threepiecesuit

I think whoever said it would go 1-9 was being over optimistic, more like 1-35! I admit that this text download gambit is ingenious, but I don't think it can compete with the marketing might of Leona and a performance on X-Factor. I think TT's record will easily sell far more over time as well, even if it doesn't reach as high a peak.

It depends really on several factors, and I presume it will become clearer nearer to the date of release. I must say that I think it's going to be between Take That and Leona, as McFly can only just about manage a number one by REALLY hyping the single and getting the fanbase going in a slow week with low single sales - surely they can't compete this time round? Take That have the bonus over Leona of a few thousand hardcore people who will definitely buy the single the moment it comes out on a physical CD. They've also been away for a while, so it'll be a novelty to see them, and the HUGE advantage that 1.7m people or whatever it was just bought their album, and so are a solid potential market for a hitherto unreleased single. Also, the song is quite good. Leona however has the benefit of being away a REALLY long time, so her return will no doubt be hyped to high heaven, and the advantage of a performance on the X-factor. She is a good live singer so there is unlikely to be any promo disasters, but can't acquit herself as well in interviews as Take That, who are extremely affable and have had much more practice. Having heard the song, it doesn't sound like the sort of thing many stereotypical singles buyers would be interested in - rather people would be more likely to wait for the album, possibly impacting performance in the chart. Based on those factors, I think Take That would edge it. However, there's so much more which is still to be decided - airplay stats, number of single formats, marketing spend, TV promo, quality of the video etc. - it's really hard to decide without these things.

You're all making me feel far too young to wade in! My first CD single was Michael Jackson - You Rock My World, first CD album was Craig David - Born To Do It (rubbish, it was a gift)

I think it takes more than just existing fans to get a record into the top 20, particularly one Radio 1/2 didn't take to. And why precisely shouldn't his fans be loyal if he has a fantastic voice and tremendous songs? Nothing 'suspicious' about it, we aren't innocently posing as Darren Hayes fans in order to perpetrate a huge international coverup of a dastardly organised crime syndicate. As far as I know anyway. Considering the track got practically no airplay, no TV/outdoor/newspaper adverts, no TV interviews etc.. and he has been away for 3 years since the last album, I rather think congratulations are in order for no. 20.

Top 10, top 5 if airplay really takes off and the competition isn't up to much - I predict the album to go top 3 on the back of it though.

Top 5 at least, can see it being a no.1, especially with all the promo he's doing.

Maroon 5 have come back HUGE this year from their previous success in 2003/4. Robin Thicke has also made a hugely more successful return after his damp squib of an album in 2003. I concur with whoever mentioned Sophie Ellis-Bextor, she did well after the disaster of her 2nd album. Kylie is bound to be a huge success when she returns with the writers and profile she has.

All those people condemning Keane for selling 'badly' with 'loads of promotion' and airplay - I'll concede that the airplay was good (although not spectacular for anything other than Is It Any Wonder) but they did sod all to promote it, barely any television/radio appearances, Tom wasn't even around when 'Nothing In My Way' was released, and the videos, bar Is It Any Wonder again, were all rubbish. The material on that album was a lot less 'radio-friendly' anyway, so it's not like they came out with an album full of Leave Right Now/If There's Any Justice/This Love/You're Beautiful type stuff and that went badly, I think the 800,000+ it sold here (2.5m internationally) was bloody good.

I own EVERYTHING Will Young has ever released, all of Maroon 5's CDs and almost all of George Michael's post-Older stuff inc. CD singles. Everything Keane did post-Hopes and Fears also, CDs, 7" vinyls, DVD album, USB sticks, loads of tour merch...I love collecting things, will miss it all when it's all just downloads :(

anyone else seen this frankly terrifying promo pic? http://www.simonwebbe.net/ridethestorm/images/bg.jpg thankfully it's not the single sleeve, that's a heartwarming picture of him looking thoughtful by a fire or something. Sounds better than I describe it.

