Charli XCX scores second Number One album, meaning James Blunt won’t have to change his name to Blunty McBluntface

18 October, 2024

Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ remix album has become the artist’s second Number One record, meaning James Blunt will not be forced to change his name to Blunty McBluntface.

‘Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat’ is a fully remixed version of her sixth studio album and on Friday (October 18), it hit the top spot on the UK charts, something the original version of ‘Brat’ failed to do on its release in June.

It held off competition from Paul Heaton, whose solo album ‘The Mighty Several’ landed at Number Two, and becomes Charli’s second chart-topping studio release, following on from 2022’s ‘Crash’.

Another album it held off the top spot is the 20th anniversary re-release of James Blunt’s debut album ‘Back To Bedlam’, which charted at Number Seven.

That means that Blunt avoids the ignominy of having to legally change his name, which he had agreed to do if it did hit the top spot. He had let the public decide what the new name would be, and the popular choice turned out to be ‘Blunty McBluntface’.

In the latest of a string of tongue-in-cheek social media posts, Blunt has shared a video in which he is informed on the phone that his album has missed out on the top spot. While feigning disappointment to his management, we see the singer-songwriter leaping up and down and jumping on the sofa to celebrate the fact that he can keep his own name. See the video below.

Heaton, meanwhile, has congratulated Charli on her success and thanked fans who took ‘The Mighty Several’ to such a high chart placing. “HEATON IS BRAT…BUT @CHARLI_XCX IS BRATTER!” he wrote.

“Congratulations to Charli on her second No.1 album and thank you to everyone who bought, streamed and supported ‘The Mighty Several’ this week. A fine 2nd place finish and a virtual silver medal to all of you!”

On its original release in the summer that it came to dominate, ‘Brat’ was held off the top spot by Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, thanks in part to the latter record’s UK-only editions being released that week, as well as the timing of Swift’s UK tour dates.

In a glowing five-star review of the remix album, NME wrote that the LP “is a home run for its creator, letting her finish the game on her own terms. She has perfected the art of remixing, keeping the songs moving by giving them a brand new lease of life rather than letting them exist statically in their original form.”

“Although, to her, her career “feels small in the existential scheme of it all”, as she laments in ‘I Think About It All The Time’, the bottom line is that, with her sparkling CV, she’s more than earned the high praise this album and the world around it have brought her.”

Speaking about her decision to create the remix album at a listening party, XCX recently said: “One of the reasons I wanted to do this project was because I feel like it is really cool to show the infinite possibilities of dance music and music in general.

“It’s like to me, when a song comes out when you make a song, there’s still so many different versions of that song that could be made using just a tiny element of production from the original or a tiny reference to a lyrical concept or a literal lyric. I just feel it could all be completely deconstructed and then put back together again you know? like why not?”

Charli is currently on a joint-headline tour with Troye Sivan, and this week they were joined by Kesha in California for a version of ‘Spring Breakers’.

The post Charli XCX scores second Number One album, meaning James Blunt won’t have to change his name to Blunty McBluntface appeared first on NME.