The Suedehead Chart Commentary

Posted May 24, 200916 yr

Newcomers at the top of both charts this week and plenty of new entries at last. That means there’s plenty to say this week.

After just a week on top, Black Eyed Peas drop a place to number two to be replaced by Dizzee Rascal and Armand van Helden with Bonkers. At last the quality of number one singles has started to improve again. Mr. Rascal’s genre isn’t usually my cup of tea but Bonkers is OK. Sales reports through the week suggested that this would sell 100,000 copies this week. If it did, it would be the first time since Gnarls Barkley’s classic Crazy that a number one single has reached six figures apart from charity or talent show related releases. I should also add that Nizlopi’s JCB Song had a week at number two with 160,000 sales, behind a talent show bloke. Thanks to spiker at Haven for the stats.

The second highest newcomer (of nine), at number five, is Daniel Merriweather’s Red. It’s a Bank Holiday weekend, the sun is shining, so I’m in a good mood. That means I can describe the song as harmless.

And so, on to Eurovision. For many years you knew where you were with Eurovision and it was a place I didn’t want to be. The contest had become a joke. Then the Berlin Wall came down, communist regimes across eastern Europe were toppled and the number of members of Eurovision soared. Even more significantly, the newcomers actually took the contest seriously. Finally this year the UK and other older Eurovision members have started to adopt the same attitude. The results can be seen in this week’s chart. At a time when sales of singles are higher than they have been for years, both the British entry and the winner have made the top 40. The winner, Fairytale by Norway’s Alexander Ryback enters at number ten. For many years the contest has been seen as very low-brow. This year it went eyebrow. Ryback (born in what is now Belarus but at the time was still part of the Soviet Union) is the first Eurovision winner from outside the UK and Ireland to make the top 10 since 1982. Thanks to zeus555 at ChC for that information.

And what of the UK entry, Jade Ewen singing It’s My Time? Normally I can’t stand anything by a Whitney wannabe – or indeed anything by Whitney herself. But there’s one difference with Jade Ewen. Whatever her vocal range she doesn’t try to demonstrate it all in one song. Or, indeed, in one word. If a word has two syllables, she doesn’t stretch it out to 17 syllables and 17 different notes. Her fifth place in the contest was the best UK performance for some years and she is rewarded at home with an entry at 27. Perhaps the relative success of this year’s entry will finally persuade Morrissey to give it a go.

Finally on Eurovision, we come to the Eurovision obsessives prize. Readers can decide for themselves whether that should go to Sweden (four of the top five are Eurovision entries) or Greece (seven of the top ten – and six of the top seven which probably gives them the prize ). Thanks to ChasingLights at Buzzjack for the details.

Paolo Nutini was most recently in the singles chart with New Shoes in 2007. Now he’s been shopping again and has come back with some Candy this time and has a new entry at number 19.

After a string of British and American talent show contestants, we’ve now got a Swedish one in the form of Johan Becker, the singer with Star Pilots who enter at number with In The Heat Of The Night. Apparently they were failed contestants in the Swedish Eurovision selection show. If this is anything to go by, they thoroughly deserved to lose.

Keri Hilson shows that Return The Favour (which drops out of the top 40 this week) is not a one-off. There’s more rubbish where that came from, including Knock You Down which is a new entry at 24. Just to make it even worse (yes, that is possible), she’s joined by Kanye West and Ne-Yo. At least Akon stayed away.

Empire of the Sun are an Australian duo, made up of Luke Steele of the woefully under-rated Sleepy Jackson and Nick Littlemore of Pnau. They finally make their top 40 singles debut at number 37 with the sublime We Are The People from the album Walking On A Dream which charted briefly earlier this year.

Katy Perry returns to the top 40 at number 36 with Waking Up In Vegas. There are probably many people in Las Vegas waking up because they can hear her screeching.

