Rein Me In’s fourth run at the top (itself a record for a single chart run) continues for a second week, bringing its total run up to fifteen weeks. It matches Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around as the longest run at number one by a British act. Not so long ago, number one songs by British acts had become a rarity, apart from Wham’s annual spell and a Beatles song.

Olivia Rodrigo is still at number two with her Stupid Song. Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean is at number three. Harry Styles’ American Girls continues to rise back up the chart, climbing four places this week to number four.Ariana Grande is back up to number five with Hate That I Made You Love Me. Four of this week’s top five have been to number one, albeit over four decades ago in one case (no that isn’t when Rein Me In first topped the chart even if it feels like it to some).

Gracie Abrams gets her second hit single of the year with Look At My Life at number 39. The song sounds like one Taylor Swift threw away. Sombr gets his third hit of 2026 in the form of My Body Isn’t Ready at number 27.

French DJ Florent Hugel gets his first top forty hit at the age of 38 with Movin’ To The Sun at number 31. It has to be said that 93 million miles is a very long way to move. The removal costs would be immense. Hugel, as he is known, is joined by Imael Agent, another chart debutant, and by Ultra Nate who had two top ten singles in the 1990s.

Anita Ward's Ring My Bell was one of the most annoying number ones of the 1970s thanks to the incessant use of a syndrum. Thankfully that has been removed from Aitch’s RMB (Ring My Bell). It still isn’t great, but it is a good deal better than Ward’s version. It is a new entry at number 40.

Maybe one day Muse will record an album of quiet, gentle ballads, even if they do it just for the shock effect. That day hasn’t arrived yet and The Wow! Signal is very much what we have come to expect from the band.  Most of the album is written by Matt Bellamy, with or without the rest of the band. However, Hush has a number of co-writers, including Theo Hutchcraft of Hurts. It also features vocals from Ellie Goulding and is one of the album’s stand-out tracks.

Muse’s debut album Showbiz, released in 1999, performed modestly in the charts, peaking at number 26. Origin Of Symmetry, released in 2001 did much better, getting to number three. That album included signature songs Plug In Baby and New Born as well as a brilliant version of the soul classic Feeling Good, most associated with Nina Simone.

After those first two albums, it has been number ones all the way for their studio albums. That run continues as The Wow! Signal becomes their eighth success number one with a studio album.

Olivia Rodrigo slips to number two with You Look Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love after two weeks at the summit. The Essential Michael Jackson is still at number three. Harry Styles stays at number four with Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally. Olivia Dean keeps her top five place for a 40th week with The Art Of Loving at number five. All of the top five albums have been to number one.

The Pretty Reckless have had mixed fortunes with their albums. Three of them made the top ten although none of them quite made it to the top five. The exception was 2016’s Who You Selling For which got no higher than number 23. Album number five Dear God enters at number six, their third album to peak in that position.

Bad Bunny played live shows at the home of almost-relegated Tottenham Hotspur last weekend. As a result, his album Debi Tirar Mas Fotos returns to the chart at number 27.

Metallica released their seventh studio album Reload in 1997 when it reached number four. It has now been reissued as a boxed set of 15 CDs and four DVDs. die-hard fans with deep pockets can enjoy live recordings, demos and other bits and bobs. The reissued Reload enters at number 39.

Next Friday, I will be on a day-trip to France with a group of Year 7 students, so Popchartfreak will be filling in for me. If I survive the trip, I will return for a week before handing the reins back to Popchartfreak while I go back to France for a holiday. Be nice to him.

For the last few years, it has been assumed that the record for the most weeks at number one would be broken by Wham’s Last Christmas as it has been accumulating more weeks each year. Last Christmas has accumulated twelve weeks at the top, just behind the fifteen weeks of Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around and sixteen weeks for Bryan Adams’ (Everything I Do) I Do It For You. Those two songs picked up all their weeks at the top in one single run.

The current record for most weeks at number one has been held since 1953 when Frankie Laine’s I Believe spent a total of eighteen weeks at the summit in three separate runs, albeit in the same chart run. Last Christmas is likely to match that eighteen week figure in 2027 or 2028 unless a massive new Christmas song keeps it off the top for at least one of the next few years. However, by then, I Believe may have lost its record to Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In.

Whether Rein Me In breaks the record for the most weeks at number one remains to be seen, but this week it achieves another record by becoming the first song to have four separate spells at number one in the same chart run. It entered the chart last June, so it was already quite old when it finally climbed to the top in February, in its 35th week in the top forty.. Last week it slip[ped to number four in its 52nd week in the top forty. Now, at the start of its second year in the top forty, it climbs back to number one bringing its total run at the summit to fourteen weeks. It is the longest-running number one single since Drake’s One Dance spent fifteen (consecutive) weeks at the top in 2016.

Olivia Rodrigo’s Stupid Song remains at number two. She is also at number four with The Cure and at five with Drop Dead. The only song in the top five not to feature someone called Olivia, Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, is at number three. Taylor Swift’s I Knew It, I Knew You falls to number seven after two weeks at number one.

The rest of the chart is only slightly more exciting than England’s incredibly boring 0-0 draw with Ghana in the World Cup earlier this week. Ella Langley’s Choosin’ Texas enters the top ten for the first time, at number nine, almost six months into its chart run. Earlier in its run, it spent five consecutive weeks at number 35. It has also spent five non-consecutive weeks at number sixteen. A number one around Christmas still can’t be ruled out!

While much of this week’s commentary is devoted to the longevity of Rein Me In at the top of the chart, one other long-running number one also earns a mention. Alex Warren’s Ordinary, which spent thirteen weeks at number one last year, climbs nine places to number 22. He also has a re-entry at number 35 with Fever Dream. 

Calvin Harris and Clementine Douglas re-entered the top forty at number 27 a few weeks ago with Blessings. It slumped to number 40 before falling further. Now it is back again at number 25. Oasis’s Wonderwall enters the top forty for the sixth time at number 33. Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull are back at number 32 with On The Floor, just a few wells after it last polluted the chart.

As well as his record-breaking dates at Wembley Stadium, Harry Styles has also found time for a lower-key appearance at the Festival Hall (a smaller audience, anyway) with an orchestra. Publicity surrounding both events, added to streams by people who attended one or more of them, give another boost to his songs. Sign Of The Times climbs nine places to number twenty. American Girls returns to the top ten, at number eight. Sadly, Aperture, a far better song than the rather bland American Girls, falls a couple places.

If anyone is wondering what has happened to the part of the commentary usually devoted to new entries, there aren’t any. Not a single one.

Olivia Rodrigo gets a second week at number one with You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love. It is the fifth album to get a second consecutive week at the top in the first half of 2026. In the whole of last year, there were just two.

Myles Smith-Thompson, better known simply as Myles Smith released his first single in 2023. It was a song called Sweater Weather, something which large parts of the UK, and elsewhere in Europe, definitely have not been experiencing this week. He had his first hit in 2024 when Stargazing reached the top ten. Nice To Meet You gave him a second top ten single at the beginning of the following year. Both of the latter songs appear on his debut album My Mess, My Heart, My Life which was released last week. Among the album’s co-writers are Ed Sheeran, Dan Smith (Bastille) and Niall Horan. The album led the way in the mid-week updates, although its lead on Wednesday was a narrow one. Therefore, it is no surprise that it enters at number two. If it is any consolation to him, it is at number one in the Vinyl Albums chart.

The Essential Michael Jackson is at number three. Harry Styles is at number four with Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving is at number five.

For a band with just two core members, Placebo have a good claim to be truly multi-national. Singer Brian Molko is British / American (having been born in Belgium to an American father with French and Italian heritage) while guitarist Stefan Olsdal is Swedish / Luxembourgish. Molko’s androgynous appearance and high-pitched vocals made the band stand out. They had three top ten singles in the 1990s and continued to have top forty hits until the mid-noughties.

Only one of Placebo's top ten singles appear on Re-created, a collection - as its title suggests - of re-recordings of some of their songs. It is a new entry in this week’s chart at number fourteen.

After a succession of studio albums and live recordings achieved little or no chart success, duo When Rivers Meet made their breakthrough in 2023 when Aces Are High reached the top ten. They got a second top ten album last year with Addicted To You. Rhythm Rust and Static gives them a third chart hit as a new entry at number twenty.

After entering the chart at number one last week, Taylor Swift holds off a strong challenge from three Olivia Rodrigo songs to remain at number one with I Knew It I Knew You. She remains the only artist to have two chart-topping singles in 2026.

In the midweek updates, Olivia Rodrigo led the way with Stupid Song, although she insists on using all lower-case letters. However, a late rally by Taylor Swift means it enters at number two.

There have been many other “song songs” in the charts over the years. They include the instrumental Heartsong by Gordon Giltrap as well as This Is Not A Love Song (Public Image Ltd) and This Is Not A Song (The Frank And Walters).

As someone who spends part of my working life teaching children about when to use capital letters, I find the recent trend of artists styling their song titles entirely in lower case infuriating. On the other hand, it does give me the opportunity to say that Olivia Rodrigo’s stupid song is at number two. 

Time for a slight diversion. Back in the days of the printing press, compositors had to select each letter individually from a rack and set it up for printing. Capital letters were on a higher shelf than small letters, hence the term “upper case”. They were, literally, chosen from the upper case of letters. The lower case letters were more common, so were easier to reach. Who said these commentaries were not educational?

Anyway, back to Olivia Rodrigo. She is also at number three with The Cure while her previous number one,Drop Dead, rebounds eight places to number five.

The Olivia Rodrigo dominated top three means that Olivia Dean, alongside Sam Fender, falls to number four with Rein Me In. It brings an end to a sixteen-week run in the top two. It has been in the top ten since last November, apart from two weeks over Christmas, and this week it completes a full year in the top forty, having been one of the few non-Christmas songs to survive the annual onslaught of festive tunes (and other noises).

K-Pop act Le Sserafin make their top forty debut at number 22 with Iconic By Mistake. They are joined by fellow K-Popsters Illit and Katseye. The latter act have had three previous top forty entries, two of them this year. Regular readers will know that I am not much of a fan of K-Pop, but this offering is truly dreadful.

For the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, FIFA chose Colombian singer Shakira to record the official anthem Waka Waka (This Time For Africa). Little did we know that this would appear perfectly logical compared with many subsequent decisions by world football’s governing body. This year, Shakira is back, aided by Burna Boy, with a contribution to the official album for the 2026 World Cup in North America. Wales didn’t qualify for the tournament, but that hasn’t stopped them recording a song called Dai Dai. It is a new entry at number 28, giving Shakira a first hit as lead artist since 2014. It’s not quite as good as Waka Waka, but at least it brings something fresh to the chart. Waka Waka returns to the chart at number 37, its first top forty appearance since its original run in 2010.

While Shakira’s World Cup[ anthem is only in the top forty for a second time, another football anthem has been appearing regularly for thirty years, in which time the years of hurt (for the England men’s team) have doubled to 60. That song is, of course, Three Lions by Frank Skinner, David Baddiel and The Lightning Seeds. This week it enters the top forty for a tenth year at number 35.

The reason for Olivia Rodrigo’s dominance of the top places in the singles chart is, unsurprisingly, the release of a new album. Equally predictably, You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love goes straight to the top of the chart by a wide margin with total “sales” of over 100,000. All three of her studio albums have topped the chart, but this third set has first week “sales” almost as high as the two previous albums combined.

The Essential Michael Jackson remains at number two. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving is at number four.

With his record-breaking run of Wembley dates under way, Harry Styles climbs back up to number three with Party All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. His previous two albums are also in the top forty. His two best number ones are in the singles chart. Aperture is a re-entry at number 25 while Sign Of The Times climbs to number 29.

Yorkshire indie band Embrace are at number five with their ninth studio album, Avalanche. It maintains their run of reaching the top ten with every album.

Earlier this year, Drake inflicted three albums on us. That put him one ahead of Bruce Springsteen and Guns ‘n’ Rose who had each released two albums on the same day. All three of those were established acts, but last week Canadian duo Angine de Poitrine released two albums with the uninspiring titles Vol I and Vol II. More accurately, they were both released physically for the first time having originally been released in 2024 and in April this year. Neither of them charted on their initial release but this week Vol I is at number 23 and Vol II is four places higher.

Jonathan Coe is one of my favourite novelists with The Rotters Club probably being the work I enjoyed the most. It includes a wonderfully pretentious review of a Yes album, written by one of the characters for his school magazine. The fact that the novel is based in the 1970s, when booth Coe and I were in our teens, shows just how long Yes have been together. They released their first album in 1969. They are at number 42 with their 24th studio album Aurora, narrowly missing out on a 22nd top forty album.

Sonny Fodera gets his first top forty album with Can We Do It All Again at number twenty.

One of the most successful current film franchises has now reached its fifth instalment with the release of Toy Story 5. Disney have managed to persuade Taylor Swift to contribute to the soundtrack which has led to her bagging a seventh number one single in the form of I Knew It, I Knew You. Thankfully, it is a lot better than most of the Disney songs that have reached the charts in recent years. This week Swift became the youngest woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In remains in second place. Ariana Grande falls to number three after a week at the top with Hate That I Made You Love Me. Olivia Rodrigo’s The Cure is at number four. Michael Jackson completes the top five with Billie Jean at number five.

