I’ll start catching up on reviews in the next day or so, but let’s get the topical stuff done first.  And sometimes the charts make this nice and easy, by having basically one record come out in a week.

1.  Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa – “One Kiss”

Well, this is settling in for the long run, isn’t it?  Five weeks at number one makes this the longest Calvin Harris has stayed at number one, passing 2008’s “Dance Wiv Me”.  2011’s Rihanna collab “We Found Love” managed six, but that was in two goes.  Calvin and Dua head up a completely static top five, because it’s one of those weeks.

18.  Arctic Monkeys – “Four Out Of Five”
23.  Arctic Monkeys – “Star Treatment”
26.  Arctic Monkeys – “One Point Perspective”

And obviously there would have been more if the chart rules still allowed it.  These are all tracks from Arctic Monkeys’ new album “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino”, their first in five years.

It’s their sixth album in total, and all six were number ones.  But even so, they’re not necessarily a band you’d expect to flood the charts with album streaming.  In fact, the album had the highest vinyl sale recorded in 25 years, with more than a quarter of its chart score coming from that format.  And who does that in 2018?  But they’ve got a foot in the digital camp too – after all, they started off being hyped as a band who broke through on the internet, back when that was a novelty and MySpace was a viable promotional platform.  “Four Out Of Five”, the official single, is a sinuous affair that seems more typical to the album chart, but it’s a very welcome change of pace.

22.  Rita Ora featuring Cardi B, Bebe Rexha & Charli XCX – “Girls”

Um.  This was intended as some sort of empowering anthemic celebration of bisexuality.  In practice it’s resulted in a backlash that they clearly didn’t see coming, essentially because it winds up in Katy Perry territory.  And “I Kissed A Girl” was a decade ago, and things have moved on since then.  To my mind it comes across as woefully behind the times more than anything else, but at any rate I suspect it’ll struggle to go further.

38.  Years & Years – “If You’re Over Me”

I see Years & Years are sticking with the dystopian future theme for the videos on this album, then.  It’s, um, all a bit pretentious for a perfectly nice pop song.

39.  Selena Gomez – “Back To You”

This is from the soundtrack of 13 Reasons Why, a Netflix drama which has Gomez as an executive producer.  Specifically, it’s from the second season, which… has not been brilliantly reviewed.  The song’s not bad at all, though.

This week’s climbers:

• “This is America” by Childish Gambino climbs 14-6, which is well deserved, but still remarkable considering he’s never had a UK hit single before.
• “Flames” by David Guetta featuring Sia climbs 11-9.  It’s David Guetta’s 24th top ten hit and Sia’s… 11th, I think?  It’s harder to search Polyhex for Sia records because it brings up Enrique Iglesias and Asia and… anyway.
• “In My Blood” by Shawn Mendes climbs 21-10, for a fifth top ten hit.
• “I’ll Be There” by Jess Glynne climbs 16-13.
• “German” by EO climbs 18-15.
• “Familiar” by Liam Payne & J Balvin climbs 25-20.
• “First Time” by M-22 featuring Medina climbs 36-33.

On the album chart, Arctic Monkeys are obviously number one.  Charlie Puth‘s second album “Voicenotes” enters at 4; the singles “Attention” and “How Long” both reached number 9 last year.

10.  Ry Cooder – “The Prodigal Son”

Ry Cooder’s first ever top ten album – his previous best was number 18, with 1982’s “The Slide Area”.  But I’ve told you before about how the declining album market favours older acts whose fans still buy albums…

16.  Beach House – “7”

Their seventh album, as you’d guess, though only the third to chart in the UK – all of which landed between 15 and 17.  It’s sort-of produced (they’d prefer to call it a collaboration) by Pete Kember, the other one from Spacemen 3.  Love the op-art video.

27.  Playboi Carti – “Die Lit”

He’s an Atlanta rapper and this is ostensibly his debut album, because apparently “Playboi Carti”, which had three singles and ran to 45 minutes, was just a “mixtape”.  The single above is… really dull.  Apparently this is Playboi Carti’s thing: meander for a bit until you find a bit that sounds good, and then repeat that until the clock runs down.

30.  Joan Armatrading – “Not Too Far Away”

My usual refrain about legacy acts doesn’t really explain this one – Joan Armatrading has kept releasing albums but this is the first time she’s even made the top 100, let alone the top 40, since a greatest hits album in 2004.  This is her first album since switching labels to BMG, so perhaps they’ve simply done a better job of promoting her.