Alex Warren’s Ordinary gets a third week as the number one single. Mumford and Sons top the albums chart with their first release in over six years.

Alex Warren gets a third week at number one with his Ordinary single. If he loses the top spot next week, Ordinary will be the first single this year to spend an odd number of weeks at the summit. Warren’s Carry You Home climbs one place to a new peak of number nine.

Alex Warren heads an unchanged top four. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club remains at number two. Doechii’s Anxiety, which sounds even better each time I hear it, is still at number three. Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things holds on at number four. The song has spent 25 weeks in the top ten since it first entered the upper tier in February of last year. 

Ariana Grande released a new version of her Eternal Sunshine album last week. Predictably enough, three of the new songs enter the top forty this week. Twilight Zone is at number five. It is the fourth song of that name to reach the top forty. The song generally known as Just A Song At Twilight is actually called Love’s Old Sweet Song. Moreover, as it was written in 1884, it has never been a hit. Dandelion is at number nineteen. The only other song with Dandelion in the title to be a top forty hit was by the Rolling Stones in 1967 as part of a double a-side with We Love You. Intro is at number 26. Sadly, The Intro And The Outro by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band has never been a hit. Grande has now had 42 top forty hits.

His Apple Music profile (otherwise known as promotional puff from his record company) states that Sombr’s song Caroline was a viral hit. However, it wasn’t an actual hit. Undressed, on the other hand, has now become a hit. It is a new entry at number 37. In even better news for him. Another song, Back To Friends, enters two places higher. He will reach the grand old age of 20 in July.

For some of us, the appeal of Central Cee’s “music” is one of life’s great mysteries on a par with “Why do people run marathons?” and “How can someone not like chocolate?”. Nevertheless, he has managed to recruit a string of fellow performers to record with him. This week their number has been boosted to include Manchester rapper Nemzzz. His moniker’s last three letters are highly appropriate. Their collaboration Dilemma is at number 39. The title does not describe my thoughts about the prospect of hearing it again.

One of the biggest victims of the dominance of American playlists of Christmas songs are surely The Darkness. Their gloriously over the top Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) hasn’t even reached the top 100 since 2020.  They do, however, still clearly have their fans. While two of their last four albums missed out on a top ten place, their eighth studio album Dreams On Toast enters at numb two. Its sales would have been enough to give them a second number one album (after their 2003 debut Permission To Land) in some weeks this year.

Mumford and Sons, whose name still sounds like one you would expect to see on the side of a removal van, are one of those bands whose biggest album didn’t get to number one. Sigh No More was released in October 2009. It entered the chart at number eleven and spent just one more week in the top forty. However, after singled from the album enjoyed chart success, the album returned to the top forty the following January. It hit a new peak every few months before reaching number two in February 2011. Its eventual success also meant that the following two albums both topped the chart.

Mumford and Sons’ fourth album Delta didn’t quite match that, reaching number two behind Michael Buble. This week, after a six-and-a-half year absence, they return with Rushmere and get a third number one album.

As mentioned above, Ariana Grande has released a deluxe edition of her Eternal Sunshine album. On a day when the sun has indeed shone all day (in Brighton at least), it enters at number three. The original release spent two weeks at number one last spring. 

Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet takes a break from its customary number two position to spend a week at number four.

American singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus released albums in 2016, 2018 and 2021. Two of them failed to chart in the UK at all while the third stumbled to number 85. Just a month before her thirtieth birthday, album number four Forever Is A Feeling has given her a first big hit in the UK. It is a new entry at number five.

Two rap releases complete this week’s new entries. Nemzzz is at number six with his mixtape Rent’s Due. Lil Durk gets his seventh top forty album in nine releases as Deep Thoughts lands at number twenty.

Alex Warren’s You’ll Be Alright Kid (Chapter 1) continues to climb. After finally entering the top forty last week, it is up to number ten this week.

Ever since physical sales of albums were almost entirely concentrated in the first week or two of release, it has become common for the number one album to drop straight out of the top forty the following week. That has happened again this week with The Lottery Winners nowhere to be seen. However, thanks to the way an album’s streams are calculated, other albums have become almost a permanent fixture in the top forty. Many of them are compilations of some sort, in particular those whose streams are spread across several different tracks rather than one or two. This means that there are now a substantial number of albums in the chart which have topped the chart at some point, including some whose time at the top was many years ago. This week’s top forty contains 24 which have spent time at the summit in their (sometimes very long) chart history.

Finally, many thanks to popchartfreak for providing last week’s commentary while I was heading along the south coast to Bexhill.