This week's Official UK Singles Chart
This week's Official UK Albums Chart
So now we know. After this week there are just three more Sunday afternoon charts left. The Official Charts Company this week unveiled their timetable for synchronising the British charts sequence with the forthcoming introduction of Global Release Day which has nominated Fridays as a universal release date for new music.
It means that a near 28 year era of weekend publication will cease on July 5th, charts day in Britain henceforth moving to Friday afternoons with a truncated five day survey being published for the first time on July 10th.
Based on the present evidence it seems Jason Derulo could well still be Number One when we get there. Nothing else emerges to challenge his dominance of the Official UK Singles chart, which means Want To Want Me stays firm at the top for a third straight week. In the process it moves into pole position as his biggest chart single ever, eclipsing the two-week chart-topping runs of Don't Wanna Go Home and Talk Dirty. His nearest challenge came from the man he replaced at the top of the charts, OMI, as Cheerleader moves back into the runners-up slot - still the most streamed track of the moment.
The most prominent new arrival of the week is a track which scarcely requires an introduction to any dedicated pop music fan as it is merely the belated British arrival of a record which has already seduced people across the globe. Shut Up And Dance by American newcomers Walk The Moon is that rare example of a pop record arriving as a fully formed classic. One with near-universal appeal, easy to love and very hard to hate. After appearing at Number 75 last week thanks to streaming points the downloadable release of the track propels it this week to Number 8. I expressed surprise online at its steady rather than spectacular chart progress given the level of attention that has been paid to it so far, one correspondent suggesting that a lack of airplay by one of the major radio networks was for the moment holding it back. We'll watch with interest how this one develops.
A word of sympathy for David Guetta, Nicki Minaj and Afrojack whose Hey Mama has now spent four straight weeks locked in place at Number 10.
The highest new entry of the week lands at Number 14 for Zedd who this time around has Selena Gomez in tow on I Want You To Know. Co-written by Ryan Tedder, the single is the first offering from the German producer's second album True Colors which is released here next month. You will note that the track was released in many other territories in February and has already been a substantial hit across the globe, the album itself already available for a month in places such as America and his home country. Doubtless someone, somewhere knows why the British Isles are sat waiting instead.
It was almost exactly a year ago that Scooter Braun's new boy band on the block Rixton stormed to Number One with their first ever single Me And My Broken Heart. Since then the going has been slightly harder than anticipated, the second single Wait On Me stalling at Number 12 last November, a third single Hotel Ceiling receiving little promotion or attention on these shores. In what is becoming a common theme, their debut album Let The Road came out earlier this year in both America and Europe but is only now being prepped for a British release. Just ahead comes what is formally the group's third hit single We All Want The Same Thing, alas one which fails to advance their prospects too much and limps in at Number 21.
Mind you, this could have been so worse. The release of the new single from Leona Lewis, her first since a rather grumpy split from Syco Records and thus the end of her long-standing relationship with the whole X Factor family, was greeted with something approaching religious fervour by her still vocal band of fans. Yet alas it seems they are the only ones who care. Fire Under My Feet crawls in at Number 51, giving the star and her new label Island something of an uphill struggle to maintain her profile - although the new album when it arrives is certain to go Top 10 at the very least.
On the Official UK Album chart this week it is Muse who reign supreme with Drones, the new collection giving the celebrated rock band their fifth Number One album in some style - a combined sale of 73,000 copies more than healthy. For me though the most curious story of the week lies a little further down the chart. Pete Townshend's Classic Quadrophenia is listed as the 32nd biggest selling album of the week, a fine performance for the extraordinary orchestral remake of the famous concept album. In theory, it should also be top of the classical music charts, but for its public debarring by the Official Charts Company due to it not being a work by a recognised classical composer and merely a rock album rearranged for orchestra - much to the disgust of its makers. If anyone is interested the Number One classical album of the week is Andre Rieu's Magic Of The Violin, which also sits at Number 100 on the main album chart.
Finally, for this week, watch out for the progress of Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud. The former Number One single climbs a place to Number 31 this week on its 51st week on the chart. A fortnight ago it shattered the record set last autumn by Happy to land the longest ever continuous Top 40 run. Should it maintain its placing next week it will become the first single in chart history to spend an entire calendar year as one of the 40 biggest selling tracks of the week.
