five

howy pop pickers


yes, another post relating to the charts. that is the charts of popular music, look you see. but also no, for two weeks of looking at the mess, or if you prefer abomination, that has become of the singles chart is enough. for a variety of reasons we shall all just simply have to accept that the nearest, closest thing in the modern world to a British singles chart came to an end the week prior to Ed Sheeran's Divide album was released, and that's more a reflection of how badly those in control of it managed the chart rather than a dig at the plucky songwriter.

the album chart, then. although all of this "streaming" stuff seems to count for it too thus far it would seem that mostly it remains based on sales in its composition and ranking. to that end, it is the best of times and the worst of times for those plucky Basildon socialists known as Depeche Mode.

there was, as i probably mused in my review linked above, little or no chance of Depeche Mode getting the number one spot with their Spirit album. not when Ed Sheeran is selling truckloads of CDs and vinyl, with the former being somewhat suspiciously discounted across supermarkets. also, i just don't know if the Depeche Mode record is streaming and that.

an interesting week in the charts, then, with 3 new records (or 2 and 1 collection) shifting enough to be top five. Vera Lynn 100 by Vera Lynn, you would imagine, is a CD which many a mother, grandmother and maybe even great-grandmother took custodianship of on Mother's Day, which was this most recent Sunday passed.

Drake, who i assumed was some form of duck and is thus probably a tribute act to Disco Duck or maybe Keith Harris and Orville, has got to number two by making the full album available on them "streaming" services which qualify for the chart. this i know for a fact because that thing that used to be the singles chart now has as many Drake songs in the top forty as Ed Sheeran does, which is to say a lot. the single chart does not really reflect singles sold, then, but rather the preference for album songs by certain artists.

so no, then. the new single off of Kasabian did not even make the top forty. could be the "surprise" nature of the release, could be that it was made available by "streaming" services which do not count for the chart, perhaps i am just one of the few who bought it or, simply, the people at large do not like it.

returning to Depeche Mode, and the number five position in the chart means that this is one of their best performing albums in terms of chart rankings. considering how few sales are required these days, however, i suspect it's also the cheapest top five album they have ever clocked. hey ho, a week and a bit later and i am still not bored of the record.




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!