Charts – 28 June 2015
The reign of Jason Derulo is over! It only took four weeks! And the end is nigh in another respect – this is the penultimate Sunday chart. Next week is the last one before we jump to Fridays with the “Global Release Date”.
32. Duke Dumont – “The Giver”
A minor footnote to the chart career of Duke Dumont, who had two number 1s and a number 2 in 2013-4, but… well. This is a more radio friendly version of a track he originally put out on an American EP last autumn. The vocal is a pitch-shifted sample from “Time to Love” by Kim English, which got to number 48 in 1995.
31. Stereo Kicks – “Love Me So”
One of those random boy bands formed from cast-off auditions to fill out the X Factor field. This lot got knocked out in week eight and didn’t get signed by anyone – this is a self-released record written by a member of the band. And actually, it’s not so bad. But without promotion it’s going nowhere. This was number one in the physical singles chart, which pretty much tells you how little physical sales matter these days.
17. James Bay – “Let It Go”
This is on Bay’s album, but it was released as a single as long ago as last May, and hasn’t previously made the top 40. It’s now officially being re-promoted as the “next” single from the album, apparently because it did pretty well in Australia and New Zealand when they used it as a single there.
8. Flo Rida featuring Robin Thicke & Verdine White – “I Don’t Like It, I Love It”
I like the idea that Flo Rida is the last man living who still thinks “I Don’t Like It, I Love It” is a good line. This is a man who is blown away by the wit of Simon Cowell.
Robin Thicke, you’ll remember from That Record a couple of years back. The other “featuring” credit is more unusual, though. Verdine White was the bass player from Earth, Wind & Fire, and you don’t often see bass players getting a separate listing. This marks the first time White has been in the top 10 since 1981, though fortunately it’s some way off being his biggest UK hit – “September” and “Let’s Groove” both got to 3.
4. Walk The Moon – “Shut Up And Dance”
Worth flagging up that this has actually hung around, moving 8-5-4 since its debut. Wasn’t expecting that.
2. Lost Frequencies – “Are You With Me”
Acoustic guitars, speeded-up sounding vocals… ah, I see where this is going. And yes, it’s another of those unlikely remixes that seems to emerge from Eurodance periodically these days. This time, the producer has better lawyers than the original artist; Lost Frequencies is the Belgian remixer. This record was a number 1 in Belgium, Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and went top 5 in several other parts of Europe. The original, also called “Are You With Me”, is a 2012 album track by Easton Corbin, a fairly successful US country singer, but pretty much unknown outside the borders.
He’s probably not got many expectations of an international career either – mainstream country acts seem to be pretty realistic about the prospects there. The Lost Frequencies track is actually built around part of the verse of Corbin’s song, but since it’s the best bit, you can’t fault the judgment.
1. Tinie Tempah featuring Jess Glynne – “Not Letting Go”
It’s the lead single from his third album, and it seems to be his summery love song. After a three year break – albeit one where he’s been cropping up fairly regularly as a guest rapper – this isn’t quite what I was expecting. It’s the sort of record you make if you’re embracing your status as part of the pop establishment… which I guess is fair enough, I just wasn’t necessarily expecting him to do it. The chorus sounds awfully familiar, but it doesn’t seem to be a sample, so maybe it’s just one of those things that seems timeless.
Tinie gets his sixth UK number 1, following “Pass Out” (2010), “Written in the Stars” (2010), Rita Ora’s “R.I.P.” (2012), DVBBS & Borgeous’s “Tsunami (Jump)” (2014), and Cheryl Cole’s “Crazy Stupid Love” (2014). Glynne gets her third number 1, all of them as a guest singer – the others were Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be” and Route 94’s “My Love”, both last year.
The midweeks show it lasting a single week at number 1, but these days that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
On the album chart:
- “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” by Florence & The Machine rebounds to 1.
- “My Love is Cool” by Wolf Alice at 2. Four piece guitar band from North London with their debut album. Single: “Giant Peach”. And, wow, it’s very circa-1990 indie, isn’t it?
- “Get to Heaven” by Everything Everything at 7. Former Mercury nominees, now on their third album. Single: “Distant Past”.
- “Coming Home” by Leon Bridges at 8. US soul singer, debut album. The title track did pretty well in streaming.
- “Pageant Material” by Kacey Musgraves at 11. Country music – which doesn’t usually get this far up the chart. Her previous album “Same Trailer, Different Park” got to 39 in the UK. Single: “Biscuits”.
- “No Place in Heaven” by Mika at 19. I know, it’s been a good long while he’s crossed my mind either. But Mika is still selling plenty of records on mainland Europe; he’s also a judge on the French version of The Voice, which, in an intriguing linguistic compromise, is not called La Voix, but is instead called The Voice: la plus belle voix. Single: “Talk About You”.
- “Dark Before Dawn” by Breaking Benjamin at 34. Rock band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. This is their first chart appearance in the UK. Technically it’s their fifth album, but frontman Benjamin Burnley is the only member to have been in any previous line-up. They’re ridden with angst. Single: “Failure”. (Strobe warning.)
- “Skills in Pills” by Lindemann at 35. This is a side project of Rammstein frontman Till Lindemann, in collaboration with Peter Tägtgren of Swedish industrial metallists PAIN. Unusually, he’s singing in English here. It ain’t subtle. Single: “Praise Abort”.
- “About the Young Idea: The Very Best of the Jam” at 36. This is a limited edition compilation tying in with a retrospective exhibition. Either it’s very limited, or everyone who wants a Jam compilation has got one. Sample track: “Town Called Malice”.
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