-Jay-

I've updated the "Sales Breakdown" post! I think the Chart Run Comparisons post is maybe a bit too much work to keep updating on a weekly basis, but I'll consider fully updating it after Christmas - probably less time consuming to do that x

Updated!

I’m fairly sure these YouTube Music play counts are partly derived from video uploads on YouTube? So Free Me’s 1m isn’t 1m streams in addition to its YouTube video view counts, it incorporates them. Sound quality, I feel it ultimately comes down to the ear of the beholder, so if someone prefers a particular service and thinks it sounds better than another then that’s totally valid imo. Strictly speaking though regarding specs, YouTube is 256kbps lossy and Spotify is now lossless, so technically speaking YouTube Music is inferior quality. YouTube doesn’t utilise an equaliser, whereas Spotify does (although that setting can be turned off) which may be why YouTube Music seems to sound better to some people than Spotify does (at least, when Spotify was also lossy - I’ve not heard it since it changed to lossless). I’m on Apple Music at the moment because of using a free trial, and I appreciate the sound quality of it… but it’s hard for me not to feel like gravitating back to Spotify once it’s done. I find the Spotify interface, as well as desktop/phone/other device syncing, to be far more intuitive than other services. Apple Music desktop on windows is horrendous. YouTube Music doesn’t have folders for playlists, or at least it didn’t when I last tried it (which I find annoying from an organisational point of view), and neither does it have the ability to scrobble to last.fm (personally important for me) so those are dealbreakers! (I appreciate this is very off topic to launch into this lol)

Ooh she's hitting us with a banger! Looking forward to hearing the full thing... must be imminent now surely!

This was my feeling too after the first listen! I certainly enjoyed the overall experience, but I need some more time for certain songs to hit me.

I regard Midnight Sun (the song) as being a career highlight, so definitely a favourite from this album! I personally think Crush is great too. I think those were solid choices. Pretty Ugly... it's very rambuctious and I do get the thinking behind starting the era with something attention grabbing. That song was only ever going to be a first single or not released at all... I guess a few would rather the latter had happened. I think it's fun for what it is, but if the idea was to start the era off with a quirky bang, then perhaps Hot & Sexy would be my choice. Or just kick the era off with Midnight Sun (song) tbh. What's done is done! Of the new songs, Blue Moon is the gem for me. On the whole I think the album is rather strong. I concur that the release date is a little puzzling - I feel like the album would have hit different back in July.

So far I've heard Zara Larsson (wall to wall bangers ) and Doja Cat (great stuff on there but a little overlong, may need some time with a few of the tracks)

I hope Chemistry can at least sneak into the Top 40, but my gut feeling is that it won't. In my dreams it would be a long awaited Top 10.

That was on 856,628 in June 2009, so if Taller in More Ways sales are anything to go by then Three won't be close to 900,000. 😔 I think what's quite surprising is that Overloaded The Singles Collection still isn't 3xPlatinum! If any Sugababes album is going to generate sales because of the way streaming is, it would be this album. 650,839 in June 2009.

I hope these physicals are not particularly limited because I can't order it yet! I'd be surprised if it makes the midweeks, it is #3 on iTunes though, so whether it generates enough to make at least a low Top 100 appearance, we'll see...!

Don't be shy, pop fans, discover an incredible artist's back catalogue

Ooh about time for Taller in More Ways! It was on 887,264 sales in June 2009, so it took 16 years and 3 months to sell 12,736 🤯 Helped along by its vinyl release a few months ago.

I’m loving the “new” songs I received the picture disc earlier; just like the last two albums, the quality of the cover/sleeves are great. Should be receiving the CD this afternoon! Will have to wait a bit before getting the pink vinyl but I will eventually.

06.5 Idle Town 06.5 Grow 07.0 Generation Why 06.5 Crush Culture 06.0 The Other Side 06.5 The King 07.5 Checkmate 07.5 Comfort Crowd 10.0 Maniac 08.0 The Story 09.0 Wish You Were Sober 08.5 Heather 09.0 The Cut That Always Bleeds 07.5 Fake (with Lauv) 10.0 Overdrive 08.0 Astronomy 11.0 People Watching 09.5 Telepath 08.0 Jigsaw 09.0 Memories 08.0 Yours 09.5 Disaster 09.5 Never Ending Song 08.5 Winner 09.0 Killing Me 09.5 Lonely Dancers 09.0 Alley Rose 07.0 Holidays 09.5 This Song 10.0 Vodka Cranberry 09.0 Caramel 09.0 Actor His discography is so stellar, I actually downgraded a few of the above scores by 0.5, to try and give my super faves more more of a boost x

Not that I've listened to much of The Prodigy but the sound of this was kind of giving me them? Interesting song though, definitely commands attention, I think it could grow!