Alex Warren gets his ninth top forty hit with Passenger at number 22. The song has rather more energy than some of his previous hit singles as well as a cheerier title than Fine Place To Die.

One of those earlier Alex Warren hits was Bloodline which leads neatly into Bloodstream,  Alyssa Grace’s new entry at number 25. It is a debut top forty hit for the Californian teenager. The song is OK, but I prefer the Ed Sheeran song of the same name.

American rapper Malcolm McCormick, performing as Mac Miller, died of an accidental drug overdose in September 2018, a few months after his relationship with Ariana Grande ended. His previous biggest hit in the UK was as a featured artist on Grande’s The Way which fell just short of a top forty place in 2016. In the same year he released the album The Divine Feminine. Ten years on, a song from that album, Cinderella is a new entry at number 27. It features Ty Dolla $ign who gets a twelfth top forty hit.

There is a clear winner in the race to have this week’s most irritating artist name and song title. A Manchester-based artist who styles himself Silva Bumpa has insisted on calling his debut hit single On 2nite. Ugh. The song isn’t much good either, but it is a new entry at number 32.

Niall Horan gets his third successive number one album with his fourth solo release Dinner Party. Impressively, its first week sales are the highest of his solo career. He regains his status of having had as many chart-topping albums as his erstwhile bandmate Harry Styles.

The Essential Michael Jackson is at number two. Drake’s Iceman is back up one place at number three. Olivia dean’s The Art Of Loving is at number four.

Birmingham band Overpass formed in 2020. They were initially expecting to be a covers band, but 2020 turned out to be a rather bad year for live music. Therefore, they used the time to start composing their own songs. They are at number five this week with their debut album Elsewhere, Always. It is the biggest selling album of the week in independent record shops.

Regular readers will not be surprised to know what word the Official Charts Company has used to describe actor and musician Jeff Goldblum. Yes, the word multi-hyphenate has been wheeled out again. He, along with the Mildred Seltzer Orchestra, is at number nine with Night Blooms. It is at number one in the Jazz and Blues albums chart, a chart which I believe hasn’t been mentioned here before.

Evansescence get a fifth top ten album with Sanctuary at number ten. It is their first release since The Bitter Truth in 2021. 

It has been nearly seven years since the last Pink Floyd compilation, so it is apparently time for another one. This one is a bit of a curiosity. For a start, it has only eight tracks, leading to the title 8-Tracks. It features tracks from their 1970s albums (a time when 8-track tapes were available)  Meddle (1971) to The Wall (1979). It enters at number seventeen to give the band a 30th top forty album.

The strangest choice of tracks on 8-Track is that of Pigs On The Wing, easily the weakest track(s) on their 1977 album Animals. I have always felt that this album is under-appreciated. Its reputation may have been damaged by the fact that the first and last tracks are Pigs On The Wing, Parts I and II. It is by no means a bad song; it’s just that all the other tracks are a lot better. The two parts on the Animals album run to under three minutes combined. For some reason, the track on this collection is over three-and-a-half minutes long. I can’t see it encouraging many people unfamiliar with Animals to make the effort to listen to the whole album.

Two months after Earrings gave him a first top forty single Malcolm Todd makes his albums chart debut with Do That Again at number nineteen, the same position held by Earrings in the singles chart this week. Perhaps we should call it a Paul Hardcastler double.. Soul singer Jalen N’Gonda has his first top forty album with his second release Doctrine Of Love at number 29. Barry Manilow has been around for rather longer. He gets a 25th top forty album with What A Time at number 34.

Prospa are at number seventeen in the singles chart with Free Your Mind. The album of the same name is a new entry at number 24.

After finishing comfortably ahead of the field in the singles chart for several weeks, Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In finally had some competition again this week. It came in the form of a new song from Ariana Grande, meaning that we could see the end of an eleven-week run oif number one singles by someone called Olivia.

Ariana Grande’s new single Hate That I Made You Love Me comes from her forthcoming album Petal, due to be released at the end of July. The song is pleasant enough, but I can’t say I will be making any great effort to hear it again. By entering the chart at number one, it becomes Grande’s eighth chart-topping single and her first since Positions spent six weeks at the summit at the end of 2020. 

Ariana Grande’s seven previous number ones have spent an average of three weeks there, so Rein Me In may face a struggle to become the first single to get four spells at the top  in the same chart run. For now, it falls back to number one having spent a total of thirteen weeks at number one.

Olivia Rodrigo’s The Cure falls one place to number three. Drake’s Janice STFU is back up to number four (why?) and Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean is at number five.

According to Spotify, F3miii is pronounced Femi. Why didn’t he just spell it like that, then? Perhaps he was hoping that people might spend so much time ridiculing his moniker that they didn’t have time to mention how boring his song Noble is. That worked well. Weird spelling or not, he makes his UK top forty debut this week at number 34.

The steady flow of old songs returning to the chart continues. This week it is the turn of Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull’s 2011 number one On The Floor, back at number 35. More than one-quarter of the songs in this week’s top forty are at least a decade old. That includes four of the top ten.

Dungeon Lane is a lane in the Speke area of Liverpool where schoolboy Paul McCartney used to play with his friend George Harrison. It now lends its name to McCartney’s 20th solo album, The Boys Of Dungeon Lane. The album is a very nostalgic collection, looking back to the days before he and Harrison formed the most successful band in UK chart history. It features a mixture of ballads and rockier songs, and demonstrates that McCartney can still write some cracking tunes at the age of nearly 83.

The Boys Of Dungeon Lane is Paul McCartney’s ninth number one album since he became an ex-Beatle. Including those with the Fab Four (starting with Please Please Me in 1963), he has now had 24 number one albums, more than anyone else in UK chart history.

The Essential Michael Jackson is at number two. One of the various editions of the album includes his duet with Paul McCartney, Say Say Say, a number two hit in 1983. Both Jackson and McCartney have now had a number one album this year.

Despite their name, Boards Of Canada are a Scottish duo who have been performing their electronic music since 1986. Since then, they have not exactly been prolific; Tomorrow’s Harvest, released in 2013, was only their fourth album. That album saw them make their top ten debut, but they haven't rushed the follow-up. It was released last week, thirteen years on. Inferno fires them into the top five for the first time, at number three.

Boards Of Canada may not be from Canada, but Drake is. Maybe he could have styled himself Boreds Of Canada. His album Iceman is at number four. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving is at number five.

Lovers of chart quirks might enjoy this bit. Skye Newman released SE9 Part 2 last week. However, it hasn’t charted in its own right. Instead, Part I is back in the chart. It reached number eighteen last year; now it is back at number eleven.

Kiefer Sutherland is best known as an actor, but has also carved out a music career. Naturally, the Official Charts Company (OCC) has seized on the chance to increase their number of uses of the word multihyphenate. I am pretty certain I have never seen the word used apart from on the OCC website and on the two sites that host this commentary. Grey is his fourth album and, as a new entry at number 31, the third to reach the top forty.

Freya Ridings is at number 26 with Mother Of Pearl. Dua Lipa celebrates her recent wedding with another top forty album as Live From Mexico lands at number 21. This means that the USA is the only one of the hosts of the World Cup starting next week not to feature in either the name of the act or title of the album in this week's new entries. The closest they get is Floridian band whose eighth album, Ei8ht, is - hurrah for coincidences - at number eight. All three of their charting albums have peaked at a multiple of four, all in an even year which is not a multiple of four.

There is still no catching Sam Fender and Olivia Dean at the top of the singles chart as Rein Me in gets a thirteenth week at the top. It matches the thirteen weeks at the top achieved by Alex Warren’s Ordinary last year.

Rein Me In’s thirteen weeks at the top has been split across three separate runs, each interrupted by a one-week number one. Its current run now stands at five weeks, matching the previous run. Sandwiched between these two runs was a seven-day spell at the top for Olivia Rodrigo’s Drop Dead.

At the start of the week, there was the prospect of Olivia Rodrigo toppling Sam Fender and Olivia Dean once again, which would have meant a third successive swap of Olivias at the top. However, by Wednesday, Rein Me In had established a healthy lead over Rodrigo’s The Cure. It would be good to think that Rodrigo is paying tribute to the best band Crawley has ever produced, However, the only reference to Robert Smith and co comes at the very beginning of the video when the name of the song is spelled out in a typeface close to one used by the band. The song is at number two.

Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean is at number three. The Chemical Brothers are at number four with Go. Tame Impala’s Dracula stays at number five.

In a further indication of Drake’s declining popularity, the three songs of his that entered the chart last week have dropped significantly this week. One of them has fallen so far that it is no longer one of his three most popular songs. His third most popular song is now Shabang which is a new entry at number 25.

Everywhere was the fifth, and most successful, single in the UK from Fleetwood Mac’s 1987 album Tango In The Night. It has been hovering around the lower reaches of the chart for much of the last three years. For all that time it has been on the Accelerated Chart Ratio as it is over three years old. Now, for no obvious reason, it is back on the standard ratio. The consequent doubling of the value of its streams sees it back in the chart at number 24.

There’s more. Dreams was a single from Fleetwood Mac’s classic 1977 album Rumours. While the album did very well in the UK, and even better in the USA, it didn’t spawn any major hit singles. Dreams, probably one of the best known songs on the album only got to number 24. Like Everywhere, it has been in the lower reaches of the chart for three years. Now, it to has returned to the Standard Chart ratio and enters at a new peak position of number eighteen. 

Clementine Douglas was among the acts performing at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Sunderland last weekend. She reached number three last year as the vocalist on Calvim Harris’s Blessings. The song is back in the top forty at number 27.

Natasha Bedingfield’s Unwritten was a top ten hit in 2004. Twenty years later, it returned to the chart for an extended run. Now it is back for another go at number 40. Pinkpantheress’s Stateside re-enters at number 38.

Singer-songwriter Maisie Peters was born in Steyning, a few miles north of Shoreham, and is now based in Brighton. In 2021 she became the first act to join the record label set up by Ed Sheeran and she released her debut album You Signed Up For This. That album debuted at number two, but its successor The Good Witch went one place higher. Album number three, Florescence, started the week at number one, but its lead over The Essential Michael Jackson halved between Tuesday’s update and Wednesday’s.

In the end, Maisie Peters did enough to grab herself a second number one album with The Essential Michael Jackson in second place, just 250 “sales” behind.. He is also at number five with Thriller.

Darke’s Iceman falls two places to number three. His other two new albums suffer more drastic falls. Olivia Dean is at number four with The Art Of Loving.

Michael Ball is at number nine with his latest album Glow. Ball has had two top ten singles, 31 years apart. His debut hit Love Changes Everything reached number two in 1989. He famously topped the chart in 2020 with a version of You’ll Never Walk Alone, accompanied by charity fundraiser Tom Moore who was approaching his 100th birthday. 

American rock band finally got a deserved hit album in the UK when their fourth studio set reached number five in 2024. They now have a second hit to their name as Everyone For ten Minutes lands at number ??? Their singer, and main songwriter, Jack Antonoff, is more widely known as a co-writer with the likes of Taylor Swift, Lana del Rey, Pink and Florence Welch.

In the early days of search engines, it would probably have been quite hard to find information on a band called A. However, they are now more sophisticated and can take into account a user’s previous searches. Therefore, someone who looks up a lot of musical acts only has to type a few letters of “A band” to find them. We can soon find that the band were formed in Lowestoft, a coastal town between Ipswich and Norwich, and the birthplace of Benjamin Britten as well as three members of The Darkness. Only one of their four previous albums reached the top forty. Album number five nearly gave them a second top forty hit, but they just missed out. Prang is at number 42. It is at number one on the Rock and Metal albums chart.

Dominic Harrison, better known as Yungblud, had two number one albums last year - Idols and One More Time, the latter recorded with Aerosmith. Two new physical editions of Idols were released last week, allowing the album to return to the chart at number seventeen.

San Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In remains at the top of the singles chart. It has now spent twelve of the last fourteen weeks at the summit. With one of Rein Me In’s three runs at the top having been ended by Olivia Rodrigo, there has been an Olivia at the top of the chart for the last eleven weeks. Olivia Newton-John still holds the record for the longest continuous run at number one by a single Olivia.

Last Friday (15 May), Drake released not one, but three new albums. It is fair to say that some people were rather more enthusiastic about this development than others. With a total of 43 tracks between the three albums, Drake songs could have swamped the singles chart if the three-song limit for a single artist had not been introduced. When his popularity was at its peak, he could have occupied almost the entire top forty.

In recent years, Drake’s singles have been rather less successful than earlier in his career. Even when his songs have achieved high peak positions, they haven’t always stayed in the chart for very long. The three songs from Drake’s new albums to be allowed into the chart all come from Iceman. Janice STFU is at number two, one palace ahead of national treasures. Make The Cry is at number six.

Drake has now accumulated 102 top forty singles since his debut in 2009. Fifty of them have reached the top ten. If he has three songs in next week’s top forty he will have notched up 700 weeks in the broadcast chart. There have been approximately 850 charts since Drake’s first hit.

Michael Jackson's Billie Jean is at number four. Tame Impala is at number five with Dracula. Jackson is also at number eight with Human Nature and number nine with Beat It.