I don't know why everyone believes there is such a huge disparity between CDWOW and all of the other places - often their prices are exactly the same as play/HMV.co.uk/amazon/tesco/asda/sainsbury's etc. even if there is a saving on new releases it's usually a quid, not worth it because they take so bloody long to ship. HMV and Virgin may sell their CDs at a BIT of a higher price (like £9.99 instead of £7/8.99) but that's hardly outrageous, and is probably worth paying if you want to see dedicated music stores remain. CDWOW are only really good for importing CDs and DVDs that you can't otherwise get over here, for new releases and almost all UK CDs, other places are usually just as cheap and post faster.

I'm not sure about the cheap Asian labour thing, but you are SO right, all of the news stories claim it is the third largest retailer of CDs online - how rubbish that they don't contribute toward the chart. For a couple of quid cheaper on a CD (many times not even that, supermarkets regularly have CDs at 7.99 and these are the proper UK versions with bonus tracks etc.) it's really not worth it for the damage it does to the industry.

I have! Am LOVING it, all 14 tracks I love, most albums it's like 4 or 5 tracks tops :dance: this is the most 'instant' album I've heard since Keep On, such a quality piece of work. I think 'Makes Me Wonder' overshadows it a bit because of its SHEER BRILLIANCE though, the same way Switch It On does on Keep On... (purely subjective of course :) )

OMG this is TOTALLY different to his other stuff isn't it :o am quite liking actually, it's a good bet a lot of his fans won't, however. I think Grace is still the better side though.

I only really like Relax (Take It Easy) it's streets ahead of the rest of the album IMHO.

bought Sophie Trip The Light Fantastic and M5 It Won't Be Soon Before Long from HMV - Sophie's been utterly neglected so far because I'm loving Maroon 5 so much. Depressing sight in HMV though, singles rack has been downsized even more than what it already was, and now you can't even see it if you squint when you walk in, it's got the same amount of space as the t-shirts :-( x a million

I don't believe he has been dropped. His official website is still live and being updated, he is embarking upon a tour very shortly. His first album sold 700,000 copies, slowly, it never reached a particularly high chart position and didn't really get going until 'No Worries' and 'After All This Time'. His second was released in December I believe, and just got buried amongst all the other things crowding the charts, according to wikipedia it's sold about 90,000 copies so far in the UK, although figures for other countries are unknown, and Simon has always done very well abroad. It is true that the second single taken from 'Grace', 'My Soul Pleads For You', did poorly, no.45 is unacceptable, but promo was lacklustre, the song wasn't commercial, the radio edit was atrocious, the video was horrible and it got no airplay. A masterclass in bad management. His singles performance has never been very strong, so far his releases have gone 4 (Lay Your Hands) 4 (No Worries) 16 (After All This Time) 12 (Coming Around Again) and 45 (My Soul pleads For You). On the 18th of June he is releasing a track taken from the soundtrack of the new fantastic 4 film 'Ride The Storm' as a double A-side with 'Grace', undoubtedly the best song on the album, as good as No Worries IMHO. Promo is starting soon, he's done a few radio interviews recently to promote the tour, then there's the National Lottery appearance on the 30th, I believe his album is being re-released soon with some extra tracks/better cover art/more promo perhaps. His record label is 'Innocent' which is a bit of a strange offshoot of EMI, he appears to be their only artist with any level of success. The reason all his stuff sounds the same is because almost exactly the same writing team (him, Tim Woodcock [ben Mills - Beside You] and Matt Prime [sophie Ellis-Bextor - Me and My Imagination, Will Young - Free] were used for both albums. I hope he comes back and shifts enough albums to warrant a third, he's certainly better than bloody Lemar.

He is going to get torn apart for this mum thing, here's hoping Popjustice thinks it's just too sad to make fun of.

