Official Singles Chart on 28/4/2017

There's a bit of re-writing history going on here. The Justin Bieber version of Despacito didn't exist until it was number one. I suppose it's because nowadays The Official Charts Company seem to pack every conceivable version of something together and count it as the original release (which is also weird).

So the sexist extremist Zara Larrsson gets a no 1 single. It's amazing that most of her hits are collaborations with other artists and usually men.

My current favourite, No Promises, has entered the top 40. Happy for it. Hope it will be able to hit the top 10 list.

I hope that Symphony will again come back to number 1 after some weeks as most chances are that I'm The One will debut at number 1 next week and will stay there for atleast 2 or 3 weeks or so.

Ups:
YES! COME ON! Symphony is at #1! I never thought it would happen! A while back I disapproved of the fact the two were collaborating, but this guy needs to shut up! Also, I know I spent all of November and December complaining about Rockabye, but I never have liked that song.
Shawn Mendes' new song is pretty good. Even has a few rock elements in. And it's at #7. :D
Not sad to see Kendrick and Drake drop further down.
I'm glad to see Ed Sheeran fall of the #1 spot in the singles chart, but I'm also glad to see him stay at #1 on the album chart

Downs:
Swalla at #6. I for one make music myself, and I'm pretty sure that lead during the hook is made from using the first synth that comes up when using a MIDI. All in all a bad song.
Not happy to see J Hus climb. Hip-hop is unfortunately increasing in success.

What a good week!

Ratings:

Great (5 points): #10, #31, #32
Good (4 points): #2, #4, #6, #7, #12, #16, #18, #21, #23, #26, #29, #33, #38
OK (3 points): #1, #5, #13, #14, #17, #22, #24, #25, #30, #34, #36
Fairly bad (2 points): #3, #9, #15, #27, #28, #40
Terrible (1 point): #8, #11, #19, #20, #35, #37, #39

TOTAL SCORE: 119/200 (59.5%)

"The Night We Met" by Lord Huron debuts at number 98 this week. This song was actually released two years ago (on April 7, 2015). It was the last song on the band's second studio album, which was entitled "Strange Trails". The reason why the song has become popular this year is because it appears on the soundtrack to the series "13 Reasons Why" on Netflix. The show "13 Reasons Why" revolves around a student (Hannah Baker) who kills herself after a series of culminating failures, brought on by select individuals within their school. In the series Hannah Baker (the girl who commits suicide) leaves a box filled with audio cassette tapes to a classmate (Clay Jensen). On the cassette tapes Hannah relates the experiences that triggered her suicide. The song "The Night We Met" plays in episode 5 (which was entitled "Tape 3, Side A"), as Hannah Baker and Clay Jensen slow dance at the school's 'Winter Formal'. It's a very sad scene, because at that point in the series you know that Hannah will eventually take her own life. For some reason, the song (in the context of that particular scene) reminded me of the song "Unchained Melody" in the movie "Ghost"- it had a similar emotional effect on me. I enjoyed the series because it gave a very mature and emotional approach to dark and adult subject matter depicted in the show.