Apart from the Drake songs, there are just two other new entries. The first is by Gracie Abrams. She made her chart debut in 2023 but didn’t enter the top forty until the following year. Her biggest hit to date came later in 2024 when That’s So True went to number one. The song spent a total of eight weeks at the top, having made way for Wham for three weeks part-way through its run. Hit The Wall, a new entry at number eighteen, is her sixth top forty hit.

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Last weekend the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Vienna. The UK entry came last (again) and is nowhere to be seen in this week’s top 100. The only Eurovision song in the top forty is the winner, Bangaranga by Dara at number 21. The Bulgarian entry sounds a little like two songs mashed together. It starts of as a fairly pleasant song until it is spoilt by the Bangaranga bits.

One of the highlights of last week’s chart was the departure of the K-Pop Demon Hunters’ Golden. It spent the latter half of last year in the top forty (including ten weeks at number one), dropped out in the week of the most Christmas-heavy chart, before returning for another long run.  However, it just won’t go away. It is back this week at number 39.

And so we return to Drake and those three albums. Multiple releases of new albums by a single artist are rare. The most famous examples in the past are those by Bruce Springsteen and Guns ‘n’ Roses who both released two new albums on the same day. On both occasions, they occupied the top two positions in the albums chart the following week. Would Drake be able to top that by taking the top three positions?

Thankfully, the answer to the above question is No. That said, one of them, Iceman, is at number one. It was clear by Wednesday’s update that “sales” of Iceman would be more than double the combined sales of the other two albums, Maid Of Honour and Habibti. Those two albums finished at numbers six and seven respectively. Drake has now had seventeen top ten albums, including seven number ones.

The Essential Michael Jackson slips to number two. Olivia Dean climbs back up to number the wih The Art Of Loving. Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide is at number five.

Returning to Eurovision, Freya Skye (now sixteen years old) represented the UK in the junior version of the contest in 2022.She won the public vote but a fifth place finish from the jury meant that she came fifth overall. She has now released her debut album Stardust. It is a new entry at number 35 and is at number one in the Vinyl Albums chart.

London band The Karma Effect get their second top forty album with Intentions at number 39.

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean continue their reign at the top of the shingles chart, in a week that has seen both heavy rain and hail, withRein Me In. It has now been at number one for a total of eleven weeks. The last song by a British act to spend as long at number one was Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits in 2021. That song had a single eleven-week run whereas Rein Me In is now in its third run at the top. Rein Me In moves past Rihanna and Jay-Z’s Umbrella to become the longest running number one single by as male/female duo.

There are three Michael Jackson songs in the top ten, thanks to the popularity of the recent biopic. Billie Jean leads the way at number two and Beat It is at number three. The third song is Human Nature. That was released as a single from the Thriller album in some countries, but not in the UK. It eventually reached number 62 immediately after Jackson’s death and when downloads meant that any song was eligible to chart. It would have been in the chart last week if the three-songs limit was not in place. It is now one of the three  most popular Jackson songs of the week, so it enters at number six, giving the late singer a 45th top ten single.

Tame Impala is at number three with Dracula. Olivia Rodrigo’s Drop Dead is at number four. It is the only song in the top seven that was released in 2026 . The Chemical Brothers jump fifteen  places to number seven with their 2015 track Go. It is their first top ten hit since the brilliant Galvanize in 2005.

Sienna Spiro enters at number 23 with Material Lover. The song comes from the soundtrack of the much-hyped film The Devil Wears Prada II. The Visitor, a number eleven hit for Spiro earlier this year, re-enters at number 33.

For five years from 2008, almost every single released by Katy Perry made the top ten. Four of them reached number one. Her later singles have been less successful although she did manage a fifth chart-topper, helped by the presence of Calvin Harris and Pharrell Williams. In her early five-year run of top ten singles, one of the rare singles to peak outside the top ten was the aptly-named The One That Got Away. Maybe that is about to be changed as the song re-enters at number 30.

In thirteen years of steady chart success Charli XCX has had two number one singles. Rather unusually, they were eleven years apart. Her debut single I Love It (where she played second fiddle to Icone Pop who has rarely been heard from since) topped the chart in 2013. She didn’t return to the summit until 2024 when Guess, with Billie Eilish, got there. She has a re-entry at number 36 with Rock Music, a song that would benefit from being longer than just two minutes. Strangely, some of her songs would have benefitted from being cut to two minutes.

The Essential Michael Jackson remains at the top of the albums chart, giving it a ninth week at number one when added to the time spent at the top after Jackson’s death in 2009. Jackson is also at number five with Thriller, one place ahead of Bad.

In the 27 years since they released their first album Dublin band Westlife have achieved a lot of chart success while also being widely criticised as being bland and predictable. One thing they were particularly good at (or, more accurately, their record label was good at) was releasing albums and singles at a time that would maximise their chances of getting to number one. That timing has given them eight number one albums and fourteen chart-topping singles. They are about to go on tour again which has given them an excuse to release another compilation album. This one has 25 songs which is the best explanation I can come up with for the title 25: The Ultimate Collection. That said, their tour is called The 25th Anniversary World Tour which suggests that someone isn’t very good at arithmetic. The album led the way in the midweek updates, but finishes the week at number two. Insert your own joke here.

Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide is at number three. Olivia Dean is at number four with The Art Of Loving.

Reverend And The Makers are one of many acts not to java matched the success of their earliest releases. Their fantastic debut single Heavyweight Champion Of The World remains their biggest hit. Its parent album The State Of Things is also their most successful, although they did get a second top ten album with Heatwave In The Cold North in 2023. This week their eighth studio album, Is This How Happiness Feels?, is at number seven.

Rock band Basement were formed in Ipswich in 2009. From then until 2018, they released four albums, none of which sold very well. They gained a decent following in the USA, but that was not enough to sustain them. Despite being considered suitable to support Weezer and The Pixies in 2019, they disbanded the following year. The members pursued various careers outside music. Singer Andrew Fisher became a popular teaching assistant in Brighton - Hove, actually.

In 2022, they decided to give things another go. This came after the release of an EP which included a great version of Suede’s Animal Nitrate. They ultimately quit their jobs to concentrate full-time on music again, not letting the fact that two members now lived in the USA get in the way.

Last Friday (8 May) Basement released their fifth album Wired. Pre-release tracks had suggested that this would be slightly less rocky than previous releases, and so it has proved. There is a distinct feel of their near namesakes Pavement about the album. 

In Monday’s update Basement were at number eight. By Wednesday, they had fallen just one place. A probable top forty finish had turned into a possible top twenty placing. That deserved top twenty hit has duly happened. Wired is a new entry at number sixteen.

As mentioned in the singles section, Katy Perry’s The One That Got Away has re-entered the singles chart this week. It is included on a new compilation The Ones That Got The Plays (see what they did there?). The album is currently only available as a playlist on streaming sites with no physical release or even a download release. That lack of anything that could be called a release in conventional terms has not excluded it from the chart. It is a new entry at number thirteen despite only landing on streaming sites on Wednesday.

The Covasettes join a very long list of Manchester bands with a top forty album to their name as Honeymoon Forever lands at number 34.

Chris Brown is at number seventeen.

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In gets another week at number one this week, finishing well clear of all rivals. Its current run has now lasted two weeks, bringing its total up to ten weeks. It is the third song to spend at least ten weeks at number one since the beginning of last year. The other two songs both remain in the top forty. This is, surely, the first time we have had three songs in the top forty which have spent at least ten weeks at number one in their current chart run.

Rein Me In is the joint longest-running number one by a male/female duo, matching Rihanna and Jay-Z's Umbrella in the wet summer of 2007. It is the longest-running chart-topper by a British female artist.

Tame Impala’s Dracula is back up to number two. Olivia Rodrigo is at number three with Drop Dead.

One of the songs to have spent at least ten weeks at number one recently is Alex Warren’s Ordinary. That climbed to the top in March last year and stayed there for twelve weeks. After Sabrina Carpenter’s Manchild toppled Ordinary for a week, it returned to the top for a thirteenth and final week. It remains in the top forty today and would be even higher if it had not been moved on to the Accelerated Chart Ratio for most of that time. 

In recent weeks Fever Dream has provided Alex Warren with another major hit single. It currently sits at number five. This week, another new Warren song is in the chart as Fine Place To Die enters at number twenty. Both songs are said to be on his forthcoming album. However, there is currently no title or release date for the album.

Madonna’s last top forty hit as a lead artist was Living For Love in 2015. Sabrina Carpenter, on the other hand, has had fifteen top forty hits as the lead artist (including four number ones), plus one hit playing second fiddle to Taylor Swift. The two have now joined forces to record Bring Your Love with Madonna getting top billing. The song is a new entry at number 29, providing Madonna with a 70th top forty hit.

The latest song to benefit from appearing on a soundtrack is Chemical Brothers’ Go. It originally appeared on their 2015 album Born In The Echoes and it reached number 46 as a single. It has now been used in the film Apex and is at number 22. Chemical Brothers’ last top forty single was The Salmon Dance in 2007.

Two Los Angeles acts make their UK top forty debut. Stella Lefty, a singer-songwriter from , is at number 38 with Boston. Perhaps she will now move to Boston and release a song called LA. Temper City, from Israel but now based in LA, are at number 35 with Self Aware.

The race for the top of the albums chart was a three-way battle between two new releases and a much older album.

When Kneecap released their album Fine Art in 2024, they were a little-known hip-hop trio from Ireland. Even so, the album came close to reaching the top forty. Then, in April 2025, they expressed support for Palestine but, more controversially, also made some inflammatory remarks about Israel. This caused outrage in certain sections of the UK press who managed to unearth some earlier controversial comments made by members of the band.

All the controversy meant that Kneecap’s set at Glastonbury attracted a rather higher attendance than might have been anticipated when they were booked. It also meant that there would be a lot more interest in their third album when it was released. That release came last week in the form of Fenian.

The second new album to be in contention for the top spot was the latest solo album from former Spice Girl Melanie C. Her first solo set, Reason, reached number five in 2003. However, all of her subsequent releases have performed significantly less well with three of them not even making the top forty. The trend has gone into reverse more recently with Version Of Me reaching number 25 in 2016 before Melanie C went to number eight four years later. She is now back with Sweat. A top three finish would not only be her first; it would also be the highest peak for any former Spice Girl.

The third contender was not a new album by any stretch of the imagination. The Essential Michael Jackson was released in 2005 when it reached number two behind James Blunt’s Back To Bedlam. It then spent seven weeks at number one following Jackson’s death in 2009. As a result of the critically-unacclaimed Jackson biopic, it is now back at the top. Kneecap are at number two with Melanie C in third place.

Noah Kahan's The Great Divide falls to number four after seven days at the summit. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving holds onto its top five place at number five. Two other Michael Jackson albums are in the top ten. Thriller is at number six, two places ahead of Bad. Billie Jean is at number four in the singles chart. Beat It climbs twelve places to number ten and Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough climbs to number fifteen. I Want You Back is a re-entry at number 33. The song, a number two hit in 1970, is credited to The Jackson 5 which means that it doesn't fall victim to the rule limiting an artist to three singles in the chart simultaneously.

Melanie C is not the only female singer-songwriter to get her best performing album for many  years. Tori Amos reached number fourteen with her much-praised debut Little Earthquakes in 1992. The follow-up, Under The Pink, topped the chart in 1994 and was followed bu two more top ten albums. Subsequent releases have not achieved the same success with one of them only just scraping into the top 100. She now gets a fifteenth top forty album with In Times Of Dragons at number thirteen, matching the peak of 2014’s Unrepentant Geraldines. That was her highest peak position since her third album, From The Choirgirl Hotel, reached number six in 1998.

Nigerian rapper Asake is at number 27 with M$ney. In the latest episode of Multi-hyphenate Watch, the Official Charts Company has used the term to describe Asake even though all his achievements are within the music industry.

Texan country singer Kacey Musgraves is at number seven with Middle Of Nowhere. Ohio Duo The Black Keys land at number 33 with Peaches!

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In returns to number one again, making it a total of nine weeks at the top for the song. It also means that one Olivia replaces another Olivia at the top for the second successive week. As nobody has pointed out any previous occasions since last week, I am assuming that this is only the second time in chart history that somebody has replaced another singer with the same forename at number one. Olivia Dean has another new entry with Baby Steps at number 31. It is the eighth song from The Art Of Loving to enter the top forty.

Rein Me In is only the eighth song in UK singles chart history to have three spells at number one in a single chart run. However, a closer look at the history of this phenomenon is an illustration of how things have changed since streaming data was included in the compilation of the chart.

The first song to have three separate spells at number one in the same chart run did so when the UK singles chart was less than a year old. Frankie Laine’s I Believe climbed to the summit in June 1953. It spent nine weeks at number one before dropping to number two. Just a week later, it returned to the top, spending a further six weeks there. After slipping back to number two for another week, it went back to the top for another three weeks. The total of eighteen weeks at number one remains a record over 70 years later.

In early 1957, Guy Mitchell’s version of Singing The Blues was the next song to have three goes at the top although each one lasted just seven days. One of the singles to topple Mitchell was Tommy Steele’s version of the same song. 

