007 Chart Commentary - 21st Oct 2012

Calvin Harris feat Florence Welch - Sweet Nothing enters at #1

Winning a closely run battle for #1 this week is Calvin Harris, who scores his second chart topper after 4 successive #2 peaking hits (as lead artist). Hailing from Dumfries in Scotland, Harris, hit #10 with his debut Acceptable In The 80s in 2007, followed by #3 hit The Girls and a few minor hits. In 2009, he scored his first #1 with I'm Not Alone, then he was Ready For The Weekend, hitting #3. Last year he hit #2 alongside Kelis on Bounce, then again with Feel So Close. Earlier this year, he repeated that feat twice with Neyo on Let's Go and with Example on We'll Be Coming Back. However Calvin did score 3 #1s as featured credit - on Dizzee Rascal's Dance Wiv Me, Rihanna's million selling We Found Love and Florence & The Machine's Spectrum this year. It is Florence Welch whom he teams up with for Sweet Nothing, providing Florence with her second #1 of the year. CAlvin's new album is due out within the next few weeks, featuring this and his 4 #2 hits.

Lawson - Standing In The Dark enters at #6

British four piece band Lawson get themselves a third straight top 10 hit, as third single Standing In The Dark debuts at #6 this week. The band consist of Andy Brown, Adam Pitts, Joel Peat and Ryan Fletcher, and made their debut this year with #4 hit When She Was Mine, followed by #3 hit Taking Over Me. These 3 singles are taken from Lawson's debut album due out next week, entitled Chapman Square, named after the place that they first played together. Ahead of Lawson are last week's top 4 slightly reshuffled, below them are climbers from Taylor Swift (12-7 We Are Never Ever ...) and Maroon 5 (18-8 One More Night).

Rebecca Ferguson - Backtrack enters at #15

X-Factor runner up from 2010, Rebecca Ferguson gets herself a second top 20 hit this week as Backtrack debuts at #15. After coming second in 2010's X-Factor to Matt Cardle, Rebecca debuted at #10 with first single release Nothing's Real But Love. Then she hit #3 with debut album Heaven, however none of the 3 subsequent single made the top 100. Backtrack is the first single to be taken from the repackaged version of her Heaven album, having been performed on last week's X-Factor. That's 3 mentions of a reality TV show, more to come ...

Justin Bieber feat Nicki Minaj - Beauty & A Beat enters at #20

Canadian teen star Justin Bieber bags himself another UK top 20 hit this week as new single Beauty & A Beat enters at #20, alongside rapper Nicki Minaj. Justin made his bedut in this country in 2009 with #11 peaking One Time, followed by huge #3 hit Baby and #9 Eenie Meenie with Sean Kingston. These singles as well as a few other minor hits were taken from debut album My World. Then came #21 Christmas single Mistletoe and album Under The Mistletoe last year. This year, he got his first #1 album with Believe and first #2 single with Boyfriend. That album was preceded by 3 promotional singles Die In Your Arms, All Around The World and As Long As You Love Me. The latter peaked at #22 as the second single, now Beauty & The Beat goes 2 better by entering at #20 this week. By coincidence, Nicki Minaj's own current single Va Va Voom also peaked at #20 last week.

Tyler James - Single Tear enters at #28

Tyler James is perhaps best known as coming joint runner up on the BBC talent show The Voice UK, finishing behind Leanne Mitchell and equal with Bo Bruce. Tyler previously had a #25 hit in 2004 with Why Do I Do and a #16 hit with Foolish (from his debut album) the following year, before quitting the music business for personal reasons. However after all The Voice UK finalists' tracks were released to iTunes, Tyler James was the only one to make the top 40. He entered at #39 with his cover of Steve Winwood's 1986 hit Higher Love. Now he scores a 3rd top 30 hit with his new single Single Tear, taken from his forthcoming second album A Place I Go.

Everything Everything - Cough Cough enters at #37

Everything Everything are a UK indie band who formed in 2007, and were featured on the BBC Sound Of 2010 list of upcoming talent. That year, the band released their debut album Man Alive, which yielded no hit singles but made #17 in the album charts. Now they score their first top 40 hit by entering at 37, taken from their forthcoming second album Arc, due out in Jan 2013. It seems that their coughing has drawn attention to them ... I think they should try Benilyn really!

Jake Bugg beats Leona to #1 in the album chart

Winning a rather interesting battle for this week's #1 album is English singer songwriter Jake Bugg with his debut album, featuring singles Country Song, Taste It, Seen It All, Lightning Bolt and Two Fingers (which is in at #33). Entering only at #3 this week is the rather delayed third album release from X-Factor winner Leona Lewis, Glass Heart was widely expected to ease its way to #1 but makes do with #3 instead (featuring top 10 hit Trouble, which drops to #13 this week). Rebecca Ferguson returns to #5 with Heaven, a place ahead of the 3rd album from Bat For Lashes entitled The Haunted Man. Other new album entries are from Art Garfunkel, flok band Bellowhead, jazz singer Diana Krall and Donald Fagen (former lead singer of Steeley Dan).

Opinion

I am happy that Calvin Harris has finally scored a #1 after 4 #2s from this era, I do really like Sweet Nothing and think it's the best from this current era. Lawson's Standing In the Dark is ok but nothing special, I prefer the other 2 songs to be honest. I am very happy to see the brilliant Maroon 5 score a third top 10 single from this era ... who'd have thought it after the relative flop of their third album (and singles). I really like Rebecca Ferguson and love her album, Backtrack is also brilliant and good to see her hit top 15 with it. Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj on the other hand are my 2 least favourite acts, probably of all time, and the dirge that is Beauty & A Beat does nothing to change my mind. Tyler James though I do really like and think he should have won The Voice UK, Single Tear is very good indeed and deserves to be higher than #28 in my opinion. Same can be said for the Jake Bugg track, mind you his album really deserves to be #1 over Leona Lewis, whose album I also really like.