Intrigued by the impact X Factor has on the charts at the moment, we wondered if the NME's much publicised "Top 50 Albums Of The Decade" would also have an influence, so studied the charts from last week, to the midweeks today.
Out of the 50 albums we looked at, we could only get information on 4 of them. The rest aren't in the top 200 at the moment (you need to sell just over 500 copies to make the top 200). There's always next week.
Anyway, the four are:
Arctic Monkeys "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not"
NME 4 - Last Week 171 - This Week 164 - That's up 15.4%
Elbow "Asleep At The Back"
NME 30 - Last Week 200+ - This Week 180 - That's up 50.8%
Muse "Absolution"
NME 49 - Last Week 155 - This Week 170 - That's up 6.7%
Amy Winehouse "Back To Black"
NME 27 - Last Week 165 - This Week 177 - That's down 0.4%
Woo. Is the NME really responsible for this charge on the album charts? Not really. It's probably down to HMV, the Uk's only high street music retailer, who've got an "Up To 80% Off" their "Autumn Specials". All the above albums can be purchased on CD, and you'll get £1.04 change from a £20 note.
Did you know The NME now has a readership of just under 41k? If no one is buying the magazine, and no one is buying the records they recommend, why did the media go overboard when the NME's published this list?
And who has a copy of The Shins record? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Meh.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Haven't We Heard This One Before : Part 2
Well, there's only a certain amount of notes to go around
Muse "Undisclosed Desires"
U2 "Beautiful Day"
A-Ha "The Sun Always Shines On TV"
Muse "Undisclosed Desires"
U2 "Beautiful Day"
A-Ha "The Sun Always Shines On TV"
Monday, November 9, 2009
Competition Winners
Here's two normal looking blokes. Know who they are? They're part of a huge band, a four piece - one that has sold millions of records - one that has an album in the charts RIGHT NOW - one that has appeared across UK media in the last two weeks - including Later With Jools, to promote that album, but! If they were replaced - would anyone notice or care? Have they done this deliberately so they can remain virtually invisible to the general public, or are they actually competition winners?
Pop Star Look A Likes
Is it just us, or are today's "pop stars" starting to look the same? Can you name any of these four, because, pictured together like this, we're buggered if we can. And no, that's not Sienna Miller. Three of them are regular visitors to the top 10 singles chart, one has yet to achieve this, though our sources reveal she did once go to the same school as one of the other more popular ones.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Chart News
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Some REAL turkeys in this weeks chart, and we're not talking about Robbie Williams (No.2) or Mr Hudson (No.20), we're talking about the albums.
Firstly, before we start the tomato throwing, congratulations to The Editors, on their number one album "In This Light And On This Evening", showing losing the daily post-3.30pm school run plays from Edith Bowman weren't needed after all. Cancel that. They got to number one with just 30k sales - seriously piss poor. Muse's album did 148k week one. PETER ANDRE managed 53k!
Chipmunk - he's been everywhere hasn't he? On everything, in everything and winning awards too - Best Newcomer at the 2008 Mobo Awards, Best Hip-Hop Act at the 2009 Mobo Awards, and he seems to be a really lovely guy. Two huge singles, including the played to death, the No.1 "Oops A Daisy". It's a great song, the chorus is brilliant, and much like the comments we made on the Robbie Williams track, we'd like to hear the rest of that song, not Chipmunk's ramblings inbetween "find cupid and put him in a headlock" (yes, that'll help) or his constant shout outs of "chair". His album imaginatively entitled "I Am Chipmunk" debuted at No.2 - hooray! Champagne-sorry, Cristal all round? Doubtful - he wasn't pipped by The Editors, he was 7k short. So on last week's chart you needed to shift 23k copies to get to No. 2 - this is seriously SHITE.
But believe it or not, these aren't the turkeys.
These are;
9. The Saturdays "Wordshaker" - NEW ENTRY, selling just 15k *ouch*
14. Tiao Cruz "Rokstarr" - NEW ENTRY, hasn't he just had a No.1 single with that really annoying "break break bur-break break my heart"? Yes. Kids have got that, they don't want another 10 or so tracks obviously. *owwww*
And saving the best for last.
35. The Veronicas "Hook Me Up" managing a pathetic 7.6k sales week one - it's a shame. *Gobble gobble*
Some REAL turkeys in this weeks chart, and we're not talking about Robbie Williams (No.2) or Mr Hudson (No.20), we're talking about the albums.
Firstly, before we start the tomato throwing, congratulations to The Editors, on their number one album "In This Light And On This Evening", showing losing the daily post-3.30pm school run plays from Edith Bowman weren't needed after all. Cancel that. They got to number one with just 30k sales - seriously piss poor. Muse's album did 148k week one. PETER ANDRE managed 53k!
