American teenager Gayle ends the long run of British artists at the top of the singes chart. The Weeknd gets a third number one album.
This week's commentary comes from PopChartFreak
Gayle tops the singles chart with abcdefu, finally getting there as Adele subsides slightly in streaming “sales” and drops to 2. That gives the 17-year-old American a first number one in the UK, emulating Olivia Rodrigo, but some way short of Helen Shapiro’s 14-years-old chart-toppers in the early 60’s, still the youngesy solo female to top the chart. Gayle is almost twice the age of Little Jimmy Osmond when he topped the chart aged 9 in 1972 with his Long haired Lover From Liverpool, and 3 years older than Jimmy’s older brother Donny when he took Puppy Love on top that year too aged 14. Donny is the same age as me, but sadly his new single Let’s All Dance does not feature in this week’s top 40 despite being much better than his teen hits.
We Don’t Talk About Bruno rises to 3 as another Encanto soundtrack song enters the top 10 at 8 for Jessica Darrow, Surface Pressure, and The Family Madrigal rises one place to 29. At 4, Lauren Spencer-Smith is popular on Tik-Tok and has charted on the strength of growing interest in her first record, Fingers-Crossed. The 18-year-old Canadian looked like a possible Canadian chart-double early in the week, but eased as the days passed. She first came to notice on American Idol when she was 16, 2 years ago, and is yet another teen angst-appeal balladeer. A genre that never dies, and never will for as long as teenage girls get dumped by teenage boys (or vice versa).
Sam Fender drops to 5 with Seventeen Going Under, and the biggest chart invasion of the week comes from The Weeknd’s new album, Dawn FM. I’m assuming the FM refers to radio frequencies rather than a variation on Gayle’s FU. The highest track to enter is Sacrifice at 10, followed by the return of lead single Take My Breath at 14, just below it’s previous peak of 13, and at 22 it’s How Do I Make You Love Me, with the best track on the album Less Than Zero just getting starred out sadly. Lost Frequencies and Calum Scott climb to a new chart peak of 17, Calum’s 2nd top 20 single 6 years after Dancing On My Own hit 2. Lost Frequencies is a Belgian DJ, and I am surprised to announce it’s also his 2nd top 20, 7 years since he had a number one with Are You With Me. I bought it, charted it, and then forgot about it. Oops!
Central Cee is up one place with D-Block Europe to 7 and also has a new entry at 21, Retail Therapy, his 8th chart hit a week after his 6th and 7th. I’d be shocked to hear his fans had actually done some retail therapy and paid money for it, given rap-based tracks don’t always even bother making physical or digital copies available these days and he is not on itunes to buy. Still, who needs sales, radio or TV when you get playlisted on streaming platforms?! Luude’s up with Colin Hay at 25, Down Under being Col’s 5th top 40 some 39 years since Men At Work had their 4th. New at 39, David Kushner is a Miserable Man. Been looking at the news I’d guess. Another Tik-Tok online content pusher, it would seem, and it’s not actually bad for downbeat acoustic. Talking of big on Tik-Tok, club hit Make Me Feel Good debuts for Belters Only and Jazzy. No, not heard of them either before, but apparently hailing from Dublin. There’s not a lot of different words or different notes in the song.
American rapper Gunna also enters new at 40 with Young Thug in tow, pushin’ P apparently. I have the same problem, it comes with ageing bladders, and it must be a theme as he first charted 4 years ago with Drip Too Hard and topped the charts in 2020 with Lemonade, which suggests to me there’s a fizzy issue going on. I’d see a doctor. Young Thug meanwhile gets his 4th top 40 credit, owning the label Gunna’s on prob helps, and his previous forays partnered him with Travis Scott, he who once appeared to have a relaxed attitude to crowd safety, the late Juice Wrld who once appeared to have a relaxed attitude to drug-taking health and safety, and Chris Brown who once appeared to have a relaxed attitude towards physical-violence issues. Gunna seems to fit in quite well with Young Thug based on the lyrics, which contain the obligatory refs to guns, wealth, P and compliant lady aspirations along with the usual n and b words. Radio 1 is not playlisting.
On albums, it’s The Weeknd comfortably ahead to debut on top with his 3rd number one from 6 studio albums, following on from 2015’s Beauty Behind The Madness and 2020’s After Hours, while the hits collection The Highlights also stays at 9. This means Ed = 2 this week, Adele’s 30 - 3, and Gunna’s DS4EVER + 4. That concludes the mathematics section of the chart. Is DS4 a new playstation game? No idea, but the album is in at 4, presumably streaming only.
David Bowie’s Toy is new at 5, hindered by the cost of the set I expect, but what I’ve heard is very good - it’s Bowie’s intended-album from over 20 years ago revisiting his 60’s material (and other stuff) which got pulled due to record company (in)differences, a great shame as it would have made a nice change of pace for his then-career, about as rocking-fun as he’d been since Scary Monsters. It’s his 26th studio top 40 album, 23rd Top 10, 28th top 40 including Tin machine, 24th Top 10 including Tin Machine, 62nd Top 40 including live, soundtracks, hits collections etc, or 36th Top 10 including the etceteras. Talking of which, Hunky Dory is 50 years old, and an anniversary set is out to mark the occasion, and is back at number 31. Often regarded as his best album of all, with Life On Mars?, Changes and Oh You Pretty Things amongst the track listing, the album wasn’t a hit until Bowie exploded huge later in 1972 with Ziggy Stardust, and eventually peaked at 3 helped out when Life On Mars? was a belated single release and huge hit in 1973. This will be it’s 151st week on the charts, most of those from when the album chart was a top 50. The Legacy hits collection is at 19, though it’s nowhere near his most-complete hits collection, of which there have been many.
Twin Atlantic debut at 27 with Transparency, their 6th album and a response to Lockdown and a change of style for the revamped Scottish band. I’m sure Boris Johnson has got a rich friend to buy him several copies looking for tips on how to avoid transparency. Over 12 years into their career, and 5th top 40 album, including two top 10’s. New at 40 is Spector, Now Or Whenever, the London band’s 3rd album and 3rd top 40 entry 10 years on from Enjoy It While It Lasts entering at 12. I could now list all the regular hits collections pottering up and down the album chart thanks to streaming oldies. I could, but not doing that will give more time for cutting toenails and other more useful things.
Published on: 2022-01-14 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 1840 Views
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