1 [→]Tony Christie - (Is This The Way To) Amarillo: Five weeks at the top for this Comic Relief smash spells good PR for the company compiling the new chart as the status quo is maintained, at the summit at least. 2 [new]Razorlight - Somewhere Else: See, good indie records do still thrive in the new-style chart, which is good... 3 [new]Ciara - 1, 2 Step: ...alas, so do plodding American R&B dirges. 4 [new]Elvis Presley - The Wonder Of You: One bonus of including downloads in the chart is that Elvis's latest (un-downloadable) re-release fails to reach the Top 3. 9 [new]Freeloaders - So Much Love To Give: I don't know why I love this record so much, given that it's totally cheesy and 100% derivative, but maybe it's because it's totally cheesy and 100% derivative. 10, 13, 14, 15, 20, 27 [↑] A shedload of records go back up the Top 40 this week, an upward jolt which suggests that certain records (including Natalie Imbruglia and Gwen Stefani) are downloading rather more than they're shifting over the counter. I fear some of these may hang around the charts for some time, in a stagnant Hit 40 UK style. 22 [new]Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc: The first record ever to appear in the Top 40 in advance of its release date (which is May 9th). There are new rules to prevent downloads counting for the singles chart before the single is available in the shops, but those cunning Gorillaz exploited a loophole by releasing a token 300 white label copies last Monday. 300 'real' sales + thousands of downloads = chart position. At last a record hits the Top 40 while it still has a pre-release buzz, which can only be a healthy thing. 24 [new]Juliet - Avalon: Is this record ace or is this record ace? I'm surprised not to see it higher, particularly given that I acquired two copies last week. Ah, we're only counting legal downloads aren't we? 33 [↓31]Elvis Presley - Crying In The Chapel: The biggest casualty of the new dual format chart is another Elvis re-release. Limited edition single + zero downloads = plummet. Quite right too, this marketing series needs flushing out of the Top 40 as soon as possible.
Verdict: Not as outrageously different to last week as I might have expected, nor as forward-looking as I might have hoped, which I think means the Top 40 is still as unimportant and irrelevant as ever, which I think is a shame.
