162. Windsor Davies & Don Estelle - Whispering Grass

No. Who on earth would expect that lol? Even people like Rihanna have never accomplished that. Usually it's people like Ed Sheeran, Take That, Coldplay, Adele, etc. who you might expect to have one of the 2 best-selling albums of the year.

 

But 3 of those 4 artists didn't release an album and Take That are not what they were.

 

I think Sweetner did pretty badly. She had the whole countries attention, even people who didn't know her before Manchester were behind her. She released a great 1st single it's just the album was pretty rubbish the follow up singles didn't do great and she abandoned the album when it wasnt the super smash hit album her and the record label were expecting.

 

 

But 3 of those 4 artists didn't release an album and Take That are not what they were.

 

I think Sweetner did pretty badly. She had the whole countries attention, even people who didn't know her before Manchester were behind her. She released a great 1st single it's just the album was pretty rubbish the follow up singles didn't do great and she abandoned the album when it wasnt the super smash hit album her and the record label were expecting.

 

I think she kind of wanted to detach herself from the album and move on as she wrote a lot of stuff about the Manchester incident and it was painful to her, and she had other stuff in her life she needed to write about (such as the break-up with her long-term boyfriend and his subsequent death).

 

Either way, I really don't believe they moved on from the album because it was 'underperforming' (which I really disagree with anyway). Although I do agree the album is seriously dire and I can't really see what else they could have went with for singles.

Edited January 19, 20196 yr by Tawdry Hepburn

Really liking Mabel's "Don't Call Me Up". The video gives me "New Rules" vibes. I hope it can be a decent sized hit in the long run and debut top 40 this week.

Mabel’s track is fantastic also. I agree on the New Rules vibes to it I think it’s the phone connection too the songs are kinda similar as well as the video. I think this will be her biggest hit as a lead artist to date can easily see it going top ten and should hopefully debut top 40 too it started well on Spotify.

Edited January 19, 20196 yr by Jordan Lee

I'm surprised at the performance of the the Sweetener stuff as well... I thought she'd at least get the sympathy vote to be honest. NTLTC couldn't even hit the top!

 

NTLTC was just unfortunate to be released at peak one kiss time it debuted with over 73k which any other time would have been number 1 it has become a "millionaire" for her so not too shabby

 

TUN coincidently debut at number 1 with 73k too just shows NTLTC was unlucky

116. Windsor Davies & Don Estelle - Whispering Grass

13 Mabel - Don't Call Me Up

 

I agree this an absolute banger! :wub: Just bought it myself! Never thought I'd say either of those about her as everything she's done before has been really mediocre imo (One Shot was ok and I was surprised that one didn't nothing)

Oh wow, just listened to the Mabel track and it really is easily the best thing she's done!

 

I quite liked 'Fine Line', but everything else is just no.

Oh wow, just listened to the Mabel track and it really is easily the best thing she's done!

 

I quite liked 'Fine Line', but everything else is just no.

Yeah, pretty much exactly this. It's great that the track is having such a promising start, I can see it lining up to be a future Top 10.

Sweetener is still top 20 in the charts despite her having moved on from the era and has sold 220k it’ll easily go platinum by the end of the year, not even Dangerous Woman is platinum yet? Sammy is, always, reaching.

If you think 'Sweetener' was an underperformance then you must have had unrealistically high expectations? It, and its singles, did extremely well. Her next album will probably do even better because that era has made her a bigger name.

If you think 'Sweetener' was an underperformance then you must have had unrealistically high expectations? It, and its singles, did extremely well. Her next album will probably do even better because that era has made her a bigger name.

 

This exactly. Sweetener literally cemented her as the biggest pop star in the world right now.

 

The idea that she’s under-performing in any way shape or form and the label are hopelessly scrambling around to find ‘something that works’ is quite frankly, laughable.

If you think 'Sweetener' was an underperformance then you must have had unrealistically high expectations? It, and its singles, did extremely well. Her next album will probably do even better because that era has made her a bigger name.

 

 

The album did well but I woudn't go as far as saying "extremely" well

How many acts drop promoting an album after a few months if its hugely successful? She and the label moved on as it was under performing. The way you guys are talking it is like she is doing George Ezra numbers, she didn't and if she was she wouldn't be moving on to the next album already.

 

 

How many acts drop promoting an album after a few months if its hugely successful?

Drake, Post Malone, Sam Smith, Paloma Faith, Travis Scott, Cardi B, Harry Styles... and that's just to name a few off the top of my head.

 

How many acts drop promoting an album after a few months if its hugely successful? She and the label moved on as it was under performing. The way you guys are talking it is like she is doing George Ezra numbers, she didn't and if she was she wouldn't be moving on to the next album already.

 

She literally did not move on because it was underperforming, that is 100% made up by you. She was at a weird place where she wanted to promote two things at once. She said she was sick of sticking to the rules. Sweetener is still doing good numbers world wide. Breathin was still growing on all metrics when Thank U Next came out.

It's very unusual for mainstream artists to release 2 albums in as quick succession as this regardless of how successful they are. Can you name even one example of an 'underperforming' album that a label did something like this off the back of before?

I mean Future literally dropped two albums a week apart in 2017, and the first one was the one that actually had the global hit (Mask Off) on it, so this is nothing in comparison. I find the suggestion that Sweetener has "underperformed" to be laughable really because it quite clearly hasn't. It's her biggest album to date, in an era where album sales are becoming weaker and weaker. Let's not belittle her achievements because we don't personally like the material because that's all I can see here.

Comparing the first 22 weeks of her album chart runs (because Sweetener is in its 22nd week in the chart):

 

07-45-82-113-155-174-196-171-179-187-176-151-151-175-194-xx-175-198-xx-xx-xx-xx Yours Truly [sep 2013] (sold approx 26,000 in its first 22 weeks / had sold 89,000 by August 2018 / Silver)

 

03-10-18-25-45-49-51-47-55-58-54-52-58-49-49-58-62-61-70-90-98-124... My Everything [Aug 2014] (sold approx 88,000 in its first 22 weeks / current total 355,000 / Platinum)

 

01-08-11-24-32-33-28-33-35-34-39-47-41-55-37-33-31-29-33-40-38-44... Dangerous Woman [May 2016] (sold approx 75,000 in its first 22 weeks / current total 272,000 / Gold)

 

01-03-04-05-05-09-09-10-11-15-15-10-16-25-29-36-36-31-21-16-17-17... Sweetener [August 2018] (current total 209,377 / Gold)

 

Not really sure how Sweetener could be described as having under-performed? It's by far her biggest album success to date! Nowadays selling 200k+ is great going, and it's inevitable that it'll go Platinum eventually.

 

It's also her best chart run, with 9 weeks Top 10 / 16 weeks Top 20. Her previous best was 2 weeks Top 10 & 5 weeks Top 20.

 

Sweetener represents a major improvement for her as an album seller (bear in mind that My Everything's total is the accumulation of four and a half years on sale, and Sweetener isn't even six months old yet).