Central Cee gets his first UK number one single, thanks to Dave. Foo Fighters and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds contest the number one spot in the albums chart.

Dave and Central Cee top the singles chart. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Foo Fighters have a close battle for supremacy in the albums chart.

The rapper who goes by the name of Dave has racked up 25 top forty hits since his debut in 2017, most of them pretty awful. None of Central Cee’s sixteen top forty hits have been good enough to be described as pretty awful. It is, therefore, not surprising that I am not a fan of their collaboration Sprinter which is this week’s new number one single. It is Dave’s third chart-topper and Central Cee’s first. It finishes well ahead of the rest of the field with the largest weekly “sales” of any single so far this year.

The news gets worse. Having released Sprinter last Friday (2 June) Dave and Central Cee followed it up by releasing a whole EP. As a result, two more tracks from the album have landed in the singles chart. Trojan Horse is at number fourteen, three places ahead of UK Rap.

The arrival of the Dave / Central Cee collaboration brings an end to Calvin Harris’s eight weeks at number one (in two spells) with Miracle. That drops to number two this week. Jazzy moves up to number three with Giving Me. Switch Disco and Ella Henderson’s React climbs to number four. David Kushner’s Daylight falls to number five. Loreen gets a third week in the top ten as Tattoo climbs back up to number seven. It is a long time since a Eurovision-winning song did so well in the UK charts.

The most disappointing new entry of the week is fronted by Canadian superstar The Weeknd. He has generally been able to improve songs by various artists, some of whom rarely produce work of any great quality. However, Popular, which features Playboi Carti and chart veteran Madonna, really isn’t very good. Nevertheless, it is at number 21.

Even if it isn’t very good, the arrival of Popular in the top forty means that Madonna joins Kylie Minogue in having at least one top forty hit in every decade since the 1980s. Minogue now makes it at least one top twenty hit in each decade as Padam Padam climbs to number twelve.

The quirkiest new entry of the week, at number 22, is Good Love by Hannah Laing, a DJ from Dundee, and RoRo. Let’s hope any follow-up is better (or fails miserably).

Jorja Smith gets her first hit for three years (and her sixth overall) with Little Things at number 28. It is not a version of the One Direction hit of the same name.

Kaliya Ross, known simply as Kali, enters at number 39 with her debut hit Area Codes. She has yet to gain a Wikipedia entry; a search will merely provide you with information about a Hindu goddess.

When two major acts release a new album on the same day, there are at least two ways of looking at it. If you are a glass half-full person, you might think that it is a way of raising the profile of the albums chart with a major battle at the top. If you are a glass half-empty person, you might think it is a sign that artists (and their labels) don’t care whether they get a number one album any more. The one thing both sides could agree on (it being a matter of fact, not opinion) was that this week’s battle between two heavyweights was a very close one.

One of the acts involved, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, had a very impressive record to defend. All three previous albums went to number one as did all seven of Gallagher’s former band Oasis’s studio albums, Oasis also topped the chart with a compilation album.

The other act, Foo Fighters, had a relatively modest record although their five number one albums is far more than most acts achieve, Singer Dave Grohl also had two number one albums as the drummer with Nirvana. Foo Fighters’ new album, But Here We Are Now (a title very similar to an Oasis album) is their first since the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins last year.

The first update of the week gave High Flying Birds’ Council Skies a narrow lead over its American rival. By Wednesday, though, the positions were reversed with Foo Fighters holding a lead of around 500. In the event Foo fighters emerged triumphant, bring Noel Gallagher’s excellent run of number one albums to an end. He follows Alex Turner who suffered the same fate last October having released their new album at the same time as Taylor Swift.

Lewis Capaldi falls to number three after two weeks at the top with Broken By Desire To be Heavenly Sent. Taylor Swift’s Midnights is at number four with Harry Styles at five with Harry’s House.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor enters at number eight with HANA. It is her fifth top ten album but she has yet to reach the summit.

For many artists, the release of a Greatest Hits album signals the end of a career, even if it isn’t acknowledged at the time. Louise Reknapp, a member of Eternal before her solo career, is trying to do things differently. She has used the release of a greatest Hits album (twenty years after she last had a hit) in an attempt to relaunch her career. The compilation is at number eleven.

Bob Dylan isn’t exactly known for taking the conventional route. Therefore, even the release of an album of re-recordings of some of his songs is a bit of a surprise. After all, a number of other big names have done that recently which might have put Dylan off doing it. However, this is Bob Dylan we’re talking about so he has largely eschewed his best-known songs. Shadow Kingdom is at number fourteen giving Dylan a 67th top forty album.

Wrexham band The Royston Club are at number sixteen with their debut album Shaking Hips And Crashing Cars. Avenged Sevenfold land at number 21 with Life Is But A Dream. Rival Sons, A Nashville-based band who are not a country act, are at number 30 with Darkfighter. K-Pop band Stray Kids are at number 40 with 5-Star.