Sabrina Carpenter makes it a month at the top of the singles chart with Espresso. Billie Eilish gets her third number one album.

Sabrina Carpenter remains at the top of the singles chart. Billie Eilish has the number one album.

Sabrina Carpenter finishes well ahead of all rivals to get a fourth week at number one with Espresso. All Saints’ Black Coffee was released at a time of rapid turnover of number one singles and, therefore, only managed seven days at the top.

While Espresso had a healthy lead at the summit, the rest of the top five, which includes some other food- and drink-related titles, was a lot closer.

Billie Eilish released her new album last week (more on that later) and three songs from the album are the highest new entries in the singles chart. The highest of the trio, at number two, is Lunch. While Lunch is a distinctively Billie Eilish-style song, Chihiro (a Japanese name given to both girls and boys) is a little more weird and a little dull. That song is at number seven. The third song, Birds Of A Feather, is not about a not very funny old sitcom and is a new entry at number nine. That makes it far more successful than the theme song from the aforementioned sitcom.

Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy) climbs one place to number three. Hozier’s former number one Too Sweet climbs back up to number four. Tommy Richman’s Million Dollar Baby falls two places to number five.

There are two new entries not by Billie Eilish. Gunna gets his seventh top forty hit with One Of Wun at number 32.

Love Me JeJe, a new entry at number 35, sees Tems continue her record of having one top forty single per year since making her debut in 2021. Of course, there is still plenty of time for her to get a second hit in a calendar year for the first time. As long as she continues to stay clear of working with Drake again, a second hit before December (or, more realistically November unless she puts out a Christmas single) may well be a good thing. Love Me JeJe is at number one in the Afrobeats chart.

Many people would say that a sign of a particularly good song is that it can be recorded in a number of different styles and sound good in all of them. In a similar vein, many people prefer cover versions of a song to be significantly different from the original. Direct copies of a song tend to be a bit of a waste of time. The Sound Of Silence scores on both of these criteria. The Simon And Garfunkel original is one of their finest songs with some great lyrics. In 2015, half a century after the release of the original version, rock band Disturbed recorded their own version. In doing so, they released one of my favourite cover versions of all time. German band Gregorian have also recorded a version (as a Gregorian chant) which is also fantastic.

The Disturbed version of The Sound Of Silence was a number 29 hit in 2016. The song returned to the top 100 earlier this year after the release of a new remix. It has now climbed into the top forty at number 39.

As already mentioned above, Billie Eilish released her new album last week. Her first full-length studio album (which followed an earlier EP) topped the chart in 2019 and enjoyed a lengthy run at or near the top of the chart. That left me wishing she had chosen a shorter title than When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go. Happier Than Ever (2021) spent a week at number one and a further five weeks in the top ten. She now makes it a hat-trick of number one albums with Hit Me Hard And Soft accumulating more first-week sales than either of the two previous chart-toppers. As with her previous releases, the songs are co-written with her brother Finneas O’Connell.

Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department falls to number two after returning to number one last week. The Weeknd’s Highlights climbs one place to number four. Olivia Rodrigo also manages a one place climb, up to number five with Guts.

After following a number one debut album with one that got no higher than number 77, many people might have thought that former One Directioner Zayn Malik’s solo career had come to an ignominious end. However, he lived to fight another day and release a third album. While that didn’t st the world alight, it did at least reach the top twenty. That gave him the opportunity to release another set, Room Under The Stairs (not, I assume, a reference to Harry Potter’s early home). The album sees him return to the upper reaches of the chart by entering at number three.

Three more albums by artists who had enjoyed some chart success (albeit modest in one case) as a member of a band also enter the top ten. Beth Gibbons had a number of hits as the singer with Bristol band Portishead. Her debut solo album Lives Outgrown is at number seven. The most successful of the three bands which are the subject of this paragraph are Guns ‘n’ Roses. Their lead guitarist Slash is at number eight with Orgy Of The Damned. Finally, Michael Head (formerly a member of Liverpool band Pale Fountains) is at number ten with Loophole, an album recorded with his Red Elastic Band.

The final new entry of the week is from London rapper Clavish whose Chapter 16 mixtape is at number 30.