Number 1s of 2008: 5 October
So, "Sex on Fire" lasted three weeks at the top - longer than I'd expected, considering the Kings of Leon have always been more of an albums band. And now, here's another mild surprise.
Pink, "So What" (5 October to date). Alecia Moore has been racking up hits consistently since 2000. She's one of those acts who regularly makes the top ten, but rarely gets to the top. In fact, this is only her second UK number one (unless you count the Moulin Rouge version of "Lady Marmalade"). The first was "Just Like A Pill", and that was six years ago.
There's something a bit contrived about Pink for my taste. But if you look at her discography, there's some decent stuff in there. "So What" is a decent chorus with a trying-too-hard verse, and doesn't do much for me, but I can see the appeal.
For what it's worth, the song now holds the record for the biggest climb to number one, having jumped from number 38 in the previous week. That's because the track got an online release on a Friday, and scraped the top 40 on the strength of two days' sales. It's all a bit meaningless, but some people care about these things.
Anyhow, the surprise isn't so much that Pink finally got a second number one. The surprise is that she did it in the week when Oasis released the first single from their new album, "The Shock of the Lightning."
I've always thought Oasis were hugely overrated. Not bad, mind you. They're okay. But they've been mining the same basic idea for years. And even in the height of Britpop, Blur were always a more interesting band. If Oasis were bigger in the short term, Blur came out on top in the long haul, if only because their records actually feel like they might be relevant now, rather than an opportunity to reminisce about what you were doing thirteen years ago.
"Shock of the Lightning" is... an Oasis track. But as the first single from their new album, I'd have expected it to be an automatic number one. They're supposed to be an A-list act. Limping in third behind Pink and a month-old King of Leon song is unexpected.
Pink, "So What" (5 October to date). Alecia Moore has been racking up hits consistently since 2000. She's one of those acts who regularly makes the top ten, but rarely gets to the top. In fact, this is only her second UK number one (unless you count the Moulin Rouge version of "Lady Marmalade"). The first was "Just Like A Pill", and that was six years ago.
There's something a bit contrived about Pink for my taste. But if you look at her discography, there's some decent stuff in there. "So What" is a decent chorus with a trying-too-hard verse, and doesn't do much for me, but I can see the appeal.
For what it's worth, the song now holds the record for the biggest climb to number one, having jumped from number 38 in the previous week. That's because the track got an online release on a Friday, and scraped the top 40 on the strength of two days' sales. It's all a bit meaningless, but some people care about these things.
Anyhow, the surprise isn't so much that Pink finally got a second number one. The surprise is that she did it in the week when Oasis released the first single from their new album, "The Shock of the Lightning."
I've always thought Oasis were hugely overrated. Not bad, mind you. They're okay. But they've been mining the same basic idea for years. And even in the height of Britpop, Blur were always a more interesting band. If Oasis were bigger in the short term, Blur came out on top in the long haul, if only because their records actually feel like they might be relevant now, rather than an opportunity to reminisce about what you were doing thirteen years ago.
"Shock of the Lightning" is... an Oasis track. But as the first single from their new album, I'd have expected it to be an automatic number one. They're supposed to be an A-list act. Limping in third behind Pink and a month-old King of Leon song is unexpected.
posted by Paul O'Brien at 10:52 pm
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