Gracie Abrams climbs to the top of the singles chart to bag her first number one. The Cure top the albums chart for the second time in their long career.

Gracie Abrams climbs to the top of the singles chart. After a wait of more than thirty years, The Cure get their second number one album.

Gracie Abrams gets her first number one single this week as That’s So true climbs two places from last week’s position. Male artists have still spent just two weeks at number one in the second half of the year so far. Abrams is also at number four with I Love You, I’m Sorry.

After finally making it to the top of the chart last week, Gigi Perez falls back to number two with Sailor Song. For now at least, it is the fourth one-week number one so far this year. Beyonce’s Texas Hold ‘Em, Taylor Swift's Fortnight and Charli XCX’s Guess are the other three. Last year there were nine songs that spent just seven days at the summit.

Rose and Bruno Mars are at number three with Apt. Chappell Roan’s Hot To Go climbs to a new peak of number five. It is in its ninth week in the top ten and its 21st week in the top forty.

At number 22 there is another new song from The Weeknd. At first listen, Sao Paulo, which features Anitta, is the best of the new songs so far. I don’t know whether Anittas makes sweaters, or even if her name is pronounced a knitter, but I can say that she is a singer-songwriter from Brazil who has released six studio albums.

Sao Paulo is the most populous in Brazil by a large margin. In second place is Rio de Janeiro, commonly known as Rio which was a hit for Duran Duran. Salvador is in fifth place. Athlete scored a minor hit with El Salvador which is a country. The Portuguese for Yellow River (a hit for Christie) is Rio Amarelo but there doesn’t seem to be a Brazilian city of that name, but Tony Christie did rather well with (Is This The Way To) Amarillo.

There is a different song in the chart from the Tyler The Creator album this week, and it is rather sweet. Like Him, which enters at number 33 features vocals from Lola Young, a singer-songwriter from Croydon.

Noah Kahan’s Stick Season re-enters once again, this time at number 40. Its absence for the last two weeks was a direct consequence of the return of One Direction songs to the top forty after the tragic death of Liam Payne. Before long, it will fall out again because of the return of Christmas songs. There’s something to look forward to.

After seven weeks bobbing about between numbers 25 and 33, Teddy Swims jumps to number fifteen this week with Bad Dreams. His song The Door enters the top ten for the first time in its 24th week in the top forty.

To be perfectly blunt, the list of good things to come out of Crawley is fairly short. Obvious inclusions on the list are Romesh Ranganathan, Gareth Southgate (even though he wasn’t born there) and the road to Brighton. Perhaps the best thing, though, is The Cure, a band formed there by Robert Smith in 1978. They are still going although, like a number of other bands of their vintage, only one original member remains. As that is Robert Smith himself, the band can be said to remain faithful to their general sound.

Songs Of A Lost World is their first new studio album since 2008, but Robert Smith has said it is to be the first of a trilogy of albums. If the next two are of the same quality as this, people will feel well-rewarded for their long wait. The Cure’s music is often quite dark (Friday, I’m In Love is a clear exception), but this album is perhaps even more so as a number of tracks reflect on Smith’s loss of a number of family members including his brother.

The Cure had their first number one album with Wish in 1992. Over thirty years on, Songs Of A Lost World delivers a second chart-topper for the band. Their Greatest Hits set was released in 2001 when it peaked at number 33. It eventually made it to number nineteen in 2019. It re-enters the chart this week at number 30.

Sabrina Carpenter is at number two with Short ‘n’ Sweet. Tyler, The Creator’s Chromakopia slips to number three after a week at the top. Charli XCX is at number four with Brat. Ed Sheeran’s arithmetically symbolic Tour Collection is back up to number five.

New entries beyond The Cure are few and far between. To be more accurate, they are non-existent. There are, however, plenty of re-entries. One of them, predictably, is Abba Gold. It dropped out of the top forty last week in favour of a revamped Singles collection (for a full explanation see last week’s commentary). This week it is straight back at number nineteen.