After a few fairly quiet weeks on the singles chart, here’s an absolutely dead one!

1. Ed Sheeran – “Shivers”

Four weeks at number one, and it was preceded by eleven weeks for Sheeran’s “Bad Habits” (currently at number 6). So Ed Sheeran has now been at number one for 15 weeks, which matches Drake’s run in 2016. Of course, Drake did it with just one song – “One Dance” – but it’s still an uncommon level of dominance. For the next target, you’re going back to 1991, when Bryan Adams spent 16 weeks at number 1 with “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”.

Number 2 is still “Cold Heart” by Elton John and Dua Lipa, which has been stuck there for three weeks now.

32. Billie Eilish – “No Time To Die”

So here’s an artefact of the pandemic. This is the theme tune to the new Bond film… and it was originally released last February, when the promotion was just starting to ramp up. It spent a week at number 1 on release, and managed ten weeks in the top 40. It now re-enters a year-and-a-half later. Her current single, “Happier Than Ever”, also climbs back into the top 10, sitting at 9.

34. Oliver Tree – “Life Goes On”

Oh, this guy. His actual records are relatively straight but his videos tend to position him as a bit of a novelty act. It’s his first appearance on the singles chart, but he did get his album “Ugly is Beautiful” to number 32 last year. This is actually a track from the deluxe edition of that album, and it’s another case of something showing up as a viral hit months after release – the single he’s actually trying to promote at the moment is “Turn It Up”, promoting an EP made with the equally weird Russian act Little Big.

36. Arz – “Alone With You”

Similar story here – this has been out since April and it’s another late discovery by TikTok. He’s a teenage rapper, it’s his first hit. The sample is from Billie Eilish’s “Hostage”, a track from her debut EP, before she was having hits. Once again, TikTok has unearthed something that’s actually quite good.

This week’s climbers… contain nothing especially notable, but let’s run through them anyway.

• “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)” by Ckay climbs 4-3.
• “Obsessed With You” by Central Cee climbs 5-4.
• “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals climbs 8-5.
• “My Heart Goes (La Di Da)” by Becky Hill & Topic climbs 17-15.
• “Love Tonight” by SHOUSE climbs 23-22.
• “Better Days” by Dermot Kennedy climbs 31-26.
• “Bad Days” by Justus Bennetts climbs 38-35.

On the album chart:

1. The Script – “Tales From the Script – Greatest Hits”

Huh. The Script have certainly had a respectably long career, with their first hit single in 2008 and the most recent in 2019. All but one of their albums has gone to number one (the other one reached number 2). Still – a greatest hits album? They’re not the force they used to be, not in the streaming era. Says something about the Script’s audience, I suppose.

2. The Specials – “Protest Songs 1924-2012”

Exactly what the title suggests. Their reunion album in 2019 reached number 1, so I suppose this shouldn’t be quite so surprising but… I wouldn’t have thought this seemed like a commercial winner even in the current album market. What do I know?

3. Roger Taylor – “Outsider”

The Queen drummer’s sixth solo album and far and away the highest placing – until now, his best position for a solo album was number 18 for 1981’s “Fun in Space”.

6. Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga – “Love for Sale”

This is a follow-up to their 2014 album “Cheek to Cheek”, which reached number 10. Bennett is now 95, but this album was recorded in sessions dating back to 2018, when he was a sprightly 92.

7. Hans Zimmer – “No Time to Die – OST”

Exactly what it sounds like. It does have the Billie Eilish single on it, but mostly it’s the instrumental music from the movie. It’s Hans Zimmer’s highest placing album, but he has previously charted with the soundtracks to Gladiator, The Dark Knight Rises, Man of Steel and Batman v Superman – Dawn of Justice. Implausibly, “Spider Pig” from the Simpsons movie soundtrack also got him a number 23 hit single in 2007.

8. Potter Payper – “Thanks for Waiting”

Officially another mixtape – if you accept that distinction, he hasn’t actually released an album yet. His previous mixtape “Training Day 3” reached number 3 last year.

18. The Sugababes – “One Touch”

Anniversary reissue of their debut album, which only reached number 26 the first time round (and that was on a second promotion). The Sugababes are notoriously a Ship of Theseus act, where the founding members were all gone by the group’s final years and wound up re-forming while the other Sugababes were still active; they’ve since reclaimed the band name, though they haven’t released any further records under the name.

20. Yes – “The Quest”

Yup. Yup, that’s definitely prog. It exactly matches the position of their previous studio album, “Heaven & Earth”, from 2014.

23. Meek Mill – “Expensive Pain”

One of those rappers who places respectably on the album chart but can never seem to get into the singles chart – his only hit single remains 2018’s “Going Bad”, and that had Drake on it. Number 23 is fairly typical for his albums.

26. Headie One – “Too Loyal for my Own Good”

This is officially a mixtape, and it’s one of those cases where the audience apparently sees real significance in that difference – his previous release, officially classed as an album, got to number 1. This couldn’t even get any singles into the top 40 (and he usually does).

Why label things as mixtapes when all it does is warn the audience not to bother? I just don’t get it.

32. Neil Young – “Carnegie Hall 1970”

Self-explanatory live album. His last actual album got to 29 earlier this year, so 32 for a piece of completist back catalogue is not bad at all.

37. Grace Petrie – “Connectivity”

Folk artist who’s been around since 2006 – this is the first time she’s even appeared in the album top 100.