Bunnies
Oh for goodness' sake music industry, have you no respect for people's lives or schedules? It is supposed to be a holiday, a break from work, a chance for some downtime. And here you are packing the charts with a veritable tsunami of chart moves and new arrivals.
But still, who doesn't love a shakeup?
One thing that could well have changed over but pleasingly doesn't is the No.1 single, Benson Boone yowling his way through Beautiful Things at the top of the Official UK Singles chart for the second week running. A nice comfortable chart sale of just over 57,000 gives him a commanding lead over the trailing opposition. It may well take some proper superstar firepower (of which there is plenty on the horizon) to topple him any time soon.
The American singer actually has two chart hits to his name this week, the imminent release of his debut album trailed by a teaser single Slow It Down which charts at No.42. But as you will discover, multiple hit singles is quite the theme this week.
Boom Like That
No.1 on the albums chart this week are Elbow with their new offering Audio Vertigo, but it was a narrow squeak for them to get there. Trailing them by the small matter of just 2,000 sales - and perhaps hamstrung by the fact their record is only available digitally for now - were Future & Metro Boomin. The two performers first connected over a decade ago, Metro Boomin having produced a number of Future tracks, including his celebrated breakthrough Mask Off. But We Don't Trust You is their first full-length collaborative album, and as we are now used to seeing from a hot new digital release it scatters many of its biggest tracks all over the singles chart.
That means the two collaborators have the biggest of what are no fewer than three new entries inside this week's Top 10. Like That is only the sixth track on the album but the presence of Kendrick Lamar it seems has made it easily the biggest. Straight in at No.6, it is Future's third Top 10 hit single, his first since Wait For U spent a fortnight at No.8 in May 2022, his second highest-charting to date and the first not to feature Drake in one form or another. Metro Boomin has only ever once before been in the Top 10 as a credited performer, this with long-running smash hit Creepin' which eventually peaked at No.7 around this time last year.
The album's other two qualifying hits both land berths in the Top 20, Type Shit hitting No.18 and Cinderella at No.20. Both feature additional performer credits for Travis Scott with Playboi Carti also contributing to the former.
Is His Real Name H O'Zier?
Despite his best efforts to date, Irishman Hozier has remained something of a one hit wonder since his 2014 single Take Me To Church peaked at No.2 during an epic chart run which lasted the best part of 15 months in the bad old pre-ACR days. He's had a handful of other hits since, but you would be hard pressed to find anyone who can sing 2015 Top 20 hit Someone New or his Top 30 entry Eat Your Young from last year. But this week some magic took place. Hozier released a new 4 track EP of songs that are indeed Unheard and is rewarded with three of them charting together. Far and away the biggest is Too Sweet which startles just about everyone by landing sweetly (as it were) at No.8 - returning Hozier to the Top 10 for the first time in almost a decade. Musically it isn't markedly different from anything he hasn't released before (or indeed that too far removed from Feel It, Still but we'll let that slide), but his rock n' soul style is suddenly entirely in keeping with current musical fashions. A massive chart hit is his reward.
The other two tracks from the EP don't quite have the legs to make the Top 75, but Wildflower And Barley reaches No.86 with Empire Now trailing at No.92. Meanwhile his last album Unreal Unearth winks back into life at No.42, its highest chart position since August last year following its debut at No.1.
Compulsive Behaviour
Also rocketing back into contention on the albums chart is Olivia Rodrigo's GUTS, rocketing back to No.3 after being gifted with a new special edition which adds the four previously vinyl-exclusive tracks to the digital version as well as a brand new previously unheard single. Weirdly the biggest of them is not the sole new addition but one which clearly had some hidden popularity which is only now revealed to us as it becomes available to stream. Obsessed is a single which perhaps lacks a little of the inspired drama of some of her other acknowledged classics but which is otherwise a perfectly serviceable three minutes of riot grrrl revivalism. Previously a hidden track on the red vinyl edition of GUTS, it arrives at No.10 to become her 8th Top 10 hit. And yes, she does have other hits on the chart as well. So American, the genuinely previously unheard cut debuts all the way down at No.24, with Stranger (a bonus on the blue vinyl) hitting No.58.
All of the above has created one extraordinary moment which has people scrambling for the record books to determine if it is a first. There isn't a single British act in this week's Top 10.
Fowl
Those missing some actual pop music will be cheered by the arrival of rising British star Artemas who has been a name to drop for the past three or four years but who now appears to be heading rapidly for mainstream stardom. His previous single If U Think I'm Pretty has spent the past two months sculling around the lower end of the singles chart without ever showing signs of properly breaking through, but he now has a genuine hit single to his name with the phenomenally appealing banger I Like The Way You Kiss Me. Alt.pop is apparently his genre, and who are we to argue. But if the tide of rap and rock at the top end is starting to give you a headache, this new hit is the perfect antidote.
Charli XCX's Von Dutch promised much when it debuted at No.26 four weeks ago, but it appeared the hot/cold/hot/cold artist was very much in cold mode when the track went into rapid reverse. But it appears too soon to give up on it just yet, the release of a radical new remix which adds in contributions from Addison Rae and A. G. Cook this week propels it back to No.27 - agonisingly short of recreating that initial peak. To call this a radical reworking is to undercook the pot a little - it even sheds most references to the original's "I'm your No.1" hook.
Bubbling Under
After four weeks of climbing Rudimental finally have a second Top 40 hit of the year as radio favourite Green And Gold (featuring Charlotte Plank and Riko Dan) hoves into view at No.30. It is their second collaboration with Ms Plank after she fronted Top 5 hit Dancing Is Healing last year.
Also new (ish) to the Top 40 is Jungle's Back On 74, still feeling the echoes from the Brits bringing it to everyone's attention and now back to a new 2024 peak of No.32 - still some way short of the No.25 it scaled last year. Originally a co-credited contributor to Fred Again…'s Marea (We've Lost Dancing) back in 2021, The Blessed Madonna now has a Top 40 hit to call her own as Happier also finally accelerates from the depths after three weeks to hove into view at No.40.
Enjoy the rest of the Easter weekend and yes, next week is inevitably going to be a bit Beyonce-heavy and everyone else will have kept well out of her way, so let's wonder out loud which of the two trending hits from lower down the Top 75 is going to break through first. Meghan Trainor's annoyingly catchy Been Like This (No.50 for now) or Mark Ambor's Belong Together (No.54 but heading rapidly skywards). Cross fingers one of them gets a larger write up next time.
