Not a very eventful week, but hey, at least there are some new videos!

1.  Ed Sheeran – “Shape Of You”

Third week, with “Castle On The Hill” still locked at 2.  “Shape Of You” had 56,000 downloads and 9.57 million streams.  It’s likely to be here for a while to come.  And it has a video now, because that’s the modern way – the video isn’t there to build to the release any more, it’s there to give it a boost once it’s underway.

It’s a weird video.  “Shape of You” is a pretty straight love song, and fair enough, you can’t just film that straight.  So instead we’ve got Ed Sheeran meeting a girl in his boxing gym, which is not exactly something you’d associate with Ed Sheeran, but it kind of works.  And then there’s a really grindingly bad gear change near the end, which doesn’t work at all.

3.  Jax Jones featuring Raye – “You Don’t Know Me”

Edging up another place.  There’s a lot of that sort of thing on this chart, be warned.

4.  Little Mix – “Touch”

This has been around for ages, and it’s actually returning to a previous peak after moving 23-4-4-4-5-6-4.  (It really likes number 4.)  But it’s got a video now, though it’s pretty weak, to be honest.  Generic Girl Band Video D.

6.  Starley – “Call On Me”

Up one place, for the second week running…

7.  The Chainsmokers – “Paris”

…up three from its entry point last week…

11.  Sean Paul featuring Dua Lipa – “No Lie” 

…and up ten, which is a bit more notable.  It’s now Dua Lipa’s highest chart place, beating last year’s “Hotter Than Hell” (which got to 15).  She’ll be back a bit later on, too.

20.  Sage The Gemini – “Now And Later”

Up twelve from last week’s entry point.  Snapchat promotion works, evidently.

21.  Dua Lipa – “Be The One”

This week’s highest new entry.  This is a re-promotion of a single originally released in 2015 which made no impact at all in the UK, though it did quite well in the rest of Europe.  Why release another single from the upcoming album when you’ve already got one that nobody’s paid any attention to?  They’ve made a new video for it – on its original release, it had this.  Mind you, that original video is basically “we have no money so let’s take Dua Lipa to various places and point a camera at her”, so I can see why you’d have another go.

I like this, actually.  It’s far and away the best thing she’s had on the chart to date, and there’s something serenely timeless about it.

24.  Robin Schulz & David Guetta featuring Cheat Codes – “Shed A Light”

Up another three places.  It has a video now too, which is corny as hell.

34.  Migos – “Bad and Boujee” 

Up three places in its second week.

35.  Tinie Tempah featuring Tinashe – “Text From Your Ex”

That’s a slightly underwhelming start for a new track, but it is the first week and there’s no video for it.  Technically this is the fourth single from an upcoming album, but we look to be in the Calvin Harris model of the “album” being a periodic sweeper-up of singles – the first single was “Not Letting Go”, a number one back in July 2015.  The second was “Girls Like”, which made number 5 last March.  The third was “Mamacita”, which missed the top 40 last July.  And then there’s a long, long gap before this promotion resumes.  Odd.

Tinashe is an American singer who had moderate success in the US with her debut album in 2014, and not so much with the follow-up last year.  This is her second appearance on the UK chart, following her guest vocal on Snakehips’ “All My Friends”, which made the top 5 last February.

On the album chart:

• “Classic House” by Pete Tong with the Heritage Orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley surprisingly climbs to number 1.  It’s basically the same “dance classics with an orchestra” schtick as last year’s Hacienda album, but with more of the original electronics.  Single: “Your Love”.
• In another unusual instance of something actually climbing the album chart, the La La Land OST is up one place to 2.
• “Return to Ommadawn” by Mike Oldfield is the highest new entry at 4.  Not current available for streaming, and it’s hardly surprising that it isn’t on YouTube since it consists of two 20-minute tracks.  It’s Oldfield’s 26th studio album, and a sequel to 1975’s “Ommadawn”.  His albums continue to chart decently, but number 4 is his highest placing since “Tubular Bells III” back in 1998.
• Another climber?!?  “Piano Portraits” by Rick Wakeman edges up to 6.
• “Modern Ruin” by Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes at 7.  That’s the former frontman of Gallows.  This is their second album; the first got to 18, so this is a step up.  Single: “Lullaby”.
• “Yesterday’s Gone” by Loyle Carner at 14.  UK rap.  It’s his debut album, and the single is unexpectedly called “The Isle of Arran”.
• “Run The Jewels 3” by Run The Jewels at 38.  That seems surprisingly low, but they have put the entire thing up on YouTube, which doesn’t count towards the UK chart.  Single: “Talk To Me”.