Success comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes, on local levels and global fronts. Some just seem to want a piece of it in every market.
It has been a very good week for overachievers Bloc Party and Taylor Swift, as well as Birdy, Ricki-Lee, and Brandy. Also, find out where new releases from Owl City, Aiden Grimshaw and David Guetta land.
- AUSTRALIA -
The Sapphires soundtrack remains on top of the ARIA charts but there’s fierce competition from three other new releases in the Top 10: Bloc Party‘s Four (#3), Elvis Presley‘s new compilation Elvis By Request: The Australian Fan Edition (#4), and flawless pop glamazon Ricki-Lee‘s Fear & Freedom (#7) making this the diva’s first ever Top 10 album.
Owl City‘s new album The Midsummer Station debuts at #29 on the ARIA charts this week. Is it wrong that I’m now getting sucked into their insipid summery single ‘Good Times’ (with Carly Rae Jepsen)? ‘Good Times’ is placed at #6 in Australia and debuts at an uneventful #17 in the UK this week.
Guy Sebastian retains his iron grip on the #1 spot for the second week, letting ‘Battle Scars’ reign supreme on top of the ARIA singles chart.
Birdy is clearly the real winner this week with her version of ‘Skinny Love’ rocketing to #4 thanks to a winning X Factor Australia audition by Bella. The songbird has been bubbling under the radar for a while now, garnering loads of critical acclaim but the mainstream crossover has certainly begun for her. Birdy‘s single ‘People Help The People’ also shoots from #20 to #13 this week.
The Script feat. will.i.am ‘Hall of Fame’ debuts at a high flying spot of #7 on the ARIA charts, making this the band’s third Top 10 smash Down Under.
Delta Goodrem‘s ‘Dancing With A Broken Heart’ sinks to #23 in its second week on the ARIA charts. Trouble, trouble. Elsewhere, the flaw-free comeback single by The Veronicas ‘Lolita’ falls out of the Top 30 after just a month. Can’t believe this didn’t even crack the Top 20.
Gypsy & The Cat‘s new single ‘Sorry’ – which sadly doesn’t live up to the dreamy wonder of their breakthrough ‘Jona Vark’ – debuts at a meagre #60 on the ARIA singles chart this week.
Ricki-Lee‘s stomping new single ‘Crazy’ plummets from #59 to #72 on the ARIA singles chart. Obviously with all the promo in the last week, the focus has been on the album Fear & Freedom. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly they move onto the fourth single, which if I’m correct in my prediction, will be ‘Burn It Down’. Mind you, I gave the song its first FM radio play during our interview with Ricki-Lee last Thursday.
David Guetta and Sia‘s hectic club-geared new single ‘She Wolf (Falling To Pieces)’ debuts at #93 on the ARIA charts after a soft release on the digital shelves last week. Shit should turn around real quick – ‘She Wolf’ is the second most added song to Aussie radios this week.
Timomatic‘s new single ‘Incredible’ – which smacks of some Bruno Mars reject – becomes the most added new song to Australian radios this week. Could it be his fourth smash? His rather decent self-titled album came out on Friday so we’ll find out next Monday how it fares sales wise.
- UK -
Bloc Party‘s Four is the biggest new album in the UK this week, gathering enough sales to debut at #3 behind two unshakable sellers: Emeli Sande‘s Our Version of Events and Paloma Faith‘s Fall to Grace.
The Darkness‘ new album Hot Cakes enters at a pleasing #4 placement in the UK. Down here in Australia, it made #15. Elsewhere, Aiden Grimshaw‘s Misty Eye album comes in at a respectable #19. There are certain qualities here that could render Aiden to be a tastemaker fave world over if he plays his cards right.
Britain’s Got Talent star Ryan O’Shaughnessy‘s album clocks an embarrassing drop from #9 to #36 in its second week. His single ‘No Name’ is almost out of the UK Top 50 too.
Spice Girls‘ Greatest Hits plummets down the chart now that the reunion performance at the Olympics fades into yesterday’s news. The compilation falls from #18 to #62.
Rita Ora‘s ‘How We Do (Party)’ takes a step down after debuting at #1 last week. All eyes are on the much hyped newcomer’s album Ora now – we shall see where it charts next week and what kind of opening sales we’re up for. Given that she’s had three consecutive chart topping singles, it should be an easy #1 nab?
Paloma Faith‘s current single ’30 Minute Love Affair’ bobs out of the UK Top 50 but sees a new entry in ‘Just Be’ at #99. Am I alone in thinking that ‘Blood Sweat and Tears’ or ‘Black and Blue’ should be the next single?
