Some weeks, the Radio 1 chart show producers must look at the listing as it comes through, see an utterly predictable number 1, see an almost uninterrupted stretch of fallers from 40 through to 15, and sigh deeply.  This is one such week, with a bunch of new entries clustered at the top (but no surprise at the very top), and literally nothing happening in the lower half of the chart except for one lone new entry.

And that new entry?

24.  Ylvis – “The Fox”

Mmm.  This has been floating around on YouTube for a month now, going viral in other countries and waiting to do something in the UK.

I’ve seen people comparing this to “Gangnam Style”, which misses the point, really.  “Gangnam Style” was a proper record which went viral in large part because the added dimension of incomprehensibility provided by a language barrier and a very specific set of cultural references.  “The Fox”, on the other hand, is a perfectly intelligible comedy sketch which wasn’t even intended for release – it’s a trailer for a Norwegian TV show (hence the time and date at the end of the video).  Ylvis are brothers, and are apparently pretty well established in their home country.  If this track sounds surprisingly professional for a novelty song, that’s because it’s produced by Stargate, which itself is meant to be part of the joke.  Ylvis do a lot of parody songs on their shows, many of which are also available on YouTube – this is pretty representative.

14.  Justin Bieber – “Heartbreaker”

Brace yourself, Britain, because this is the first of ten weekly Justin Bieber singles, bannered as “Music Mondays”.  In other words, he’s releasing his new album one track at a time.  An interesting promotion to say the least.  This one’s actually not so bad.

The odd thing about Justin Bieber is that he has massive online support from his fans (obviously), but it doesn’t generally translate into huge sales.  He’s never had a number one hit, and he’s only had a scattering of records in the top 5 (one of which was a guest appearance on a will.i.am track).

9.  John Newman – “Cheating”

The follow-up to his number 1 “Love Me Again” from July.  Kind of gets lost in the shuffle in this very busy week for the top end of the chart.

6.  James Blunt – “Bonfire Heart”

The lead single from his upcoming album, co-written by the seemingly ubiquitous Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic.  It’s his biggest hit since “1973” made the top 5 six years ago.

4.  The Saturdays – “Disco Love”

Well, it’s done better than their previous single “Gentleman”, which stalled at 14, but it sure ain’t another number 1.  Don’t know what possessed them to release this week, to be honest.  Last week was dead!

If you’re wondering why there’s no group dancing in the video, it’s because Frankie Sandford is nine months pregnant and they’re shooting around it.

4.  Conor Maynard – “R U Crazy”

This is the lead single from Maynard’s second album, and it’s a pretty clear attempt to grow with his audience. It’s co-written and produced by Labrinth, and shows.  In a week as busy as this, number 3 is a great result for somebody at his level.  His last album sold decently in the UK and didn’t do so much internationally (though it made the top ten in Canada), so no doubt they’ll be hoping to improve on that this time round.

2.  Eminem – “Berzerk”

The lead single from “The Marshall Mathers LP 2”, produced by Rick Rubin, and sampling his own Beastie Boys work along with Billy Squier’s “The Stroke” (you’ve never heard it, but Dizzee Rascal got an entire track out of those opening drums).  Poor Eminem seems to get stuck at number 2 a lot – he keeps having big hits, but he hasn’t actually made it to the top since “Like Toy Soldiers” in 2005.

He cropped up earlier this year as a guest on 50 Cent’s “My Life”, but this is Eminem’s first release as lead artist since… um, “Space Bound”, which reached number 34 in 2011.  The single before that (“No Love”) got to number 33.  Admittedly, both of those were a bit dud, and the one before that was “Love The Way You Lie”, which I think I’m right in saying was the biggest selling single of 2010.  But it does show that a couple of years away can really make the heart grow fonder.

Eminem has just done a midweek release of another track from the album, “Rap God”, which is currently at number 2 on iTunes, so no doubt we’ll be talking about him some more next week.

1.  Miley Cyrus – “Wrecking Ball”

Yes, that is an official alternate version of the video – billed, rather bizarrely, as a “director’s cut”, even though it consists entirely of a single close-up of Miley Cyrus and contains none of the attention grabbing stuff from the regular version.

There are, obviously, two possible readings of Miley Cyrus right now, which are not entirely mutually exclusive – that she’s going off the rails in the style of Britney Spears, or that she’s working the media magnificently.  My money’s on the latter.  Either way, her ostentatious rebranding exercise continues, though unlike her previous number 1 “We Can’t Stop”, this is actually a half decent song once you get around to listening to it.  It’s her second number one of the year.

Over on the album update:

• “Bangerz” by Miley Cyrus at 1.  Her fifth hit album and the first to get above number 8.  The cover and title either display a supreme lack of self-awareness or a brilliant case of working her new character.
• “Brand New Machine” by Chase & Status at 2.  The single “Count on Me” drops to 11 this week.  Previous album “No More Idols” also peaked at 2.
• “Join the Club” by Lucy Spraggan at 7.  “Last Night” drops to 31 this week.  Oddly, this isn’t her first hit album – the self-released demo collection “Last Room at the Zoo” got to 22 on the back of her X Factor exposure before being pulled.
• “Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die” by Panic! At The Disco at 10.  This is surprising – P!ATD seemed to have peaked commercially with their 2008 album “Pretty Odd”, which got to 2. The one after that, “Vices & Virtues” only got to 29.  So something of a comeback here.  Single: “Girls/Girls/Boys”.
• “Crimson/Red” by Prefab Sprout at 13.  Though they never officially split, this is only their second album in the last decade, and returns them to the top 30 for the first time since 1997.  It’s been pretty well reviewed.  Single: “The Best Jewel Thief in the World”.  (Sounds a bit Divine Comedy, actually.)
• “The Paradigm Shift” by Korn at 15.  Another overperformer – Korn’s previous album “The Path of Totality” only scraped the top 75.  They haven’t made this far up the chart since 2007.  Single: “Never Never”.
• “Repent Replenish Repeat” by dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip at 22.  Alt-rap – well, more performance poetry over electronica, arguably.  Their third album as a duo, and their highest chart placing to date.  Single: “Stunner”.
• “We Need Medicine” by the Fratellis at 26.  The Fratellis split in 2009 and reformed in 2012; this is their first album since then, and their first to miss the top 10.  Single: “Seven Days and Seven Nights”, which suggests they’ve gone a bit Mumford.
• “One Breath” by Anna Calvi at 32.  Singer-songwriter who was nominated for Best British Breakthrough Artist at the Brit Awards in 2012.  Her previous album made number 40, so that breakthrough is slow in coming.  Single: “Eliza”.
• “Boy Cried Wolf” by the Feeling at 33.  Chart placings of previous three albums: 2, 1, 22.  So, uh, yeah, not good.  Single: “Rescue”.