Duffy Reigns Supreme (Again): Extremely Late UK Chart Update

For the 5th consecutive week, Duffy has the top single in the United Kingdom with "Duffy" and for the second weekend in a row her album "Rockferry" holds the top placing on the album charts. What makes this week a special triumph is her competition for the top slot. The #2 single was "Better In Time/Footprints in the Sand," a double A-side for Leona Lewis and also the official Sport Relief single. Charity singles tend to do very well in the UK as evidenced by two different Comic Relief singles making the top spot. Both "Walk This Way" by the Sugababes and Girls Aloud and a comedy version of the Proclaimers' song "I'm Gonna Be" with television characters Bryan Potter and Andy Pipkin hit #1 in 2007. That combined with the massive promotional effort behind the single made "Better In Time" a formidable opponent, indeed, but Duffy managed the top slot again by the skin of her teeth.

On another note, following on the heels of her Oprah performance, "Bleeding Love" is the top single on the US iTunes chart, which tells us two things. First, never discount the power of Oprah. Leona Lewis is the real deal and may end up *gasp* actually cracking America. While Kelly Clarkson is a true international star, The X-Factor has yet to produce a major worldwide success, but Leona seems poised to change that and could well be the next Whitney. Personally, I find her bland and her music utterly sterile, but there is no denying her immense talent and she is at worst a pleasant bore.

The full Top 10 Singles look like this:
1. Mercy --Duffy
2. Better In Time/Footprints in the Sand --Leona Lewis
3. What's It Gonna Be --H two O ft. Platnum
4. Stop and Stare --OneRepublic
5. Rockstar --Nickelback
6. Fascination --Alphabeat
7. Low --Flo Rida ft. T-Pain
8. Come On Girl --Taio Cruz ft. Luciana
9. Something Good 08 --Utah Saints
10. Now You're Gone --Basshunter

Recommended: 1, 2, 6, 8, and 9

By the way, I just bought "Rockferry" and "Mercy" on iTunes. There are no excuses anymore. Jump on the Duffy bandwagon. There's still plenty of room.

The full album top ten looks like this:

1. Rockferry -- Duffy
2. Dreaming Out Loud -- OneRepublic
3. All The Right Reasons -- Nickelback
4. Spirit -- Leona Lewis
5. Back to Black (Deluxe Edition) -- Amy Winehouse
6. Seventh Tree -- Goldfrapp
7. Thriller 25 -- Michael Jackson
8. Classic Soul Hits -- The Temptations
9. This Is The Life -- Amy Macdonald
10. Version -- Mark Ronson


If Duffy is to make it 6 weeks at #1, she'll once again have to fend off some tough competition. In addition to Leona Lewis she'll have to take on:

• "Nine in the Afternoon" -- Panic at the Disco (#13 this week, it got it's full physical release on Monday)
• "Can't Speak French" -- Girls Aloud (#16 this week and was also physically released on Monday)
• "Denial" -- Sugababes (#15 this week and another Monday shop release)
• "American Boy" Estelle ft. Kanye West (Digitally released Monday, it's due for a full release on next Monday)

According to Popjustice, the mysterious midweek charts indicate that Duffy is looking good for another week at #1, but one would be foolish to count out chart juggernauts like the Sugababes and Girls Aloud. Should be interesting...

By the way, you can listen to the Chart Show live from 4 PM-7PM London Time (12 PM-3PM EDT until England springs forward at which point it will revert to the normal 11AM-2PM EDT) by going to bbc.co.uk/radio1 and clicking on "Listen Live" or you can always use the "Listen Again" tool to listen to last week's chart.

I Now Respect George W. Bush

It's Friday night and I have some free time, so I thought I do some bullet point style thoughts from the top of my head.

