RSS Feed
Jun 3

Charts – 31 May 2015

Posted on Wednesday, June 3, 2015 by Paul in Music

This is the post-Eurovision chart, which in recent years has resulted in some oddities making one-week appearances.  This year, not so much.  And since the release schedules were otherwise quiet, it’s a placid week.

30.  Charles Hamilton featuring Rita Ora – “New York Raining”

Charles Hamilton is (obviously) a New York rapper who’s been releasing mix tapes for years; this is the lead single from his first studio album.  It’s also on the soundtrack album of Empire, which can’t hurt, even if its actual appearance on the show was thirty seconds long.  It’s going to climb next week.

So far as the British market is concerned, the bigger draw here is probably Rita Ora.  Her previous hit was “I Will Never Let You Down”, which made number 1 a year ago, and was supposed to be the lead single from her second album.  No follow-up appeared.  Instead, the promotional cycle is now starting up again with this record, and with a single called “Poison” at the end of the month, which is apparently now the lead single from her second album.  Part of the delay is presumably because Calvin Harris stopped working on the album after they broke up.

14.  Jessie J – “Flashlight”

Climbing 25, which is more like it, in terms of Jessie J’s chart record.  The midweeks show it going a bit further, but still not on course to make the top ten.

11.  Måns Zelmerlö – “Heroes” 

The Swedish winner of the Eurovision Song Contest.  I’d normally embed the official video, but it’s a lyric video, so let’s go with the rather more interesting live performance.  The song is generically uplifting in that Eurovision way, but let’s face it, if any country is going to churn out pan-continental pop success in its sleep these days, it’s Sweden.

The Swedish take Eurovision rather more seriously than the British – not that this is a high bar – and so they’ve taken the common sense approach of entering an passably successful act doing a decent enough song.  Astonishingly, this seems to go down better with European voters than Britain’s approach of picking something at random from the slush pile and giving it to a couple of bored chorus line members who figure that at least it’s better than waitressing and it’ll get them a free trip to Vienna.

Granted that Zelmerlow started off on Swedish reality TV and that this is something of a comeback single for him, he’s still got two Swedish number 1 albums and two Swedish number 1 singles to his credit (this is one).  He’s not exactly the Swedish pop A-list – that would be the likes of Avicii, and they’re not touching Eurovision with a barge pole, any more than David Guetta is going to enter for France – but at least he’s on some sort of list.

8.  Martin Garrix featuring Usher – “Don’t Look Down”

Your unusual video gimmick for the week: there are two versions of this video, which are identical except for reversing the genders.  The female version is here, if you want to contrast, though I can assure you there’s no difference beyond the gender switch, and an increased Balthazar Getty presence.

Martin Garrix is the 19-year-old Dutch DJ who had a number 1 with “Animals” in 2013.  Until now his chart appearances have been with largely instrumental dance music; this is a very glaring swerve into Guetta/SHM-style pop production.

1.  Jason Derulo – “Want to Want Me”

A bit of a foregone conclusion that this was going to do well, after it charted last week in the form of a cover version by a woman singing in a car.  I preferred the woman in the car, actually.  The original is an ultra-80s arrangement that sounds like a second cousin of “I Want To Dance With Somebody”.  I’ve always found Derulo a bit of a charisma-free zone – there’s something a little bit generic and calculated about him for my tastes.  It’s a good enough pop song, I’d just… rather hear somebody else actually perform it.  He’s very professional.  This would be good if he was a plumber or something.

His other number 1s were “In My Head” (2010), “Don’t Want To Go Home” (2011), and “Talk Dirty” (2013).  That’s four number ones spread over six years, so he must be doing something right.  Not for me, though.

On the album chart:

  • “85% Proof” by Will Young at 1.  His sixth studio album and fourth number one.  And to think, when he won Pop Idol Season 1 back at the dawn of the modern reality-TV era, people said Gareth Gates would be the bigger star.  Single: “Love Revolution”.  (Nice to see Young is still making good videos.)
  • “English Graffiti” by the Vaccines at 2.  Third album, all of which have been top 5.  Single: “Dream Lover”.  (Pretty good.)
  • “AT. LONG. LAST. A$AP” by A$AP Rocky at 10.  His second top ten album.  Single: “Everyday” featuring Rod Stewart, Miguel and Mark Ronson.  (Yes, that Rod Stewart.)
  • The Empire Season 1 OST at 18.  Credited to “the Empire Cast”, which is what it’s doing on the artist album chart.  As noted, the Charles Hamilton track is on this.
  • “Forever” by Alesso at 25.  Debut album from the Swedish producer.  Both the singles made the top ten.
  • “Empire” by Hillsong UNITED at 34.  Christian music – this lot are the musical wing of an Australian megachurch.  To be fair, by the standards of their genre, they’re really not bad, as long as you don’t mind every song being about the same thing.  Perfectly listenable single: “Touch the Sky”

Bring on the comments

  1. I keep thinking Jason Derulo will give up and go back to his day job. He seems to have stopped name checking himself in every song, at least.

Leave a Reply