Official Singles Chart Top 40 on 11/5/2018

I'd like to point out on iTunes that "No Tears Left to Cry" has a 5/5 rating based on 581 reviews whereas "One Kiss" only has a 3.5/5 rating based on 135 reviews. Makes me wonder why people are still buying the latter when the former is more well received.

The top 40 in notes and lists-
The official #1 for this week is once again Dua Lipa and Calvin Harris with "One Kiss" it's a 4th week @ the top for that song and it's definitely growing on me!
The only change in the top 5 is Drake and Ariana swapping at #2 & #3. I'm fine with this change personally.

New Entries-
#14 Childish Gambino- This is America (Interesting song concept, it'll do better in the US than over here)
#16 Jess Glynne- I'll be There (Good song from Jess it'll climb and go top 10 in a few weeks)
#35 Charlie Puth- Youth (Sounds ok)
#36 M-22- First Time (Really good dance song, listen to it if you haven't already)
#40 Shakka- Man Down (Sounds OK)

High Climbers (Over 5 places)
#11 David Guetta- Flames (UP 8, HIGHEST CLIMBER) (It was #9 in the midweek update so I'm just slightly disappointed it didn't go top 10 although "Titanium" is much better)
#25 (UP 6) Liam Payne- Familiar (Hate it, but it's here to stay)
#37 (RE-ENTRY) B Young- Jumanji ( it! I thought we'd seen the last of this!)

The Top 5 in Scotland (S), Ireland (I) & USA (U)
#1 Calvin Harris- One Kiss (S- #1 I-
#1)
#2 Drake- Nice For What (S- #17 I- #3
U- #1)
#3 Ariana Grande- No Tears Left to
Cry (S- #2 I- #2 U- #10)
#4 Lil Dicky- Freaky Friday (S- #13 I-
#7 U- #13)
#5 Anne-Marie- 2002 (S- #3 I- #4)

My Prediction for Next Week (Based on early Spotify and iTunes figures)
#1 Calvin Harris- One Kiss
#2 Drake- Nice For What
#3 Anne-Marie- 2002
#4 Ariana Grande- No Tears Left to Cry
#5 Lil Dicky- Freaky Friday
#6 Arctic Monkeys- Star Treatment
#7 Banx & Ranx- Answerphone
#8 David Guetta- Flames
#9 Post Malone- Better Now
#10 Jess Glynne- I'll be There
Do you agree?

Thanks 4 reading!

Christina Aguilera's "Accelerate" wasn't the big comeback I was expecting. The song just had no appeal to me and was so forgettable, not to mention the rappers made the song worse and overall just doesn't represent Christina as a singer.

wait wait WAIT and hold up.... Christina Aguilera's new song (which is absolutely awesome) doesn't even chart in the top 100????? It was at no.99 in the mid-week chart and it got NO traction? WTF?!?!?!

My thoughts & observations on the UK charts as always…

- ‘One Kiss’ by Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa dominates the singles chart for a fourth consecutive week.

- ‘No Tears Left To Cry’ rises 2-1 on the airplay chart to become the most played song on the radio across the country this past week. It dethrones ‘One Kiss’ after just one week atop this chart.

- The highest debut of the week is a song that wasn’t even released this time last week, as ‘This Is America’ by Childish Gambino (a.k.a. Donald Glover) starts at #14 in the new chart. There’s definitely a big risk when writing about political content in your music because of the controversy; it either gains you tons of respect, or makes you hated among critics & some cultures. However, I think the former is mostly going to happen for Childish Gambino & the fact that a song written about America has resonated to people across the world this much in a space of a few days shows how much this resonates with people. The song discusses themes that are affecting American politics right now, including gun violence & the struggles that black people still experience. It’s sharply contrasted with the jolly, syncretic melodies & menacing trap cadences, also the cherubic hums to ecstatic streams, from the confident chanting to the manic ad-libs from other rappers. He sounds so confident & cutting in this, which is definitely a big positive! I don’t see this sticking around for very long, but given that nobody had any idea about this song seven days ago, I’m just pleased that we have it in the charts at all.

- ‘I’ll Be There’ by Jess Glynne, who now has six #1 singles to her name, enters the Official Chart at #16 today. Some of you might not know this, but I would probably put Jess in my Top 3 (or definitely Top 5 at least) favourite female artists of this decade! ‘I Cry When I Laugh’ is an album that I still regularly come back to & all of the songs that have gone to #1 for her have deserved to go there in my opinion. So with all of that in mind, I had really high expectations for her return & this is definitely good, but it’s not the kind of comeback single I was expecting from her. Now I’m certainly a fan of the cute content; giving hope to the listener & Jess reassuring someone that she’ll be there for them during hard times. Of course, Jess’ voice is as strong as ever & I enjoyed most vocal techniques she uses here, other than that monotonous vocal effect that always stays the same & what annoys me about that is that it sticks with you as it’s the first thing you hear. That said, even when you get past that, the production as a whole does feel safe & the fact that she experimented with her sound is what made her debut album such a good one! Don’t get me wrong, I’m so pleased that Jess Glynne is back with new music & I’m still happy with this as a whole, but I know she can do even better.

