Already? Already?!?

1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”

Two weeks, with a widening gap over the number 2 single, Gigi Perez’s “Sailor Song”; “APT” by Rosé and Bruno Mars fills out a static top 3. “I Love You I’m Sorry” drops to 20, while “Close to You” re-enters at 31 to give her a third hit. That’s a new peak for it; it previously got a single week at 35 in June.

12. Myles Smith – “Nice to Meet You”

Well, at least someone has released a regular old single and seen it enter at a reasonably high position. This piece of MOR jauntiness is the second top 40 hit for Myles Smith, after “Stargazing”, which peaked at number 4 in October and is still on the chart at 24. His overall chart record is rather mixed: the follow-up to “Stargazing” was “Wait for You”, which missed the top 50. And the parent album “A Minute” is also out this week, but it only reaches number 63.

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Another desperately quiet week, and at this point it’s unlikely that anything else is going to break through before the Christmas flood starts. So: pretty much all you need to know about 2024 in popular music is that Chappell Roan, Charli XCX and Sabrina Carpenter had a breakthrough year. And maybe, on a lesser scale…

1. Gracie Abrams – “That’s So True”

This is the single from the deluxe edition of her album “The Secret of Us”. It entered at 19 two weeks ago, vaulted to number 3 last week, and now reaches number 1. By the way, it is an unquestioned number one, as it would have beaten Sabrina Carpenter even if she wasn’t subject to the downweighting rule. I’m surprised that ‘That’s So True” has jumped to number 1 this quickly, given that her previous single “I Love You I’m Sorry” – her first major hit – is still at its peak of number 4, and took nine weeks to get there. It’s a decent enough track, if very much school-of-Taylor-Swift, and I guess it’s nice to see something finally making speedy progress to the top in a chart that’s been extremely slow this year.

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This is a week where the impact of the downweighting rule is awkwardly obvious, as Sabrina Carpenter’s “Taste” reaches its tenth week on the chart, and (since it’s several weeks past its peak) the downweighting rule kicks in. And that results in it dropping from number 1 straight to number 11. Without that rule, it would still be number 1. I have some sympathy with the need to find a way of clearing out the dead wood, given how long major hits continue to pick up zombie play before people finally clear them off their playlists. But there has to be a subtler way of doing it.

Anyway, with that asterisk duly applied…

1. Gigi Perez – “Sailor Song”

Gigi Perez joins the one-hit wonders list, climbing to number 1 in her eleventh week on the top 40 (and her fourth in the top 10). It’s a perfectly nice record, but I’m honestly surprised that it’s had enough broad and sustained appeal to get here. That said, it is the lowest-scoring number one of the last year, with the equivalent of just over 39,000 sales.

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I’m going to be busy this coming week, and that means the next annotations probably won’t be until the weekend. So if you’re looking for those, and this is still the top post, that’s why. In the meantime, let’s cover this week’s chart.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

I know, you’re amazed. That’s nine weeks. But it does get hit by the downweighting rule next week, so barring a miracle, this will be the last. “Bed Chem”, which entered last week due to a quirk of chart rules, falls to 11 and is not in contention to take over. Instead, Gigi Perez’s “Sailor Song” seems to be the number one in waiting, climbing to 2.

4. Rosé & Bruno Mars – “APT.”

Hey, this is great! Rosé is a member of Blackpink, but they’ve never placed a single above 17, so this is a big hit for her. Her bandmate Jennie just released a solo single too; it got to number 37. So clearly there’s more at work here than just the hardcore Blackpink fans.

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Well, if you’re going to be number one for this long, you might as well go for the record.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

That’s eight weeks, which means that Sabrina Carpenter has now spent twenty weeks at number 1 this year. Only Frankie Laine’s 28-week total in 1953 stands in the way of that being an all-time record. You could make a case that Sabrina has benefitted from a low turnover of hits this year, and so a lower number of challengers – but then again, she held “Good Luck Babe” off the top for months on end, and that’s a huge hit in its own right.