• I've been running a mock draft game on the Buffalo Bills message board. I now respect Bush and really anyone else in a leadership position. I'm always weighing things, trying to be fair to everyone but also trying to do what I think will work best and what is the best interest of the game and it's hard. No matter how hard you work or what you try, there are always people clamoring that you're not doing it right and giving you flak about it. Not fun.
• Right now, I'm listening to the Mark Ronson and Lily Allen version of "Oh My God." It's such a brilliant tune and I still think it's the best one on "Version" over "Valerie".
• I just got ROH's Undeniable in the mail yesterday and I'm going to pop it in as soon as I get done with this. I can't wait to see Nigel's title win.
• I've also started to watch all the GHC Heavyweight Championship changes that I can find. Right now I'm on Ogawa vs. Takayama. I've never seen Ogawa but it should be fun. Takayama is one of my favorite heavyweights.
• I don't quite have five songs that I want to go in depth on right now, but I will say that I really like Sam Sparro's "Black and Gold". Popjustice has been pimping him heavily, but I didn't care for the single at first. It's a grower though, and I've came around on it in a big way.
• Also watch out for Robyn's terrific "Who's That Girl?" come April. Itunes may actually get this. They have the Rakamonie EP and a With Every Heartbeat EP, so there's an outside shot they could get this single.
• Oddly, I really have no opinion on who the Bills should draft come April. I think WR is the biggest need but I'm not really sold on Devin Thomas, Limas Sweed, or Malcolm Kelly. The CB class is good this year, but again, there's no one I'm dead set on.
• This is almost sacrilegious for a sports fan to say, but I have very little interest in the upcoming NCCA basketball tournament. It'll be fun to bandwagon on the Tar Heels for a few games, but I honestly couldn't care less about NCAA basketball.
• Or NBA Basketball
• Or NASCAR
• Or Major League Baseball
• Or the NHL
• Some sports fan I am, eh?
• I'm actually more excited about things like the Champions League and Six Nations Rugby (England vs. Ireland this weekend) because of Radio 1's sports reports hyping them.

That's enough for now.

He Screams Calling LONDON!

That's right, I'm going to London! I just got my acceptance e-mail for the London Study Abroad Program. I'll be spending next fall quarter in London studying British literature and history. In related news, I am now profoundly poor as every cent I can possibly get my hands on will have to be set aside for London (darn exchange rate!), but I don't care. London! London! YES!!!!

Never Fear, Fed is Still a Superior Swiss

This is supposed to be a quick post. It will almost assuredly not be. Oh well.

One of the major stories in tennis this year as been the surprising mortality of the normally god-like Roger Federer. The Swiss star, he of the 12 slams including 5 straight Wimbledons and 4 consecutive US Opens, struggled with relative unknown Janko Tipsarevic in an epic early round match at the Australian Open (that kept me up until 3:30 in the morning) before exiting in surprisingly meek fashion against eventual champion Novak Djokovic. Recently, he suffered a 1st round lost to Andy Murray. Now, Murray has beaten Federer before, but Murray hasn't exactly torn things up lately and Fed, well let's just say that Fed doesn't lose very many first round matches, or matches, period.

Federer is now perilously close to losing his #1 ranking to his eternal rival, Rafael Nadal. Why such an uncharacteristic lapse from the man who is well on his way to being the best tennis player ever? I had thought it was just burnout. He's tired of the tournament scene so he hasn't been playing much tennis. Consequently, he's rusty and needs to play his way back into form. The Aussie Open can be attributed to adjusting to the new court surface and Djokovic's strong play. It turns out that I had it all wrong.

Reports surfaced on ESPN.com recently that Federer suffered a bout with Mono during January. Um, yikes! Suddenly, his play at the Australian Open becomes altogether more explicable and his run becomes impressive rather than disappointing. Now that he's well, he's still rusty, hence the first round loss to Murray. I'm just relieved that it wasn't because Fed just wasn't good enough that he struggled down under. In a world where little makes sense from day to day there is one thing that you can still hang your hat on. Roger Federer is still awesome. Here's to getting lucky slam 13 on the red clay at Roland Garros and forever shaking the notion that he can't get it done at the French Open!

Now, some thoughts on the early goings on of NFL free agency presented in ever popular "winners and losers" format.

WINNERS

Miami Dolphins--Despite being initially puzzled by the release of Zach Thomas, I have to say that I'm very impressed with the way Bill Parcells has gone about rebuilding the Dolphins. The Phins began free agency with a flurry, landing WR Ernest Wilford, OG Justin Smiley, QB Josh McCown, and DT Randy Starks among others. All of these guys are under 30 and none of them broke the bank. Parcells rightly realized that this team has a long way to go and wisely eschewed pricey, highly hyped free agents, for cheap, young ones with upside.

Buffalo Bills--Yes, this is a homer choice. No, I don't care. The Bills desperately needed help on the defensive line and they got it in the shape of Marcus Stroud. The Bills had plenty of cap to fit him under and extra picks to deal for him. Will they get the Pro Bowl version of Stroud that was once the best DT in the league. Probably not, but if they get anything close it will be better than what the Bills played with last season. DT Spencer Johnson will compete for the starting spot at the 3 technique and OLB Kawika Mitchell will replace Keith Ellison at the "Will" LB spot and along with the return from injury of MLB Paul Posluszny should dramatically enhance the Bills' LB performance. Now, if the Bills would only sign Bryant Johnson, almost all their major offseason needs will be filled

