Squash 40 - Feb W1 22

SINGLE CHART

A ferocious new year to all those watching the moon, and an equally ferocious time to be in the tiger's den known as the Squash Chart Top 10. Compared to the relatively land-locked last 2 weeks of January, February springs into action with a season-appropriate mini-clean out in the form of 2 new entries and 6 rising tracks in the top 10 titles of the week. Leading the international spread is British rising star Griff with her 2021 mirror-glancing single One Night (#2) who also sees her recent collaboration with gorge Norge Sigrid rise to a new peak (Head on Fire, up 2 to #7). Elsewhere, former teenage tearaway Conan Gray and the chic Klaudia Szafrańska stay tied at the hip, both rising 10 spots to their new top 10 peaks (Telepath, #4 and Niedoskonały, #5 respectively).

The first entry from Mexico (and Central American in general) in 2022 goes to a song originally released in 2020 but only just discovered by my flop self thanks to a Las Mas Dragas compilation video - Sofia Reyes sees her SQ debut Échalo Pa'cá swing in at a respectable #6. Although, as previously mentioned, rent-a-rappers are paid dust here it is fun to note that this is Colombian rascal Lalo Ebratt's 2nd top 10 single as a feature following 2019's low-key blaphemous bop Maldición with Spanish dancing diva Lola Indigo. Good for him, I guess.

The only survivors of the rising tide this week are in the form of Hoang Thuy Linh's penny popping Gieo Que (down 5 to #9), Emma Bale's complicated 80's tryst with Divide (down 7 to #10) and our reigning #1 super-princess - Yena. Smiley also marks the first multi-week #1 by a Korean solo artist since Heize's Mianhae all the way back in 2018 so that's impressive in itself. She sees an extra POW to her fighting meter in the shape of new entry, Lxxk 2 U at #38, which may or may not be the first k-pop attempt at emulating SQ Charts 2021's Song of the Year Good 4 U in all its petty pop-rock angst.

ALBUM CHART

A slight reshuffling of the cards over in the album pack this week as AURORA's initial godly takeover - The Gods We Can Touch - loses followers and falls to #4 being overtaken by 3 albums in last week's top 5: FKA Twigs finally nabs another album #1 with CAPRISONGS (now noticeably in Aquarius season but still), singles chart champion Yena (ˣ‿ˣ (SMiLEY), #2) and Billlie's slightly baffling The Billage of Perception: Chapter One (#3). Hyperpop pioneer Charli XCX and indie-pop chanteuse Mitski see their scheduled but as yet unreleased albums (CRASH, #9 and Laurel Hell, #11 respectively) on the back of successful singles but with the latter's release ready to go next week, will Mitski be challenging the Twigs?