Taylor Swift has the number one single and, by a huge margin, another number one album.

Taylor Swift scores a chart double following the release of her new album.

Taylor Swift released a new album last week. Unsurprisingly, three tracks from the album (the maximum allowed for a single artist) are riding high in the top forty. The highest-placed of them may have many teenagers wondering why Fortnight is spelled in such a weird way. For some reason, the use of fortnight to mean two weeks (a contraction of fourteen nights) seems to have declined in recent years, so it is perfectly possible that many teenagers haven’t heard it enough for it to have become part of their vocabulary. The song of that name is at number one.

In Wednesday’s chart update Swift still occupied the top three places. By the end of the chart week she has had to be content with three of the top four. Without the three-song limit, she would probably have had a few more songs in the top ten. Down Bad is at number four with The Tortured Poets Department (the title track of the album) at two. She has now had 55 top forty hits in the UK with 31 of them reaching the top ten.

Hozier prevents a Swift monopoly of the top three. He falls just one place to number two withToo Sweet. Sabrina Carpenter climbs one place to number five with Espresso.

Drake continues to put out “new music” and people continue to stream it. Enough people have streamed Push-Ups to get it to number fourteen, taking his tally of top forty singles up to 92. Anyone trying to do push-ups while listening to Drake’s latest dirge would risk falling asleep very quickly.

Someone going under the name of Shaboozey whose Spotify profile describes him as a cross between country and hip-hop makes his top forty debut at number sixteen with A Bar Song (Tipsy) I think I need to listen to Chumbawamba's Tubthumping to help me get over the trauma of listening to it.

Five years after his first hit single could have been a time for Headie One to have a rethink and c ome back with a whole new style of music. Sadly, if he even thought about it, he rejected the idea and her has come up with some more rubbish. He is joined on Cry No More, a new entry at number 33 by Stormzy and Tay Keith. Tay Keith’s only other hit single was courtesy of a featured artist credit on Aitch and AJ Tracey’s Rain, a number three hit in 2020. I can’t remember how that went but I suspect I wasn’t a fan.

And so we move on to the albums. There was never any doubt about what the number one would be. The only questions were about numbers, including how many records Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department:The Anthology would break.

The first one is related to Swift “doing a Beyonce”. As with Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter a few weeks ago, the album made available to download or stream contained far more tracks than the physical copies. The final version of the album has 31 tracks with a total running time of just over two hours. It was reported on Thursday that The Tortured Poets Department had become the first album to be streamed one billion times worldwide in its first week. The sheer length of the album means that those one billion streams amount to almost fourteen million years of listening. Even Cliff Richard isn’t that old.

By the end of Thursday, the labrum had amassed 270,000 chart sales, combining actual sales and streams. This is the biggest first-week total since Ed Sheeran’s ÷ sold a whopping 670,000 in 2017.

This is her twelfth number one album in the UK, bringing her level with Madonna with the most chart-topping albums by a female artist. Only four acts have had more. Among those four are The Beatles who took fourteen years and one month to get their first twelve number one albums. Swift has taken eleven years and six months.

By topping the singles and al;bums chart simultaneously she achieves the chart double for a third time. She is one of only 28 artists to manage this feat on two or more occasions. Thanks to Colin for that fact.

Taylor Swift’s twelve number one albums match the total achieved by Bruce Springsteen. He, incidentally, took 35 years and nine months to reach that figure having topped the chart for the first time nearly five years before Taylor Swift was born. Springsteen has a new Best Of compilation out which enters at number fifteen.

Grunge veterans Pearl Jam enter at number two with Dark Matter. UB40, who have been going for a good deal longer, are at number five with UB45, their 21st studio album.

Both of those new entries had special editions released for the latest Record Store Day. Also benefitting from that fervent are Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (up to number nine) and Blur’s Parklife (back in the to forty for the first time in 26 years at number sixteen). A new double-LP version of Orbital’s eponymous debut album is at number 31.

Two new Record Store Day releases are also in the top forty. The 1975 are at number 32 with Live From Gorilla and David Bowie’s Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth) is at 39. The latter album is effectively as new edition of his Ziggy Stardust album with a few new tracks.