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May 28

Charts – 26 May 2017

Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2017 by Paul in Music

After a brief flurry of activity, we’re settling back into the routine of a handful of new entries per week, some of which go on to climb the chart, slowly, ever so slowly…

1.  Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber – “Despacito”

Three weeks at number one.  Could be here a while, too.

3.  Liam Payne featuring Quavo – “Strip That Down”

And there’s the fifth and final member of One Direction scoring a solo top ten hit.  Harry Styles is still in the top ten with “Sign of the Times”; Niall Horan is lower down the top 40 with “Slow Hands”; Zayn Malik is just outside the top 40 with his current single “Still Got Time”.  And Louis Tomlinson had a number 2 hit last year.

Quavo, of all people, also gets a second concurrent top ten hit – he’s also on the DJ Khaled single “I’m The One”, which is holding steady at 2.

The record’s really not bad, with its minimal bassline arrangement.  A ludicrous fifteen writers are credited for it.  Four of them are Payne himself, Steve Mac, Ed Sheeran (listen to it, of course it’s an Ed Sheeran number), and Quavo.  The other eleven are there because if you squint a bit, the melody is quite close to “It Wasn’t Me” by Shaggy, so they’ve added everyone who was credited on that song – which for its own sample-related reasons, includes the entire line-up of 70s funk band War.  You can see how this stuff gets out of control.

For some reason the lyric video is trying way too hard to convince us that Liam Payne from One Direction is actually big on the bling – gold teeth and diamonds?  That’s just not going to fly.

Further down the top ten, “Unforgettable” by French Montana featuring Swae Lee climbs two places to number 6, and “Attention” by Charlie Puth is up three to 9.  And…

11.  Ariana Grande – “One Last Time”

The attack on Ariana Grande’s concert in Manchester naturally led to some supportive downloading, and this is the track which was settled on.  (And it is almost entirely downloads.)  Her biggest UK hits are her two number 1s from 2014 – “Problem” and “Bang Bang”; another obvious candidate would have been “Dangerous Woman”, the title song of the tour.  The title album does indeed re-enter the album chart at 30.  But understandably enough, people have gone for “One Last Time”, the second single from her 2015 album “My Everything”, which got to number 24 on its original release.  Strictly it’s meant to be a break-up song, but the chorus fits well, and it’s an underrated single anyway.  The original video (above) had a similar take on the song, and it’s vaguely unsettling to see it in this context.

12.  Jonas Blue featuring William Singe – “Mama”

This week’s highest climber, up ten places.  It’s got a video now, though it’s nothing out of the ordinary – happy people in a pleasant vacation spot.  And it’s followed by a string of climbers which there’s not much to say about.  First up, “Pretty Girl” by Maggie Lindeman is up four to 17 in its second week.  Then…

18.  Cheat Codes featuring Demi Lovato – “No Promises”

…which now has a politely post-apocalyptic video.  It’s up seven, giving Cheat Codes their second top 20 hit.  Number 22 is “Mask Off” by Future, which has been doggedly hovering around the mid-table for ages – it’s now moved 33-26-24-25-24-26-27-22.  “Slow Hands” by Niall Horan rebounds from 31 to 23.

35.  Selena Gomez – “Bad Liar”

Samples “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads, which is now forty years old.  David Byrne has given it his blessing.  In an unusual gimmick, there’s apparently a video for this which is exclusive to the Spotify mobile app and intended to be watched vertically.  But if you can figure out how to make it play, you’re doing better than me.

37.  Katy Perry featuring Migos – “Bon Appetit”

Ye gods.  I know it’s meant to be ironic and empowering in the pay-off and all that but… that’s a really unpleasant video.  Anyway, this entered at 40 three weeks ago, dropped straight out, and now rebounds.

40.  Katy Perry featuring Nicki Minaj – “Swish Swish”

The other current Katy Perry promotional single.  It samples “Star 69” by Fatboy Slim – technically a number 10 hit in 2001, but largely because it was the double A-side of “Weapon of Choice”.  Turns out it does have a video of its own, though it’s not exactly one of Fatboy Slim’s best.

On the album chart:

  • “÷” by Ed Sheeran returns to number 1 for its tenth week in total.
  • “One More Light” by Linkin Park at 4.  Their seventh studio album, all of which have been top ten.  Single: “Heavy”
  • “50” by Engelbert Humperdinck at 5.  Celebrating 50 years of Engelbert Humperdinck (before that, he was Arnold Dorsey).  It’s a greatest hits album with a couple of new tracks.  He had two number ones back in 1967, with “Release Me” and “The Last Waltz”.
  • “World Be Gone” by Erasure at 6.  Their 17th album.  It’s their highest chart position since “I Say I Say I Say” made number 1 back in 1994.  Single: “Love You To The Sky”.
  • “The Best Of The Kooks So Far” at 18, which is self-explanatory.  Their biggest hit was “Always Where I Need To Be”, which reached number 3 in 2008.
  • “Crooked Teeth” by Papa Roach at 20.  Blimey, the old guard are out in force today.  Single: “Help”.
  • “Paris” by Rammstein at 27.  A live album from a show back in 2012.  Sample track: “Du Hast”.
  • “Songs From The Wood” by Jethro Tull at 28.  Reissue of the album that made number 13 in 1977.  The hit single was “Ring Out Solstice Bells”, which made number 28 the previous year.

Bring on the comments

  1. Jefferson Eng says:

    Katy Perry does not appear to be the hit-maker that she was made out to be from a few years ago. There’s probably some damage to the her luster, but yeah, I don’t think her latest missives in this chart will actually climb much higher or have any sort of lasting power. Actually, judging by local radio airplay Stateside, I think she’s already out of regular rotation.

    As for Tull having another reissue on the album charts, it seems to be the case that these box-set releases “Original Master Tape” remixes for 1970’s era classic/prog rock have been pretty much all the rage lately–at least among audiophiles. Heck, release it on the 180g vinyl format, and you dent the collector’s market greatly.

  2. Joe S. Walker says:

    For me it’s a turn-off that all these reissues seem to be remastered/remixed by Steven Wilson. If I was going to listen to “Songs From The Wood” I’d want to hear how Jethro Tull (or rather Ian Anderson) made it sound in 1977, not how Steven Wilson thinks it should sound in 2017. And the mere fact that he does so many must make the process become a routine, or at least have a homogenising effect on bands who were actually highly distinct from one another.

  3. Taibak says:

    Oy. So once upon a time I had a habit of putting CD’s on while I fell asleep. One night I put in “Songs from the Wood”, but apparently forgot to set my stereo to turn off automatically after a certain amount of time. I woke up every time “Ring Out Solstice Bells” came on.

    That was in 2002. I haven’t been able to listen to the song – let alone the album – ever since.

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