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Jan 26

Charts – 26 January 2014

Posted on Sunday, January 26, 2014 by Paul in Music

Now we’re getting back to normal, with the first breakout hit of 2014.

33.  Miley Cyrus – “Adore You”

The third single from her “Bangerz” album moves away somewhat from the glaring controversy-baiting in favour of a comparatively low-key video and a straightforward ballad.  It’s not particularly instant and it wouldn’t have struck me as an obvious choice of single, but it does grow on you.

33.  OneRepublic – “If I Lose Myself”

This was the first single from OneRepublic’s current “Native” album, released back in January 2013.  It did nothing much in the UK or the US, though it did make the top ten in Germany.

The version which is actually selling in this country is the remix by Alesso, but that’s been out for eight months too.  Quite why it’s suddenly climbing the iTunes chart now – and it’s going to go further – I’m not honestly sure.

31.  Shakira featuring Rihanna – “Can’t Remember To Forget You”

Down 20 places in its second week out.  By the standards of these two, that’s a bomb.

27.  Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Schoolboy Q & Hollis – “White Walls”

“The Heist” came out in 2012, but here’s a fourth track being belatedly promoted as a single in Britain.  It’s particularly odd to see it charting now when you consider that (a) the video’s been around for four months, when it was promoted as a single in America, and (b) while the chorus is fine, it’s not really much of a song overall.

Hollis Wong-Wear is the singer on the chorus, who’s also co-produced several of their videos.  Schoolboy Q – or ScHoolboy Q, depending on who’s asking – is a rapper from LA, also making his first chart appearance.

4.  Neon Jungle – “Braveheart”

Launching a new girl band is a tricky business.  Neon Jungle’s debut single “Trouble” plonked them somewhere in the vicinity of early Girls Aloud with a sort of vague bad-girl gimmick, and peaked at number 12 in September – not the most promising of starts.  “Braveheart” is rather less gimmicky and with one foot more emphatically placed in clubland – though the video retains an utterly spurious “parental guidance” warning at the start.  I think it’s there because of one case of mild swearing and a smoking reference, but it’s hardly 18-rated.  At any rate, this is a big step up for Neon Jungle chartwise, though it’ll probably still be falling next week.

The Japanese, if you’re wondering, means “1, 2, 3 – bring it back.”

3.  The Vamps – “Wild Heart”

Unless you remember their previous single (“Can We Dance”, which made number 2 in October), that name and title might lead you to expect something rather more exciting that the prosaic reality of a B-list boy band who’ve been listening to a mixture of McFly and Mumford & Sons.  It’s perfectly okay on that level – I’ve heard far worse boy band material than this – but why on earth are they called The Vamps?

1.  Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne – “Rather Be”

And here’s 2014’s first breakthrough hit.  It’s not just a track that reached number one in a quiet week, either – this sold 163,000 copies.  The Official Charts Company website rather unhelpfully describes this as “the fastest selling track of the year so far”, as if this was somehow impressive in the fourth week of January, but 163K is “Get Lucky” territory, so it’s a proper hit.

Clean Bandit are an unusual group – an electropop act with a string section, who started life as a Cambridge University collaboration between a DJ and a string quartet.  The name is apparently a literal translation of a Russian idiom meaning something along the lines of “complete bastard”.

They had a minor hit last year with “Mozart’s House”, which is basically a novelty track that plonks chunks of Mozart into a dance record.  To be fair, it’s was the messing-around-as-students track that led them to form in the first place, and they’ve moved on a bit since then.  Nonetheless, their follow-up “Dust Clears” missed the top 40 entirely, so this is a surprising turnaround for them.  Sure, it’s a much more straightforward pop song, but it’s still Clean Bandit having a number one hit.

They make their own videos, rather elaborate and globetrotting ones.  Apparently their cellist Grace Chatto has spent some time teaching in Japan, if their earlier video for “Telephone Banking” is to be believed.  And yes, this is a video they made for something that wasn’t even released as a single.

Over on the album chart, normal service is finally resumed.

  • “Halcyon” by Ellie Goulding returns to number 1.
  • “Wanderlust” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor at 4.  She hasn’t had a hit single since 2010, but she was on Strictly Come Dancing last year, which is all the promotion her album needs, it seems.  Lead single: “Young Blood”.
  • “Warpaint” by Warpaint at 9.  Second album by a Californian indie band.  The first one just missed the top 40 (as in, 41) in 2010.  Audio: “Biggy”.
  • “Rave Tapes” by Mogwai at 10.  Their eighth studio album, and the first to make the top ten.  Mogwai are the sort of old warhorses whose audience still views an album as an event, so they have some insulation against the broader decline in album sales.  Sample track: “Remurdered.”
  • “The Singles – 1986-2014” by Mike & The Mechanics at 18.  Yes, 2014.  They haven’t had a hit in 15 years, but apparently they have still released singles.  Their biggest UK hit (by a mile) was “The Living Years”, which made number 2 in 1989.

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