It didn’t happen again until 2014 when Pharell Williams’ Happy accumulated four weeks at number one in three spells with a five-week gap between the second and third. Since then it has also been achieved by Justin Bieber’s What Do You Mean (2015, five weeks), Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber (2017, eleven weeks), The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights (2020, eight weeks) and Golden from K-Pop Demon Hunters and co. (2025, ten weeks). The fact that we now have six songs in just twelve years achieving this (compared with two in the previous 62 years) suggests that this will soon be an unremarkable feat. We will, instead, be waiting for the first song to have four spells at number one in a single chart run.

The other Olivia is, of course, Ms Rodrigo who was at number one last week with Drop Dead. That song slips to number two this week.

Justin Bieber stays at number three with Beauty And A Beat (with Nicki Minaj). Bieber is also at number six with Daisies while Yukon is at 27.

Tame Impala remains at number four with Dracula. Alex Warren’s Fever Dream is back up to number five.

The other new entry is from the number one album with five re-entries also linked to the albums chart, so let’s just deal with the other re-entry before moving on to the albums. That other re-entry is Sombr’s 12 To 12 at number 39.

On this May Day, there is, alas, no sign of a re-entry for The Beatles’ Help or Abba’s SOS.

Naoh Kahan’s Stick Season album clocked up 150 weeks in the chart last week. In those 150 weeks it became a rather unusual number one album in two, linked, ways. First, it came after his first two albums (released in 2019 and 2021) had made no impact on the chart whatsoever. Second, it took a very long time to get there. The album was released in 2022 and, initially, it suffered the same fate as the previous two. It finally entered the chart in June 2023. Then, as the title track took off as a single, the album returned to the chart and has stayed there ever since. It eventually spent a week at the summit in February 2024, sixteen months after it was released and in its 35th week in the top 100.

The continuing success of Stick Season meant that the follow-up was bound to get off to a far better start than Noah Kahan’s first three albums. That has proved to be the case, and in spectacular style. Not only did Monday’s update show that The Great Divide was at number one, it held a large lead over all others, including a new Foo Fighters album. It, therefore, becomes Kahan’s second number one album.

Three songs from The Great Divide are in the singles chart. Doors is a new entry at number twelve. Porch Light (which you might find very near a door) re-enters at number twenty. The title track, which reached number ten in February, is back at number seventeen.

As mentioned above, Foo Fighters released a new album last week. As their last three albums (and five of the last six) had all reached number one, the expectation was that Your Favorite Toy would provide stiff competition for Noah Kahan. However, as we have seen, that didn’t happen. It is a new entry at number two.

Despite largely poor reviews, the Michael Jackson biopic has attracted large audiences, making more money in its first weekend than any previous musical biopic. The soundtrack from the album is at number four this week. While most soundtrack albums are now only eligible for the compilations chart, this qualifies for the main chart as all songs are performed by Jackson, including some with the Jackson 5.

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Normally, the chart rules mean that only one compilation album by an artist qualifies for the chart. Streams of a song can only count towards one compilation album by that artist. However, if the albums have a significantly different tracklisting, more than one album can make the chart. This week, two more Michael Jackson collections have qualified. Number Ones is at number five with The Essential collection at fourteen. Furthermore, his classic 1982 album Thriller is at number eight and 1987’s Bad is at thirteen.

Three Michael Jackson songs have re-entered the singles chart. Billie Jean, a number one in 1983, is at number thirteen. Beat It (also 1983) is at number 22, one place ahead of Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough (1979). The latter two songs both peaked at number three in their original chart run.

Paul Weller is at number nineteen with Weller At The BBC (Vol 2). It features recordings from the whole of his career, including with The Jam and Style Council. There is also a version of What Was I Made For, performed with Billie Eilish.

Californian singer-songwriter Kehlani is at number 28 with an eponymous album, giving her a third top forty success.

One Olivia replaces another at the top of the singles chart as Olivia Rodrigo goes straight to the top to bag her fourth number one with the cheerfully-titled Drop Dead. While it has a fairly slow start, the song does pick up to become another pleasant Olivia Rodrigo song. Her fourth number one is the first in an even year. It is the first number one single to contain the worf dead in its title, although Dead Or Alive topped the chart with You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) in 1985. I can't think of a previous occasion when there were successive number ones by different people with the same forename, but two of Michael Jackson’s number ones were followed by George Michael (one of them with Elton John).

The other Olivia, Ms Dean, falls to number two alongside Sam Fender with Rein Me In. That song has now accumulated eight weeks at the top. Justin Bieber’s songs continue to enjoy a boost after his Coachella appearance. Beauty And A Beat (with Nicki Minaj) jumps eight places to number three to reach the top ten for the first time. Former number one Daisies is up to number five while Baby is a re-entry at number seventeen. That song, which features Ludacris, originally reached number three. As he gets second billing behind Sean Kingston on Ennie Meenie, the song does not count towards Bieber’s three-song limit. It is, therefore, able to re-enter at number 32. It is an unexpected return to the chart for Kingston whose last hit was in 2011.

Tame Impala’s Dracula falls two places to number four.

Tyla and Sara Larsson have a new entry at number 40 with She Did It Again. It is Tyla’s fifth top forty hit but only the second to have more than one word in the title.

The battle for supremacy in the albums chart was between two new releases by very different acts. Monday’s sales figures suggested that Olivia Dean could outsell them both, but the closeness of the race encouraged Skindread and Jessie Ware’s marketing teams to make a big push for the top spot. As a result, both albums picked up significant sales throughout the week, unlike many new releases.

The eventual winners were Skindred who describe themselves as a Welsh ragga punk metal band. At least that means they can claim to be the first act of that description to have another number one album. Their last album, Smile, missed out on the top spot by just 150 sales so this victory should be especially sweet for them. Commenting to the Official Charts Company, they described the win as “a fairytale of Newport”.

Skindred were also very generous towards Jessie Ware, describing her album Superbloom as “amazing”. While the album has missed out on first palace in the main chart, it is at number one in the Official Record Store chart which measures sales from independent record shops. Ware has now had six top ten albums but still awaits her first number one.

Olivia Dean finishes at number three with The Art Of Loving. In its 30 weeks in the charty, it has not yet left the top five.

Zayn (Malik, formerly of One Direction) is at number four with his fifth studio album Konnakol. According to Wikipedia, Konnakol is a south Indian art of performing percussion rhythms vocally. 

The Michael Jackson biopic Michael has not been well-received by the critics, particularly as there is no mention of certain parts of his life. As his family was closely involved with the project, that omission is hardly a surprise. The Essential Michael Jackson collection climbs to number five.

Tom Rowlands of Chemical Brothers has joined forces with Norwegian singer Aurora to form Tomora. Their album Come Closer is at number sixteen. All together now - The sun will come out Tomora, bet your bottom dollar that Tomora there’ll be sun.

Last Saturday was Record Store Day which saw lots of limited editions released. One of them was a new edition of The Cure’s Greatest Hits. The album returns to the top forty at number 27.

There’s still no stopping Sam Fender and Olivia Dean who get an eighth week att the top of the singles chart with Rein Me In. It is the longest run at number one since Huntrx and a cast of thousands spent a total of ten weeks at the summit starting in August last year. Golden is still in the top forty today.

Tame Impala’s Dracula entered the top forty between two of Golden’s three runs at the top  of the singles chart. It climbed to number 21 before dropping out of the chart altogether in November. It returned to the top forty in February and started to gain momentum, climbing nine places to number three two weeks ago. This week it climbs one more place to number two. 

Alex Warren’s Fever Dream climbs two places to number three. The top five is completed by two other songs climbing two places. Sombr’s Homewrecker is at number four, one place ahead of Dominic Fike’s Babydoll. It is Fike’s first top five appearance since 3 Nights in August 2019.

It is no secret that I am not generally a fan of K-Pop. Therefore, the chances of me liking a song by a Los Angeles-based group clearly inspired by K-Pop were never going to be great. However, I wasn't quite prepared for just how awful the song in question, Pinky Up by Katseye, would be. Pinky Up, a new entry at number fourteen, is their third top  forty hit. It is the first to reach the top twenty.

One of the surprise hits of last year was Doechii’s Anxiety which peaked at number three. The success of that song has earned her the chance to work with Lady Gaga, a performer with a chart history dating back to 2009. The result, Runway, is a new entry at number 32. It deserves to go higher.

Prospa are a DJ duo from Leeds. They had minor hits in 2020 and last year, neither of which came anywhere near the top forty. They have teamed up with another DJ by the name of Cloonee to record their latest singleFree Your Mind. The combination of two acts with little chart success has worked as they enter at number 39.

In the week that Olivia Dean gets an eighth week with the number one single alongside Sam Fender, she also gets an eighth week at the top of the albums chart  The Art Of Loving climbs back up to number one. It first topped the chart on its release last October and was most recently at the top in February. It has been in the top five for its whole 29-week run in the chart with all but two of those weeks in the top three.

Jack Savoretti’s ninth studio album, We Will Always Be The Way We Were, was at number one in the two chart updates this week. However, with fewer that 10,000 sales by Wednesday it always looked likely to miss out by the end of the week. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of that figure came from actual sales, both physical copies and downloads. As real sales are heavily weighted towards the beginning of the chart week, it was unlikely that he would add many sales to that total in the final two days. It is, therefore, no surprise to see him entering at number two. It is at number one in the Official  Record Store chart which only counts physical sales from independent record shops.

It comes as a pleasure to note that Holly Humberstone is the singer-songwriter’s real name. When you are blessed with a name like that, why change it? Her first full-length album reached number five in 2023. Her second has narrowly outperformed it; Cruel World is at number four. It is number one in the vinyl albums chart.

Raye falls one place to number three with This Music May Contain Hope. BTS are still at number five with Arirang. I’m still not sure whether they are referring to Ari Styles, or what he might have been ringing about.

Ella Langley’s first album got precisely nowhere in the UK albums chart  However, with a big hit single to her name in the form of Choosin’ Texas, her second release was always likely to do significantly better. And so it has come to pass; Dandelion is at number seven.

British rock band Enter Shikari are at number sixteen with Lose Your Self, an album that was a surprise release last week. Alfie Boe enters at number 32 with Face Myself. Unlike his previous albums, this includes some songs written by Boe himself.

Justin Bieber’s Purpose returns at number 37 following his performance at the Coachella festival last weekend. He also returns to the singles chart with Beauty And A Beat (with Nicki Minaj) at number eleven, five places above its original peak position in 2012. Daisies, a number one hit last year, has sprouted at number fifteen and Yukon is back at number 26. Yukon reached number eighteen last year.

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean stay at the top of the singles chart with Rein Me In. Pedants will hope that the success of this song will mean that more people can tell the difference between rein and reign. Rein Me In (not Reign Me In) has now spent seven weeks at number one.

There have been many long-running number one singles this century. Whenever it happens, chart enthusiasts lament that these number ones don’t enter the public consciousness as much as songs such as Bohemian Rhapsody, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You or Love Is All Around.  Sadly, there is a lot of truth in this. A poll of the general public would probably show that Sam Fender is still a long way from being a household name. It would probably also show that a lot of people have no idea who Drake is. Lucky them.

Bella Kay’s Iloveit cubed remains at number two. Tame Impala’s Dracula (on Columbia records) completes a static top three. Zara Larsson’s Lush Life is back up to number four. Alex Warren’s Fever Dream returns to the top five at number five.

ANOTR’s first hit Relax In My Eyes had been in the top 100 for three months before it finally broke into the top forty. It peaked at number 33 in its tenth, and final, week in the broadcast part of the chart. Hit number two, Talk To You, launched into the top 100 last month and now climbs into the top forty at number 29. The Dutch duo are joined by 54 Ultra, a singer-songwriter from New Jersey.

Californian singer-songwriter Malcolm Todd makes his UK top forty debut at number 40 with Earrings, a song I have already forgotten a few minutes after hearing it. There have been very few Malcolms named on single credits. One of the members of that exclusive club is Malcolm McLaren whose hits include Double Dutch and Madam Butterfly. Carl Malcolm’s Fattie Bum Bum is best forgotten.

Harry Styles swaps one former number one with another this week. Aperture drops out of the top forty as it is no longer one of Styles’ three most popular tracks. Its replacement is his equally good first number one single, 2017’s Sign Of The Times at number 28. This slightly bizarre occurrence is entirely down to the quirks of chart rules. Most obviously, Aperture is a victim of the three-song limit. However, the biggest factor is that it has gone on to the Accelerated Chart Ratio meaning that its streams have halved in value. Sign Of The Times, on the other hand, has gone in the opposite direction. After its use in a film, it has been restored to the Standard Chart Ratio.

Sean Paul and Keyshia Cole continue to climb the chart with the 20-year-old (When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me. It hits a new peak of number 24. I hope Tim is pleased.

Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide climbs back up to number 36. If it had been released as a single at the time, some people might have been curious to find out what song was on the other side. Others wouldn’t have bothered. That lack of interest in b-sides probably led to many people buying Boney M’s Brown Girl In The Ring, not realising that it was on the b-side of the Rivers Of Babylon single they already owned.

