This week's Official UK Singles Chart
This week's Official UK Albums Chart
A British boy band experiencing success in America before anyone in the mainstream has heard of them over here? How can this be? Well it all helps if you are signed up by American impressario Scooter Braun, the celebrated driving force behind the Justin Bieber phenomenon and now sponsors of Rixton, the four-piece British group who came to online attention not just from their creative YouTube cover versions but also the attention to detail they paid in crafting performances of the songs. Having been in America since the start of the year as part of a deal with Interscope records, Rixton have already landed themselves a Top 20 hit on the Hot 100 and now go even further back in their home country as debut single Me And My Broken Heart storms straight to the top of the Official UK Singles chart.
The tune of the song may be more than a little familiar to some, its opening bars lifted wholesale (and with due credit) from the 2005 Rob Thomas hit Lonely No More. Perhaps of even further interest though are the family connections of lead singer Jake Roche whose parents have both been part of hit records in the past. His mother is Coleen Nolan, the youngest of the famous Nolan Sisters and whose on-record contributions to The Nolans from 1980 onwards mean that she can boast a Number 9 hit with Attention To Me which charted in 1981. Even that is bettered by the work of his father: actor, comedian and sometime singer Shane Richie who in the latter guise landed himself a Number 2 hit with a charity cover of Wham!'s I'm Your Man in December 2003. Only Will Young's Leave Right Now prevented the Rixton hit single from completing a rare cross-generational father-son chart-topping double.
Theoretically the Number One battle was a two-horse race, thanks to the simultaneous release last week of Nicole Scherzinger's new single Your Love. Her return to the musical fray after signing a new record deal last year, the track was an easy Top 3 hit midweek but sank rapidly over the next few days to land at a mere Number 6. If that scenario sounds a little familiar, that it because it is - almost the exact same fate which befell her last single Boomerang in March 2013, a single which was heading for Number One midweek but eventually charted at a lowly Number 6. All credit to the lady though, aside from Pussycat Doll singles this is her eighth Top 10 hit as a directly credited artist, dating back to her guest role on the P Diddy track Come To Me which reached Number 4 in October 2006.
She may have received the best kind of soft landing a year ago when her guest role on Rudimental's Waiting All Night propelled her to the very top of the charts, but despite her obvious talents, Ella Eyre has so far been unable to capitalise on that level of success. Her solo chart debut technically came at the start of this year when Deeper, a track from a low-level promotional EP reached Number 27, but the release of new single If I Go this week was intended to be her proper launch as an artist in her own right. Despite the quality of the single, the track limps to a mere Number 16 which whilst far from terrible is a poor showing given her positioning as the latest in a long line of next big things. Heck, even the underwhelming Jess Glynne single manages a second week in the Top 10 this week.
Whilst the industry waits for the first ever single to make the Top 40 on streams alone (although one appears to have come close this week, as noted below), there is a rather strange reappearance at the bottom of this week's chart. Riptide has already been a Number 10 hit for Vance Joy at the start of this year and indeed only dropped out of the charts a couple months ago. Reappearing two weeks ago lower down, the single rebounds to Number 37 this week, just for a change not down to any promotional exposure or re-release, but simply because it is one of three tracks released as instant grat singles from his forthcoming debut album Dream Your Life Away which is due out in two months' time but the only one actually eligible to reach the charts.
Over on the Official UK Album Chart itself, glory is Ed Sheeran's once more as X spends a fourth straight week on top, the longest run of any record this year and as noted last week the longest since the month-long reign of Richard & Adam in August last year. Next in his sights: becoming the longest reigning chart-topper on the album chart since Adele's two epic 11 and 5 week runs with 21 back in 2011.
This week's hot new release destined to spend life in second place then is Morrissey's tenth studio album World Peace Is None Of Your Business, which although it only makes Number 2 is enough to become his highest charting release since 2006s Ringleader Of The Tormentors made Number One. Meanwhile a heavy discounting of The Smiths' 1986 album The Queen Is Dead sees that album chart at Number 31, one place lower than the Number 30 it reached the last time it appeared on the album chart in 1995.
Morrissey's career may now date back 30 years plus but that is still some way short of that of Judas Priest who first formed in 1969 but whose chart debut oddly enough did not come until 1977 when their album Sin After Sin hit Number 23. This week they land at Number 12 with seventeenth album Redeemer Of Souls, their highest charting album since Screaming For Vengeance reached Number 11 in 1982. By an odd coincidence, 12 is their highest singles chart placing too, achieved by two rather famous hits in 1980.
One of next week's singles chart contenders is oddly enough already on the charts lower down, Rude by Canadian reggae band MAGIC! charted at Number 76 last week on streams alone but rises to Number 50 this week, still only on streaming sales given that it had been limited to pre-order status on iTunes in recent weeks despite having first been released in October last year. Next week the track is set to explode into the Top 10 although hopes of it reaching the very top may well be in vain - the all-conquering Cheryl Cole machine is set to roll into town once more.
