Still Not Talking To You
Surviving an early week scare when it looked very possible that a single week at No.1 was on the cards We Don't Talk About Bruno eventually coasts to an easy chart win, the cast of Encanto comfortably top of the charts for the second week running. The popularity of the song (and indeed its companions from the animated movie soundtrack) has becomes the first intriguing story of the new year, a phenomenon that could so easily have been peculiarly British but which is instead gripping most of the English-speaking world (and beyond). It is arguably the self-fulfilling prophecy of the playlist, the more places the song is added the more people listen and the more people listen the higher it is propelled.
Meanwhile the other hits from Encanto continue to grow. Surface Pressure eases up a place to No.4 and The Family Madrigal is unlucky not to join its cousins in the Top 10, crashing instead against the glass ceiling with a four-place rise to No.11.
This week's unlucky loser then is Peru from Fireboy DML and Ed Sheeran, top of the pile on the First Look chart broadcast by Radio One on Sunday evening but eventually finishing in second place, some 11,000 sales off the pace. But let's take nothing away from the hit, the compelling debut from the Nigerian singer more than worthy of its place in the Top 3. It would arguably have eventually become a mainstream smash without the benefit of the remix, but the addition of Ed Sheeran turned out to be a stroke of genius, the vocals of the two men blending quite seamlessly. Although the less said about Ed's dancing in the video (and indeed his sweater) the better.
With Them And Get Them
There's no glass ceiling for Lost Frequencies and Callum Scott, after stalling at No.11 a week ago Where Are You Now accelerates to No.7. That alone is pretty significant, returning both men to the Top 10 after a pair of rather startling absences. Felix "Lost Frequencies" De Laet enjoyed a No.1 hit straight out the gate in 2015 with Are You With Me but after the follow-up Reality stalled at No.29 he retreated from view, making this hit his first hit of any significance since. It is a similar story for Calum Scott, the man who self-released his cover of Robyn's Dancing On My Own in 2016 only for it to be picked up by a major label mid-chart run and eventually peak at No.2 during an extended chart journey that lasted most of the year (this was pre-ACR days). But aside from one further chart entry (You Are The Reason made No.43 in 2018) he too vanished from view. So we should appreciate Where Are You Now for what it is - not just a compelling pop/dance crossover, but the career resurrection for everyone involved.
The week's highest new entry lands at No.3, Pump 101 from Digga D x Still Brickin' slams in at No.9. His 14th chart hit becomes his third Top 10 single to date, this hit Digga D's biggest chart single since Wasted hit No.6 in August last year.
There's a pleasing amount of movement in the Top 20 as well with several hits we have been tracking in this pages making forward progress. Make Me Feel Good by Belters Only featuring Jazzy is up again at No.13, Luude and Colin Hay are up to No.16 with Down Under, but most fascinatingly of all Hazey's Packs And Potions has proven to be no random one-week-wonder rap release and surges forward as well with a climb to No.18.
One Bloke Is Many
The activities in this week's albums chart were to say the least absorbing as well. Topping the pile is Night Call from Years & Years, the act who confusingly always used to be a group but who now are simply the performing brand for lead singer Olly Alexander, even though his own personal celebrity surely far exceeds that of the group for which he used to be the frontman. Semantics aside, Years & Years' third album is "their" second to top the charts, following debut release Communion which reached the summit in 2015. The follow-up Palo Santo stalled at No.3 three years later. The release of the album has helped to propel its current single Sweet Talker to a new peak. Having initially failed to progress beyond its No.36 entry point three weeks ago it now bounds to No.30.
The Angels Had Guitars
Night Call may have been the top-selling album of the week but it was by no stretch of the imagination the most streamed. The final act of Meat Loaf's life turned out to be a masterpiece of timing, news of the rock star's sad death breaking on Friday morning last week meaning that unlike many other deceased stars he could benefit from an entire chart week of posthumous consumption. It means Meat Loaf albums flood the upper end of the chart. Most notably it means the celebrated classic Bat Out Of Hell (famously one of the longest-running chart albums of all time with 523 chart weeks to its name since it first appeared in 1978) charges to No.3, astonishingly its highest chart position of all time. For all its huge lifetime sales and iconic popularity until today Bat Out Of Hell had spent a mere four weeks in the Top 10, reaching a peak of No.9 in August 1981.
The first volume of Bat is accompanied by the similarly well-traveled compilation Hits Out Of Hell (thanks largely to the way it shares a large number of tracks with its parent). First released in 1985 and the subject of numerous repackagings since, the veteran collection lands at No.5, its first run in the Top 10 since it crept to No.10 in June 2009. Meanwhile Bat Out Of Hell 2: Back Into Hell re-enters at No.24, its best chart showing since its first 1993 chart run during which time it spent a grand total of 11 weeks at the top.
Posthumous Meat Loaf love has meant a singles chart return as well - again, not something that just any deceased act is able to manage in this streaming era. It means Bat Out Of Hell is No.26, a Top 40 hit for the third time around after chart runs in 1979 (when it reached a mere No.15) and 1993 (when it reached No.8, re-released to cash in on the chart run of a certain other Meat Loaf classic). Said classic is I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That), No.1 for seven weeks in 1993 and now back on the singles chart for the first time since at No.32. Meat Loaf's final permitted posthumous hit is - fascinatingly - Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad. Also taken from the Bat Out Of Hell album the epic ballad was the second track from the album to chart, reaching No.32 in September 1978. This week's No.46, its first chart run since a 1992 re-issue saw it chart at No.69.
Enrique Did It First
Finally for this week on a more contemporary note, Charlie Puth has spent most of the last six months documenting the genesis of his domestic electrical fittings-inspired track Light Switch, even reproducing for his social media followers the urgent memos from his label demanding to know when it would be finished. Finally complete, for the moment it doesn't quite live up to the hype and enters at a lowly No.39, at the very least however his first Top 40 hit single since How Long over four years ago. Does this have the potential for more? For all the hard work that has gone into it, I'd say it more than deserves it.
