Alex Warren has an Ordinary Week 2 on top and The Lottery Winners number comes up
Chart · Popchartfreak · 28/03/25 17:55
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.
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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.
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