Official Singles Chart on 24/1/2020

https://youtu.be/wGBrNjiAzyA

My thoughts & observations on the UK charts as always…

Eminem scores the Official Chart Double, as ‘Music To Be Murdered By’ opens as the #1 album of the week, while ‘Godzilla’ with Juice WRLD enters at #1 on the singles chart!

Eminem lands both a milestone 10th #1 single & 10th #1 album in the UK! In the latter case, no other act has ever had this many consecutive chart leaders. ‘Music To Be Murdered By’ sets a first week figure of 38,000 combined sales!

‘Godzilla’ is also Juice WRLD’s first ever UK #1 single! He’s the first posthomous artist to score a #1 single in over 12 years, after Eva Cassidy reached the top spot after her death with her ‘What A Wonderful World’ duet with Katie Melua in 2007.

‘Godzilla’ is the first song of the year to debut at #1! Only five songs were able to accomplish this last year (‘7 Rings’ & ‘Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored’ by Ariana Grande, ‘I Don’t Care’ by Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber, ‘Vossi Bop’ by Stormzy & ‘I Love Sausage Rolls’ by LadBaby).

The rest of the Top 5 on the albums chart is: ‘More. Again. Forever.’ by The Courteneers (debuts at #2), ‘Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent’ by Lewis Capaldi (1-3), ‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong’ by Bombay Bicycle Club (debuts at #4) & ‘Heavy Is The Head’ by Stormzy (3-5). Other debuts in the Top 10 include ‘Manic’ by Halsey (#6) & ‘Circles’ by Mac Miller (#8).

While ‘The Box’ by Roddy Ricch climbs 5-2 on the new singles chart, it finishes just 93 chart sales behind ‘Godzilla’! With less than 100 copies between the Top 2, this week marks one of the closest chart battles ever.

‘Don’t Start Now’ by Dua Lipa continues its run as the most popular song on British radio!

‘Dance Monkey’ by Tones & I reaches 14 non-consecutive weeks leading the national YouTube chart, as it increases in weekly views yet again (3.26 million, +3%). The biggest video debuts of the week were: ‘Still Disappointed’ by Stormzy (#2, 2.34 million), ‘Life Is Good’ by Future ft Drake (#3, 1.65 million), while ‘The Box’ was among the biggest gainers there (25-7, roughly doubles in views from last week).

EMINEM FT JUICE WRLD - GODZILLA (#1)
So since all of these aren’t official singles yet, I’ll try to keep the Eminem track reviews here fairly brief! Anyway, like I said yesterday, I don’t think many people saw a #1 coming for this at all, even if the Juice WRLD feature was inevitably going to drive extra streaming numbers for this. In fact, Radio 1 last night was the first time I even heard this song & man, this is actually awesome! I’ll admit, I was a bit worried about Eminem’s career after ‘Kamikaze’, but his iconic lightning-paced flow is probably the slickest he’s sounded at those kind of speeds since ‘Rap God’. One thing that I respect here is how brave he continues to be open about his mental health, mentioning that girls, money & alcohol can turn anyone into a monster! Even beyond that, Juice WRLD sounds dark & sincere in the brief amount of him we hear in the hook, which is honestly the most impressive I think I’ve ever heard him. The bubbly, ominous beat also adds to that tense atmosphere, which builds up at just the right pace to the point where you question how it’s possible than Em can rap as fast as he does! There are a little too many expletives for me to put this among my favourite rap songs of the past year (especially some of the disrespect he has to women at parts of the song), but it’s clear that Eminem remains a lyrical mastermind & if he wasn’t around, well I won’t say there wouldn’t be rap music, but we wouldn’t know the genre like we do today at all. This is a strong 8/10!

DIGDAT FT AITCH - EI8HT MILE (#9)
It would’ve been a cool coincidence to see this debut one place higher & I’m not even sure if this song was planned because of Eminem’s comeback, or whether or not Digdat & Aitch were going to release this anyway! Here’s the thing, while Aitch brings more intensity than he usually does, DigDat still outshines him in terms of energy despite sounding more annoying in my opinion, with both artists rapping in a back & forth structure, which might actually be where this song works for me! The whole idea of the original ‘8 Mile’ was about Eminem’s life & particularly rap battles, so the fact that both DigDat & Aitch spar against one another despite having as much chemistry as they do means that they captured the vibe of that film incredibly well in my opinion! I still think both artists are not even close to a majority of music that Eminem has released in terms of quality & the drill beat is way too scattered for me to get behind, but I can at least see the appeal here. Light 6/10!

