with Blur and has since enjoyed success as a solo artist and as the main man of Gorillaz. He has also found the time to record an album with a group of Malian musicians and an opera. His latest solo release The Nearer The Fountain, The More Pure The Stream Flows, an album inspired by Iceland, is at number seven.

By contrast, Ronan Keating found a winning formula with Boyzone and has stuck with it for his solo career. One of the blandest of the bland is at number fifteen with Songs From Home. Those with a long memory will know why the collection of Irish songs includes U2’s Where The Streets Have No Name.

While Taylor Swift needed to move away from her country roots to become an international star, some country artists can still (just about) get hit albums in the UK. Australian country singer Courtney Barnett is at number 31 with Things Take Time, Take Time.

Two albums return to the chart following reissues . Yet another reissue of Nirvana’s Nevermind, this time for the thirtieth anniversary, is at number eighteen and Kylie Minogue’s Disco returns at number ten following the release of a Guest List edition. The guests include Dua Lipa, Years & Years and Jessie Ware.
Published on: 2021-11-19 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 3231 Views
Comments (2)
 
WhoOdyssey
19 Nov 2021 - 17:57
A dead mouse (from my cat)
Group: Genre Mod
Posts: 27,978
Member No.: 67,771
Joined: 2 Mar 2018 - 21:45

Quick correction, it is ‘The Reytons’ rather than ‘Reyton’
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Suedehead2
19 Nov 2021 - 18:49
BuzzJack Legend
Group: Veteran
Posts: 36,559
Member No.: 3,272
Joined: 13 Apr 2007 - 19:10
   No Gallery Pics

Thanks. I typed Reyton, then checked whether it was Reytons or The Reytons and forgot to change it!
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