- US -
Taylor Swift has officially set the record for the biggest digital song sales week ever for a female artist. ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ clocks a phenomenal 623,000 copies to debut at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
This is the second biggest digital sales week the States have ever seen. The biggest being when Flo Rida blasted to the top with ‘Right Round’, selling 636,000 copies. The last time a female artist came close to reaching these immense weekly sales was when Ke$ha‘s ‘TiK ToK’ moved 610,000 copies in January 2010. Golf claps all around for TayTay, this is also her first ever Billboard Hot 100 topper.
The inescapable ‘Never’ rises 10 spots to #3 on the Aussie ARIA charts and debuts at #5 on the UK charts this week.
Ellie Goulding‘s ‘Lights’ dips to #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 after peaking at #2. The song is however still #1 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart. As Feed Limmy reader Adrian pointed out, always good to see a good late bloomer like this. Would be interesting to see how Goulding’s new single ‘Anything Could Happen’ fares. The new album Halcyon drops in October, guaranteed to bare a new side to her artistry.
Maroon 5‘s new single ’One More Night’ darts from #15 to #9 on the Hot 100 thanks to more downloads sales (it leaps from #7 to #4 on the Digital Songs chart) and radio love (it moves from #43 to #25 on the Radio Songs chart).
Brandy might have just secured herself a quiet little hit with ‘Put It Down’ – finally entering the US Billboard Hot 100 at #95 after months of scaling the urban song charts.
Zedd‘s ‘Spectrum’ climbs to the top of the US Dance/Club play song chart. This would have to be the first time an actual EDM artist tops the chart instead of some old pop diva, am I right? Elsewhere, speaking of which, Madonna’s ‘Turn Up The Radio’ rises to #2.
Rebecca Ferguson‘s ‘Nothing’s Real But Love’ is strangely burning it up on the dance charts, rising to #20. Elsewhere, great news for my gurl Wynter Gordon whose single ‘Still Getting Younger’ climbs to a new peak of #24 .
- FUTURE FEED -
One Direction‘s new EP ‘Live While We’re Young’ is already snatching wigs on pre-orders alone on iTunes. It’s not due to come out until 28 September, though, so don’t expect official chart results just yet.
Brace yourselves, MJ fans. The questionable new remix of Michael Jackson‘s ‘Bad’ featuring Pitbull is set to hit airwaves and mainstream media very soon. The new remix of ‘Bad’ is slated for a 17 September release in the UK.
Kylie will release ‘Flower (Abbey Road Session)’ as her new single in September. The track first emerged from Min‘s X sessions with long-time collaborator and musical director Steve Anderson but didn’t make the album cut. Now it makes sense why she’s been posting so many photos of flowers on Instagram – or am I reading too much into this?
Little Mix‘s ‘Wings’ is finally out. I honestly am not holding my breath for a #1, I really want them to have one but I feel like this whole campaign has dragged on for too long.
Kelly Rowland‘s new single ‘Ice’ comes out globally today (it dropped on 24 August here actually), so it’ll be interesting to see if it does anything really in its first week. The star of our local televisual flop Everybody Dance Now posted a behind the scenes snap of her doing an album photoshoot today.
Gotye‘s ‘I Feel Better’ finally gets a UK release on 3 September. This is easily one of the most radio friendly and accessible songs on his hit Making Mirrors album, so I don’t get why it isn’t already massive everywhere?
Roisin Murphy is back with a new sly dance track titled ‘Simulation’. The 12″ single is due out in the UK next week.
Conor Maynard has chosen his third single to be ‘Turn Around’ featuring Ne-Yo, hopefully this will turn shit around for him because his debut album is actually fantastic – even if it was misled a little by the tawdry ‘Vegas Girl’. ‘Turn Around’ is slated for an early October release in the UK.
Gossip will release the fantastic ‘Get A Job’ as the third single from their A Joyful Noise album. That song has always been my fave so I can’t wait to see it go large. *gets on megaphone* “I’d love to stay and party but I gotta go to work… werk, werk, werk!”
Filed under: Chart Feed Tagged: Birdy, Bloc Party, Brandy, Chart Feed, Conor Maynard, David Guetta, Ellie Goulding, Elvis Presley, Gossip, Gotye, Guy Sebastian, Gypsy and The Cat, Jessica Mauboy, Kelly Rowland, Kylie Minogue, Little Mix, Madonna, Maroon 5, Michael Jackson, One Direction, Owl City, Paloma Faith, Pitbull, Rebecca Ferguson, Ricki-Lee, Rita Ora, Roisin Murphy, Ryan O'Shaughnessy, Sia, Spice Girls, Taylor Swift, The Darkness, The Sapphires, The Script, Timomatic, Will.i.Am, Wynter Gordon, Zedd
