Westlife – DJTim:E's Pop Music Journal

Tim’s Top 20 Number 86

5th Apr 20195th Apr 2019Posted in Tim's Top 20Tagged 2019, Ariana Grande, Charts, Jax Jones, Little Mix, Music, Pop, Purple Disco Machine, Westlife, woman like me1 Comment

Westlife received the title of “Song of the Week” on the inaugural “Smash or Gash” review feature on this site. It now does what their previous song didn’t and that’s enter straight at number 1. Meanwhile, “Hello My Love” manages to climb in its 12th week on the chart.

Amazingly, 2 of the 3 weakest tracks, according to the reviews last week have 2 highest new entries on the chart. “Hustle” is the 2nd single from P!nk’s forthcoming album “Hurts 2 B Human” and it’s a bit of a non-event, but at the same time not offensive either (unless you have a problem with the word “fuck”, that is). Ciara’s new single was slightly downgraded in my review due to it not really going anywhere. But, I think it’s the mixture of middle-of-the-road, major key 90s-ness that has turned “Thinkin Bout You” into a bit of an earworm as the week’s gone on. I still think it will flop on the international charts though.

Further new mixes of “Body Funk” help Italian DJ Purple Disco Machine climb back into the top 3 for after a large drop from the top slot last week. A new compilation album from him arrives at the end of April.

Ariana Grande and regular collaborator Victoria Monet share the performer credit for the first time on a single on surprise release “Monopoly”, which is currently in the itunes top 10 in the UK after 3 days of release. The song doesn’t appear on her latest album “Thank U Next” and it’s unknown at this time whether it’ll appear on Ariana’s next album, which will no doubt come out by summer.

COMING SOON: On my next blog post I’ll be reviewing this week’s new song releases as well as a special review of Marina’s new digital album release of “Love”.

On next week’s TT20, will Little Mix’s “Woman Like Me” become the first track since Kesha’s “Woman” in early 2018, to score 20 weeks on the chart? It’s taken a battering on the rundown this week, with the biggest drop within the chart (down 14 places to number 20) so we’ll have to wait and see.

Also, I’ll be updating my Record Store Day picks in another blog post, as the annual event takes place in just 1 week from now.

Thanks for reading. Please subscribe and I’ll catch up with you soon!

Tim’s Top 20 of Q1 2019

31st Mar 201931st Mar 2019Posted in Tim's Top 20Tagged 2019, Ariana Grande, Baby Spice, Charts, Dido, Emma Bunton, Gay, Gay UK, Jax Jones, Little Mix, Music, My Happy Place, Pop, pop music, Purple Disco Machine, Unperfect, Westlife, Years and YearsLeave a comment

1. WESTLIFE – HELLO MY LOVE (54 plays)
2. Little Mix- Think About Us // LM5 (40 plays)
3. Marina- Handmade Heaven // Love + Fear (38 plays)
4. Calvin Harris & Rag n Bone Man- Giant (33 plays)
5. Dido- Friends // Still On My Mind (28 plays)
6. Unperfect- Gots To Give The Girl (27 plays)
7. Jax Jones & Years and Years- Play (23 plays)
8. Adelphi Music Factory- Javelin (22 plays)
9. CamelPhat- Breathe (21 plays)
10. Avril Lavigne & Nicki Minaj- Dumb Blonde // Head Above Water (20 plays)
11. Purple Disco Machine- Body Funk (19 plays)
12. Jess Glynne- No One // Always In Between (19 plays)
13. Francis Rossi & Hannah Rickard- I Talk Too Much // We Talk Too Much (19 plays)
14. Pink- Walk Me Home // Hurts 2 B Human (18 plays)
15. Emma Bunton- Baby Please Don’t Stop // My Happy Place (17 plays)
16. Zedd & Katy Perry- 365 (15 plays)
17. Dido- Give You Up // Still On My Mind (10 plays)
18. Francis Rossi & Hannah Rickard- Maybe Tomorrow // We Talk Too Much (10 plays)
19. Ariana Grande- Break Up With Your Girlfriend // Thank U, Next (10 plays)
20. That Kid- Take It Off (10 plays)

Tim’s Top 20 Number 85

30th Mar 2019Posted in Tim's Top 20Tagged 2019, Charts, Emma Bunton, Gay, Gay UK, Ginger, Music, My Happy Place, Pop, pop music, Purple Disco Machine, Westlife, woman like meLeave a comment

So, it might look like a weird scenario at the top end of the chart. 2 re-entries right into the top 2 after an unspectacular set of results prior. Well, the main reason Jess Glynne and Zedd have suddenly appeared where they have is due to the stellar remix packages that have started to be released over the last 2 weeks. The Zedd remixes are particularly amazing: fast, ferocious, all with enough supersonic whooshes and vocal fudgery to wow any listener with a pulse.

“No One” has suddenly plonked itself at number 1. It musically sounds similar to her beaut of a UK number 1 smash “Hold My Hand” but, my main reservation with this song was the lyrics to be honest. I’m unsure how healthy it is for a song in the mainstream to effectively be telling listeners you need someone else’s approval to validate you. Maybe I’ve misinterpreted the lyrics or, not been listening to them properly. If you have made an alternative interpretation I’d be intrigued to know what it is.

