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May 23

Charts – 19 May 2013

Posted on Thursday, May 23, 2013 by Paul in Music

It wasn’t just Eurovision this week!   There’s also a batch of new entries, none of which is troubling Daft Punk in the slightest!

38.  Gabrielle Aplin – “Please Don’t Say You Love Me”

This was a number 6 hit in February.  It’ll be back because of a spillover effect from the release of her album this week.

36.  Birdy – “People Help The People”

This was on The Voice… er, two weeks ago.  Delayed effect?  Or was it just listed as a discount track on Amazon?

27.  Mariah Carey (featuring Miguel) – “#Beautiful”

Climbing from last week’s 39, and it’s still climbing on iTunes – so perhaps this isn’t quite the dud it first appeared.  But the midweek chart doesn’t show it going much further.

23.  Tich – “Dumb”

Tich is a 19-year-old songwriter who used to go by the name Rachel Furner, but who has been rebranded with what is claimed to be her lifelong nickname.  It’s nowhere to be seen on the midweeks, so I can’t imagine the record company will be thrilled.  The single itself isn’t bad, and I’d have expected it to do better.  But clearly something hasn’t quite connected here.

She is not to be confused with Ian “Tich” Amey, the guitarist from 1960s band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich.

18.  Olly Murs – “Dear Darlin'”

This is going to be the third single from Murs’ current album, and it suddenly started picking up downloads as an album track during the week – it was nowhere to be seen in the midweeks.  So as you can imagine, it’s set to climb next week.  Despite the awkwardly “endearing” title, it’s one of his better singles, vaguely gesturing in the direction of Massive Attack.  (Only vaguely, though.)

12.  Stooshe – “Slip”

This is more like it.  But the Motown-themed girl band are starting to look like a rather troubled project.

Their album London with the Lights On was originally due out last June, and it’s finally going to limp out at the end of the month.  They got off to a good start with last year’s “Love Me” (number 5) and “Black Heart” (number 3), but then an inexplicable cover version of TLC’s “Waterfalls” stalled at 21.  That seems to have been universally recognised as a bad idea – the band themselves publicly blamed the record company and disowned the track, and then helpfully explained that the reason their album had been delayed was because they were fighting with the label over its content.

“Slip” is a return to what worked for them on the first two singles, and it’s a shame they haven’t managed to get it into the top 10.  A number 26 place in the midweeks indicates makes clear that this won’t be a hit on the scale of their first two singles.

10.  Sub Focus (featuring Alex Clare) – “Endorphins”

The fourth and biggest hit for producer Nick Douwma, beating the number 12 peak of “Tidal Wave” from the tail end of last year.  The video is a hilariously heavy-handed “down with the man” job, and I don’t think comedy is what they were going for.

Singer Alex Clare previously had hits as a guest on Rudimental’s “Not Giving In” and, of course, with “Too Close”.  Bizarrely, he seems to still be unsigned, having been dropped by his label in 2011 (before “Too Close” was used in an Internet Explorer advert and became an international hit).

6.  Wretch 32 (featuring Shakka) – “Blackout”

Rapper Wretch 32 (it’s pronounced “three two”) had three top five hits in 2011 – and then saw his next three releases scrape the bottom end of the top 40.  So there’ll be a lot of relief that this track sees a return to commercial form.  It’s quite good, in fact – the hook seems to be the result of somebody messing about with “wood block” and “gamelan” synth presets, but at least it stands out.

Shakka’s a singer from London making the now-traditional debut as a guest on somebody else’s record.

3.  Demi Lovato – “Heart Attack”

The first major UK hit for Demi Lovato, who started off on the Disney Channel’s Camp Rock before graduating to her own show Sonny With a Chance.  Disney Channel stars generally haven’t had great success in crossing over to the UK singles chart – with the obvious exception of Miley Cyrus, but she’s a special case.  Lovato has had a few minor hits before, but her previous best was her comeback single “Skyscraper”, which only made number 32.

“Heart Attack” is maybe a little bit busy, but she’s certainly got a voice on her (her borderline hysterical vocal was the best thing about “Skyscraper”).  This is going to drop out of the top ten next week, but it’s already served its purpose of elevating her profile in this country.

1.  Daft Punk – “Get Lucky”

Four weeks at the top, all of them with sales of over 100,000.  That’s almost unheard of (in fact, for the last time it happened, you have to go back to Band Aid 20).  Daft Punk have now broken the half-million sales barrier, but with the album finally out this week and attention moving over there, it looks like this could be it.

On the album chart:

  • “Time” by Rod Stewart at number 1.  Unexpected – Rod Stewart hasn’t had a number 1 album since “Greatest Hits vol 1” in 1979.  It’s not like this was a quiet week for new releases, either.  But he may well have the sort of audience that still buys physical product, and therefore still buys albums, period.
  • “English Rain” by Gabrielle Aplin at 2, which we already mentioned in passing.
  • “Modern Vampires of the City” by Vampire Weekend at 3.  That equals the peak of their previous album “Contra”.
  • “A” by Agnetha Faltskog at 6.  The blonde one from Abba released three albums in the 1980s, and another in 2004, but this is the first time she’s made the top 10.
  • “More Light” by Prima Scream at 12.  That’s the first time one of their studio albums has missed the top ten since their debut “Sonic Flower Groove” back in 1987.
  • “Re Mit” by The Fall at 40.  That’s about usual for a Fall album, though there was a brief fit of national insanity in 1993 that led to them making the top 10 with “Infotainment Scan”.

 

Bring on the comments

  1. Odessasteps says:

    If only she had renamed herself as a tribute to Chrissy Amphlett,

    “I tish myself.”

  2. James says:

    There’s a song on Olly Murs’ album called “What a Buzz” that is reminiscent of Cornershop’s “Brimful of Asha”. I reckon if he released that he’d have a top 5 single.

  3. I do not understand how Daft Punk are selling so many copies of this single. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s just so generic and kinda bland.

    It’s catchy, I’ll give it that, but in the “Why am I still humming that bloody song?” sense, not the “Gotta own that track!” sense.

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