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UK Official Chart Commentary
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CHART COMMENTARY from JAMES MASTERTON
27/02/06
See, I told you things were about to get busier. Seven Top 20 new entries are capped off by a brand new Number One single this week - and who else could it be?
Hard on the heels of 'Hung Up', (itself still a Top 20 hit) comes Madonna's second single from 'Confessions On A Dance Floor' in the shape of 'Sorry'. The track continues her current disco vibe albeit without any Abba samples this time around and despite the acclaim heaped upon its predecessor this in some small way is actually the superior pop record. The track gives the legendary star her 12th Number One single in all and for the second time this decade she clocks up back to back chart-toppers ('American Pie' and 'Music' in 2000 being the last occasion). As any chart student should know, only four other acts have had more Number One singles than Madonna. Westlife are just ahead on 13, Cliff has had 14, The Beatles 17 whilst Elvis remains the all-time King with his run of three last year taking him to 21 in total.
Whilst Madonna then doesn't really need any more Number One singles it is actually a shame to see her this week outsell someone who really does deserve one. Corinne Bailey Rae began her career as a member of mid-90s indie rockers Helen but in recent months has been the name to drop just about everywhere as potentially one of the biggest new stars of the year. Her first single 'Like A Star' barely grazed the Top 40 when it was released back in October but since then her stock has risen somewhat. Second single 'Put Your Records On' charges into the chart to land smack at Number 2 and in a very nice way proves all the hype correct. The single itself is a fabulously breezy slice of British soul, Rae's voice eeriily reminiscent of Macy Gray's but with the added benefit that it is less grating to listen to over a period of time. This isn't pop or even R&B but somehow manages to be far and away the coolest Top 3 hit we've heard so far this year.
The tedium of every single Westlife release flying to Number One is now long behind us but the Irish group still have an amazingly consistent chart record. This week they reach yet another milestone with their 20th consecutive Top 5 hit as 'Amazing' becomes the third single from their current album 'Face To Face' to hit the charts. Yes, the single is nothing we haven't heard before and in fact set against the Corinne Bailey Rae track just above it sounds almost cloyingly plastic, not that their many fans seem to care.
The final Top 10 new entry this week goes to The Darkness who it appears have some catching up to do if they are to live up to the success of their 2003 debut album 'Permission To Land'. Despite the title track managing a solid Number 8 chart placing when released last November, their album 'One Way Ticket To Hell And Back' has sold next to bugger all in comparison with its predecessor and is currently sitting comfortably at the very bottom of the album chart. Hence you suspect a lot is riding on its second single 'Is It Just Me' which this week also slips into the chart at Number 8. The single sees the group in reflective mood on a mid-tempo rock track which sees them sounding more like Queen than ever and comes complete with their usual tongue in cheek trademarks - right down to the lavish video that winds up with Justin Hawkins marrying himself. It's nothing that is going to set the charts on fire though and you can't help get the feeling that whilst we still like The Darkness we don't find them as amusing as we did - and that is to the detriment of their appeal.
After opening his account with two rather fine Top 5 singles (his last single 'No Worries' being the kind of underrated pop song that has the capacity to send chills up your spine) Simon Webbe has to content himself with a minor Top 20 placing for third single 'After All This Time' which lands at Number 16. In truth it is as much as the single deserves for whilst it attempts to play up the sotto voce strengths of the voice of the former boy band star, the production errs on just the wrong side of dull to have anything more than a passing appeal.
Just below Simon Webbe though is possibly one of the more fascinating releases of the week. Aside from the more fanatical element of his fanbase (those who mistakenly believe liking his music has to go hand in hand with an unquestioning approval of his lifestyle) Michael Jackson has a huge problem on his hands. Not even the very worst elements of the "Wacko Jacko" character the press created for him in the 80s came close to the damage done to his personal reputation by his child abuse trial last year. Acquitted he may have been but the questionable nature of his friendships with little boys and the revelations into his personal habits would normally be more than enough to finish the career of any celebrity.
His one lifeline is the fact throughout his career it was always possible to set aside Wacko Jacko the man and concentrate on Michael Jackson the performer who through most of the 80s and 90s was sublime. He didn't become a superstar through sleeping in oxygen chambers and keeping chimps, he did so by making some of the best selling albums of all time. Hence a neat way of reminding people of this is to take a leaf out of his late father in law's book and re-release much of his back catalogue one week at a time in some form of collectible set. So it is that last week the "MJ Visionary" series launched.
