Rein Me In gets that record 19th week on top, Charli xcx gets a 4th album number one

Rein Me In gets that record 19th week on top, Charli xcx gets a 4th album number one

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean do the seemingly impossible and take the chart record by a slender margin. Rein Me In was trailing in the first two chart updates, by a declining margin as memories of the World Cup half-time show fade, but Shakira couldnt quite get that second chart-topper with Dai Dai. Burna Boy's flame therefore has been extinguished too. Ah well, maybe in four years time then. With thanks to Simon for the info, Rein Me In is also only the 3rd track to hold the most-weeks record and the first by British acts. Is any other summer record drop going to challenge Rein Me In hanging on at the top until the end of the decade and increasing on its historic 19 weeks? Tune in next week! 

Ella Langley, ANOTR featuring Ultra 54 and Olivia Rodrigo continue to tussle over the 3, 4 and 5 slots, with this week Ella coming out on top with the still-classy Choosin' Texas up to a new peak of 3 on its 30th chart week. For those looking for a UK version there's always Choosin' Wessex, done Bardcore Medieval stylee by Hildegarde von Blingin' which is lovely and amusing and references Coventry and Glastonbury instead of the USA place-names. Talk To Me still bangs for me at 5, and Olivia's stupid song is good at 4.

French EDM DJ/producer HUGEL meanwhile climbs to 7 with the fab Movin' To The Sun, aided and abetted by Imael Angel, UK EDM House producer who has a similar-sounding goodie out in I'm Alive, and 90's hitmaker Ultra Nate. The pair of producers had already collaborated on a remix of Ultra's classic Free, so thoughtfully drafted her in for the vocals on their new song, meaning she gets her first top 10 since Found A Cure peaked at 6 in 1998, and third in total since Free hit 4 in 1997.

STELLA LEFTY, as she likes to shouty-text stylize, moves to a new peak of 14 as the very catchy and upbeat song finds new fans week on week with Boston. I once got bumped from a flight from Logan Airport and ferried to a hotel at 4am by a manic taxi driver playing Jimi Hendrix on 11, after 24 hours in the airport and on a faulty plane. Consequently my theoretical song about Boston would be pre-date Stella's by 37 years and be much less fun. 

Cats' eyes save huge numbers of lives annually, thanks to Percy Shaw and his 1934 road reflector invention. KATSEYE are another shouty-text act, based in L.A. I also have an anecdote about being stranded at L.A. Airport, but it's not as thrilling as the last one. Hooray! The global-origined girl group are another reality show creation and are on their 5th top 40 track in just over a year, with Animal entering at 16. Sadly it's not a cover of the Def Leppard song. 

Sienna Spiro has had to modify her Great Expectation, just up the four spots to 15, but her first name always gives me huge Tuscany-rooted nostalgia as a postage stamp reddish-brown descriptor back in the days when my exciting youth lifestyle involved collecting stamps. I really knew how to live it up! Another hobby was taking photographs on my camera. Charli XCX has a new single, Camera, in at 22 which I count as her 27th top 40 hit in the 14 years since I Love It got the ball rolling with Icona Pop. One has to admire her work ethic and album chart placing (see below). The rather good Temper City climb one place to a new peak of 27 with Self Aware, meanwhile, as Katy Perry reaches a new second-time-around peak of 24, and Bloodstream is up to 20 and a new peak for Alyssa Grace.

Robyn's Dancing On My Own smash from 2010 makes it's first top 40 re-appearance since, one of several others of late after the World Cup ended, though her newer stuff struggles a bit to chart sadly. Noah Kahan is up 4 spots to 36 with Orbiter, and finally, in at 40 it's Audrey Hobert with Sue Me. Very kind offer, but I'll pass. Friend of Gracie Abrams and a co-writer and her first ever hit, and a surprise entry for me! 

In the albums chart it's an easy 4th-in-a-row chart-topper for Charli XCX with Music, Fashion, Film and her second of the year following Wuthering Heights. As intimated above, she's quite prolific. Snow Patrol meanwhile enter with their 20th anniversary expanded edition of Eyes Open. It may or may not count as a new album, I will wait until the OCC makes its' mind up as there isn't necessarily a guaranteed well-defined rule for this. It is, however, Charli XCX's 7th top 40 album from 8 releases. Or 9 from a lot more if you include EP's mixtapes live remixes hits and anything else I've missed. Essential Jacko is at 2, and pretty sad Olivia Rodrigo at 3 and Olivia Dean as per usual at 5.

Shania Twain is back, come on over Little Miss Twain! The Canadian 90's country star, Eileen to her family, is on her 7th top 40 studio album in well over 30 years, which is about half as prolific as Charli XCX on average. It is, though, her 6th top 10 album in a row going back to 1995, but falls short of a 4th number one at 7 as Charli XCX grabs that stat instead.

Reality Awaits is the latest album from The Strokes, new at 8, as they struggle to get any headline pre-plays these days ahead of release-dates bar the fan-base, but have a 24-year span of chart success anyway. I can't claim to have seen them in concert, but I have seen guitarist Albert Hammond Jr's British dad locally. In another spooky "7th studio album" coincidence that's the same as Shania Twain in a decade less. 

British road-rapper/Hip hop acts Nines is back again. Any hooray he is also on a 7th album charter since 2017 which is out-prolific-ing even Charli XCX, but Lost Tapes so far is download only and falls short of the top 10 at 14 and is listed as a Mixtape not a studio album."

That concludes the album news and various filler anecdotes. Stay away from heathland and woodland, and stay safe!

And with that best wishes to Simon in France and hoping the raging fires are not anywhere nearby!