Official Singles Chart Top 40 on 05/1/2018

i dont give a f*** about your chart musings

On the streaming chart: On the combined chart:

50 re-entries - 35 re-entries
8 new entries - 11 new entries
42 climbers - 53 climbers
0 non-movers - 1 non-mover
0 fallers - 0 fallers

Absolute farce how new Rules by Dua Lipa is at 5 on the streaming chart, 11 on sales but 13 on the "Official" chart. Should 100000000% be back in the top 10. Another example of the hideous new rule where songs decline from 150:1 - 300:1 after a certain amount of weeks

35 songs are in re-entering
11 songs are new entries
53 songs are climbing
1 song is a non-mover
0 songs are falling

Whatever happened to the rule that an act can only have three songs on the chart at any one time? Ed Sheeran's got five.

Wait they finally fixed the comment section. That is awesome it sucked having the comment section combined for Months.

One Last Time by Ariana reenters the chart now in 2018, and it was released as a single in February 2015. Is it possible for it to become her biggest hit there?
Also shoutout to Little Mix that have 4 songs in the chart

Fast forward to April and he'll still have that number one position.

How the is that Ed Sheeran rubbish STILL at number one??? His latest album has still not dropped out of the top ten yet after more than 30 weeks on the album chart so all of his sad fans with dreadful taste in music should have his rubbish song by now

My thoughts & observations on the UK charts as always…

- ‘Perfect’ by Ed Sheeran remains at the top of the singles chart for a fifth consecutive week & becomes the first #1 of 2018!

- ‘Perfect’ is also #1 on the airplay chart for a sixth consecutive week. With all of the Christmas dropouts, there were two non-movers & 38 climbers inside the Top 40 on this metric.

- As far as I’m aware, ‘Last Christmas’ leaving the charts from #2 is the biggest dropout that’s ever occurred on the Official Charts.

- I'm not sure if this is a first in the Official Charts, but not a single song inside the Top 100 is a faller this week.

- The first chart of the year is always extremely busy, hence there were 17 re-entries & 6 new arrivals to the Top 40 this week. The highest of the new arrivals is ‘Breathe’ by Jax Jones ft Ina Wroldsen, which climbs 50-24 today. These two artists have had seen reasonable success over the past couple of years, with the former having some huge summer dancefloor hits thanks to either original or remixes & the latter on song-writing for some other big dance hits. Now, if you’ve heard anything from both of these artists before, ‘Breathe’ shouldn’t really spring any surprises. The house beats are deep as usual, the track is particularly fast-paced & the ‘dam-dam-da-da’ is ridiculously catchy (although it could get annoying eventually). What is notably different is how haunting the hook is, especially with the “don’t say I didn’t warn you” line. Ina Wroldsen is really the star here though, due to her impressive pop vocal thanks to the gorgeous tone that she brings. Lyrically, ‘Breathe’ isn’t driven by attitude as much as ‘You Don’t Know Me’ or ‘Instruction’, but it’s fine that the content isn’t sassy for a third time in a row. For a winter dance track, this is fine enough, although I’m not sure how long it’ll stick around for.

- Last month, a musical called ‘The Greatest Showman’ was released & both the film itself & the soundtrack have been reasonably successful so far. The drama musical is based on the story of P.T. Barnum’s creation of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Anyway, from the soundtrack, the most successful track from it appears to be ‘This Is Me’ by Keala Settle so far, which begins its chart run at #28. We’ve got a good set of new songs into the countdown today, but this is on another level compared to the rest of the songs I’m discussing in this post! Firstly, there’s no doubt that Keala Settle is such an awesome singer & she’s taking on a topic that has been covered many times before; standing up for yourself & being proud of who you are, despite haters trying to put you down, but I like some of the metaphors she uses here, such as how words cut. What makes this all the more amazing is the production, with the piano line opening the song to the drums that impact as soon as she says “I’m marching on to the beat I drum”. It’s a very cleverly written song & one that reminds me of an X Factor winners’ single. I don’t think this is very likely to become a hit, but I hope I’m wrong, because I really enjoyed this!

- One of the biggest British rappers of 2017, J Hus, continues his success into the New Year, as ‘Bouff Daddy’ leaps 57-29 on the new chart. I might be getting tired of him making bragging song (“bouff” is slang for money where he’s from), but it’s impossible to sit still while listening to this, partly for how hard the beat is & that the song is simply a lot of fun! His complex flow allows him to sound like two different rappers changing between the verses & the choruses. He’s not my favourite rapper at the moment, but I can definitely understand his appeal. I’d take this over ‘Did You See’, so I’d recommend ‘Bouff Daddy’ if you’re a grime fan. I’m not sure what your take on it would be if you don’t listen to this kind of music though.