As with the Elvis collection last year, the opening week of the campaign saw two releases. First came 'Thriller' which as it was accompanied by a box to collect the entire set of discs in was chart ineligible. Alongside it is 'Don't Stop Til You Get Enough', originally a Number 3 hit in 1979 and the first release of his post-Motown solo years, kicking off the campaign for his first solo album proper 'Off The Wall'. However whereas all the Elvis Presley re-releases charged into the Top 10 at the very least, this first Jackson single limps rather miserably into the Top 20 with barely 6,000 copies sold. Whilst at first sight this doesn't bode well for future releases, it is worth remembering that the major selling point of these reissues is that they are all on double-sided discs with the CD single on one side and the DVD of the video on the other. Once we get into the 80s and see the likes of 'Beat It' and 'Bad' start to appear, the appeal of the singles is likely to grow. Here's hoping anyway - Jackson needs people to forget the little boys and concentrate on how good he used to be before he can even consider asking the public to buy some new material. This should be an interesting few months.
Before we finish this week it is worth noting the activity at the lower end of the Top 40 which sees a sprinkling of new entries from the rather more credible end of the musical spectrum. First up at Number 19 are Reading band Morning Runner who finally make the Top 20 with their third single release. Debute hit 'Gone Up In Flames' hit Number 39 back in August but their second single 'Be All You Want Me To Be' could only limp to Number 44 back in October. This breakthrough chart hit bodes well for the release of their debut album which is set for release next week.
Just below at Number 21 are Maximo Park who are still struggling to break out of the midrange. Their last single was the re-released 'Apply Some Pressure' which hit Number 17 but their latest single (the sixth of their career so far) 'I want You To Stay' now becomes their first to miss the Top 20 since their chart breakthrough at the start of last year. 'Graffiti' remains their biggest hit for now, charting at Number 15 back in May 2005.
Just below are The Delays who must surely have been hoping for a slightly better showing for new single 'Valentine'. The single is taken from their much-anticipated second album and is their fifth Top 40 hit so far. Their best run of hits to date came back in 2004 when the 'Faded Seaside Glamour' album yielded a string of hits, the biggest being 'Long Time Coming' which hit Number 16 - a chart peak which must surely at the very least have been the target for 'Valentine'.
Finally just to give the Americans a look-in are We Are Scientists who notch up a second UK Top 40 single with the followup to 'The Great Escape' which sneaked a look at Number 37 in October last year. Just to prove that you should never try to be too prescient with your song titles, 'It's A Hit' does only slightly better and breaks the Top 30 with a Number 29 entry point.
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06/03/06
Before we start this week, a word or two about Eurovision as just for a change the Song For Europe/Making Your Mind Up/Whatever They Are Calling It These Days show has thrown up something fascinating and debatable. Britain's Eurovision entry this year is guaranteed to be one of the most talked-about in the whole contest and I'm overjoyed. It's great news for Daz Sampson who not only is a top bloke in his own right but hailed quite rightly as the king of unashamedly cheesy pop, whether it is as Bus Stop, Rikki and Daz and of course more recently as Uniting Nations. It's also worth noting that his collaborator on the so wrong it is right 'Teenage Life' is a certain John Matthews. Given the dross that has passed for our entries in the past, it seems worth celebrating the fact that there is a distinct possibility that one of the Cuban Boys is going to win the Eurovision Song Contest for us. You suspect John Peel would have been overjoyed.
Anyway that is to come, for we have a pretty amazing sight at the top of the charts this week. As a quality contestant, Chico Slimani was the joke of the last series of X-Factor. As a performer however he was top of the pile and in many ways epitomised the true spirit of the series which wasn't necessarily out to find the best singer or singers but to find the best entertainer - the person who had the X-Factor. In the event he didn't win of course but it was almost inevitable that one way or another the former stripper would find his way into the charts in his own right. The Latino romp 'It's Chico Time' was actually debuted on the series itself as one of his final performances and there was talk of attempting to release it to coincide with eventual winner Shayne Ward's own single. Ultimately common sense (and the small print in his contract) prevailed - and in truth it was for the best. This week his debut single crashes to the top of the chart to make him one of the most unlikely hitmakers of the year so far. By rights of course the single should be terrible, but somehow it comes across as slightly less ridiculous than many of Ricky Martin's past hits. It's fun and it makes its own headlines and virtually nobody will admit to liking it. What more could you want from a Number One single?
This does of course mean that the Pussycat Dolls are denied for now their third straight Number One single, their latest offering 'Beep' sliding in at Number 2. Compared to the weediness of their last hit 'Stickwitu' this new hit is a welcome reassurance of just how good they can be, a deliciously funky single which pokes fun at itself by deliberately beeping the more explicit parts of Will I Am's rap - hence the title.
It is left to Corinne Bailey Rae to keep the British end of things up in the Top 5 this week as Madonna slips to 4 and the Number 5 slot is taken by US rock band Orson. First grabbing people's attention at last years In The City music convention, the band found themselves championed in all manner of places last year on the strength of 'No Tomorrow' which was one of the must-have downloads of the end of last year. Q's description of the track as "one long hook" isn't too far off the mark, the track being the kind of quirky new wave-esque rock that was supposed to have gone out of fashion a generation ago. I'm being impossibly nice this week I know, but the sight of 'No Tomorrow' in the Top 5 is nothing less than a joy.
