A busy week on the album chart; another largely dead one for the singles.  The addition of streaming data really seems to be helping to slow down the charts, for better or worse – probably better, actually.  We’ll come to an example of why in a bit.  First…

30.  The Weeknd – “The Hills”

This is (presumably) the lead single from his second album.  It’s the follow-up to “Earned It”, from the Shades of Grey soundtrack.  But of course, this isn’t from Shades of Grey, and for the moment we’re back in his usual stomping grounds at the bottom end of the top 40 (or just outside it).  The midweeks don’t show it going any further, but then “Earned It” was a slow burner, so who knows.

27.  Florence + The Machine – “Ship To Wreck”

The second single from her new album “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful”.  This has been out since April, and it was bumping along the low end of the top 100 until now.  The release of the parent album – which naturally goes straight to number 1 – seems to have caused some belated interest in a track that’s at least had a reasonable amount of airplay.

19.  DJ S.K.T. featuring Rae – “Take Me Away”

Your regular weekly club record.  DJ S.K.T. is a house producer who’s done plenty of remixes on high profile records.  Rae, the singer, is also a producer in her own right, and boy she doesn’t make Googling easy with a name like that.  Here’s one of her other tracks, anyway.

Unusually for dance music, this is an outright cover of an earlier club track, rather than just a sample or interpolation.  The original was credited to True Faith with Final Cut and got to number 51 back in 1991.  The chorus from their version crops up as a sample on  “Warriors Dance” by the Prodigy, their final top ten hit from 2009.

11.  Lawson – “Roads”

It’s been a year and a half since we last saw Lawson, the boy band with guitars – or, if you prefer, the guitar band who were marketed to the boy band audience.  This is the lead single from their second album, and moves a bit further into the latter category.  It’s not bad, actually.  It’s got a bit more energy than I remember from them, even if it still sounds like an unexpectedly good Slovenian Eurovision entry.

Lawson are precisely the sort of band who are doing badly out of the inclusion of streaming data.  They’re basically a fan base act, which means they have heavily front loaded sales, and their records don’t stick around long enough to build a wider audience and start to pick up streams.  If this was still a sales chart, Lawson would be at number 5; as it is, it misses the top ten.  (In contrast, five of the six singles from their first album made the top ten.)

It drops to 28 in the midweeks, so chances are it’ll be gone quickly.

2.  Natalie La Rose featuring Jeremih – “Somebody”

Wow, that’s really 80s.  I mean, I know 80s pop has been back in fashion as a template for a while, but this thing couldn’t be any more 80s if it was solving a Rubik’s Cube on Network 7.  Parts of it are acknowledged lifts from Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”, a number 1 in 1987; other bits, less obviously, come from LMFAO’s “Shots”, which wasn’t a single in this country.

La Rose is a Dutch singer signed to Flo Rida’s label.  Her Wikipedia entry includes the sentence “Impressed with her confidence, the multi-platinum international superstar invited her to the studio”, which makes her sound like something that’s escaped from bad Flo Rida fanfic, if there is such a thing, and I sincerely hope there is.

This was number 1 in the midweeks, but again, sales seem to have been slightly front loaded.  It would have wound up at number 2 whether or not streaming data was included, and the midweeks have it dropping straight out of the top 5.

1.  Jason Derulo – “Want to Want You”

Second week at number 1, and while I don’t greatly care for the record, I’m at least pleased to see the year’s unusually slow turnover of number 1s continuing after all.  We’re nearly halfway through the year and only Years & Years spent a single week at number one.

On the album chart:

• “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” by Florence + The Machine at 1.  Her third number 1 album.  “Lungs” re-enters at 18.
• “Act Two” by Collabro at 2.  A musical theatre “boy band” from the House of Cowell, and not, as the name might suggest, a social network for bros.  It’s their second album, and if you’re looking for nice boys in suits singing covers ranging from Les Mis songs through to the theme from Friends, this is for you.  Single: “A Thousand Years”.
• “In Colour” by Jamie xx at 3.  Debut solo album from the production guy from the xx.  Single: “Loud Places”.
• “Big Love” by Simply Red at 4.  Their first album of original material in 20 years, though they’ve fairly been churning out the covers since then.  Single: “Shine On”.
• “Are You Satisfied?” by Slaves at 8.  Punk duo from Tunbridge Wells.  Better than that sounds.  Single: “The Hunter”.
• “Last Of Our Kind” by The Darkness at 12.  Their second album since the original line-up re-formed in 2011.  They seem to be playing it a bit more straight these days.  Single: “Open Fire”.
• “Everything Is 4” by Jason Derulo at 16.  Not an albums act, obviously.  The single is at number 1.
• “Peace Is The Mission” by Major Lazer at 25.  “Lean On” is still in the top 10, currently at number 4.
• “Currency Of Man” by Melody Gardot at 31.  Gardot’s previous two albums made the top 20, so this is a bit disappointing.  Single: “Preacherman”.
• “Before We Forgot How To Dream” by SOAK at 37.  Folksy singer-songwriter from Derry.  Single: “B a noBody”.