Chipmunk - he's been everywhere hasn't he? On everything, in everything and winning awards too - Best Newcomer at the 2008 Mobo Awards, Best Hip-Hop Act at the 2009 Mobo Awards, and he seems to be a really lovely guy. Two huge singles, including the played to death, the No.1 "Oops A Daisy". It's a great song, the chorus is brilliant, and much like the comments we made on the Robbie Williams track, we'd like to hear the rest of that song, not Chipmunk's ramblings inbetween "find cupid and put him in a headlock" (yes, that'll help) or his constant shout outs of "chair". His album imaginatively entitled "I Am Chipmunk" debuted at No.2 - hooray! Champagne-sorry, Cristal all round? Doubtful - he wasn't pipped by The Editors, he was 7k short. So on last week's chart you needed to shift 23k copies to get to No. 2 - this is seriously SHITE.
But believe it or not, these aren't the turkeys.
These are;
9. The Saturdays "Wordshaker" - NEW ENTRY, selling just 15k *ouch*
14. Tiao Cruz "Rokstarr" - NEW ENTRY, hasn't he just had a No.1 single with that really annoying "break break bur-break break my heart"? Yes. Kids have got that, they don't want another 10 or so tracks obviously. *owwww*
And saving the best for last.
35. The Veronicas "Hook Me Up" managing a pathetic 7.6k sales week one - it's a shame. *Gobble gobble*
Friday, October 9, 2009
Robbie Willams "Bodies"
As Charlie Brooker said recently, "Angels is played at funerals, Bodies will not".
We thought this song would "grow" on us. We wanted it too, but it hasn't, it just gets on our nerves, because it's clearly two songs cut 'n' shut together.
You've got the Rudebox style Robbie nonsense in the verses, and the classic Guy Chambers style Robbie in the chorus. Two completely different songs have been mashed together - this is a technique that super-producers Xenomania admit to doing (and very well) - listen to the way "Bodies" connects them, like a corpse falling down the morge stairs from verse to the chorus - the lyrics meaning anything seemingly unimportant;
Verse:
Bodies in the bodhi tree
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies are my family
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery
And that's the way it's gonna be all we've ever wanted
Is to look good naked
Hope that someone can take it
God save me rejection
From my reflection
I want perfection
You might have missed it, so here it is again (1:06 on the video below)
"And that's the way it's gonna be BANG BANG CLUMP CLUMP CRASH STUMBLE all we've ever wanted" What the hell are you talking about? Was the Bodies in the bodhi (?) tree, bodies making chemistry bit the original chorus for this song, before it a new one was slipped in afterwards?
The new chorus sounds like its from a great song, it's a shame we won't get to hear the rest of it.
We thought this song would "grow" on us. We wanted it too, but it hasn't, it just gets on our nerves, because it's clearly two songs cut 'n' shut together.
You've got the Rudebox style Robbie nonsense in the verses, and the classic Guy Chambers style Robbie in the chorus. Two completely different songs have been mashed together - this is a technique that super-producers Xenomania admit to doing (and very well) - listen to the way "Bodies" connects them, like a corpse falling down the morge stairs from verse to the chorus - the lyrics meaning anything seemingly unimportant;
Verse:
Bodies in the bodhi tree
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies are my family
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery
And that's the way it's gonna be all we've ever wanted
Is to look good naked
Hope that someone can take it
God save me rejection
From my reflection
I want perfection
You might have missed it, so here it is again (1:06 on the video below)
"And that's the way it's gonna be BANG BANG CLUMP CLUMP CRASH STUMBLE all we've ever wanted" What the hell are you talking about? Was the Bodies in the bodhi (?) tree, bodies making chemistry bit the original chorus for this song, before it a new one was slipped in afterwards?
The new chorus sounds like its from a great song, it's a shame we won't get to hear the rest of it.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Florence And The Machine
There's one thing that scares the hell out of us at The Enc its the state of the charts.
Florence And The Machine look likely to be the ONLY new British artist with a platinum album this year. Not Little Boots, winner of the BBC's much repeated Sound Poll of 2009, nor La Roux, VV Brown, White Lies (there's a band called that, not to be confused with Mr Hudson), or Frankmusik who all appeared in this hype chart.
So for those that didn't appear in the Sound Poll this year, it makes you wonder exactly how many albums they are selling, and how much the labels are spending on them to try and convince the music buying public (there are still some) that a package containing the tracks they have heard on the radio, with 7 or 8 fillers is worth coughing up for. In many instances, of course it isn't, and the labels are spending far too much - but why then has Florence And The Machine "connected"? Might it be as simple as having good songs that people can sing along to in the car? And why did the critics / DJ's / pundits not spot this when voting last November?
Florence And The Machine look likely to be the ONLY new British artist with a platinum album this year. Not Little Boots, winner of the BBC's much repeated Sound Poll of 2009, nor La Roux, VV Brown, White Lies (there's a band called that, not to be confused with Mr Hudson), or Frankmusik who all appeared in this hype chart.
So for those that didn't appear in the Sound Poll this year, it makes you wonder exactly how many albums they are selling, and how much the labels are spending on them to try and convince the music buying public (there are still some) that a package containing the tracks they have heard on the radio, with 7 or 8 fillers is worth coughing up for. In many instances, of course it isn't, and the labels are spending far too much - but why then has Florence And The Machine "connected"? Might it be as simple as having good songs that people can sing along to in the car? And why did the critics / DJ's / pundits not spot this when voting last November?
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