Another new number one, and yet again it’s selling comfortably over the 100K mark, as the trend towards high-selling number one singles continues.

Five new entries this week.  Let’s dash through them.

35.  Le Youth – “C O O L”

Debut hit for Californian producer Wes James.  Radio 1 have been pushing this, and apparently it’s done awfully well on Soundcloud.  Sounds a bit pedestrian on a first listen, but it’s grown on me a bit.  Despite the lip-synching in the video, the uncredited vocals are in fact sampled (and pitch-shifted) from “Me and U” by Cassie, an icy R&B track that made number 6 in 2006, and to which “C O O L” bears remarkably little resemblance.  Cassie Ventura had one follow-up hit – “Long Way 2 Go”, which got to 12 – and hasn’t made the top 40 since.  You’d have thought she’d get a credit for this, given the extensive sampling of her voice, but apparently not.

31.  Kings of Leon – “Wait For Me”

This is the “instant gratification” track for people pre-ordering the album “Mechanical Bull” online.  Technically it’s not a single, but you can also buy it as a free-standing track, and under the post-Bowie rule change, those sales now count towards the singles chart.

It actually beats the number 31 peak of the actual single “Supersoaker” from July.  Incidentally, that track has a proper video now.

29.  Justin Timberlake – “Take Back The Night”

Another “instant gratification” track, this time from “The 20/20 Experience, 2 of 2”.  I don’t recall the original “20/20 Experience” album being promoted as “1 of 2”, but it turns out it was.  Admittedly, in these days of “special edition” albums, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone to find an entire second disc of material showing up a few months after.  As with “Wait for Me”, the chart is only counting sales to people who chose to buy the track as a free-standing download.

If you’re wondering what happened to “Tunnel Vision”, the track from the original album which got a video at the start of last month featuring lots of naked ladies, it was never officially promoted as a single.  It just had a video.  That’s a very important difference which the record company would like to stress, especially because it didn’t do very well.  By last week it had spluttered to number 61; with the emergence of “Take Back The Night” this week to steal its thunder, it drops to 97.

And now a raft of substantial climbers…

23.  Imagine Dragons – “It’s Time”

Climbing 7, so it’s now their second-biggest hit behind “Radioactive”.  (That made 12.)

20.  Disclosure – “F For You”

Climbing 8, giving them a clean slate of four consecutive top 20 singles.

19.  Of Monsters And Men – “Little Talks”

Climbing 15, so this run is apparently going to be a substantial one.  Its chart peak was at the start of last year when it made number 12.

14.  Rudimental featuring Foxes – “Right Now”

Climbing 10.  Just like Disclosure, that means they’ve now had four straight top 20 hits.  I guess that’s an interesting coincidence?

7.  Jay Z featuring Justin Timberlake – “Holy Grail”

Climbing 4, giving Jay Z his twelfth top 10 hit.

3.  Tinie Tempah featuring 2 Chainz – “Trampoline”

This is the lead single from the second Tinie Tempah album.  Not the most obviously radio-friendly thing in the world, but then it’s a Diplo production, and they never are.  Normally I’d say that number 3 was a slightly disappointing position for the first single from a Tinie Tempah album – the first one produced two number 1 singles, after all – but this seems like a track calculated more to send a message that he’s not simply a pop act, while still being essentially dancefloor friendly.

2 Chainz gets his second UK hit, beating the number 6 peak of “We Own It (Fast and Furious)”.  It’s fair to say that both tracks had obvious selling points that were not 2 Chainz.

1.  Miley Cyrus – “We Can’t Stop”

Not so much a single as a step in a drastic rebranding.  Like all acts launched by Disney, Miley Cyrus faces the inevitable problem of how to transform herself into an adult performer, and like many of them, she’s chosen to rip off the sticking plaster.  The risk here is that she ends up turning herself into somebody who looks both generic and a bit desperate, and if you ask me, this track does fall into that problem.  I’ll grant that it grows on you with a few listens, but somehow it manages to be both underpowered and trying too hard.

Still, the great British public evidently disagree.  While I don’t believe for a second that this is at number 1 purely on the strength of its musical merits rather than because it forms part of the entertainment industry soap opera, it’s also fair to say that this can’t be at number 1 solely on the strength of the Miley Cyrus fanbase.  She’s had seven previous hits (plus one as a guest vocalist on a will.i.am album track), but this is her first visit to the top 10, let alone to number one.  In fact, until this week, she had the fabulously frustrating record of having three singles peak at number 11 – “See You Again” from 2008, and “The Climb” and “Party in the USA” from 2009.

She’s not going to manage a second week, but she did shift a very respectable 128,000 copies in this one.

Album chart:

• “The Impossible Dream” by Richard and Adam spends a second week at number 1.
  
• “The Civil Wars” by The Civil Wars at 2.  The second album by this American folk duo, whose presence this high up the chart has been credited by some papers to the endorsement of Adele.  Mind you, their previous album made number 13, so I wouldn’t make so much of that.  The duo have actually split, which should create some interesting promotional challenges.  Here’s the video for (part of) “Inside Same Old Same Old”.
• “#hits” by Example at 11.  This is a compilation album rounding off his record deal with Ministry of Sound.  He’s currently promoting a new single with his new label, but naturally it isn’t on this.
• “Where The Heaven Are We” by Swim Deep at 20.  Indie band from the West Midlands.  According to Wikipedia, they “have often been identified as part of the emerging Digbeth-based B-Town scene.”  The entry on B-Town suggests that B-Town is a label now being attached by the NME to anyone from within shouting distance of Birmingham regardless of what they actually sound like.  So now you know.  Here’s “King City”.
• “From Death to Destiny” by Asking Alexandria at 28.  Heavy metal band from York.  It’s their third album and their first to chart.  Here’s “The Death Of Me”.