- American rapper & singer, G-Eazy & Halsey, rise 65-30 with ‘Him & I’ on its fifth week of charting. While I’ve thought as the former artist as decent in general, Halsey has been a “hit-or-miss” artist in terms of quality, but often makes the wrong choices for official singles. That said, this collaboration has grew on me considerably since I heard it last month! Neither artist might bring the same intensity or charisma as other Bonnie & Clyde themed hits, but there is definitely chemistry between the two of them here. The lyrics seem to have a bit of a sense of danger to them, although it could’ve done without a few lines about bragging. I don’t even mind the fizzy beat or the guitar melody, although it is a little desaturated in the latter case. It kind of reminds me of ‘Bad Things’ by MGK & Camila Cabello in a way & while this isn’t as good as that, I’m glad it’s getting recognition in the UK. Not a bad song!

- Camila Cabello earns her third Top 40 appearance with ‘Never Be The Same’, which soars 71-37 in only its fourth week on the chart (although it’s her fifth including features as a solo artist & 10th including those with Fifth Harmony). As much as ‘Havana’ is a hit currently, I see this not quite matching the success of that in the near future, but it getting close to that level of success. This has already gained radio traction that, like ‘Havana’, it’s been made into an official single from originally being a promotional single. I might not love ‘Never Be The Same’ as much as I do ‘Havana’, but it’s still a very good song regardless! I think the main reason for that is how Camila goes beyond her range here, especially with that falsetto in the pre-chorus; she sounds very weak there & she’s a more limited singer than that. However, go beyond that & she makes up for it in the chorus, where she puts on arguably the most powerful vocal performance of her solo career with her pouring her heart out in those vocals; she sounds incredible! The production might not have a lot of melody, especially how percussion-heavy it is, but I like the Latin-inspired beat that opens the song & goes into the hook. I think if she can continue to blend pop elements & her Cuban roots together on more tracks on her debut album, ‘Camila’ is going to be very likeable! A song like ‘Never Be The Same’ would actually fit the ‘Fifty Shades Freed’ soundtrack well, as Camila compares her love of this guy to drugs, which admittedly has been used a lot in these kind of songs recently & yet, she can pull off $exy fairly well. So yeah, while I wish ‘Real Friends’ was here instead (a truly excellent song), this has still got me very excited for that debut album of Camila’s & there’s only another seven days to wait Camilizers!

- The final of the six new arrivals is ‘The Greatest Show’ by Hugh Jackman, which debuts at #40 today. Of the two new entries we got from ‘The Greatest Showman’ that we got this week, this might not be my favourite of them, but I’m still a fan of it! I think the only real problem with this is how dull Hugh sounds in the first verse, but the chants of “woah” & the claps from the ensemble make up for that in the opening of the song. Then, everything just seems to burst into life in the hook, where Hugh puts on some really impressive vocals over an intensifying beat. What really impressed me was the high notes that Lettie Lutz, as her gospel-style voice closes out the pre-chorus & into the final chorus. Lyrically, it’s a song about chasing your dreams & being the star of the show. The thing is, I’ve only listened to this myself a couple of times & I already find it a lot of fun & it seemed like a perfect choice to open up the soundtrack with. Check it out if you haven’t, I liked this a lot more than I expected to!

- I don’t mind seeing some the biggest hits of 2017 back, but what I’m really happy about is that ‘New Rules’ was this week’s highest climber & that ‘Symphony’ returned to the Top 20 thanks to featuring on the BBC1 advert! I’m even fine with seeing ‘Barking’ break into the Top 10.

- On the albums chart, ‘÷’ by Ed Sheeran remains at #1 for an incredible 20th week in total!

- The rest of the Top 5 this week is: ‘Too Good At Goodbyes’ by Sam Smith (stationary at #2), ‘Human’ by Rag’n’Bone Man (4-3), ‘The Greatest Showman Soundtrack’ (39-4) & ‘Revival’ by Eminem (3-5).

- Looking ahead to next week, these are the songs that could be entering the Top 40 for the first time: ‘For You’ by Liam Payne & Rita Ora (from ‘Fifty Shades Freed’), ‘Finesse [Remix]’ by Bruno Mars ft Cardi B, ‘Filthy’ by Justin Timberlake, 'Bad' by Steel Banglez ft Yungen, MoStack, Mr Eazi & Not3s & maybe even more.

- Finally, when the OCC update the Top 100 Songs of 2017 in chart form, I’ll be posting a re-ordering of those songs on that thread.

- Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you all have a good weekend. :)

- My latest Crown Note chart: https://crownnote.com/charts/piran-delves/pirans-top-40-57