Are we just not releasing new singles, then?

1. Dave – “Starlight”

Four weeks, heading up a static top five. Apparently it was pretty close over Aitch at number 2, but on paper it’s another dull chart. For our highest new entry, we have to go down to…

23. Potter Payper featuring Tiggs Da Author – “Gangsteritus”

Could somebody not have told him that it’s spelt “-itis”? Oh well. This has been out for months, but it finally charts after showing up in Netflix’s Top Boy. It’s a track from Potter Payper’s 2021 album “Thanks for Waiting”, which reached the top 10. His 2020 album “Training Day 3” made the top 5, too. But this is the first time he’s appeared in the top 40 singles; his previous best was a freestyle that got to number 41 in 2020.

34. Sigala – “Melody”

This single has been struggling – it came out at the start of February, and it’s been hovering in the 40s for five weeks before making it into the chart. It’s been a couple of years now since Sigala had a top 10 hit. I can’t see this passable Europop changing that. Nice colourful video, though.

36. Tate McRae – “Chaotic”

This is a promotional single, which means it gets a really cheap video. Officially, it’s a visualiser. Her proper current single, “She’s All I Wanna Be”, climbs 21-16, which seems like a pretty good sign for when her album comes out next month.

37. Vibe Chemistry – “Balling”

He’s a drum and bass producer, and it’s his first hit single. For some reason, the rappers – Songer, Traumatik, Devilman and Oneda – get a credit on the video, but not on the chart.

This week’s climbers:

• “Go” by Cat Burns climbs 8-6.
• “Bam Bam” by Camila Cabello featuring Ed Sheeran climbs 16-10. That’s her fifth top 10 hit, and his, um, thirty-seventh. The last chart not to feature an Ed Sheeran song in the top 10 was for the week ending 2 July 2021.
• “The Motto” by Tiesto & Ava Max climbs 13-12. That overtakes “So Am I” to become her second biggest hit, following her 2018 number one “Sweet But Psycho”.
• “Glad U Came” by Liilz featuring ZieZie climbs 17-15.
• “She’s All I Wanna Be” by Tate McRae climbs 21-16.
• “What Would You Do” by Joel Corry, David Guetta & Bryson Tiller climbs 31-21.
• “Run” by Becky Hill & Galantis climbs 25-23.

Just four new entries this week; the records leaving the chart are:

• “Overseas” by D-Block Europe featuring Central Cee, which drops straight from 11, so it must have been hit by the downweighting rule. It peaked at number 6 and spent 12 weeks in the top 10.
• “War” by Arrdee & Aitch, which entered at number 6 and managed 8 weeks in the chart.
• “Oh My God” by Adele – again, presumably hit by downweighting, because it drops from 26 all the way to 77. It peaked at number 2 at the end of November.
• “Pump 101” by Digga D & Still Brickin’, which spent nine weeks the top 40, peaking at nine. It seems to have dropped from 35 straight out of the top 100, which is weird, as it hasn’t been out long enough to be hit by downweighting. Not sure what’s gone on there.

On the album chart…

1. Michael Bublé – “Higher”

No surprise there – four of his previous five albums were number ones, and the other one got to number 2.  What is a surprise is that the video for the title track above is actually worth a play. It’s not what I expected from a Michael Bublé single at all, and while the first verse isn’t great, it gets quite good.

2. Machine Gun Kelly – “Mainstream Sellout”

That’s his highest position, beating 2020’s “Tickets to my Downfall” by one place. One of the singles, “Maybe”, is currently on the singles chart at number 39 (for the second week).

3. Placebo – “Never Let Me Go”

This is the first Placebo album since 2016’s “A Place For Us To Dream”, which only got to number 21 – so a break has apparently helped. In fact, this is the highest position they’ve ever had; their previous best was their self-titled debut in 1996, which got to number 5. Of course, the usual disclaimers apply about legacy acts doing disproportionately well on the declining album chart. They’re now down to a duo; the drummer quit after recording the last album.

5. The Foo Fighters – “Greatest Hits”

Obviously, this is back because of the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. The album came out in 2009 and reached number 4 at the time; I assume it’s here because people are hammering it as a Spotify playlist.

7. Matt Goss – “The Beautiful Unknown”

This is Matt Goss’s fifth solo album, though it’s been nine years since the last one, “Life You Imagine” – which was the only one to make the top 40, and even that only got to number 27. This seems to have started as a lockdown project, and quite what it’s doing in the top 10, I’m not entirely sure. Somewhat bizarrely, the opening of Goss’s Wikipedia entry offers basically two facts to establish his notability: he was in Bros, and he “wrote the theme song to So You Think You Can Dance, produced by Nigel Lithgow”.

9. Koffee – “Gifted”

Officially her debut album, but she’s been releasing singles for several years. She had a number 21 hit single in 2020 as a guest on J Hus’s “Repeat”. I liked this.

18. Blade Brown & K-Trap – “Joints”

UK rap mixtape. Blade Brown had a number 12 album in 2019, “Bags & Boxes 4”, but he’s never had a hit single. K-Trap’s making his first appearance on either chart.

27. Stone Foundation – “Outside Looking In”

Stone Foundation have been around since 1997, but didn’t release their first album until 2005. Their previous three albums all placed in the 20s and 30s. The title track’s pretty good.

40. Bon Iver – “Bon Iver”

Originally a number 4 at the end of June 2011, this is apparently a “10th anniversary reissue”, even though it’s much closer to the 11th.