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  1. Rein Me In holds at the top and Gorillaz grab a 3rd album number one.

    Simon is unable to do the commentary today and this is a shoddy replacement bus service, so there may be errors. Or not!

    Brits winner for Song Of The Year Rein Me In gets a post-win boost to hold at one for a 3rd week for Sam Fender and Olivia Dean as it faced strong competition from Alex Warren’s new track Fever Dream. I downloaded both so neither benefitted from my purchase! Alex Warren has to make do with number 3 for now, with Ordinary also going up a few spots and showing no sign of exiting anytime soon. Number 2 and up 2 is Bella Kay and iloveitiloveitiloveit. That’s the song not me commenting, I actually haven’t heard it yet being in New Zealand for a month and all.  Pink Pantheress drops 1 to 4 with Stateside and Olivia Dean is down 3 with So Easy despite dominating the awards on Sunday, but bonus she enters at 19 with yet another track at 19 - The Hardest Part an old track from 2020. 

    Bruno Mars is back up 2 with an album boost for I Just Might at 6, as he enters with the more laid-back track Risk It All at 15. Harry Styles did a great performance of Aperture and is rewarded with a Brits boost to 10. I may be biased - OK I am biased - but one week on top is not enough for this fabulous record. Dominic Fike is up to 14 with Babydoll and also has a new entry joining it lower down at 27: White Keys.

    Tame Impala rise 4 to 22, almost matching the 2025 peak of 21, and it was sounding fab in an Auckland pub bar last week. Dracula still bites! RAYE joins the theme of the week with another new release joining the existing hit, Nightingale Lane at 20 is quite tastefully nice, following in the tradition of A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square. See Tori Amos for a good version of that one.

    Who had Madonna’s 1985 smash number one back in the charts this week at 40? No, me neither, even if Into The Groove is still fab over 40 years on! Tikkety Tokkety or something I expect. Meanwhile Scottish DJ Ewan McVicar debuts Share The House at 38, his 2nd top 40 in 6 years.


    Gorillaz debut comfortably at 1 with The Mountain, their 3rd number one from 9 studio albums. Damon Albarn certainly stays busy. The animated band is seeing off a Brits boosted Olivia Dean at 2 and Bruno Mars’ surprisingly low entry at 3 for The Romantic. Given his Gaga and ROSE hits one might have expected more fanbase anticipation. US Singer-songwriter Mitski debuts Nothing’s About To Happen To Me at 4, her 8th album, and PinkPantheress re-enters at 5 with Fancy That for a busy top 5.


    Elsewhere K-pop girl group Blackpink debut at 11 with 3rd Mini Album (Deadline) for a 5th charting hit as the Brits Effect pulls in re-entries for Sam Fender at 28 People Watching, Rosalia’ Lux at 37 following a great show stopper on Berghain, and The 1975’s I Like It….etc at 40. That leaves Paul McCartney extending his album career to a whopping Beatles-inclusive 63 years as Man On The Run OST album pops in at 35. I haven’t seen the streaming TV documentary yet. It’s Macca’s 5th hits compilation. 
  2. Suedehead2’s Substitute Chart Commentary 15th Aug 2025: Demon Hunters back slaying and Time Flies on albums.

    This substitute European heatwave special comes from sweltering Gran Canaria. Other baking venues are available.


    Back up on top after the Chappell Roan surprise release dethroned them for one week, we find The KPop Demon Hunters clan still going Up Up Up with Golden. That makes 2 weeks on top for the movie cast, varied and many, with Soda Pop holding at 6 and Your Idol up to 7. Note spelling, it’s not an accusation: You’re Idle. Previous movie-related golden chart-hits include Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger and the UK number one about the Gold Rush of the American West: Lee Marvin’s 1970 smash Wand’rin Star. That Leaves The Subway down to 2 for Chappell Roan, Dior holds at 4 for MK and Chrystal and No Broke Boys at a new peak of 3 for Disco Lines and Tinache, with Daisies rounding off the top 5 with Justin Bieber, but YUKON climbs to a new peak of 12 so good-news/bad-news for Beliebers.