https://youtu.be/KtlgYxa6BMU

My thoughts & observations on the UK charts as always...
- 'Symphony' by Clean Bandit & Zara Larsson becomes the fourth #1 single of 2017 & personally my favourite one of the year! It's the third #1 for the former act after 'Rather Be' (4 weeks, 2014) & 'Rockabye' (9 weeks, 2016-17), but what I'm really happy to see is that it becomes Zara Larsson's very first visit to the top of the charts.
- 'Symphony' is not only the best selling song of the week, but it also leads radio airplay for a fourth consecutive week. It also rises 3-2 on streaming.
- It's also good to see more movement at the top, as there has now been a change of #1 for the past three weeks in a row. This hasn't happened since September 2015.
- It was also a busy week for the Top 40, as six new songs arrive in this region for the first time! They are from (with my ratings for each song): Shawn Mendes (7/10), Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee (9/10), French Montana ft Swae Lee (6/10), Paramore (8/10), Lana Del Rey & The Weeknd (6/10) & Cheat Codes ft Demi Lovato (8/10). Overall, that's an average of 44/60 (73.3%), so generally a positive week here.
- The reason that 'Despacito' is my favourite is because of how well it works both on the radio as a song to dance to; I love the opening of Spanish guitar with Luis Fonsi's slow, laid-back vocals ("despacito" actually means "slowly" in Spanish). He's also got a lot of experience in singing, as he's been in the music industry for nearly 20 years now. Daddy Yankee's rap in the second verse can get annoying, but it's still catchy & fun. While I prefer the original to the JB remix, him singing in Spanish worked much better than expected! It's a collaboration that shouldn't work, but comes together brilliantly. It's cool that Latin is a successful genre in the European & Americans chart, so hopefully we can get more songs like this to cross over the UK too.
- 'Hard Times' by Paramore is a close second though! I might be slightly biased towards this because I was very excited for this pop-rock group to return, but the wait was definitely worth it.
Hayley Williams' vocals might not be as powerful as in their previous songs, but they are still definitely as entertaining! The drum beat that kicks in suddenly after the intro & the swipes of electric guitar make this song addictive from start to finish. Again, not their best, but absolutely deserving of a place inside the Top 40 this week!
- None of the new Top 40 entries this week were bad, but if I had to choose one that I enjoyed the least, it would be 'Unforgettable'. The piano & the beat gives the song a sinister feel which helps it to become slightly interested & Swae Lee (one half of Rae Sremmurd) sounds like The Weeknd in this thanks to auto-tune, but the lyrical content isn't very interesting & French Montana, while putting on a decent performance is, despite the title of the song, forgettable to me.
- On the albums chart, '÷' by Ed Sheeran stays at #1 for an eighth consecutive week. Elsewhere in the Top 10, there were debuts for: 'Tears On The Dancefloor' by Steps (#2), 'Life Love Flesh Blood' by Imelda May (#5), 'Jump On Board' by Texas (#6) & 'You Are We' by While She Sleeps (#8).
- Looking ahead to next week, new Top 40 entries could be: 'I'm The One' by DJ Khaled, 'The First Time' by Kygo & Ellie Goulding, 'Middle Of The Night' by The Vamps & Martin Jensen, 'Bon Appetit' by Katy Perry ft Migos, 'Attention' by Charlie Puth & 'iSpy' by KYLE ft Lil Yachty.
- Thanks for reading everyone! Enjoy the rest of your weekend. :)

Great to see Symphony at number 1!

yay now to wait over 14 weeks for the next #1 or ed sheeran to return to #1 next week

I haven't done a review in a while cos ive been busy, but here goes:
-Congratulations to Clean Bandit for getting the UK Official no1 with Symphony. It's their third no1, after Rather Be, which spent 4 weeks at no1 in 2014, and Rockabye, which spent 9 weeks at no1 between November of last year and the first week of 2017. In my opinion Symphony is an amazing song. A fact for you- weve only had four number ones this year and two of them have been by Clean Bandit! and the rest of 2017 had Shape Of You at no1, except Harry Styles' Sign Of The Times getting one week.
-Ed Sheeran still has two songs in the top 10, the other being Galway Girl, which has been extremely unlucky not to hit #1. Although Divide will be one of the most popular albums of the 2010s so far, it has only accumulated one no1 which I'm sure will disappoint Ed, given Castle On The Hill, How Would You Feel (Paean) and Galway Girl all came so close. Maybe releasing a music video for Galway Girl or Perfect in the near future could help another track reach the top spot.
-Harry Styles' debut track stays in the top 4. Congratulations to him for reaching no1 a couple of weeks ago, and its good to see it stick around in the top 5. So far all One Direction debut tracks have been very popular: Zayn's Pillowtalk- #1, Niall Horan's This Town #4, Louis Tomlinson's Just Hold On #2 and Harry Styles' Sign Of The Times #1. I wonder if Liam Payne, when he releases his debut track, will have similar success.
-Great to see Shawn Mendes debut in the top 10. It's not my favourite song of his but its still good and I wonder if he will climb next week and challenge for his 2nd #1 after Stitches early last year.
-It's also cool to see Jason Derulo's Swalla finally reach the top 10 after 9 weeks climbing up the 100. it has gone up 28 places in three weeks so has climbed almost unnoticed.
-Sticking around in the top 10 is Martin Jensen's Solo Dance, which has now spent 6 weeks in the top 10, five at no8. It's one of my favourite dance songs of 2017 so far so I'm very happy it's doing so well.
-Kendrick Lamar's Humble also sticks in the top 10 this week. His album did very well last week and had 5 songs in the top 40. However, 2017 so far has been controlled by album tracks, with no couple of weeks passing with none in the top 100 ever since Stormzy's Gang Signs And Prayer came out in early March. That was followed by Ed Sheeran's Divide then Drake's More Life then now Kendrick's . however, with all four's tracks falling quite quickly now, hopefully in a couple of weeks we can have an album track-free top 40 where new songs get a deserved place.
-Bruno Mars' That's What I Like continues to climb just outside the top 10. It's a great song and I hope it gets a top 10 place soon.
-The top 20 also had climbers from No More Sad Songs, Skin, The Cure and Did You See, all of which reach new peaks.
-But the lower 40 had lots of new entries, something we are not accustomed to seeing in 2017. At 22 is the Luis Fonsi's Despacito, which has gained mostly due to the very popular Justin Bieber remix which came out last Friday. I am a fan of the song, even if it is mostly in Spanish. ;)
-There are also new entries from French Montana, Paramore and Lana Del Rey, none of which I have heard yet. I am still happy to see them enter anyhow.
-The final new entry, No Promises, is definitely my favourite though. It's quite probably my favourite song in the whole top 100! I have loved Cheat Codes' music over the last year, and this is right up there with S3x, Let Me Hold You and Shed A Light in my opinion. :)
-Just outside the top 40 are iSpy, a great song which is likely to reach the top 40 next week, and Charlie Puth's Attention. I haven't heard it yet but Charlie's past music has been good so I'm sure ill like it!
-Not much action below the top 50, but next week should see new entries from Kygo, The Vamps and Katy Perry, all of which are great songs!
-That's it from me, hope you liked my review!! :D