Total stabs in the dark! Win - Paige Three First Out - Bonnie Ann Clyde

Also joining the "I must be listening to something else" team, I think this is great!Rather sensual, I enjoy the vibe!

A couple of days to go! I think of all the new albums I'm most looking forward to hearing Doja Cat's! Although I'll be listening to the unreleased Girls Aloud songs first as a priority. Any more predictions?

I've not listened yet!

I believe it's the case that Cardi B needed a few recent streaming hits in order to be able to create a bigger splash for her album in the UK. It's not a guarantee that "no hit singles = the album goes to #1 or Top 10 regardless". The majority of the artists who pull that off here, they're not Hip-Hop or R&B artists. They typically rely on streaming, and if that's lacking, well... I think midweek #37 indicates that Cardi hadn't established herself well enough to be able to afford the luxury of a 7 and a half year gap between debut and follow up, not outside of the US at least. I can imagine that her worldwide chart placements are going to be along the lines of how she's doing in the UK. By the way, Invasion of Privacy reached #59 in the physical album chart, so she's not previously proven herself to be a strong physical seller. As mentioned, her label hasn't played the formats game here to the extent that a lot of artists do these days, so that doesn't help matters.

My most scrobbled albums since my account started in 2012! (Edit 19/10/2025: image wasn't working anymore, oops x)

#Jayseph knows what's good re: Drums! Sorry to those who cannot feel the vibes xx @JosephBoone I did vote for Sweet by them too, but 22 points between us wasn't quite enough for Top 40 @AllStarBySmashMouth

A little worse than that, it reached #23! It is apparently the case that they were booked for a performance on The X Factor to perform My Heart Takes Over, but it fell through. It was never confirmed, just rumoured. If that's true, that would have been a huge blow to the campaign. Without that, the late November "Q4" release date for On Your Radar was incredibly bold of them, and in the end they got lost in the shuffle. Not helped, of course, by it being released off the back of My Heart Takes Over, which at the time was their worst selling single to date with shortest time spent in the chart. The main album releases that week were Rihanna, One Direction, Westlife and Kate Bush. On Your Radar's first week sales of 18,044 weren't bad by their own standards - but evidently not enough for that time of year. Top 10 that week required a minimum of 34,754 sales. Here's a list of the previous The Saturdays albums and their first week sales, compared to what they'd have needed to sell in On Your Radar's release week to match those positions: 22,393 at #11 for Chasing Lights [#11 sold 34,107 in On Your Radar's release week] 15,021 at #9 for Wordshaker [#9 sold 41,430 in On Your Radar's release week] 22,981 at #3 for Headlines [#3 sold 115,445 in On Your Radar's release week] It was a badly timed release when there was no particular evidence that their sales would suddenly jump up significantly from their previous three. It would have been far safer and more sensible if they'd released the album a week or two after All Fired Up. #10 albums only needed around 12,000 sales in September 2011. As for the album not reaching Gold yet - re: streaming, assuming that All Fired Up and Notorious are its two most streamed songs per week currently (the streams of which are then downgraded to the average of the rest of the album), that leaves My Heart Takes Over & the album tracks to generate the streaming sales... and that won't be much. On Your Radar was on 60,990 sales in October 2013, before the introduction of streaming sales in March 2015. Presumably it didn't sell that much between those dates. This is purely an example because I don't know what its sales would have been in March 2015, but if we were to say its sales were 61,500 by that point... since then, it would have needed to sell about 70 copies a week on average to have made it to 100,000 as of this week. I don't think it'll be managing that. I would be surprised if it's managing to generate 10 copies a week via streaming sales tbh. To sell approaching 40,000 in the last decade would be a very tall order for what is essentially a flop album. Wordshaker was on 85,506 sales in October 2013 and that still isn't Gold/100k, which probably puts into perspective their album sales through streaming. Although that album was unavailable for a few years, it was brought back to download/streaming in August 2018... so in 7 years, it hasn't managed 14,500! Another thing about On Your Radar is that they abandoned the album upon its release, with no further singles - their first album to not have a post-album single. So they didn't even try to turn things around for it. In that sense I think it's kind of fortunate that it even made it to silver certification.

Hyped

My expectations are so low! ☹️