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.

14. Tate McRae – “It’s OK I’m OK”

This is (presumably) the lead single from her third album. It’s a lower starting position than the big hits from the previous album, “Greedy” and “Exes”, but not by too much. It’s not as instant as those singles but it’s growing on me a bit. The video is, um, trying a bit hard with the sexy. I guess maybe we’re at a point where there’s a gap in the market for Not At All Subtle.

21. Chappell Roan – “Pink Pony Club”

Another single from “Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess”. As already mentioned, “Good Luck Babe” is at 2; “Hot to Go” also returns to its earlier peak of number 9. “Pink Pony Club” was originally released as far back as 2020 when she was signed to Atlantic. They dropped her a few months after the single was released, which is why it didn’t surface on an album until 2023.

This maxes out her quota of three hit singles, and the track it replaces is “Red Wine Supernova”, which was at number 34 last week. By implication, then, this track must have climbed 13 places from its disqualified position last week. I’m not quite sure why it’s surged, but she was playing live in the UK this week.

24. Charli XCX featuring Troye Sivan – “Talk Talk”

Another track from “Brat” given a remix and a guest appearance for the single version. This is the original. I’m not at all convinced by the remix, which feels like it doesn’t have a chorus. She and Troye Sivan have had a hit together before – “1999” reached number 13 in 2018.

28. Teddy Swims – “Bad Dreams”

A third concurrent hit, to go with “Lose Control” at number 26 and “The Door” at number 16. This isn’t from the same album, but it’s still fairly similar to the other two.

You may be wondering how many artists actually multiple hits on the top 40 this week. The answer is “quite a lot”. Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Teddy Swims and Oasis all have 3 (one of which, admittedly, is shared by Charli XCX and Billie Eilish). Benson Boone and Coldplay both have 2. So that’s eight artists collectively occupying more than half of the chart. This might have something to do with its recent sluggish pace. It might also raise a question about whether the singles chart is starting to blur with album listening.

32. Playboi Carti – “All Red”

Playboi Carti has had five previous top 40 hits, but all of them were either features or records where a much bigger star had equal billing (his biggest hit also featured the Weeknd and Madonna). This is the first time he’s made the top 40 with a compeltely solo single.

36. Ndotz – “Embrace It”

North London rapper. It’s the first time he’s been anywhere near the top 40. Big on TikTok, apparently. Weirdly catchy.

This week’s climbers:

• “Good Luck Babe” by Chappell Roan returns to the number 2 peak that it first reached in August. It’s been in the top 5 since July.
• “Die With a Smile” by Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars continues its very slow climb, having gone 7-7-7-6-5.
• “Hot to Go” by Chappell Roan climbs 11-9 for a new peak, though it had a single week at number 10 a month ago.
• “I Love You I’m Sorry” by Gracie Abrams climbs 21-18.

The seven tracks leaving the top 40 are:

• “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan, finally bidding farewell after 49 weeks in the top 40, including a 7 week stretch at number 1.
• “Big Dawgs” by Hanumankind & Kalmi, which peaked at 15 and got six weeks in the top 40.
• “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone & Morgan Wallen, which entered at number 2 and lasted ten weeks in the top 10 and 18 weeks in the top 40.
• “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” by Taylor Swift, which entered at number 8 as an album track back in May and hung around ever since.
• “Moi” by Central Cee featuring Raye after a single week at number 38.
• “Red Wine Supernova” by Chappell Roan, which peaked at number 31 and has had a total of 10 weeks in the top 40 (with some wandering outside) – it might still have been in the chart if it hadn’t been disqualified by “Pink Pony Club”.
• “Like a Prayer” by Madonna, which had five weeks in the top 40 and a peak of number 27 on the back of Deadpool & Wolverine.

The departure of “Stick Season” means that we have a new longest-running track: “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims at 38 weeks and counting. It’s currently at number 26.

On the album chart:

1. Snow Patrol – “The Forest is the Path”

Only Snow Patrol’s second number 1 album – the other one was “Eyes Open” in 2006. They’ve been very unlucky on that account, with five intervening abums all peaking at 2 or 3. Generally, they’ve had an uncanny ability to release their albums in the same week as new releases by bigger acts – except for 2018’s “Wildness”, which didn’t make number 1 because it was 2018 and the Greatest Showman soundtrack was number 1 for most of the year.

3. London Grammar – “The Greatest Love”

Their last two albums both made number 1, but they’ve yet to miss the top 3, so that’s not bad.

25. Catfish & The Bottlemen – “The Balcony”

And finally, the tenth anniversary reissue of the debut album by Catfish & The Bottlemen, which reached number 10 on release. The band are still active but haven’t released a new album since 2019.