This week: basically nothing comes out, but some other records do climb!  Exciting, I know!

33.  Justin Bieber (featuring Nicki Minaj) – “Beauty and a Beat” 

Re-entry – this dropped out of the top 40 last week.  I’m going to hazard a guess that it’s picked up a few downloads from the version available on his “Believe Acoustic” album.

30.  Amelia Lily – “Shut Up (And Give Me Whatever You’ve Got)” 

I don’t normally mention fallers, but it’s worth flagging up that this drops 19 places on its second week – not a promising sign for  Xenomania’s latest attempt to find a new vehicle.

29.  Droideka – “Get Hyper”

Droideka is Ellis Carter, a teenager from Cambridge named after a relatively obscure Star Wars concept, and this is a dubstep track that (as best I can figure out) he initially put out as a copyright-free track a year or so back.  This is a rather more polished version, though.  Bouncy little number, kind of sounds like something that might turn up on a Flash game soundtrack.  It’s been climbing from the lower reaches for a couple of weeks now but I’m not entirely sure why, to be honest.

There’s no official video for this, though YouTube does turn up six minutes of people dancing to it while dressed as Teletubbies.

28.  Disclosure (featuring AlunaGeorge) – “White Noise”

Released on 1 February, so it only has two days of sales counting to the chart.  Their previous single “Latch” is still hanging in at number 36.  This is along similar electrofunk lines, and it’s a strong track – it’s going to leap up the chart next week when it gets a full seven days of sales behind it.  No video for this one either.  It’s like they’re going out of fashion or something.

AlunaGeorge is the less than imaginative name for singer Aluna Francis and producer George Reid – it’s their first appearance on the chart, but since they were on the BBC’s Sound of 2013 list, I assume they’ll have more material of their own in the pipeline.

21.  Ellie Goulding – “Explosions”

Oh, hey, it’s got a proper video now.  Well, kind of.  It’s mostly based on the live performance I used last week, so I’m figuring it’s a bit of a rush job.  Anyhow, it’s up 12 places.  Quite the week for high climbers, as we’ll see.

18.  Rita Ora – “Radioactive”

Up 14.  And that’s still not the highest climber, either.

14.  Dizzee Rascal – “Bassline Junkie”

Up 10 – the second straight week that it’s climbed more than ten places.  Of course, part of this is that there’s not much in the way of major new releases this week, so records like this have more chance to gain traction.

10.  Devlin (featuring Diane Birch) – “Rewind”

(Lyric video here.)  This week’s only other new entry, and at least he’s made a video.  It’s Devlin’s second top ten hit following “Watchtower” last summer; curiously, the follow-up “Off With Their Heads” crashed out entirely, and didn’t make it beyond number 62.  That at least tends to suggest this is selling on its merits rather than on the strength of a fan base – and I have to admit that Devlin is the sort of artist who only ever impinges on my consciousness in the weeks when he has a new entry.  This is aiming for the same sort of “sincere rapping and rousing yet vulnerable chorus” formula that’s done well for Professor Green, which seems to be Devlin’s natural style too.

The chorus is taken from “Rewind” by Diane Birch, a single from 2010 that I’ve never heard of.  According to Wikipedia, the parent album did alright in Italy.  Here’s the original – not exactly the most obvious rap sample fodder.  Pretty obscure too – this has been online for over two years and has under 10,000 views on YouTube.  And I’m not convinced the sample has a tremendous amount to do with the verses.

Birch’s contribution here isn’t a sample, in fact; she thoughtfully turns up to re-perform the chorus (and probably raise her profile more than a sample licence would have done).

2.  Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (featuring Wanz) – “Thrift Shop”

Viral hit alert.  That’s basically what happened with this track in America, and it’s repeating the performance in the UK.  After sitting on the digital shelves of iTunes unnoticed and unwanted for months, “Thrift Shop” suddenly appeared at number 24 last week, and now leaps very nearly to the top.  In fact, it’s been number one on iTunes for several days, and it’s got every prospect of getting to the top next Sunday.  But because it started off the week all the way down in the teens, it doesn’t quite get there this time.

1.  Bingo Players (featuring The Far East Movement) – “Get Up (Rattle)”

Two weeks at the top.  Who’d have thought it.  Rescue us, Macklemore.

It does mean, though, that we’ve now had three number one singles in a row that have lasted two weeks at the top, which does the chart no harm.

On the album chart:-

• Biffy Clyro, “Opposites” at number 1.  Their first number 1 album, though they’ve reached the top 3 twice before.
  
• Justin Bieber, “Believe Acoustic” at number 5.  It’s exactly what it sounds like.
• Andrea Bocelli, “Passione” at number 9.  This week’s obligatory Classic FM record.
• Funeral for a Friend, “Conduit” at number 34.  Bearing in mind that these guys have gone gold in the past, this really isn’t very good.