In Memorium
Sarah from Girls Aloud, Tom from The Wanted, and now Paul from S Club 7. Pop heroes from your younger years aren't supposed to be taken from us prematurely not in this way. And the death of someone whose work lives on in TV shows and movies as well as on record seems to hit doubly hard.
Bye Ed
Just for a change that which we anticipated did indeed take place this week. Ed Sheeran's streaming numbers were not enough to ensure Eyes Closed survived the absence of large numbers of physical copies from his chart sales and it duly slips away from the top of the Official UK Singles chart after just a solitary week.
What we didn't expect to see was the single that has replaced him. It was a close run thing but Miley Cyrus' Flowers does not return for one final hurrah at No.1 just before it collapses to ACR. Instead topping the charts this week after three weeks floating around the Top 3 is Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding's trance throwback Miracle.
There is lots to unpick here, so let's get going. Miracle is the Scottish producer's 11th No.1 single over the course of the last 15 years, however it is his first in almost five. His last track to top the charts was Promises which settled in for an extended spell at the top in August 2018 - Sam Smith his guest singer of choice on that track. His first chart-topper of the 2020s, it means Calvin Harris can now boast the rare feat of topping the charts in three different decades. For Ellie this is now her fourth No.1 single, her first since Christmas novelty Amazon exclusive River snuck a week at the summit in the final week of 2019. She had previously topped the charts with "proper" singles Burn (2013) and Love Me Like You Do (2015). As we noted when Miracle first charted the pair have collaborated on numerous tracks in the past, but this is the first to make it all the way to the top.
The No.1 single this week is an unabashed throwback, inspired by the blissed-out sound of the late Roberto Concina, better known professionally as Robert Miles and whose dream trance heyday came in 1996 when tracks such as Children, Fable and One And One were hits across Europe - as well as on these shores.
Downs And Ups
Sheeran's track wasn't the only hit from last week which suffered from its paid audience melting away to nothing. Jimin's Like Crazy landed at No.8 last week (it topped the charts in America in one bound) but this week drops to No.16 - although in fairness that is a far better placing than at first appeared in prospect.
In what is rapidly developing into a common theme, the mid-range of the singles chart is taken up with hits that are edging their way upwards slowly but surely, albeit at a pace which suggests many are destined to be nothing more than mid table mediocrities which ran out of steam at just the wrong time. But keep your fingers crossed anyway. React from Switch Disco and Ella Henderson is the biggest gainer of all, having a fire lit under it with an 11 place climb to No.15. Elsewhere Meghan Trainor's Mother (the song, not her relative) creeps up once more to No.22, Ayra Starr's Rush is at a new peak of No.24 and Zara Larsson's Can't Tame Her is a Top 30 hit at last with a climb to No.37.
Ooh
We've had the BTS solo singles, so how about another Blackpink one. JISOO (settle down at the back) is 28 year old Kim Ji-Soo, one quarter of the titular Korean girl group and now the latest to make her own name on the international charts. With her first solo single Flower she just squeaks into the Top 40 at No.38 with the highest new entry of a pretty quiet week.
One of the more curious moves on the albums chart this week is the re-appearance inside the Top 20 of Tyler, The Creator's 2012 album Call Me If You Get Lost, the occasion being the arrival of a handful of new tracks with a special edition re-release. I dunno, one upon a time it was considered polite to way for a 10 year anniversary to do this, but whatever. One of those previously unheard tracks is Dogtooth which gives the rapper his first Top 40 hit since the album's original release in July 2021 as it opens (and almost certainly closes) at No.21.
The biggest arrival though is the record at No.1, indie supergroup Boygenius topping the pile with ease with The Record. Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus make up the trio, all of them with chart successes of their own but none quite as big as this one.
