Beyonce's fourteen-year wait for a sixth number one single is at an end. Idles have a second number one album.

Beyonce gets her first number one single in fourteen years. Idles work their way to the top of the albums chart.

Beyonce get her first post-Destiny’s Child solo number one single with Crazy In Love in 2003. That was one of many collaborations with Jay-Z who she went on to marry in 2008. She had a further four number ones, the last of which was as featured artist on Lady Gaga’s Telephone in 2010. Fourteen years later, she finally gets a sixth number one single as Texs Hold ‘Em climbs to the top.

Texas Hold ‘Em has exposed one of the flaws of the separate genre-based charts. Country music-based stations in the US proved reluctant to play the song, but were eventually persuaded to change their minds. That reluctance could, in turn, have prevented the song getting to the top of the Country Music chart. In topping that chart, Beyonce became the first black woman to do so. She also became only the second sole female artist, after Taylor Swift, to enter that chart at number one.

Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things reaches a new peak of number two. Teddy Swims climbs back up to number three with Lose Control.

Sunday’s first singles chart update showed Dua Lipa’s Training Season in the lead, leaving headline writers itching to write about a change of season at the top of the chart. However, it wasn’t to be as Stick Season’s run at the top was ended by Beyonce instead. Spoil sport. In the event, Training Season entered at number four. If it’s any consolation to Dua Lipa, it does become the highest-charting song with the word training in the title, beating the previous record-holder by a full sixteen places.

Most songs plummet down the chart when they are put on to the Accelerated Chart Ratio with streams suddenly only counting for half as much as they did before. Noah Kahan’s Stick Season is an exception to the rule. Its seven-week run at number one has ended, but it still has the strength to limit its fall to just four places to number five.

Netflix seris Stranger Things’ best contribution to the UK charts is the revival in interest in Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill. Such was the surge in popularity that it deservedly topped the chart in 2022. The latest chart hit linked to the show is nowhere near as good, although it does at least reach the dizzy heights of OK. Joe Keery, a member of the shows cast, is at number eleven with End Of Beginning under the moniker DJO.

It is nearly three years since I was last able to report a new entry for Rag ‘n’ Bone Man. The wait is finally over as Lovers `In A Past Life, a collaboration with Calvin Harris, enters at number nineteen.

The snooze-fest that is Yung Filly’s Grey has been hanging around just outside the top forty for the last few weeks. This week it climbs into the broadcast part of the chart at number 33. His only other top forty hit came back in 2020 when Hold, a collaboration with Chunkz, reached number 29.

Chris Brown’s Angel Numbers / Ten Toes re-enters at number 39.

Bristol band Idles get their second number one album with Tangk, having previously topped the chart with Ultra mono in 2020.

Paloma Faith’s singles chart career may be more or less over (although she did have a minor hit last year), but she can still achieve success in the albums chart. Even so, while her first five albums all made the top ten, only 2017’s The Archietct, went all the way to the top. Album number six, The Glorification Of Sadness (which, I should add, is very good) continues that trend by becoming her third number two album.

Noah Kahan’s Stick Season slips to number three after finally making it to the top last week. The Weeknd is at number four with Highlights.

The Jennifers and The La’s are part of an exclusive club, a club so small that it does not have enough members to form an Only Connect question. The singers of both bands went on to form another band. That new band then had a hit with a song called Alright. Members of The Jenniffers went on to form Supergrass while John Power of The La’s formed Cast, the only one of the four I haven’t seen live. Cast themselves split up in 2001 but re-formed in 2010. Love Is The Call is their third album since re-forming and it enters at number 22.

John Power’s fellow Liverpudlians Crawlers get their first top ten album with The Mess We Seem To Make at number seven.

The most famous musicians to come from Colchester are Damon Albarn and Dave Rowntree of Blur. The list of other acts from the city is rather modest although Modern English should have had a more successful career than they actually managed. Maybe Pet Needs will match Blur’s success one day, although that seems fairly unlikely. They do, nonetheless, hit a new career high this week with their first top twenty album. Intermittent Fast Living is at number seventeen.

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett gets his fourteenth top forty album with The Circus And The Nightwhale at number thirty. Rapper Noah Smith, recording as Yeat, is at number 24 with 2093. Fellow rapper Booter Bee, from Huddersfield, lands at 34 with True Stories. The final new entry, Be Right Here by Blackberry Smoke, is at number 31.

The release of a new film about Bob Marley has led to an increase in consumption of his music. His Legend collection climbs back into the top ten at number six. Exodus, released in 1977, returns to the top forty for the first time since 1978 at number 36. It reached number eight in October 1977.