Chart Watch Weekly - October 31st 2022
Swift And Sly
As loyal readers of these pages will doubtless have been prepared for, the hot new albums by Taylor Swift and The Arctic Monkeys debuted with a bang at Nos.1 and 2 on the Official UK Albums chart this week, the latter group almost certainly cursing either their luck or lack of timing. For all its critical acclaim The Car became the first Arctic Monkeys studio album to fail to top the charts, instead becoming the first album in nearly five years to sell over 100,000 copies and only register at No.2.
But the truth was nothing was going to stand in the way of Taylor Swift's Midnights which spent the week setting chart and streaming records worldwide in a manner resonant of Ed Sheeran's finest moments. I still remain underwhelmed by the album itself (how many different ways are there to hear her bemoan a lost love while being accompanied by five multitracked versions of herself after all), but you cannot really argue with that level of performance.
What she did was prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is a true cross-platform act, a feat seemingly beyond many other stars, but which is all but compulsory if your product is going to do the big numbers.
Helped not a little by the mutiple editions across different physical formats in which Midnights was available, the album officially sold 75,667 CDs, 1,835 cassettes but most impressively of all 61,948 copies on vinyl. Detailed records only go back to 1994 but as far as these modern-day tallies go that is a record-breaking number. No album in the last 30 years has sold as many black plastic copies as Taylor Swift did last week. We are permitted to find that impressive while also wondering just how many will actually be played.
But this is the sign of the times. This weekend I visited the shiny new HMV store that has just opened in the shopping centre near me, replacing the smaller boutique outlet which closed down in 2013. Once you've fought your way past the racks of American sweets, Japanese tat, Funko Pop figurines and racks of t-shirts, you finally get to the music. There's one small double-sided rack of CDs and then a large set of bins for vinyl LPs. Music shops are now set up to sell music to be collected. Because it is listened to in other forms.
Now, Then! Then, Now!
I'm grateful at times (as is my wallet) that I am far removed from an obsessive collector, but there do come occasions when the need for completeness overwhelms me. It means that later this month I will add to my own personal collection: Now Yearbook 1985 (deluxe CD), Now Yearbook 1985 (vinyl), Now 13 (CD reissue) and, oh yes, the forthcoming brand new Now That's What I Call Music Volume 113. Why break the habit of a lifetime after all.
The tracklisting for the latest volume of the thrice-yearly series was published last week via the usual channels.
What raised more than a few eyebrows was the way a fascinating new record will be set here. Because Ed Sheeran will become the first artist to ever feature on four different tracks on a Now That's What I Call Music album. This is, perhaps, an inevitable consequence of his near-constant chart ubiquity this summer as he popped up on singles performed by just about everyone you could name.
To save a click, the Ed tracks on Now 113 will be:
Celestial - Ed solo.
Peru - Fireboy DML featuring Ed Sheeran
My G - Aitch featuring Ed Sheeran
For My Hand - Burna Boy featuring Ed Sheeran
The Fireboy DML and Aitch tracks appear back to back with each other on Disc 1, which I'm sure is the compilers trolling us all. Then again, mere hours before I'm writing these words the official NowMusic twitter has popped up with another wallet-draining offering.
WTF America
There are still people who will send me pouting emails complaining there is something fixed and corrupt about the British charts thanks to the well-publicised rule that an artist or act can only chart three simultaneous singles under their primary credit (although there are no limits on how many times they can appear as a guest). The rule does however serve to prevent episodes such as the raging absurdity we see on the Hot 100 above. Taylor Swift this week makes some quite extraordinary chart history, occupying every single rung of the Top 10.
In fact, she goes even further, with tracks from Midnights also popping up at positions 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 26, 32, 33, 41, 45. So pity Dear Reader which turns out to be the least popular of all.
Anti-Hero is her ninth No.1 single on the Hot 100 and she ties with Ariana Grande and BTS for having had five of them debut at the top (something which used to be a near physical impossibility on the American charts). The all-time record for this is still held by Drake who has done it nine times.
Taylor Swift this week became the first woman since Miley Cyrus nine years ago to debut at the top of the singles and albums charts simultaneously in Britain. In America this is no less than the fourth time she has pulled off the trick, itself another brand new record.
A Land Down Under
ARIA either ballsed up or forgot this week and didn't tweet out a graphic of the Top 10 for people like me to nick, but their alternative graphic of celebrating Taylor Swift basically sums it up.
She doesn't quite pull off the clean sweep of the Australian Top 10, but comes damn close. Only Sam Smith and Kim Petras spoil the party with Unholy clinging doggedly on at No.7, but otherwise the day belongs to the lady from Nashville. Was there really any point in anyone else trying this week?
Thank Goodness For The Germans
Midnights is also comfortably top of the German albums charts, but its individual tracks don't quite make the impact they have done in the English-speaking world. Anti-Hero debuts at a comparatively lowly No.8 on the singles chart, outsold by the southstar version of Miss You - Germany notably the one place that the Robin Schulz copy hasn't dominated.
Instead Germany have a brand new No.1 of their own, Zukunft Pink smashing straight into the top. In a sense that's a bit of a shame as it deposes Luciano's Bamba from the summit, a hit you will note featuring Britain's very own Aitch in an unusual example of a British star appearing on a single for an overseas market which has had no impact at all in his home country.
Midweek Teases
The big story of this week is the hugely anticipated musical comeback of Rihanna, as she is finally diverted away from the lure of her Fenty empire to return to the charts with what will incredibly be her first chart single under her own steam since 2016. All eyes were on just where Lift Me Up was going to land.
The Sunday evening first look suggested it would chart as high as No.2, although the Monday evening Music Week update drops it down to No.3. Either way, it is set to be reassuringly massive. But the big chart race of the week actually appears to involve Anti Hero and Unholy, the Sam Smith and Kim Petras track just 400 sales behind in the race to reclaim No.1.
Keep an eye out though for the second-highest new entry of the week. In these days of on air, on sale, Shirt from SZA sets a new benchmark for a long lead-in, the singer having posted a snippet of it online as long ago as December 2020, only now releasing it in full. It should chart just inside the Top 20 this Friday.
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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 by own detailed charts analysis - now approaching its own 30th year online - at chart-watch.uk.
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