Since the UK music industry believes firmly in (a) promoting everything for weeks before release, and (b) not promoting anything new in the run-up to Christmas, the dead period meanders on…

28.  Echosmith – “Cool Kids”

Climbing 11 places, in one of the few notable movements in the lower half of the charts.  Otherwise, it’s most just stuff that’s been out for ages, still swilling around waiting to be displaced.

16.  Avicii – “The Nights”

This came out internationally in December, but it’s only just come out in the UK.  The theory, presumably, was that it would have a clear run at airplay in the post Christmas period.  In practice it’s off to a surprisingly slow start for an Avicii song, particularly considering that he hasn’t had a new single out since last March.  Perhaps the rave/country angle is starting to test people’s patience, though from the look of iTunes, it’s going to climb.

The guy in the video is one Rory Kramer, who describes himself as a “professional life liver”, though in more prosaic terms he appears to be a video director and YouTuber.  As usual, Avicii somehow gets away without crediting his vocalists; in this case, it’s a guy called RAS who’s also had a hand in writing songs for people like Steve Aoki and, um, 5 Seconds Of Summer.

13.  Sia featuring The Weeknd & Diplo – “Elastic Heart”

This is on the “1000 Forms of Fear” album which has been out for a while.  “Chandelier” was, obviously, the big hit; it only made number 6, but that was back in July, and it’s still hanging around at number 19.  “Elastic Heart” also appears on the soundtrack of the latest Hunger Games movie, but it’s charting now largely on the back of the video, which brings back Maddie Ziegler from “Chandelier”, and has her, er, dance with Shia LaBeouf.  Or cage-fight him.  It’s a bit of both.  It’s a video that lends itself to creepy readings if you’re so inclined, but then it’s pretty clear who has the upper hand here.  The officially sanctioned interpretation is that they represent differing sides of Sia’s personality.

The Weeknd gets his credit on this record because he appears on the version from the Hunger Games soundtrack, though the chart is typically lumping all versions of the song together.  His only previous chart appearance was on Drake’s “Crew Love”, which scraped to 37 in 2012.  Producer Diplo has had a couple of hits before (most notably “Earthquake”, a collaboration with DJ Fresh that got to number 4 in 2013).

3.  Hozier – “Take Me To Church” 

In an effort to pretend that something is happening in a top ten with five non-movers, let’s note that this is still climbing, and it’s the real beneficiary of the dead month.

1.  Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk”

Five weeks – matching the total of “Blurred Lines” from 2013.  Can it possibly manage six?  It hasn’t been done since 2011 (by Rihanna’s “We Found Love”).  The main competition next week is Meghan Trainor’s follow-up “Lips Are Movin”, but right now it’s still only at 2 on iTunes…

The album chart remains basically asleep.  George Ezra’s “Wanted On Voyage” takes this week’s turn at number 1.