Green Day may have thought that releasing their latest album on a Friday would give it a second week at number one. If so, they didn’t take into account the enduring popularity of Eminem. His first album of new material since 2004 gives him his fifth number one album (including a Greatest Hits collection). Sadly he hasn’t used the 4 ½ year hiatus to come up with anything original and Relapse is just as full of rubbish as his previous efforts.

Last November Richey Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers was finally declared officially dead following his disappearance in February 1995. At around the same time, the band let it be known that Edwards had handed some lyrics to Nicky Wire shortly before he disappeared and that they had decided that this was the time to put them to music. So, in a sense, Journal For Plague Lovers can be seen as a follow-up to The Holy Bible rather than the much more commercial Send Away The Tigers. By entering at number three, it has gone three places higher than what many fans consider to be the Manics’ best album.

The Nutty Boys are back! The reviews for the new Madness album, Liberty of Norton Folgate have been very enthusiastic. Some critics have even dubbed this their best ever album in a 30 year career. Music buyers seem to agree and it is a new entry at a very impressive number five. And the title? The Liberty Of Norton Folgate was a self-governing enclave of Spitalfields (in east London) about 200 years ago. I wonder what their expenses were like.

Among those leaving the top ten are Kings Of Leon. Only By The Night drops to number 13 after 34 weeks in the top ten.

The marvellous Jarvis Cocker has gained a reputation as a writer of witty lyrics. And surely only someone like him could get away with a line like “I met her in the museum of palaeontology / And I make no bones about it”. Pure genius! His first solo album, simply called Jarvis, only reached a disappointing number 37. His second set, Further Complications, improves on that, entering at number 19. Oh, and a metaphorical gold star for any other examples of songs with the word palaeontology in the lyrics.

In the title of her new album Tori Amos claims to be Abnormally Attracted To Sin. Well, I suppose it makes a change from corn flakes. Her last top 20 album was Strange Little Girls which made number 16 in 2001. She now has her best chart position since then at number 20.

Last week I suggested that Graham Coxon’s new album owed something to Simon and Garfunkel. This week, the real thing have returned to the chart at number 35. The Collection, originally released in 2007, brings together their five studio albums (two of which made number one) plus a live concert DVD and has been on sale at a bargain price. It thus provides a great opportunity to gain an introduction to one of the most popular duos of the late sixties and early seventies.

Katherine Jenkins’ Serenade originally reached number five in 2006. Now there’s a deluxe edition of the album which has entered at number 36 to give the chart a touch of class with some posh songs.

Of Steve Earle’s previous twelve albums, only six made the UK top 75 with just one getting in to the top 40. His new album, Townes, has already given him his first top 40 album in the US where it has reached number 19. He has now achieved his second top 40 album over here by entering at number 37. The album is named after his son, Justin Townes Earle who, in turn, got his middle name from Townes van Zandt.

Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood first worked together in the late 1960s in the band Blind Faith. Last year they were reunited in a series of concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Now a double-CD from the shows has been released. No doubt the delay was caused by attempts to come up with a more inspiring title than Live From Madison Square Garden before they gave up and used that title anyway. At least it does what it says on the tin and it is a new entry at number 40.

Melody Gardot’s debut album, My One And Only Thrill, spent a single week at number 40 in March. By last week it had fallen to number 110. This week, however, she gets a second thrill as the album leaps back up to a new high of number 12. Also re-entering the chart are Empire of the Sun’s Walking On A Dream and Complete Madness.

Among the albums leaving the top 40 to make way for all the new blood is Fleet Foxes rather lovely debut which proved to be something of a slow burner. Acclaimed by the critics it spent just nine weeks in its initial top 75 run. It didn’t really take off until the start of this year, six months after it was released, reaching a peak of number three in February.

Also leaving us is Ronan Keating’s Songs For My Mother. However, it has dropped out once before so there’s always a risk that it will be back. Let’s hope not. The same could be said of Chris de Burgh whose Footsteps have taken him in the right direction, towards the exit door.

I am, as ever, indebted to various sources – ChC, Charts+, chartstats.com, Music Week and the Guardian