    Ed Sheeran is at his happiest with multiple chart entries, but the latest is more modest: the Sapphire bop is at 9 while he adds A Little More at 18 for a fourth top 20 of 2025. If I hadn’t lost one vital point in a quiz last night due to me not recognising South Of The Border I would be more pre-disposed to his habitual entire-album charting tendencies: Play is not even out yet! sombr is up a measly two places to a new peak of 17 with the good 12 to 12, and Oasis have yet another 3rd-track syndrome new entry as Cigarettes & Alcohol pops back in over 30 years on at 34. It peaked at 7, hung around in and out of the top 100 for years, and yet this is only the 4th top 40 chart week for it. I was hoping for a Demon Hunter link: The Importance Of Being Idol would have been better for that. Sparks is up to 30 for Coldplay amongst all the ancient tracks yo-yoing as per the norm in the streaming age, and Lola Young lifts her s£aler to 31, while Sammy Virji x Skepta hit a new peak of 36 with Cops & Robbers. There are 2 new entries from tracks I know nothing about coming up.


    TAKEDOWN by TWICE is FROM is A kpop TRACK new at 35. Sorry, no more shouty text! It features in the Demon Hunters movie along with another version, so I’m assuming as the song is also on TWICE’s album it qualifies under that for a 5th charted Demon Hunters song. It’s Down Down Down rather than Up Up Up but just as hyper-active. Sit child in front of TV, add sugary treats and they will be on a high for a couple of hours. Parental Advisory Warning gifted from recent experience. You’re welcome! Denon Reed and Cru2 are new at 37 with Let Him Go, it’s a dance track debut from Birmingham DJ Denon, who sounds like a jeans brand, and Cru2 which is actually a brand designed to reviving bassline events. It’s hyper enough to feature in Demon Hunters if they expanded the genres a bit.


    Over on albums it’s a low-sales week allowing Oasis to return to the top spot with Time Flies. I bought it for a couple of quid in a pre-owned pile so that will never have counted as a sale, nor will my playing of it. Streaming, however lifts it high so the 900th album number one grabs a third week on top as Morning Glory rises to 3, and Definitely Maybe ponders number 7. So in that climate, congrats to The Royston Club getting overt 8,000 punters to shell out cash on Songs To The Spine. The Welsh rock band’s second album goes 12 places higher than their debut did and grab their first top 5, but also new at 2 and the highest of the week is lost americana from mgk - formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly - and it’s his 4th top 40 hit and third top 5 in a row. Shhh nobody mention the Bad Boy label, Interscope have dropped it. A bit like the former name, then. Alex Warren is still Alright, Kid at 5. Gunna, meanwhile, debuts The Last Wun at 9. It’s his 6th album in 6 years, all charting, which shows consistency for the Atlanta rapper if nothing else. We get to number 10 before we have a familiar name entering the chart, and it’s Craig David on his 25th year of album charting with his 9th consecutive top 40 album, Commitment. Craig has 10 in all, including Greatest Hits compilations. Six of the tracks have already been out as singles, including some I’ve bought like In It With You, a collab with JoJo which I rather like.


    New in at 12 with a second top 20 album Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You is US singer-songwriter Ethel Cain. Nice to see Ethel back in use as a name after Ray Stevens did his bit to make it unfashionable in The Streak - “Don’t Look Ethel!”. At 16, it’s Halestorm, sounding like a superhero name in this spelling version, and new album Everest which didn’t quite make the summit. The Pennsylvania rock band are just missing their 4th consecutive top 10 album, dating back to 2015. Just behind at 17 BABYMETAL enter with METAL FORTH, shouty text sneaking back in again. The Japanese female Metal band have been around for 11 years, as Metal Forth becomes their 4th top 40 album in a row. Like Craig, there have been 6 singles ahead of album release, one of which I am partial to - Ratatata a collab with Electric Callboy is a right old romp.
    That concludes this jaunt and I hope everyone is staying cool and hydrated!
  3. Simon is still enjoying hols and in the charts Chappell Roan’s The Subway is her 2nd chart-topper while in albums Renee Rapp gets a first number one.