There is a dearth of new entries in the albums chart this week which means that this section will not take up much space. Those new entries start, and almost finish, with the number one. After topping the chart with his first two albums Dermot Kennedy may be over the moon to complete a hat-trick as The Weight Of The Woods rockets to the top. It follows Without Fear (2019) and Sonder (2022) in topping the chart. He is the first Irish solo artist to top the UK chart with their first three albums. While the US Kennedy political clan has Irish roots, I am not aware of any connection with this Irish Kennedy.

Raye falls one place to number two after a week at the top. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving is at number three. Harry Styles climbs back up to number four with Kiss All The Time Disco Occasionally. BTS are at number five with Arirang. All of the top five albums have started their chart run at the top.

Anaïs Marinho, recording as Arlo Parks, has a truly international background. While she was born in London, her ancestry is Nigerian, Chadian and French. She now lives in the USA. Her first two albums reached the top ten in the UK. Her third, Ambiguous Desire, ?is at number eleven. Her main co-writer on the album is Paul Epworth who has also worked with Adele (Rolling In The Deep, Skyfall), Florence and the Machine (Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)), and Coldplay (A Sky Full Of Stars, as producer) among many others.

There is a new biopic on Michael Jackson who didn’t invent the moonwalk although he did do a lot to make it popular. That has led to an increase in streams of tracks from his Essential collection which helps it climb back into the top ten at number seven.

Last week’s commentary referred to controversy surrounding Kanye West. By that time, some politicians had already started to call for him to be barred from entering the UK after the news that he would be headlining all three nights of the Wireless Festival in the summer. He has now been barred and the whole festival has been cancelled. As decisions by arts bodies go, the decision to choose West as a headliner is a definite arty miss.

There are many re-entries in the albums chart this week. It is disappointing that Dark Side Of The Moon and The Race For Space are not among them. They do include the Beatles 1967-70 collection at number 39, a compilation that covers the time of the first moon landing, unless you think it was staged in a studio.

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In gets another week at number one. Its current three week run matches the three weeks it spent at the top before being interrupted for a week by Harry Styles’ American Girls. Styles’ previous number one, the excellent Aperture, was also sandwiched between separate runs of the same song, in this case Dave and Tems’ Raindance.

Bella Kay climbs back up to number two with Iloveitiloveitiloveit. Tame Impala gets his first top ten singles as Dracula climbs to number three in its sixteenth week in the top forty. His first chart appearance came in 2012 when his Lonerism album reached number fourteen.

Harry Styles is still at number four with American Girls. BTS fall to number four with Swim. It looked like sinking far further earlier in the week, but the release of new physical copies boosted its sales.

Zara Larsson’s I Love It climbs to number seven, just four places below the number three peak it reached a decade ago. 

I always like to try to understand the appeal of certain types of music, even if I don’t like it myself. With some artists, that is a real struggle. Why do people choose to listen to Central Cee? However, they do and he has a new entry this week with Wagwan at number 31. It is, predictably, as awful as its title. Does it stand for something? Maybe What A Git, What A Numpty?

Nice To Each Other has regained its status as Olivia Dean's third most popular song. This means that The Hardest Part drops out of the chart while Nice To Each Other is back at number 30. Rein Me In counts as a Sam Fender song, so does not count towards Dean’s limit of three songs in the chart.

Sean Paul and Keyshia Cole’s (When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me climbs to number 26, ahead of its original peak in its initial chart run twenty years ago.

Last week I commented on Ella Langley's Choosin’ Texas, specifically the fact that it had spent eight weeks in the top forty without ever falling, but still only achieving a peak of number 32. This week it climbs again, to number 29. At this rate, it might be the last number one before Wham take over again in December.

Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide slips back into the top forty again at number 40.

Raye’s struggle to be able to release the music she wanted to release, rather than what record companies wanted her to release, has been well documented. It meant that her debut album, My 21st Century Blues, wasn’t released until 2023, more than six years after her first appearance in the singles chart. While the album didn’t quite get to number one - she was beaten to the top spot by Shania Twain - it did give her a first number one single in the forn of Escapism.

Last week Raye released her second album, This Music May Contain Hope, a set which includes another number one single, Where Is My Husband. There was never any real doubt that the album would go to number one and it has done so by a large margin. The fabulous Click Clack Symphony climbs to number eleven in the singles chart. The former number one single is back up to number fifteen while she gets a third track in the top forty with I Know You’re Hurting entering at number 22. With seventeen songs and a running time of 73 minutes, it is another album that bucks the general trend for pitifully short albums.

Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving returns to the top two at number two. BTS's Arirang falls to number four after a week at the top.

In recent years Kanye West has become known more for expressing some rather controversial views than for his musical output. He has also decided to shorten his name to a simple Ye. Apart from his debut, which stalled at number two, all of his studio albums have topped the chart in the USA while his performance in the UK chart has been less consistent. I haven’t counted Donda 2 as it was ruled ineligible for the US chart. His latest album Bully is a new entry at number three.

Two tracks from Ye’s album are in the singles chart. All The Love, featuring his music director Andre Troutman is at number 28. Father, featuring Travis Scott, is one place above it.

Melanie Martinez first entered the consciences of the American public when she appeared in the US version of The Voice in 2012. She lands at number five with her fourth album Hades, a very un-hellish debut position.

Don Broco will forever be included on the lists of bands whose name sounds like that of a solo artist. None of their members is called Don, or Broco for that matter. Their last album, Amazing Things, topped the chart in 2021. Their new set, Nightmare Tripping, hasn’t done quite such amazing things, but still enters at a respectable number seven.

When Queen released their second album, unimaginatively titled Queen II, they were still relatively unknown. Their debut album, Queen, had failed to chart and they were just getting their first hit single with Seven Seas Of Rye. Queen II eventually climbed to number five with their debut finally getting into the chart in its wake. Now, to mark the second anniversary of its fiftieth anniversary, there is a remastered edition with some added live recordings and tracks from BBC sessions. The new edition is at number fourteen. Their Greatest Hits drops out of the top forty for the first time this year in its 1,200th week in the top 100.

London singer-songwriter Tom Misch isn’t exactly a household name, but he gets a third top ten album this week with Full Circle at number nine.

Swedish singer Robyn finally gets a top ten album with Sexistential at number ten. Her previous albums chart peak was with her eponymous debut album which reached number eleven in 2008.

While they are generally thought of as a London band, Blur’s roots are actually in Colchester. If you consider Blur to be a Colchester band, Pet Needs’ chances of being the most successful band from the Essex town are close to zero. They are at number sixteen this week with Elbows Out! This Is Capitalism.

Comedian Dave Gorman once spent time gently ribbing Scouting For Girls for releasing a second Greatest Hits album when most people could only name one of their songs at most. They haven’t had a top forty single for nearly fifteen years, but they are still going. They have a new entry this week with These Are The Good Days at number seventeen.

Courtney Barnett is at number 29 with Creature Of Habit. Central Cee has persuaded enough people to listen to, or even buy, All Roads Lead Home for it to get to number 34. Catherine Garner thought it was a wise move to call herself Slayyyter for her musical career. She is at number 26 with Wor$t Girl In America.

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean hold on at the top of the singles chart. Rein Me In now has a total of five weeks at number one. It is the longest-running number one since Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia spent seven weeks at the summit in October and November last year. Like Rein Me In, that song had two separate runs at the top.

Last week BTS released a new album.There is more on that to come, but the album’s release has also had an impact on the singles chart with three tracks entering this week. The most popular by far is Swim which is at number two, becoming their fifth top ten single. Further down the chart, Body To Body is at number 28 and FYA is at 39. They have now had twelve top forty hits.

Bella Kay falls to number three with a triple dose of Iloveit. Harry Styles’ American Girls is at number three. PinkPantheress falls one place to number five with Stateside.

German Hans Zimmer is probably the second most famous composer of film soundtracks behind John Williams. His work includes soundtracks for Gladiator, the Pirates of the Caribbean films and Dunkirk. He had a hit single in 2007 with Spider Pig, one of the shortest “songs” ever to reach the chart. Nineteen years on, he enters the top forty for a second time, this time playing second fiddle (not literally) to Raye on the rather wonderful Click Clack Symphony. There has been just one previous chart hit with the word clack in the title. Bryan Hyland, best known for Sealed With A Kiss, had a number 29 hit with Four Little Heels (The CLickety Clack Song) in November 1960. It would be great to see this Raye song climb a loy higher than its current position of number ???

Ella Langley entered the top one hundred three months ago with Choosin’ Texas. A month later it reached the top forty. In all the time it has been in the chart it has either climbed or stayed in the same position. In its eighth week in the top fort, it climbs to a new high of number 32 this week. Tame Impala’s Dracula also continues to climb. It reaches a new peak of number twelve five months after first entering the top forty.

Some people who usually oppose the idea of National Service may have found themselves grateful that it is still practised in South Korea. It has been responsible for BTS being unable to release any new music for the last three years. Other people will have disagreed. Regardless, it is a simple fact that BTS, one of the very biggest names in K-Pop, did release an album last week. 

Three years is a long gap for such a band, a gap which could easily have seen their fans move on to other acts. BTS seem to have risen above that as Arirang becomes their second number one album. The title is the name of a traditional Korean folk song. Several of the tracks have a dozen or more credited songwriters with the co-writers including OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder.

Harry Styles slips to number two after two weeks at number one with Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally. Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving is at number three, ending a run of nineteen consecutive weeks in the top two. It still hasn’t left the top five since it entered the chart exactly six months ago. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years: Don’t Stop is at number five.

Like most American country singers, Luke Combs remained pretty anonymous in the UK for many years. His albums made brief appearances in the chart but he didn’t receive much attention until his version of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car became a hit. While many albums these days are relatively short, Combs’ latest, The Way I Am’s 22 tracks clock in at a total of 73 minutes. It is a new entry at number four, one place ahead of his previous highest position.

Back in the days when reality TV was unscripted and featured real people rather than people seeking fame, the BBC chowed a series called The Cruise, following the staff of a luxury cruise ship. The one member of staff who might have hoped that the series would lead to bigger things was the resident singer Jane McDonald. She proved popular with viewers which led to a recording contract and a debut album which reached number one in 1998. She has now released an eleventh studio album. Living The Dream, which is described as a nod to country music. It is a new entry at number ten.

After being replaced by Harry Styles last week, Sam Fender and Olivia Dean climb back to number one in the singles chart with Rein Me In. The song has now had four weeks at the summit. It used to be fairly rare for a song to return to number one in the same chart run, but nowadays it is hardly worth highlighting. Rein Me In is already the second song to return to the summit this year.

Bella Kay’s Iloveitiloveitiloveit climbs back up to number two. Harry Styles’ American Girls falls to number two after a week at the top. Pink Pantheress climbs to number four with Stateside. Olivia Dean’s So Easy (To Fall In Love) is at five.

Sienna Spiro gets her third top forty hit with The Visitor at number e;even. The instrumentation is rather lovely, but the vocals occasionally grate a bit. While I did not expect to find a long list of hit singles with the word Visitor in the title, I was rather surprised to find that this is the very first, even when extending the chart to a full top 100.

After the huge success of the splendid Stick Season, it took Noah Kahan some time to get a second top ten hit on his own. That happened earlier this year when The Great Divide reached number ten. He is now looking for another one with Porch Light. It’s not there yet, but a new entry at number nineteen is a good start. Unsurprisingly, the word Light has appeared in the title of a lot of hit songs. Among those to use it as a singular noun are Blinded By The Light (Manfred Mann’s Earth band’s version of a Bruce Springsteen Song), Red Light Spells Danger (Billy Ocean) and the unforgettable Red Light, Green Light by Mitchell Torok.

Zara Larsson’s Lush Life continues to be a big hit for the second time. It spent thirteen weeks in the top ten at the beginning of 2016, peaking at number three. Exactly ten years later, it returned to the top ten and, again, peaked at number three. Last week it dropped out of the top ten, but this week it is back up to number eight.

Tame Ompala’s Dracula climbs to a new peak of number fourteen. His only top forty single entered the chart last October. After spending the last five weeks at number 35, Ella langley’s Choosin’ Texas climbs two places to a new peak of number 33. Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide slipped out of the top forty last week. This week it edges back in at number 40.

To no great surprise, Harry Styles gets a second week at the top of the albums chart with the curiously-titled Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally. A combination of its huge sales last week and the lack of any serious competition from last week’s new releases made it almost inevitable. It is the first album by a male artist to get a second successive week at number one since Eminem’s The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace) in summer 2024. The last British male act to do so was Lewis Capaldi with Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent in May and June 2023 which immediately followed a two-week run for Ed sheeran’s -.

Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving eventually provided Harry Styles with his nearest challenger. It remains at number two, extending its run in the gold and silver medal positions to nineteen consecutive weeks.

While James Blake has never had a major hit single, he has had a good run of successful albums, beginning with his eponymous debut in 2011. This week he reaches the top three in the albums chart for the first time as Trying Times enters at number three.

Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years: Don’t Stop is at number four.

Tate McRae’s So Close To What entered the albums chart at number two in February of last year, somebody told me. It has remained in the top forty ever since and last week stood at number 22, stacked up there for a second consecutive week. Following the release of a double vinyl version of the deluxe edition, it soars back up to number five.

