RSS Feed
Mar 4

Charts – 1 March 2019

Posted on Monday, March 4, 2019 by Paul in Music

So there’s a podcast one post down if that’s more your thing!  But meanwhile… here’s something I didn’t see coming.

1.  Lewis Capaldi – “Someone You Loved”

The midweeks had it as a toss-up between Ariana Grande and Calvin Harris.  And while Lewis Capaldi only made his top 40 debut this year, “Someone You Loved” has been available since last November. Clearly the recently-released video helps – it has an actual star attached, after all – but the song has still taken seven weeks to climb through the top 40 to get here.  Whatever Capaldi might say in interviews, he doesn’t technically join the one-hit wonder list here; his previous single “Grace” is also seeing a second wind, and reaches a new peak of 24 this week.

“Giant” by Calvin Harris & Rag’N’Bone Man climbs 4-2, matching the peak of “Human” in 2016 to become Rag’N’Bone Man’s joint biggest hit.  “Options” by NSG featuring Tion Wayne climbs 9-7.

8.  Pink – “Walk Me Home”

This is the lead single from her next album, but she got to promote it on primetime TV after getting an Outstanding Contribution award from the Brits.  Her greatest hits album also re-enters at 18.

She’s maybe not the first name that springs to mind for that sort of award, but she’s been having hits for 19 years now, and this is her twentieth appearance in the top 10.  And this isn’t some sort of outlier – the previous one was “What About Us”, which spent two months in the top ten in 2017.  We’re in the fashionable “epic country” territory here, but those vocodered backing vocals are an interesting touch.  There are a few other tracks seeing delayed climbs on the back of a bit of Brits-related promotion this week, by the way, but I’m not going to bother singling them all out, since most of them are just getting a bounce on their way out of the chart.

“Just You & I” by Tom Walker climbs 19-10, giving him a second top ten hit.  “Talk” by Khalid & Disclosure climbs 20-13.  “Thotiana” by Blueface climbs 23-15, and seems to be behaving like more than a novelty record.  “I’m So Tired” by Lauv & Troye Sivan climbs 22-17.  “Think About Us” by Little MIx featuring Ty Dolla $ign edges up to a new peak of 23.

31.  YNW Melly – “Murder On My Mind”

This is the first hit single for rapper YNW Melly – the “YNW” stands for “Young N—- World”, and other members have also used the YNW initial in their names.  He has an official single out at the moment – “Gang (First Day Out)” – but this isn’t it.  “Murder On My Mind” has been out for months, yet only entered the top 100 last week.  Why?  Well, YNW Melly has been arrested on charges of murdering two other YNW members.  He denies the allegations, and his account is that his friends were killed in a drive-by shooting.

“Murder on my Mind” is not just a song about a fatal shooting, it’s a story about accidentally killing a friend (“I didn’t even mean to shoot him, he just caught me by surprise”).  Which makes it deeply uncomfortable listening in the circumstances.  Despite what some people persist in thinking, it’s not a response to the shooting – it can’t be, it came first.  But there’s no getting away from the reasons why it’s in the top 40, which is why I haven’t embedded it.  Plus, while the video isn’t especially graphic, it feels deeply insensitive in the circumstances.  I’ve linked to the song above if you want to hear it; in fact, judged purely as a song, it’s decent enough.  It was well received when it came out, and considered something of a break-out.  But it’s all rather troubling.

40.  Dave – “Black”

This is the lead single from Dave’s next album, so it’s a little surprising to see it limp in at number 40 after his previous (non-album) single “Freaky Friday” entered at 1.  Granted, we’re in more political territory here, and it’s not intended to be such a radio-friendly crowd-pleaser, but… number 40?  Really?

Over on the album chart, “Thank U Next” by Ariana Grande is number 1 for a third week, heading a static top five.  And five new entries…

6.  Giggs – “Big Bad”

His fifth album, and the third in a row to reach the top 10.  (The last two got to number 2, though, so there’s a slight falling off.)  The video above has a weirdly elaborate lead-in compared to what follows.

9.  Sleaford Mods – “Eton Alive”

Electronic punk.  It’s their third album to chart since they crossed over to the (relative) mainstream in 2015.  It’s number one on the vinyl chart!

12.  Dream Theater – “Distance Over Time”

They’re a prog metal band who’ve been around since the mid 80s and started registering on the album chart about a decade ago.  This falls one place short of matching their previous album (2016’s “The Astonishing”) for their highest ever position.

19.  Offset – “Father of 4”

The bloke out of Migos.  This is his debut solo album.

24.  Gunna – “Drip or Drown 2”

Officially this is his first album, though his collaboration with Lil Baby, “Drip Harder”, reached number 12 last year, and there are a string of “mixtapes” on top of that (“Drip Season” 1, 2 and 3).  None of those are “Drip or Drown 1”, which was an EP from the tail end of 2017.  He likes the word “drip” a lot.

Be the first to comment.

Leave a Reply