1. Will Young - Switch It On 2. Keane - Is It Any Wonder 3. Darren Hayes - Pop!ular 4. Will Young - Your Game 5. Tyler James - Foolish 6. George Michael - Amazing 7. Nate James - The Message what a decade it has been. Honourable mentions go to - 8. Keane - Somewhere Only We Know/This Is The Last Time/Everybody's Changing 9. Simon Webbe - No Worries 10. Will Young - Who Am I/All Time Love 11. Justin Timberlake - Rock Your Body/Like I Love You 12. Maroon 5 - Harder To Breathe

thankyou so much for putting that up! I absolutely adore it.

I think you'll find his first album did MUCH worse when it was released, it went in even lower and sold far less - he's always been a slow, steady seller who probably gets most of his sales from the supermarkets, I don't doubt this album will manage half a million after a few good singles, 'My Soul Pleads For You' and 'Grace' are very nice.

Nate James 'The Message' IS a fantastic song, he deserves his million just for that...

This album redefines the word 'filler'. That said however, I don't mind paying a princely nine quid for the 5 or 6 very good tracks - LOVE 'Coming Around Again', 'Grace', 'Take Your Time' and 'My Soul Pleads For You' in particular. To be honest if one takes the good songs from Sanctuary and Grace, THERE you have a decent album. It's worth buying to support him anyway, he is a lovely guy and has a very nice voice, autotuned or not. He did a suprisingly good rendition of 'Coming Around Again' on the live lounge last week, proving that while he's probably had a little bit of help with his pitch he can 'cut it' - I'd go and see him live now I'm assured it wouldn't be too dire.

Will Young absolutely TOWERS over everyone else I've ever heard live, I know it's unlikely that someone could outclass the competition by SUCH a wide margin, but I'm disappointed by live renditions from every other artist that just can't measure up to the recorded version. Perhaps the only competition would come in the form of the first Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian who can produce similarly note PERFECT performances. Adam Levine of Maroon 5 has a lovely live voice, Maroon 5's acoustic album is worth picking up, George Michael from the recordings I've heard has a brill live voice, and I've got a very good Darren Hayes live recording, so I would say all those 3 are good live singers. There are a couple of course I've heard who are DIRE compared to some fantastic studio recordings, but I'll keep it nice for this thread. :)

I think it is quite easy to work out what the possible setlist will be, it'll constitute around 18 songs like his last I imagine, certainly not less, maybe a couple more because of the amount of material - let's say 20. - first, he has to include a certain number of singles he's released - second, the tour is billed as 'KEEP ON' live so certain amount will have to be from this album - third, look at what he did in the arena tour + mini-tour last time, he won't want to repeat much I imagine I think from the singles he has released, he will drop evergreen, LMF, Y&I....there is a CHANCE he could bring back funked up version of ONE of them, but if he did any more than that from 'pre-LRN' days I'd be suprised...he'll HAVE to keep LRN as it is 'his' song, YG I imagine will be in, ditto FC - and of course regrettably all of the KO singles, SIO, ATL and WAI.... -likely also he will do A Cover similar to the last arena tour I imagine he will do ALL the tracks from Keep On.... also it is probably sensible to think he'll put in a few from FC that perhaps didn't get enough emphasis in last arena tour/he just likes more than the others....I imagine these to be Free, Very Kind and possibly Out Of My Mind thus it is reasonable to deduce the setlist will closely resemble: 1. Pre LRN Song 2. A Cover 3. Leave Right Now 4. Your Game 5. Friday's Child 6. Switch It On 7. All Time Love 8. Who Am I 9. Keep On 10. ASABPTB 11. Happiness 12. Think It Over 13. Madness 14. Save Yourself 15. All I want 16. Think About It 17. Home 18. Free 19. Very Kind 20. Out Of My Mind he is quite hard to predict, note quirky choice of 'Over You' last time and presence of 'random' cover 'in The Stone' but I would be REALLY suprised if there were much deviation from this