Well, Beyonce has an album out.

1. Beyoncé – “Texas Hold ’Em”
8. Beyoncé – “Jolene”
9. Beyoncé featuring Miley Cyrus – “II Most Wanted”

The maximum three tracks from the album “Cowboy Carter”, which predictably enters at number 1 – Beyoncé hasn’t missed number 1 with a studio album since 2013. After two weeks at number 3, “Texas Hold ’Em” returns to number 1 for a fifth week.

“Jolene” is the talking point cover version. Country hasn’t traditionally been huge in the UK, but “Jolene” was a hit for Dolly Parton back in 1976, reaching number 7 (so still one place above Beyoncé). Dolly Parton’s only other top 40 hit in the UK was “Islands in the Stream” with Kenny Rogers, which also got to number 7 in 1983. Everyone knows “9 to 5” but it didn’t actually make the top 40.

As for “II Most Wanted”, it’s far from an obvious single, but it’s a good song. Miley Cyrus is the highest profile guest star on the album, at least if we’re judging by her chart record, and country plays to her vocal strengths.

22. Mark Ambor – “Belong Together” 

Yet more folk-ish acoustic guitar strumming – the sound of 2024, apparently. It’s his debut hit (he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry) and it’s been rising from the lower reaches for a couple of weeks.

27. Benson Boone – “Slow It Down”

“Beautiful Things” gets displaced by Beyoncé after two weeks at number 1, but it’s still at 2 and has every chance of going back. In the meantime, here’s the follow-up single, which is… okay, I guess? It’s fine but I don’t see it matching the performance of his big hit.

40. Meghan Trainor & T-Pain – “Been Like This”

We’ve found it. The least enticing artist credit imaginable. Alarmingly, this has been climbing from the lower reaches for a couple of weeks, so it might actually have some momentum.

This week’s climbers:

• “Too Sweet” by Hozier climbs 8-4
• “I Like the Way You Kiss Me” by Artemas climbs 13-6. Didn’t see that coming, to be honest.
• “Birds in the Sky” by NewEra climbs 23-20.
• “Back on 74” by Jungle climbs 32-25, matching the peak of its first run from last year.
• “Happier” by the Blessed Madonna featuring Clementine Douglas climbs 40-26.
• “Green & Gold” by Rudimental and Skepsis featuring Charlotte Plank and Rico Dan climbs 30-29.

We have five new entries plus a re-entry at 38 for “Evergreen” by Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners. The six tracks making room for them:

• “Exes” by Tate McRae, which peaked at 12 just before Christmas and re-entered after the Christmas break. Not to be confused with the seemingly indestructible “Greedy”, which has been on the top 40 for 29 uninterrupted weeks and still holds the record as the longest running track on the top 40. It’s at 32 this week.
• “Cinderella” and “Type Shit” by Future & Metro Boomin featuring Travis Scott, which got single weeks at 18 and 20.
• “Act II – Date at 8” by 4Batz featuring Drake, which peaked at 18 and lasted three weeks.
• “So American” by Oliva Rodrigo after a single week at 24.
• “Escapism” by Raye featuring 070 Shake, which had four weeks as a re-entry on the back of the Brit Awards.

On the album chart, “Cowboy Carter” by Beyoncé is number 1, but we’ve covered that. Unsurprisingly, few artists are willing to go up against a new Beyoncé album.

8. Ride – “Interplay”

Ride have released three albums since re-forming, and this is fairly typical of their chart positions. The previous one, in 2019, got to number 7.

26. Sum 41 – “Heaven X Hell”

Again, that’s about what you’d expect from a Sum 41 album these days. Its 2019 predecessor, “Order in Decline”, go to 29.

In an alarming sign of the health of the album market, CoComelon’s “Nursery Rhymes by CoComelon” – a five-year-old collection of nursery rhymes from a YouTube channel – is actually climbing, and reaches number 29 this week.

38. J-Hope – “Hope on the Street – vol 1” 

Another BTS solo project. It’s J-Hope’s second solo album; the first one came out in 2022 and didn’t chart in the UK. He does have one UK hit single to his credit – “On the Street”, which reached number 37 and had J Cole on it – but thus far he’s had limited impact as a solo artist in the UK. The language barrier may be more of an issue with his work.