I have been a chart watcher since the early 1970's and find a chart not based upon actual sales as rather a made up thing so I would suggest that the actual sales chart should be the dominant chart that all serious music lovers put first.........one that is formed from a large element of non sales is just a work of fiction that also has a tendency to remove many non popular artist who are selling from the lower reaches of the charts which are important for the diversity of music

I am not the only traveler
Who has not repaid his debt
I've been searching for a trail to follow again
Take me back to the night we met

And then I can tell myself
What the I'm supposed to do
And then I can tell myself
Not to ride along with you

This has to be the best chart week of the year so far! "Symphony" finally hit #1 and has dethroned "Shape of You", hopefully once and for all! Hoping "Symphony" can hold on to the top spot next week as well, it really deserves the success.

So Clean Bandit completes a 6 week run to the top of charts with a combined figure of 54,223 (30,223 Streams / 24,000 Sales) and a 8,165 lead over Ed Sheeran. In a dominant week for them as not only topping the Sales only charts they also top both the Radio & TV Airplay charts.

Clean Bandit’s increase in Sales can be attributed to heavy discounting – with iTunes selling this at 59p of which a number of other singles benefited this week with Swalla-Jason Derulo climbing 15 to 6, The Cure-Lady Gaga(23 to 19), Did You See-J Hus(34 to 20), Still Got Time-ZAYN(36 to 27), Scared of the Dark-Steps(140 to 44) and a Re-Entry at 79 for the best song around at the moment – Kasabian’s You’re in Love with a Psycho.

Other climbers came from Despacito-Luis Fonsi ft Daddy Yankee(70-22) unfortunately it seems we’ll be unlikely to escape this over the next few months. Unforgettable-French Montana(63-24) and also a new peak for the excellent Disciples-On My Mind.(31-28).

3 New Entries straight inside the Top 40 this week – with Shawn Mendes debuting at 7, Paramore with a new 80’s sound at 34 and for Life-Lana Del Ray at 38 (which sadly isn’t a cover of Iggy Pop’s classic)

I like Paramore but the new single's awful

Great chart this week, Symphony finally getting to number one where it deserves to be, and a nice new entry from Shawn Mendes too. Good to see some other good new entries lower down the chart too, with For Life reaching the top 40 and Attention entering at 50, which will hopefully climb next week. Sad to see that terrible J Hus song climbing though.

Yay, Clean Bandit can still lead without trend-hopping! Symphony spars up well compared to Rather Be imo, love them both. Should be interesting to see how Derulo does with his new single after he took over summer 2 years back.

Congrats Clean Bandit on securing another number 1 hit. Cool for Shawn to debut in the top 10 aswell.