It’s one of those weeks when the singles chart gets invaded by a couple of major album releases. But not right at the top.

1. Benson Boone – “Beautiful Things”

Two weeks, and a comfortable lead over everything else. “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims is at 2, but it’s been there before a month ago. He’s been in the top 10 since mid January, though, so he’s unfortunate not to reach the very top. His new single “Slow It Down” enters at number 42 this week, but you have to figure it has a good chance of making the top 40 in due course.

6. Future & Metro Boomin featuring Kendrick Lamar – “Like That”
18. Future & Metro Boomin featuring Travis Scott & Playboi Carti – “Type Shit”
20. Future & Metro Boomin featuring Travis Scott – “Cinderella”

That’s the maximum three singles from the album “We Don’t Trust You”, which enters at number 2. Future’s last solo album, 2022’s “I Never Liked You”, also got to number 2; Metro Boomin’s “Heroes & Villains” reached number 3 in the same year. So it’s no surprise that their shared album does well. “Like That” does best, probably because it’s new Kendrick Lamar material. And honestly, aside from his verse, this is pretty dreary stuff.

8. Hozier – “Too Sweet”

Hozier is one of those acts who feels like a one-hit wonder when he technically isn’t. His big hit, “Take Me To Church”, was a hit back in 2015, when it spent nearly a year on the top 40 including four weeks at number 2. (It spent most of that time stuck behind Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do”.) He had a number 19 hit the same year, and resurfaced with a track that got to number 22 last year, but this gets him back into the top 10 for the first time in 9 years.

10. Olivia Rodrigo – “Obsessed”
24. Olivia Rodrigo – “So American”

Two tracks from the special edition of “Guts” – a third, “Stranger”, lands outside the top 50, but then “Obsessed” is the official single here, and gets a video. (Which… Olivia Rodrigo is 21. How many ex-girlfriends does her boyfriend have?!?) The album duly returns to number 3, but it’s never actually dropped out of the top 20.

13. Artemas – “I Like the Way You Kiss Me”

Debut hit for Artemas Diamandas. Alt-pop, basically – the sort of “notionally pop” record that traditionally doesn’t actually make the chart. That’s not him in the video, if you were wondering. He’s from Oxfordshire. This has had some international traction – it’s in the top ten in Germany and it got to number 1 in Lithuania.

27. Charli XCX – “Von Dutch”

This dropped out of the top 40 last week, but immediately re-enters on the release of a remix and a physical version. I don’t expect it to stick around very long.

30. Rudimental & Skepsis featuring Charlotte Plank & Riko Dan – “Green & Gold”

This has been climbing from the lower reaches for a month. Rudimental already have a single in the top 40 – they’re credited as featured artists on Ella Henderson’s “Alibi”, currently at 12. Charlotte Plank had her biggest hit last year on Rudimental’s “Dancing is Healing”, which made the top 40. Her other (minor) hit single was a collaboration with Skepsis – “Rave Out”, which got a week at number 37. Riko Dan hasn’t had a solo credit on a top 40 hit before, but he’s a member of Roll Deep, who had hits in, um, 2005 and 2010.

32. Jungle – “Back On 74”

This is odd. “Back on 74” was a mid-table hit in October when it got to number 25. It seems to have been reactivated as a result of a performance on the Brit Awards, but that was three weeks ago – unusually, it seems to have sparked some lasting interest in the track which eventually led to it just missing the top 40 over the last two weeks and re-entering now.

40. The Blessed Madonna featuring Clementine Douglas – “Happier”

House music. We haven’t had much of this in a while either. The Blessed Madonna technically has a previous hit to her credit – “Marea (We’ve Lost Dancing)” by Fred again.., a pandemic-era track which samples a conversation with her about Covid-19 and gives her a vocal credit as a result. She did a remix of Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” with high profile guest stars that did okay too, but she didn’t get a chart credit for that. So this seems to be her first appearance as an actual artist. It’s pretty good when it hits its stride.

It’s also a second hit for Clementine Douglas, who reached the top 10 last year with Sonny Fodera and MK on “Asking”.

Not many climbers this week, because of all those album tracks pushing stuff down.

• “Scared to Start” by Michael Marcagi climbs 10-9.
• “Birds in the Sky” by NewEra climbs 34-23. Really? Huh.

Still, that’s 11 new entries and re-entries. The tracks making way for them:

• “Fri(end)s” by V drops straight out after a single week at number 13 – K-pop does tend to do the first-week fan base thing.
• “Going Home (Theme from Local Hero)” by Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes got a single week at 18 – again, that’s a charity record which people were encouraged to buy in release week.
• “Redrum” by 21 Savage got to 11 and lasted a respectable 10 weeks.
• “Kitchen Stove” by Pozer had four weeks, peaking at 22.
• “Worth It” by Raye got three weeks, peaking at 33, off the back of the Brit Awards.
• “Nothing Matters” by the Last Dinner Party peaked at 16 and lasted 8 weeks in the top 40 – an extraordinary performance for their genre these days.
• “Murder on the Dancefloor” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor had five weeks at number 2 on the back of Saltburn, and lasted 12 weeks in its current run.
• “Homesick” by Noah Kahan & Sam Fender entered at 5 and dropped from there, but still lasted 8 weeks.
• “Evergreen” by Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners had two weeks, peaking at 37, but bear in mind that’s the high point of a very, very long run in the lower reaches – it might yet be back.
• “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” by YG Marley peaked at 5 and lasted 8 weeks.
• “Lil Boo Thang” by Paul Russell never got past 20, but it’s been on the top 40 since the start of the year.

The longest running track on the top 40 is still “Greedy” by Tate McRae, hanging in there at number 31 after 28 uninterrupted weeks.

On the album chart:

1. Elbow – “Audio Vertigo”

Their fourth number 1 album – by no means a foregone conclusion, since its predecessor only reached number 7.  Turns out that that was a blip, since the three albums before that were all number 1s. Good single!

Number 2 is Future & Metro Boomin, and number 3 is Olivia Rodrigo. We’ve covered both of those, so…

7. The Jesus & Mary Chain – “Glasgow Eyes”

Blimey, I didn’t know the Jesus & Mary Chain were still going. Well, it has been seven years since their last album, and this is only the second album they’ve released this century. The album chart being what it is, this is their highest placing album since “Darklands” reached number 5 in 1987.

19. Tyla – “Tyla”

Debut album. The single “Water” reached number 4.

25. Starsailor – “Where The Wild Things Grow”

Speaking of bands that I didn’t know were still going: Starsailor had a couple of number 2 albums in 2001-2003, and apparently they’ve been around for all but a couple of years in the interim. It’s been seven years since their last album, and the 15 since the one before that, but all three place at roughly the same level.

26. Fletcher – “In Search of the Antidote”

Her second album, the first to chart in the UK. One of those odd cases of an act clearly targeted at the singles chart but ending up here.

32. The Staves – “All Now”

The Staves are usually billed as a folk act, so if that video above is anything to go by, they’ve had a change of direction. It hasn’t done their chart positions any good – their previous two albums got to 13 and 14. I quite like it.

35. Adrianne Lenker – “Bright Future”

Her sixth solo album, the first to chart in the UK. She’s a member of Big Thief, whose last two albums did chart – the most recent, in 2022, reached number 15.

38. Waxahatchee – “Tiger’s Blood”

Waxahatchee is basically songwriter Katie Crutchfield. This is her sixth album under this name, and the first to chart; she’s also released albums as members of PS Eliot and Plains, none of which charted in the UK either.