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Apr 8

Charts – 5 April 2015

Posted on Wednesday, April 8, 2015 by Paul in Music

Lots of new entries this week, almost all of them flopping badly.

40.  Luke Friend – “Hole in my Heart”

This is the guy who came third in last year’s X Factor.  I’ve heard worse cash-in singles from X Factor contestants, but on the logic that people buying this record want to hear him sing, I wouldn’t have chosen a song where half the chorus is on one note (and the other half is uncomfortably reminiscent of “There’s a Hole In My Bucket”).

At any rate, number 40 is pretty much disastrous for a fully promoted single by someone who’s intended as a mainstream act.  It was at 27 in the midweeks, so evidently it shifted whatever copies it was going to sell within the first couple of days.  It’s on course to drop straight out of the top 75.  Given that X Factor cast offs have hitherto been able to generate at least some interest for their new releases, and that Friend made it to last year’s final, is this another sign of the format flagging?

38.  Major Lazer & DJ Snake featuring MØ – “Lean On”

A number 1 hit in Australia and the Netherlands, but the British are not convinced.  If it wasn’t for the vaguely annoying sound on the instrumental hook, I doubt most people would have pegged this as a Major Lazer track.  But Diplo – and Major Lazer is basically Diplo – has been increasingly lending his production services to mainstream pop, and this seems to be the point where his own records go in the same direction.

This is the first hit for the Major Lazer identity, though Diplo has previously picked up co-credits with Tiesto in 2011 (“C’Mon (Catch ‘Em By Surprise)” and DJ Fresh in 2013 (“Earthquake”).  DJ Snake’s only previous UK hit was “Turn Down For What”, which hardly suggested a move in this direction either.  Singer MØ’s name isn’t an affectation; it’s the Danish word for “maiden”, and it’s short for Karen Marie Ørsted.

37.  OMI – “Cheerleader”

A number 1 across Europe, but the British don’t seem very interested in this one either.  Starting life as a Jamaican single in 2012, the version being promoted in Europe is the one above – a remix by the German DJ Felix Jahn.  The original is a slightly slower pop-reggae track.  It wasn’t the greatest song to start with, to be honest, and it may actually have gained something in being exported to countries with a different first language.

34.  Olly Murs – “Seasons”

Third single from his current album, and mainly an exercise in giving him something to promote, I suspect.  It’s still a pretty feeble entry point.  The song is another Ryan Tedder job, though not instantly recognisable as one.  The midweeks have it dropping straight out of the top 40.  His previous single “Up” is still hanging around inside the top 30.

19.  Dappy – “Beautiful Me”

Technically the highest new entry, though there’s a bit of an asterisk next to that, for reasons which will become clear.  Dappy was the guy with the silly hat from N-Dubz, who had a solo number 1 with “No Regrets” in 2011, but pretty much flared out after that.  We haven’t heard from him since “Good Intentions” got to number 12 three years ago.  This is the lead single from his second album “Miracles”, following on an appearance on Celebrity Big Brother, which is not so much a last chance saloon for British celebrities as a stagecoach already headed out of town.

In a bold stab at reinvention, Dappy has dispensed with the hat and – in an admittedly unexpected twist – has decided he wants to sound like the Script.  It’s actually better than you’re probably imagining, but it has the same sort of awkwardly literal sentimentality you get on Professor Green singles, and boy, he’s not looking well in that video.  Number 19 for a comeback single is pretty bad, and the midweeks show it dropping to 36.

Mind you, Tulisa’s last single didn’t even make the top 40.  How long before they announce an N-Dubz reunion, do you think?

15.  Kygo featuring Conrad – “Firestone”

The collapse of this week’s slate of new releases leaves some space for climbers.  This is up 7 places, continuing a climb from the lower reaches of the top 100 that started off back in January.

