The Suedehead Chart Commentary

Posted July 19, 200916 yr

There’s a new number one single this week but no change at the top of the albums chart.

After two weeks at number one Cascada evacuate top spot making way for talent show losers JLS with Beat Again. They are the first UK talent show contestants to reach number one since Alexandra Burke’s demolition job on Hallelujah at the start of the year. I have to admit that the record is not as bad as I feared but maybe my expectations were so low that was bound to happen. Black Eyed Peas move up to number three. The physical release of I’ve Gotta Feeling is due on 10 August so this could yet be another number one for the Peas.

Nick Bracegirdle, better known as Chicane, has been absent from the top 40 since 2006. Now he’s back with a version of the brilliant Sigur Ros song, Hoppipolla, cunningly disguised under a new title, Poppiholla. He’s removed the vocal and turned it into a dance track. Fortunately he hasn’t ruined it and has come up with a decent version. The original was a minor hit in 2005 and 2006. This new version is the second highest new entry of the week at number seven. According to Wikipedia Hoppipolla means jumping puddles. Thinking that sounded rather corny I checked it out. The Icelandic for puddle is pollur and hoppa means leap so I suppose that translation is pretty close. With the weather this week there has been plenty of opportunity to jump into puddles whether listening to Sigur Ros, Chicane or, indeed, anything else.

Beyoncé’s new single Sweet Dreams enters at number 13 ahead of its physical release next month. She’s done a lot worse than this effort which I can only describe as bland. You’d be far better off listening to Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by Eurythmics instead.

Don’t Trust Me say 3OH!3, a band from Boulder, Colorado. Their name is supposed to be pronounced three-oh-three and comes from the telephone dialling code for Boulder. So, if they want us to pronounce their name that way why didn’t they just call themselves 303? I wouldn’t trust them myself. The single made the top ten in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Finland last year. This year, they’ve made number 21 in the UK. Is the song any good? No, not really.

The lead single from Green Day’s current album 21st Century Breakdown peaked at number 21. Now 21 Guns is new at number 40. As the physical version was released this week it looks like that may be as far as it gets.

Six of last week’s Michael Jackson and Jackson 5 songs have dropped out of the top 40 this week leaving just five remaining, all of which are on the way down. Those six departures are the only songs to drop out of the top 40 this week.

With the Jackson influence petering out in the singles chart, it might have been expected that there would be a number of re-entries as songs resume the top 40 run which was interrupted a few weeks ago. However, there’s just the one this week. Noisettes are back at a new peak of number 30 with Never Forget You, something many people have been saying about Michael Jackson. A number of other songs are moving back up as the Jackson songs tumble. Poker Face is still around for a 27th week bringing the number of singles to have gone beyond six months to 42. It’s one of the songs going back up, two places to number 24.

The Essential Michael Jackson holds on for a third week at number one. He has now had a total of 25 weeks on top of the album chart, the same as Phil Collins. Florence + the Machine are still at number two with the excellent Lungs. There are a further four Jackson albums in the top ten and Paolo Nutini jumps back up six places to number six with Sunny Side Up. The only album to leave the top ten is the 25th anniversary version of Thriller which crashes 25 places to number 34.

Back in the 1980s journalist Pete Frame published two volumes of Rock Family Trees. Each family tree was a hand-drawn diagram showing the line-up of a major band, how it had changed over the years and what other bands the members had been in or went on to be in. They were also made into a BBC television series in the 1990s. If there is ever a new volume Jack White seems to be making a bid to have White Stripes included. Following his work with The Raconteurs, White has now formed Dead Weather with members of The Kills, Queens of the Stone Age and another fellow Raconteur. Just for a change, he’s the drummer with this group although he does also contribute some vocals. Their album, Horehound, is the highest new entry at number 14.

A few weeks ago a new Seekers compilation made the top 40. Now it’s the turn of the New Seekers at number 17. They were formed in the late 1960s when the original Seekers disbanded only to re-form again later. Their biggest hit was I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing which started out as a jingle for a Coke commercial, I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke. They had many changes in line-up over the years but, fortunately, didn’t add an extra New onto the name each time. If they had, it would have taken the length of a song to say their full name. Still, it would have made the title of the compilation, It’s Been Too Long – Greatest Hits and More rather appropriate.

VV Brown’s single Shark in the Water is still doing rather less well than many critics predicted. Now the album Travelling Like The Light has also got off to a rather modest start entering at number 30.

Billy Talent are actually a Canadian band which ends any possibility of any connection with DJ Talent. Billy Talent III is (funnily enough) their third album although they also released Watoosh! under their original name, Pezz. No prizes for guessing the name of their other two albums. Their second album reached number 46 and five singles have spent a week each in the top 75 but Billy Talent III gives them their first appearance in the top 40 at number 35.

Leonard Cohen makes one of his occasional appearances in the top 40 albums with a new Greatest Hits collection at number 29. It’s pretty much a revamp of a previous collection released in 1989 with some extra tracks including, inevitably, Hallelujah.

Coverage of their typically flamboyant performance at T in the Park last weekend has given a boost to two Killers albums. Last year’s Day and Age is a re-entry at number 23 while their 2004 debut Hot Fuss returns at number 39. The fact that Hot Fuss is only four quid at HMV probably played a part as well. A reviewer who was not a Killers fan summed them up well in writing about their Hyde Park performance. She expressed surprise that a band which has only been around for five years or so could do such a long set consisting almost entirely of very familiar songs.

Edited July 19, 200916 yr by Suedehead2