UK Pop Chart - 13 April 2008

Alright, we’ve got a lot of big names in this week’s chart - Madonna, Kanye, Mariah, Leona and Chris Brown. Not much movement among the established artists, and we’ve got one bizarre addition to the chart in the guise of September.

That’s right, a month of the year has released a single. The world’s gone mad!

Estelle ft Kanye West - American Boy: Four weeks, but Estelle’s been winding up the press by claiming that soul music’s exclusively black and making other snarky remarks that prove you can be a bit of an arse and still write hit singles. Diva behaviour of the worst kind - I’m going to have to deduct points from Estelle for that.
Sam Sparro - Black & Gold: This is some kind of bizarre 80’s retro nonsense, isn’t it? Was it an April Fools joke by the music industry? I’m not warming to it.
Flo Rida ft T-Pain - Low: Shawty got low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low. Lather, rinse and repeat until your brain goes numb.
Madonna ft Justin Timberlake: Considering that Madonna is only one third of the talent on this track and that it owes more to Timbaland than to the ever-changing Material Girl, I’ll grudgingly admit that the chorus has been stuck in my head for the last week.
Mariah Carey - Touch My Body: Although she proved this week that she can still shatter glass with her amazing voice, this single is typical of the half-assed hip-hop that Carey’s been churning out for the last few years as she hacks away at her own musical relevance.
Duffy - Mercy: Not as bad as I originally thought, but nowhere near as good as to be a serious threat to Amy Winehouse, who continues to be the single biggest threat to her own career.
Kooks - Always Where I Need To Be: Vacuous, but pleasant Indie hum-along tune with heavier than expected guitar lines. These guys could really rock if they ditched the Indie by numbers routine.
Leona Lewis - Better In Time: Still can’t get over how beautiful and natural Leona looks in the video for this. Good song, but not quite as remarkable as Bleeding Love.
September - Cry For You: Is that a refreshing revamp of a Eurythmics song? With a hot babe in the video? Sweet.
Chris Brown - With You: With You didn’t quite make the splash I expected it to - this could’ve/should’ve been a number one single given the production talent behind it and Brown’s appeal to teenage girls.