Both the singles and albums charts saw close races this week. Who won? Read on...
This week was one of those rare weeks where there was a close battle at the top of both the singles and albums charts with the outcomes in doubt until the charts were unveiled today (Friday).
In the singles chart last week’s number one, David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s I’m Good (Blue) led the way in the midweek updates but its lead over Unholy, a new entry from Sam Smith and Kim Petras was always a very narrow one.
Sam Smith will need no introduction to regular readers having first reached the chart ten years ago as vocalist on Disclosure’s Latch. Since then they have had six number one singles, including the first Bond theme to top the chart, Writing’s On The Wall. However, the last of those chart-toppers was a full four years ago in the shape of Calvin Harris’s Promises.
Kim Petras was looking to write her name into chart history by becoming the first trans artist to get a number one single. She would also become one of the first (if not the first) artist whose first two charting singles reached number 100 (a version of Running Up That Hill earlier this year) and number one.
For most of chart history, it was unusual to see three successive singles get just one week at number one. That changed in the late 1990s when record companies allowed radio stations to play new releases for several weeks before they became available to buy. The intention was to build up demand for the song and maximise first week sales.
That inevitably led to songs entering the chart at the end of the release week before falling rapidly and spending just a few weeks in the chart. It meant that most number ones had just a week at the top with very few songs getting more than two weeks at number one.
That has now changed again. Most seven-day chart-toppers are seasonal songs or charity releases. That meant that another new number this week, combined with the fact that September 2022 has had five Fridays, provided a rare prospect of five different songs spending time at the summit in the course of the month, as many number ones as there had been between the end of January and the beginning of September.
In the event, Sam Smith and Kim Petras continued the run of new chart-toppers by going straight to number one. David Guetta and Bebe Rexha are at number two after their short stay at the top.
Lewis Capaldi’s Forget Me is down one place to number three. Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal’s BOTA (Baddest Of Them All) and OneRepublic’s I Ain’t Worried also slip one place, to numbers four and five respectively.
Much has been written (both here and elsewhere) in recent years about the short running time of singles with very few exceeding three-and-a-half- minutes or so. Stormzy has decided to ignore that trend by releasing a song that is nearly seven-and-a-half minutes long. It feels like longer. Mel Made Me Do It is at number twelve. I know not who Mel is or what she (or he) made Stormzy do.
Last Friday was a sad day for the UK music industry as D-Block Europe released a new album. Three tracks from that album have entered the top forty this week. Conor McGregor is at number 39, She’s Not Anyone (with Burna Boy) is at 30 and the illiterately-titled 4 The Win is at 23. They now have 26 top forty hits. Who is streaming (or, worse, spending money on buying) this rubbish?
Seafret’s Atlantis re-enters at number 38 having rather carelessly slipped to number 41 last week. Alesso and Zara Larsson's Words is back at number 36.
The race at the top of the albums chart wasn’t quite as close as the singles chart but the outcome was still not a foregone conclusion. The appalling D Block Europe had a small lead on Monday which had increased by Wednesday. Nevertheless, there was still hope that the British public would do enough to avoid the list of number one albums being sullied by the presence of one of the worst acts to emerge in recent years.
The album that carried the hopes of D-Block Europe haters on its metaphorical shoulders was 5 Seconds Of Summer’s 5SOS. Plenty of people who wouldn’t normally be rooting for an album by the Australian pop-rock band will have been swallowing their pride and cheering them on this week. Their first three albums all went to number one but the fourth, 2020’s Calm, only made it to number two.
To the relief of millions (well, thousands perhaps), 5 Seconds Of Summer overcame D-Block Europe’s narrow lead to get a fourth number one album in five releases. D-Block Europe get their second number two with Lap 5.
Frustratingly for the band’s fans, the number one album was destined to sell fewer copies than Suede’s Autofiction did last week. Had the album been released one week later, we could finally have seen our favourite band get their first number one since Head Music twenty years ago.
Sports Team’s impressive debut album Deep Down Happy was another one to reach number two in 2020 although it went to number one in the separate chart covering their native Scotland. Having released their second set, Gulp!, in a quiet week they might have been hoping to go all the way to the top this time round. Sadly, it wasn’t to be and they enter at number three.
Two weeks after Robbie Williams bagged himself yet another number one album, his erstwhile bandmate Mark Owen released his fifth solo album. Of all the members of Take That, Owen’s solo material has probably been most unlike the band’s. Unfortunately for him, the albums haven’t performed very well. His debut, Green Man reached number 33 but the next two failed to reach the top forty at all. He had a minor revival with a number 29 peak for 2013’s The Art Of Doing Nothing. After a nine-year gap he has finally returned with Land Of Dreams which has easily outperformed all its predecessors by entering at number five.
Harry Styles is at number four with Harry's House.
Beth Orton enters at number 27 with Weather Alive. Among the many phrases to have appeared in these commentaries over the years, “Seattle rock band” has probably appeared more than most descriptions while I suspect “Hastings punk band” hasn’t appeared at all until now. That makes the final sentence this week something special. Seattle rock band Alice In Chains are at number 36 with a re-issue of their 1992 album and Hastings punk band Kid Kapichi are at 38 with Here’s What You Could Have Won.
Published on: 2022-09-30 by BuzzJack.com Suedehead2 || 1393 Views
|