    The Subway dropped and immediately headed the chart updates during the week, Chappell Roan having quite the pent-up demand since her 2024 breakthrough as material as old as 5 years filtered through to mass popularity following Good Luck Babe finally getting her that break. Notably Pink Pony Club hit the UK top spot 5 years late, making The Subway her first chart-topper with new material. The video shows her on the Subway doing a Cousin Itt impression which should be a good enough reason for anybody to stream it. This was bad news for the still-popular Golden - HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast are shoved down to 2 while the other two Demon Hunters songs both climb too, meanwhile, as the boy demons singing Soda Pop climb to 6 as Your Idol climbs to 8 for a hat trick of top 10‘s. There likely would be even more in the top 40 were it not for the 3-song-limit, send any thanks to Ed Sheeran for that. For the record, the acts on both are: Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast. If only Betty Boo could do a collab with Kevin Woo just so I can enjoy the artist credit. Featuring LaRoux, please.

    Justin Beiber is down to 3 with his Daisies as Yukon climbs to a new peak of 24, and Dior slides to 4 for MK and Chrystal. Disco Lines & Tinashe are up to 5 with No Broke Boys and the other slots in the top 10 are dropping tracks Manchild at 7, Blessings at 9 and Sapphire at 10. Outside the top 10, sombr makes it 4 top 20’s as the good 12 to 12 is up 12 places to 19, and Oasis enter at 31 with Slide Away replacing last week’s 3rd-placed Oasis track re-entry Wonderwall, the first chart appearance for the track therefore gives Oasis a 28th top 40 hit 31 years since it appeared on Definitely Maybe, though it was also on B sides of big hits in the olden days when B sides could contribute to physical sales. The album is at 6 this week, 3rd of 3 for Oasis in the top 10. Lola Young’s D£aler is up one to 33 and Coldplay reach a new peak with another vintage album track, Sparks at 36.



    On albums, Renee Rapp enters at 1 with BITE ME, with around 10,000 physical sales. Renee (no accents on the final “e” on my laptop, sorry Renee!) is a 25-year-old US singer-songwriter and actor, who has starred in Broadway shows and now reaches the top with her second album, Snow Angel having peaked at 7 2023. Oasis ain’t shifting from 2 and 3 with their Time Flies compilation and Morning Glory, and that leaves Alex Warren hanging in at 4 with You’ll Be Alright Kid. Or if it were an Oasis album You’ll Be Ahright ah kid. Back into the top 5 we have Fleetwood Mac 50 Years: Don’t Stop, which is how long I expect the (admittedly great) Hits album to be charting.

    Richard Hawley returns at 16 with his classic album Coles Corner getting a new peak chart placing after inexplicably peaking at 37 first time out. Presumably it’s a 20th anniversary version and one to check out if the Mercury-nominated album is unfamiliar. Coles Corner is historically a meeting place for lovers in Sheffield. It’s not as romantic as it sounds as it’s named after a department store that has gone the way of most department stores. Thank you Amazon. Maybe someone can release an album called Amazon Parcel Pick-Up Point Near The Bingo Hall for our local equivalent. You can pick up the other half and your latest parcel for a Twofer. Not quite as romantic sounding though.

    Roger Waters, he once of Pink Floyd, is back in new at 20 with a live album “Roger Waters: This Is Not a Drill - Live from Prague”. Having one’s name in the title makes it sound like one is talking to oneself, which may or not be the case these days, but it is his 3rd live album to make the top 40, adding to his 58-year career including Pink Floyd albums. It’s also his 8th top 40 including studio albums going back to 1984, the last of which was a remake of Dark Side Of The Moon in 2023. New in at 31 Cian Ducrot has Little Dreaming. I’ve seen the name around a lot but Haven’t really been aware of the career - he’s an Irish Singer-songwriter who arrived via Tik Tok in 2022, and a number one album in the UK with Victory, but album 2 is a bit more modest in name and chart position. Finally, Ozzy Osbourne’s The Essential is back in at 40 to join the Black Sabbath Ultimate Collection at 36 inside the top 40.


    My next epistle will be from Playa Del Ingles, late booking. Que tal, chicos! Manyana!
  4. Suedehead2 Chart Commentary 1st August 2025: The K‘s slay on singles & albums: KPop Demon Hunters and The K’s.


