Leon Jackson has made it to the top of the charts, and thus continued the trend for X Factor winners grabbing the Christmas number one.

Leona Lewis is still sitting at number one in the album charts, making it a clean sweep for the ITV music reality television show.

Leon won The X Factor last Saturday, overcoming the odds, and the will of a huge swathe of the British public. Now, just 8 days later, his debut single is number one in the official UK single charts.

Having a Christmas number one is quite an honour in the UK, or at least it used to be before The X Factor came along, and in a moment of brilliance, decided to announce the winner the week before Christmas every year, thus ensuring the millions of people who have watched the contestant on the TV every week for months, rush out and buy their single at the earliest opportunity.

It means that normal singers and bands, who may have dreamed of one day having a Christmas number one, now haven’t got a hope in hell. Which is a shame. The only good outcome of it is that Cliff Richard now can’t get to number one at Christmas again… cheers all around.

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Any regular Brit Music Scene readers will already be well aware of my love for Maximo Park, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.

However, when reviewing their new single Karaoke Plays, I will be fair and give an honest opinion, because, well although it’s ok, it’s not my favourite on the album by any means.

I was actually surprised they chose to release this as a single, because I don’t think it’s that strong a song. The video is fun though, completely lacking the band, and instead showing a weekend coach trip for a group of youngsters with a strange ending.

The thing is it’s by no means a bad song, but when taken in context with the rest of the album (Our Earthly Pleasures) that it comes from, it’s not the song I would have chosen to release.

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The Arctic Monkeys are one of my favourite bands, and not just currently either, probably of all time.

They’d at least be in my top 10, which for a relatively new band less than five years formed, and with just two full studio albums to their name is quite an astounding achievement.

Last week, I told you about how the band had assumed a moniker under which to release a limited edition vinyl single. This week, they released their proper new single under their real name, and boy, is it a corker.

Teddy Picker is off their second album Favourite Worst Nightmare, and is one of the best tracks on the album in my opinion.

It has an incredibly fast pace to it, dragging you in to the meat of the song and beyond, making it one of those rare indie songs which you are as happy to dance to as you are singing along at home, or in the shower.

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I want to hate Kate Nash, I really do. She’s being feted by so many publications and music journos as the next big thing, that I don’t want to join that throng of bandwagon jumpers. But I can’t help myself. I came on ready to slate her, piss on her chips and generally say she’s a Lily Allen wannabee, but while that may be true to a degree, I can’t help but like this single.

Kate Nash is currently sitting at number 2 in the charts behind Ri “yes it’s raining dear, and you have an umbrella, so do you want a medal?” Hanna, and I’m willing her on for the 2nd week in a row to overtake her and be the new number 1. This track called ‘Foundations is a grower, it chips away at your unconscious between listens, until you are also in Kate Nash’s corner willing her on to overcome the ‘Fake Lily Allen’ jibes she’s being labelled with.

This song shows the best and worst of Kate Nash, and so if you like it, you can be pretty sure you’ll like her other stuff. If on the other hand, this song makes you want to chop both of your ears off, I’d lay off buying the album when it’s released on August 6th. She’s a bit more of an acquired taste than Lily Allen, even though they share a lot of similarities in both their style of singing and lyrical take on the world.

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This is Bloc Party, with their fantastically good new single ‘Hunting for Witches’ which came out on July 9th. The band have seemingly been everywhere in the past 2 weeks, with both Glastonbury and Live Earth performances under their belts. I think this song comes across really well both live and on record, and it’s my favourite song off 2nd album ‘A Weekend in the City’.

The song is highly political, with lead singer Kele Okereke making references to September 11, the London terror attacks, and The Daily Mail, a right wing British newspaper. Kele spoke about the song in an interview and said…

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This is Jack Penate with his excellent new single ‘Torn On The Platform’. The song came out on June 25th, and coincided with the singer/songwriter playing at the Glastonbury festival where he wowed everyone with his energetic performance. I first saw him while watching the Glastonbury footage and immediately knew he was headed for big things.This song, his third to be released, or should I say unleashed, on the general public has now reached Number 7 in the charts, pretty good for an unassuming guy from South London.

The song is a strange but evocative mix of heartfelt pop lyrics and an uptempo Indie beat. As soon as the main rythym kicks in I was instantly reminded of The Housemartins, and got a bit of an 80s vibe in my head. There’s some obvious ska influences in there too, which is a mainstay through a lot of Penate’s music.

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