OK so let's dial this down a little so people don't think we're going soft. The third new entry in the Top 10 this week slides in at Number 7 in the shame of 'Sewn' by The Feeling. The Londonders arrive on the chart via the incessant plugging of Chris Moyles on Radio 1 and in fact just like Orson they are practitioners of some deeply unfashionable music - in this case a melodic sound that carries echoes of Supertramp. To hell with it - this is a bloody great record. And it's Top 10!
Now, remember Shakira? She was the Columbian superstar who helped define 2002 in pop music with her first ever English language album 'Laundry Service'. The album spawned the memorable hits 'Whenever Wherever', 'Underneath Your Clothes' and 'Objection (Tango)' before she vanished on tour for two years and then set to work on the followup. She actually made two followups, a pair of complementary albums, one in Spanish and the other in English. The Spanish one came first - 'Fijacion Oral Vol.1' being released last year. With our usual insularity in this country we pretty much ignored it and international smash singles 'La Tortura' and 'No' weren't even promoted here. Epic UK were content to wait for the English version 'Oral Fixation Vol.2' which was unveiled at the Hackney Empire back in October.
Lead single is 'Don't Bother' and its appearance at Number 9 on the chart this week will come as a huge relief to her fans who watched the single appear on playlists shortly after Christmas only for the release date of the single to be put back again and again. Thus given the amount of TV airplay it has received already it is actually quite a surprise to find that people aren't already tired of it. Her familiar yodelling tones are present and correct on the track which actually ploughs a more conventional rock furrow than some of her past hits. It gives the Latino wonder a third Top 10 single, although one that comes some way short of the Top 3 smashes that were her first two UK singles.
Now let's be honest. Releasing the horrible 'Even God Can't Change The Past' as Charlotte Church's Christmas single was a really stupid idea, threatening to undo all the hard work that had been done last year in portraying her as a proper pop star instead of a child soprano. To redress things slightly here is 'Moodswings (To Come At Me Like That)' which is actually far and away one of the best tracks on the 'Tissues And Issues' album and which in all truth should have been the first single. The closest she gets to the killer rock chorus you feel her voice deserves, 'Moodswings' is another rather fabulous pop record in a week full of them and yet as the fourth single from the album is destined to struggle slightly and land at a rather sad looking Number 14. Mind you, that's still three places higher than 'Even God...'
Well this Michael Jackson re-release programme still hasn't really caught on yet has it? After 'Don't Stop Til You Get Enough' limped in at Number 17 last week, his latest re-release 'Rock With You' fares little better. Penned by Rod Temperton, the track was originally the second single from the 'Off The Wall' album and first peaked at Number 7 in this country in early 1980. All I can do is repeat what I said last week, these early Jackson singles are actually the ones that have dated the most (and which don't have the lavish videos which defined his later work). It won't be until we get to the 'Thriller' years in a few weeks time that we can judge just how successful this project is going to be.
In at Number 17 is what everyone hopes is going to be the breakthrough single for Keisha White. First heard of back in 2003 when she appeared on Paul Oakenfold's single 'The Harder They Come' and on the Desert Eagles Discs track 'Bigger Beter Deal', the R&B singer has been waiting in the wings as Britain's next big star ever since. Following a support slot with Mis-Teeq she released 'Whatcha Gonna Do' in March 2004 only to see the single make a disappointing Number 53. In February last year she reappeared with 'Don't Care Who Knows' which did slightly better, peaking at Number 29. The release of her debut album was a bomb however and its second single 'Don't Fool A Woman In Love' didn't even make the Top 75. Thankfully she had a patient label behind her and after a rethink she is set for a relaunch. Originally scheduled last year, 'The Weakness In Me' now arrives on the chart thanks to some steady Radio 2 support, and the sense of relief is palpable. Parent album 'Seventeen' is set for a re-release soon, the irony being that she is now nineteen years old, her journey to the charts having taken a little longer than originally planned.
The token club hit of the week slips in at Number 19 - 'Watchin' by the Freemasons and Amanda Wilson. It is the similar sounding followup to 'Love On My Mind' which hit Number 11 in September last year.
The latest stage in the solo career of former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon is the appropriately titled 'Standing On My Own Again'. It is the first single taken from what will actually be his sixth solo album 'Love Travels At Illegal Speeds'. His last album came in 2004, 'Happiness In Magazines' which turned out to be his most successful to date, spawning four Top 40 singles, the biggest of which was the fourth one 'Freakin' Out' which hit Number 19 and which but for one chart place remains for the moment his biggest solo hit. Mention of course must be made of Blur's 1999 single 'Coffee And TV' on which Coxon took lead vocals for a change and which peaked at Number 11.