    Justin Bieber’s Jack Johnson-ish ballad might have been expected to hang on to the top spot after just one week reigning, but Daisies was up against repeat viewings of the KPop Demon Hunters by little kids. Children have a voracious appetite to repeat play faves so I’m putting the climb to the top spot for Golden down to that. I look forward with dread to future pop quiz questions asking who had the number one hit in 2025 with Golden - there’s no way I will remember HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast so kudos to those of you who have already memorised it! That pushes Daisies, sorry, DAISIES in shouty text, down to 2, and a fashion brand to 3 for MK and Chrystal. The other two Demon Hunters songs both climb too, meanwhile, as the boy demons singing Soda Pop climb to 11 as Your Idol just hangs on to a higher spot at 10.

    Highest new entry at 4 comes from Drake and Central Cee. I won’t bother quoting their new massive totals of top 10 hits as that will no doubt change again in a fortnight and be out of date. Which One they enquire, This trap-rap (rhyming slang) sees Drake sounding even more disinterested as the two of ‘em brag about girls they can pull, and go into some detail about how they do it all. Being rich never looked more attractive, I think we can all agree. I would enjoy the track a lot more if it were an instrumental. Pretty sure Sabrina Carpenter would have something to say to them as the rather good Manchild holds at 5. Other top 10 slots are occupied by Ed Sheeran’s good Sapphire climbing back up to 7, and Disco Lines & Tinashe breaking in at 18. Blessings is at 6 for Calvin Harris & Clementine Douglas and Alex Warren is Ordinary at 9 as t’other ballad plummets from 3 out of the top 10 - Eternity not quite living up to its name...

    Paranoid climbs into the top 20 at 20 for Black Sabbath 6 weeks short of its 55th anniversary, its third run as Ozzy Osbourne tributes continue to impact with Crazy Train entering at 25. The track was Ozzy’s first solo single in 1980 but fell short of the top 40. 45 years on, it finally makes it, and I finally get to listen to it being as Radio One never playlisted it at the time, and it’s more upbeat than I was expecting and hooray for a guitar solo being in an actual 2025 chart. sombr is meanwhile back in the top 40 for a 4th time with new track 12 to 12, a bit more of a bop than previous singles and hopefully will climb from entry slot of 31. It also bizarrely gives sombr 3 tracks adjacent each other, and the even odder thing is Oasis and the KPop Demon Hunters have 2 tracks side by side. As does Lola Young who is also returning, with a 3rd top 40 track at 34, D£aler, sounding as if making sensible life choices is something she could do with a hand with. Fingers-crossed it all works out! Finally, Coldplay’s old album track Sparks returns to the top 40 at a 39 peak. I was hoping it would be Sparks with a new track called Coldplay, but hey ho, not to be.



    Over on albums, Merseyside-band The K’s easily outsold the competition, virtually all 23,000 of them paid-for, and improves on the previous peak of 3 for 2024 album number one, as Pretty On The Internet easily lands on top. I would like to say that sounds like special K’s, but wouldn’t want to risk alienating Kellogg’s for a bit of cheap wordplay. Time Flies, Oasis’ hits package, is going nowhere, up to 2, with Morning Glory holding up at 3. Paul Weller has a new covers album out new in at 5, the best track may be his cover of 1974’s Brian Protheroe minor hit Pinball. With The Jam and The Style Council, Paul has been charting albums for 48 years. Finding El Dorado is incredibly his 18th consecutive top 10 solo studio album in 33 years, and 29th top 40 solo album including hits packages and live albums. Bung in previous groups and he’s on 34 top 10’s.

    In a bumper crop of new entries this week, we have: Alice Cooper: The Revenge Of Alice Cooper in at 9, the first album since 1973 to apparently be credited to the group Alice Cooper as opposed to solo star Alice Cooper. Either way it’s the 9th studio album to go top 10, and the only decade Alice failed to grab a top 10 was the Noughties since the early 70’s in 54 years of charting. Tim Minchin, Aussie comedian, actor, poet and musician/musical creator is new in at 11 with Time Machine - I bet the OCC use a long word for his creativity - his second album to chart in 5 years. Madonna enters the chart with virtually no fanfare or PR that I’ve noticed so it can’t be a studio album at 23 named Veronica Electronica. Google confirms it’s a remix project intended to come out as a Ray Of Light companion circa 1998/9 but never actually released. There’s one unreleased song on it, Gone Gone Gone, which is not bad at all. It’s her first compilation/remix album in 3 years to chart and only her 7th in total, but it’s the first album not to go top 10 except for live albums.

