Time for another new number 1 single – and to judge from the iTunes chart, another one that’s likely to spend a single week at the top.  This time, it’s “Twilight” by Cover Drive, a Bajan group who like to style their music as “Cari-pop”.

Hey, guys, you couldn’t work some really incongruous product placement for the Mini into your video, could you?

Thanks.

Cover Drive are genuinely from Barbados, but their actual recording career seems to be centred in the UK. The official history has them being discovered on YouTube as a covers act and whisked to Britain and America by the grace of Polydor, and there are indeed a whole load of acoustic covers of pop songs on their  YouTube channel, though the inclusion of UK-specific oddities such as “All Time Low” by the Wanted makes me wonder just where they fit into the timeline.  (The band name also presumably echoes their roots as a covers band, though a “cover drive” is actually cricket jargon.)

Regardless, they have been brought to Britain, here to begin a career as purveyors of  Caribbean-tinged pop music.  Which is a gap in the market, at least.  Their debut single “Lick Ya Down” reached number 9 in September before crashing out of the chart in three weeks, but this time they seem to have got the formula right.  It’s not exactly dancehall music, but it’s certainly a decent enough pop song.

Number 5 is “Wild Ones” by Flo Rida ft Sia.  This is a pre-release track from Flo Rida’s upcoming album “Only One Rida (Part Two)”, so there’s no actual video for it.  Flo Rida’s previous single “Good Feeling” is still at number 9, and Sia also appears on David Guetta’s “Titanium” at number 2.  It made number 1 in New Zealand, but then that’s where Sia comes from.

The highest climber, at number 7, is “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye ft Kimbra, which has now climbed 36-21-7.  Now it gets to take on the really big releases.

And at number 14 – caution!  Stand clear of the backlash!

Yet, it’s “Born To Die” by Lana Del Rey, the follow-up to “Video Games” (which has been on the chart for three months now, peaking at number 9).  The American backlash has definitely set in with Lana Del Rey, not helped by a performance on Saturday Night Live which is generally agreed not to have been her finest hour.

Strangely, American commentators seem to be getting terribly hung up about whether she’s “authentic”, which is a terribly silly thing to worry about.  Yes, it was probably a bad idea to tell people that her stage name is a combination of Lana Turner and the Ford Del Rey.  It conjures up images of a support act called Humphrey Mondeo.  But authenticity is massively overrated.  Just ask Amy Winehouse.

“Born To Die” isn’t as good as “Video Games”, and I’m certainly getting the impression that Del Rey is more someone with an interesting voice than a good singer as such.  But it’s still a respectable single, and more memorable than a lot of stuff that passes through the top 40.

Number 18 is an old school dance record, complete with a producer you’ve never heard of  – “Get Out Of My Head” by Redlight.

Redlight is one of various names used by producer Hugh Pescod, though he’s never previously charted under any of them.  The woman in the video is presumably uncredited vocalist Nicole Jackson.

At 29, “Drunk” by Ed Sheeran, which is the fourth single from his current album, in the sense that they’re now promoting it with a video.  It’s a break-up song, but fortunately the video isn’t as maudlin as you might fear.

Number 35 is “Never Be A Right Time” by Professor Green, the second single from the current album.  This is the follow-up to his number 1 single “Read All About It” from November.  The video for this has been out since late November; the single version is available; it’s not getting any higher in the iTunes chart; and this looks very much like it’s a flop.  To be fair, it’s a questionable choice of single in the first place.

And scraping the bottom end at number 40, “T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)” by Kings of Pop.  This is a knock-off cover of the upcoming will.i.am single, which features the unlikely guest star combination of Jennifer Lopez and Mick Jagger – making it particularly improbable that anyone actually intended to buy the knock-off version.  But if that’s what comes up on iTunes…