CMJ ISSUE 1286 RECAP

You never do see it all really. Every time you think you have something changes.  As you may recall last week we talked about how March is filed with craziness. I expected there to be some drop off this week from last week but it looks like we are still a week or so away from any such drop off. We actually GAINED stations this week on both the top 200 and the ADDS reporting.  With next week being SXSW we are sure to see some drop off in the next few weeks.  

This week was one of the closest races I have seen for the top 5 at CMJ. We have 5 records all within 15 stations of each other.  Local Natives held strong at #1 with 51% of the stations. WAY down from last weeks impressive 60% of stations.  The rest of the top five

Foxygen had 47% of the stations
Unknown Mortal Orchestra 47% of the stations
Tegan and Sara with 50% of the stations
Nick Cave and the Bad seeds with 46%

A handfull of stations charting any of the others in the top 4 could of pushed them ahead.  It seems like we have been talking about Tegan and Sara, Foxygen, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Local Natives for a while now. Each have been out there for around 5+.  I thought early on this week that Nick Cave had a real chance at getting #1, making real strides from a subpar first week.  STRFKR joins the top 10 party at #7. Foals runs in place at #10 and Ducktails, Toro Y Moi, are on the way out.

I keep looking at the huge drop on Local Natives from 60% to just over 50%, a drop in just under 30 stations. Yet they hold strong at #1 and while there was some parts of Monday and Tuesday I thought they might fall they consistently came in with the most stations and the larger stations. It is just so rare to lose that much and not fall.  So what going forward?  It all depends on what Local Natives do I think. If they want to keep #1 for another week I think it is theirs but it is hard to tell what the priorities at a promotion company can be. Is it more important for another week at #1 or for a record underachieving in the top 30 to jump up. Not that you can't do both but concentrating on one or the other leads to success in one or the other instead of failure in both.

This applies to every promotion company and label, we each have goals and from week to week those change and are adjusted along with the results. Lets say you have the #2 record for 5 weeks in row and at the same time you have a record that you thought would easily get to the top 20 but is now stuck in the lower 40s. What do you do? In trying to do both you have a bigger shot for failure but choosing wrong will also lead to failure.   I tend to think if you have a record in the top 5 you keep going for it until it goes down on the charts.   Thats why I think this next week everyone in the top 5 will be pushing to stay there and also trying to get to #1. They all have a shot too.

On the outside looking in we have STRFKR with a nice jump into the top 10.  Thao and the Get down Stay down continue the slow and steady climb up and I would not be shocked to see them get into the top 5 but I find it more likely that STRFKR will make a move or even more likely that the top 5 is composed of the same 5 records but in some other order.   Running in place always worries me so you have to worry about Foals a little bit, Pissed Jeans, Beach Fossils and Frightened Rabbit all have hit the skids a bit and really don't hold any top five threat at this time.  I expected a big move from Atoms for Peace but at 22 they do not scare me that much and Cave Singers right behind them is in the same Boat.

Our top ADD this week comes from Youth Lagoon with 138 ADDS. The only other add with over 100 was The MEN with 106.

This week we saw 30 new debuts keeping in line with the year so far, 30 tends to be the average.
The top mover comes from the new WAVVES single jumping a very nice 126 spots on the flipside the biggest drop goes to Widowspeak with an 87 point drop.  The top 2 records Local Natives and Foxygen stayed the same, we also Foals in the same spot as last week. INC. also stayed at 90 for the second week in a row as did Bleeding Rainbow at 91 for the second straight week.  So a good number of records just running in place this week.

Next week I will be at SXSW and will be unable to do a Recap but if you have any questions or anything you want me to cover you can hit me up on twitter @theanimalarrg   Also thank you to those that pointed out the few mistakes I made last week. I will try to keep doing better, thank you for reading.