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Sep 9

Charts – 7 September 2014

Posted on Tuesday, September 9, 2014 by Paul in Music

I know, I know – I’ve still got to do All-New Doop.  We’ll get to it.  I’m turning it over in my mind.

In the meantime!

38.  5 Seconds of Summer – “Amnesia”

Fourth single, time for a ballad.  This was officially released as a single on Monday, but it’s on the album which has been out for months.  It’s probably going to climb on Sunday, but not soar.

27.  George Ezra – “Blame It On Me”

This is the follow-up to the number 3 hit “Budapest”.  It’s been climbing from the lower reaches for a few weeks now, having been officially relaxed as a single in mid-August, but for whatever reason it climbs sixteen places this week.

15.  Oliver $ & Jimi Jules – “Pushing On”

Another European dance track brought to you by the diligent licensing department at Ministry of Sound, and with a video presumably generated in-house without reference to the producers.  Oliver $ is from Germany, Jules is from Switzerland.

It is, of course, kludged together from two samples, admittedly rather obscure ones.  The vocal hook comes from “Pushin’ On” by the Quantic Soul Orchestra featuring Alice Russell.

Quantic Soul Orchestra was basically the live project of producer Will Holland, and this was the title track of their album from 2005.  Alice Russell is a British soul singer who’s been releasing albums since 2004, but as far as I’m aware is making her first chart appearance of any sort here.  As for the backing track, that comes from a thunderously obscure source – the Greg Wilson remix of Grace Jones’s 2008 single “Williams’ Blood”.

11.  G.R.L. – “Ugly Heart”

Well.  This is the official debut single from new girl group G.R.L., who were trailed earlier in the year as guests on Pitbull’s number 6 hit “Wild Wild Love”.  That was pretty terrible, and whoever thought the best way to introduce a girl group was to show them fawning around Pitbull on the Playboy Mansion in the video needs his head examined.  Presumably, the he in question was their svengali Robin Antin, also the man who brought us the Pussycat Dolls.

But with expectations appropriately calibrated… this turns out to be an unexpectedly acceptable piece of airplay-friendly pop.  It’s entirely fine.  The video really doesn’t need the line of dialogue at the end, but otherwise, this makes the project look a lot less depressing than the trailer single did.

Overshadowing all of this, however, is the death on Friday of G.R.L. member Simone Battle, which has now been officially ruled a suicide by hanging.

The band have apparently declared their intention to continue as a quartet, but that’s obviously going to have to be judged very, very carefully.

3.  The Script – “Superheroes”

This is the lead single from the Script’s upcoming fourth album.  It’s laser-targeted at the established Script formula, so if you like the Script, well, this is certainly the Script.  It’s word for word Script.  It’s faithful to the Script.  It’s 100% ad lib free.  That’s Johannesberg in the video, with the locals listening politely as some Irish people are heartfelt at them.  Honestly, the bit of the crowd singing at the end of the video is probably the most entertaining bit.

2.  Duke Dumont – “Won’t Look Back”

Good video.  And in the midweeks, this was set to be number 1, which would have been quietly surprising – it would have given Dumont number 1 hits with his first three singles.  But for the first time in a while, sales of the big new releases just didn’t hold up to the end of the week.

The vocal is not a sample, but the singer isn’t credited, and for some reason there was an obvious attempt to build mystery about who it was.  A lot of reviewers seem to have played into that angle.  Apparently it’s now been confirmed as one Yolanda Quartey.  Here she is with her band Phantom Limb.  They do country.

But as I mentioned, Dumont couldn’t keep up his sales for a week, and so…

1.  Lilly Wood & Robin Schulz – “Prayer in C”

A second week!  One of the rare singles of the year to manage it.  It won’t make three – Calvin Harris has a new single out – but it’s still a welcome sight.

On the album chart:

  • “In the Lonely Hour” by Sam Smith returns to 1.
  • “V” by Maroon 5 at 4.  All five of their studio albums have made the top 10 in Britain.  The single “Maps” is at 8.
  • “Creation” by The Pierces at 7.  Two sisters from – well, originally Alabama, but now LA.  This is their fifth studio album, but the UK only started paying attention with the previous one, “You & I”, which got to 4.  Single: “Creation”.
  • “The Day’s War” by Lonely the Brave at 14.  Guitar band from Cambridge who have somehow made it all the way here without meriting a Wikipedia article – which, ironically, may now be the most notable thing about them.  Single: “Backroads”.
  • “Purple Rain – OST” by Prince & The Revolution at 14.  That’ll be the 30th anniversary reissue, a couple of months late.
  • “Blood” by Pulled Apart By Horses at 38.  Indie band from Leeds, making their album chart debut with their third album.  They’ve got a Wikipedia entry.  Single: “Lizard Baby”.  (Everything about this video belongs on the ITV Chart Show.)

Bring on the comments

  1. Liam Tait says:

    Robin Antin is actually a woman, which makes it even more baffling why she would chose to use the playboy aesthetics to launch a girl band.

  2. The original Matt says:

    So I guess you could say she… Lost the battle?

    I’ll see myself out.

  3. errant says:

    The 30th Anniversary reissue of Purple Rain isn’t out yet. This is still the standard version.

    Supposedly it’s coming later this year after the release of his 2 new albums at the end of this month are out of the way.

  4. toaster oven says:

    im so happy for you the foods look great nevertheless we were constantly a good cook keep pursuing the dream people love to eat im one of them lol

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