This week's Official UK Singles Chart

This week's Official UK Albums Chart

Funny how these things work out. One week after a 19-year-old single storms sensationally to Number One on the Official UK Singles chart, it is replaced at the top of the sales rankings by a single which sounds for all the world like it too was made around 20 years ago. The new chart-topper is actually a brand new piece, but there is no doubting that the joyfully retro sound of Need U (100%) by Duke Dumont featuring A*M*E is a large part of the appeal which has seen it fly from nowhere straight to the top of the singles chart.

Dumont is British, a DJ and producer whose career began as a remixer, his work being heard on many Fabric Live dance compilations. His first ever hit single is actually no less than his 11th release and finally arrives here after no small amount of success on the continent and also serves as the public introduction of its guest singer, 18-year-old Londoner A*M*E who is almost certain to parlay this into a solo career of her own. [She was a protege of Gary Barlow's initially, signed briefly to his own Future Records label. The Duke Dumont single was indeed intended to be a launchpad, but we are still waiting for her first solo hit...]

Frustration then for Pink and Nate Ruess who remain locked at Number 2 for a second straight week after surely anticipating they would be in pole position to fill the void created by the PJ and Duncan single being a one week wonder. Their sales, however, appear to have peaked last week, and Just Give Me A Reason is only Number 2 more or less by default. Pink's only other hit single to peak in second place was 2002 release Get The Party Started and it too spent two weeks (albeit non-consecutively) banging fruitlessly on the door.

The second highest new entry of the week goes to a returning Michael Buble who lands at It's A Beautiful Day. The single is taken from his forthcoming new album To Be Loved and is only the second Top 10 single of his career, one which for now is in second place to his commercial breakthrough smash hit Haven't Met You Yet which peaked at Number 5 in 2009.

On the album chart Justin Timberlake's 20/20 Experience overcomes a midweek deficit to land a third straight week at Number One. It does so at the expense of Las Vegas rock band Imagine Dragons whose album Night Visions finally gets a belated UK release after several months of only being available on import. The group's most notable chart feat before today came back in early December last year whey they managed the unusual achievement of appearing twice on the Top 40 with two different versions of the same track, the single "Radioactive" charting at Number 35, two places ahead of the digital EP Hear Me of which it was one of the tracks. Whilst the EP's shelf life was brief, Radioactive had a life all of its own and has been a constant Top 75 presence for the last 18 weeks. Three weeks ago it entered the Top 40 for the third time and now with the help of the album makes a flying leap to a brand new chart peak of Number 18. It is one of no less than three tracks the band have in the Top 40 this week, joined by On Top Of The World at Number 34 and It's Time at Number 40

For fans of metalcore this is something of a breakthrough week as far as the charts are concerned with no less than two high profile practitioners of the genre making strong debuts. Bring Me The Horizon make Number 3 with their fourth album Sempiternal, up on the Number 13 scaled by their last release There Is A Hell Believe Me I've Seen It back in 2010. Meanwhile, Killswitch Engage also land on the chart at Number 15 with Disarm The Descent, their sixth release in all.

Oh yes, and in case you are wondering why Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell album is back on the chart at Number 9 this week (coincidentally equalling its highest ever chart position first achieved back in 1981), it is down to a re-promotion as he performs the work for what we are told is the very last time on a new UK tour. Bat Out Of Hell is one of the most charted albums of all time, this being by my count its 475th week on the best sellers to retain its place as the third longest runner in history, just behind Queen's Greatest Hits and the currently re-charting Rumours from Fleetwood Mac.