Artist · chart history
Athlete
Band Deptford United Kingdom Active 2002–2013
Athlete formed in 2002 in Deptford, United Kingdom and was active until 2013. Athlete has 11 chart appearances on 9 radio countdowns from 4 stations on RockLists, spanning 2005–2011. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Half Light”, which appears on 4 lists with a best position of #88. The station that charted Athlete most often is WBER (Rochester, NY), with 5 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2005.
Tourist, Athlete's second album, arrived in 2005 and did the big numbers: it went to number one and sold more than 500,000 copies. The Deptford band, Joel Pott on lead vocals and guitar, Carey Willets on bass, Stephen Roberts on drums and Tim Wanstall on keyboards, had already gone platinum with their debut Vehicles & Animals, which also picked up a Mercury Music Prize nomination, but Tourist went bigger and more widescreen. "Wires" is the heart of it, a slow build that swells into a chorus meant for the back row, and "Half Light" glows in the same soft register.
The follow-ups, Beyond the Neighbourhood in 2007 and Black Swan in 2009, found them trying out different styles, with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds among the touchstones. By 2011 Roberts was saying there were no plans for a fifth record, and after anniversary tours in 2012 and 2013 the band went on hiatus. Pott has since written and produced for other artists, Willets put out a solo album called Stickers, and Roberts and Wanstall moved into production.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Athlete on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Half Light | 4 | #88 | – | 2005 | |
| 2 | Second Hand Stores | 2 | #65 | – | 2008 | |
| 3 | The Getaway | 2 | #77 | – | 2011 | |
| 4 | Wires | 3 | #97 | – | 2006 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 77 (tie) | The Getaway | WBER Listener Countdown 2011 |
| 2010 | 78 | The Getaway | WBER Listener Countdown 2010 |
| 2008 | 65 (tie) | Second Hand Stores | WBER Listener Countdown 2008 |
| 2007 | 90 | Second Hand Stores | WBER Listener Countdown 2007 |
| 2007 | 1845 | Wires | CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007) |
| 2007 | 1857 | Half Light | CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007) |
| 2006 | 97 | Wires | CD101 Top 101 Songs of 2006 |
| 2006 | 99 | Half Light | CD101 Top 101 Songs of 2006 |
| 2005 | 90 | Half Light | Y100 Top 150 Songs of 2005 |
| 2005 | 88 (tie) | Half Light | WBER Listener Countdown 2005 |
| 2005 | 352 | Wires | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) |
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