This week's Official UK Singles Chart
This week's Official UK Albums Chart
After a four week run of seven day Number One singles, The Script and will.i.am finally break the sequence and spend a second week on top of the charts with Hall Of Fame, the first single to spend at least a fortnight at Number One since Heatwave by Wiley back in August. The fact that they did so is all the more impressive given the intense competition going on below them from two singles which appeared to have the momentum but which ultimately didn't quite have the sales legs to overhaul the incumbent.
Thus it is an unlucky second place for Example, a man whose pedigree for topping the chart is undisputed following his brace of Number One hits with Changed The Way You Kiss Me and Stay Awake in 2011. His new single is Say Nothing, his first chart hit since Midnight Run at the tail end of last year can for the moment only enter at Number 2, still a position not to be sniffed at and the perfect herald of what will be his third album Evolution Of Man due for release in November.
However even Example did well to resist the challenge from the single which rests at Number 3 this week and which trailed him by less than 2000 sales in the end. Since making history last week as the first Korean language single ever to reach the UK Top 40 which it appeared at Number 37, Psy's Gangam Style has quite simply exploded as a planet-wide phenomenon. Its video has reportedly grabbed the most "likes" in YouTube history whilst its sales in just about every territory have rocketed. In the UK this has resulted in the single making a flying leap into the Top 3 after posting what we are told was a 447% increase in sales over the previous week and in a manner which suggests that a Number One single lies in close proximity to Psy's future. Is it the greatest pop record ever made, or even the best thing released this year? I'd argue not, but what it does have for the moment is a buzz and a talkability factor which means the single is set to make more of a far-reaching cultural impact than just about anything else released in the last six months. That, my friends, is an important ingredient for a major worldwide hit record.
In an otherwise quiet chart, the highest new entry outside the Top 10 is Good Intentions by Dappy which slides in at Number 12. His fourth solo chart single, the track easily outperforms its predecessor I'm Coming (Tarzan Part 2) which at first glance made the Top 3 success of his first two releases look something of a fluke, bombing out as it did at Number 35. The improved fortunes of his new single are thanks in part to the way the track is a genuine revelation of his versatility as an artist. The raw, soulful power of his voice which came to the fore on last year's Number One hit No Regrets is shown off here once again as Good Intentions is an intense, heartfelt ballad which will make even the most ardent cynic look at him with a whole new degree of respect.
As the music industry hits the all important fourth quarter of the year running, the parade of big new album releases starts to pick up the pace. Storming to Number One on the long players chart are The Killers whose first album in four years Battle Born shows that whatever their singles chart fortunes, their appeal to longtime fans shows no sign of dimming. It is their fourth Number One album in five releases, with only 2007 offering Sawdust having failed to top the charts. Having spent several weeks in the summer bemoaning the weak state of the market which meant that many albums were riding high in the charts with minimal sales, it seems only appropriate to note that The Killers shifted over 94,000 copies last week to make Battle Born the third fastest selling release of the year to date.
That means an unlucky second place for Pink with her new album The Truth About Love, for her too her first full studio album since 2008 and one which is unlucky not to follow its immediate predecessor Funhouse to the top of the charts. In total it is her fourth album to make the Top 3, with all of her career releases to date having gone Top 10, with the notable exception of her 2000 debut Can't Take Me Home which never climbed higher than Number 13.
A new special edition commemorating the 25th anniversary of its release sees Michael Jackson's classic Bad album make a Top 10 return at Number 6. The famous album was last in the Top 10 in August 2009 when it belatedly returned to the main chart in the wake of the singer's death that summer. Back then however it could only reach Number 9, making this the highest chart placing for Bad since the week of January 21st 1989 when it made Number 4 to coincide with the single Leave Me Alone also charting.