    Talking of live albums... Gary Numan has one out, new at 34, A Perfect Circle (Live at OVO Arena Wembley. It’s his 19th top 40 album in total, dating back to Tubeway Army in 1979. Black Sabbath Paranoid enters the top 40 at 38 for the first time in decades, just as their Ultimate Collection hits a new peak of 14, and Ozzy Osbourne’s Memoirs Of A Madman returns at 32. We get to more-current acts down the bottom end with Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist at 28 with Alfredo 2 - I say more-current, but USA act Freddie is in his 40’s and has been rapping albums since 2013, but this is his first Top 40 UK album. Fellow US veteran The Alchemist is even older at 47 and also has his first UK hit album. Nice to see older acts making it, if nothing else.


    Suedey is still en vacances so see ya next week, but it may be a little delayed as I may be out at a concert. I couldn’t possibly say who, but I might be under the moon of love.
  5. Justin Bieber gets an 8th Number One single and Alex Warren gets a first number one album


    Simon est en vacances, Bon Voyage Simon!


    Meanwhile in the UK, Dior almost hung on for a 3rd week at Number One (other fashion brands are available) for MK featuring Chrystal, though at the weekend a mere 800 copies were between Justin Biebers’ Daisies rising to 2 and Alex Warren’s Eternity entering at 3. In the event Justin scored his 8th number one with Daisies ten years on from his first and his first this decade. I’m hearing it for the first time right now, and it’s rather pleasant - and I’m thankful it’s not the other Daisy song I know, as sung by the malfunctioning computer HAL in 2001: A Space Oddysey as it was being lobotomised after committing murder. Justin’s other 2 album tracks dropped this week along with the album, while Alex Warren possibly might have been setting a new singles chart-record had Ordinary not been knocked down to 7 due to ACR. His new album track, Eternity enters at 3, Bloodline, also on the new album, re-enters at 19 with Jelly Roll. The latter has more oomph to it than Eternity, which was last troubling the top end of the charts as a lacklustre song title from Robbie Williams in 2004. Mk and Chrystal are at 2.


    Sabrina Carpenter drops to 5 with Manchild and the KPop movie Demon Hunters cast alongside HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI on Golden climb to 4. My Great Niece loves that movie and the songs. Makes a change from the fab APT I guess, (which coincidentally is back in at 40) but anyone older than 6 may have other views, or they may not! Your Idol, from the same film, climbs to 14 and the 3rd title from the film is replaced by another track this week: Soda Pop new in at 17. The Latter two tracks have the official marathon billing: Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast, Uncle Tom Cobbley & All. Outside the top 5 Ed Sheeran’s Sapphire also drops a tad to 9 as Lewis Capaldi survives one more week at 10, leaving Fred Again.., Skepta & PlaqueBoyMax taking that Victory Lap a little too soon at 8, dropping along with the PlaqueBoyMax may wish to change his toothpaste and just go by Max as he goes on. At 6, Calvin Harris & Clementine Douglas drop from 3.


    Other tracks peaking include Disco Lines & Tinashe up to 12, which take me back to the 70’s when discos had lines and I had a Tache. ‘Taches are back in fashion, if Benson Boone is any guide, and his Beautiful Things up to 11 feels like it’s been around since the late 70’s while his fabulous Mystical Magical is sadly dropping out much too soon. The chart rules are often mysterious. Oasis are affected by the 3-track-rule as Wonderwall returns at 27 after many previous chart runs dating back to 1995 and increasing the number of unique years it has appeared inside the top 75 to 6. Acqiuesce exits after 2 weeks on the chart. Funny old chart rule as tracks come and go then come back again. Some Might Say it’s nonsense, but some might Roll With It. I just stress The Importance Of Being Idle. There is one other re-entry this week, as Sammy Virji & Skepta take Cops & Robbers back to its previous peak of 39. Finally, Ozzy Osbourne passed away this week, the original voice of Black Sabbath coming back to global celebrity in the early 2000’s with his family reality show. Loveable to many, and a rapscallion to some, Ozzy always did things his own way right to the end and his final Home-ground concert 2 weeks ago despite not being at all well. There could be no better tribute than seeing Paranoid rapidly enter the top 40 for a third time, first in 1970 when it peaked at 4 for the Sabbath, then again in 1980 hitting number 14, and now a hat-trick at 32 55 years on from debuting as a monster Metal anthem. The Ultimate Black Sabbath meanwhile re-enters at 22 on the album chart, just 2 places lower than its previous peak of 20. R.I.P. Ozzy.