7. Charli XCX featuring Ariana Grande – “Sympathy is a Knife”

The remix version of “Brat” – “Brat and It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat” – is out this week, but since it also includes the entire original album, the OCC is classing it as a deluxe edition of “Brat” rather than a free standing album. The remixes are extensive. The original version of “Sympathy is a Knife” doesn’t sound much like this version at all, but for chart versions both versions count towards this streaming position – it’s just that the Ariana Grande version has now been nominated as the lead, so that she gets co-credit.

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In which we have Netflix to thank for avoiding another completely dead singles chart.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

Seven weeks. This brings her total to 19 for the year, across her three number one singles. This either matches or beats Ed Sheeran’s total from 2021 (depending on how you feel about the chart announced on 31 December that year). The only solo act to spend more weeks at number 1 in a calendar year is Frankie Laine, who was number one for most of 1953. To match him, she’d have to stay at number one for another eight weeks, which seems wildly unlikely. Sales figures suggest a lot of the top 10 is about to be hit by the downweighting rule, so we might finally be due for a clearout.

14. KSI featuring Trippie Redd – “Thick Of It”

First time we’ve seen KSI this year. His last couple of singles both entered fairly strongly and plunged in the second week, which might suggest he’s becoming a fanbase act – but this single seems decent enough. He and Trippie Redd had a single in early 2020, “Wake Up Call”, which got to number 11; Trippie Redd’s only other top 40 single was his own “Miss the Rage”, which had a single week at number 32 in 2021.

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The top end of the singles chart remains logjammed with Mostly Sabrina Carpenter – the top six are all non-movers this week. So…

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

That’ll be six weeks.

7. The Weeknd & Playboi Carti – “Timeless”

This is the second single from the upcoming Weeknd album. The first one was “Dancing in the Flames”, which entered at number 12 a fortnight ago. It’s not doing well – after two weeks, it’s currently at number 36.

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And we’re back to another quiet week on the singles chart. The albums are busier, though.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

Five weeks, with “Espresso” still at 3 and “Please Please Please” at 5. That means Sabrina Carpenter has been number one for a total of 17 weeks this year. For those who find such things interesting, this is the most weeks that a female solo artist has spent at number 1 in a calendar year since 1978 (when Olivia Newton-John managed 16 weeks).

There are no new entries inside the top 30, so we skip down to…

35. Alex Warren – “Burning Down”

A second single to join “Carry You Home”, which entered at 39 last week (and climbs). That track has been hanging around for ages in the lower reaches; this is a bona fide new release. It’s another stompy folk-pop track, and perfectly okay at what it does.

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At last, a singles chart with some actual activity.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

Admittedly, the activity is not right at the top, with “Taste” spending a fourth week at number one. Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck Babe” returns to number 2 to break the Sabrina Carpenter logjam, but she still has “Espresso” at 3 and “Please Please Please” at 4. She’s now been number 1 for 16 of the last 21 weeks.

12. The Weeknd – “Dancing in the Flames”

This is the lead single from his upcoming sixth album, debuted at a one-off concert earlier in the month. He’s had bigger hits than this before, but his first week places aren’t that important – the Weeknd tends to have his that stick around forever. The track is firmly in the 80s revivalist mode we’ve come to expect from him, but he does do it very well. And there is an alternative acoustic version available, if you want to hear the song in a less 80s mode.

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Legacy acts aren’t willing to stick to the album chart any more, it seems.

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Taste”

Three weeks. She still has “Espresso” at number 2, and “Please Please Please” at number 5. Her album “Short N’ Sweet” is still at number 2.

4. Linkin Park – “The Emptiness Machine”

This is the lead single from Linkin Park’s eighth album, after a seven year gap. They’ve added Emily Armstrong as joint lead singer, and the band’s return to activity is clearly a big draw. Just as Oasis were able to get three tracks into the top 10 on the back of 90s nostalgia, Linkin Park get their highest chart position ever – they haven’t had a top 10 hit since 2008, and their previous peak was number 6 for “What I’ve Done.” Their earliest hit singles were back in early 2001, so in many ways they’re as much a legacy act as Oasis, but at least they’re here with new material. Their singles collection “Papercuts” is at number 8 on the album chart.

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