Leaderboard

For the first time in several weeks, there was a genuine contest at the top of the singles chart. Would Hunter/X and co get yet another golden week at the top or would the release of her album help Olivia Dean rise to the top? Olivia Dean’s Man I Need was at number one in the midweek updates. In Wednesday’s update it held a lead of a little over 3,500 chart units over Golden. There was, by contrast, never any real doubt about whether Olivia Dean’s album The Art Of Loving would top the chart. The singer-songwriter from London has had a very successful 2025. At the start of the year, she was still relatively unknown. Her only singles chart success had been with a version of The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) which charted for Christmas 2021, but hasn’t returned in subsequent years. Her debut album, Messy, reached number four when it was released in 2023, but spent just that one week in the top forty. This year, Olivia Dean’s fortunes have improved dramatically. Last week, Man I Need was at number two for a fifth week while Nice To Each Other was also in the top ten. It is, therefore, not a surprise that The Art Of Loving has gone straight to number one. She is able to celebrate a chart double as Man I Need has at last made that final one place step up to become her first number one single. Nice To Each Other has climbed to number four. So Easy (To Fall In Love) is a new entry at number nine. Dive has plunged out of the chart from last week’s number eighteen position because of the limit of three songs by an artist in the singles chart. The top five in the singles chart still has two songs from the XPop Demon Hunters soundtrack. Golden by HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast drops to number two after eight non-consecutive weeks at number one. Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast are at number five with Soda Pop. The top five is completed by Raye’s Where Is My Husband at number three. Olivia Dean’s closest rival for the top spot wasn’t close at all, but it is still technically accurate to use the term, or at least it was until the end of the week. The eventual number two is Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend. She also has a new entry in the singles chart with House Tour at number seventeen. Some three years after Little Mix broke up (although, officially, they are “on hiatus”), Perrie Edwards has released her first solo album under the mononym Perrie. The album, also called Perrie, is at number three having lost its status as the closest rival for the number one spot in the latter part of the week. Hot on the heels of a Led Zeppelin live EP, Robert Plant is at number four with Saving Grace. Although he has been touring with a band called Saving Grace, the album is credited to Plant alone, making it his twelfth solo studio album. Doja Cat has a new entry at number five with her new album Vie. Two songs from the album are in the singles chart. Gorgeous is a new entry at number 34 and Jealous Type re-enters at number 30. American band Geese are at number 26 with the cheerfully-titled Getting Killed. Mariah Carey has her twentieth top forty album with Here For It All at number 31. Genesis’s last album with Peter Gabriel on vocals, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, is at number 35 thanks to a “50th anniversary” edition. It peaked at number ten when it was released at then end of 1974. Returning to the singles chart, there are new entries that are not from albums released last week. The highest of them comes from Tate McRae who is at number six with Tit For Tat. The phrase is the reason why a hat is known as a titfer in cockney rhyming slang. Myles Smith is at number 32 with Stay (If You Wanna Dance). With the year now into its final quarter, the Official Charts Company has published a list of the top albums of 2025 so far. The list highlights just how much streaming of older albums influences the chart. The top album released in 2025 is Sam Fender’s People Watching, but it is only at number six overall. Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n’ Sweet is at number one with Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection at number two and the Oasis compilation at three. Compilations by Fleetwood Mac and The Weeknd are also ahead of Sam Fender. Fender’s time with the top-selling album released in 2025 will not last much longer as Taylor Swift released a new album today (Friday).

HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast extend their run at the top of the singles chart with Golden to an eighth week. Three-quarters of the way through 2025, we have had eleven number one singles of varying quality. Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast are at number five with Soda Pop. Once again the Demon Hunters have thwarted Olivia Dean’s Man I Need which is at number two for a fifth week. This week’s highest new entry is the second single from Lewis Capaldi’s forthcoming third album. Probably - there is, as yet, no release date and no title. The first single, Survive, spent a week at number one. Something In The Heavens is at number three. His second album Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent re-enters at number 40. Raye also has a new entry in the top five in the form of Where Is My Husband at number four. It is only the second top forty hit with the word husband in the title after Meghan Trainor’s Dear Future husband in 2015. There has never been a single anywhere in the chart with the word wife in the title although Next came close with Wifery, a number nineteen hit in 2000. Raye’s 2023 number one hit Escapism returns to the top forty at number 37. There are no further new entries in the top forty, so let’s have a little diversion. I don’t often mention a song at number 73. I also don’t generally mention something from last week’s chart. However, I am prepared to make an exception once in a while. Since Damon Albarn launched Gorillaz as, supposedly, a one-off project, his reputation as a musician has meant that many of the biggest names in music have accepted the opportunity to work with the world’s greatest virtual band. KPop Demon Hunters will never come even close. Gorillaz will be releasing their ninth album next March, but the track listing is already available. The collaborators this time include Johnny Marr, the late Mark E Smith and Idles. Oh, and the ever-wonderful Sparks. The Sparks collaboration, The Happy Dictator, has been released as a single and was at number 73 last week. It is, obviously, a great track and has given Sparks a first top 75 single since a new version of their debut hit This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us (featuring Faith No More) in 1997. Their last top 75 hit with a new song was Now That I Own The BBC in 1995. Sparks did have a hit with Number One Song In Heaven, Gorillaz’s Feel Good Inc is back in the charts and a Coldplay song called Sparks is also in the chart, so there are plenty of links to this week’s top forty. Scottish band Biffy Clyro’s first three albums all failed to reach the top forty. Their fortunes changed with the release of Puzzle in 2016 which went to number two. The next five studio albums all reached the top five with three of them topping the chart. They continue that run with their fourth number one Futique. Sabrina Carpenter is still at number two with Man’s Best Friend. Ed Sheeran’s Play falls to number five after a week at number one. The title of Lola Young’s second album has a couple asterisks added in the chart listing so I will have to guess what its full title is. I think it is I’m Only Flaking Myself. It enters at number three to give her a first top ten album D£aler, the second single from the album, returns to the top forty at number 35. Among the UK’s greatest lyricists is Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon whose talent for wit and story-telling has sustained the band for 35 years and thirteen albums. The fact that he is a pretty good tunesmith as well helps. The latest, Rainy Sunday Afternoon, is at number four, their highest position for a studio album. The album includes a song called The Man Who Turned Into A Chair and another called Mar-a-Lago By The Sea. I wonder what that might be about. Before they joined Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks released an album together. The duo and the album were both called Buckingham Nicks. Not many people noticed; the album failed to chart in the UK. Fifty-two years on, it has been released and it enters the chart at number six. The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack album is ineligible for the main chart as the tracks are credited to a number of different lead artists. However, the soundtrack for the latest Tron film, Ares (*checks for an unfortunate typo*) are all credited to Nine Inch Nails, so the album is eligible. It is at number twelve. There are four more new entries in the top forty. Joy Crookes is at number thirteen with Juniper. British DJ Sammy Virji’s Same Day Cleaning is at number 21 while Cardi B’s Am I The Drama is at 26. Octopus, Newton Faulkner’s first album for four years, is at number 27. The appearance of an album called Octopus provides me with an opportunity to include another chapter in Suedehead’s Guide to the English Language. Octopus derives from Greek, not Latin, which means that the plural is definitely not octopi. If octopi is a word at all, it should mean eight times pi. Technically, and etymologically, the plural is octopodes, but octopuses is a perfectly acceptable anglicised version.

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.