    Alex Warren has released an extended version of his long-running 2024 EP You’ll Be Alright Kid Part 1. So it is now essentially a double album with new tracks to add to the hits from the EP, giving it the push it needed to get a serious attempt at the top spot. Job done? By Wednesday it was holding off the triple Oasis threat remaining in the top 5 as last weeks new entries tumble, and the new album from Tyler The Creator. It was a close thing, but in the end it was Alex Warren that edged out on top. Tyler got his 8th top 40 album with Don’t Tap The Glass not quite able to get a second number one album following on from Chromakopia in 2024, new in at 2 in his decade-long chart career. That leaves Time Flies at 3, and the first two studio albums for Oasis at 4 and 5. It’s amazing what a reunion can do for back catalogue sales!

    Elsewhere in the top 40, Joe Bonamassa is on his 10th solo top 40 studio album in 16 years, and 20th overall including live albums and collaborations as Breakthrough enters at 38, which is pretty consistent for an act that is largely based on word of mouth and live tours, not troubling singles charts or radio or television that much. Lower down new entries for Welsh Band Panic Shack on their debut album of the same name at 32 and Lewisham rapper Jim Legxacy on afrobeats Mixtape black british music (2025) new at 29.

    See you next week!
  6. Alex Warren holds at 1 on the Single Track chart, and The Lottery Winners lucky number comes up in albums. That number is 1.


    Alex Warren makes it week number 2 at number one for Ordinary, a great ballad with gospel choir touches, making it the first time since Kate Bush was Running back Up That Hill that my personal chart and the Official Chart have the same number one. Alex’s previous good hits also get a boost with Carry You Home at a new peak of 10 (and his second top 10 hit) and Burning Down is up to 23. It’s neck and neck on streaming “sales” for Chappell Roan and Doechii at 2 and 3 - except that Chappell’s The Giver has dropped from 2 to 5 and her Pink Pony rears back up to leap over Gotye. Sorry, I mean Doechii’s Anxiety. Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things, meanwhile, really don’t know when to confess they have lost their sparkle after a year clogging up the charts at 4, though his much fresher Harry-Styles-ish Sorry I’m Here For Someone Else is back up, to a new peak of 24, which is good news.

    The upper end of the chart is otherwise giving me a sense of Groundhog Day, bar Gaga’s relatively newie Abracadabra, until one gets down to a climber for WizTheMc & bees & honey who want to Show Me Love at 14. Using commas instead of ampersands will be enough, thanks, mates. Drake is up to a new peak of 12 with NOKIA. I have literally, as I type this, just had 3 calls from a random woman claiming I rang her and wanting to know why. I have made zero calls on my mobile today, and that incident is only marginally less annoying than a new Drake track wittling on about himself and the trials of being rich and famous. Lots of famous rich people give it all up for a less stressful life. Just saying.

    Ravyn Lenae sounds like a club under the arches in London, but the American singer is very much not a dancehall. Love Me Not is up to a new peak of 19, and it sounds like a decent r'n'b tinged pop record, with a vocal that really is quite pleasant. Lil Tecca meanwhile has Dark Thoughts at 20, climbing up from 30. Given the furore about the seven dwarfs in Snow White, I’m surprised anyone still feels the need to re-re-re-re-use the term “Lil” unless that is Lil as short for Lillian. I just googled. It’s not. Tyler-Justin Sharpe is a perfectly good name for a rapper/singer and this track despite the obligatory autotune is fairly decent.

