Winter Marches On

We are now an officially January-free zone, how do you feel about that?

This is a really odd week, I won't lie. On the one hand the charts have an inescapable bunged-up feeling, the clog of long-running and surely close to burning out hits confronts you wherever you turn. But on the other hand for the first time this year we have an influx of some genuinely fresh new material. The only fear is that much of it is album-release related and there is no absolute guarantee that any of it is going to turn into actual new hits. But as ever, let's keep an open mind.

First, there is a non-moving Top 5 to contend with as the biggest hits of now are pretty much the same biggest hits as last week. That does at least mean a second week at the top for Lola Young with Messy, so she was able to grace the front page with a shot of her Official Charts award and take even more steps towards the mainstream (she will have appeared on Graham Norton by the time you read this). I meant and failed to note last week that Lola Young reaching the top of the charts continues this curious run of solo female artists topping the listings. Every one of the five charts so far in 2025 has been topped by a woman, and if we ignore the three-week interregnum of Last Christmas at the end of December this now the 20th "normal" week in a row that a solo lady has ruled the roost.

Below her though are all the hits we seem to just be waiting for ACR to deal with. APT at 2, That's So True at 3, The Days at 4 and Sailor Song at 5. People still aren't bored of these and their streaming numbers and resultant chart sales are still healthy. But it is hard to escape the nagging feeling that much of this stuff has been around forever. One glance at the "weeks on chart" figure in the tables tells its own story. The Top 5 have had 12, 15, 15, 18 and 27(!) weeks on the Top 100 respectively. Slow burners the lot of them.

Cench Up For The Ride

It may have lagged on early sales flashes, but as a record that was certain to have some strong streaming attention across the week its victory was almost inevitable. Taking pride of place at No.1 on the Official UK Albums chart this week is Can't Rush Greatness, the debut album from ascending British rap royalty Central Cee.

Wait, debut album? Well yes caller, his previous album chart entries Wild West (No.2 in 2021) and 23 (No.1 in 2023) were mix tapes. And don’t count apparently. I'm not here to argue over the terminology, merely to point out the wonderfully confusing way the 26-year-old from Ladbroke Grove now has his second No.1 album with his debut album. It does marvellously well too, posting well over 42,000 chart sales to set a high water mark for the year to date that is only likely to be exceeded by some true superstar arrivals.

Loadsa streams for a rap album inevitably means loadsa big hits and it is Cench who brings the new entries this week. CRG, with Dave in tow smashes its way to No.6, displacing last week's teaser track GBP down to No.7. His third bite of the chart cherry is for my money the most appealing one of all, the harp-laden Truth In The Lies (a collab with Lil Durk) landing at No.13. The two new entries are the fourth and fifth tracks from the album respectively to chart, 2024 singles Band4Band and Gen Z Luv also featuring on Can't Rush Greatness.

That isn't the end of the story here, we'll come back to him shortly.

Big Woman Tate

First to Tate McRae who enjoys what is in truth the first big new pop debut of 2025 so far with her brand new single Sports Car revving its way to a new entry at No.8. Another track from her forthcoming album So Close To What, Sports Car has a feeling of something bright and brilliant. I'll be honest, no Tate McRae hit has ever really grabbed me before, but this one feels like something better. A slinking and compulsive beat with a vibe that has been compared to the Pussycat Dolls and a whispered half-spoken chorus make this one of the Canadian starlet's best singles so far. If this one lingers in the Top 10 (or even Top 3) forever it won't actually be a bad thing. 2025 in pop just got going.

Big Ted Energy

The album chart loser of the week was the unlucky Teddy Swims as his new collection I've Tried Everything But Therapy - Pt 2 at least takes him to his highest peak yet with a No.2 debut. The soul man has his own trio of hits but by extraordinary means they are taken from two different albums. Bad Dreams is from this album and is his biggest chart hit this week as it lifts itself to No.9 in its 19th week around. One place behind however is The Door which is from his previous album (Pt 1) and which now has 40 weeks on the chart to its name. Meanwhile the evergreen Lose Control (65 weeks around) refuses to die and hovers at No.31. It is the latter that remains his biggest hit of the moment on the Hot 100, the former US No.1 single still avowedly a Top 10 smash. Bad Dreams has yet to make the Top 40 in his home country.

Also teasing an album is Sam Fender, and following up the startlingly successful and equally enduring People Watching he this week drops new track Arms Length. Depending on your point of view this is him channelling either Status Quo or Tears For Fears but it achieves magic nonetheless. No.14 is its entry point and you suspect this may get stranded outside the Top 10 if indeed it is anything more than a one week wonder, but as a further appetite whetter for his album (which comes out on the same day as Tate McRae's freakily enough) it works wonders.

Travis Scott further keeps the American end up with his new hit 4x4 opening its account at No.23. But he pales into insignificance compared to what comes next.

Ouch Aitch

People take their rhymes very seriously. They come from the heart of whoever drops them and we can presume gives an insight into their thinking. That's why it is clear that Central Cee is still salty about the 2023 BRIT Awards, an event he attended in full regalia only to lose out to Aitch in the Best Hip Hop/Grime Act category. That's why on the track 5 Star on his album Cench makes reference to the event: "I felt like a prick when I went to the BRITs and they gave the award to a guy called Aitch / I had my acceptance speech prepared like, 'Long live F's', I'm goin' insane".

Red rag to a bull. Within days of the album dropping Aitch had his own dis track ready to go. A Guy Called is his verbal takedown of Central Cee, questioning his work, his need for collaborators and accusing him of being a master of style over talent. An influencer got lucky rather than someone who rose up through talent. Burn after burn after burn. Last year's Drake/Kendrick rap war got old very quickly after they descended into calling each other nonces, but there feels something quite deliciously icy about Aitch's ability to clap back. He himself has spouted some garbage in the past, but believe it or not this throwaway dis track is possibly one of his greatest moments so far. And it is this week's No.25 hit to become the Mancunian's first Top 40 single since 2022.

Hey Bruuuno

In this week's edition of "don't make wild predictions based on what friends have hinted at", we turn to the new Sexyy Red & Bruno Mars single Hot Juicy And Wet which far from oozing into the Top 10 actually makes a rather low key entry at No.32. That may or may not make sense, the unabashedly rude but still thankfully tongue in cheek track doesn't quite have the commercial chops of Mars' most recent offerings. But as everyone has been keen to note, it is an adjunct to WAP which was in its day justifiably huge. The most notable thing about it? The video featuring cameo roles from both Lady Gaga and Rose putting it firmly in the same universe as Die With A Smile and APT. There's a clever plan going on here.

We should also take a moment to lament all the hits in waiting flagged up in the last few weeks that are all struggling. Dochii's Denial Is A River was making progress but is for now halted at No.24, SZA's BMF has fallen out of the Top 40 as has Bad Bunny's DTMF. Neither it seems destined to be a massive as the hype suggested. We move on. See you next week.

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