The singles chart is still somewhat becalmed in the post-Christmas lull, with a relative handful of new singles this week, most of them at the lower end.  This is all fairly standard, because UK record companies like to promote new singles for weeks before actually releasing them, and there’s no point trying to do that over Christmas.

But apparently things are about to change, because today Universal and Sony announced a change of strategy.   Starting in February, it seems, they’re going to “make singles available for sale on the same day that they’re released to radio stations”.  If it’s on the radio, you’ll be able to buy it.  This seems to be an anti-piracy initiative, the theory being that if you promote material which can’t be legally obtained then you’re creating an additional incentive for illegal downloading.  I suspect it’s a minor factor at best where piracy is concerned, but it’s certainly true that weeks of pre-promotion can easily backfire by creating a situation where interest peaks before the single is on sale.

This should have a significant impact on the charts, since records from these two major labels will now apparently have to start with no prior hype and build from there – new entries at number one, therefore, ought to become rarer.  Of course, you can already buy the later singles from an album as soon as promotion begins, because of the rule that album track downloads count as “single” sales.  But the record industry’s response to that rule was to stick out more singles before the album.  This is a change of tack – and since other major labels such as EMI aren’t playing along for now, we’re about to enter a very interesting transitional period.  (Quite how it’ll work with lead singles from internationally released albums, I have no idea.  That could be a bit of a train wreck.)

Back with the chart, the new number one is “Grenade” by Bruno Mars, the biggest release of the week by a mile, and outselling the number two single by something like 3 to 1.

It’s a stock theme: Bruno Mars is in love and would do anything for his woman, but she does not feel the same way about him, and thus he is sad.  Nothing wrong with it musically, as mainstream pop goes, but you may struggle to take the lyrics as seriously as Bruno Mars appears to.  Melodramatic doesn’t begin to describe it; this is one for the “protestations of love that verge on serious mental illness” file.

Years of romantic lyrics have resulted in chronic metaphor inflation, it seems, leading to Mars exclaiming that “I would catch a grenade for you.”  Sadly, he doesn’t elaborate on the circumstances in which he feels that he might be called upon to provide this service – do he and his loved one work in a munitions factory, perhaps?  And besides, if he’s really that keen to stop her from getting blown up, what’s the big deal about her not doing the same thing for him?  Do you want her intact or not?  Is Mars pining for an ideal world where, faced with an unspecified grenade-throwing incident, he and his loved one vie for the privilege of obliteration?

This is Bruno Mars’ third number one, following last year’s “Nothin’ On You” (with BoB) and “Just The Way You Are (Amazing)”.  His other hit, “Billionaire” (with Travie McCoy), made number 3, so that’s a pretty impressive track record so far.

Number 2 is “Do it Like A Dude” by Jessie J, still climbing after eight weeks.  An overenthusiastic music industry has already announced her as the winner of the Critics Choice Award at the 2011 Brits, which strikes me as… well, bold, considering she’s only released one single.  At number 6, “Who’s That Chick” by David Guetta featuring Rihanna also reaches a new peak on its seventh week of release; it entered at number 9 at the start of December and it’s been meandering around ever since.  For reasons which escape me, “Make You Feel My Love” by Adele also rebounds into the top 10 for the third time, climbing 20 places to number 7.

Number 10 is a new entry, “Eyes Wide Shut” by JLS.  This is the third single from their album and a classic example of what happens with later singles at the moment.  Because they want the single to be different from the album track, Tinie Tempah has been roped in to rap over the middle eight.  The promotion started just before Christmas, the single version (i.e., the bundle with the B-side) isn’t actually out for another month, but it’s charting now because people are downloading the original on the strength of pre-release promotion, largely because the video came out last week.  JLS are on Sony, so this sort of thing will change.

It’s a decent pop single, actually; I’m trying to place which trance record they nicked that riff from, but for the life of me I can’t place it.  Maybe it’s just one of those things that sounds familiar.

This is JLS’s sixth hit, and they’re developing a pattern – the first two singles from each album go to number one, the third makes the top ten.  So far, it’s their smallest hit to date, but I expect it’ll go further.  Tinie Tempah doesn’t get a credit yet because he’s not on the currently available version of the track; however, one place below, his current single “Invincible” reaches a new peak of number 11, in its fifth week out.

The second series of Glee has started airing in the UK, and that means a new wave of cover versions: “Telephone” enters at 25, with “Empire State of Mind” at 35 (um, isn’t the show set in Ohio?), bringing their total to 19.  The other songs from that episode, “Listen” and “Billionaire”, tail in at 51 and 48.

Number 30 is “H.A.M.” by Kanye West & Jay-Z, the lead single from their collaboration album “Watch the Throne”.  No official video for this yet, but “H.A.M.” stands for “Hard As a Motherfucker”, which pretty much tells you what to expect.  Kanye’s 23rd hit, Jay-Z’s 32nd.  (He does a lot of collaborating.)

Finally, number 38 is “Let it Rain” by Tinchy Stryder and Melanie Fiona.

It’s one of those non-specifically rousing numbers, I guess.  Stryder’s eighth chart appearance, and the UK debut hit for Melanie Fiona, a Canadian singer who had some success internationally with her 2009 album “The Bridge” but never made an impact over here.

Other climbers this week: “Hello” by Martin Solveig and Dragonette (up eleven to 18), Cee Lo Green – It’s Ok (Official Video) (up four to 20), “More” by Usher (reaching a new peak of 23 in its eighth week on chart), “Jungle” by Professor Green (up two to 31), and surprisingly, “Hold You” by Gyptian (up one to 39).