EMINEM FT ED SHEERAN - THOSE KINDA NIGHTS (#12, Worst Of The Week)
Eh, I say that about DigDat & Aitch, then I heard this & I’m really not sure how to feel about it! Honestly, Ed’s hook is definitely the best part here, where despite him actually being slightly autotuned, he still sounds fine enough over the skittering beat. Unfortunately, it’s Eminem who lets me down a bit here, where the instrumentation cuts into a delivery in a very weird way & while I think the idea of reminisicing his D12 days would attract some positive attention, the same problems I have with ‘Godzilla’ remain, although they stand out a heck of a lot more here. So yeah, there’s still some charisma from Eminem here, but the fact he sounds irritating & whiny at the start of the second verse makes this nowhere near as interesting as his other collaborations with Ed like ‘River’ or even ‘Remember The Name’. So yeah, a little disappointed with this one to be honest! Also, the line about how he doesn’t seem to care about harassing women? Yeah… no. Solid 5/10!

EMINEM - DARKNESS (#17)
Okay, can we end the Eminem reviews on a positive note? Uh, yeah, I actually think we can! This is another Eminem is being a lot more honest about his personal experiences, where he discusses his relationship with both his father & his fans, along with mentioning how he never wants to be alone. It’s especially deep since it’s probably the most vulnerable I’ve heard Em in a long time & the descriptive detail here makes that completely okay! Some of the other elements I love include a sample of ‘The Sound Of Silence’ & the slow piano melody, along with the gunshots, screams & police sirens in the background, also with ending the song raising awareness of the various dreadful shooting situations across the US lately. It’s nearly six minutes along, but yeah, you can tell a lot of thought when into this one! Strong 8/10 here.

JONAS BROTHERS - WHAT A MAN GOTTA DO (#33)
Between JB, Halsey & now The Jonas Brothers, it seems like all the big pop artists want to try country now! As for these guys, well they only did okay with the pop comeback of the tracks I’ve heard from their ‘Happiness Begins’ album, so I was a bit confused as to why they immediately hopped into an unfamiliar genres coming from them & sadly, I think I still am confused! Yeah, I do like the melody that each member of the group brings in the verses, but every hook except maybe the last hook falls flat for me, with the boys clearly struggling with their upper range as usual & them not sounding anywhere near as romantic as they think they do. The muffly guitars also weren’t the best start to the strong in terms of instrumentation, although I do get slightly more hooked on these when the horns accompany them later on! Overall though, it’s cute enough not to dislike, but it’s also nothing I’ll remember from them long-term. Strong 5/10!

THE 1975 - ME & YOU TOGETHER SONG (#35, Best Of The Week)
While The 1975 tend to do far better in terms of commercial performance with their albums, their singles always seem to pleasantly surprise me whenever their do chart their singles here & this might be the biggest example of that yet! The first promising sign is that we get that sudden euphoric blast from the band, where Matt Healy sounds so smooth throughout, as he’s very much in love & dreaming of what could happen with a lady he admires. What makes this so sincere coming from him is the fun, sparkiy production that could lift anyone’s spirits instantly! Ultimately, this sounds like a classic ballad that Oasis would’ve done (even Matt could almost be compared to either of the Gallagher brothers here in terms of vocal presence!) & if I’m comparing The 1975 to one of Britain’s biggest rock bands of all-time, that speaks volumes about how much I adored this. In order words, The Weeknd & Oh Wonder might have to watch out next week on my personal charts, because this is wonderful! Strong 9/10 for now, with huge potential to become a perfect score for me in the near future. Marvellous stuff lads!

Looking ahead to next week, these songs could enter the Top 40 for the first time: ‘Suicidal’ by YNW Melly, ‘Pee Pee’ by M Huncho (yes, I’m frustrated by this too), ‘Sugar’ by BROCKHAMPTON, ‘Simmer’ by Hayley Williams, up to three tracks from J Hus & maybe even more.

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-40-165

Yet another fake No.1

As much as I like Eminem I hate the rules these charts are compiled by, so false, a very uneven playing field. Not actually a chart at all but simply a list of songs in no particular order. OCC you mess up week on week can you do everybody a favour and hand over to someone else that can do the job properly!

one final note: Music was and is my love from 85 since i started to follow up the UK charts. I sat listening to BBC UK top 40 and this was a big time each week for me to listen to the new songs.

