The Suedehead2 (Stand-in) Chart Commentary 6th Apr 2023

Posted April 7, 20232 yr

Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding bag another number one single, the album chart-topper is boygenius.

Simon/Suedey is absent this week following the sad loss of his father, and on behalf of everyone I’m passing on all our best to him here. In the meantime, this is the Popchartfreak John replacement-chart-commentary service, knocking on a bit but mostly avoiding annoying breakdowns and smelling of fumes...

Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding have a get-together that restores them to the top spot, Miracle climbing over Ed Sheeran’s 14th number one after one week on top with Eyes Closed, a song that sounds like it was written exactly as it says on the tin. Miracle had a boosting Church version out to try for the summit, quite nice too and Calvin is rewarded with a 10th chart-topper 5 years on from Promises and 15 years on from Holiday starting the impressive haul with Dizzee Rascal. Ellie Goulding gets a 4th number one 10 years on from her first, Burn, and just over 3 years on from her Amazon-Xmas-Playlist-pushing River. Ellie has had to rely more on hair adverts than big hits over the last 8 years, and even failed to chart with her guest-vocal on Alok and Sigala’s brilliant Depeche-Mode-sampling All By Myself a few months ago and her current good solo track Like A Saviour. Just in case anyone isn’t aware the singles-chart is fickle and stars can drop out of fashion overnight even if you have 3 former hitmakers on the credit!

That leaves Miley Cyrus’ wilting Flowers at 2, Ed Sheeran at 3, Libianca static at 4, and Rema back up at 5, carm down, carm down. The rest of the top 10 continue to potter up and down from previous chart peaks, and as yo-yo’s get a bit dull after a while let’s Whistle over to Jax Jones and Calum Scott who’ve been climbing for 8 weeks and hit a new peak of 14. Mae Stephens climbs to 13, after If We Ever Broke Up has spent the last 6 weeks wobbling between 23 and 16. Sounds like a lot of teen girls will be loving this, though if she’s that not bovvered about breaking up one wonders why she’s planning on potential revenge and not just breaking it off right now and not having to bother with revenge for unspecified crimes. Hey ho, I’m not 15 years old.

Meghan Trainor meanwhile climbs to 22 for a new peak with the delightful Mother, and the non-credited sample of The Chordettes’ Mr. Sandman, her 2nd chart hit in a row - that’s not happened since her 2014 All About That Bass chart-topping hey-day. The Chordettes, BTW, not been in the UK chart since 1958, and Mr. Sandman peaked at 11 a whopping 69 years ago, and must be one of the oldest samples to ever chart. The fabulous song features famously in Back To The Future. Also up, to 15, Switch Disco and Ella Henderson hit a new peak with REACT, Ella’s 10th top 20, one of the music biz’s serial guest vocalists since the solo hits dried up 9 years ago.

Zara Larsson’s pretty good Footloose-rhythm-ed Can’t Tame Her is getting heavily plugged on Radio 2 and duly climbs up to a new peak of 27 after 4 weeks of climbing, her best chart slot since 2018 in an 8-year chart career. Bakar climbs to 28 with Hell N Back, nowhere near as good as Paul McCartney’s much-better wordplay hit title Helen Wheels 50 years ago. In a slow week for new entries, Tom Grennan also hits a new peak of 31 with Here, his 8th top 40 hit this decade, and highest actual new track is JISOO at 38 with Flower. Not a Miley Cyrus cover, it’s a fingerclicking solo track for the BLACKPINK K-Pop star, while at 39 Tyler, The Creator has Dogtooth nipping in, his 4th appearance.

Over in albums, it’s a surprise debut at 1 (to me, as I’d never heard of ‘em) for boygenius, a US rock female trio containing Phoebe Bridgers who I do know. Their debut album The Record has been 5 years in the waiting, and outdoes the better known DMA’s whose How Many Dreams? is new at 3, one place higher than their 4th charting 4-peaking previous The Glow. New at 2 is the former US The Voice contestant Melanie Martinez with her 3rd album Portals, Cry Baby peaked at 32 in 2015, and the follow-up K-12 hit 8 in 2019. Last week’s chart-topper from Lana Del Ray Something Something Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard is down to 5, with The Weeknd’s Hits package still the Bridesmaid at 4, destined to never hit the top spot.

Abba Gold has been on the chart since 1992, on and off, and gone through many boosts and booms for this and that, most recently the wonderful Abba Voyage live shows (OK the 4 of them are Abbatars, there’s a couple of videos in between “costume changes” but it’s the 4 original members de-aged digitally, singing and moving as they are now, with a live band and backing singers, and they look real) which has the best sound system you will ever hear in a live venue, and best set-list this side of a potential Beatles digital experience. The album has now been inside the top 20 for 201 weeks now, drawing level with The King And I soundtrack, rather appropriately, as the stageshow is also available to see in the UK right now. With thanks to Colin (zuess on Buzzjack, orthon at Haven) for the information!

De La Soul’s 80’s classic daisy-age album 3 Feet High And Rising is in the top 10 for the first time at 9, after peaking previously at 12 and some 34 years after first charting - well-deserved having been unavailable due to sample-rights issues for most of the last 3 decades. Davido is new in at 10 with Timeless, his first chart hit. No I’ve no idea either, but apparently the Nigerian singer is on his 4th album, uses a variety of dancehall, ragga and afrobeats and has Angelique Kidjo on the album - which actually sounds like something I might be interested in. Meanwhile, veterans The Who hook up with Isobel Griffiths Orchestra - presumably more-reasonably-priced than the LSO - for a live 2019 Wembley Stadium concert album debuting at 37, that’s their 10th charting live album in 53 years, though it doesn’t include the one I saw at an outdoors New Forest stately home (Booo!). The Who have had only 12 studio albums chart yet have had 14 charting compilations in a 58-year career. They have only ever had a number one for the album Who’s Next in 1971.

Finally, Bury Tomorrow is a good name and I assumed a folk-band from around the Bury area had a local fanbase good enough to get them into the chart at 35, but no, they are Metalcore from Southampton and The Seventh Sun is their 7th album in 14 years, the previous 4 all going top 40. Metalcore apparently includes screaming, thrash, stop-start, and punk elements, which probably explains why I’ve not popped over to see them on my regular Southampton nights out. Much as I like Motorhead, Sex Pistols and so on from the olden days, it suspiciously sounds like the sound level is set to “11” and I’ve already got hearing loss in one ear from loud concerts and loud clubs and loud music at home. Good to see local bands charting, though!