WINNERS-ISH

Cleveland Browns--Just looking at the list of players, it's no doubt that they had an impressive offseason. WR Donte Stallworth, DT Shaun Rogers, DT Corey WIlliams, re-sign QB Derek Anderson, re-sign RB Jamal Lewis. That looks very good on paper. However, Corey Williams cost a 2nd round pick and Rogers cost a 3rd and CB Leigh Bodden. That's a pretty stiff price for two DTs who have never played in a 3-4 and of whom one is a noted loafer (Rogers). Combined with the Quinn trade, the Browns have no picks in the first 3 rounds of this years draft, which makes it highly unlikely that they will find a contributor for the draft. Most teams still have the draft to improve after the free agents are all picked over. The Browns are pretty much done. To justify the money and picks spent on these players they need to go probably 12-4. That's a hight burden for them. Those kind of big moves make sense if the team is close to a Super Bowl win, but the Browns, as I see it, are not close.

New York Jets--They've certainly spent a great deal of money, but let's look at how they spent it. OLB Calvin Pace is awful expensive for a guy who has never been a real dominator. Damien Woody is a solid offensive lineman, but he's on the wrong side of his career to give a big deal to. Kris Jenkins actually has been a dominator but that was a while ago and he's never played in a 3-4. He might turn out to be a terrific 3-4 NT, but the Jets paid a big time premium to find out. Alan Faneca, at least, is a All Pro level player with still a few good years left, but overall they spent too much for a team that is so far away from championship caliber.

LOSERS

Tampa Bay Buccaneers--GM Bruce Allen has done a solid job building a team and I totally respect the strategy of building through the draft...but they're $40 or so million under the cap and have to get up to the salary floor and yet have done next to nothing in free agency. I'm not saying they should go out and spend for the sake of spending, but the Buccaneers have been alarmingly inactive.

Oakland Raiders--Overpaying slightly for S Gibril Wilson is perhaps forgivable. He's a young defensive stud that would be a major asset to any secondary. But $7+ million per year for DT Tommy Kelly, who is coming off a major knee injury? $9+ million per year for WR Javon Walker who has never really played a full season of dominant football? Those are just laughably ridiculous deals.

Chicago Bears--First, the Bears resign Grossman. Then they let Bernard Berrian walk and release Mushin Muhammad. Who do they replace Muhammad and Berrian with? Perpetual underachiever Brandon Lloyd and a far past-prime Marty Booker. The Bears offense is now set to be worse than it was last year and that's saying something.

Duffy Does The Double! (UK Chart Report)

For the fourth consecutive week, the fantastic Duffy reigns supreme over the UK singles chart. This week her newly released album, Rockferry, also shot to the top of the album charts on its first week of release. Big ups to Duffy and here's to making it five!

Here's the full top 10 singles:

1. Mercy--Duffy
2. What's It Gonna Be?--H two O ft. Platnum
3. Rockstar--Nickelback
4. Stop and Stare--OneRepublic
5. Come on Girl--Taio Cruz ft. Luciana
6. Now You're Gone--Basshunter
7. Fascination--Alphabeat
8. Us Against the World--Westlife
9. Low--Flo Rida ft. T-Pain
10. Don't Stop the Music--Rihanna

I particularly recommend numbers 1, 5, and 7.

And the top 10 albums:

1. Rockferry--Duffy
2. Back To Black (Deluxe Edition)--Amy Winehouse
3. All The Right Reasons--Nickelback
4. Dig Lazarus Dig--Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5. Seventh Tree--Goldfrapp
6. Version--Mark Ronson
7. Thriller 25--Michael Jackson
8. Life In Cartoon Motion--Mika
9. 19--Adele
10. This Is The Life--Amy MacDonald

I own Version, Back to Black (regular edition), and Life in Cartoon Motion and they are all tremendous and all out in the US. I can't see how Adele's and Duffy's albums can be anything but brilliant and reviews have been almost all favorable for both. I don't think you can get either in the US just yet.

Nigel/Dragon & Barack/Hillary: Two Great Blood Feuds

I'm back with a Saturday smattering of thoughts. Hopefully, this will show the variety of what I will try to include in the content here and that the blog won't be about only, or even primarily, music (Dan Juilfs take note)

I just got back from watching the first three Nigel McGuinness vs. Bryan "American Dragon" Danielson encounters. For those non-wrestling fans out there (most of you, probably). Dragon and Nigel are the top two wrestlers in Ring of Honor (ROH), which is the #3 pro wrestling promotion in the United States. I won't belabor this, but I'll just do one sentence on each match.

Weekend of Champions, Night Two--Starts a bit slow with some excellent holds and reversals, but ends brilliantly when Dragon hits a springboard dive that proves to be his undoing.

