Chart Watch
Paul Simon‘s first album in five years Stranger to Stranger débuts at number 1 this week, giving him his first chart topping studio set since The Rhythm of the Saints back in 1990 (last year’s compilation The Ultimate Collection returns to the chart at 31 for good measure). Also outperforming themselves are Dexys who score their first top ten album since 1982’s Too-Rye-Ay as Let the Record Show: Dexys do Irish and Country Soul enters the chart at number 10. ABC‘s Lexicon of Love II slips to 17 and Roxette‘s new album Good Karma débuts at 61.
New Releases
He said he’d retired from music but we all know he was never gonna give it up… Rick Astley releases 50 today, his first album in over a decade, including the singles Keep Singing and Angels on my Side. The Stone Roses released another new single Beautiful Thing at midnight last night, so if nothing else they’ve learned not to release a single at 8pm on a Thursday because then you lose four valuable hours’ worth of sales and streaming data and end up just scraping into the top twenty. The most comprehensive overview of Paul McCartney‘s solo and Wings career to date arrives in the form of Pure McCartney in both 2CD and rather overwhelming 4CD configurations, while Phil Collins rounds off his “Take A Look At Me Now” series of reissues with deluxe 2CD sets of …But Seriously and Going Back. Classic Pop magazine wades in to the increasingly lucrative budget compilation market with self-explanatory sets Classic Pop Synthpop and Classic Pop 12 Inch. Finally, a new U2 live DVD and Blu-ray Innocence + Experience Live in Paris hits the shops today, as does Clean Your Clock, a live set from Motörhead‘s final tour available in various formats including a sumptuous box set housing silver vinyl, CD, DVD and Blu-ray editions plus an exclusive “Motörhead Forever” medal.
