Alex Warren gets a fifth Ordinary week at the top of the singles chart. Those Damn Crows have their first number one album.

Alex Warren remains well clear of the opposition at the top of the singles chart. Ordinary’s fifth week at the summit makes it the longest-running number one single of the year so far. The last five-week number one was Gracie Abrams’ That’s So True in November and December of last year. This means that this year’s Easter number one matches the song that was replaced by last year’s Christmas number one.

Ordinary heads an unchanged top four. Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club remains at number two. Ed Sheeran’s Azizam is at number three for a second week with Doechii’s Anxiety at number four. Therefore, we still have an X, three Ys and two Zs in the titles of the top four singles. There is just one E and no Ss.

Tate McRae drives her Sports Car up to number five.

Many charting singles from films aimed at children have been of a particularly low quality. Think of Let It Go for example. Some of them do at least have the virtue of being short. Such is the case with Jack Black’s Steve’s Lava Chicken from the Minecraft film. Yes, it’s diabolically bad, but at least it is only 34 seconds long. It is a new entry at number 21 and so becomes the shortest song ever to enter the UK singles chart. 

Listening to Lana Del Rey’s new single Henry, Come On is a much more pleasant experience than listening to that chicken thing. Del Rey first entered the chart with the sublime Video Games in 2011. Her chart performance since then has been a little patchy. Henry, Come On is her 38th top 100 hit, but only the 13th to make the top forty, a strike rate of only one in three. As a new entry at number 30, it is only her second top forty single as the lead artist since 2017. She has, however, had no fewer than three number 87 hits in that time which is three more than Ed Sheeran has had in his entire career.

Ghanaian singer-songwriter Moliy made her UK chart debut in November 2021 as the featured artist on Amaarae’s Sad Girlz Luv Money. Perhaps as punishment for crimes against spelling (not that Slade ever suffered), she has had to wait almost three-and-a-half years to get another hit. Her drought ends this week as Shake It To The Max (Fly), which features someone called Silent Addy who we haven’t heard from before, enters at number 35.

The battle for supremacy in the albums chart was between Welsh band Those Damn Crows and Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet. Those Damn Crows were ahead in the midweek up[dates but their lead on Wednesday was a fairly slender one. In the event, they did hold on and God Shaped Hole, their fourth album, becomes their first number one. It completes a run of higher peaks for each album after starting with an album that didn’t make the charts at all.

Sabrina Carpenter, therefore continues her residency at number two.

Last Friday (11 April) was the latest Record Store Day which meant another long list of special releases, available only in independent record shops. Some of the releases are limited to so few copies that they have no chance of entering the chart while others are simply a new edition of an album that is already widely available. One such this time round is Oasis’s Time Flies compilation, originally released in 2010. The album was at number seventeen last week. This week, thanks to the new edition, it climbs to number three.

One of the brand new releases for Record Store Day was a six-track EP from Sam Fender, Me And The Dog. Two of the tracks are new releases and there is also a live version of the title track from his latest album People Watching. It is at number fourteen.

Two other Record Store Day releases also enter the top forty. Liam Gallagher has an Acoustic Sessions collection at number 33 and CVharli XCX is at number 37 with Number 1 Angel.

Record Store Day has also had an impact on the singles chart. A vinyl edition of Taylor Swift’s Fortnight was also among the items on sale and the song returns to the chart at number 29 just under a year since its one week at number one.

It is now nearly twenty years since Justin Vernon formed his band Bon Iver. In that time they have generally enjoyed more success with the critics than with the wider public. Their latest album, Sable Fable, is at number four.

Ed Sheeran’s Mathematics Tour collection is at number five.