No change at the top of the singles and album charts this week and the re-entries outnumber the new entries in both charts.

 

JLS hold on for a second week on top of the singles chart but the competition below them is hotting up. They have the opposition beat again this week but next week will probably be a different story.

 

There are plenty of chart acts named after film and television characters – McFly, Duran Duran, Travis and the Thompson Twins to name four. However, Mr Hudson is not one of them. He hasn’t named himself after the Upstairs Downstairs butler, it just happens to be the singer’s name. His work with The Library didn’t result in much commercial success so he’s dropped them from the credits and worked with Kanye West instead. And it’s paid off as Supernova (without any champagne) is the highest new entry of the week at number two.

 

Frankmusik scores his second top 40 single with Confusion Girl (Shame Shame Shame) at number 29. His previous hit only lasted a week in the top 40. Will this last any longer? Any suggestions that Confusion Girl refers to Fearne Cotton are pure speculation.

 

Three more Michael Jackson songs have dropped out leaving just two – Man In The Mirror at 16 and Billie Jean at 37. The departure of those songs has, as anticipated, led to some re-entries. However, they are not the expected songs. Now 73 was released this week and that has led to the usual downloading of individual tracks. Quite why these people didn’t download them earlier remains a mystery. The four re-entries from this compilation outnumber the miserable tally of two new entries. Apart from the recent Michael Jackson invasion and early January charts this deoesn’t appear to have happened for at least twenty years (thanks to ad1 at ChC for the reaearch). Lily Allen is back at number 28 with Not Fair, AR Rahman returns at 31 with Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny), Calvin Harris continues to protest that he is not alone at 34, Beyoncé’s Halo is at 38 and Katy Perry inflicts the whiney rubbish that is Waking Up In Vegas on us again at number 40.

 

Lady GaGa enjoys a 28th week in the top 40 with Poker Face, the 34th record to achieve this. She continues to climb back up the chart, rising another two places to 22. As well as various MJ songs, it’s also goodbye to Take That, V V Brown and, sadly, Arctic Monkeys.

 

The Essential Michael Jackson is the number one album for a fourth week. That brings Jackson’s total to 27 weeks at number one, level with Rod Stewart. Thanks to zeus/orthon for pointing out my error last week. The other old Jackson albums are now on their way down the chart with the 25th anniversary edition of Thriller dropping out of the top 40. However, the number of Jackson entries remains the same with the arrival of The Collection at number 14. Originally intended to capitalise on his dates at the O2 Arena, this comprises four CDs and a DVD its sales may have been damaged by the number of copies of the original albums sold over the last few weeks.

 

Florence + The Machine remain at number two for a third week. Not even a Mercury Award nomination has given it the momentum to overhaul Michael Jackson. It looks like it will remain an album which should have had at least three weeks at number one only to be denied by an unfortunately timed release. Black Eyed Peas, Noisettes and Kasabian all climb back into the top 10. As far as the top ten goes, Off the Wall is off along with MJ’s Number Ones and Cascada have evacuated.

 

The highest new entry in the albums chart is the din that is Jordin Sparks with her second album Battlefield at number 11. Apart from the Jackson Collection (see above), there is only one other new entry.

 

Rhythms del Mundo are a group of Cuban musicians whose first album consisted of collaborations with various major acts such as Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand reworking their own songs in a more Caribbean style. For their second album they have worked with a similarly distinguished cast (The Killers, Amy Winehouse, Editors and even the Rolling Stones) plus some Cuban artists less well known here. However, this time round, there are two major differences. First, each act performs a cover rather than a reworking of their own song. So the album contains such classics as Walk On The Wild Side, I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Under The Boardwalk and even Bohemian Rhapsody. Second, each track is credited to RDM feat. whoever rather than solely to the featured artist. That means it qualifies for the artists chart (and enters at number 33) instead of being consigned to the relative obscurity of the compilations chart. As always with albums like this, it’s a bit of a hit and miss affair. The Stones’ version of Board Walk is one of the highlights and the version of Bohemian Rhapsody sung mostly (I assume) in Spanish is bizarre and One Republic’s version of For What It’s Worth is predictably poor. Overall though, there are more hits than misses. And the album is also raising money for climate change and disaster relief projects which has to be a good thing.

 

As with the singles chart there are more re-entries than new ones. One of them (Friendly Fires at 36, a new peak) is down to the announcement of the Mercury Prize nominations this week. I’m sure the judges are told to ignore previous winners when making their choice. Even so I suspect that this will suffer from being too similar to the Klaxons’ winning album two years ago. That would be a pity as this is a far better album. Still, if Florence wins instead I won’t be complaining. Last year’s winner is another of the re-entries. Elbow’s sublime Seldom Seen Kid is back for another run at number 37. Tickets for their Manchester International Festival performance with another local band, the Halle Orchestra, were selling on eBay for £1000 – even after arrangements were made for a free showing on a big screen in a nearby park.

 

Also making a return visit are Pink (Funhouse at 34), Duffy (Rockferry at 38) and James Morrison (Songs For You, Truths For Me at 31)

 

The usual thanks to ChC, Music Week and chartstats.com

Edited July 26, 200916 yr by Suedehead2

Any suggestions that Confusion Girl refers to Fearne Cotton are pure speculation.

:rofl: brilliant

 

Also, I was wondering why Rhythms del Mundo wasn't on comps, thanks for the explanation :D

 

Great read as always

Any suggestions that Confusion Girl refers to Fearne Cotton are pure speculation.

:rofl: brilliant

 

Also, I was wondering why Rhythms del Mundo wasn't on comps, thanks for the explanation :D

 

Great read as always

You're welcome