She’s not going without a fight.

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Drivers Licence”

The midweeks had Olivia Rodrigo being dethroned by “Wellerman”, but in the end she hangs on for a ninth week – by a margin equivalent to 742 sales. This surely has to be the end, right?

“Wellerman” has spent seven weeks now hovering between 2 and 3. It finally gets a proper video this week, which is, um… well, it’s so obviously thrown together that you have to wonder why it took seven weeks to appear. Covid issues, maybe. “The Business” by Tiesto climbs 4-3, which is his highest position since 2014. And the big release of this week…

4. Drake – “What’s Next”
6. Drake featuring Rick Ross – “Lemon Pepper Freestyle”
10. Drake featuring Lil Baby – “Wants and Needs”

That’s all three of the tracks from his EP “Scary Hours 2”. I struggle to get worked up about Drake, to be honest, but there’s no doubt that he’s still in the peak phase of his career. The two B-sides are somewhat more interesting than some of his singles have been, but this is very much a relative thing.

“Latest Trends” by A1 & J1 climbs 13-12 – it’s done better than I expected. “Bed” by Joel Corry, Raye & David Guetta is up 20-17.

20. Silk Sonic, Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak – “Leave the Door Open”

One of those weird credits that seems to be driven by searchability – Silk Sonic is Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, but they want to make sure that people find it when looking for Bruno Mars, so…

Bruno Mars singles often feel to me like an exercise in pastiche, but this is rather good. It’s a hyper-faithful recreation of a bygone R&B style, to be sure, but it feels like a song rather than an exercise in reference points. Anderson .Paak gets his first appearance on this singles chart; his last album, “Ventura”, did make it to number 27 on the album chart.

25. Justin Bieber – “Hold On”

Another single from his upcoming album. This is unusually upbeat for a Justin Bieber single, and it’s one of his better vocals too. I… quite like this, actually. But it gets one of his lower chart debut positions – we really don’t often see him this far down in a first week. And oh look, another video in which he casts himself as an underdog striver. He’s really keen on that look.

“Little Bit of Love” by Tom Grennan climbs 27-26, and “Astronaut in the Ocean” by Masked Wolf climbs 32-30.

34. AJ Tracey – “Anxious”

That’s on the low side for an AJ Tracey single – he’s not 100% consistent in his chart places, but his last three singles as a lead artist all entered in the top 10. No obvious reason for this to come in lower – it’s a good track.

Over on the album chart…

1. Kings of Leon – “When You See Yourself”

Billed as the first album to be released as a non-fungible token!  Which it isn’t! Not at all! Still, if you’re in the market for a meaningless certificate, they’ve got you covered. This is their sixth number one album, and the fourth in a row.

4. Gabrielle – “Do It Again”

Last seen making the semi-finals of the UK version of The Masked Singer, where she came fourth behind Joss Stone, Ne-Yo and one of JLS. Could have been worse. After all, Mel B, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Martine McCutcheon all got eliminated in the first three weeks, and then had the pleasure of learning that they had been beaten in a singing competition by Glenn Hoddle.

The final of The Masked Singer did incredible ratings in the UK, admittedly helped by a dearth of competition due to the practical problems of filming in the pandemic. But I’m not sure it does all that much to sell records – Gabrielle’s last album made number 7 in 2018, so this isn’t particularly out of the ordinary for her.

12. Zara Larsson – “Poster Girl”

Her second album; 2017’s “So Good” reached number 7. Surprisingly, none of the singles released in the run-up to this album album charted, but it does include her top ten single from 2018, “Ruin My Life”.

13. Japan – “Quiet Life”

A reissue of their 1979 album, where they tacked towards synthpop. It didn’t make the top 40 on original release – they didn’t reach the album top 40 until 1981’s compilation “Assemblage”. The title track “Quiet Life” was reissued as a single, and made number 19.

14. Arab Strap – “As Days Get Dark”

Arab Strap! Yay!  Their debut “The First Big Weekend” is still a lo-fi classic.

This is the first new Arab Strap album in 16 years, and what could be more suited to the spirit of the times than a duo whose career retrospective compilation was entitled “10 Years of Tears”? Only one of their albums made the top 40 during their first run, 1998’s “Philophobia” – and that only got to number 37. Oh, and Malcolm Middleton reached number 31 on the singles chart in 2007 with his glorious Christmas single “We’re All Going To Die”.

The single above is fantastic. Give it a play.

17. DMA’s – “Live at Brixton”

Exactly what it says. They’re an Australian indie band, and their  last studio album “The Glow” got to number 4 last year.

19. Mason Hill – “Against the Wall”

They’re a rock band from East Kilbride. This is their debut album.

24. Jane Weaver – “Flock”

Jane Weaver has been around since the Britpop era, but this is her first record to make the album top 40. It’s her eleventh album and she claims that it’s inspired by Lebanese torch songs, Australian punk, and Russian aerobics records. Uh-huh. (It’s worth mentioning that the other single from the album, “The Revolution of Super Visions”, sounds absolutely nothing like the video above.)

36. A Day To Remember – “You’re Welcome”

And finally, rock. This is their seventh album. They charted for the first time with album six, “Bad Vibrations”, which reached number 6 in 2016. That’s looking like an outlier now.