The Official Charts Company’s review of the albums chart insists that there will be celebrations on the East Sussex coast tonight for Brighton band Yonaka. I can’t hear anything yet, but perhaps something will happen later this evening. That would be to celebrate Until You’re Satisfied becoming their second top forty album at number 25.

The Black Crowes get their ninth top forty album with A Pound Of Feathers at number 37. It comes almost 35 years after their first top forty album back in August 1991.

Once the release date of Harry Styles’ new album Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally was announced, there was no doubt that this particular Friday the thirteenth would not be unlucky for him. There was no prospect of there being anything resembling a race, just a complete walkover. Let’s leave aside the fact that the people responsible for the title seem to have been determined to make some of us type a supposed sentence that makes no sense.

Just a couple days after Harry Styles released his new album, a concert promoting the album appeared on Netflix. That was convenient, wasn’t it? His choice to dress up like the Ukrainian flag might have helped his sales there, and if that led to reduced sales in Russia, who cares? It was possibly the first live set I have seen that has started and ended with the same song. As that song was the rather brilliant Aperture, I’m not going to complain. Styles used the opportunity to play the album in full before a five-song encore comprising songs from earlier in his solo career. The repeat performance of Aperture formed the second encore.

Overall, the album demonstrates Harry Styles’ welcome willingness to experiment. He has come a long way since his days in One Direction. He has been rewarded with a third number one album. His second solo album Fine Line missed out On its release just before Christmas 2019 it finished behind a Rod Stewart compilation and Stormzy’s new album. It eventually climbed to number two at the beginning of 2021, behind a Taylor Swift album. The new album notched up 183,000 “sales” in its first week, the biggest weekly sales of the year so far. 

Harry Styles’ previous albums have all received a boost. Harry’s House benefits the most and re-enters at number 31.

In the singles chart, Harry Styles inevitably has three songs riding high. In the midweek updates, American Girls was showing as a new entry at number one, but by Wednesday its lead over Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In was a narrow one. A second number one from this album would give Styles his second chart double. Harry’s House was the number one for two weeks while As It Was topped the singles chart.

American Girls held on to finish the week at the top of the chart giving Harry Styles a fourth number one single and a second chart double. Aperture is at number four, one place ahead of another newcomer Ready, Steady, Go!

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In slips to number two after three weeks at number one. Bella Kay’s Iloveitiloveitiloveit is at number three.

Returning to the albums chart, Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving gets a thirteenth week at number two. It has been in the top two since last November. Fleetwood Mac’s compilation 50 Years: Don’t Stop oss at number four. Bruno Mars falls to number five with The Romantic. :asy week’s number one, Gorillaz’ splendid The Mountain, falls to number ten.

Morrissey has long been a controversial figure. From his days in The Smiths he has been passionate about his vegetarianism but alienated some with his comments about omnivores.However, as time has gone on, his comments have become increasingly bizarre and unpleasant. He has compounded that by calling off several dates on his current tour at short notice.

Morrissey’s behaviour has made him a classic case of “Great music, shame about the man”, As the years have passed, an increasing number of people have let their views about the man override their thoughts on his music and their willingness even to listen to any new material. He hasn’t had a number one album for twenty years. This week Make-Up Is A Lie, his fourteenth solo album and the first for six years lands at number three.

Since making their chart debut in 1979, Squeeze have had twelve top forty albums and twelve top forty albums. Coincidentally, they have accumulated a total of 57 weeks in both top forties. They have never had a number one in either chart and their three top ten albums have all been singles compilations. Their new album, Trixies, enters at number fifteen. It is their first album for eight-and-a-half years.

British folk singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy gets her first top forty album with These Frightening Machines at number 21.

Finally, many thanks to popchartfreak for stepping in for me at very short notice last week. I had received some bad news at work which had come as a massive shock. I struggled through the rest of the day at work, but couldn’t face writing a light-hearted chart commentary.

Simon is unable to do the commentary today and this is a shoddy replacement bus service, so there may be errors. Or not!

Brits winner for Song Of The Year Rein Me In gets a post-win boost to hold at one for a 3rd week for Sam Fender and Olivia Dean as it faced strong competition from Alex Warren’s new track Fever Dream. I downloaded both so neither benefitted from my purchase! Alex Warren has to make do with number 3 for now, with Ordinary also going up a few spots and showing no sign of exiting anytime soon. Number 2 and up 2 is Bella Kay and iloveitiloveitiloveit. That’s the song not me commenting, I actually haven’t heard it yet being in New Zealand for a month and all.  Pink Pantheress drops 1 to 4 with Stateside and Olivia Dean is down 3 with So Easy despite dominating the awards on Sunday, but bonus she enters at 19 with yet another track at 19 - The Hardest Part an old track from 2020. 

Bruno Mars is back up 2 with an album boost for I Just Might at 6, as he enters with the more laid-back track Risk It All at 15. Harry Styles did a great performance of Aperture and is rewarded with a Brits boost to 10. I may be biased - OK I am biased - but one week on top is not enough for this fabulous record. Dominic Fike is up to 14 with Babydoll and also has a new entry joining it lower down at 27: White Keys.

Tame Impala rise 4 to 22, almost matching the 2025 peak of 21, and it was sounding fab in an Auckland pub bar last week. Dracula still bites! RAYE joins the theme of the week with another new release joining the existing hit, Nightingale Lane at 20 is quite tastefully nice, following in the tradition of A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square. See Tori Amos for a good version of that one.

Who had Madonna’s 1985 smash number one back in the charts this week at 40? No, me neither, even if Into The Groove is still fab over 40 years on! Tikkety Tokkety or something I expect. Meanwhile Scottish DJ Ewan McVicar debuts Share The House at 38, his 2nd top 40 in 6 years.

Gorillaz debut comfortably at 1 with The Mountain, their 3rd number one from 9 studio albums. Damon Albarn certainly stays busy. The animated band is seeing off a Brits boosted Olivia Dean at 2 and Bruno Mars’ surprisingly low entry at 3 for The Romantic. Given his Gaga and ROSE hits one might have expected more fanbase anticipation. US Singer-songwriter Mitski debuts Nothing’s About To Happen To Me at 4, her 8th album, and PinkPantheress re-enters at 5 with Fancy That for a busy top 5.

Elsewhere K-pop girl group Blackpink debut at 11 with 3rd Mini Album (Deadline) for a 5th charting hit as the Brits Effect pulls in re-entries for Sam Fender at 28 People Watching, Rosalia’ Lux at 37 following a great show stopper on Berghain, and The 1975’s I Like It….etc at 40. That leaves Paul McCartney extending his album career to a whopping Beatles-inclusive 63 years as Man On The Run OST album pops in at 35. I haven’t seen the streaming TV documentary yet. It’s Macca’s 5th hits compilation. 

After completing a marathon journey to the top of the chart last week, Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In gets a second week at number one. The song first appeared on Fender’s People Watching album released early last year. Dean was invited to choose a song from the album to sing as a duet. She chose Rein Me In and Fender has been rewarded with his first number one single.

Olivia Dean can also be found at number two with So Easy (To Fall In Love). Pink Pantheress jumps six places to number three with Stateside. It is her second top three single after Boy’s A Liar in 2023. Bella Kay climbs a massive 22 places to number four with Iloveitiloveitiloveit. Sombr’s Homewrecker climbs two places to number five.

As origins of band names go, the story behind the choice of Twenty One Pilots is one of the more bizarre. American playwright Arthur Miller’s All My Sons is based on a true story about am American company which, knowingly, sent defective aircraft to Europe for military use. This resulted in the death of 21 pilots. The band have a new entry at number 23 with Drag Path. By a neat coincidence, a revival of the play is currently being performed in London’s West End.

Drag Path is the only new entry in the chart, but there is also a very welcome re-entry. Charli XCX’s soundtrack for the new Wuthering Heights film falls to number eight this week after a week at number one. The original musical Wuthering Heights, Kate Bush’s brilliant debut single, re-enters at number 40.

In April last year, the music world’s favourite removals firm Mumford And Sons released their first album for seven years. It matched two of its predecessors by going to number one. However, while one of those number ones and the number two album Sigh No More enjoyed lengthy runs in the chart, Rushmere did something that has happened to so many albums in the 2020s. It dropped straight out of the chart the following week. Less than a year later, they have released another album, Prizefighter. It too has gone straight to number one, giving them a fourth chart-topping album. It would not be a surprise if it is nowhere to be seen in next week’s chart.

Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving remains at number two.

Lovers of coincidences will enjoy the fact that former Little Mix member Leigh-Anne’s debut solo album My Ego Told Me To is at number three. That means that it has matched the albums chart peak achieved by each of her two former bandmates.

So far this year, we have already been reminded of the tenth anniversary of David Bowie’s death. In the rest of 2016 the music world also lost Prince, Greg Lake, Keith Emerson, the whole of promising indie band Viola Beach and , on Christmas Day, George Michael. In the wider world of entertainment, we also lost two brilliantly funny women Victoria Wood and Caroline Aherne. In the USA Debbie Reynolds died just a day after the death of her daughter Carrie Fisher.

George Michael had made his name with Wham, alongside his childhood friend Andrew Ridgeley. When Wham split up Michael pursued a solo career, Ridgeley chose to enjoy the fact that he could do what he liked having with a combination of the money he had already made and ongoing royalties. This includes income from Michael’s Careless Whisper on which he receives a writing credit although there has always been a suspicion that the credit was a characteristic act of generosity by Michael. 

Faith was George Michael’s first solo album. It included the song I Want Your Sex which was banned from radio and television. Broadcasters claimed that the song promoted promiscuity at a time when the government was trying to combat the spread of Aids. Michael gave interviews in which he said that that was the opposite of the message he was trying to convey. Careless Whisper was not on the album as it had already appeared on a Wham album.

Faith has now been made available on vinyl for the first time in many years. The album spent a week at number one when it was first released in 1987 and was last seen in the top forty in 2011 following the release of a remastered edition. This latest reissue sees it back in the chart at number four.

The Official Charts Company (ICC) hasn’t published its albums chart write-up at the time of writing this, but I’m willing to guess that they will describe Hilary Duff as a multihyphenate. As we;; as being a singer and actor, she also hs five books published in her name. While she has enjoyed several top ten albums in her native USA, her achievements in the UK have been rather more modest. Just one of her previous studio albums troubled the top forty. Dignity reached number 25 in 2007. Luck…. Or Something has fared rather better as her first album for eleven years enters at number five. (The OCC’s write-up has just appeared,and the word multihyphenate is nowhere to be seen.)

To accompany the release of an Elvis Presley concert film, there is also an album, EPiC - Elvis Presley in Concert. It enters at number seventeen and is Presley's 96th top forty album. Will his record company find a way of getting that figure up to 100 in time for the fiftieth anniversary of his death next year?

If Baby Keem manages to get 100 top forty albums in the UK, I don't expect to be around to see it. His tally currently stands at one, thanks to Ca$ino entering at number 29.

Olivia Dean battles against herself for the number one single, and against Charli XCX in the albums chart.

There was a close race at the top of the singles chart this week. There was no real doubt that Olivia Dean would be getting her second number one single. The question was whether Sam Fender would get his first.

Back in the days when the singles chart measured physical sales only (because that was all that was available), it was relatively unusual for a single to fall down the chart and then climb back up again. It was even more unusual for a single to yo-yo up and down over a prolonged period. The inclusion of streaming, and the various changes to the rules to try to speed up the chart, has made a yo-yo chart run very common.

One of the clearest examples of the yo-yo phenomenon is Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In which has had seven runs in the top ten since it first entered the upper tier last October. Four of those runs have been just a single week at number ten. The longest run in the top ten started at the beginning of the year and reached seven weeks last week when it climbed to its peak of number five for the third time.

In the midweek updates, Rein Me In was at number one, but with a slender lead over the number two. The opposition came from another Olivia Dean song, So  Easy (To Fall In Love). That song was at number six last week, having peaked at number three. Both songs, then, were heading for new peaks. It was just a matter of which song would get the higher peak. Regardless of which song won, Sam Fender would be able to celebrate a new singles chart high, beating the number three peak achieved by Seventeen Going Under. A win for Rein Me In would also set a new record for the longest time taken for a song to get to number one in a single chart run. Rein Me In’s 36-week path to the top would easily outstrip the relatively swift 19 weeks taken by Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud.

In the end, victory went to Rein Me In which means that Olivia Dean’s second number one is also Sam Fender's first. After waiting two-and-a-half years from his first top 100 to get into the top forty for the first time, he has had another fairly lengthy wait to get a deserved number one. Dean has a third song in the top five as Man I Need, her previous number one, climbs back up to number four.

Zara Larsson’s Lush Life climbs to number three, matching its peak from almost exactly a decade ago. Bad Bunny falls one place to number five with DtMF. He also gets a fourth hit from his current album as Titi Me Pregunto enters at number eighteen. Under the three-song limit Baile Inolvidable drops out to make way for it.

Last week’s number one, Taylor Swift’s Opalite drops to number eight after a week at the top. It just about avoids the fate of Lewis Capaldi’s Pointless which climbed to the top from number fifteen (as Swift did last week) before dropping straight back out of the top ten.

