Sabrina Carpenter spends a fifth week at number one with Espresso. Taylor Swift climbs back to the top of the albums chart again.

Sabrina Carpenter extends her run at the top of the singles chart to five weeks. Two new releases battle with Taylor Swift for the number one album.

Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso spends a fifth week at number one. Five months into 2024, we still have not had a number one single by a British artist.

Two other songs with food- and drink-related titles had a close race for second and third place. The number two position was ultimately filled by Billie Eilish’s Lunch with Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy) at number three. Eilish is also at number five with Birds Of A Feather.

Central Cee gets his fourth hit of the year with Band4band at number four. Obviously it is rubbish although not quite as dismal as most of his output. He is joined by Lil Baby who gave us a year off from listening to his tripe in 2023. Lil Baby has an unusually low hit rate - only eleven of his 38 top 100 entries have reached the top forty. For that we should be truly grateful.

Zach Bryan made his UK top forty debut last year with I Remember Everything, a song I have forgotten. He now returns at number 31 with Pink Skies whose harmonica solo owes more than a little to Billy Joel’s Piano Man. Bryan was born in Japan where his father was serving in the US Navy and later joined the Navy himself. As far as I know, he has not recorded a version of Village People’s In The Navy. A number of songs called Blue Skies or Red Skies reached the top 75 in the 1980s but it took until 1996 for BT and Tori Amos to get Blue Skies into the top forty; Three years later The Longpigs also got a song called Blue Skies into the top forty; no song called Red Skies has got there yet. Sunscreen reached the top forty with White Skies, also in 1996, but the only big hit with a similar title is Electric Light Orchestra’s classic Mr Blue Sky.

Teddy Swims follows up his number two hit Lose Control with The Door at number 35, Swimming through a door is not easy, although Durdle Door in Dorset is a very pleasant spot where the feat can be achieved with ease.

The bottom ten of the chart is becoming increasingly like the oldies slot. Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse’s version of Valerie was joined last week by Disturbed’s excellent cover of The Sound Of Silence. This week The Script return to the top forty at number 38 with The Man Who Can’t Be Moved. The song reached number two in 2008 to give the Irish songsters their first top ten hit.

One final singles chart-related fact. This week marks the twentieth anniversary of Mr Brightside’s one and only week in the top ten. It was easily the best song in that week’s top ten.

New releases from Paul Weller and 21 Pilots both competed for the number one spot but, in Wednesday’s update, Taylor Swift’s former chart-topper still posed a threat to both of them.

Initially formed as a trio, 21 Pilots became a duo in 2011. As I am not aware of any current or former members being qualified pilots, their name is doubly misleading. Their last three albums have all reached the top five without going all the way to the top. Early updates suggested that Clancy, their seventh studio album, could give them their first number one in the UK but they faced stiff competition from two names with 22 number one albums between them.

In Paul Weller’s case, two of his chart-topping albums came as a member of The Jam and The Style Council but six of his eight have been from his solo career. The first of them was in 1995 so he was looking to extend his span of solo number one albums to almost 30 years with the release of 66. The title was chosen, Adele style, to mark his 66th birthday last weekend. Among the co-writers on this album are Graham McPherson (better known as Suggs from Madness), Noel Gallagher and Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie.

Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Society has already spent a total of three weeks at number one but its continued popularity put it in contention for gaining another week at the top. And, indeed, that is what happened.Taylor Swift is at number one again.

The runner-up slot is occupied by 21 and then comes a bit of a surprise. Billie Eilish falls just two places to number three with Hit Me Hard And Soft. Paul Weller manages to finish fourth in what looked like a three-horse race.

One of the most irritating practices in the current music industry is the preponderance of song titles all in upper case. Bring Me The Horizon have chosen to be even more annoying by calling their latest album POST HUMAN: NeX GEn. That awful mess of a title is at number five.

Manchester rapper Meekz is at number twelve with his mixtape Tru. RM joins the list of BTS members to get a top forty solo album as Right Place, Wrong Person lands at number 38. Chappell Roan enters at number 33 with The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess. It is a rare modern-day example of an album climbing into the top forty. It has spent the last five weeks lower down in the top 100.

American rock band Wallows’ first two albums spent a magnificent total of one week in the UK charts, at number 88. They could, therefore, have chosen to call album number three Two Fat Ladies but they went for Model instead. This album has performed far better than its predecessors, entering at number 38.