“I want to say thank you so much for making Messy Number 1 on the Official Chart! I love you all so much, you guys mean the absolute world to me. I’m so happy!”

‘Messy’ scored its second week topping charts with 6.2 million streams over the last seven days.

We were feeling Messy and caught @lolayounggg backstage at @TheGNShow to give her her Number 1 Award

Read more: https://t.co/6EyjSmWdMRpic.twitter.com/QpDv9NOiZI

— Official Charts (@officialcharts) January 31, 2025

24 years old Young first rose to fame in 2021, when her cover of Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder’s ‘Together In Electric Dreams’ became the soundtrack for John Lewis’s Christmas commercial of that year; in the same year, she was nominated for a BRITs Rising Star Award and the following year, in 2022, she was placed at number four on the BBC’s Sound of the Year list.

Young’s debut album, released in 2019, is titled ‘Intro‘ and it was followed by several singles and EPs. In 2023, her second album ‘My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely‘ was released; despite failing to appear in the Official Album Charts, the album peaked at 37 on the Official Physical Albums Chart which looks at the amount of physical copies of an album sold rather than streaming units.

The chart-topping single ‘Messy’ was released as the lead single for Young’s latest release, an 11-tracks album titled ‘This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway‘, which will likely make its debut on Official Albums Charts in the upcoming weeks. The album has in fact re-entered the Official Albums Download Charts a couple of weeks ago, after it first debuted at number 75 upon its release.

In a recent interview with BBC, Young has shared the backstory of the song and stated it was really personal to here, saying:

“The response has been amazing and it’s been really exciting to see all the love that Messy has been receiving, I love the song, it’s a song I wrote that’s really personal and really important to me. So I’m really happy that it’s resonating so much.”

In the same interview, she then went on to say that the meaning of the song is contradictory, and the it feels like “basically like you’re not enough for somebody and also in turn not enough for yourself”.

Although it would seem that punk has sold out to the punks.

Colchester-based indie punkers Pet Needs have released their new Album ‘Intermittent Fast Living’. The album debuted on the 16th of February 2024 and in that time, it has already seen more online streams than their debut album ‘Fractured Party Music’ did in a year. The album is their third full-length one to date and is far and away their most successful.

The album is currently sitting at number seven in the mid-week UK charts, largely due to having a comitted, fervent, fabulous fan base. The Facebook group, ‘Fractured Party People’, has been a driving force behind this meteoritic rise, and the band themselves have a very close and direct link to the fans. Fractured Party People is more than just a standard group; it is a collective, and the band are very active in providing updates, videos, and replies to anyone and everyone within the group.

Absolutely speechless. What is happening?

Thanks to you, we are number seven in the midweek charts.

Thank you ❤️ pic.twitter.com/xRGn605YTj

— PET NEEDS (@wearepetneeds) February 19, 2024

However, take nothing away from their earlier efforts, Fractured Party Music and Primetime Entertainment. And if you haven’t heard the band before, then check them out here:

Pet Needs was founded from humble beginnings just a few years ago, and they signed with Xtra Mile Recordings in January 2019. They share a label with other notable acts such as Against Me!, Beans on Toast, and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. and, of course, Frank Turner himself having won him over with their explosive, passionate live performances.

The band comprises brothers Johnny (vocals) and George (guitar) Marriott and later joined by Jack (drums) and Ryan (bass) and since their humble beginnings, they have travelled the world and shared stages with the likes of Frank Turner, The Hives, The Lottery Winners, Skinny Lister, The Bouncing Souls, and Flogging Molly.

The band are currently on tour and can be caught here:

APR16TUE Stockton-on-Tees, Georgian Theatre

APR17WED Leeds, Boom

APR18THU Manchester, Night & Day Cafe

APR19FRI Bristol, Exchange

APR20SAT Brighton, The Hope & Ruin

APR23TUE Cambridge, The Portland Arms

APR24WED Oxford, The Bullingdon

APR25THU London, The Underworld

APR26FRI Birmingham, Hare & Hounds

APR27SATSouthampton, The Joiners

JUL07SUN Derby, The Hairy Dog

Known for their energetic, passionate, and powerful live performances, they are not a band to be missed, and it is well worth catching them at a smaller venue while you still have the chance.

The original drive for the new album was dubbed the ‘Bottom of the Pops’ campaign, but right now, they are very much not Bottom of the Pops at all.

Miley Cyrus led the way with her hit single “Flowers,” spending ten weeks at No 1. Other talented artists such as Dua Lipa, Ellie Goulding, Kenya Grace, Raye, Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, and Taylor Swift also enjoyed time at the top spot.

In fact, Goulding, Cyrus, Swift, Raye, SZA, PinkPantheress, and Libianca dominated seven out of the top 10 most popular tracks of the year. This achievement is the highest number of female-led tracks in the history of the Official Singles Chart, which spans over 70 years.

Goulding’s collaboration with Calvin Harris, “Miracle,” was particularly notable, and the rest of the top 10 featured artists like Dave, Central Cee, and Rema.

Dr Jo Twist, the chief executive of BPI, expressed her delight at this significant shift but also stressed the importance of not becoming complacent. She emphasised the need for continued efforts in the music industry, she said,“Our work in the music industry continues to ensure that this becomes the norm.” 

Furthermore, an impressive 48.5% of all songs that reached the Top 10 this year were either solo efforts or collaborations by female artists. This represents the highest annual share of Top 10 hits by female musicians in this century.

In 2023, the British music industry saw its ninth consecutive year of growth, with album sales and streams increasing by 10% to a total of 182.8 million. Streaming reached a record high with 179.6 billion audio streams, a 12.8% increase from the previous year. However, no new releases achieved platinum status, indicating a“crisis” in the industry according to music writer Patrick Clifton. He added,“A new generation of artists is not building fanbases that will buy gig and festival tickets in two, five, or 10-years’ time, and is not popularising songs that will have ubiquity in our culture once this generation of music fans reaches old age. The artists who succeed, he argued, are those who are able to cultivate a “two-way” relationship with fans on social media, and “don’t mind revisiting songs from their repertoire if those songs blow up”.

Vinyl records sales reached a remarkable milestone, surpassing 6 million units, marking the highest total since 1990. Additionally, CD sales remained strong with a staggering 10 million albums sold. Furthermore, cassette sales maintained their steady performance, exceeding 100,000 units for the fourth consecutive year.

However, it is undeniable that streaming has become the dominant force in the UK’s music landscape. Accounting for a remarkable 87.7% of the market share, streaming has experienced a substantial growth compared to 63.6% five years ago.