Midweek, it looked like Will Young was going to earn his first number 1 on my chart since, well, probably as far back as “Leave Right Now” on an earlier incarnation of TT20, 16 years ago! It wasn’t meant to be and the shock WTF reaction at how great Louise’s first single in 18 years is, didn’t help either. The is-she-isnt-she-footballer’s-wife-ex-Eternal member’s “Stretch” is the highest new entry of the week, at #3, with Will Young, ahem, right behind her…

I don’t know what happened for it to take until a Missy collaboration, to be sleeping on the recent releases from the Meghan Trainor-esque Lizzo, but rap-product placement often works, as in this case. The sassy “Tempo” is surely not going to be a one-off song to be appearing soon in this chart.

Little Mix, once again, hog 20% of the chart, with tracks from their latest album “LM5” and hold the longest-running entry of the week with “Woman Like Me”.

Westlife are teetering on the borderline with “Hello My Love” but, it’s not all lost as they are likely to enter very highly next week with their new single “Better Man” which, I hate to say, was co-written by Ed Sheeran, as was the former hit.

COMING SOON:

I’m launching aseries of blog posts, highlighting the new song releases Dorothy’s mates and I would probably be most interested in….tentatively-titled “New Music FriGay”. Read first listen reviews of the tracks of the week, in anticipation of their arrival on future editions of Tim’s Top 20.

Tim’s Top 20 Number 83

15th Mar 201917th Mar 2019Posted in Tim's Top 20Tagged 2019, Charts, Dido, Emma Bunton, Gay UK, Jax Jones, Little Mix, Music, Pop, pop music, Purple Disco Machine, Westlife, woman like me, Years and YearsLeave a comment

So, this week there are 5 new entries, 5 re-entries, 5 climbers and 5 droppers. This, of course, means there’s a brand new #1.

But, let’s begin by mentioning the influx of entries from Dido. She has the most entries on this week’s chart with 5 tracks, all taken from her 5th album “Still On My Mind”. The album is heading for a top 3 position on the UK album chart this week. This will be her best chart position for 11 years. A more comprehensive review of the collection will appear on this site very soon. But, from the dominance on this top 20, expect it to get a good report.

My new favourite, Purple Disco Machine, scores a 2nd number 1 in just 6 months with a freshly promoted track from his 2017 album “Soulmatic”. “Body Funk” was released as a remix EP and has enabled it to enter the chart right on top. It’ll be interesting to see whether its longevity on the chart will be an improvement on the last #1 he featured on- a remix of Jax Jones’ “Play”, which left TT20 just 2 weeks after also entering the chart on top position. The song has had a rebound this week, re-entering for a 3rd week on the list, at this week’s #17.

Benefitting from a neatly packaged EP of remixes on Spotify, Calvin Harris’ “Giant” climbs to its best chart position so far (#3) and, guess what, the New Purple One is one of the remixers. Bringing disco house shimmying into 2019, is this finally the end of listless dance music ruling the airwaves? Everything is crossed…

Bananarama were a pop force in the 80s and have managed to continue for a further 30 years by being a gay scene staple, with a sadly cheap sounding, kitsch pop style. Their only saving grace being a Buzz Junkies remix of a Three Degrees song from the 70s (“The Runner”). Reuniting with Siobhan Fahey in 2016 for a tour seems to have reinvigorated the 2-piece studio line-up. Following a false start with the horrendously reductive “Dance Music”, they’ve released a 2nd song from their forthcoming album. Making an effort to not be a dismissive bitch over the whole affair, “Stuff Like That”, which isn’t quite as offensive, has managed enough streams this week to enter TT20 at #20.

COMING SOON:

My review of Dido’s new album is due later in the week

New entries on TT20 are likely from Daya, Westlife and Rita Ora in the coming weeks. They are unlikely to come from Iggy Azalea.

Tim’s Top 20 Number 80

23rd Feb 2019Posted in Music essay, Tim's Top 20, UncategorizedTagged 2019, Ariana Grande, Charts, Dido, Gay, Little Mix, Pop, Unperfect, WestlifeLeave a comment

So, Westlife have climbed back up to number 1 to score a 2nd week on top with their comeback single “Hello My Love”. It’s still selling and streaming exceptionally well in the UK, 2 months on from its release. It recently passed its 3-millionth stream on Spotify UK.

It seems my prediction for Avril and Nicki sticking around the top end of the chart for a while was absolute rubbish as it suffers an 8-place drop to #11. This is even more significant given this week was its full week to be streamed.

Little Mix’s presence at the Brit Awards has helped “Woman Like Me” climb for a 4th week, back into the top 5 for the first time in 12 weeks. The track is also this week’s longest-staying song on the chart.

Let’s attempt a few predictions for next week’s chart, for what its worth…

Marina will continue climbing with her earworm song “Handmade Heaven”, Kelly Clarkson will climb yet again following another remix of “Heat” being released this week. Also, I think “Woman Like Me” will climb once more following the release of its Ms Banks version and remix by Da Beatfreekz.