Chartramble - Sunday 2nd May

Le top ten.

1. (-) Roll Deep: 'Good Times'
2. (2) Usher ft. will.i.am: 'OMG'
3. (4) Plan B: 'She Said'
4. (1) Diana Vickers: 'Once'
5. (3) Chipmunk ft. Esmée Denters: 'Until You Were Gone'
6. (6) Professor Green ft. Ed Drewett: 'I Need You Tonight'
7. (5) Scouting For Girls: 'This Ain't A Love Song'
8. (8) Timbaland ft. Justin Timberlake: 'Carry Out'
9. (7) Kelis: 'Acapella'
10. (12) Taio Cruz ft. Ke$ha: 'Dirty Picture'

"Jump" for reactions and this week's new releases



1. We were somewhat remiss in omitting Roll Deep from our thoughts last week, given they've stormed to number 1 and all. The whole thing very much borrows its momentum from the Calvin Harris/Dizzee Rascal crossover two summers ago, but it definitely works. If you can get past the "late night shopping/high street bopping" absurdity then it's a fairly inoffensive May Bank Holiday number 1. Not entirely sure what I feel about this being number 1 on my 24th birthday, but "them's the breaks". (Plus Falco's "Rock Me Amadaeus" was number 1 when I was born so it's hardly been an auspicious date...).

2. Taio Cruz and Ke$ha can't bugger off fast enough for our money, even if this is the most tolerable thing that Ke$ha has been involved with in her career to date.

3. Marina and the Diamonds definitely deserved better than number 26 :-(.

4. Adam Lambert's lofty chart position of number 39 has killed off that particular attempt at trying to make the "American Idol" alumnus thing happen over here. Which, in this case, is a bit of a shame, but there you go.

Looking ahead to the week ahead (with particularly focus on Friday for the whole "turning 24 thing"):


Toni Braxton gives it another go by releasing "Yesterday" and drags along Trey Songz with her. She needn't have bothered. Which is a shame, because tonally Toni's voice is still amazing, but this is just a languid, tepid ballad which lacks both fire and power. :-(

Sophie Ellis-Bextor, on the other hand, shows how a comeback should be done with "Bittersweet". Cracking "Sweet Dreams" (the Eurythmics, not the Beyonce version obv) style backbeat, classic Bextor vocals. Back of the net. This will almost certainly be a Banarama style charting fiasco, then. Which is a shame, because as Sophie has herself said, if a song like this can't crack the market as it is at the moment, then there's probably no point in even trying.

MIKA releases "Kick Ass" which is... disappointing, really. The vocals are certainly there, but the song doesn't really have the energy or the likeability which pervade MIKA's best work.

Remember Train? Remember "Drops Of Jupiter"? Well, they're back with "Hey, Soul Sister" and it's sort of like they've gone away, digested Jack Johnson AND Jason Mraz and regurgitated them all over a local recording studio's mixing desk. It's an irritating folk/pop by-the-numbers type of effort, with some truly awful lyrics such as "Hey soul sister, ain't that Mister Mister on the radio?". The sad thing is that it's exactly the sort of thing the GCap network like to throw out over the pre-Summer musical dearth while they bugger off for the bank holiday. Expect a top ten placing, but join us in hoping that the whole thing disappears as quickly as humanly possible (but we wouldn't be adverse to radio DJs up and down the land playing "Drops of Jupiter" for nostalgia's sake...)

Oh, and Christina Aguilera is actually releasing "Not Myself Tonight". We've covered this elsewhere but it seems like from the video that Xtina has just given up trying to compete with GaGa and instead opts to follow Alexandra Burke in ripping her off. Fair enough, we suppose, but we can't see this setting the charts alight. Back to the drawing board, RCA...

Cascada also have a new single out. It's not "Evacuate the Dancefloor" so we're not particularly bothered. Expect it to shoot straight to number 1 on this basis alone.