Sorted
Did you know Oasis played some reunion concerts this week?
No, me neither. You would have thought they would have attracted more media attention.
Behave
All joking aside, this was possibly inevitable. Even when the comeback gigs were announced last year, some cynics wondered if the Gallagher brothers would even make it to the stage. But they did, it was by all accounts triumphant, and suddenly everyone wants to consume the music of that most quintessential of 1990s rock legends.
Just as they did when the concerts were first announced in August last year, Oasis' most popular albums all make flying leaps up the charts. In the last week of August 2024 the group were No.3 with hits collection Time Flies, No.4 with What's The Story Morning Glory and No.5 with Definitely Maybe. But this time they go several steps further. The Official UK Albums chart this week sees all three albums line up in the same order, but this time at positions 1, 2 and 4 respectively, the group denied the chance of a clean sweep of the Top 3 by the ubiquitous Sabrina Carpenter.
It means Time Flies - 1994-2009 (to give the album its full title) is No.1 for the second time, returning to the position it first occupied for just a single week in June 2010 when it served as the final exclamation point on the group's career. What's The Story Morning Glory has been No.1 itself in the past, for ten weeks in total between October 1995 and March 1996. But it was last as high as No.2 on the chart of August 24th 1996. Debut album Definitely Maybe has also been No.1 on two occasions - when first released in 1994 and then again last year when a 30th anniversary release took it back to the top last September.
Why those albums in particular? Well, the setlist for the reunion gigs is heavily weighted towards songs from their imperial phase - and those first two albums in particular. The Time Flies collection benefits naturally from the rules on streaming which allows for plays of a song to count for two different albums - the original studio release and one Greatest Hits collection (either one that the label has nominated or the biggest selling one of the week). Two other Oasis albums occupy rungs of the Top 100 - b-sides and oddities collection The Masterplan is at No.59 and the rather less well-loved Be Here Now from 1997 is at No.89.
Maybe You And I
News of the comeback tour and ticket sales last summer fired three Oasis songs back into the Top 20 in its wake they were: Don't Look Back In Anger, Wonderwall and Live Forever. This week is in a sense no different, although rather fascinatingly it is a slightly different set of songs. Don't Look Back In Anger is there (No.18) as is Live Forever (No.19), but they are outperformed by one track which has until today never charted in its own right. Acquiesce began life as a b-side, the companion track to the band's first No.1 single Some Might Say, but since then it has acquired a semi-legendary status of its own. It sits alongside another 1995 b-side The Masterplan as one of two theoretically throwaway Oasis tracks that are perhaps more highly regarded than some of their actual singles. A longtime concert favourite, the song was the second track they played on both of the Cardiff gigs last weekend and has clearly now become totemistic of the grand reunion tour. Oasis may not have had a clean sweep of the albums chart Top 3 but thanks to the arrival of Acquiesce (now their 29th Top 75 single) they occupy 17, 18 and 19 on this week's singles chart. Not bad for a bunch of old men really.
Top By Design(er)
Back in the modern era and following last week's shenanigans it is with a further sense of inevitability that Lewis Capaldi's reign at No.1 comes to an end after just a single week. In fact Survive doesn't even manage to live up to its name as a Top 3 single either, the track dipping with almost indecent haste to No.4 - out-consumed by Manchild, Love Me Not and the single that replaces it at the top of the charts.
Following a five week rise and with the kind of pace that indicated it was indeed destined to be there, Dior from MK and Chrystal is the brand new No.1 single. And this alone makes it a headline grabber. MK is 52-year-old American DJ and producer Mark Kinchen and man whose career dates back even earlier than that of Oasis, although it took a few years for him to start making hit records. His first credited chart single on these shores arrived in February 1995 when Always made a brief appearance at No.69. Until this month he had never managed a Top 3 hit in his own name, never mind a No.1. It means the American star tops the charts after a wait of 30 years and 5 months. That's the longest wait for a No.1 single ever endured by an overseas star and the fourth longest in chart history - lagging only behind the waits endured by Tony Christie, Ozzy Osbourne and Michael Ball. Oh, and Eric Clapton if you are splitting hairs, although that is more complicated to pin down.
In all of that of course there remains the important caveat which you can choose to ignore as you wish. As I've noted previously, Kinchen was behind the remix of Look Right Through by Storm Queen which topped the charts in 2013. By modern convention he would be directly credited for this if it happened today, but back then this was not the case. The record books say he did not top the charts until 2025 and will do forever more. We all know slightly different.
There's no arguments about the female singer of Dior though, Bolton-born Chrystal Orchard is something of an underground veteran herself, having first caught the year with her 2017 track Waves. But she didn't come to public attention until last autumn where her single The Days (itself first recorded in 2015) caught a viral wave of its own and eventually peaked at No.4 at the start of the year.
I've yet to develop a deep love for the track, but it is hard to deny its popularity. But its deep house Korg-spun bassline makes it a quite delicious 1990s throwback - back in time almost to the very start of MK's performing career. And it still doesn't have an official video. But you suspect that may change in a hurry.
This was however by any standards a close-run week. Just 5,500 chart sales separate the Top 5 singles. And Alex Warren would technically be back at No.1 by some distance, were it not languishing on ACR. There's still no turning him off.
Hey Rumi
I'm James by the way, and I know absolutely nothing. A man who knew things about music would not have been so foolish as to suggest that the songs from K-Pop Demon Hunters would be one week wonders. The most in-demand animation on Netflix right now may be a slightly absurd fantasy romp, but it is hard not to be taken in by the quality of the soundtrack. And wouldn't you just know it, the movie's key performance has spawned a hit single with staying power. The fictional Huntr/x this week leap 31-20 with Golden in a manner which makes you wonder if it is going even higher. Its companions are also on the rise, Your Idol from the evil Saja Boys moves 34-26 while Huntr/x's How It's Done edges up to No.32. The momentum could so easily fizzle out, I know. But this also quite possibly has the makings of a phenomenon.
Wheelchair Actor
After all that, there's only one "new" entry to actually recount. What Did I Miss marks Drake's proper return to solo work following his PartyNextDoor collaborations earlier this year (even if his last hit Nokia was credited to him alone despite being part of the Some Sexy Songs 4U project). The new track is brand new at No.27, his 150th Top 75 single, and lyrically marks the latest phase in his ongoing Kendrick Lamar feud, this time calling out those attempting to "play both sides". Make a track about those of us who find this utterly childish Aubrey, then we'll talk.
