Activity!

1. LF System – “Afraid To Feel”

Six weeks and counting. That’s bad for an act who are currently on the list of pure one-hit wonders – one number one hit and nothing else, ever. Wikipedia understandably doesn’t add names to their list until a year has passed, on the logic that you’re not really a one-hit wonder until you’ve had a reasonable opportunity to achieve a follow-up. Right now, the latest name on their list is Nathan Evans. Remember sea-shanties? Strange times.

4. KSI featuring Tom Grennan – “Not Over Yet”

Even though he reminds us at the start of the video that he’s a YouTube guy, KSI is emphatically a proper pop star in the UK – this is his tenth top ten hit, and it’s certainly not a novelty record. Presumably it’s the first single from his next album. As for Tom Grennan, this is his highest chart position; he’s had three previous top ten hits, but his previous best was number 7 for “Little Bit of Love”.

10. Eliza Rose & Interplanetary Criminal – “B.O.T.A. (Baddest of Them All)”

Two new entries in the top 10? In the same week…?!?

This dance track seems to have been kickstarted by getting heavily played at Glastonbury. It’s the debut hit for both artists – Eliza Rose is a London DJ (here’s a set she did for Mixmag), Interplanetary Criminal is from Manchester (and here’s one of his for DJ Mag).

20. Joel Corry & Becky Hill – “History”

A couple of more familiar names. After a run of five top ten hits over 2019-2021, Joel Corry’s last two singles landed in the region of number 20 (17 and 21, if you want to be exact), and here he is again. But his big hits all started small and grew, so let’s see. You know what you’re getting with Joel Corry, and this is certainly it.

21. DJ Khaled featuring Drake & Lil Baby – “Staying Alive”

This is the lead single from “God Did”, the upcoming album from America’s foremost bellower of his own name. It’s basically a second-tier Drake single. If it doesn’t go any further, it’ll be the second DJ Khaled single in a row to peak at 21; he hasn’t made the top 20 for a couple of years now.

27. Headie One x Abra Cadabra x Bandokay – “Can’t Be Us”

That’s Headie One’s highest position in a couple of years – “Parlez-Vous Anglais” got to 24 in 2020, though Aitch was on that. He had a few singles miss the top 40 last year. It’s the second hit for Abra Cadabra (the first was “On Deck”, which reached number 32 two years ago) and Bandokay also scraped the 30s a couple of times in 2020.

31. HSTikkyTokky & J Fado – “Hold This”

So it’s come to this: a minor hit for a bloke who does fitness videos on TikTok. J Fado is from Instagram but at least he’s an actual rapper. Actually, the chorus hook on this is pretty good. The video is… well, it’s a throwback, put it that way.

38. Chris Brown – “Under the Influence”

Although it has a video, this seems to be an album track from 2020’s “Indigo” which has been unearthed by TikTok. Though the version being used over there appears to be a sped up version, which at least helps get through it quicker.

This week’s climbers:

• “Green Green Grass” by George Ezra climbs 5-3.
• “I Ain’t Worried” by OneRepublic climbs 10-9.
• “Stay the Night” by Sigala & Talia Mar climbs 15-11.
• “Stay With Me” by Calvin Harris, Justin Timberlake & Halsey climbs 24-13. That’ll be a relief, since it seemed to have become marooned in the 20s. It’s Calvin Harris’s highest position so far this year.
• “Bad Habit” by Steve Lacey climbs 17-15.
• “Ferrari” by James Hype & Miggy Dela Rosa climbs 25-17.
• “Big City Life” by Luude & Mattafix climbs 28-24.

That’s seven new entries this week, the most in ages. The records making way for them are:

• “IFTK” by Tion Wayne & La Roux, which peaked at number 6.
• “Propeller” by JAE5 featuring Dave & BNXN after a single week at 38.
• “Wait for U” by Future featuring Drake & Tems, which managed two weeks in the top 10 and hung around for 14 weeks.
• “Vegas” by Doja Cat, which peaked at 24.
• “Potion” by Calvin Harris, Dua Lipa & Young Thug, which peaked at 16.
• “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” by Harry Styles, which wasn’t a single but still got to number 3 and spent 11 weeks in the top 40.
• “Master of Puppets” by Metallica, which got four weeks and a peak of 22.

On the album chart, “Renaissance” by Beyoncé gets a second week at number 1.

3. Eminem – “Curtain Call 2”

A second greatest hits album, covering the material he’s released since the original “Curtain Call” came out in 2005. Since he went on a hiatus after that, in practice it means music from 2009 onwards, together with the usual handful of new tracks. The video above features NFTs, in case you were thinking Eminem might not be terribly relevant any more. (The track itself’s quite good, though.)

5. Calvin Harris – “Funk Wav Bounces – vol 2”

The follow-up to 2017’s volume 1, which got to number 2. In fact, this is the first Calvin Harris album to miss the top two since his 2007 debut “I Created Disco”. That got to number 8. Still, releasing six albums over a fifteen year period and getting them all into the top 10 is pretty impressive. The singles “Stay With Me” and “Potion” both made the top 20.

20. Glass Animals – “Dreamland”

Limited edition reissue to celebrate its, er, second anniversary. Alright then. It reached number 2 on release in August 2020, but then promptly dropped out of the top 40, so this is only its second week in the album chart.

30. KOKOROKO – “Could We Be More”

Finally, the debut album from this London jazz/Afrobeat collective.