Don't tell me that i am an old folk,as i kept following up the charts since then without interrupt, EACH week and i liked most of the new music also in the 2010s with melody and i would say that till 2014-2015 it was quite good, but since then it has gone downhill.
More precisely: 1985-1995 - Golden age 10 /10
1996-2000 - worse years, lot of boy bands , but still some good , well inspired songs 7/10
2000-2009 - Most years not so good, we went downhill 6/10
2010-2014-2015- again better years, daft punk - get lucky, fun - we are young, nico - am i wrong, call me maybe, hozier, take me to church ... so 8/10 - so things started to improve
but after that came Streaming and since than we are going downhill.

So clearly downloads show the value, melody. As now Weekend 's new good song is ahead and selling fine, while Roddy Rich - the box is only 25. SO the downloads charts show the real value, while streaming represents only what kids are listening on repeat. but the question: Why they listen to songs without melody, boring, no hook? nothing?

So to summarize: Rules should be changed, and streaming should count x/1000 at least, or download should count 1000 more.
Don't forget, it is quite different, when someone pays for a song to OWN it, or just listenes it for free. Paying shows real love , interest for a given song.
PS: Even the download charts is not the same quality as it was before, as artist these days lack inspiration (expect a few good songs), but at least a bit better.
So charts in the early 90s - 10/10
charts in the early 2010s (2010-2015 ) 7/10
todays charts including streaming 3/10
todays download charts 5/10
Sorry guys

Luckily in the UK there were few good chart toppings songs also last year (like Lewis C - Someone you loved 10/10), or Mabel - Don't call me up ( 8/10 ),Dua lipa -Dont .. (9/10), but these Roddy Rich - Box (3/10)..i cant find the words how bad it is.
Don't misunderstand me, i like rap/hip hop, but for me rap songs start with HOuse of Pain - Jumnp around, 2 Pac (90s), or also 50 cent was good in the early 2000s, but todays rap is boring and dull and terrible.

Eminem ' s song should be an exception, as most of what Eminem does is good, but Roddy rich, what the is that ?

A good example how streaming ruined the charts is when Drake's terrible God's plan was number 1 for long, and the beautiful Rudimental - These days was only behind God's plan, WHILE on the download charts it was doing better.. (back in 2016, again a shame year in POP music, when streaming started to rule)

Really sorry guys to say, BUT STREAMING Literally killed the charts (and pop music.) The lot of hip/hop/Rap and mainly TRAP in the top of the charts, made for me the UK charts unenjoyable. (and this is true for other charts in the world, germany, us). the download charts are better, as there are in the top more melody songs, pop, but hearing these RAP songs make me vomit. These can't be enjoyed at all. No melody, boring, dull, terrible.
I am a big pop fan as Piran, following up the charts from early 80s. Music was enjoyable for me till 2016/2017, but since streaming took over , the charts became terrible.

I would change the rules. Download shoud count 1000* the point a streaming is. And if we talk about streaming, only the song listened from the begininng till end should count.
Without this the charts will become boring and useless as it is today.

THIS TOP TEN IS VERY BAD !! ALL TRAP AND RAP... MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM WE NEED MORE POP , MORE DANCE, AND MORE BRITISH SINGERS......... SO MUCH MONEY, IS NOT REAL... IT S A SHAME

Lovely to see Matthew Wilder in the charts, at #100, Break My Stride. At least one song I like!

Man, it's crazy how Dance Monkey has been dominating for so long, #1 yet again fending off Godzilla with 59k units v.s. 53k. It's getting farcical that I have to call out OCC's fake leader for a fifth week in a row, but until they actually address their broken ACR policy, I'm going to keep beating that drum.

Interesting song. The clip is original. Eminem began in 2000 (the first number one). This is 10 single number one.

We all expected Eminem's surprise album to be #1 the moment we knew it was being released, but I don't think many people saw a #1 single coming with it too!

While those milestones for Eminem are iconic (the fact that he can still do the chart double after over 20 years in the music industry is jaw-dropping), but what captures my attention just as much is that this is also Juice WRLD's first ever chart-topper in the UK! It's a shame he wasn't alive to see this, but still, it's an incredible tribute to the late rapper.

'The Box' being less than 100 combined sales behind it also makes this one of the closest chart races ever, so it looks highly likely that'll be the next song to take the top spot, which I honestly don't have a problem with!

Full review coming tomorrow. Have a nice evening everybody! :)