This week’s chart is laughably uneventful. Well, except for…

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Please Please Please”

Climbing from 3 to give Sabrina Carpenter her second number one, a mere three weeks after “Espresso” ended its five-week reign.

A bit of context: Sabrina Carpenter has been releasing singles since 2014. During years in the Disney orbit, she had negligible impact on charts anywhere. She had a number 19 hit in Norway in 2017. After she jumped from Disney she had a minor internaional hit with “Skin” in 2021, mainly because it was widely understood as an answer record to Olivia Rodrigo. And then somewhere around 2022 she seemed to get it to click, but even then, her UK peak was just inside the top 20. To go from that to two number 1s in a row is quite the step up.

Oh, and “Espresso” is at number 2.

32. David Baddiel, Frank Skinner & The Lightning Seeds – “3 Lions”

The hardy perennial England football anthem, back for another Euros tournament. Even ignoring the later remakes, this record spent two weeks at number on release in 1996, another week at number 1 in 2018, and is now enjoying its 34th week in the top 40. It does have the advantage over most football records of actually being a proper song about fandom.

39. Chappell Roan – “Hot to Go”

The only new entry is a second hit for Chappell Roan. Her current single “Good Luck Babe” climbs to number 13 this week, but this is a single from her album “Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” that’s been out for nearly a year. Albums simply don’t climb on the UK album chart – it’s almost unheard of. But “Rise and Fall” is doing exactly that – it clawed its way from the lower reaches to number 33 on the album chart three weeks ago, and today it reaches number 9.

This week’s climbers (and brace yourself, because this is dull):

• “Stargazing” by Myles Smith climbs one place to 6.
• “Slow it Down” by Benson Boone, after 5 weeks hovering between 19 and 16, reaches a new peak of 15.
• “The Door” by Teddy Swims, which fell 28-30 last week, rebounds to a new peak of 26.
• “6 in the Morning” by Flex (UK) featuring Nate Dogg climbs 40-37.

There are three tracks leaving the top 40 (because the Disturbed have a re-entry at number 40):

• “Without Me” by Eminem had two weeks peaking at 37.
• “Places to Be” by Fred again.. & Anderson .Paak feauring Chika had two weeks peaking at 35.
• “Close to You” by Gracie Abrams had a single week at 35.

And of course “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan is still the longest-running track on the top 40, currently at 27 with a 37-week run.

On the album chart, “The Tortured Poets Department” by Taylor Swift is still number 1 for a seventh non-consecutive week.

5. Sea Girls – “Midnight Butterflies”

Their third album; the previous two both reached number 3, but this is only marginally behind.

10. Paul McCartney & Wings – “One Hand Clapping”

“One Hand Clapping” is an oddity: it’s an album of Wings performing live in Abbey Road in 1974 which was originally intended for a documentary. That film didn’t see the light of day – officially, at any rate – until 2010, when it was included in a deluxe reissue of “Band on the Run”. This is the first time that the album itself has received an official release.

14. Luke Combs – “Fathers & Sons”

The previous two Luke Combs albums made the top 10, so this is actually a slight step down.

27. Don Toliver – “Hardstone Psycho”

Last year’s album only got to number 36, so this is more like it. He’s been higher than this in the past, though.

28. John Grant – “The Art of the Lie”

That’s low. His previous album made number 8, and this is the lowest position he’s had since 2010.

29. Fred again.. – “USB”

Not so much an album as a playlist of his singles, this has been out in one form another since 2022, but for some reason charts now. It includes “Rumble” and “leavemealone”.

39. David Bowie – “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”

Deluxe box sets of rarities and so forth from 1971-1972.