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Jan 13

Charts – 13 January 2017

Posted on Friday, January 13, 2017 by Paul in Music

It is 2017, and Ed Sheeran is upon us.

1.  Ed Sheeran – “Shape Of You”

2.  Ed Sheeran – “Castle On The Hill”

Yes, new entries at both 1 and 2.  What he’s done here, in traditional terms, is to release a Double A-side, but it’s 2016 and so both tracks register separately.  We’ve never had simultaneous new entries at number 1 and 2 by the same artist.  Mind you, in fairness, not many bands have actually tried releasing two singles simultaneously: in terms of major chart players, you’re pretty much looking at the Manic Street Preachers in 2001 (and they landed at 8 and 9).  If you want to be really technical about it, one other act has at least appeared on simultaneous new entries at numbers 1 and 2: George Michael, in 1984.  But one of them was “Do They Know It’s Christmas”, so it’s a bit of a special case.

These are the lead tracks from Sheeran’s new album; his previous albums + and x both got to number 1, and x stayed there for 13 weeks, as well as producing two number one singles, “Sing” and “Thinking Out Loud”.  So this was always going to be a big release.  Keeping up the mathematical symbol theme, the album’s apparently going to be called ÷.

A lot of his songs fall into an instantly recognisable ballad style, which was fully in evidence when he wrote last year’s X Factor winner’s single.  But he’s always deviated from it from time to time, and “Shape of You” revives his occasional dalliance with the clubs.  It’s his third number one, following “Sing” and “Thinking Out Loud”, both from 2014.  “Castle on the Hill” is rather more familiar, though the arrangement gives it more of an FM rock element than usual.  Oh, and whether you’re looking at sales or streaming, it’s the same result.  The previous record for streams in a single week was 8.9m.  Sheeran obliterates that, with “Shape of You” reaching 13.7m streams on top of 137,000 actual sales.  Part of this is the continuing growth in the streaming market, and it illustrates why last week’s re-weighting may end up having only a transitory effect.

The previous album x re-enters the album chart at number 8, and + re-enters at 20, which is pretty remarkable.

7.  JP Cooper – “September Song”

Climbing from 16, and the first of three big climbers into the top 10.  In all three cases, there’s a significant climb in both sales and streams, and the gap is closing as the record takes off.  The other two are…

8.  Starley – “Call On Me”

… which is up from 26, and…

9.  Jax Jones & Raye – “You Don’t Know Me”

… which is up from 33.

22.  Tom Zanetti featuring Sadie Ama – “You Want Me”

This has been hanging around since early December and originally peaked at 25, but it’s mounting a comeback in the new year lull.

23.  Machine Gun Kelly & Camilla Cabello – “Bad Things”

This is growing on me, actually.  There’s a little bit more to it musically than it first seems.  Machine Gun Kelly has been around for years and he’s had two top five albums in the US, but this is his first hit in the UK.  Camilla Cabello was a member of Fifth Harmony; she officially left in December, after this record had been released abroad.  It’s her first UK solo hit.  The song takes its chorus from “Out of My Head” by Fastball, which was a minor hit in the US in 1998; the group’s only UK hit was “The Way”, which made number 21 that same year.  (I recognised it when it got to the chorus.  Before that, I was thinking, “Isn’t this just Delilah?”)

28.  Sean Paul featuring Dua Lipa – “No Lie”

He’s on “Rockabye” by Clean Bandit, of course, but he’s still not getting a credit for that.  So this is his first single chart credit since 2014, and his first as lead artist since 2013.  Dua Lipa had a couple of minor hits last year with “Hotter Than Hell” and “Blow Your Mind (Mwah)” (yes, it had a kissing noise gimmick).  This is… alright, I guess?

29.  Charli XCX featuring Lil Yachty – “After The Afterparty”

Up two, and finally dragging itself into the top 30 over a month after it entered the top 40.  Maybe I wrote this one off a little too soon, it’s showing more staying power than I expected.

32.  Robin Schulz & David Guetta featuring Cheat Codes – “Shed A Light”

Well, that should go further, shouldn’t it?  Guetta needs no introduction; Schulz had a number 1 in 2014 remixing Lily Wood’s “Prayer In C” (plus a lesser hit in 2015, so he’s already off the one hit wonder list); and Cheat Codes had a top ten hit last year with “Sex”, a cover of Salt N’ Pepa’s “Let’s Talk About Sex”.  Cheat Codes are actually a trio, but that’s one of them singing.

33.  Snakehips & MØ – “Don’t Leave”

Hmm, that’s a new take on the lyric video.  I like that.  This format is starting to encourage people to make some weirdly minimal videos.  Anyway, MØ had a hit of her own last year with “Final Song”, which was rather good, but she also has a featuring credit on the number 1 “Cold Water” with Major Lazer and Justin Bieber.  Snakehips are a producer duo, and previously had a number 5 hit last year with “All My Friends”.

39.  Adele – “Water Under The Bridge”

Up 1.  This is making surprisingly slow progress for an Adele track, but I guess the album’s been out for a while and there’s no video yet.  This may be the pre-promotion phase of its chart life.

On the album chart:

  • “Glory Days” by Little Mix spends a fifth week at number 1.
  • “Night People” by You Me At Six at number 3.  The previous album got to number 1, but this is their fourth appearance in the top 10.  Title track: “Night People”.
  • Number 18 is the Moana Original Cast Recording, which (unusually) has climbed from the lower reaches, and I failed to spot it when it entered last week at number 27.  Here’s the Rock singing “You’re Welcome”.
  • “Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect” by Sundara Karma at 24, which sounds like a real bundle of laughs, doesn’t it?  They sound nothing like what the band name would suggest; they’re actually more stadium indie.  Single: “Flame”

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