This was looking like a busy chart in the midweeks, but it calmed down drastically by Sunday – once again, front loaded sales mean that three singles that looked on track to make the top 40 are gone by the time of the chart proper, including one that was showing as high as 20.  We’re left with…

34.  Saint Motel – “My Type”

This was at 18 in the midweeks, so plainly it isn’t sticking around long.  Saint Motel are an indie-pop outfit from Los Angeles who’ve been around since 2009.  They’re finally charting because the song is in an advert – Phones4U, to be precise.

17.  Sam Smith – “I’m Not The Only One”
15.  Iggy Azalea featuring Rita Ora – “Black Widow”

Climbing 23 and 17 places respectively, after last week’s relatively slow starts.  Today’s midweeks show both of them set to go further.

9.  Union J – “Tonight (We Live Forever)”

I see a potential chronological difficulty with that.

Union J are X Factor alumni – basically the Lidl One Direction – and this is the lead single from their second album.  The first one spawned two singles that just missed the top 5, which isn’t really good enough in boy band terms, and presumably got them dropped, since they’ve jumped from RCA to Epic.  Evidently Epic think there’s something in there with a bit of tinkering.  The chart placement of this single suggests there might not be. Today’s midweeks show it dropping straight out of the top 40, which rather confirms the worst.

5.  Wankelmut & Emma Louise – “My Head is a Jungle”

Wankelmut is the guy whose remix of Asaf Avidan’s “Reckoning Song” got it into the lower end of the chart two years ago.  He’s German.  Emma Louise is an Australian songwriter.  This track was a top ten hit in Italy last year.  All very multinational.

The version shown above is the original, but what’s actually being promoted in Britain is a remix by the seemingly ubiquitous MK.  It has its own entirely different video – here it is, for those interested – but I vastly prefer the original.  It’s a subtler affair, and it suits her voice much better.

4.  Taylor Swift – “Shake It Off”

The lead single from Swift’s next album was a Tuesday release, and still made number 6 on the midweeks announced the next day.  Its eventual position at number 4 will raise a few eyebrows, since it was topping the iTunes chart for much of the week; the fact that it still wasn’t able to catch up with the top 3 is genuinely surprising.  As it is, her biggest UK hits remain “Love Story” (2009) and “I Knew You Were Trouble” (2012), both of which got to number 2.

Swift has now dumped all remaining vestiges of her roots as a country-pop artist, in favour of hooking up with Max Martin.  It’s an “I don’t care about the haters” song, which now seems to be settling in as one of the stock pop song themes of the 2010s, but it’s a good one.  (The trick with these things, aside from bothering to write a good chorus, is to make sure they’re vague enough to potentially apply to your audience too, so that you don’t come across as a famous person whining about Twitter.)

1.  David Guetta featuring Sam Martin – “Lovers on the Sun”

In which David Guetta has a stab at spaghetti western crossed with… well, David Guetta.  This is the title track from his upcoming album (which has already had another two singles in the chart – “Shot Me Down” and “Bad”).  It’s the chart debut for Sam Martin, a songwriter from Oregon who’s had a hand in some Maroon 5 songs and things of that nature.

It’s a very odd record, lurching from Ennio Morricone pastiche to mock-heartfelt chorus to bog-standard dance floor hook.  I’m not sure it works – I think it’s too close to novelty territory for the chorus to come off – but evidently enough people disagree with me to give Guetta his sixth UK number 1.  The others were “When Love Takes Over” (2009), “Sexy Chick” (2009), “Gettin’ Over You” (2010), “Titanium” (2011), and his guest credit on Flo Rida’s “Club Can’t Handle Me” (2010).

Over on the album chart, Ed Sheeran finally runs out of steam!

• “Stars” by Collabro is number 1.  They’re a musical theatre-themed boy band (no, seriously) who won Britain’s Got Talent this year, and the album is the usual Cowell-tastic cash-in cover collection (“Let It Go”, “All Of Me”, something from Les Mis…).  Preview video here.
• “Concrete Love” by the Courteeners at 3.  The indie group’s fourth album, all of which have made the top 10.  This is the highest placing, but only marginally.  Single: “How Good It Was”.
• “Great Divide” by Twin Atlantic at 6.  The third album from the Glasgow rock band, but the first to chart.  Their Wikipedia entry could maybe use a bit of loving attention – I doubt even the most devoted Twin Atlantic fan really needs to know that they played a sold-out gig at Queen Margaret Union in Glasgow on 7 March 2009.  The single “Heart and Soul” made 17 in June.
• “Blacc Hollywood” by Wiz Khalifa at 27.  His first album to chart in the UK.  He crops up on the singles chart as a guest star from time to time, but his only solo hit single is 2011’s “Black and Yellow”.  Which was on the previous album.  Single: “Promises”.
• “Hounds of Love” by Kate Bush at 29.  Re-entering on the strength of the publicity for her current live shows – her first in 36 years.  The album made number 1 on its first release in 1985.  The title track was a number 18 hit at the time.
• “Leave a Scar – Live in North Carolina” by Blackberry Smoke at 35.  Live album from the southern rock band whose last album charted earlier in the year.  An entire 90-minute concert documentary promoting the album is here.
• “Sparks” by Imogen Heap at 40.  Her fourth studio album and the second to chart – falling just short of her previous peak of 39.  Not exactly prolific, Heap has released four solo albums in sixteen years.  Single: “Run-Time”.