This week's Official UK Singles Chart
This week's Official UK Albums Chart
Not everything in life is completely predictable it seems. Despite trailing in midweek sales flashes, David Guetta's euphoric dance anthem Titanium had enough legs over the weekend to overhaul the competition and proudly top the UK singles charts this week. Already established as the most successful Frenchman in chart history, Guetta further consolidates his achievements with a fifth chart-topping single, his fourth as lead artist. Serial collaborator that he is, he does so with a fifth different artist in tow, handing Australian singer Sia her first ever Number One single, twelve years after she first made her British chart debut.
Having initially charted during the initial flurry of promotional releases for his current album Where Them Girls At, Titanium has had a more measured journey than most to the top of the charts, having first appeared in sales flashes back in August last year. Even without last summer's chart run taken into account, the track has still taken five weeks from debut to summit during its current surge in sales. You may care to note that Titanium is the strongest metal to thus far be referenced in the title of a UK Number One single, hard on the heels of Band Of Gold and Silver Lady.
Guetta's chart triumph does then deny new pop discovery Alyssa Reid a Number One single in her first ever chart week, restricting the Canadian star to a Number 2 entry. As you may have read here during the week, she first came to public attention via her own YouTube channel before becoming a star in her home country at the tail end of 2010. Just over a year later she is now established in the British charts with her debut hit Alone Again. The single is heavily based on the Steinberg/Kelly-penned rock ballad Alone which was a worldwide smash hit for Heart back in 1987. Reid's track thus may not be the most original bit of songwriting ever but at the very least it serves its purpose well. Intriguingly for the UK release the single has been re-versioned, with the rap by P-Reign which originally featured replaced instead by a new performance from Jump Smokers.
In an otherwise quiet Top 10, it is at the very least pleasing to note the continued rise of Somebody That I Used To Know from Gotye and Kimbra which rises four places to Number 4. I have a suspicion that a run at the top of the charts is in the destiny of this track [called it], although a few weeks of patience may be required.
Those keeping a close eye on release patterns may be curious to note that the much-hyped new Madonna track Give Me All Your Luvin doesn't register on the UK charts at all this week, despite heavy demand for the song when it was made available last Friday. Standing in her way is the fact that for now the single is being offered as an Instant Grat download for advance purchasers of her forthcoming new album MDNA and as such is disqualified from the singles rankings.
Rows over the authenticity of Lana Del Rey's background and the actual quality of her music continue to rage across the music press worldwide, but even a slew of indifferent reviews for her debut album Born To Die has not prevented it making the most impressive of chart debuts. Selling well over 117,000 copies last week, the platter storms to Number One on the album chart, dragging its title track up the singles chart in its wake to reach a brand new peak of Number 9. Meanwhile Video Games also maintains a Top 20 placing, rising to Number 17, four months after it was first released to buy.
Even Ms Rey can't quite manage the most impressive album chart feat of the week though. That must surely be reserved for 77 year old Leonard Cohen who charts at Number 2 with his latest release Old Ideas. Extraordinarily it is only the fourth Top 10 album of his career and his first since Songs Of Love And Hate reached Number 4 in 1971. The veteran performer has never topped the charts, this Number 2 album matching the peak of Songs From A Room back in 1969.
