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Aug 29

Charts – 26 August 2016

Posted on Monday, August 29, 2016 by Paul in Music

Four new entries this week!  Positively hyperactive!  Which means we can skip quickly over the climbers to get to them…

1.  Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber & MØ – “Cold Water”

That’s five weeks.  But it only had a 2% lead over DJ Snake, so it’s not likely to last that much longer.

3.  The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey – “Closer” 

Climbing one more place.

5.  Twenty One Pilots – “Heathens”
13.  Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa & Imagine Dragons with Logic and Ty Dolla $ign featuring X Ambassadors – “Sucker for Pain”

Up two and up three, respectively. You’d think the boost from the release of Suicide Squad would have worn off by now, but evidently not.  One factor could be that just getting further up the charts gets you onto more pre-set streaming playlists, so success becomes slightly self-reinforcing.

14.  Charlie Puth featuring Selena Gomez – “We Don’t Talk Anymore” 

Up nine, and this week’s highest climber.  It’s been on the chart over a month, which shows how long most records take to build steam these days.

19.  Anne-Marie – “Alarm”

Moving into the top 20 in its fifth week on the top 40.  Same point applies.

24.  Martin Garrix & Bebe Rexha – “In the Name of Love”

Climbing four places, and it has a video now!  The video involves them standing next to a swimming pool looking moody.  Sometimes it explodes.

25.  Ellie Goulding – “Still Falling For You”

Your highest new entry of the week!  This is from the soundtrack to Bridget Jones’s Baby, which comes twelve years after Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.  Bridget Jones always struck me as a bit of a turn of the century concept – the original newspaper columns that led to the first book date from 1995 – but Helen Fielding has revived her periodically.  Presumably this film is aimed at the same audience who saw the original films, who are not exactly an audience overly served by the film industry, but this has franchise pedigree attached.  Bridget Jones’s Baby is based on the column’s 2005-6 revival rather than the third novel proper, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy – but for obvious reasons, you could hardly skip over the columns.  (Also, Mad About the Boy starts with Bridget as a single parent in her fifties, and try selling that to the film industry.)

This is the second time Ellie Goulding has contributed a song to a soundtrack album.  The last time it was Fifty Shades of Grey and frankly, there’s not a vast difference in style, which just goes to show how a half decent tune plus a set of vague cliches about the power of love will serve for virtually any purpose.

29.  Craig David & Sigala – “Ain’t Giving Up”

This is roughly where Craig David’s last single got to – one place higher, actually – so Craig David’s comeback is holding up.  Sigala, on the other hand, made the top 10 with all four of their previous hits.  So mixed signals, but things can easily climb.

39.  Bob Marley featuring LVNDSCAPE & Bolier – “Is This Love (Remix)”

Evidently you’re not going to get away with calling Bob Marley a featured artist when you sample his vocals.  Mind you, this does leave the original song intact, sticking Marley’s vocal on a completely different house track to quite pleasant effect.  Lvndscape and Bolier are Dutch DJs – Bolier’s been around for over a decade, I don’t know anything about the other one.  The original track, credited to Bob Marley and the Wailers, reached number 9 in 1978.

40.  Cheat Codes & Dante Klein – “Let Me Hold You (Turn Me On)”

The follow-up to “Sex”, which got to number 9 for Cheat Codes in June, and only left the top 40 a couple of weeks ago.  Dante Klein is a Dutch producer.  The video is a weird attempt to do a time travel action thing in six minutes, and has pretty much nothing to do with the song.  Like “Sex”, this is a cover; “Turn Me On” was a number 2 hit for Kevin Lyttle in 2003.  To be honest, this version is an improvement.

On the album chart:

  • “Blonde” by Frank Ocean at 1.  Not bad considering it was an Apple exclusive.  The contractual obligation video album “Endless” presumably doesn’t qualify for the chart.  Being an Apple exclusive, it doesn’t currently have a video I can link to.
  • “Pure & Simple” by Dolly Parton at 2.  Blimey.  I know odd things are happening on the album chart as the format falters, but Dolly Parton has never previously got above 9 with a studio album.  (She did get to 2 with her greatest hits album “Blue Smoke” in 2014.)  Single: “Pure & Simple”.
  • “Life on the Road” by David Brent at 3.  The soundtrack to Ricky Gervais’s Office sequel, in which David Brent takes his band on tour.   This is Gervais’ first appearance in the UK charts, though his synthpop band Seona Dancing did apparently have a big hit in the Philippines in 1985, which it turns out was surprisingly good.  Meanwhile, here’s the video for “Lady Gypsy”, though since it basically consists of mugging to signal all the jokes, I’d recommend just listening to it on Spotify if you really want to hear it.
  • “The Last Stand” by Sabaton at 17.  Epic history-obsessed Swedish metal.  It’s their eighth album and their first to chart.  Their Wikipedia entry opens with this explanation: “Their lyrical themes are based on war and historical battles.  This is heard in the albums Primo VictoriaAttero DominatusCoat of ArmsCarolus RexHeroes, and The Last Stand in which all the songs contain these themes, except final tracks which are tribute songs to influential heavy metal bands.”  Single: “Blood of Bannockburn”.
  • “I Told You” by Tory Lanez at 18.  Canadian rap.  Can’t help but seem disappointing after “Blood of Bannockburn”.  Single: “Luv”.
  • “At Swim” by Lisa Hannigan at 24.  Irish singer/songwriter.  This is her first appearance on the album chart (with her third album), though she did appear on a Damien Rice single that charted in 2005.  Single: “Fall”.
  • “Big Life” by Rifles at 26.  Indie band who’ve been around for a decade, and are now on their sixth album.  They’ve never got higher than 21.  Single: “Turtle Dove”.
  • “Golden Sings That Have Been Sung” by Ryley Walker at 27.  He’s a songwriter from Illinois.  Fourth album (in under three years), first hit.  Single: “The Roundabout”.

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