- Shawn Mendes & Khalid team up for ‘Youth’, which debuts at #35 this week to become Shawn’s seventh chart appearance & Khalid’s fifth. Despite the former being 19 & the latter being 21, both of these artists have already collaborated with some huge artists & they’ve already shown that they’re two of the fastest rising male talents in the music industry right now. ‘Youth’ is all the more proof of that; the message behind the song is about attaining youth in a time of adversity & with references to the current political climate (it was actually inspired by the recent series of terrorist attacks in London). The fact that the lyrics are so meaningful here & inspiration to young people across the world shows how much maturity both artists have, but the way they convey that message is what resonates with me even more, as Khalid’s gravelly voice & Mendes’ patented rasp perfectly complement each other. I also like the production, which is simple, but effective & is a bit more dramatic than usual for both artists. The midtempo pop & R&B duet opens with a slow beat, but then the bassline kicks in from out of nowhere into that singalong chorus & throwing in those Latin-tinged acoustic guitar riffs was a good idea too! I really hope this becomes bigger, so please keep buying & streaming it everyone, because this song deserves way better than just making the Top 40.

- M-22 & Medina make their Official Chart debut as ‘First Time’ rises 53-36 on the new chart. I don’t really know much about M-22 other than the fact that they’re an English-German production duo who have been getting a lot of recognition on club channels on the radio, but Medina is a much bigger name back in her native Denmark, including already releasing six albums & won national awards there a few years back! With ‘First Time’, it’s that addictive that I just always come back to stream it about three or four times per day… yeah, I like it that much! I think Medina’s vocals are the main reason behind that, where she sounds very smooth in the verses, but can clearly carry some power building up to the drop. The lyrics might be rather blunt, but when the song is this catchy, I don’t really care about that, especially with the tropical chimes scattered in the right places, as well as the warbling vocal sample in the drop. I could see the latter being annoying to some people, but the rhythm behind it & the fact that it blends in fine with the underlying beat. If you’re following my personal chart, look out for this to climb considerably throughout the month, because it’s awesome!

- The last new entry this week is ‘Man Down’ by Shakka ft AlunaGeorge, which climbs 45-40 in its eighth week on the chart. I’m definitely familiar with both of these artists; even though they’ve not had any really massive hits, I’ve certainly seen their names on the chart many times. The thing is, I would consider them generally more enjoyable than most British artists trying to make this type of music & ‘Man Down’ is a good example of this! Shakka himself has fairly decent vocals even if they do get a little boring at times, but his brief rap flow that we get is even better to me! AlunaGeorge was definitely a suitable feature here too, as the singer’s voice is pleasant (AlunaGeorge are actually a duo) & she harmonises with Shakka really well here. What I’m actually more interested in the production, where the production courtesy of JAE5 bringing a more upbeat, soulful tone for this. The content discusses a girl whose interested in Shakka only really for $ex & she doesn’t care for him much outside of that, but it would be cool to see this become a big hit over the summer, although I don’t have much expectation that it will. Still, happy it’s here, nice job!

- On the albums chart, ‘The Greatest Showman’ returns to #1 for a 15th non-consecutive week. This is also its fourth separate stint at the top.

- The rest of the Top 5 is: ‘Beerbongs & Bentleys’ by Post Malone (1-2), ‘Be More Kind’ by Frank Turner (debuts at #3), ‘Staying At Tamara’s’ by George Ezra (5-4) & ‘Heaven Before All Breaks Loose’ by Plan B (debuts at #5).

- Looking ahead to next week, we could see these songs make a Top 40 appearance for the first time: ‘Girls’ by Rita Ora ft Cardi B, Bebe Rexha & Charli XCX, ‘Back To You’ by Selena Gomez, ‘No Roots’ by Alice Merton, ‘Quarter Past Midnight’ by Bastille, ‘If You’re Over Me’ by Years & Years, 'Family Tree' by Ramz, one or two ‘Beerbongs & Bentleys’ tracks from Post Malone & maybe even more.

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

- My latest Crown Note chart: http://crownnote.com/charts/piran-delves/pirans-top-40-75