A quiet week for major new releases, but it turns out “Wrecking Ball” doesn’t have the staying power you’d expect, so… new number one ahead.  But first!

39.  Don Broco – “You Wanna Know”

This is the lead single from the second album by alt-rock group Don Broco.  They haven’t previously placed any singles in the top 75, though their debut album made the top 30.  “You Wanna Know” is rather more polished and commercial than previous singles, largely by throwing in loads of 80s pop influences, but that’s actually a step up in my book.  Pretty decent.

25.  Cher – “I Hope You Find It”

Uh… good lord.  Cher hasn’t had a hit single since 2001, when “The Music’s No Good Without You” made a respectable number 8.  In fairness, she didn’t release anything between 2003 and 2010.  She’s had three number ones in the UK, not that they’re necessarily the best examples of her back catalogue – “The Shoop Shoop Song”, “Believe”, and a charity single where she collaborated with Neneh Cherry, Eric Clapton and Chrissie Hynde on a dreary cover of “Love Can Build A Bridge”.

This is the second single from Cher’s current album “Closer to the Truth.”  The previous one (a dance track called “Woman’s World” produced by Paul Oakenfold, and it shows) sank without trace.  But this one was performed on the X Factor results show – so we’re into the season where X Factor performances start to do funny things to the chart.  Still, the fact that she was allowed on the X Factor results show in the first place suggests someone thought this single had potential.  Just to amplify the weirdness, it’s a cover version of a song that originally appeared on the soundtrack of 2010 film The Last Song, where it was performed by Miley Cyrus.

Yes, Cher is now doing Miley Cyrus covers.  Make peace with your gods.

20.  Justin Bieber – “All That Matters”

The second of Bieber’s weekly releases, in which he experiments with releasing every track from his new album as a single.  The previous one made 14, but there’s obviously going to be a bit of variation here.  There are ten of these, by the way, so it’ll be interesting to see how they’re selling by the end.

10.  Iggy Azalea featuring T.I. – “Change Your Life”

“Work” made 17 in March, “Bounce” made 13 in July, and now this – so she’s heading in the right direction.  It’s T.I.’s second chart appearance of the year, after appearing on “Blurred Lines”; he hasn’t had a hit single in his own right since 2009, though.

8.  Wilkinson – “Afterglow”

Fun idea for a video.  Either directors get more creative, or they get more leeway, when there’s no act to work in.  Wilkinson is the not-exactly-imaginative name of Mark Wilkinson, a drum and bass producer from London.  This is his first hit.

He is only the second Wilkinson to have a UK hit single.  The other was Sue Wilkinson, who had a number 25 hit in 1980 with “You Gotta Be A Hustler If You Wanna Get On”, a record whose “what the hell is that doing in the chart” factor has not diminished with the passage of thirty plus years.

5.  Eminem – “Rap God”

This is the second UK single from Eminem’s upcoming album (in America, it’s the third, following “Survival”), coming as a midweek release just days after “Berzerk” charted.  That track was, comparatively speaking, the radio-friendly crowd-pleaser; this is the six minute rap display to appeal to that side of his audience.  It’s a bit of a one-week wonder, judging from iTunes – the crossover appeal here is a bit more limited.  (As for “Berzerk”, that drops to 7 this week.)

3.  Lawson – “Juliet”

Someone else has been listening to the Police, then.  Lawson are one of those odd acts who are an actual band but seem to be marketed mainly to boy band fans.  This is their fifth top 10 hit, though they’ve yet to get above 3 – this matches the peak of “Taking Over Me” in 2012.  It’s going to plunge next week – at time of writing, it’s already at 16 on iTunes.

1.  OneRepublic – “Counting Stars”

Well, nobody saw that coming.  For all the hype, “Wrecking Ball” drops to number 2 this week, leaving the way clear for OneRepublic to grab a second week at number one, in its tenth week on chart.  It’ll be shouldered aside by a bunch of high profile new releases next week, and it’s kind of lucky to have sneaked this second week, but even so, this has proved itself to be a genuine slow builder, which got here by building an audience, not through hype.  It’s not really my thing, but I can see it’s a very good track of its type.

On the album chart, the winter deluge is upon us.  Got to get those albums out there before people start Christmas shopping!

• “Tribute” by John Newman at number 1.  Current single “Cheating” is currently at 22, but it also features the number 1 “Love Me Again” from July.
• “Lightning Bolt” by Pearl Jam at 2.  Their tenth studio album and (surprisingly) their joint highest chart placing, matching “Versus” back from the 1993 heyday.  Lead single: “Mind Your Manners”.
• “New” by Paul McCartney at 3.  Matching the position of his previous album “Kisses on the Bottom” (really, that’s what it was called) – McCartney has never had trouble selling albums.  Lyric video for the title track.
• “Closer to the Truth” by Cher at 4.  We’ve covered the single already.  This is her highest placing album since her greatest hits album from 1992.
• “Perhaps Love” by Jonathan & Charlotte at 5.  Second album by the Britain’s Got Talent pop-classical duo, matching the position of the last one.  Doesn’t look like they bother putting any promotional material on YouTube, but then given their demographic I probably wouldn’t either.
• “Living for the Weekend” by the Saturdays at 10.  Always more of a singles band, the Saturdays.  The last album made 23, so they’ll be happy enough with this.
• “The Essential Will Young” at 15.  No laughing at the back.  The winner of the first ever Pop Idol – the tiny acorn from which Simon Cowell’s empire has grown – has had a remarkably long career making MOR records slightly more interesting than you might expect, and some very imaginative videos.  Not many acts in his genre make videos like this, for example.

• “Back to Forever” by Lissie at 16.  American singer described by Wikipedia as “folk rock”, though I’d put her more as AOR on the strength of the single “Sleepwalking”.  It’s her second album; the first got marginally higher up the chart.
• “Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind)” by Gary Numan at 20.  His commercial peak may have been decades ago but he still has a loyal fanbase, having transitioned a while back into more of a gothic industrial style.  Single: “Love Hurt Bleed”.
• “When Will It Stop” by Giggs at 21.  Second album by the London rapper, and the first to make the top 30.  Single: “(Is It Gangsta) Yes Yes Yes” (the track starts three minutes in – yes, it’s one of those).
• “Vengeance Falls” by Trivium at 23.  American metal band.  This is their fourth chart album, with diminishing places.  Single: “Strife”.
• “In Your Hands” by Eliza Doolittle at 25.  Eek.  After her first album made 3, the label won’t be happy with that.  The single “Big When I Was Little” made number 12 earlier in the year.
• “Life You Imagine” by Matt Goss at 27.  Still some Brosettes out there, then.  Goss has released solo material on and off since 1995 but this is his first album to chart.  It’s a big band album which he got to promote on Strictly Come Dancing.  Video: “Mustang”.
• “The Very Best of Cilla Black” at 37.  A compilation marking her 50th year in showbiz.  Not to be confused with her 1983 compilation, “The Very Best of Cilla Black”, which now transpires not to have been the very best of Cilla Black after all.