Chortle
I can only chortle. More so than ever before we are feeling the effects of what presumably will become the November limbo. The time when pushing anything new, or anything that requires the investment of time is about to be rendered futile. Those who question whether the charts matter to the music industry will care to note that very little is happening in pop because everyone knows it will simply not be visible to the charts until the new year. In a few weeks' time superannuated festive tracks will flood the listings. And we'll have little way of knowing what is truly popular amongst well, normal music fans, until the new year.
But enough of my sounding like a stuck record (Skating CD? Buffering stream?), I only speak to put everything that follows in context.
The Bizarro Taylor Swift - Gracie Abrams to you and me - spends a second week at No.1 with That's So True. She's no longer the owner of simultaneous Top 5 hits as its chart predecessor I Love You I'm Sorry dives 4-20 with an ACR exit, but that's of no matter really. She's top of the charts which is all that counts. After sneaking her way to No.1 with one of the smallest such sales of the year last week she this time around increases her consumption by enough to post over 54,000 chart sales. Making the song a bone-fide chart-topping smash. Don't let anyone pretend otherwise. Meanwhile parent album The Secret Of Us doesn't necessarily benefit from all this extra attention - but it is at the very least still hanging around the lower end of the Top 10.
Gracie presides over a static Top 3, with Gig Perez and Rose n' Bruno in second and third place respectively. But the gap at No.4 is filled by Chappell Roan's Hot To Go which achieves a new peak of No.4 in what is now its 22nd week as a Top 40 single, its tenth in total in the Top 10.
Oh Teddy Teddy
Taking over in the two hits at once club is the man who surely has to go down as one of the revelations of the year. Teddy Swims' The Door advances to a brand new peak of No.5 but is joined in the Top 10 by the more recently released Bad Dreams. The track I wrote off as being an irrelevance next to his other big hits has chipped away at people's hearts and got under their skin. And it now leaps to No.8 after a nine week climb to give the the big-voiced American his third straight Top 10 single. Some are pointing to his big UK show at the Hammersmith Apollo a week ago for this surge of interest. I'm tempted to suggest it is just because he's spent most of the year being awesome.
The first of his three 2024 hits still refuses to die as well. This time last year Lose Control was pootling around the lower end of the Top 100, biding its time until it exploded in the new year to reach an eventual No.2 peak. Yeeted to ACR in May it has simply refused to go away, never sinking any lower than No.33. This week it is back up to No.23, its highest chart placing since June - a reflection perhaps on how its appeal has stayed solid and has merely swayed to the eddies of the strength of the chart singles around it.
Wild Birds
Speaking of tracks I saw fit to ignore as irrelevance, Billie Eilish's Wildflower began its meander up the charts as an album cut back in August. By late September it was still struggling to break into the Top 30 so you can see why it appeared to just be a footnote. But no, here it is at long last, vaulting into the Top 10 with a jump to No.7 and giving the greatest woman in pop (nearly) the 14th such hit of her career.
But what, you ask, of Birds Of A Feather. The hit that Will Not Die. It is on ACR, but back up once more at No.13, reflective of its status as the sixth most streamed track of the moment. That's not necessarily indicative of where it might be without ACR as the streaming chart is compiled from strictly raw numbers, and does not discriminate between paid and freebie sales as the official singles chart does. Nonetheless, its posted chart sale of just over 16,000 would translate to a non-ACR figure of 32k - making it eligible to be No.4 in theory.
But let us not forget Sabrina Carpenter, who hasn't rated a mention on these pages for a couple of weeks. She still has three Top 20 hits to her name despite two of them being ACR reduced. Espresso is static at No.19, former No.1 Taste is STILL a Top 10 hit at No.10 (but on only 18K sales would be nowhere near No.1 in reality) while Bed Chem oozes up to a new visible peak of No.6. I will note once again - the first No.1 single of 2025 is almost inevitably going to be one of the hit singles we see in front of us right now. For all we know Bed Chem could still be in the mix.
Best Of The Not Much
Earlier this week on Twitter I was pondering what the nominations for next year's Brit Awards might look like. From the No.1 singles this year alone the "best international artist" award nominations were going to be a parade of stars. Sabrina, Beyonce, Noah Kahan, Benson Boone, Hozier. Pick any of the No.1 acts this year and they might be an award winner. But the British music industry awards are going to struggle for many stars to give their own best of the year gongs to, such has been the paucity of hits from homegrown talent. And in particular the Best British Newcomer award. Last Dinner Party are a lock for sure, but you can surely think the rest of the nominees are going to be a parade of "who dey?"
But then someone pointed out that we still have Myles Smith. His single Stargazing was a No.4 smash in the early summer, and is yet another of those hits still floating around the Top 40 as we speak. The British star also this week has the honour of the highest new entry as Nice To Meet You gives him a second chart single with some considerable ease as it debuts at No.12. It is one of the tracks on his new 7-track digital EP A Minute which debuts in its own right on the albums chart at No.63. "A minute can truly change everything" is the message of its video. A few weeks could also change everything for him. Precious few people are releasing music now just in case it all gets lost - but Myles Smith might just have played a blinder with a new hit at the exact right time to emerge on top post Christmas. Because right now, skipping CD again I know, this is what it is all about. Mumford And Sons without the banjos.
One Night In Paris
A flashback now to April 2023:
"Her name makes her sound like a dessert, but Paris Paloma is the latest online name to break into the charts thanks to some exciting virality. The British singer's debut hit Labour is, let's not beat about the bush, a pretty strident angry feminist anthem which has taken on a life of its own as the soundtrack to numerous online videos from ladies railing against the patriarchy. Set the politics aside though and the track is a worthy neofolk track in its own right, defining Paris Paloma as less a dessert, but more an exciting new musical voice. She's No.29 for now, but let's watch what happens to this one."
What happened then was that the single failed to advance on that start, sinking back in fairly short order. Until this week when certain recent political events have caused it to enjoy a viral resurfacing. Reappearing at No.62 last week the strident feminist anthem now vaults back into the Top 40, hitting No.22 to beat its original peak from a year and a half ago. There's a part of me that wants to say "watch what happens to this one", but we've been here before alas.
There was a time when the end of year charts were rammed with the seasonal club hits. But with dance music not quite the commercial force it once was, we have to take what we can get. Making waves and now rising into the Top 40 at No.39 is the Korg-driven The Days by Chrystal, a track with just the right kind of vibe to get under your skin. And of course if not now, then quite possibly in the new year.
Yule Log Update
A week later than last year (the significance of this we are get to divine) we have the first Christmas song in the Top 40 as that song by Mariah Carey you all know only too well arrives at No.38. Last Christmas is lagging just behind at No.43. They remain the only seasonal hits in the Top 75 for now, but three more arrive at the bottom end of the Top 50. Yule Log is up to 5 (compared to 10 this time last year), but the next few weeks are when this really starts to ramp up.