10.  Sia – “Elastic Heart”

Climbing 13 places to a new peak, in its twelfth week on the chart.  It isn’t even the current single – that’s “Big Girls Cry” – but for some reason it’s the one she chose to perform on the Voice UK final.  The BBC don’t put clips online, but it’s basically the same schtick she did on the American version with the hat.  “Chandelier” rebounds to 29, in its 40th straight week on the top 40.  And the album “1000 Forms of Fear” rebounds from 25 to 6.

Unusually, we can expect to talk further about The Voice UK next week, as the BBC have finally twigged that it might be an idea for the winner to release a single.  Might the show finally launch someone successfully at the fourth attempt?

2.  Ed Sheeran – “Bloodstream”

This is the fourth single from Sheeran’s album “X”, and it was number 1 in the midweeks.  It reached number 60 when the album was released nearly a year ago, and re-entered at the start of March after he performed it on the Brit Awards and started promoting it as a single.  It now climbs 24 places thanks to the release of the Rudimental remix, which is the one in the video with Ray Liotta above.  Partly, the remix will have encouraged Ed Sheeran fans to buy the song twice.  But it’s also probably got broader appeal, since the drum and bass surges are really standing in for the chorus here; the original is not exactly a single.

1.  Jess Glynne – “Hold My Hand”

Second week!  The charts really are slowing down this year.  It won’t manage a third – it’s likely to be behind two new releases come Sunday.

On the album chart:

  • “The Day is My Enemy” by The Prodigy at 1.  Their sixth number 1 album (if you count the greatest hits compilation).  None of the singles made the top 40, but the Prodigy are basically a legacy act these days.  Single: “Wild Frontier”.
  • “Carrie & Lowell” by Sufjan Stevens at 6.  His seventh studio album, but only the second to chart in this country – and the other one got to 30.  So, belatedly, people are catching on.  The titular Carrie was his mother (who died in 2012), and Lowell is his stepfather.  Single: “Should Have Known Better”.
  • “Young Chasers” by Circa Waves at 10.  Indie band from Liverpool, debut album.  Single: “Fossils”.
  • “Endless Forms Most Beautiful” by Nightwish at 12.  Finnish metal band, charting in the UK for the first time with their 8th album.  Single: “Elan”.  Bit Eurovision, to be honest.
  • “Singing for Strangers” by Hudson Taylor at 24.  Irish folk(ish) duo, debut album.  Single: “Chasing Rubies”.
  • “Kintsugi” by Death Cab for Cutie at 28.  Their eighth album; the last three charted in the UK, all at about this level.  Single: “Black Sun”.
  • “Adventure” by Madeon at 30.  French DJ, debut album.  Bit disappointing considering that he had a couple of middling hit singles.  He also released “The City”, which didn’t chart.
  • “Wolflight” by Steve Hackett at 31.  The guy who used to be Genesis’s lead guitarist until 1977, and who’s been released mid-charting albums pretty much ever since.  Single: “Wolflight”.  It’s very prog, and they’ve made a video for it.
  • “Day of the Dead” by Hollywood Undead at 34.  Rap metal!  Somebody’s still doing that!  Fourth album, first to chart in this country.  Single: “Disease”.
  • “Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress” by Godspeed You! Black Emperor at 37.  Surprisingly, the first time they’ve charted too, on their fifth album.  No singles from this – the tracks are all quite long, and one of them is called “Piss Crowns Are Trebled”, which is what you’re looking for in a Godspeed You! Black Emperor song title, I think.

Bring on the comments

  1. Thomas Lawrence says:

    Minor correction: Luke Friend was actually the third-placer from the 2013 series (although Wikipedia seems uncharacteristically somewhat confused on this point right now).

    Quite why he’s waited THIS long to flop out this single I don’t know, but now that it’s been greater than 16 months since he was on the TV in any capacity I’m surprised he even made #40.

  2. errant says:

    Sia and Sufjan Stevens are both #6 on the album chart?

  3. Paul says:

    Sia is 5. Oops.

    Also, it turns out “Cheerleader” made its number 37 placing on streaming alone, as it doesn’t go on sale until next week. So expect a big climb when that happens.

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