Sam Fender and Olivia Dean get a second week at the top of the singles chart. Mumford And Sons get their fourth number one album.

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.