Generation Now--Similar to the first match except for here it's Nigel who looks poised to win before Dragon pulls out a clever, unexpected finish.

Unified--My favorite match ever. Just totally un-freaking-believable.

END WRESTLING

Ok, all you non-wrestling fans can come back. I promise.

So, Texas and Ohio had to go and mess up everything Tuesday by voting for Hillary and prolonging the nomination process. Now, I make no bones about being an Obama suppoter, but even from an objective point of view I think it's hard to see Hillary's triumph as a good thing for Democrats. Why?

Quite simply, Hillary has almost no chance of winning. As long as she keeps winning states she has a legitimate spot in the race, but the math just doesn't work. Barring a total collapse from Obama, there simply aren't enough delegates out there for Hillary to catch up. RealClearPolitics shows Obama up 123 total delegates and 155 pledged delegates. Hillary can certainly make up some ground, but even in a best case scenario she'll end up 80 or so pledged delegates behind. The superdelegates simply won't overturn that kind of a deficit and make her the nominee. Her only hope is that the Florida and Michigan delegates are seated according to the results of their January contests.

The American people, however, are not stupid. That would be widely, and I believe rightly, viewed as a blatant attempt to steal the election. Florida could plausibly be counted because Obama was at least on the ballot there, but for Michigan to have it's delegates seated, they'll have to hold another nominating contest, likely a caucus. Given that recent polling indicates Obama and Clinton are nearly even with Michigan voters and that Obama has dominated caucus all nomination season, it seems doubtful that Michigan can provide Clinton with a strong margin.

The media wants to say that Clinton is "back in the game" and "has momentum" but the evidence suggests that many of the upcoming states should be fertile ground for the Obama campaign. Indeed, just today Obama won a 19 point victory in Wyoming. He's also up in the polls in Mississippi and North Carolina. There is really no such thing as momentum in this campaign and never has been, except perhaps in Wisconsin. Each candidate has a solid voting bloc. Clinton needs to win everything from here on out and my large margins in order to win. It won't happen.

If there's one good thing that may come out of this prolonged struggle, it's that Clinton is eliminating one of the weaknesses that she criticized Obama for. Her campaign claims that she is vetted and that there is nothing new that the Republicans can slam her with that she hasn't heard before but that Obama will be fresh meat for the GOP attack machine. Well, at this point I think it's clear that he'll be pretty well vetted by the time Mark Penn and the rest of Clinton's attack dogs get done with him.

By the way, here's my take on the whole Rezko business. Obama wasn't the only one caught with his pants down, so to speak, when Rezko got indicted. I know for a fact that the University of Chicago had ties with Rezko. Does it mean that the University was doing something sketchy. No, they were dealing on good faith with a donor, as they always do. The same is true for Obama. There's no proof that he did anything but associate himself with someone less than reputable. Dealing with someone who turns out to be a crook does not make one a crook by association. My understanding of the Rezko hubbub is that Obama got a good deal on his house because Rezko bought some adjacent land from the sellers at full price. This isn't illegal in any way. It does raise some eyebrows because one has to wonder what Rezko expected in return for doing this favor, but in reality he probably just bought himself some extra attention from Obama. Sort of a "I'll do this for you, and you'll remember me when you're the President, okay?" deal. You have to be pretty naive to believe that Clinton or McCain don't have their favorites who they'll be taking care of if they win. You just don't win the Presidency because well, gee golly you're the best person in America, and you deserve it! It takes more than the work of one to get to the top and nobody does anything for free. How do you think Clinton and Obama are sweet-talking superdelegates (ahem, I mean "automatic delegates")? Certainly there not doing it by convincing them of the relative merit of their health plan. All of this is to say that Obama got unlucky that Rezko is crook but really this is all much ado about nothing.

P.S. I know there are a bunch of proofreading errors in there and probably some in the first postings, too, but I really can't be bothered to proofread them. I barely make an effort to proofread term papers let alone blog posts.

5 Songs I'm Digging Right Now and More...

In an effort to give this blog some structure, I'm instituting a couple of regular features. First is "5 songs I'm digging right now." I love listening to music, especially Radio 1 and I love to chat with people about it. My hope is that maybe people will search out some of the songs I spotlight and that I can introduce folks to some cool music that they aren't familiar with. So, without further ado...

1. American Boy ft. Kanye West --Estelle

I'm pretty new to Estelle but as I understand it she is a 28 year old rapper/singer from London. Her first album came out in 2004 to critical acclaim and...widespread public apathy as it basically tanked. Estelle then went back to square one and got together with John Legend and some other American hitmakers and cooked up her sophomore album "Shine".

