Katy Perry holds strong at the top this week, while Flume and Beck’s Tiny Cities becomes the first top 10 debut since past #1 Tal’s Slow Down the Flow. It enters this week at #7. It’s one of only two additions to the top 10 this week; Calvin Harris and Frank Ocean’s Slide being the other, as it moves up to #10. Derulo and Minaj’s ‘hot mess’ Swalla makes it to #2, Lana enters the top 5, and Una Healy also manages a staggering second week in the top 5, ascending this week to #4. Take that, Mollie! Also, notching up his seventh week running, Sage the Gemini becomes my longest-runner with Now or Later.

 

This week sees another bunch of new entries in the lower reaches. Only two, Alina Baraz, and Gavin Turek – who is surprisingly a woman – manage top 20 debuts, taking the last two positions respectively. There’s some well-known names and some newer names from the rest, including Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Weeknd, and Lorde. Check the big list and the next post, with links and write-up on each new entry, for more detail there. Or try my weekly A-List playlist (linked below) on Spotify for a quick listen!

 

More chat later - and please comment away! - for now, here’s the list this week: the top 40 up to the second week of Mar. 2017:

 

 

01 Katy Perry - Chained to the Rhythm [35-8-2-1-1]

02 Jason Derulo ft. Nicki Minaj + Ty Dolla $ign - Swalla [34-3-2]

03 Martin Garrix & Dua Lipa - Scared To Be Lonely [36-7-1-1-2-3]

04 Una Healy - Battlelines [29-20-5-4]

05 Lana Del Rey - Love [12-6-5]

06 Amy Lee - Love Exists [20-14-9-6]

07 Flume ft. Beck - Tiny Cities [N]

08 Bebe Rexha ft. G-Eazy - FFF [33-7-8]

09 Bear's Den - Greenwoods Bethlehem [25-5-4-9]

10 Calvin Harris ft. Frank Ocean - Slide [20-10]

11 Bastille - Send them Off [23-12-11]

12 Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Wild Forever [14-7-6-8-12]

13 Shaggy ft. OMI - Seasons [19-10-13]

14 Little Mix - Touch [18-17-14]

15 Chainsmokers ft. Coldplay - Something Just Like This [34-15]

16 Biffy Clyro - Flammable [18-16]

17 Kato & Sigala ft. Hailee Steinfeld - Show You Love [26-17]

18 Texas - Let's Work it Out [28-16-21-18]

19 Alina Baraz ft. Khalid - Electric [N]

20 Gavin Turek - It's the Light [N]

21 Nelly Furtado - Cold Hard Truth [16-3-2-3-11-21]

22 Busy P ft. Mayer Hawthorne - Genie [29-22]

23 Jax Jones ft. RAYE - You Don't Know Me [36-25-23]

24 Deaf Havana - Pretty Low [19-22-19-24]

25 Rainy Milo - Swimming On Me [N]

26 Ed Sheeran - Shape of You [21-23-26]

27 Cold War Kids - Love is Mystical [29-12-7-13-27]

28 Alma x Branchez - Dye My Hair [N]

29 Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Longest Wave [N]

30 Phoebe Ryan - Dark Side [21-15-8-14-30]

31 Trinix ft. Hannah Young - Ocean Hill [39-11-10-15-31]

32 Charming Horses ft. Jona Bird - One Step Ahead [39-32]

33 Paperwhite - Human Nature [N]

34 Mike Posner x Grey - In the Arms of a Stranger '[39-33-34]

35 Sage the Gemini - Now and Later [30-8-5-5-15-37-35]

36 The Weeknd ft. Daft Punk - I Feel it Coming [N]

37 Lorde - Green Light [N]

38 Qulinez ft. Koko La Roo - Closer [N]

39 Prides - Away with the Night [35-39]

40 Linkin Park ft. Kiiara - Heavy [N]

 

#1s this year:

Fickle Friends - Brooklyn (2)

Dua Lipa – Be The One (3)

Ed Sheeran – Castle On the Hill (1)

Tal – Slow Down the Flow (1)

Martin Garrix & Dua Lipa – Scared To Be Lonely (2)

Katy Perry ft. Skip Marley – Chained To The Rhythm (~)

 

 

Spotify Link to my weekly A-List playlist = {click here}

 

18 Texas - Let's Work it Out [28-16-21-18]

 

good to see texas chart elsewhere than mine!

 

great chart!

 

 

As Katy Perry’s reign continues in her fourth week in the top 10 and third in the top 5, the rest of the chart shuffles to make room. ‘Chained’ is Perry’s fifth track to really strike it big with me, following ‘Dark Horse’, ‘TGIF’, ‘Firework’ and ‘Teenage Dream’. I wasn’t actually a fan of early Perry – the “it’s not what good girls do” line in her debut hit always rubbed me the wrong way.

 

This week sees new peaks for, besides those already mentioned, Little Mix’s Touch and Coldsmokers’ Something Just Like This, both entering the top 15 for the first time, Jax Jones, Kato/Sigala + Hailee Steinfeld, and Biffy Clyro’s Flammable. Our current official #1, Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You, looks set to stall at #21 for me as it drops again this week. Cold War Kids, notching up a fifth week with Love is Mystical, were just one place off charting a double this week; instant grat Can We Hang On ? closed out the week just past the cutoff point.

 

As for the tracks that did make it in this week to debut:

 

 

Highest new entry this week lifts from Flume's album Skin; given the caliber of the featured artist, extemely likely to be a future single. Guess I'm jumping the gun a little. I’m feeling some James Blake influence here, which, given his recent ascenscion to working with Beyoncé, is not outside the realm of possibility to actually be the case.

