Chart Watch Weekly - April 24th 2023
A pithy subheading goes here, I'm normally quite good at these. But not this week apparently.
In lieu of being in a position to receive another No.1 award Lewis Capaldi bins his trousers AGAIN and poses with wrestling belts in an in-joke not everyone will get. He explains it better in the video below. But for the second time this year it seems he tops the charts in some nefarious circumstances.
Also being body positive this week:
Britain’s recurring heatwave.
America’s love affair with female rap collaborations.
Could the third best band in Hull finally top the charts after all these years?
So…
Lewis Capaldi has been making “wacky” videos for the benefit of Official Charts for a devil of a long time.
But wait, weren’t all predictions last week that Capaldi’s new single was going to be a Top 3 entry and nothing more? That was indeed the case right up until the final midweek update on Wednesday. But this was to reckon without the singer and his label pulling the same stunt they did back in January and dumping on the market a batch of limited edition CD singles, prompting a surge in sales for the track and propelling the Scotsman to his fifth No.1 single.
Just how big an impact those physical sales had on his numbers is illustrated by the fact the track debuts at a mere No.9 on the full streaming chart this week. But Wish You The Best is the No.1 download and (naturally) the No.1 physical single. Of its 49,587 chart sales this week a full 16,759 were accounted for by the aforementioned CD singles. Take them out of the equation and the track would actually have only made No.5 for the week.
As to what the thinking was behind this stunt (an almost identical one to the trick which propelled Pointless to the top in January) there are three schools of thought:
A physical release this week was always the plan, they were just late being added to his online store.
The physical discs were set to be released next week to give the track a nice comfortable Week 2 but were dispatched early.
The disappointing streaming numbers meant that the single wasn’t going to make No.1 under its own organic steam and so the release of the CDs was brought forward.
Quite why there has been an urgent need to prop up Capaldi’s chart placings is a bit of a mystery. Yes, Pointless was rather floundering post-Christmas and was only set for a Top 20 arrival and yes, How I’m Feeling Now dramatically underperformed last month. But the album Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent is destined to sell shitloads when it finally arrives next month, irrespective of whether it contains two or three No.1 hit singles. One more was not going to make a difference.
Still, this is a chart newsletter after all. So who are we to criticise an artist and his label for still caring enormously whether a song makes it to No.1 or not. Because of course it should damn well matter all the time.
The continuing significance of physical product in an almost entirely digital world will make for some fascinating studies down the line. The Capaldi CD singles are after all being sold largely for their collectable significance. Not all of them will actually get played. In much the same way the BPI reported this week that sales of cassettes have surprisingly reached a 20-year high with people like the Arctic Monkeys and Harry Styles credited for this rise. Nobody but nobody has a cassette player any more (I live in fear for the day mine won’t power up any more and I have to pay through the nose to replace it). But fans will snap up albums in the obsolete format just for the privilege of looking at them.
2023: where music fans stream music to listen to in lieu of buying it and then buy physical copies of it to look at in lieu of playing them.
Middle Of June Approaches Again
It’s all Kate Bush’s fault.
When the unexpected success of Running Up That Hill last year prompted an ACR reset and a journey to No.1 it clued in both public and industry to the fact that it was possible to reverse the ACR status of a track as long as you could convince Official Charts (and the CSC) that there was a legitimate reason to do so.
It means we already have the slightly absurd sight of Harry Styles’ year-old As It Was back in the Top 10, Lewis Capaldi’s Forget Me restored to chart glory after several months away and George Ezra’s Green Green Grass still floating around the Top 20. Now the played-out trio have been joined by the most ubiquitous hit single of the decade to date. Heat Waves by Glass Animals has been granted a return to full chart status for well, reasons best known to their label.
It effectively means the absurdly popular song can capitalise on its still admittedly strong streaming numbers and arrives for what is now its third wander into the Top 30. It first peaked at No.19 in May 2021, re-peaked at No.5 after - yes! - an ACR reset in September of that year with its subsequent Top 40 run lasting until the middle of last summer.
Some songs just go on forever, and Heat Waves appears to be one of them. Keep an eye on just what this renewed chart run does to its approach towards the all-time longevity records. In terms of Top 100 weeks (121) it is still some considerable distance behind Mr Brightside (358 and counting) but this return to the upper reaches is now its 105th as a Top 75 single. Ed Sheeran’s 130 weeks with Perfect is just six months out of reach.
The ACR rules were introduced in 2017 to ameliorate the problem of vintage hit singles enjoying enduring chart runs thanks to recurrent streaming popularity, and the expense of newer and upcoming artists. But we are now in a situation where labels are ignoring that principle and ensuring they have a continuing chart presence anyway.
Meanwhile Heat Waves remains (as Alan Jones cattily noted in Music Week this week) the only hit single Glass Animals have enjoyed to date.
