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Sep 24

Charts – 21 September 2014

Posted on Wednesday, September 24, 2014 by Paul in Music

Pretty much a dead week on the singles chart – there really is almost nothing going on here.

35.  Hozier – “Take Me To Church”

We mentioned this last week when it just missed out on the UK top 40, but scraped the bottom end of the Scottish chart.  And it’s climbing (slowly) on the midweeks, so it might be sticking around for a while after all.  One of those tracks where a vaguely lo-fi arrangement disguises a song with a lot more mainstream appeal than might first appear.  It’s good to see this sort of thing showing up in the chart, though.

11. George Ezra – “Budapest”
10. George Ezra – “Blame It On Me”

Both climbing (8 and 10 places respectively).  Out of nowhere, the singles-buying public has suddenly decided it really likes George Ezra.  Also, there’s literally nothing else happening on this week’s chart to talk about.  I wasn’t kidding about it being dead.

4.  Professor Green featuring Tori Kelly – “Lullaby”

The lead single from his new album “Growing Up In Public”, the title of which is fairly self-explanatory.  It’s been quite a while since his last album – “Read All About It” was number 1 back in 2011 – and the release date on this one has been delayed by several months.  “Lullaby” is Professor Green in emotional mode, much like his last major hit – it’s about his struggle with depression and the suicide of his father, so as you can imagine, it’s not a bundle of laughs.  It’s very sincere, but it’s also very much all there on the surface; I find it rather heavy-handed, but a part of me suspects this may be my problem rather than his.

It’s the chart debut for Tori Kelly,  a Californian singer who’s got three years of records behind her, none of which have previously had any impact.

1.  Sigma featuring Paloma Faith – “Changing”

The follow-up to “Nobody to Love” strikes Sigma’s name off the one-hit wonder list.  Since that track was essentially a bootleg remix of Kanye West’s “Bound 2”, Sigma have little choice but to go in a different direction here.  That direction is, pretty much, “sounding like Rudimental”.  Rudimental do this sort of production better, but the song isn’t bad at all.

Paloma Faith has had six previous singles, but gets her first number 1 here.  Previously, her biggest hits were “Picking up the Pieces” (2012) and “Only Love Can Hurt Like this” (2014), both of which got to 7.

There’s really not much more to be said about it.  It won’t make a second week at number one, but it’s going to hang around near the top.

And that’s literally it for the singles chart.  Over in the albums:

On the album chart, things are rather busier…

  • “No Sound Without Silence” by The Script at 1.  Their fourth album, their third number 1.  (The other one got to number 2.)  The single “Superheroes” got to 3 a couple of weeks ago.
  • “Partners” by Barbra Streisand at 2.  Her 34th studio album – she’s been charting since 1966.  It’s a duets compilation, as the title might suggest.  Single: “It Had To Be You” (featuring Michael Buble).
  • “X” by Chris Brown at 4.  Blech.  His sixth studio album, and the fourth to make the top 10.  The single “New Flame” got to 10 a couple of weeks ago.
  • “World on Fire” by Slash at 7.  His third solo album – and the highest charting, again showing how the decline of the album market is leading to rock veterans getting slighter higher chart places.  It’s more that their sales are falling slower than everyone else’s.  Single: “World on Fire”.  (Which is the first time I’ve seen a lyric video with a nipple count.)
  • “Bulletproof Picasso” by Train at 9.  Their seventh studio album, and the fourth to chart in this country.  Single: “Angel in Blue Jeans”.  Singer Pat Monahan is the voice of Driver Dan in the American dub of Driver Dan’s Story Train, which is the sort of thing that interests me these days.  (The British version is voiced by Peter Serafinowicz.)
  • “The Balcony” by Catfish and the Bottlemen at 10.  Welsh rock band.  They’re apparently named after a busker, which is sort of an explanation, but mainly just invites the question of why the hell the busker was called that.  Single: “Cocoon”.
  • “Somewhere Under Wonderland” by Counting Crows at 15.  About their usual chart position.  Their ninth hit album, though that does include a live album and a best of.  Single: “Palisades Park”.
  • “Dream Your Life Away” by Vance Joy at 20.  Should have released the album when “Riptide” was a hit in January.  He’s put out a few other singles since then, but none made the top 75.

Bring on the comments

  1. Paul F says:

    Weird that Hozier’s only charting in the UK now. It was released in Ireland a year ago (got to #2), and in the US six months ago.

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