Mind The Gap
It would have to be a song of quite spectacular quality for me to be at peace with my girls Huntr/X having their run at the top of the Official UK Singles chart reduced (for now) to just a single week. But fortunately that is what we have.
For the second time this year, Chappell Roan finds herself at the top of the charts, and pleasingly rather than with a record she released five years ago it is one from almost literally five minutes ago. Continuing a theme of songs titled with the definitive article, the follow-up to The Giver is The Subway. But whereas the former came up against the unstoppable force of Alex Warren (who prevented her from replacing herself at the top of the charts), the new single faces very little in the way of stiff opposition and flies with grace and ease to No.1.
The Subway is once again a record that cements the American star as quite deservedly one of the most celebrated artists on the planet. Once again the record is a mini-masterpiece, once again it manages to be almost completely different to anything she has recorded before, but once again it is knowingly, comfortingly and recognisable a Chappell Roan track. Her new single takes her at a musical right-angle once more, mining cusp of the 90s jangle-pop for its inspiration in an arrangement that is the result of The Sundays and The Cranberries involved in a high speed collision.
It is also once more a track of quite towering lyrical profoundness, the story of the agonising feeling when the memories of a former relationship just won't let you go and you find yourself both wishing to wind the clock back to those days but also wishing the feelings would go away and that the other party feels like just another face on the titular subway train. The song can carry meaning for everyone, but it gains an extra frisson when you remind yourself that she's actually singing it about another woman.
Add in a video that is full of referential imagery and easter eggs aplenty, and you have one of those fabulous moments in time when a record smashes its way to the top in a manner that is more than deserved. Yes Ms Roan you've ejected Golden from the No.1 position. But we can forgive you for this.
Unbroken Lads
After eight weeks of nearly unbroken climb there is still no stopping it. The Disco Lines remix of Tinashe's No Broke Boys now equals her biggest ever chart hit with a three place climb to No.5. A reminder of the track's origins, it first appeared almost exactly a year ago as a cut from her seventh studio album Quantum Baby. In its original form as a slick slice of neo-soul the track was promoted as a single in October last year, complete with a provocative video, but failed to catch fire. That was until fellow American Disco Lines (aka 26-year-old Thadeus Labuszweski) got his hands on the track, speeding up the vocal and turning the almost laid back cut into a banging floor filler. And easily one of the biggest club hits of the summer so far.
Curiously there is still no official video for the remix despite its burgeoning chart success across Europe and beyond. Not even a re-cut of the original visuals to match their new form.
Popping Off
Golden may now be languishing at No.2 behind the Chappell Roan juggernaut, but the two other hits from K-Pop Demon Hunters continue to advance up the chart. Soda Pop from the Saja Boys is now a Top 10 hit too and the second biggest track from the soundtrack album, as it moves to No.6. Meanwhile Your Idol is just two places behind at No.8. Several other tracks are starred out from the Top 40 - not least the other Huntr/X single How It's Done which would almost certainly qualify for a Top 20 placing of its own were it still eligible.
There is, I confess, precious little other singles chart activity of note to report. But that does leave room for the week's biggest climber, 12 To 12 from Sombr which is now well on its way to giving the compelling American star a third smash chart hit of the year. The new cut races 31-19 in a manner which too suggests it is destined for the Top 10 before too much longer.
Looking Back
The Ozzy Osbourne love-in may have cooled off a little but the summer-long appreciation of Oasis classics continued unabated. Many of their hits are in such close proximity streaming-wise that they are all doing the chart hokey-cokey with each other as they take it in turns to be the three biggest of the week. Hence the otherwise curious appearance at No.31 of Slide Away. Originally the tenth track on their 1994 Definitely Maybe album, it was never formally a single, instead appearing as one of the b-sides of their Christmas one-off Whatever at the end of that year. So this week marks its first ever chart appearance, 31 years since it was first released.
Other than that the charts give me nothing to work with this week, as far as the Top 40 is concerned anyway. But there are two other singles that appear to be heading towards the upper reaches at a fair rate of knots. One is Back To Me, a track that reunites Rudimental with Jess Glynne, seven years after they teamed up for No.1 single These Days. Available for a month already, it this week rockets from 94 to 43 having previously peaked at No.52. This is clearly being pushed hard.
The other one is a curiosity, a fourth K-Pop Demon Hunters-related track. At No.47 is a cover of Huntr/X's fight song Takedown as performed by female trio Twice, their version playing out over the end credits of the movie. That soars to No.47, as does original track Strategy which vaults to No.64. Both tracks do indeed appear on the movie soundtrack album from which the Huntr/X and Saja Boys songs appear - but they aren't disqualified under the three tracks rule because both also appear on Twice's own albums and it is under those terms that they are free to chart. Simple when you know really.
