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This is Edition 500

Chart Chat is updated every week usually on a Tuesday

Radio Index

United Kingdom Radio station guide.
 (Listen while you surf)

First up is ’15 Minutes’ which is the new single from the London based due Yeah Yous.  The band consists of Nick Ingram and Mike Kintish and they are signed to the Island Records label in the UK . The single is released on a CD format this week and also features the bonus tracks ‘Shine’ and ‘The State Of My Mind’.  They are set to play live at the Isle Of Wight festival next week before embarking on a short UK tour taking in the cities of Bristol , Brighton, Leeds, Sheffield, Blackburn, York and Glasgow . The band recently performed a session for the Dermot O’Leary show and got its first Radio 1 play on the Sunday night Switch show presented by Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw.  They are slowly building a decent following but this release may come too early to secure a top forty hit.  

Freemasons ft Sophie Ellis Bextor release their new single ‘Heartbreak (Make Me A Dancer)’ on CD and 12” vinyl formats this week. The CD format features the radio and club mixes of the track alongside ‘Uninvited’ and ‘When You Touch Me’ while the vinyl format also includes The Mac Project Remix, the Bitrocks Italo Mix, the Bitrocks Club Mix and the Steve Mac Dub Mix. As a solo artist Sophie is scheduled to release her fourth studio album ‘Another Love’ this year while the Freemasons are due to release ‘Shakedown 2’ which is their second studio album. Sophie is the daughter of Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis and achieved her biggest success featuring on Spiller’s ‘Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)’ while she also spent time fronting up Indie band theaudience.  

La Roux are a duo featuring Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid. Elly is one of the new breed of female singers making the breakthrough this year and the duo have already made the top three with her single ‘In For The Kill’. Elly is also known as the daughter of The Bill actress Trudie Goodwin. La Roux’s self titled debut album is due for release at the end of the month while this week sees them put out a third single ‘Bulletproof’ on both CD and 7” vinyl formats. The CD format features the Zinc remix and the Tepr remix while the vinyl format also features a new track on the flip side. Their music is influenced by 1980’s pop and in particular Yazoo , Human League, Eurythmics and Depeche Mode.  Their sound is distinctive though and this should make the top twenty.  

Florence & The Machine is another artist tipped for big things in 2009.  She first broke through last year when her ‘Kiss With A Fist’ album made no.51.  This Summer sees her release her debut album ‘Lungs’ and earlier this year she won a BRIT Award for Critics Choice.   She finished third in this years Sound of 2009 poll being beaten by White Lies and the winner Little Boots who have both enjouted top forty success this year.  This week sees the release of ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’ as a single and it is available on both CD and 7” vinyl formats. New mixes have been made by The Lionheart and Leo Zero and the track has already made it on to Radio 1’s b play list guaranteeing the song ten plays a week on the channel.  This should secure her a debut top forty appearance.  

Keri Hilson releases her latest single ‘Knock You Down’ on a physical CD format this week.  It’s the follow up to her recent Timbaland collaboration ‘Return The Favor’ and is lifted from her current album ‘In A Perfect World’.  This track has already performed much better than its predecessor and has made the top ten on the strength of download sales alone.  Her solo career is certainly on the up as previously she was probably best known as a guest singer, featuring on Timbaland’s singles ‘Scream’ and ‘The Way I Are’ alongside Xzibit’s top ten hit ‘Hey Now (Mean Muggin)’.  There are no significant bonus mixes on this release to really tempt her fanbase into purchasing so I’m not sure this will do much to boost sales.  However it has already done well for her.  

Coventry based Indie band The Enemy release their brand new single ‘Sing When You’re In Love’ this week, and it comes released across a CD and two 7” vinyl formats. The CD and limited edition vinyl format features their cover of The Noisettes recent hit ‘Don’t Upset The Rhythm (Go Baby Go)’ while the other 7” contains the brand new track ‘Here Comes The One’. If successful this will go on to become their sixth top forty hit. It’s the follow up to ‘No More Tears’ which peaked at no.16 earlier this year and was the first single to be lifted from their new album ‘Music For The People’.  The band have appearances coming up at Wembley Stadium, Murrayfield, The Millenium Stadium and Somerset House alongside festival appearances at T4 On The Beach and Ibiza Rocks.  

Bat For Lashes is the pseudonym of Natasha Khan, a Brighton based songwriter who achieved great critical acclaim for her debut album ‘Fur And Gold’. She has now been able to turn that acclaim into record sales with her single ‘Daniel’ making the top forty earlier this year and her album ‘Two Suns’ got as far as the top five.  Now she releases ‘Pearls Dream’ as the follow up single and it is available on a 7” vinyl format only. It comes with the Cenzo Townshend Radio Edit on the a side, and the 909 In Darktimes Mix of ‘Sleep Alone’ on the flip side.  She has a growing fanbase and with the current blaze of publicity surrounding La Roux, Florence & The Machine and her can only serve to help – particularly with all three releasing singles this week. Could well be a top forty hit.  

‘Raindrops’ is the new single from dance legends Basement Jaxx and it is released on CD and 12” vinyl formats with an array of remixes also available to download. The CD features ‘Wheel N Stop (Planet 3 Version)’ while the 12” is backed with the Funk Agenda and Paul Thomas Redux.  Also available are four download mixes including the Under New Management Remix, the Doorlys Dubstep Remix, the Robbie Rivera Club Mix and the Robbie Rivera Juicy Dub. This should be their eighteenth top forty hit though it is unlikely to match the peak achieved by their 1999 hit ‘Rendez-Vu’. To date they have achieved five top ten hits, but have not seen the top forty since their 2006 hit ‘Hush Boy’ which peaked at no.27.  

‘Your Protector’ is the latest single by the critically acclaimed Seattle based band The Fleet Foxes. Q Magazine picked their self titled album as the second best album of 2008 while The Times went as far as putting it at the top of their annual chart. Under The Radar, Mojo, Pitchfork Media and No Ripcord also recorded it as being the album of the year. The album sold 100k copies and thus became the first ever Bella Union label release to be certified gold. However they have never translated that success into a top forty hit single with ‘Myknonos’ being their best performer peaking at no.53 earlier this year. This new single is released on 7” vinyl and comes backed with the track ‘Silver Dagger’. Based on past performance I think this is unlikely to trouble the top forty compilers.  

Also released this week are ‘Should I Stay’ by The Chameleonz, ‘Long Gone’ by Chris Cornell, ‘Rainwater Cassette Exchange’ by Deerhunter, ‘Can You Hear Me’ by Enrique Iglesias, ‘Hold On’ by Lazee featuring Neverstore, ‘The Crown Jewels (EP)’ by Marina & The Diamonds, ‘Pale Horses’ by Moby, ‘Miracle’ by Sally Shapiro, ‘My Fantasy’ by Shena, ‘Second Chance’ by Shinedown, ‘Wake Up’ by Sliimy, ‘It Doesn’t Have To Be Beautiful / Wild Blue Milk’ by Slow Club and ‘Jackets’ by Tommy Reilly. Download only singles include ‘Batton Down The Hatches’ by 12 Stone Toddler, ‘Cape Wrath’ by Colin McIntyre, ‘The Age Of Revolution’ by The Duckworth Lewis Method, ‘Never Forget You’ by The Noisettes and ‘LaLa Land’ by Wallis Bird.  

Don’t forget to stop by next week when artists releasing new singles look set to include Akon, Cascada, Lisa Hannigan and The Saturdays.  Until then have yourself a good week.

JHME Music Correspondent