A record-breaking week for Sabrina Carpenter.

Sabrina Carpenter ends a hugely successful summer with a chart double and the top three places in the singles chart. In other news, a Manchester band announces a comeback.

This has been a massively successful summer for Sabrina Carpenter. She has had two number one singles, for a total of twelve weeks, occupying the top two places in the singles chart for three successive weeks. That’s quite a contrast with her career up to the end of 2023. By then she had released five albums with only one of them making the UK chart. Even that album got no higher than number 41. Her singles chart peak was at the beginning of 2021 when Skin got to number 28.

The first sign that Sabrina Carpenter’s career might be heading for an upturn came at the start of this year when Feather became her first top twenty hit. Further singles showed that she was no lightweight. This week she achieves another little piece of history by joining the list of artists to achieve a chart double, topping the singles and albums chart simultaneously, something very few people would have predicted at the turn of the year. I suspect she may be the first act to achieve a chart double with their sixth album after the previous five all failed to reach the top forty, but maybe someone can prove me wrong.

Taste becomes Sabrina Carpenter’s third number one of the year, going straight to the top of the chart. The album, Short ‘n’ Sweet does the same, thereby beating her previous albums chart peak by a full forty places. It is, to my ears, a competent enough pop album with the three number one singles clearly the highlights.

As well as achieving a chart double, Sabrina Carpenter has also joined a much shorter list by occupying the top three places in the singles chart. Her former number ones Espresso and Please Please Please are at numbers three and two respectively. The only other artists to occupy the top three are Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber and Harry Styles.

Chappell Roan’s Good Luck Babe slips two places to number four. After two weeks at number one, Chase & Status and Stormzy fall to number five with Backbone.

Thirty years ago yesterday (29 August), Oasis released their debut album Definitely Maybe. The occasion was already, and inevitably, due to be marked with the release of a 30th anniversary edition today (Friday). However, the band made headlines earlier this week when they announced that they would be reuniting to perform together for the first time since Noel Gallagher walked out fifteen years ago.

The news of next year’s gigs inevitably led to a surge in streams of their songs, leading to three songs in the singles chart while several albums also got a boost.

Live Forever was Oasis’s third hit single and the first to reach the top ten after Shakermaker had fallen one place short. This week it is at number nineteen. The evergreen classic Wonderwall reached number two in 1995 and spent eleven of its first twelve weeks in the top ten. It is at number seventeen this week.

Don’t Look Back In Anger went straight to number one in 1996. Like all of Oasis’s number one singles, it lasted just a week at the top. It returned to the top forty in 2017 after crowds spontaneously sang it at a vigil for victims of the Manchester Arena bombing. It’s back again this week at number sixteen. This week is the first time that Oasis have had three songs in the top twenty simultaneously.

The news of the Oasis reunion predictably led to discussion of another Manchester band whose two key members have had a falling out, The Smiths. Morrissey claims that he and Johnny Marr were offered a substantial sum to reunite. Morrissey went on to claim that he had accepted the offer, but that Marr ignored it. Marr has made no comment.

Last Friday, many chart-watchers believed that the battle for supremacy in this week’s albums chart would be a close one. When early sales figures of over 30,000 for the number two album, Fontaines DC’s Romance were revealed, that expectation looked likely to be fulfilled. That was until it became evident that Sabrina Carpenter’s sales at that point were over 60,000.

Any hopes, then, that the band from Dublin might get a second number one album, after 2022’s Skinty Fla, lasted for only the first half of the chart week. Nevertheless, sales of Romance have surpassed first week sales of their previous albums. Romance is a far more varied, and ambitious, album than its predecessors and has, rightly, received some very positive reviews.

Oasis are at number three with their Time Flies 1994 - 2009 compilation. The new edition of Definitely Maybe is likely to be at number one next week. In the meantime, the album moves up to number five. Their second album, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory, is at number four. While Definitely Maybe only topped the chart for one week, the follow-up had a total of ten weeks at the summit.

Live albums by former boyband members are relatively rare with Robbie Williams’ Knebworth album being one of the exceptions. Williams’ live album contained a string of hit singles with some lesser-known tracks. The tracks on Louis Tomlinson’s Live album are not quite as well-known. Williams’ Knebworth album entered at number two and spent four weeks in the top ten. Tomlinson’s Live album is at number 33.

There are also new entries for Travis Scott (Days Before Rodeo, 15), country singer Lainey Wilson (Whirlwind, 13) and Cassyette (This World F***ing Sucks, 39). Maybe we'll hear from Cassyette’s siblings Compyact Dyisc and Vyinyl later.