This is one of the busier weeks we’ve had in the singles chart for a while.

1. Doja Cat – “Paint the Town Red”

Three weeks, over Olivia Rodrigo at 2. Doja Cat’s album is out this week, and as you’d expect, the midweeks expect her to get a fourth week.

8. Tate McRae – “Greedy”

This is the lead single from her next album. Tate McRae had her first UK hit during the pandemic, when “You Broke Me First” reached number 3. With hindsight, that track now looks out wildly out of character, as she seems to have shifted into a dance pop artist. She’s had a couple of minor solo hits since, and got a second top 10 hit last year along with Tiesto on “10:35”. This finally gives her a second major hit of her own.

10. Drake featuring SZA – “Slime You Out”

This is the second single from Drake’s upcoming album, the first being “Search & Rescue”, which got to number 5 in the spring. To be honest, I’ve never understood the appeal of his formless dirges. There are plenty of high profile artists that I don’t particularly like, but Drake must be the highest profile act of this decade whose appeal entirely baffles me. There’s nothing there I find remotely relatable or engaging. I don’t often have that reaction to someone who’s indisputably popular. I have no trouble seeing the appeal of, say, D-Block Europe. But Drake might as well be white noise to me. Honestly, the one thing I do find interesting about him is what it is that gives him commercial appeal while being entirely invisible to me.

This one is supposed to be especially interesting because Drake and SZA were dating a decade ago. If you say so.

The midweeks have it dropping to 16.

18. SZA – “Snooze”

As it happens, SZA has her own single to promote at the moment. The original version of “Snooze” was a minor hit earlier in the year, peaking at number 36 in March. Technically this is a re-entry, but it’s back because they released a new acoustic version with, um, Justin Bieber. Not the most obvious collaborator for SZA, but okay. It’s not officially nominated as the lead version, and so SZA has the only credit on the chart, but it’s the reason why we’re here. It’s quite good, in fact. The midweeks say this is a one-week blip, though.

24. Tyla – “Water”

Debut hit. Tyla Seethal is a South African singer. This track has taken off internationally because it’s a viral dance challenge on TikTok, but it’s worth remembering here that TikTok itself doesn’t actually count towards the charts. People have to go off and actually listen to the song somewhere else, in order for it to count. The song’s quite pleasant. On the midweeks, it climbs into the top 20.

31. Chase & Status featuring Hedex & ArrDee – “Liquor & Cigarettes”

Perhaps the most unexpected story of the singles chart in 2023 is the fact that Chase & Status, who hadn’t even had a top 40 hit in a decade, now have three at once. “Disconnect” and “Baddadan” are at 12 and 13 this week.

ArrDee has had hits before, although his only appearance of 2023 was a single that stalled at 35. Hedex is a drum and bass producer, and this is his first hit.

33. Billy Gillies featuring Hannah Boleyn – “DNA (Loving You)”

Extremely faithful retro trance, basically. He’s a producer from Belfast, she’s a singer-songwriter from Leicestershire. Debut hit for them both. The midweeks show it climbing into the top 30.

35. Zach Bryan featuring Kacey Musgraves – “I Remember Everything”

A recent US number 1, getting some spillover attention in the UK. It’s the first UK hit single for either of them, although Musgraves has had two top ten albums. We don’t normally get this sort of Americana track in the singles chart.

37. Turno x Skepsis x Charlotte Plank – “Rave Out”

This has been floating around the lower reaches for 7 weeks. Lovely brass samples on this. Turno and Skepsis are UK drum and bass producers. Plank gets her second hit after appearing on Rudimental’s “Dancing Is Healing”, a top 5 hit in the summer. The midweeks say this will be gone after a single week.

38. Zara Larsson & David Guetta – “On My Love”

This is the third single from Larsson’s upcoming album. The first was “Can’t Tame Her”, which got to 25; the second was “End of Time”, which seems to have sunk without trace. Apparently, that’s her sister in the video (and the home movies are real). The midweeks have it dropping straight to 65 on its second week.

