Suedehead2 Chart Commentary w/e 2nd Sept 2022

Suedehead2 Chart Commentary w/e 2nd Sept 2022

LF System grab an 8th week on top, Steps get a 4th album chart-topper.

It was looking close but LF System’s Afraid To Feel pips Eliza Rose & Interplanetary Criminal’s B.O.T.A. (Baddest Of Them All) for an 8th week on top. Some might argue they should step aside now given they got a couple of bonus weeks from the wondrous Kate Bush streams getting downgraded due to some bureaucratic ageism. George Ezra is back up to 3, Beyonce down to 4, and OneRepublic hit a new peak of 5 with I Ain’t Worried, as being laid-back pays dividends. Either that or Tom Cruise.

Highest new entry is Aitch & Ed Sheeran with My G at 6. Ed, of course, is never happy unless he’s got a new top 10 track out each week, and I’m guessing he’s clearly on The A Team on the RentaPopstarSinger list, given his serial partner-hopping second only to Becky Hill I’d guess. Manc-rapper Aitch is on his 8th Top 10, ironically as H is on his 4th Album chart number one. Sometimes less is more. I’m not going to list Ed Sheeran’s number of top 10’s as it’ll have changed again by next week and a large proportion of them are album track streaming freebies that he got in before the rule changes. James Hype, meanwhile, finds his Ferrari is stuck firmly in the mud at 9. I bet it’s an automatic.

Nicki Minaj celebrates climbing to 10 as she tops the US charts with Super Freaky Girl, which all goes to show that using those same old words in a slightly different order never hurts. Me, I’ll stick with Starship, and Rick James’s top-notch Super Freak, the best freaky super record ever made. Luude and Mattafix get to 11 on their 9th week of climbing slowly up with Big City Life, and K-Pop girl-band BLACKPINK almost make the top 20 at 22 with the pretty decent Pink Venom, the intro alone won me over right away, can’t help loving those older Eastern musical vibes. An 8th top 40 hit for the girls, appropriately, as I’m sure I counted 8 in the video.

Rosa Linn’s Snap is up 3 to 23, 2022’s Eurovision Song Contest now equalling 2021’s record number of chart entries on the official singles Top 100 chart. That said, no year has ever come close to beating 1974’s 4 top 20’s, which had Abba debut with a number 1 with Waterloo, Gigliola Cinquetti’s Go becoming her second Eurovision hit, following in the footsteps of Cliff Richard with that achievement, Mouth & MacNeal’s I See A Star finally giving the dutch duo a UK hit, and Olivia Newton-John’s Long Live Love being the UK’s hit entry. We sadly lost the fabulous Olivia a couple of weeks ago. Chris Brown meanwhile keeps on climbing, up 8 at 24 with Under The Influence, a higher chart position than Barry White’s Love Unlimited managed with Under The Influence Of Love, more my kind of influence.

American singer-songwriter Nicky Youre & helper Dazy are not highlighting the comma this week as they climb to 29 with big US hit Sunroof, and which comes as a relief that the ampersand is back in vogue, I was getting mildly peeved with that lazy comma separating collab acts, especially on YouTube videos. Mind you, I could foresee fun if collabs like The Sex Pistols, Luude, or Cat Burns, First Aid Kit or The 1975, Years & Years or Belters Only, Hurts or Abba, Abra Cadabra or 50 Cent, Dollar or the very unlikely Prince, Princess, King, Queen, Royal Blood ever worked together. Going back to Nicky, his real surname is Ure, and that never hurt Midge’s career keeping his real surname’s spelling, what with Slik, Rich Kids, Ultravox, Visage, Band Aid, Top Of The Pops theme tune & solo success. Nicky Youre just seems to invite additional words to complete the sentence.

Scraping at 40 it’s time to Turn On The Lights Again... as “right” said Fred again.. as he joins with Swedish House Mafia.. and features Future.. and I.. get another opportunity.. to.. take.. the.. pee.. out of.. popstar.. punctuation affectations. On both song title and act name, as it turns out.. It’s DJ Fred’s 2nd top 40 hit, Swedish House Mafia’s 8th since their 2010 debut, and it’s been an unlikely 10 years since their terrific chart-topper Don’t You Worry Child. It’s Future’s 7th top 40, but at least he’s stopped pushin P.

On albums, it was a right ol’ battle between 90’s popsters Steps with their 3rd Hits album Platinum Collection and Madonna’s 50-strong Dance number ones gathering for most of the week, with Steps winning out on a 3rd Hits chart-topper and 4th Number 1 in total. If nothing else it shows a decent amount of support for their newer material as long-time fans must already have the old ones. Finally Enough Love: 50 Dance Number Ones has to settle for 3, 39 years of album hits, a 26th top 40 album including 12 number ones, and her 24th top 10. One thing she has never done is a bonafide comprehensive Greatest Hits containing all the original single mix versions of all of the singles, and I’m still lamenting I never bought True Blue’s 7” mix which has yet to be on any album. Madge don’t like it, reminds her of Sean.

New at 2, Aitch pulls in below H, with Close To Home, his first studio album - though 2 EP’s both made the top 10 in his 5-year career to date. Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco returning 18 years into their career, with a 7th top 40 album and 5th top 10, two of them number 2’s - 2008’s Pretty Odd and 2018’s wonderful Pray For The Wicked. Viva Las Vengeance doesn’t quite match up to that but keeps the top 10 run going. Oasis Time Flies hits collection and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory are never far away from the top end of the charts - including this week, but they are joined by a 25th anniversary release of Be Here Now on vinyl and picture disc. Their 1997 chart-topper was never as popular (or as good as) Morning Glory, but that doesn’t stop Gallagher fans charting it at 6.

Demi Lovato is also back, HOLY FVCK at 7 beloved of me for her finest moment in the Eurovision movie, The Story Of Fire Saga, which featured her literally exploding all over the place. It’s her 5th consecutive top 10 in 9 years, though also like Panic! at the Disco down on the previous number 2, Dancing With The Devil...The Art Of Starting Over which was the album to get the Fire Saga boost. Hot Chip are meanwhile back a surprising 27 years on from their creation, and 18 years on from their album debut. Freakout/Release is new at 16, their 7th top 40 album, with one of them - 2008’s Made In The Dark - peaking at 4. My brother will be happy about Five Finger Death Punch debuting at 19 with Afterlife, the rest of the family not so fussed as we have all been invited unwillingly to share the shouty love on more than one occasion. We generally bring ear-shaped earplugs these days and stare at our mobile phones trying not to make eye contact till the noise stops. The American metal band have been going for 17 years and have had 5 UK top 40 albums, the previous 3 all going top 10.

Finally, Fisherman’s Friends: One And All soundtrack album is new at 39 on the back of the new movie. The first film charting how the bunch of fishermen became a top 10 album-chart-hitting sensation was very endearing and feel-good. I’ve yet to see this one, but the band have had 3 top 40 albums in 12 years, the original album One And All peaking at 29 in 2013. Their first album in 2000 failed to chart but was called Suck ‘em and Sea, in tribute no doubt to the old gag about strong cough sweets, where Julian Clary was invited to suck on a Fisherman’s Friend. Personally, I find they make my eyes water.

And with that, this is John bidding a fond adios, farewell and adieu to yu and yu and yu, as the Sound Of Music hands back over to Suedey for his welcome return from La Belle France. Adios chicos!