Jamie Miller climbs to number one with his debut hit. Fontaines DC get their second number one album.

Jamie Miller’s Babydoll entered the top forty last month in its fourth week in the top 100. It has continued to climb the chart since then and this week it climbs to places to hit the top spot. A nine-week run to the top of the chart is nothing special these days, but it is slightly less common for a song to have climbed in every one of those weeks. In an interview with the Official Charts company Miller said that he wanted to record a cheerful song describing his earlier songs as “very sad”.

With no new physical copies to boost her sales Taylor Swift’s Patient Zero slumps to number ten after three weeks at the top. Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan climb a hefty 32 places to number three with Expectations. Ashe slips to number four with Stop The Wedding. Sienna Spiro’s Great Expectation is at number five.

After months when it has been hard to contain the excitement generated by as many as two new entries, this week we finally have a decent number. OK, so several of them are tracks from newly released albums, but at least it makes the chart look a little less stale.

Tate McRae enters at number two with Housewife. It is her ninth top ten single and the fourth to reach the top five. It’s a shame it’s not anything special.

Zach Bryan gets his first top ten hit four years after his chart debut with the perfectly pleasant Lies at number seven. The song features Lana del Rey who gets her seventh top ten hit. Three of those top ten hits, including the first two, peaked at number nine. Bryan is also at number 33 with Lodi When, a song that improves as it goes along.

In the run-up to the release of their new album, Fontaines DC have doubled their tally of top forty singles from one to two. Now that the album Dopamine Chamber has been released, that tally doubles again, to four. First, the brilliant Marianne returns to the top forty at a new peak of number twelve. It is joined by Japan )yet another song in the current chart with a place name in the title) at number fourteen and Demolition at eighteen. Both of those songs beat the band’s previous singles chart peak.

So, Fontaines DC have three new entries in the top twenty. I wonder which new album will be number one. Stay tuned to find out.

Kettama, an Irish producer, gets his first top forty hit with Think Of You at number 25. He had a top 60 hit earlier this year. It also delivers a third top forty hit of the year to featured artist Prospa.

The most crowded credit of the week’s new entries is for Flower In A Hurricane which is performed by Justice, Tame Impala, Sza and the splendidly-named King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Australian band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have released an astonishing 28 albums in fourteen years without getting anywhere near the top forty, so this is a welcome breakthrough for them. Their latest album was released in August this year. It is a second top forty hit for Justice, twenty years after their first.

There is still a week to go before Hallowe’en but Michael Jackson's Thriller is already back in the top forty, at number 39.

Fontaines DC’s last album Romance was released in 2024 and received great reviews. Unfortunately for the band, it was released in the same week as Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet. She may not have been seen as a threat when the release date was fixed, but by the time the date came around she was a big enough name to grab the top spot. They were also unlucky in 2020 when they released A Hero’s Death. That album was beaten to the top because Taylor Swift’s team decided to put out another batch of vinyl copies of her Folklore album. It was enough to see her get a second week at number one.

This time there seemed to be little doubt that Fontaines DC would get a second number one album. Any doubt was dismissed as soon as Monday’s update showed the Dublin band easily outselling the rest of the top ten combined. They fully score their second number one album after 2022’s Skinty Fla. Romance has had a very good run for a rock album, clocking up 32 weeks in the top forty.

The rest of the top five all climb one place from last week. Olivia Rodrigo’s You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love is at number two. The Essential Michael Jackson is at number three, ahead of Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving at four and Sienna Sparro’s Visitor at five.

Rachel Chinouriri has put the misfortune of spending most of her childhood in Croydon behind her to get a top ten album with I Think I Spoke Too Soon at number noone.

While Ashe is enjoying success in the singles chart, the original Ash are nack in the albums chart, albeit with a reissue of an old album. The Northern Irish trio released their debut album 1077 in 1996, so now we have a 30th anniversary edition which includes eighteen live tracks. The album, named after the year the members were born as well as the fact that it was the year of the first Star Wars film, topped the chart on its original release. The reissue is at number 26.

Also in 1996, Zach Bryan was born. He has already had a mumber three album this year with With Heaven On Top. Now he is back with an EP, including the singles chart hits mentioned above. Young Manhood And Other Donatable Organs is at number eleven.

Last Saturday (18 October) was National Album Day with dozens of special releases. Among them was a deluxe edition of Tears For Fears’ 1989 album The Seeds Of Love. On its release it became the band’s second number one in three releases. This new edition is at number nineteen.

British singer Nieve Ella is at number 31 with her debut album How Long Will It Take? Richard Thompson is at number 40 with his twentieth studio album Hippies, Thugs And Heroes, a title that reminds me of Cher’s 1971 hit Gypsies, Tramps And Thieves.