 

 

Just squeaking into the top 20 its Alina Baraz making her 2017 debut, here alongside new R&B talent Khalid. Alina's appeared before in 2015 (alongside Galimatias, twice, and Hotel Garuda) and 2016 (with Tez Cadey), and generally I like her tracks. She's pretty popular with the Majestic Casual/chill house crowd, but is yet to break into the mainstream in any significant way - if she even wants to. Also looking her up, she's really young! Only 21.

 

 

Gavin Turek completes the hat trick of top 20 new entries this week. Like Alina, Gavin's hit this level before with 2016's Don't Fight It, a poppier, retro-Solange inspired track. This one moves into more classic R&B/doo-wop/Lauryn Hill territory, while taking a heavy dose of influence from 90s girl groups and the rising-from-the-ashes disco genre too. Although it's a good track in its full length version, a radio edit would help it reach a wider audience and really connect, I feel.

 

 

Rainy Milo makes her 2017 debut with another step into the world of chill R&B. The atmospheric, somewhat sensual track blends fka twigs with retro Jhene Aiko to great effect. It's almost got a touch of a Ghibli soundtrack to it too - although maybe that feeling's influenced by me watching a lot of them lately. The singer’s been tipped for big things since about 2014.

 

 

It's that track - just about. I've seen Alma - Dye My Hair on the multichart and on some posters' charts, so I thought I'd check it out. I wasn't too hooked on the original, but the remix by Branchez is pretty catchy for sure.

 

 

Another charter for Red Hot Chili Peppers from last year's The Getaway. It's that album's fourth track to impact with me at all, following the title track, The Hunter, and Encore, a top 30 charter for several weeks between 20 and 30. This one looks set to follow the same trajectory. Some folk are fans of faster Chilis work, but I much prefer this slower, Under The Bridge/By The Way esque fare, which the new album has in spades. Worth checking out!

 

 

Another slightly new one. It's Paperwhite's second track to impact with me, first since.. about 2014, when they got started, and first to make it into a top 40 charting position. It straddles the line between pop, indie, and electronica, with the sounds of Prides, Savoir Adore and Miike Snow vying for prominence. Yes, there's synths. It's the group's first release this year and follows a 2016 EP, Escape. It has so few views on youtube for such a good track! Hope some of you enjoy it :)

 

 

This track is gold. I delayed it impacting because I wasn't really in the mood for a ballad earlier in the year - and I was still enjoying Starboy, but wow, this is lush. The Daft Punk/Chic influence is much stronger here than on the latter track and the group really feel like strong contributors to the track this time round. It has a very retro classic sounding vibe to it; I could easily believe this was a song released in the 80s, long-lost and only now brought to light.

 

 

And speaking of light. It's the return of Lorde, an act who my mother charmingly thought was Madonna's daughter come to claim her birthright. The New Zealander is definitely a little weird, but I've liked a lot of her previous music and this track is no exception. Oddly, it reminds me a little of the path Birdy, and more recently Gabrielle Aplin have been going down - except with a much bigger budget, of course.

 

 

No, not that Closer. This one's by newish producer Qulinez (try saying that after a few drinks) and vocalist Koko La Roo, presumably no relation to the flame-haired Bulletproof hitmaker. Maybe a fan? It's pretty much 2017 EDM by numbers, but managed to rack up enough plays to squeak in this week.

 

 

Finally making it in after a few weeks hoverine just under cutoff, it's the unlikely Linkin Kiiara (Linkiiara?) track, Heavy. It's definitely up there with a chance for winning least-expected collaboration of the year; many of us in the forums when it was announced thought that it must be a parody or a p-take. It's not a bad wee track, seeing Linkin Park take a step towards a new kind of alt-dance, as many of its newer fans wail in despair at their 'selling out', completely forgetting - or unaware of - the fact that it's a similar genre to what the group started in. Unlike, say, Maroon 5 or Coldplay, who seem to be getting off scot-free there.

 

And that’s the week! Please comment if you have thoughts! Comments make me smile! :D

 

Hey Jupiter!

 

Great to see Swalla so high, really enjoying that catchy tune.

 

Ocean Hill is a nice track, hear that quite a bit.

 

Great new entries from The Weeknd & Lorde!

 

As for the others I'll add them to my Spotify list :)

 

Nice chart.

Hi,

 

Very nice entry for Lorde and Alma :cheer:

 

Shape Of You dropping since the entry :D

 

Little Mix climbing :yahoo:

 

Awesome N.1 :yahoo: :yahoo:

18 Texas - Let's Work it Out [28-16-21-18]

 

good to see texas chart elsewhere than mine!

 

great chart!

 

Texas are great! I'm likewise glad to not be their only fan :3

 

Hey Jupiter!

 

Great to see Swalla so high, really enjoying that catchy tune.

 

Ocean Hill is a nice track, hear that quite a bit.

 

Great new entries from The Weeknd & Lorde!

 

As for the others I'll add them to my Spotify list :)

 

Nice chart.

 

Thanks!

 

Your chart this week was interesting too!

 

Hi,

 

Very nice entry for Lorde and Alma :cheer:

 

Shape Of You dropping since the entry :D

 

Little Mix climbing :yahoo:

 

Awesome N.1 :yahoo: :yahoo:

 

Yeah I'm not sold on 'Shape' - I feel like the only person in the country like that after this 10th week!

 

Thanks! Lorde and Alma are two not bad tracks!