Things are getting back to normal, but we’re still in an odd kind of limbo where the post-Christmas hype cycle is taking its time to get going, and back catalogue material is filling some of that void.

1. Noah Kahan – “Stick Season”

Two weeks. I can’t see him managing a third, because Ariana Grande has a new single out, but I suppose anything’s possible.

11. The Weeknd, Playboi Carti & Madonna – “Popular”

The soundtrack to the much-maligned The Idol is experiencing some kind of resurgence. “One of the Girls” entered at 21 last week, and it’s still at 25 this week. Now “Popular” resurfaces at 11 – precisely where it peaked last summer.

16. Liam Gallagher & John Squire – “Just Another Rainbow”

This was number one in the Sunday “first look” figures, which I’d take to mean that its figures rest heavily on first-day sales, or even pre-orders. It’s the lead single for a whole album by Liam Gallagher of Oasis and John Squire of the Stone Roses (who gets his first solo credit on a top 40 single here). Squire is his sixties, and there’s no doubt that this is an unusual record to find on the singles chart rather than the albums. That said, though, Liam is always an outlier in his genre – “Everything’s Electric”, the lead single from his previous album, got to number 18. Number 16 is his highest chart position under his own name, but not by such a margin as to suggest that the Squire collaboration is game-changing.

21. Bring Me The Horizon – “Kool-Aid”

Sticking with genre outliers, this is the sixth (!) single from Bring Me The Horizon’s upcoming album, and they remain outliers in being able to regularly place songs in the top 40. This is unusually high for them, though – their only higher placing single was their debut hit “Drown”, which reached 17 a decade ago. Probably due in part to the market being quiet right now.

24. Natasha Bedingfield – “Unwritten”

This was Natasha Bedingfield’s third hit single back in 2004. She had five top 10 hits (including this), and another two in the top 20, between 2004 and 2008 – and hasn’t troubled the singles or album charts since. This is back because it’s in the film Anyone But You.

27. Drake – “Practice”

This is a track from Drake’s 2011 album “Take Care”, which is currently doing the rounds over on TikTok. You can tell it’s Drake from over a decade ago, because something actually happens.

37. Lewis Capaldi – “Strangers”

This is one of the bonus tracks from the reissue of “Broken by Desire to be Heavenly Sent” – after two weeks, it’s the only one to chart. On one level this is a remarkable underperformance for a new Lewis Capaldi song, but a more charitable reading would be that it reflects the fact that he’s doing no promotion for these releases – the re-issue itself was a surprise release, and as far as I’m aware, Capaldi hasn’t performed publicly since last summer when he announced a break from live shows for health reasons.

39. Songer – “Toxic”

Debut hit. He’s a rapper from Reading, and yes, this is him freestyling over the instrumental from Britney Spears’ “Toxic”. I assume they either reconstructed the vocals that are still audible in the background at points, or they were backing singers to start with, since I can’t believe Britney Spears doesn’t have the clout to negotiate a “featuring credit”.

40. Nicki Minaj – “FTCU”

Nicki Minaj placed two tracks from her album last week – they drop to 32 and 33 this week – and here’s the third, climbing from 41.

This week’s climbers:

• “Murder on the Dancefloor” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor climbs 8-2, matching its original peak.
• “Lose Control” by Teddy Sims climbs 14-6.
• “I Remember Everything” by Zach Bryan featuring Kacey Musgraves climbs 16-14, so it’s back climbing to new peaks even though it’s been around on the top 40 since September. (Christmas excepting, obviously.)
• “Feather” by Sabrina Carpenter climbs 24-19 to become her first top 20 hit.
• “Perfect (Exceeder)” by Mason & Princess Superstar climbs 40-26, and quite right too.
• “Body Moving” by Eliza Rose & Calvin Harris climbs 38-34.

The eight tracks leaving the top 40:

• “Sprinter” by Dave & Central Cee, which was 27 last week.
• “Mr Brightside” by the Killers after a week at 31.
• “Paint the Town Red” by Doja Cat, re-entering at 25 last week.
• “Is It Over Now (Taylor’s Version)” by Taylor Swift, re-entering at 33 last week.
• “Entrapreneur” by Central Cee, which only got a week at 36.
• “Dance the Night (From Barbie The Album)” by Dua Lipa, re-entering at 32 last week.
• “You’re Losing Me” by Taylor Swift re-entered at 37 last week.
• “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus re-entered at 66 last week.

The longest-running track in the top 40 is “Greedy” by Tate McRae, which has been around for 17 weeks now.

On the album chart:

1. Shed Seven – “A Matter of Time”

Shed Seven broke up in 2003, but started releasing new albums again in 2017.  They’ve had four previous top 10 albums, but this is their first number one. They had 15 top 40 hits in their 90s heyday, but only one top ten, “Going for Gold”.

20. Sprints – “Letter to Self”

Debut. They’re a post-punk group from Dublin, and the album’s had good reviews.

24. Teddy Swims – “I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1)”

Debut album. It’s been out since September, but it’s benefitting from the interest in the single “Lose Control”, which came out last June but has made it to number 6. I say it’s a debut album, but he’s released four previous EPs, and the album itself is only half an hour long.