We finally have a new number one single in the form of Gigi Perez's Sailor Song. Tyler The Creator tops the albums chart by a small margin.

Gigi Perez takes her SSailor Song to the top of the chart. Tyler The Creator gets his first number one album despite a midweek release.

Regular readers may have detected a growing sense of desperation in the last few months as I struggled to find something new to say about Sabrina Carpenter being at number one. Again. This week, I don’t have to. The Accelerated Chart Ratio (ACR), which means that long-running songs can have the value of its streams halved, has come to my rescue. Taste is now subject to this rule and it slumps to number eleven after nine weeks at number one. So, welcome to the brand new world with someone different at the top of the chart.

In the mid-1970s Sailor had top ten hits with Glass Of Champagne and Girls, Girls, Girls. However, no Sailor song made it to number one. That changes this week as Gigi Perez finally makes it to the top with her Sailor Song. The song entered the top forty the week before Taste went straight to number one. Now, it is the song to replace it.

Thanks to chartjack at Buzzjack for pointing out that Sailor Song is the thirteenth chart-topper with the word song in its title. This means that the number of times I’ve seen Public Service Broadcasting live outnumbered the number of chart toppers with song in the title for just two days.

Rose and Bruno Mars climb to number two with Apt. With Sabrina Carpenter’s big hits now all subject to ACR, it is now Gracie Abram’s turn to try to dominate the top five. That’s So True soars sixteen places to number three while I Love You I’m Sorry is up one place to number four. Somedays by Sonny Fodera and chums is at number five.

Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga’s Die With A Smile is another song to be unceremoniously dumped from the top ten because of the ACR rule. As we have seen, Mars still has one song riding high in the chart. So, too, does Lady Gaga. She has a new entry at number seven with Disease. It is only the second top forty hit to have the word disease in its title. Perhaps that isn’t terribly surprising. Oh, and it’s pretty good.

Tyler The Creator chose to ignore the usual Friday release date for new albums, releasing it on Monday (28 October) instead. The release has seen the pre-existing single, Noid, climb into the top forty at number sixteen. A second song, St Chromia, enters at number fifteen. Is St Chromia the patron saint of colour? Darling, I is at number 24. I think I’ll file all of them under mediocre. They aren’t bad, but they don’t make me want to listen to the whole album.

The unusual release date for Tyler The Creator's new album might have been expected to spoil its chances of topping the chart. Early sales figures for the album that topped the chart in Monday's update also suggested that it wouldn’t make it to the top. However, it proved to be highly popular and now sits at number one just 800 sales units ahead of its nearest challenger. It is his first chart-topping album.

Some bands will spend their whole career known primarily for one song, no matter how many albums they release. One such band are Courteeners. Most people would surely struggle to get beyond Not Nineteen Forever (which peaked at a very satisfying number nineteen) when asked to name any of their songs. They are still going though, and have now released their seventh studio album Pink Cactus Cafe. All their previous albums have made the top ten with the last two topping the chart. This week Pink Cactus Cafe just misses out on making it a hat-trick as it enters at number two.

Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is at number three. Charli XCX is at number five with Brat. A dictionary publisher announced yesterday that, primarily thanks to this album, Brat is their word of the year for 2024.

There are a number of curiosities in this week’s new album, starting with the album at number four.

While officially released as Bastille’s fifth studio album, & is more of a solo acoustic album by the band’s singer Dan Smith. As a result, it is rather more subdued than a typical Bastille album. Every song title has an ampersand in it. Take that, Ed Sheeran. How many of your song titles have the album’s symbol in them?

The new Tears For Fears album, Songs For A Nervous Planet, is also a bit of an odd one. It is mostly a live album, but also has four new songs recorded in a studio. I have no idea whether the title refers to a certain event next week. I do know that it is a new entry at number six.

Even the Abba entry is a bit of a curiosity, if only for its impact on a chart record. The new album is a revised version of their singles collection which now includes the songs released in 2021. The album originally reached number one in 1982 under the title The Singles - The First 10 Years.. It now, rebranded as The Singles - The First 50 Years, returns at number seventeen.

Why, then, is it a curiosity? Under chart rules, streams of a song also count towards the parent album and, if applicable, one compilation. This compilation is, unless the record company chooses a different one, the one with the highest actual sales which, in Abba’s case is almost invariably Abba Gold. That is why it has been a permanent fixture in the chart since July 2017 and has spent close to 1,200 weeks in the chart since it was released. The release of this new set means that, for a week or two, Abba Gold loses its streams and, therefore, drops out of the chart.

Other long-running albums in the chart include Queen’s Greatest Hits (ever-present since November 2019), Oasis’s Time Flies compilation (January 2017) and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory (also January 2017), Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop collection (November 2018) amd Rumours (March 2017) and Elton John’s Diamonds (November 2017). All those albums were in the top forty last week. Outside the top forty we also have Ed Sheeran’s Divide (March 2017), Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent (December 2019) and David Bowie’s Legacy (October 2017 - it would have had an unbroken run since November 2016 but it dropped out for a single week).

At this time of year we can generally expect new albums from at least some of Andrea Bocelli, Andre Rieu, Daniel O’Donnell, as well as Michael Ball and Alfie Boe (either together or separately. This year, Andrea Bocelli has got in first. Duets, released to mark 30 years since the beginning of his career, includes collaborations with a range of singers including Ed Sheeran, Celine Dion, Dua Lipa and Edith Piaf who died when Bocelli was five. It is at number fourteen.

The gloriously-named Australian band Amyl And The Sniffers are at number nine with their third album Cartoon Darkness. Having formed in 1986, American band Pixies have probably been around for long enough to be called veterans, even if it does make me feel very old. They are at number 22 with their ninth studio album The Night The Zombies came. That appears to be the only nod to Hallowe'en in this week’s top forties.

Laura Marling is at number thirteen with Patterns In Repeat. Halsey enters at number nineteen with The Great Impersonator. The title might lead people to believe that it is a covers album. Instead, it is an album of songs inspired by various people. Among them are Kate Bush, PJ Harvey, Joni Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen.

Queen released their eponymous debut album in July 1973 but it didn’t get into the chart until just after the release of their second album. It eventually peaked at number 24 in early 1976 after the success of a certain well-known song. Now, just over a year after its 50th anniversary, there is a bumper new edition of the album. The track listing has been changed to reflect the band’s original chosen order and there is the batch of demos, live recordings and session tracks that regularly accompany these reissues. This edition easily out-performs the original release by storming in at number ten.