"American Boy" is the second single off the album but it might as well be the first, as lead single "Wait A Minute (Just a Touch)" received almost no promotion. "American Boy" is getting much more support including B List status on Radio 1, likely thanks to Kanye's presence on the track. The song itself is actually plagued by a little too much Kanye, but his somewhat weak rhymes aren't enough to take away from the track because Estelle is at her sexy, flirtatious best with lines like "Don't like his baggy jeans/But I'ma like what's underneath them.

2. That's How People Grow Up--Morrissey.
Morrissey is, of course, the lead singer of the long defunct band The Smiths, who defined an era in British rock and whose influence is clearly seen today in the styles of bands like Maximo Park and the Arctic Monkeys. His solo career has been a bit uneven without Smiths' guitarist Johnny Marr's music to match Morrissey's lyrics, but there have been moments of brilliance as evidenced by the recent UK release of a new Morrissey Greatest Hits collection.

This track is a new one included on the album and it more than fits in alongside his best solo efforts. This is more traditional than most Morrissey songs and features a normal verse-chorus structure, but Morrissey's lyrics are cutting as always and nobody, and I mean nobody, emotes like Morrissey. The lyric "I was driving my car/I crashed and broke my spine/So yes there are things worse in life/Then never being someone's sweety" is classic Morrissey.

3. Come on Girl ft. Luciana--Taio Cruz

Taio Cruz is a London based R&B singer and "Come on Girl" comes from his forthcoming debut album "Departure" Most of the "black music" (Radio 1's term, not mine) on the UK charts comes from America, but Come on Girl is homegrown and it shows in its dance influence. This an upbeat song that you just can't help but dance to. Just an amazingly fun record to listen to and Luciana adds some sexiness with her all-too-brief guest turn, vamping over a verse including the lyrics"You wannna take a bite/Come wet my appetite!". Yes, Ma'am!

4. Mercy -- Duffy

Duffy is a 23 year old Welsh soul singer who is part of the post Amy Winehouse resurgence of soul music in the UK. For those that don't like Amy, don't fear. Duffy actually isn't all that much like Amy. Whereas Amy's style is based in R&B and jazz sounds, Duffy seems to be channeling Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield. Moreover, she's not just some record company clone brought in to capitalize on the latest hot trend. She's a singer-songwriter with immense talent who is only getting a chance now to showcase her skills.

"Mercy" is the second single from the album "Rockferry" that was released in the UK last Monday. However, it's her first proper release since the lead single, also titled "Rockferry" was a limited release. It's been number 1 in the UK charts for the last 3 weeks and looks poised to run that streak to 4 on Sunday and with good reason. It has a funky, retro sound that perfectly matches Duffy's powerful voice. The song is actually a bit thin on content, but that's for the best as it allows Duffy to spend the majority of the song dancing over the choruses in all sorts of different interpretations, each one of them exquisite. Duffy is my favorite new artist of 2008 and despite the UK press's love affair with Adele (as evidenced by the special made-up BRIT they gave her) she seems poised to be the breakout UK music star of the year. Let's hope that she catches on as well stateside as Amy did.

5. Something Good 08 (Van She Radio Edit)--Utah Saints

Utah Saints are a UK DJ duo and "Something Good," which features a vocal sample from Kate Bush, was a #4 chart hit for them way back in 1992. Now, 16 years later, they are back with several remixes, a slightly altered song title, and a fresh dose of chart success. Already at #21 and still on its way up, Something Good 08 is a feel good dance song with manic energy. Try not to dance to it. I dare you. It makes you burst into a spontaneous running-man, as evidenced by its video.

The second new feature will be significantly shorter. Unapologetically stolen from Popjustice, the RT almighty will give a ranked list of 5 artist that I'm high on right now and one who has earned by burning hatred.

THE RT ALMIGHTY
1. Duffy
2. Alphabeat
3. Maximo Park
4. Estelle
5. Girls Aloud

666. T-Pain

Hey y'all, I've got a blog!

That's right. I, Ryan Tryzbiak, aka ROHOrangutan, aka billsorangutan, aka kookyorangutan, aka "that kid that looks like Napoleon Dynamite" have a blog. Basically, periodically I get the urge to make posts about things that interest me like wrestling, music, sports, television, movies, and politics. I would make these posts on Facebook, but nobody wants to see "Ryan has just written a new note" on their newsfeed constantly. This way I can keep it to one location and if you're interested you can read and if not you won't be bothered.

I'm not delusional; I don't think this will draw high traffic but hopefully friends and family will check in here periodically for a little window into my brain.