It’s a fairly quiet week. The top 5 is static, which means the number 1 is still…

1. Miley Cyrus – “Flowers”

… which has double the points of the number 2 single as it spends a third week at number one. It’s a good record but I’m surprised it’s doing quite this well – it’s certainly not simply Miley’s star power, since her previous number 1 was back in 2013. It does stand out, genre-wise, in the current chart, which can’t hurt.

11. KSI featuring Oliver Tree – “Voices”

Well, that remix thing finally gave Oliver Tree a mainstream hit, so let’s have a go at capitalising! And that means… a collaboration with KSI? Okay, then. It actually enters one place below “Miss You”, which is still in the top 10 after a total of 11 weeks. The song itself is fairly conventional; the video is – well, Oliver Tree’s an idiosyncratic director, and he’s evidently not minded to shift on that. I can see this making the top ten, though. And it doesn’t have any of that awkwardness of cloning a bootleg remix…

18. The Kid Laroi – “Love Again”

This is Kid Laroi’s biggest hit since “Stay” reached number 2 in 2021 – and that track re-enters at number 37. The vocal processing really doesn’t do this any favours, even if it has been dialled back a bit, but the song’s actually not bad, and the video is a cute concept.

23. Sam Smith featuring Calvin Harris & Jessie Reyez – “I’m Not Here to Make Friends”

This is the release week single from “Gloria”, which enters at number 1 to be Smith’s third number one from four albums. (And the other one got to 2.) Considering that “Unholy” was a four week number 1 in October/November last year, and it’s stil hanging around at 26, I’d say this was a surprisingly low position. Apparently the video is being hyped as controversial, which… meh? The bigger issue for me is that the actual music is just way too polite to carry off the visuals.

32. Taylor Swift – “Lavender Haze”

This song already reached number 3 as an album track, and lasted a respectable six weeks on the top 40 at that point – so promoting it as a full scale single in its own right is either follow the market’s lead, or a bit late now. This is it climbing back from the lower reaches as the promotion kicks in. I do like the song, though.

40. Pink – “Never Gonna Not Dance Again”

This has been hovering around in the lower reaches since November and finally gets a week at the bottom end of the chart. They’ve actually given up on promoting it and moved on to the next single by this point, but okay. It’s a retro disco track, which makes sense at this point in Pink’s career. Honestly, it’s the sort of thing I’m used to seeing as the lead single from legacy acts on the album chart. Pink didn’t have a top 40 hit in 2022, but she did have a top 10 hit with Rag’n’Bone Man in 2021 (and got one of her own tracks to 39 last year too). She’s a survivor – her first hit was in 2000, a generation ago now.

This week’s climbers:

• “Sure Thing” by Miguel climbs 10-6.
• “10:35” by Tiesto & Tate McRae climbs 14-13.
• “Players” by Coi Leray climbs 26-19.
• “Red Flags” by Mimi Webb climbs 21-20.
• “Ready to Fly” by Sub Focus & Dimension climbs 40-35.

There’s also a re-entry at number 36 for Tory Lanez, so we have six records leaving the top 40 – mostly an undistinguished bunch.

• “Mockingbird” by Eminem, reactivated by TikTok, spent six weeks between 31 and 40.
• “Bloody Mary” by Lady Gaga, ditto, got to number 22.
• “Rumble” by Skrillex, Fred again.. and Flowdan peaked at 19 in week one.
• “Boy’s a Liar” by PinkPantheress got a week at 38.
• “Superhero (Heroes & Villains)” by Metro Boomin, Future & Chris Brown never got above 34.
• “Nonsense” by Sabrina Carpenter got a week at 32.
• “We Caa Done” by Popcaan featuring Drake got a week at 37.

On the album chart it’s very quiet. “Gloria” by Sam Smith is number 1, but we’ve done that.

9. Bob Dylan – “The Bootleg Series Vol. 17: Fragments – Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996-1997)”

It’s a remix of his 1997 album “Time Out Of Mind” (which only got to number 10 on release) coupled with a disc of alternate versions and outtakes, basically. Dylan is the sort of artist who can routinely place this stuff in the top 10 – all his “Bootleg Series” releases since 2018 have managed it.

11. Ava Max – “Diamonds & Dancefloors”

Ulp. Her previous album, “Heaven & Hell”, reached number 2 in 2020; none of the singles from this album charted. Not a great sign.

32. Lil Yachty – “Let’s Start Here”

And finally, Lil Yachty’s fifth studio album finally gets him into the top 10. This doesn’t actually include his recent hit “Poland”, possibly because that was more of a throwaway fragment that randomly got a video.