Unexpectedly, the recent outbreak of chart stability seems to be continuing.  The midweeks showed a new number one, but as it turns out “Read All About It” by Professor Green holds on for a second week.  Judging from iTunes, it won’t manage a third – sales were actually down sharply this week, but that’s starting from one of the highest first-week sales of the year.

Even more surprisingly, Rihanna’s “We Found Love” is back up to 2, and it’s currently at the top of the iTunes chart – so it’s entirely possible it could yet return to number 1 for a fourth week.

All of which must be very disappointing to the record which was number 1 in the midweeks – “With Ur Love” by Cher Lloyd ft Mike Posner.

Cher Lloyd was one of the losing finalists in last year’s X Factor (she came fourth, amid some mutterings that the final had been expanded to four acts solely to allow her to be promoted as a finalist).  Simon Cowell signed her anyway, and you might recall that she had a number one in June with “Swagger Jagger”, a record which was widely agreed to plumb new depths of excruciation.

“With Ur Love” is vastly better, and it’s only fair to note that it actually sold more than “Swagger Jagger” – it just got flattened by some extremely high-selling records in the top 3.  And while its sales last week were frontloaded, it seems to be holding up okay in the iTunes chart at the time of writing.  For some reason it reminds me vaguely of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes”, though listening to them side by side, they don’t actually have much in common.

For reasons which are not altogether clear, “With Ur Love” also features guest vocals from Mike Posner, who has very obviously been shoehorned into the video at the last minute, allowing us to enjoy a variety of shots of him looking smug on a roof.  Posner had a number 5 hit in 2010 with “Cooler Than Me”, but the follow-ups stiffed completely, scraping the bottom end of the top 200, so quite why somebody decreed that this single was in need of a Mike Posner contribution, I have no idea.  I guess either the record label is trying to rekindle his UK career, or they’re figuring that he might open the door to overseas sales in territories where he’s had more sustained success.

The rest of the top ten is pretty quiet, though Ed Sheeran’s “Lego House” finally climbs to number 6 in its fourth week on chart.

Number 13 is “Danza Kuduro”, which the Official Charts Company is crediting to Lucenzo & Qwote, though Pitbull and Don Omar also crop up on assorted versions.  This has been a number 1 hit around Europe, but unfortunately the English licensee has decided that it needs an English-language vocal, which is where Qwote comes in.  It’s not an improvement – do songs like this ever benefit from increased intelligibility, anyway? – and I notice that Radio 1 actually seems to be playing the Spanish version anyway.  To be fair, I can see why the UK label figured British audiences wouldn’t stand for the sub-WWE acting at the start of the original video, but the actual song is much better.

Weirdly, “Danza Kuduro” was itself based on Lucenzo’s original “Vem Dancar Kuduro”, which was already partly in English.  Well, it had a fat bloke shouting in English over the top, at any rate.  To be honest, I can see why the UK label thought it was a good idea to start over.  Lucenzo is  French, but his original version of the song was in Portuguese.

Kuduro, if you’re wondering, is basically Angolan rave music, and the name literally translates as “hard ass”.  Wikipedia suggests that the Angolan influences on Lucenzo’s single would really be better classified as kizomba.

Number 18 is “Try With Me” by Nicole Scherzinger.  It’s one of her better singles, which is to say that you could easily have mistaken it for a lesser Katy Perry record.

Somewhat surprisingly, number 26 is a re-entry for “Shake It Out” by Florence + The Machine, marginally beating its peak of number 27 from four weeks ago.  The publicity from the album release must have helped.  She performed it on the X Factor results show this week, in an unusually left-field booking by their ultra-safe standards, so look for it to climb.

And number 33 is “People Help The People” by Birdy, the second single from the 15-year-old’s album of cover versions.

That’s her second hit following the number 17 peak of “Skinny Love” back in March.  She’s certainly choosing some obscure material to cover – the original of “People Help The People” was the only hit for Cherry Ghost, spending a single week on the chart in 2007.  Personally, I find the original a bit too Oasis for my tastes.

Next week: does Rihanna return to number 1 in her sixth week out?