There is still no shifting HUNTR/X, EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI & KPop Demon Hunters Cast from the top of the singles chart as Golden stubbornly stays there for a sixth week. The KPop film is also responsible for Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast at number four with Soda Pop. Olivia Dean's Man I Need remains Golden’s closest rival for the top slot, remaining at number two. Sabrina Carpenter is still shedding her Tears at number three. Disco Lines and Tinashe climb back up to number five with No Broke Boys. Without the limit of three songs for an individual artist Sabrina Carpenter’s When Did You Get Hot? would have been in the chart last week. This week, it is one of her three most popular songs, so it is a new entry at number nine. I have enjoyed some of Carpenter’s songs, but this isn’t one of them. Lady Gaga has a new entry at number thirteen with The Dead Dance. It is a third hit of the year for Gaga, and her 33rd top forty hit in a chart career that began in 2009. Calvin Harris enters at number 34 with Ocean, his 46th top forty hit. He is joined by Jessie Reyez whose only previous top forty hit was also alongside Harris, as well as Sam Smith. Sabrina Carpenter gets a second week at the top of the albums chart with Man’s Best Friend. It is the first new album to get a second consecutive week at the top since Eminem’s The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace) in July and August last year. Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department spent two weeks at number one last December, but by then it was seven months old. This bit maintains the tradition of scrupulous impartiality in these notes. There can be no doubt that Suede are the best band ever to have existed in this, or any other, universe. They started to come to public attention when they featured on the front cover of one of the music papers (ask your parents) under the headline “Best New Band In Britain?". This was before they had released anything. I first saw Suede in March 1992, still two months before they released their debut single. That was with the 50-60 other people who had turned up to see them support The Heart-Throbs. Seven months later, touts were charging £30 for tickets with a face value of £5 at another London venue. Tomorrow (Saturday), exactly 33 ½ years after that first Suede gig, I shall be seeing them for the 60-somethingth time at London’s Festival Hall. Their debut album, unimaginatively titled Suede, was released in 1993. It became the fastest-selling debut album since Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Welcome To The Pleasure Dome in 1994 and won the second Mercury Music Prize. Shortly before the release of their second (and best) album Dog Man Star in 1994, guitarist and co-songwriter Bernard Butler left the band. Many people speculated that his departure would lead to the end of the band, but they recruited the then-tennager Richard Oakes and carried on. Suede got a second number one album with Head Music in 1999, but the follow-up, A New Morning (2002), only got to number 24 and they broke up the following year. Those of us who attended the band’s “final” gig in December of that year had to hope that singer Brett Anderson’s promise that there would be another Suede album would be fulfilled. Even when Suede re-formed in 2010, it was officially a one-off to perform a show at the Albert Hall to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. However, that went so well that they announced new shows and, eventually, a new album. Last week, they released their fifth album since re-forming, matching the five they released before the break-up. Antidepressants is meant to be the second of a trilogy of albums, so there should be at least one more to come. In the meantime, Antidepressants becomes Suede’s second number two album, following Autofiction in 2022. The top five is completed by three compilations. Oasis are at number three with Time Flies, Ed Sheeran’s Tour Collection is at number four and Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years - Don’t Stop is at five. Suede bassist Mat Osman has also published two novels, including the excellent The Ghost Theatre. By a weird coincidence, he started writing his first novel, The Ruins, at about the same time as brother Richard started work on The Thursday Murder Club. That must been that Red Rum Club should meet on Yadsruht. Their fifth album Buck, my second-favourite new album released last week, is at number seven. One of the 90s bands I most regret not having seen live are St Etienne whose members include Bob Stanley, another published author. This week the band get their third top ten album with International at number eight. They last reached the top ten in 1994 when Tiger Bay also reached number eight. Just two months after the surprise release of Swag, Justin Bieber has added 23 tracks to the original 21 and reissued it as Swag II. The album, which enters at number ten, now lasts for a little over two hours. Faithless enjoyed their biggest success from the mid-1990s to the early noughties with fantastic singles such as God Is A DJ, Insomnia and We Come 1. It is now eighteen years since they had a top forty single (although they came close in 2010), but they are still recording hit albums. Their latest, Champion Sound, is at number fifteen. David Byrne came to the attention of the music world as the singer and songwriter for the band Talking Heads, one of the most original bands of the 1980s. The band are no more, but Byrne is now pursuing a solo career. He gets a fifth solo top forty hit with Who Is The Sky? at number 34.