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Latest Music News From Central FM
Chart Queen in just about every sense of the word this week continues to be Leona Lewis. Many, many headlines have resulted from the phenomenal first week sales of her album 'Spirit' which hit the shops this week, selling 375,000 copies to break - just - the record set in 2006 by the Arctic Monkeys as the fastest selling debut album of all time. As the icing on the cake, the huge sale of its parent album does not appear to have had too deleterious an effect on the single 'Bleeding Love' which notches up another huge sale to comfortably spend a fourth week at the top of the singles chart, although disappointingly and perhaps understandably it dips below 100,000 sales this week for the first time.
Of course not everyone bought a full copy of her album, the result being a fair old sprinkling of individual Leona Lewis album tracks at the bottom end of the singles chart. As well as 'Bleeding Love', she also has 'Whatever It Takes' at Number 61, 'Footprints In The Sand' at Number 65, 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' at Number 74 as well as older single 'A Moment Like This' which returns for yet another Top 75 run at Number 74.
The Top 3 remains static, something which is both good and bad news for Take That whose 'Rule The World' spends a fourth consecutive week in the runners up slot. The single is now the longest running Number 2 hit since 'Lose My Breath' by Destiny's Child also had four straight weeks at Number 2 in November 2004. Nizlopi's 'JCB Song' had four weeks at Number 2 in early 2006, but this was after the song had previously peaked at Number One. Honourable mention must of course go to 'Foundations' by Kate Nash which spent five weeks in total in the runners up slot earlier in the summer although these were non-consecutive. No single has spent five straight weeks in the runners up slot since 'I Swear' by All-4-One had an epic seven week stint in the summer of 1994.g.
The biggest new arrival in the Top 10 is, as expected, 'Two Hearts' from Kylie Minogue. As disappointing as its initial Number 12 showing was, the combined impact of her prime time ITV1 showcase coupled with the CD release of the single has sent it comfortably into a more respectable Top 5 berth. 'Two Hearts' is now her 14th successive Top 10 hit single, a run which dates back to the release of 'Spinning Around' in 2000. It also means she has beaten her own personal best, the run of 13 straight Top 10 singles with which she opened her career in 1988 and which finally came to a halt in 1991 when 'Word Is Out' halted at Number 16.
No less than two singles make their debut inside the Top 10 this week, although one has a rather more widespread appeal than the other. First the single at Number 8, 'Flux' from Bloc Party. Their fourth hit single of the year, the song is a hitherto unreleased track which has recently been added to a special edition of their album 'A Weekend In The City'. 'Flux' is to say the least a diverting listen. Their most electronic track to date, the track features a frantic electro rhythm overlaid with a vocal from Kele Okereke which sees his voice autotuned almost beyond recognition on the verses. A combined online and physical release, the track effortlessly flies into the chart to return them to the Top 10 for the first time since 'The Prayer' charted at Number 4 back in February.
New in at Number 14 is a track that began life as one of the biggest floorfillers of the summer. Labelled as "garage/bassline" by those in the know, 'Heartbroken' from Sheffield based producer T2 is a hypnotic dance record which is driven not just by its thundering bass but the childlike yet incredibly appealing vocals from singer Jodie Ashya. It has been far too long since the charts were treated to a dance record that made you feel you were hearing something with genuine innovation and creativity. Don't expect this single to progress too much further but check it out nonetheless.
The next "new" entry at Number 20 strictly speaking isn't. 'Rockstar' by Nickelback first appeared on their 2005 album 'All The Right Reasons' and became its fifth single release Stateside in the summer of 2006. Very much an afterthought, the track fared badly on the US charts, never had a video made and was not considered for release elsewhere. With a new album from the group still not due until next year, their label have now reactivated this forgotten single and coupled it with an eye-catching video which features a veritable who's who of stars miming along to the track. The resultant exposure propelled the track into the US Top 10 earlier in the summer and set it up for an international release. Over the last few weeks the track has been steadily climbing the UK singles chart as a digital download, people effectively snapping it up as an album cut. Last week it had crept to Number 34 after a four week climb, just in time for the CD single to be made available. Except of course as far as the charts are concerned, the release of the track as a single for the first time turns it into a brand new product, with sales of the album track combined with those of the "single". Thus 'Rockstar' becomes bizarrely a "new entry", arriving fresh at Number 20. Such minor quibbles aside, the song does at the very least become their biggest hit single for some time, their first Top 20 hit since 'Someday' hit Number 6 in September 2003.
Meanwhile down at Number 23 it looks increasingly grim for the Spice Girls. New single 'Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)' fails to capitalise on its initial chart entry and instead slides three places. Now this isn't quite the end of course as the CD single arrives in the shops this week, and the knock-on effect of it being the official Children In Need single (coupled with a performance on the telethon last Friday) has yet to be properly felt. Nonetheless it seems increasingly unlikely that the big comeback track is going to get anywhere near the Top 10, particularly when you consider it is now competing with the Spice Girls 'Greatest Hits' album which lands at Number 2 this week, albeit some distance behind Leona Lewis. To think we all turned our noses up at the All Saints comeback last year, but even they had a Top 3 hit with new single 'Rock Steady'. Stale Spice must be looking at that kind of chart performance enviously.
For the second week running Amy Winehouse has two Top 40 hits to her name, although this time the second one isn't the acoustic version of 'Valerie' which this week drops to Number 41. Instead it is the rather unexpected return of 'Back To Black' which charges up 31 places to Number 30, its highest chart position since it made Number 25 in its first week on physical release back in May. Quite what has prompted this surge for the single is a slight mystery. Wannabe girl band Hope performed the track a week ago on the X Factor TV show, but that surely can't have prompted several thousand people to rush out and snap up a copy of the original could it? Meanwhile the erratic star's latest batch of headlines has helped her to a singles chart invasion which rivals that of Leona Lewis. As well as 'Back To Black' and the two versions of 'Valerie', she is also at Number 68 with the still smouldering 'Tears Dry On Their Own' as well as the near-ubiquitous 'Rehab' which has been bouncing in and out of the Top 75 for the last few weeks. Currently it sits at Number 71 in what is now its 51st week in total on the official chart - meaning of course that it is just one more week away from becoming only the ninth single in history to break the 52 week barrier.