With two high new entries, this week’s climbers are few and far between.

• “Strangers” by Kenya Grace climbs 12-3.
• “Prada” by cässo x Raye x D-Block Europe climbs 5-4.
• “City Boys” by Burna Boy climbs 23-22.

There’s also a re-entry for Rema’s “Calm Down” at number 39. That means there are ten tracks leaving the top 40:

• “Good Love” by Hannah Laing & RoRo made it to number 7 and spent 15 weeks in the top 40.
• “Feel It” by Jazzy only got to number 35 and lasted 2 weeks.
• “Miracle” by Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding was an 8-week number 1 that entered the top 40 back in March. It was previously the longest-running hit on the top 40.
• “Relax My Eyes” by ANOTR & Abel Balder only to to 33, but spent a respectable 10 weeks in the top 40.
• “Bongos” by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion got a single week at number 35 and is absolutely not the next “WAP”.
• “Single Soon” by Selena Gomez had three weeks peaking at 21.
• “Rich Men North of Richmond” by Oliver Anthony Music peaked at 23 and lasted a month in the top 40.
• “My Love” by Leigh-Anne featuring Ayra Starr entered at 28 last week and swandives gracelessly to number 69. This is looking bad for the Little Mix solo careers.
• “Slow Dancing” by V got a single week at number 24 and immediately drops out of the top 100, which isn’t exactly good either.
• “Angry” by the Rolling Stones got a single week at 34 and, again, drops straight out of the top 100. It’s been a while since we’ve had three fanbase new entries of this sort in a single week.

With “Miracle” gone, we have to crown a new longest-running top 40 hit! I’m going here by uninterrupted runs, to be clear. That disqualifies “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus, currently at number 40, which has spent 35 weeks in the top 40 but did drop out for a single week; and “Calm Down”, which has had a staggering 46 weeks total in the top 40, but has dropped out twice. So our current record holder is “Dance the Night” by Dua Lipa, with 17 consecutive weeks. It’s currently at 20, so it could be with us for a while yet.

On the album chart…

1. Busted – “Greatest Hits 2.0”

This is a career retrospective album, consisting of one disc of Busted re-recording their hits, and another disc of Busted re-recording their own hits with guest stars. Plus, for some random reason, the above cover version of “Mmmbop.” Busted have had three previous number two albums – two in their commercial peak in 2002-2003, and a third with their 2019 album “Half Way There” – but this is their first number one. So that’s nice for them.

4. Mitski – “The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We”

This is Mitski’s seventh studio album. Its predecessor got to number 6, which was her first UK chart appearance. I’m going to have to listen to this properly.

14. Ash – “Race the Night”

Their previous studio album reached number 18 in 2018, but this is their highest position since 2004, when they were still having top 5 albums.

17. Corey Taylor – “CMF2”

The second solo album from Slipknot’s frontman. It’s the follow-up to 2020’s “CMFT”, which reached number 11.

18. The Who – “Who’s Next”

Officially billed as a 50th anniversary reissue, despite the minor technicality that “Who’s Next” came out in 1971. It only had a single week at number 1 on release – it was knocked off in week two by Deep Purple.

20. 30 Seconds to Mars – “It’s the End of the World But It’s a Beautiful Day”

That’s very low for 30 Seconds to Mars – their last two albums, in 2013 and 2018, both made the top 5. They haven’t had an album place lower than this since 2007.

25. The Pretenders – “Relentless”

Their 12th studio album. Its predecessor got to 29 and the one before that got to 40, so they should be pleased with this. They haven’t been this high with a studio album since 1995.

28. Madison Beer – “Silence Between Songs”

Her second album; the first also reached number 28 in 2021.

32. Sleepy Hallow – “Boy Meets World”

It’s his second album – the first one didn’t chart in the UK, even though it did get a single to number 21.