Ariana Grande has a new album out, and nobody’s going up against that with new releases.

1. Beyoncé – “Texas Hold ‘Em”

Four weeks. It was fairly close with Benson Boone at number two, though, so he’s got a shot next week. She’s also now relying on the downweighting rule for her number one position – without it, “Stick Season” would be back at the top.

3. Ariana Grande – “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)”
13. Ariana Grande – “Bye”

“We Can’t Be Friends” is the release week single from “Eternal Sunshine”, which enters at number 1 – if you hadn’t figured it out, the video is basically a four-minute remake of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a film released when Ariana Grande was 11. It’s a very Robyn-esque track.  “Bye”, on the other hand, is just an album track. She maxes out her three song limit with “Yes And”, which rebounds to number 6 – though it only dropped out of the top 10 last week. She hasn’t had a number 1 from this album yet, but “Yes And” peaked at number 2 and it’s had eight weeks in the top 10, which I’m sure will do her fine.

“Eternal Sunshine” is her seventh album and her fifth consecutive number 1; all of her albums have at least made the top 10, in a chart record that dates back to 2013 now.

16. Billie Eilish – “What Was I Made For”

A number one hit last year, re-entering after it won the Best Original Song Oscar (plus, it got a physical release). Given the context, let’s go with the alternate video that actually uses clips from the film.

18. 4Batz featuring Drake – “act ii: date @8”

Debut hit. He’s from Dallas and he’s just been signed by Drake – which is why he’s got a new mix of last year’s single with Drake on it doing the usual. It’s what you’d expect these days when Drake’s name attached – it sets a mood and does nothing with it. Exceedingly boring, but it’s been a breakthrough hit for 4Batz, so what do I know?

25. Dasha – “Austin”

We’re really doing this country thing, are we? Okay, then. This is another chart debut – she’s from California, despite the title, and this has been floating around for a couple of months now before getting traction on TikTok. It’s actually quite decent and I can see it going further.

37. Ritchy Mitch & The Coal Miners – “Evergreen”

This has been floating around the lower reaches forever – it first made the top 100 over a year ago, and it’s been going in and out of the top 100 ever since, racking up a total of 24 weeks in the top 100 to date, despite being about 90 seconds long. They’re an indie folk act from Montana and this is, obviously, their first hit.

This week’s climbers aren’t terribly eventful:

• “Scared to Start” by Michael Marcagi climbs 16-14.
• “Whatever She Wants” by Bryson Tiller climbs 20-17.
• “Kitchen Stove” by Pozer climbs 28-22.
• “Home” by Good Neighbours climbs 30-29.
• “Worth It” by Raye climbs 38-34.

There are six new or re-entries in the top 40, and the tracks making room for them are:

• “Birds in the Sky” by NewEra, with two weeks and a peak of number 39.
• “Made for Me” by Muni Long, also with two weeks, and peaking at 36.
• “Burn” by Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign, peaking at 17 and managing four weeks.
• “I Will” by Central Cee, which entered at 18 and only lasted 2 weeks.
• “Overcompensate” by Twenty One Pilots, after a single week at 34.
• “On My Love” by Zara Larsson & David Gueta, which had 18 weeks in the top 40 but couldn’t get past number 15.

The longest uninterrupted run in the singles chart still belongs to “Greedy” by Tate MacRae, which has been here since late September and is currently at number 26.

On the album chart, Ariana Grande is number 1.

2. Judas Priest – “Invincible Shield”

That’s only their fourth top 10 album in an career that stretches back to the 1970s. The other three were “Unleashed in the East” (1979), “British Steel” (1980) and “Firepower” (2018) – this is as high as they’ve ever got. The band have a combined age of 326.

5. Bleachers – “Bleachers”

Their fourth album, but the first to chart in the UK. Bleachers is the current project of Jack Antonoff, previously of Fun, who had hits in 2011-12. This group is basically an 80s throwback outfit.

28. Grace Petrie – “Build Something Better”

Folk music. It’s her 11th studio album, and the second to chart – its predecessor got to number 37.

30. Bananarama – “Glorious – The Ultimate Collection”

I don’t really think of Bananarama as the sort of band where people are in the market for a 40 track career retrospective, but there you are. And there are some brilliant singles in there.

34. Kylie Minogue – “Body Language”

20th anniversary re-issue. Well, it came out in November 2003, but close enough, eh? On release, it got to number 6.

35. Girls Aloud – “What Will the Neighbours Say”

Another 20th anniversary reissue. This is their second album, which also got to number 6. Except this one actually did come out in 2004.

38. CoComelon – “Nursery Rhymes by CoComelon”

It’s exactly what you think it is. The odd thing is that this came out in 2021 and has no obvious reason to be here, not least because CoComelon released 14 not wildly dissimilar albums last year alone.