Last week’s chart had almost no activity in the top 20, other than a new number 1 thanks to some reshuffling among the established singles.  This week is quite the opposite.  Five new entries, and they’re all in the top ten.  Pretty much nothing of interest is going on further down.

And the winner this week… is “All Time Low” by the Wanted.

The Wanted are – and here are some words I haven’t had to use in ages – a manufactured boy band.  Look at them there in the video, sensitive yet non-threatening.

And they’re quite open about being manufactured.  They were formed by audition, after their record company figured that, what with the success of JLS, there surely had to be a gap in the market for a boy band.

A fair point, to be honest.  It’s been a while; the statute of limitations must have expired.  What was the last number 1 single from a manufactured boy band?  JLS don’t strictly count, because they aren’t manufactured – they showed up at the X-Factor auditions already formed.  The current incarnation of Take That doesn’t really count either; they’re hardly boys any more.  In fact, by my reckoning, you’ve got to go back to 2007 and the tail-end of McFly’s career, with the double A-side “Baby’s Coming Back”/“Transylvania”.

As for the song… well, it’s surprisingly passable.  Somebody’s clearly put some effort into giving the band a distinctive debut single instead of going to the usual collection of drippy ballads that tend to plague Anglo-Irish boy bands, and all the better for it.  (Mind you, checking their YouTube channel, I see they’re still following the traditional route of playing the school assembly circuit.  They’ve also, somewhat more unusually, posted a lo-fi video of them singing the B-side – a cover of “Fight for this Love” – in what looks like a hotel room, which at least confirms that they can hit a note without the benefit of autotune.)

This week’s handful of other new entries:-

• “Billionaire” by Travie McCoy featuring Bruno Mars, at number 3.  Summery, I’ll give it that.  Bruno Mars also appeared on B.o.B.’s number one “Nothin’ On You” in April.  Travie McCoy is the frontman of Gym Class Heroes, who had three hits back in 2007-8.  And just to prove that nobody can be bothered making their own backing tracks these days, it’s actually based on sample from the 1996 single “Santeria” by Sublime, because clearing a sample is apparently less effort than strumming your own guitar.
• “Club Can’t Handle Me” by Flo Rida featuring David Guetta, at number 5.  Eighth hit for Flo Rida, ninth for the seemingly ubiquitous Guetta. This is from the soundtrack to Step Up 3D, and it may have lost sales due to a screw-up at the start of the week when iTunes didn’t have it available for individual download.  (A karaoke version was in danger of charting at one point.)  It sounds exactly like you’d expect a Flo Rida featuring David Guetta single to sound.
• “One (Your Name)” by the Swedish House Mafia featuring Pharrell at number 7.  Very, very odd video.  (Especially if you stick with it to the end, by which point it gets downright dark.)

The Swedish House Mafia, commendably committed to truth in advertising, are indeed three leading Swedish DJs.  Specifically, they’re Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso.  (Eric Prydz used to be a member, but he’s got nothing to do with this particular single.)  This is the first time they’ve charted as a group, but Axwell reached number 6 in 2007 with “I Found U”, and Angello made number 11 last year with a cover of “Show Me Love”.  Angello and Ingrosso have also previously recorded as Buy Now!, who narrowly missed the top 40 with oddities like “Body Crash”.

Oh yes, Pharrell Williams… this is his eleventh solo credit, though the last one was way back in 2006.

• Finally, “I Need Air” by Magnetic Man featuring Angela Hunte at number 10.  Debut for a dubstep group composed of three producers who, so far as I know, have never charted individually either.  This is pretty good, actually. Unusually for a dance record, it’s a live video (the actual single is a bit less echoey).