This week's Official UK Singles Chart
This week's Official UK Albums Chart
It isn't policemen that seem to get younger as you get older, it is pop stars as well. Riding the wave of the folk revival which has seen the likes of Mumford and Sons become massive stars on both sides of the Atlantic comes newcomer Jake Bugg who at the tender age of 18 has landed himself a profile to rival many other more established names. His rise to fame began a year ago when he was gifted a slot on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury 2011 and a record deal swiftly followed.
Despite continuing radio support for his singles to date (and the odd advertising deal along the way) Bugg had yet to land himself a hit single, but this week he goes one better as his self-titled debut album storms to the top of the UK album chart. Just shy of 19 years of age, he lands the unlikely honour of being the youngest British male ever to have an album enter the charts at Number One, beating 19 year old Ray Quinn who has held the crown since 2007. He is the fifth youngest artist of any kind to have a Number One album, beaten by Canadians Justin Bieber and Avril Lavigne (both also 18), and fellow Brits Joss Stone (17) and all-time record holder Neil Reid who was 12 years old when he reached Number One in 1972.
The icing on the cake? His fourth chart single, Two Fingers finally becomes his first ever Top 40 hit, rising to Number 33.
It's a 1-2 for the folk revival on the album chart this week with Mumford and Sons clinging on at Number 2, relegating Leona Lewis - at one time contending to top the charts - to Number 3 with her much-delayed Glassheart album. Lewis does at least become part of a X Factor double in the Top 5 as 2010 runner up Rebecca Ferguson re-enters at Number 5 with a newly re-tooled issue of her debut album Heaven which first reached Number 3 in December last year.
After storming to the top of the singles chart last week, Swedish House Mafia find that Don't You Worry Child was destined to become the 20th UK chart-topper of the year to spend a solitary week at the top as for the fourth week running we have a brand new Number One single. Three months ago Calvin Harris remixed the Florence and the Machine track Spectrum (Say My Name) and transformed it into their first ever Number One, so this week Florence Welch herself returns the favour and guest stars on the Scottish producer's brand new single Sweet Nothing to give him his fourth Number One hit as a credited performer, his first since he received an artist credit on Rihanna's We Found Love which was in the middle of a six week run at the top of the charts exactly a year ago this week.
This ends a remarkable run of bad luck for its Calvin Harris, a man who has seen his last four singles as lead artist stall at Number 2, the most recent: We'll Be Coming Back which charted in August.
The second highest new entry of the week lands at Number 6 to narrowly deny pop-rock group Lawson their third Top 5 hit of the year. The follow up to When She Was Mine and Taking Over Me which made Nos. 4 and 3 earlier in the summer, the single heralds the long awaited release of their debut album Chapman Square which is in your online or high street store of choice as I speak.
A timely appearance on the X Factor results show last weekend gives Taylor Swift's single We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together a useful sales boost as the single vaults 12-7 this week to return to the Top 10 for its highest chart placing for three weeks. Meanwhile the production line of teaser releases from her new album continues as she lands her fourth new Top 40 hit in four weeks as State Of Grace enters at Number 36. Meanwhile her 2009 debut hit Love Story is experiencing a resurgence of its own, charting at Number 55 this week in its highest chart placing in over two years.
We've already mentioned Rebecca Ferguson's album chart reappearance and she is also back on the singles chart at Number 15 with new single Backtrack, one which doesn't quite appear to have benefitted from her own X Factor results show performance as might have been expected. No matter, the track finally restarts her chart career after her 2011 debut Nothing's Real But Love threatened to become her one and only hit single after her last two singles Too Good To Lose and Glitter And Gold fells well short of the Top 100 earlier this year.
Also new to the Top 20 are garage-house duo Disclosure, formed of brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence. Their breakthrough hit single Latch entered the chart at Number 26 last week and climbs to Number 17 on the brand new chart. Three places behind are the unlikely sounding partnership of Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj with Beauty And A Beat which becomes Bieber's second biggest hit of the year at Number 20. Coincidentally Minaj's own current hit Va Va Voom occupied that same position last week, the track tumbling this time around to Number 26.
Back on the subject of talent shows, whilst winner of The Voice UK Leanne Mitchell has yet to score a Top 40 hit single (her cover of Run To You stalled at Number 45 in June), runner-up Tyler James now has a second as his track Single Tear enters at Number 28 this week, this after his own post-show cover release Higher Love made Number 39 in June. Whilst it is the biggest hit to date of what you might call Phase II of his career, James still has two other bigger hits to his name thanks to the singles he released in 2004 and 2005 when he first had a record deal. The biggest was 2005 single Foolish which peaked at Number 16.
Finally the most unlikely golden oldie to chart this week is John Denver's classic 1974 Number One hit Annie's Song which creeps to Number 38, this revival thanks to its use in a series of TV commercials for telephone company Talk Talk. The very definition of an albums act, the late star has charted no less than 19 albums since his 1973 debut but Annie's Song remains his one and only chart single in this country, his status as the ultimate one hit wonder only spoiled by his co-credit on Placido Domingo's 1981 Number 46 hit Perhaps Love.