Here’s a nice change – a couple of relatively high new entries by big names.  See, it still happens.

1.  The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey – “Closer”

That’s three weeks at number 1, and it heads a static top four.  But moving on…

5.  Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar – “The Greatest”

We don’t get new entries in the top 10 often these days, so that’s noteworthy to start with.  Okay, technically it’s a climber from number 49 (where it landed as a midweek release), but it’s still new to the top 40.

This is the lead single from Sia’s next album, “This is Acting”, and it’s squarely in the territory that gives Sia her biggest hits – anthems about rising above some unspecified adversity.  It’s pretty much a stock theme for 21st century pop, and one that can often feel a bit too Oprah – a sort of blithe assurance that we’re going to win cos we’re awesome.  With Sia’s best songs, there’s more of a sense of unresolved struggle to the whole thing, which gives it some emotional weight and sincerity without ever pinning it down too closely to anything in particular.  She has a knack of implying that there is something specific but unstated in mind.  Plus she writes a great chorus.

Once again, Maddie Ziegler acts as Sia’s surrogate in the video, and gets to be the optimistic energy fighting to make itself heard in a bleak-looking world.  And ultimately losing, rather more definitively than usual in a Sia video.   The conventional wisdom is that the video is intended as a reference to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting, which seems like a plausible reading.

8.  Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj – “Side to Side”

Up 16 places, so it’s now Grande’s biggest hit of the year.  It also has Nicki Minaj on it, which is no coincidence.  Number 8 is the highest for a Nicki Minaj single since “Anaconda” two years ago, largely because almost everything she’s released since then has been a guest shot.

12.  Lady Gaga – “Perfect Illusion”

Lady Gaga hasn’t released a single since 2013 (though she did put out a duets album with Tony Bennett the following year).  Her imperial phase was arguably confined to her first album, and certainly didn’t get beyond the second – the third single didn’t get anything above number 5.  Now we have her entering at number 12 with her return single.  To be fair, it would have been number 5 on the sales charts, but that’s as much a reflection of her becoming a fanbase act as anything else.  That said, Lady Gaga singles do have a habit of hanging around, and number 12 is a pretty decent debut position by today’s standards.  The record has enough radio appeal that I can see it getting higher, but don’t be surprised if it falls back a bit first, when the fans have all bought a copy.

25.  James Arthur – “Say You Won’t Let Go”

This is the guy who won X Factor in 2012 and got dropped after one album, in part thanks to his staggering lack of common sense when opening his mouth in public.  Columbia have given him another shot, though, so this is the comeback single that leads the promotion for his second album.  Clearly they think there might be some potential with the Ed Sheeran market, and I can understand why – the single is surprisingly good if you like that sort of thing.  It looks likely to climb next week, and it seems Syco has already moved in to declare that all is forgiven and he can come home.

29.  Offaiah – “Trouble”

The only record on the chart to actually reach a new peak this weak, moving 31-29.

On the album chart, we’re busy.

• “Wild World” by Bastille at 1.  Their second studio album and their second number 1.  (They also released a record billed as a mixtape during the interim, which got to number 45.  Funny old world.)  The single “Good Grief” rebounds to 20.
• “Skeleton Tree” by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds at 2.  This is the album where Cave’s son died during recording; there’s an accompanying documentary, in lieu of a traditional promotional tour.  It’s their highest chart placing (with album sixteen), though the previous two albums also made the top 5.  Single: “I Need You”.
• “Live at the Hollywood Bowl” by the Beatles at 3.  Tying in with a documentary, this is an expanded version of a 1967 concert which was already released as a live album in 1977 and got to number 1 then.  I was going to say it’s the Beatles so there’s nothing to link to, but it turns out they’re on Spotify now.
• “Braver Than We Are” by Meat Loaf at 4.  It reunites him with Jim Steinman, so you know what you’re getting.  Number 4 is actually about standard for a Meat Loaf album this decade (and this is the third).  Single: “Going All The Way”.
• “Kin” by KT Tunstall at 7.  The last album was her first to miss the top 10, so this is a bit more like it (especially in a big week for new releases).  Single: “Hard Girls”.
• “GLA” by Twin Atlantic at 9.  Their second top 10 album.  Single: “No Sleep”.
• “Here” by Teenage Fanclub at 10.  This seems like another example of how the fading album market is (in chart placing, at least) favouring a certain type of veteran act whose fans still buy albums – and Teenage Fanclub have been around long enough to have made videos like this.  Despite releasing an album every few years, Teenage Fanclub haven’t made the top 30 since 1997.  Single: “I’m In Love”.
• “Acoustic Recordings – 1998-2016” by Jack White at 12.  Compilation, which is self-explanatory save for the fact that it also includes some tracks originally released under the White Stripes name.  Single: “City Lights”.
• “Schmilco” by Wilco at 25.  Wilco have made the album chart before, but this is their first visit to the top 30.  Again, they have the sort of audience that still buys albums.  Single: “Someone to Lose”.
• “Transcendence” by the Devin Townsend Project at 26.  Townsend is a Canadian rock musician who’s been around for ages – this is his 17th solo album – but he’s charting for the first time.  There don’t seem to be any singles, but here’s the album on Spotify.
• “Straight to DVD 2 – Past Present & Future” by All Time Low at 40.  It’s a live album.  Single: “Take Cover”.