Central Cee’s new single Iceman Freestyle gets off to a great start with a brief clip of Albinoni’s familiar Adagio in D Minor. Sadly, it goes rapidly downhill when Mr Cee’s vocals start. The wait for a song of his that I like goes on. Iceman Freestyle, a title which could have been used for a song about the Winter Olympics, is at number 37 giving Central Cee a 34th top forty single since his 2002 debut.

Sean Paul and Keyshia Cole’s (When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me was a number 31 hit in 2006. Thanks to Tik Tok, it is a re-entry at number 38, Oh joy. After spending the first six weeks of the year in the lower reaches of the top forty Sombr’s Back To Friends dropped out last week. This week it returns at number 40. His Homewrecker enters the top ten at number seven. If it goes no higher, it will be the third of his five top forty hits to peak in that position.

There are two more new entries and a re-entry in the singles chart which will be recorded in the upcoming albums chart section.

While Olivia Dean was almost guaranteed to have the number one single as her main opponent was herself, in the albums chart, the competition came from fellow Briton Charli XCX with her soundtrack for the new Wuthering Heights film. Most soundtrack albums are now consigned to the separate compilations chart (a move that came after soundtrack albums - particularly The Greatest Showman - spent a large part of 2018 at number one) but this qualifies as it is credited to Charli XCX alone.

In musical terms, Wuthering Heights is, of course, mostly associated with the sublime debut single from Kate Bush. When agreeing to do the soundtrack for the new film, it is unlikely that Charli XCX had any illusions that that was likely to change. Still, if she could get the number one album, Wuthering Heights would be arguably the most unusual title of a number one single and album by different artists. On the other hand, if Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving held on, it would match the three-week run by the same album in the first three charts of the year.

In Wednesday’s update Wuthering Heights was still at number one, albeit with a fairly narrow lead over The Art Of Loving. By the end of the week, it held on at the top, thereby denying Olivia Dean a chart double. It is Charli XCX’s third number one album and the first of those three to have a second word in the title.

And those three remaining singles? All three are from Wuthering Heights. Chains Of Love spent a week in the top forty last November. It now returns at a new peak of number seventeen. Dying For You is at number 27. The glorious Always Everywhere is at number 33.

Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving, then, slips one place to number two. It has spent seven weeks at the top in four separate runs. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years: Don’t Stop is at number three, one place ahead of another compilation, The Weeknd’s Highlights. Bad Bunny is at number five with Debi Tirar Mas Fotos.

In between releasing Tension and Tension II, Kylie Minogue embarked on a 66-show world tour. A live album, recorded on the tour, was released last September, but was initially only available to stream. The lack of the opportunity to buy the album meant that it failed to enter the chart in the UK. With physical copies now on sale, it enters at number nineteen.

Fred Again’s USB re-enters at number 31 after he performed for four nights at one of my least favourite London venues, Alexandra Palace.Another album about a stick. Noah Kahan’s Stick Season continues to do well.

In October last year Taylor Swift became the first artist to reach number one with a song that had the name Ophelia in its title. Now she has become the first artist to top the chart with a song called Opalite.The song originally reached number two, behind The fate Of Ophelia, and spent eight weeks in the top ten. Last week it was at number fifteen. Its promotion as an official single, along with a vinyl release, sees it climb all the way to the top. It is Swift’s sixth number one single and the second from her latest album.

Dave and Tems slip to number two with Raindance. Readers in Aberdeen (home of the wonderful Annie Lennox) will have been surprised (or confused) when they finally saw some sunshine yesterday afternoon (Thursday) for the first time since 21 January.

Raye drops to number three with Where Is My Husband. This week she was named as one of the headline acts for this year’s Brighton Pride in August. She will appear on the Saturday while Diana Ross will headline Sunday’s show. If Raye has found her husband by then, she can bring him along.

Shane Boose, under the name Sombr, has had three top ten hits from his debut album I Baqerly Know Her, released last August. Now he has already moved on to songs from his next album with the release of Homewrecker. It is a new entry at number fourteen, complete with  its Beach Boys-y beginning and end.

Just two weeks after former members of One Direction topped the singles and albums charts, another former member has landed in the charts. This time it is the turn of Niall Horan who has temed up with Myles Smith to record a song called Drive Safe, sound advice in the rubbish weather we have been having. Each singer has two top ten singles to his name with Smith charting higher than Horan. Their perfectly decent joint venture is at number 27.

Two acts whose age would generally make them unlikely visitors to the singles chart enter at number 37 with a song called Release The Pressure. Forty-two-year-old Harris has been having hits consistently for nearly twenty years, including eleven number ones. Leicester band Kasabian last had a top forty single in 2014. Kasabian seem to have decided that the best way to get back in the singles chart is to play second fiddle to Harris as this sounds far more like a Calvin Harris song than a Kasabian one.

American singer-songwriter Dominic Fike is at number 30 with Babydoll, a song originally released in 2018 before it became a minor (non-top forty) hit in 2023.

There are several re-entries in the chart this week, one of which is covered in the albums chart round-up. Tame Impala’s Dracula, a surprisingly long-lasting hit last year, is back at number 25. Justin Bieber’s Yukon reached number twelve last summer. It is now at number 29.

If he had stuck to the original release date, Robbie Williams would have been celebrating his 52nd birthday today with a record-breaking number one album. As it is, Britpop has already been to number one (two weeks ago) and left the top forty. That means another week at the top for the Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving which has become the “default” number one whenever there are no major releases.

On one Sunday evening every January, tens of millions of Americans spend several hours watching two teams of men in armour playing a glorified version of catch. Most of the time is occupied by adverts with brief interruptions for “action”, but Americans lap it up. While the men in armour have a slightly longer break than the ones for adverts, there is a live musical act. This year, the performer was Puerto Rican Bad Bunny who recently became the first act to win the Grammy award for best album with a release entirely in Spanish.

Donald Trump once described the president of Puerto Rico as terrible for his inadequate response to a natural disaster there. Pity the poor person who had to explain that the president of Puerto Rico at the time was one Donald J Trump. Whether that contributed to Bad Bunny’s antipathy towards Trump, I don’t know. However, it was no surprise that Trump was not a fan of the Superbowl performance.

Because of the lateness of the show, the UK audience for the quasi-sporting event is relatively low. However, the controversial choice of half-time performer generated more than the usual amount of publicity, increasing the gap between the number of people who know about that and those who know the result.

The publicity surrounding Bad Bunny’s performance has had an impact on the UK charts. The now award-winning album Debi Tirar Mas Fotos reached number thirteen in January last year. Now it is back at number two, easily his best position in the UK charts. DtMF, a number 26 hit early last year, returns to the singles chart at number four. Nuevayol is a hit for the first time at number fifteen. As is Baile Inolvidable at number twenty.

J Cole is at number three with The Fall-Off. Cole has said that this will be his final album. However, as he is only 41, he has plenty of time to change his mind. If not, he finishes his career with a fifth top ten album from seven releases. In Monday’s update J Cole was sitting neatly at number 26 with a song called Two Six. Some of us might have hoped he had recorded a song called Six Seven instead. Those people will have been relieved to see the song miss the top forty by the end of the week.

Even if he wasn’t Japanese, the man known as Joji might have decided that his birth name of George Miller didn’t exactly catch the eye. It certainly isn’t a name that would lead to the assumption that he is from eastern Asia. Under his chosen moniker he gets a fourth top forty album this week with the delightfully-titled Piss In The Wind at number six. It matches the peak achieved by the sweeter sounding Nectar in 2020.

Still on names that might mislead people about the origin of the act, the band Ist Ist come from Manchester rather than a German-speaking country. Their first four albums all fell well short of the top forty. The best they managed was number 87 with The Art Of Lying in 2021. Thankfully, their record label has been patient enough to allow them to release a fifth studio album. That patience has paid off as Dagger is a new entry at number 21.

French composer Lorien Testard won awards last year for the music he wrote for the video game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The soundtrack album reached number six in the soundtrack albums chart, but was placed nowhere in the main albums chart. Following a release on vinyl, it lands at number sixteen this week.

The list of famous musicians from Portsmouth is relatively short although the city has at least had a hit single named after it. Roland Orzabal of Tears For Fears comes from there as does former Dr Who composer Murray Gold. It was also the home of the intentionally terrible Portsmouth Sinfonia. The band Crystal Tides were formed in the city eight years ago. This week they make their chart debut with Toothpaste at number 37.

Jamaican-British singer Marnz Malone is at number 36 with Yaqeen.

After a week when it never seemed to stop raining, Dave and Tems climb back to the top of the singles chart with Raindance. The song’s last spell at number one lasted just a single week. Time will tell whether it falls so soon this time.

Raye climbs back up to number two with Where Is My Husband. Djo’s End Of beginning remains at number three. Harry Style’s Aperture drops to number four after a week at the summit. Taylor Swift is at number five with The Fate Of Ophelia. Like last week, all of the top five singles have spent at least a week at number one.

Noah Kahan’s Stick Season was very much a slow burner. It entered the singles chart in October 2023, over a year after it was released. It climbed to number one at the beginning of the following year and stayed there for eight weeks. It stuck around in the top forty for many months.

Since Stick Season, Noah Kahan’s subsequent single releases have had mixed fortunes. Some have been hits while others have been less popular. His latest single, The Great Divide (not a tribute to an Ed Sheeran album) was at number one in Sunday’s initial update. However, by the following day it had already fallen to number five. It finishes the week as a new entry at number ten.

Country music has never been particularly popular in the UK. Even country singers who have scored hit singles here have generally done so with songs that lean some way towards pop. Ella Langley’s Choosin’ Texas, a new entry at number 38, is more like what we expect American country music to sound like. Whether that is a good or a bad thing is a matter of personal taste.

There are four re-entries in the top forty. Three of them were in the top forty recently, but the other is from 2002. Italian production group Milky reached the top ten that year with Just The Way You Are (not the Billy Joel song or a time warp-enhanced version of the Bruno Mars song). Thanks to a new remix, it returns at number 35.

Billy Eilish’s Wildflower is back at number 32. It peaked at number seven in 2024 and was last in the top forty in March 2025. Tate McRae’s Tit For tat is back at number 39 after leaving the top forty last week. Fred Again, Sammy Virji and Reggie’s Talk Of The Town also dropped out last week. This week it returns at number 40.

When Lily Allen’s West End Girl reached the top five last year, it was tempting to predict that it would climb to number one when physical copies were released as it was scheduled for a week lacking in major releases. However, I reckoned without the enduring popularity of Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving. The album received an additional boost when Dean won the Best New Artist award at last weekend’s Grammys ceremony. That boost sees the album reclaim the top spot, bringing its total time at number one up to six weeks.

The success of West End Girl led to tickets for Lily Allen’s tour selling out very quickly, despite some eye-watering prices. Fresh dates added to the tour, including three nights at the London Palladium, also sold out quickly. She narrowly misses out on being able to say that the tour is promoting a number one album as the physical release helps it to return to the chart at number two, matching its peak position last year.

Liverpool band The Molotovs were formed in 2020 by brother and sister Matthew and Issey Cartlidge. Their debut album Wasted On Youth enters at number three. Maybe they will celebrate with a few cocktails tonight.

On one of the occasions I saw Oasis live, they were supported by The La’s who had re-formed not long before. At the time they were known for There She Does and little else. That song had been a hit in 1990, two years after its original release. Not long after their time supporting Oasis, the band split up for a second time and backing vocalist and guitarist John Power went back to Cast., the band having been formed after The La’s split up for the first time. Thirty-odd years later, Cast supported Oasis on their reunion tour. They are the second Liverpool act to enter the top ten as their eighth studio album Yeah Yeah Yeah lands at number eight.

Texan Don Toliver’s first three albums peaked at steadily lower positions. If that trend had continued, his fourth offering would probably have missed the top forty. However, the trend went into reverse and it reached number 27. The reversal in fortune continues in style this week as he bags his first top ten album with Octane at number four.

Despite the lack of any chart history, in either the singles or albums chart, Reading band Only The Poets managed to sell out a gig at the Brixton Academy recently. They have now broken their chart duck by reaching number nine with their debut album And I’d Do It Again.

Cast are not the only band never regarded as particularly cool to have a new album in the charts this week. They were briefly popular as a result of their psychedelic-sounding singles Tattvah and Govinda, but lost any coolness they had when the best-known thing about the band was the fact that singer Crispin Mills was a member of the Mills acting dynasty rather than any of their songs. A Nepo band before the term was invented.

It, therefore, came as something of a surprise when people started to hear songs from Kula Shaker’s new album and found that they were rather good. As a result, Wormslayer is at number thirteen. It is their highest charting album since their second set Peasants, Pigs And Astronauts reached number nine in 1999.

While Status Quo have enjoyed sustained success over many decades, their singer Francis Rossi’s solo career has been less than stellar. That continues this week as The Accidental enters at number 25. He can at least console himself with the fact that it has performed better than his previous solo efforts.

Michael Jackson’s Number Ones collection was released on vinyl for the first time lsat week, coinciding with a new biopic about him. It returns to the top ten at number seven. Chart rules dictate that streams of a song can only contribute towards “sales” of one compilation album. Therefore, The Essential Michael Jackson drops out of the chart from last week’s number ten position.

