Singles
The Wanted debuted atop the singles chart last week with first release, All Time Low – but the track cannot maintain its initial impetus and tumbles to number five (48,187 sales), leaving the way clear for Ne-Yo to claim his third number one.
Beautiful Monster, which sold 69,387 copies last week, is the first single from Ne-Yo’s fourth album, Libra Scale, which is released in October. So Sick - the first single from Ne-Yo’s 2006 debut album, In My Own Words - and Closer – the introductory single from 2008’s Year Of The Gentleman – also reached number one. However, the title track and first single from Ne-Yo’s 2007 album Because Of You peaked at number four.
Something else that So Sick, Closer and Beauriful Monster have in common, apart from topping the chart, is that they were co-written and produced by Ne-Yo and Stargate – Norwegians Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen. Stargate also helped write three other UK number ones, Hear’Say’s The Way To Your Love (2001), Beautiful Liar by Shakira feat. Beyonce (2007) and Take A Bow by Rihanna (2008). They obviously enjoy writing ‘beautiful’ chart-toppers, but it is a growing trend among all songwriters – of 844 number ones before 2000, only three have beautiful in their titles but of 294 number ones this century, six are beautiful: Beautiful Day by U2 (2000), Beautiful by Christina Aguilera (2003), You’re Beautiful by James Blunt (2005), Beautiful Liar by Shakira feat, Beyonce (2007), Beautiful Girls by Sean Kingston (2007) and Beautiful Monster.
Ne-Yo’s arrival at the top of the chart is tough on his former partner Flo Rida. The two teamed for Be On You, which reached number 51 last year. Chasing his third number one, Flo Rida’s latest hit, Club Can’t Handle Me, advances 5-2 this week (65,128 sales). Like Ne-Yo, he has enlisted the production/writing skills of Europeans, specifically Giorgio Tuinfort, a Dane of Surinamese origin, and Frenchmen Frederic Riesterer and David Guetta, with the latter also copping an artist credit.
Last week, five new entries poured into the Top 10 but this week’s chart is much slower, with Ne-Yo the top tier’s only new arrival. Among just three other Top 75 debuts, the highest comes from The Hoosiers. They made the Top 10 with two singles from their 2007 debut album, The Trick Of Life but Choices – the first single from their upcoming second album The Illusion Of Safety, is just short of that target, debuting at number 11 (22,972 sales).
Also new to the Top 75: Gold Dust by DJ Fresh (number 24, 11,789 sales) and We Used To Wait by Arcade Fire (number 75, 2,415 sales) who thus achieve the rare distinction of simultaneously having the week’s top album and lowest ranked single.
One notable re-entry is They Might Be Giants’ 1990 number six hit Birdhouse In Your Soul. The track is featured in the new Clarks Shoes advert and catapults back into the chart for the first time in 20 years, arriving at number 72 (2,634 sales). Its overall digital sales are 53,569.
Following up their first number one single, This Ain’t A Love Song, has not been easy for Scouting For Girls. Despite getting huge exposure (it reached number two on the radio airplay chart last week) follow-up Famous appears to have peaked, having moved 49-43-37-38-39 since charting last month. Its slow fade has been accompanied by a downturn in the fortunes of parent album, Everybody Wants To Be On TV, which climbed for five weeks in a row, but has since faded 22-26-28.
Sales of singles dipped 5.8% week-on-week to 2,688,330 – 14.07% above same week 2009 sales of 2,356,640.
1 Ne'Yo 69387
2 Flo Rida feat. David Guetta 65128
5 Wanted 48187
11 Hoosiers 22972
24 DJ Fresh 11789
44 Paloma Faith 5305
72 They Might Be Giants 2634 (Digital Sales to date: 53,569)
75 Arcade Fire 2415
========================================
Albums
Arcade Fire make an incendiary debut atop the album chart, blazing to first-week sales of 61,263 copies for their third album The Suburbs.
Putting an end to the five-week residency of Eminem’s Recovery – which dips to number two (31,913 sales) – the album is only the second by a Canadian group (albeit one with an American singer) ever to top the chart, eight years after the first, Nickelback’s Silver Side Up. Thirteen other albums by Canadian solo artists have reached number one – four by Celine Dion, three each by Avril Lavigne and Bryan Adams, and one apiece from Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette and Neil Young.
Based in Montreal, Arcade Fire reached number two with Neon Bible in 2007, on slightly higher first-week sales of 65,700, being denied pole position by The Kaiser Chiefs’ Yours Truly, Angry Mob. Arcade Fire’s second album, Neon Bible has sold 298,152 copies – almost exactly the same as its 2005 debut Funeral which debuted at number 71 (4,782 sales) and took 47 weeks to reach its peak (number 33). It has sold 300,016 copies.
With only one other album selling sufficiently well to enter the album chart inside the Top 40 – veteran dance act Chicane’s Giants (number 35, 4,137 sales) - several albums take advantage of the lull to improve their standing.
Paolo Nutini’s Sunny Side Up rallies 11-8 (10,772 sales), entering the Top 10 for the first time in 13 weeks. Nutini’s second album has never fallen below number 31 in a 62-week chart career and is on its 36th week in the Top 10. Its latest surge comes as the album is the subject of renewed TV advertising while being widely available for as little as £5. It has sold 1,439,116 copies to date, recently eclipsing Nutini’s 2006 debut These Streets, which has sold 1,323,629 copies.
Holding at number 13 after climbing six weeks in a row, The XX’s self-titled debut album continues to benefit from the band’s Mercury Prize nomination. It sold 8,837 copies last week and has sold 152,143 copies in two weeks short of a year. It has finally spun off a chart single with Islands moving 96-65-60 in the last fortnight to reach a new peak some 21 weeks after its release.
The biggest mover in the chart is Paloma Faith, whose debut album Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? catapults 41-15 (8,356 sales), achieving its highest chart placing for 29 weeks while topping the 300,000 sales mark. The album, which debuted at number 14 last October, peaked at number nine the following month, and benefitted early on from spinning off two Top 20 hits, Stone Cold Sober (number 17) and New York (number 15). The subsequent low peaks of the title track (number 64) and Upside Down (number 55) saw it dip out of the Top 75. Its return to the Top 20 comes at a time when it is discounted below £5, TV advertised and simultaneous with the release of a new version of New York, featuring Ghostface Killah. The new version of the latter track, which is getting a lot of airplay, does not appear on the album and climbs 82-44 this week with sales up 110.5% to 5,305.
Now That’s What I Call Music! 76 completes its third week atop the compilation chart, with sales of
80,870 raising its 20 day tally to
468,239 – 20.22% ahead of same stage sales (
389,507) of immediate predecessor Now! 75 but 3.95% behind comparable period sales of 2009 equivalent Now! 73 (
487,521).
Overall album sales – at 1,879,795 – are down 6.1% week-on-week but are 7.89% above same week 2009 sales of 1,742,401.
1 Arcade Fire 61263
2 Eminem 31913
8 Paolo Nutini 10772 (1,439,116)
13 XX 8837 (152,143)
15 Paloma Faith 8536 (300,000)
35 Chicane 4137
To Date Albums
Paolo Nutini - These Streets 1,323,629
Arcade Fire - Funeral 300,016
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible 298,152
PVT - O Soundtrack My Heart 1,183