Golden remains at the top of the singles chart. Ed Sheeran cruises to his ninth number one album.

HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast continue their reign of terror at the top of the singles chart as Golden grabs a seventh week at number one. Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast climb one place to number three with Soda Pop. The same combination are at number five with Your Idol.

Olivia Dean’s Man I Need is at number two for a fourth successive week. Sabrina Carpenter’s Tears fall to number four. 

Katseye are based in Los Angeles but their members hail from the Philippines, South Korea and Switzerland as well as the USA. Their single Gabriela entered the top 100 at the beginning of the summer, but it dropped out of the top chart after four weeks. However, it returned after a two-week absence and has now cracked the top forty for the first time at number 39.

Kehlani’s Folded has also taken its time to reach the top forty. It entered the top 100 in the same week as Gabriela’s return. This week, its seventh in the full chart, it climbs to number 33 to give her a first top forty hit since 2019.

Lola Young’s Messy returns at number 4- after a few weeks out of the broadcast part of the chart.

Even Suede’s biggest fans knew that their new album might not prevent Sabrina Carpenter getting a second week at number one, and so it proved last week. However, even Carpenter's biggest fans will have known that she had no chance of getting a third consecutive week. The reason? Ed Sheeran’s new album was released last week. Even though he is well short of his peak popularity, his albums still sell well and pick up a lot of streams.

Play is said to be the first of five albums named after symbols on devices such as DVD players (remember them?), following his five albums named after arithmetical symbols. The five arithmetically-themed albums all went to number one, and now the first of his new arithmetical quintology has done the same. Play is his ninth chart-topping album and is also the second album called Play to top the chart after Moby’s mega-seller from a quarter of a century ago.

Ed Sheeran’s nine number one albums matches the total accumulated by Bob Dylan. Only eleven solo artists have had more. Camera from the album is a new entry to the singles chart at number sixteen while A Little More re-enters at 32. Sapphire climbs to number 28. Camera is his 67th top forty single.

Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend drops to number two after a fortnight at number one.

Former Little Mix member Jade (Thirlwall) enters at number three with her debut solo album That’s Showbiz Baby. It has achieved the highest first-week sales for a debut album so far this year and tops the Official Record Store chart which uses sales from independent (non-chain) record shops.

Twenty One Pilots get a fifth top ten album with their eighth studio album Breach at number four.. It concludes their quintology of albums which started with Blurryface in 2015. It is this week’s best-selling album on vinyl.

Sophi Ellis-Bextor remains one top ten album ahead of Twenty One Pilots as Perimenopop (whatever that is) enters at number five. Selena Gomez and Nile Rogers are among the co-songwriters credited on the album.

Careful users of English would avoid the use of the word legendary to describe a band whose existence cannot be doubted. Using the looser definition of the word, it is reasonable to describe Led Zeppelin as a legendary rock band. They released nine studio albums in thirteen years, but there has also been a succession of live albums and other compilations. They have now been joined by a Live EP. The EP is the length of many of today’s full-length albums although it has only four tracks, including the classic Kashmir (but not Stairway To Heaven). It is a new entry at number sixteen.