Phil Collins also returns to the top forty with a hits collection. A coloured vinyl; edition of The Singles was released last week to mark his 75th birthday. The album is at number 37, its first appearance in the top forty for a little over nine years. Last week he reached a total of 800 weeks in the UK albums chart from 20 albums. He has another 479 weeks as a member of Genesis.

As mentioned in last week’s commentary, Harry Styles is the nearest current equivalent to Robbie Williams, someone who started life in a boyband and who has then achieved huge success as a solo artist. Like Williams with Take That, Styles was just sixteen when he became part of One Direction.

Any member of a band who starts a solo career faces a difficult choice. They can continue with songs in a similar style to those released by their band, or they can do something different. As a boyband’s fanbase’s musical taste is likely to change as they get older, the latter route makes a great deal of sense. Even so, the contrast between One Direction’s output and Sign Of The Times, Harry Styles solo debut, was something of a surprise.

Harry Styles has continued to explore different musical styles (sorry), and that continues with his new single Aperture. It uses its near six-minute runtime well, gradually building into a really good song. Not surprisingly, it has gone straight to number one, becoming Styles’ third chart-topping single. Sign Of the Times spent just a week at the top while As It Was had a marathon ten-week run. Time will show whether Aperture comes close to one of those extremes, or sits somewhere in the middle. It is the first song with the word Aperture in its title to reach the UK singles chart.

The release of a new Harry Styles single saved us from a completely static top five. Instead, last week’s top four have all fallen one place. Dave and tens’ Raindance falls to number two after a week at the top. Djo’s End Of Beginning is at number three, one place ahead of Raye’s Where Is My Husband. Taylor Swift, once romantically involved with Harry Styles, is at number five with The Fate Of Ophelia.

It is twenty years since Arctic Monkeys released Whatever You Say I Am That’s What I’m Not. It received rave reviews and became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, selling over 360,000 copies in its first week. Singer and lead songwriter Alex Turner celebrated his 40th birthday earlier this month, so he has been in the band for over half of his life.

There is currently no news of a new Arctic Monkeys album, but they have released a new single. Opening Night will appear on Help 2, an album to be released on ^ March to raise funds for the War Child charity which works to help children who are affected by war. The first Help album was released in 1995 and featured songs from acts such as Suede, Blur and a band calling themselves Smokin’ Mojo Filters whose members were Paul McCartney, Paul Weller and Noel Gasllagher. The original album was put together so quickly that the CD cover art didn’t have a track listing.

Smokin’ Mojo Filters’ version of the Beatles song Come Together reached the top twenty. Arctic Monkeys have chosen to release an original song and it enters at number sixteen.

Lil Uzi Vert came very close to entering the top forty last week with What You Saying. Instead, it fell just short, leaving us with a grand total of zero new entries. This week, it has climbed into the top forty at number 27.

Louis Tomlinson’s solo career away from One Direction started with two top ten singles, but only one more single has even reached the top forty. He has, however, continued to enjoy success in the albums chart. Faith In The Future (2022) reached number one and he has now done the same with his third solo album, How Did I Get Here. Whether this week’s chart double (the number one single and album being by former members of the same band) is unique, I don’t know. If I had a super-sophisticated database linking people to their former bands, I could find out. Sadly, I don’t have such a database.

Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving remains at number two. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years Don’t Stop compilation stops at number five.

The delightfully-named Megadeth (guess what their genre is) released their first album in 1985. They had to wait until the release of their sixteenth studio album in 2022 to reach the top three for the first time. They have now matched it with album number seventeen which has also reached number three. They seem to have run out of inspiration for album titles. This one is called Megadeth.

Callum Beattie was born in Scotland in 1989, some four years after Megadeth released their first album. His first two albums topped the Scottish albums chart, but performed less well in the UK as a whole. A;bum number three has done a lot better. Indi is at number four.

Lebanese-born Mika (aka Michael Penniman) made a big impact with his first hit single, Grace Kelly. He had a few more top ten singles but has never matched the success of that song. Hyperlove, a new entry at number fourteen, is his first appearance in the top twenty for over a decade.

New Rose by The Damned is generally regarded as the first single released by a UK punk band. Even with a cover of Help by The Beatles (linking back to War Child) as the b-side it wasn’t a hit, but it does have its place in UK music history. They did go on to have a number of hit singles, including a fabulous version of Barry Ryan’s Eloise. The follow-up to that was a reissue of New Rose but it only reached number 81. The Damned’s last two albums both reached the top ten. Their thirteenth studio album, Not Like Everybody Else, is at number 23.

Dave’s Raindance entered the top ten last November and was one of the few non-festive songs to remain in the top forty for the whole of December. After climbing to number three last week, it now climbs to the summit to give him a fourth number one single. It also helps Tems, the featured artist, to get her first chart-topping single. Solder readers will remember that the UK experienced a lot of rainfall throughout Rihanna’s ten-week stay at number one with Umbrella. Judging by this week’s weather, Raindance is threatening to repeat the trick.

Djo’s End Of The Beginning slips to number two after a fortnight at the top. Raye’s search for her husband goes on. She climbs to number three in Where Is My Husband’s sixteenth week in the top ten. Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia is at number four. Bruno Mars climbs to number five with I Just Might.

There is a distinct lack of new entries this week, but there is a re=entry for a particularly brilliant song which is over 45 years old. The Cure released Boys Don’t Cry in 1979, but it wasn’t a hit. They had to wait until the following year for A Forest to see them in the top forty for the first time. In 1986, they released a new recording of Boys Don’t Cry. By this time they had become regular visitors to the singles chart and the remix reached number 22. A video accompanied by the song has become popular on TikTok which means that it is back in the chart at number 39.

The week’s other re-entry is a song that entered the chart last summer. Gunna and Burna Boy went on to spend two weeks at number 22 with Wgft before it fell out of the chart along with almost everything else at the end of the year. It is now back in the top forty at number 30.

The story of Robbie Williams’ solo career has been recounted many times. After leaving Take That he reached number two with his first two solo singles in 1996 and ‘97. The next two singles did less well, suggesting that he might struggle to achieve a successful solo career. Indeed, I was able to get a ticket to see him at the 1,700- capacity Southampton Guildhall just a few days before the date of the gig. By the day  itself, it was not a sell-out.

Everything changed for Robbie Williams when he released Angels as a single in December 1997. While it didn’t get to number one, it became a massive hit, spending twelve weeks in the top ten. The host album, Life Thru A Lens, had only reached number eleven and soon left the chart. The success of Angels gave the album a major boost, sending it into the top ten for the first time and, eventually, to number one in April 1998.

Since Life Thru A Lens, Robbie Williams has notched up a further fourteen number one albums, the most recent of which was the Better Man soundtrack last year. That fifteenth number one album saw him draw level with The Beatles as the artist with the most number one albums. At the time, he made no secret of the fact that he wanted to beat the record.

The first reports of Robbie Williams latest album, Britpop, suggested that it was due for release last autumn. The existence of a Taylor Swift release has been suggested as a reason for its delay, although there was never an official autumn release date. Until last week, the album was expected on 6 February, but Williams sprung a surprise by releasing it last Friday (16 January). He has described the album as the one he would have liked to release as his solo debut, and there are certainly strong mid- to late 1990s indie vibes on many tracks. The album has been written without his regular writing partner Guy Chambers. Instead, Williams has collaborated with a number of writers including his former bandmate Gary Barlow and Gaz Coombes of Supergrass.

There was never any real doubt that Robbie Williams would succeed in his aim of getting a record-breaking sixteenth number one album. There was simply no serious opposition to overcome. The artist best placed to take his record is the aforementioned Taylor Swift who has, so far, had fourteen chart-topping albums.

Singer-songwriter Madison Beer’s first two albums both entered the chart at number 28 before dropping straight back out again, never to return. Her third set, Locket, has already outperformed them by entering at number three. Whether this one gets a second week in the chart remains to be seen.

Nathan Evans remains best-known for his unexpected number one single Wellerman in 2021. He now gets his most successful album with Angels’ Share, a collaboration with Saint Phnx Band, at number four. It is at number one in the Scottish Albums Chart.

Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving falls to number two after spending the last three weeks at the summit. Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years: Don’t Stop collection is at number five.

As misleading band names go, Sleaford Mods is up (or should it be down) there with the best. They aren’t really a mod band at all. They are at number six with The Demise Of Planet X.

Still on the subject of misleading names, ASAP Rocky doesn’t make rock music, although he has given the writer Official Chart Company’s summary the chance to use their favourite word - multi-hyphenate - again. He is at number eight with Don’t Be Dumb.

Bristolian singer Elles Bailey got to number twelve in 2024 with her seventh album Beneath The Neon Glow. Its predecessor, Shining In The Half Light, was her first album to reach the chart but it fell just short of the top forty. She is now back in the chart with her latest album, Can’t Take My Story Away, at number fourteen.

Following the announcement of a new album and tour, two old Harry Styles albums return to the top forty. The most obvious successor to Robbie Williams as a former boyband member enjoying a hugely successful solo career is at number 32 with Harry’s House and number 37 with Fine Line.

After climbing to the summit last week, Djo gets a second week at number one with End Of Beginning. It is the first song to get a second consecutive week at number one since Taylor Swift’s The Fate Of Ophelia which topped the chart for four successive weeks last November and December. That song is at number three this week, continuing its annoying habit of finishing the week one place below where it was in the midweek updates.

Dave and Tems move up to number two with Raindance, a song that would sound a lot better if Tems was the sole vocalist. Raye slips to number four with Where Is My Husband. Olivia Dean’s So Easy (To Fall In Love) stays at number five.

While Bruno Mars had two number two hits in 2024 and ‘25 in collaborations with Lady Gaga and Rose, he hasn’t had a solo hit since That’s What I Like in 2017. That isn’t to say he has been idle; he has had several other hits alongside a variety of artists. That ends this week with the arrival of I Just Might at number six. It is the 24th top forty hit for the man born Peter Hernandez in Hawaii forty years ago. 

One of Bruno Mars’ aforementioned number two hits, Lady Gaga collaboration Die With A Smile returns to the chart at number 28. His 2012 number two hit Locked Out Of Heaven is back at number 36. His 2010 album Doo-Wop and Hooligans re-enters the chart at number 31.

American singer-songwriter Zach Bryan had two top forty hits in 2024, including one that had originally charted the previous year. Now he is back, at number 29, with Plastic Cigarette.There have been a few top forty singles with the word cigarettes in the title, most famously Oasis’s Cigarettes and alcohol but this is the first with just a single gasper in the title.

The Land Of The Midnight Sun is a term usually used for the area within the Arctic Circle which has constant daylight for part of the summer. That means that the release of Zara Larsson’s single Midnight Sun last June made some sense. However, it has taken until now (when people in that part of the world haven’t seen daylight for a while) for it to be a hit. It is a new entry at number 39.

On Saturday 13 December 2003, I was part of the audience for Suede’s final gig before they split up. The 27-song set proved to be an emotional occasion for many of those attending. Elsewhere in London on the same night, Blue played to an audience of adoring fans. The following year, they announced that they were going on hiatus.

Waelier in 2003, Blue had their third number one album in three releases with Guilty. The hiatus for both Suede and Blue lasted for a similar time. Suede re-formed in 2010, initially to play a benefit concert for the Teenage Cancer Trust, but they have stayed together ever since. Blue re-formed the following year in order to represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Blue’s first three albums after re-forming performed fairly modestly in the charts. However, their latest set, Reflections, has done rather better. It was at number one in the midweek updates, albeit with a fairly narrow lead. A string of promotional events and the availability of umpteen versions of each physical format made them definite contenders for the top spot at the end of the week. 

In the end, though, they didn’t quite make it. Reflections enters at number two, still their best showing since re-forming. There is still no sign of Blue collaborating with Pink to form Notso Deep Purple.

Blue’s narrow miss means that Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving gets a third consecutive week at number one. The last album to spend three consecutive weeks at the top was Taylor Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl in October last year.

As well as getting his third top forty single this week, Zach Bryan also gets a third top forty album. The two earlier releases peaked at numbers sixteen and 22. With Heaven On Top easily outperforms them both by entering at number three.

Indie band The Cribs also get a new albums chart peak, although in their case they have had to wait 25 years to reach the top five for the first time. Selling A Vibe is at number five. It is at number one in the vinyl albums chart.

South London band Dry Cleaning are particularly notable for the fact that vocalist Florence Shaw speaks most of the lyrics rather than singing. Their debut album New Long Leg (not about cricket) deservedly reached the top five in 2021 but, sadly, the next release Stumpwork, also not about cricket, fell just short of the top ten. This week they have fallen just short of the top ten again as Secret Love enters at number twelve.

The Kid Laroi (born with the posher-sounding name Charlton Howard) included the word Love in the title of a mixtape that reached the top forty albums chart. Thankfully, I can quote the title of his latest album, Before I Forget, in full. It enters at number 22.

American rock band Alter Bridge reached the top ten with each of their last five studio albums. That run comes to an abrupt end this week as their latest set, unimaginatively titled Alter Bridge, can only get to number twenty.