Enter Grandadman
A round-up of this week’s UK chart happenings cannot finish without noting the presence of Metallica at the top of the Official UK Albums chart. 72 Seasons is the vintage speed metallers’ 4th No.1 album and their first in 15 years, their last visit to the summit coming with Death Magnetic back in 2008.
This week they outsold the rest of the Top 5 put together, giving the opportunity for some Capaldi-esque whimsy as they accept their coveted award. At least they kept their shirts on I guess.
My Hundred Is Hot(ter)
I won’t lie, I was nervous this was going to come out in time as the details were late arriving. But hot off the press, here is the new Hot 100 Top 10 and after literally weeks waiting in the wings Kill Bill by SZA ascends to No.1 in America, boosted there by the release of a new remix featuring Doja Cat (although she goes uncredited for now). In Britain Kill Bill has long dived to ACR but it is still streaming strongly, rising to No.14 this week and indeed would comfortably be No.5 if its streams were still converting in the required numbers.
Ella Baila Sola continues its meteoric rise and you’ll notice Ice Spice is suddenly the woman of the moment with two simultaneous Top 10 hits as her own Princess Diana enters at No.4 (it is No.22 in the UK) and the still-active Boy’s A Liar clings on at No.10. Fascinatingly Post Malone’s Chemical can’t make the Top 10 in its first week out.
Down Under
Australia’s Top 5 re-shuffle themselves slightly but it is down the lower end of the Top 10 where there are things of interest.
David Kushner’s Daylight ended up No.3 in Britain but fires its way to a first week Top 10 position in the territories to demonstrate the global power of its viral success. But it is American C&W that appears to be the big thing over there at present. To accompany Morgan Wallen at No.1, rising to No.7 after a meteoric chart climb is fellow American country star Luke Combs whose faithful cover of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car (taken from his latest album Gettin’ Old) has gone surprisingly viral no matter how incongruous the third verse berating his partner for spending all their time at the bar sounds when sung by a man. It is rocketing up the Hot 100 in America too although Britain for the moment remains steadfastly unmoved, the track having drifted 70-54-58-56 over the past few weeks.
Also new to Australia’s top ten: Cupid by Fifty Fifty. The K-pop track is refreshingly up to No.26 in the UK, proving itself to be no one-week wonder. Although potentially it is still a two-week wonder. Watch this space.
Salut Tomorrow
France have a new No.1 single this week, their entire Top 10 in fact invaded by - yes! - numerous slice of Francorap, this time courtesy of Parisian PLK who, let’s face it, has basically nicked Drake’s act here. All the tracks, including No.1 single Demain (tomorrow) are taken from his new album 2069’ which actually only makes No.2 on the French album charts, Metallica perhaps almost needless to say having the edge on him.
The Blasts From The Past
Five years ago: Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa take over at No.1 with a genuinely quite classic single. Meanwhile, the column also notes a watershed of paid singles sales dipping below a million in a week for the first time since 2006. These days we are lucky if they move over 300,000. The decline really has been that pronounced.
Ten years ago: Pick the bones out of this pivotal week. We hear from Ella Eyre for the first time as she takes over at No.1, Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding team up for the very first time. And hanging around just outside the Top 10 is the first hit from a promising new act named Clean Bandit. Spot the shot in the Mozart’s House video that reputedly got Grace fired from the last proper job she ever had.
Twenty Years ago: The story of the week? Madonna not making No.1 with a single that everyone hated on first listen. And the fifth to be fair.
Midweek Teases
OK, so THIS week we should see Miracle spend its third week at No.1, a lack of any more CD singles to sell meaning Lewis Capaldi is set for a slightly embarrassing tumble out of the Top 5. There’s a small surprise brewing as Ed Sheeran’s new album teaser track Boat is set to barely make the Top 40. But then it is just a teaser - even if he went to the trouble of shooting a video for it.
The highest new entry then should be this one, presently tracking for a debut just outside the Top 10:
There’s possibly more intrigue on the albums chart, the first midweeks suggesting Enter Shiraki will debut at No.1 with A Kiss For The Whole World. But just 400 copies behind are Everything But The Girl with their new album Fuse. Ben and Tracy have - extraordinarily - never had an album chart higher than No.4 before (1996’s Walking Wounded) and with the prospect of their first ever No.1 record waved in front of everyone there appears to be a renewed push to see if they can close the gap.
If you have enjoyed this newsletter, please tell everyone you know and send them the link to subscribe. Share this email with a friend, tweet a link or post on Facebook about it.
The new UK charts are announced by Radio One from 4pm every Friday, can be seen in full on officialcharts.com and musicweek.com, and you can read my own detailed charts analysis - now celebrating its 32nd year online - at chart-watch.uk.
There’s no charge for this newsletter, and never will be. However much Substack begs me to turn on that feature. But if you fancy thanking me for the work that goes into putting it together, then you can always buy me a coffee. A man has to get his sugar rush from somewhere. My grateful thanks to Mark Holling and Anastasios Kakaroukas for their loyal support this week.