Our run of exceedingly dull charts finally comes to an end… next week.  This week, though, there’s virtually nothing happening at all.  Not on the singles chart, at any rate – the album release schedules are at least back in business.

2.  Meghan Trainor – “Lips Are Movin”

Yes, 2.  Yes, there really is nothing else happening lower down the chart – well, unless you count “Cool Kids” by Echosmith climbing 11 places for the second week in a row, which still only gets them to 17.

This is the follow-up to “All About That Bass”, which was number 1 for four weeks last autumn.  It’s sticking with the bubblegum/doowop angle, and there’s a fine line to walk here – it wants to be similar enough to create a distinctive Meghan Trainor sound, without being so similar that she sounds like a one-trick pony.  On that criterion, it pretty much succeeds, since underneath the arrangement, it’s a fairly different song.  But it’s not a song with the same killer hook, so it’s not going to repeat that level of success – the midweeks have it dropping to 6.

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

That’s six weeks in total – the most since 2007, when “Bleeding Love” managed 7.  Ronson looks like he might actually be on course to match that.  (If he can get past 7, the next landmark is 10, set by the mighty “Umbrella” earlier in the same year.  That’s going to be a lot to ask.)

On the albums chart – hey, loads of stuff!

• “Uptown Special” by Mark Ronson at number 1.  That’s his first number 1 album – “Version” and “Record Collection” both got to 2.
• “American Beauty/American Psycho” by Fall Out Boy at 2.  Their joint highest chart position, matching the previous album “Save Rock and Roll”.  Title track.
• “The Mindsweep” by Enter Shikari at 6.  Their third top ten album.  Apparently the term is electronicore.  They’ve mellowed a bit, haven’t they, though?  Some of this sounds almost 80s.  Single: “The Last Garrison”.
• “Girls in Peacetime Want To Dance” by Belle & Sebastian at 9.  Veteran Glaswegian indie fixtures.  Number 9 is pretty much where Belle & Sebastian studio albums land up these days.  Single “The Party Line” finds them in 80s electropop mode.
• “Vulnicura” by Bjork at 11.  Bit of a return to chart form after “Biophilia” missed the top 20.  Still, she’s clearly become a bit of a niche act compared with her heyday.  Single: “Stonemilker” (contains nudity).
• “We Are All We Need” by Above & Beyond at 12.  Trance producers who’ve been around for nigh on 15 years now.  It’s their fourth album and surprisingly the first time they’ve appeared on either the singles or album charts – this is not a genre that normally favours the albums market.  Single: “All Over the World”.
• “What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World” by The Decemberists at 13.  Their highest chart placing to date in this country.  Single: “Make You Better”.  Ah, the old “fake old TV show” joke.
• “The Pale Emperor” by Marilyn Manson at 16.  From the “is he still going” file.  He is.  Single: “Deep Six”.
• “No Cities to Love” by Sleater-Kinney at 27.  Their first release after an 8-year hiatus, and surprisingly, their first album chart appearance.  The only official video for the album is one of their mates doing a cover of one of the songs, so here’s the David Letterman performance of “A New Wave” instead.
• “B4.DA.$$” by Joey Bada$$ at 28.  With a name like that, he’s either a rapper or he’s in a reality show.  Oh good, he’s a rapper.  Chart debut.  Single: “Big Dusty”.
• “Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt 2” by Aphex Twin at 36.  Low-profile follow-up EP to last year’s “Syro”.  Supposedly it really is computer controlled acoustic instruments, although the “Pt 2” bit is just there to confuse people, and the end result sounds not dissimilar to an Aphex Twin album.  No video, but you can listen to it on Spotify.