Still a few weeks to go before I catch up with these!

The number 1 for this week was “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz.

This is his second number one, following “Break Your Heart” last year.  Unlike the many grime acts who’ve reinvented themselves as electropop acts of late, Taio Cruz has been doing this sort of music for a while; this is his ninth top 40 hit, with his chart record going back to 2006.  My personal favourite would be his breakthrough hit “Come On Girl”, but he’s pretty consistent, and this sort of R&B/electropop hybrid is doing very well this year.  (As an interesting comparison, by the way, here’s a live version of “Come On Girl” which dumps most of the studio production and demonstrates that it’s a proper song.)

Anyway, it’s pretty familiar territory for a number one single in 2010.  For what it’s worth, while it only lasted a week at the top, it’s held up pretty well – it’s been in the top 3 since it came out.

So much for that.  The charts that week also had eight other new entries, most of which are really rather good.

• “Katy on a Mission” by Katy B at number 5.  The debut hit for Katy Brien, a singer-songwriter who came through the BRIT School, not always a good sign.  This is really very good, though – it’s a bit like the recent Magnetic Man hit “I Need Air”, and it’s no surprise to see from YouTube that she’s done guest vocals for them on a track called “Perfect Stranger”.

• “Crossfire” by Brandon Flowers at number 8.  The solo debut from the lead singer of the Killers.  It’s a song you can easily imagine the Killers doing, but the arrangement here is a bit more mellow and ends up moving more in the direction of sincere folk-rock.  Not really my genre, but it’s got a good hook.  (Killers songs usually do.)  The Killers have had 12 UK hits, the biggest being “When You Were Young” in 2006, which reached number 2.

• “Slow” by Rumer at number 16.  Yet another debut hit.  Rumer is singer-songwriter Sarah Joyce, and she’s a sort of throwback to the Carpenters.  Burt Bacharach is supposed to be a fan.  This got plenty of airplay on MOR radio, and it’s certainly a superior example of a genre that very rarely makes the singles chart these days.  Perhaps the most relaxed (and slowest) song to have charted all year, in fact.

• “Saint or Sinner” by Aggro Santos at number 19 is something else entirely.  The electric pianos!  The stuttering diva vocal sample!  The looped breakbeat!  Yes, for the follow-up to his number 5 debut “Candy”, 21-year-old Santos has discovered the music of his parents’ generation – rave. Feel old yet?

• “Wonderful Life” by Hurts at number 21.  Debut hit for a Manchester synthpop duo who’ve been floating around as a hotly tipped act for a while now without actually selling many records.  Judging from the (non-embeddable) video, they want to be the new Pet Shop Boys.  It’s a record I kind of respect without particularly liking – it’s terribly serious and I don’t think it’s quite got the depth to avoid teetering on the precipice of pretentiousness, but it’s got something.
• “Take it Off” by Kesha at number 28 (presently at 15 and climbing).  The fourth single from her debut album, so she’s doing pretty well to get this high with it.  It’s another song about how wasted she’s planning to get, but hey, that’s the character.  She actually sings on this one, albeit through some pretty heavy production.
• “Alors on Danse” by Stromae at number 33 (presently at 25 and climbing).  Something a little unusual – French language synthpop, charting in its original form.  There is a radio edit available with a generic UK vocal, but the BBC, at least, are playing the French.  Stromae is a Belgian songwriter, and this song has been a number one hit around Europe.  It’s growing on me, perhaps because my French is far too bad to judge whether the lyrics are any good.  As near as I can make out, it’s one of those “we dance to escape our many problems” songs, but with an air of resigned desperation to it.  Interesting video, too – rarely has a dance act looked less enthusiastic about clubbing.

• “God and Satan” by Biffy Clyro at number 36.  Their fifteenth and smallest top 40 hit.  Mind you, it’s the sixth single from the album, so that’s only to be expected.  They might have put it out in order to have something being promoted on the offchance that they won the Mercury Music Prize.  And they have, admittedly, been writing some very good songs of late.  Good luck getting this one on American radio, though…

• “Miss Nothing” by the Pretty Reckless at number 39. Follow-up to “Make Me Wanna Die”.  They remind me a bit of Transvision Vamp, actually.  The video, which is a parody of the Last Supper, is trying a bit too hard.

In the next chart post: the march of the reality shows begins anew.