    New entry: Leon Thomas debuts at 26 with MUTT. I love dogs, and records featuring them - Who let the dogs out! Ruff Mix! He’s A Tramp! Mutt Lange! Leon is an American soul-singer-songwriter, and is something of a throwback to earlier decades in the musical roots department, which comes as a nice surprise to this old Soul fan. I’ll forgive the B word, as it might be about another dog not his ex. Ely is a great old Biblical name which one of my great-great-uncles had, so nice to see it back in vogue up two place to 36 with Ely Oaks taking dance track Runnin’ Around into the charts. Ely is from Austria, and I’m not entirely sure my great-great-uncle would have enjoyed this OK track being as he was more likely to have been singing along to The Pirates Of Penzance in the 19th century. That leaves Adele's Hometown Glory oldie up two to 29 and 2 re-entries, Olivia Dean's Bridget Jones track is back at 40 and Sonny Fodera and Clementine Douglas' Tell Me at 39. I get very nostalgic for 1960's USA when I hear names like Sonny & Clementine are now back in fashion.


    *********************************


    In the album charts, it’s straight in on top for The Lottery Winners with these-days decent sales of over 11,000 for KOKO, almost all of them paid-for. Streamers might not be fans, but the band is good and the current and previous singles You Again (with the fabulous Reverend And The Makers) and current Radio 2 A/B list Turn Around, both great. Their previous studio album, Anxiety Replacement Therapy, topped the album chart two years ago and it’s their 4th top 40 album in 5 years. Guests on the album include Shed Seven, who recently dropped the fabulous single Waiting For The Catch, Frank Turner, and the very unexpected Chad Kroeger of Nickelback fame/infamy (delete as appropriate). The latter song is Ragdoll, not to be confused with the Four Seasons classic and is clearly the best track Chad has been on in 20 years. The number 3 slot is comfortably grabbed by Deacon Blue, 36 years into their album chart career. The Scottish band had a long run of hit singles from 1987 through to the mid-90’s and recent airplay from Radio 2 as well has helped a bit of a revival for their best material in 30 years. They last topped the album chart in 1988 with When The World Knows Your Name, but The Great Western Road gets them a highest chart position in 34 years and keeps up their ongoing revival in fortune in the 2020’s in terms of radio-friendly 80’s-referring good singles, not least Late ’88 and current fave Turn Up Your Radio. It’s also their 11th top 40 album, they’ve never flopped, and their 5th top 10.

    Sabrina Carpenter is holding at 2 with her ever-present Short n’ Sweet, the recent addition of new tracks not hurting one iota, while Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco have an unlikely collaboration on the heels of recent minor hit single Call Me When You Break Up (with added Gracie Adams) and the current excellent Sunset Blvd which deserves to be a huge hit, but probably won’t be. I Said I Love You First enters at 4 to become Selena’s 4th studio album in 12 years, and only the second to go top 10. Quite apart from her music career, I love her in the fabulous Only Murders In The Building with Steve Martin and Martin Short and a host of famous names. Benny Blanco has had quite the career as music producer/songwriter since 2008 and artist since 2018 but no previous charting albums under his own name. Hit collaborations include quality pop like Hot ‘n’ Cold, Teenage Dream, California Gurls and I Kissed A Girl (Katy Perry), Dynamite (Taio Cruz), Moves Like Jagger (Maroon 5), Diamonds (Rihanna) some Ed Sheeran monsters, and just about everybody significant in the music industry since 2008. So he’s quite good then!

    Lady Gaga’s Mayhem, not to be confused with Imelda May’s Mayhem, may, ahem, be the first or second-best album with that title. I haven’t decided yet, but I did buy the lovely Imelda’s album after seeing her in concert and having a chat while she signed her debut album for me. Gaga, to date, hasn’t been too fussed about having a chat with me. It’s her loss, clearly! Anyway Gaga is at 5, and the next new entry is at 16 for The Horrors. My old mucker John used to greet stress at work with an impression of Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now: “The. Horror!” and that’s what I always think of when I hear their name. Night Life is the Sarfend-on-Sea band’s 6th studio album since 2007 and the 4th to go top 20. Lower down the top 40, Alex Warren just scrapes in with his album You’ll Be Alright Kid (Chapter 1) debuting at 30, no doubt from all the streaming success of the 3 singles rather than belated physical sales, and the rest of the chart is comprised of albums plummeting, streaming hit compilations albums grabbing a one millionth week on the chart collectively (note: Maths may not be a strong point) and Teddy Swims’ I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy Parts 1 and 2 and presumably to be joined by 3 and 4 at some stage.