This week's Official UK Singles Chart
This week's Official UK Albums Chart
In many sense summer may actually be almost over, but that doesn't mean there isn't room in the UK singles chart for a genuine summertime smash hit. Debuting at Number One with a barnstorming sale of over 107,000 copies that would be the pride of any well established act - never mind that of a brand new name to the charts - is Bom Bom by the curiously titled Sam And The Womp.
A half-narrated half-brass led instrumental club track, Bom Bom neatly treads a noble line between effortless novelty hit and dedicated club track, a devastatingly catchy piece of music destined to rank alongside Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag or Would You? as one of pop's most famous instrumental riffs. It is one of those instantaneously appealing records which pretty much had "Number One smash" written all over it from the moment it debuted in clubs several weeks ago. The eight musicians who make up the group number amongst them Aaron Horn, son of legendary producer Trevor Horn who topped the charts himself as a member of Buggles with Video Killed The Radio Star back in 1979. The pair are thus the latest in what is still only a tiny handful of bi-generational Number One hitmakers.
Having made headlines last week by charging to her first ever Hot 100 Number One hit and in the process becoming the fastest selling digital single in history, American superstar Taylor Swift makes a similar chart impact on these shores, landing at Number 5 with We Are Never Getting Back Together. A record which has clearly been designed to re-launch her globally, it is far and away her biggest UK chart single for some considerable time, her first to make the Top 20, never mind the Top 10 since she made what appeared to be such a strong debut with Love Story which peaked at Number 2 in the UK in March 2009. [As noted, this is a long way from being her debut but this does mark the point Tay-Tay moved from pop star to superstar in every sense].
As if to prove that there is room for just about everything in the UK charts, the third new entry of another phenomenally busy week lands at Number 7 on the Top 10 for rapper Devlin with the superstar presence of Ed Sheeran in tow on guest vocals. As the title suggests, his new single (All Along) The Watchtower is heavily based on the classic Jimi Hendrix track with Sheeran singing the famous chorus in between Devlin's newly-penned verses. Taken from the rapper's forthcoming second album A Moving Picture, the track is far and away his biggest chart success to date, eclipsing the Number 15 scaled by Runaway in November 2010.
Meanwhile at Number 11, climbing from Number 56 last week and seemingly from out of nowhere is the now five year old Public Enemy track Harder Than You Think which was originally recorded for their celebratory 20th anniversary album How You Sell Soul…. The track is actually making its second Top 40 appearance in the space of a month, having first climbed to Number 27 at the start of August. The track's new-found appeal is thanks to its use by British television network Channel 4 as the soundtrack to an acclaimed promotional film "Meet The Superhumans" ahead of its forthcoming coverage of the Paralympic games. As the audience for the film has grown, so has the demand for the single, which now not only becomes Public Enemy's first Top 20 hit in 14 years but extraordinarily their highest charting single in this country ever, easing past the Number 16 peak of He Got Game which was released in June 1998. Rather than share the video to the track, here's the Channel 4 promo which has spawned a hip-hop chart hit seemingly at random.
I’d tell you more - such as about Simple Plan and Sean Paul reaching Number 12 with Summer Paradise, Owl City removing his One Hit Wonder status thanks to a collaboration with Carly Rae Jepsen on Good Time which is at Number 17 and even the pleasing rebound of Little Talks by Of Monsters And Men back up to Number 21, but that wouldn't leave time to talk about the new albums of the week.
The very top of the album chart is as you were with Emeli Sande remaining supreme with Our Version Of Events, the first time to date the album has managed more than a week at a time at the top. There are however three new entries in the Top 5, led at Number 3 by Bloc Party who at one stage appeared set to hit the very top with new offering Four. As the title suggests it is their quadrennial offering and matches the Top 10 status of the studio versions of their previous three, with remixed versions of two others having also made smaller chart impacts.
A full seven years after they flushed their career down the toilet with overblown second album One Way Ticket To Hell And Back, The Darkness make a storming return to chart action with brand new release Hot Cakes which flies in at Number 4. Despite the apparent hiatus, two offshoot projects have hit the charts in the meantime. After lead singer Justin Hawkins left the group in 2006, the remaining members soldiered on under the name of Stone Gods, reaching Number 67 in 2008 with Silver Spoons And Broken Bones whilst Hawkins himself formed Hot Leg, charting the album Red Light Fever at Number 81 in 2009.
To round off the big new entries of the week, quiet storm singer Jessie Ware arrives at Number 5 with Devotion to mark a rather impressive chart debut. Her album is host to her two chart singles to date 110 Percent and Wildest Moments although both fell short of reaching the Top 60.