It’s the first chart with the new rules – video streams now count, paid streams are given a bit more weight, free streams are given a bit less.  Let’s see if we can spot the difference!  (Short answer: probably not.)

1.  George Ezra – “Shotgun”

Three weeks.  So no drastic change at the top.  Then again, perhaps we should have expected one, since look who’s got a new album out.

2.  Drake featuring Michael Jackson – “Don’t Matter To Me”
4.  Drake – “Nonstop”
5.  Drake – “Emotionless”

Drake often goes to number one with a major release, but there are several reasons why it might be different now.  One is simply that “Scorpion” is a 25-track album and that could be splitting the streams between too many tracks.  (Of course, the chart rules cap him at three hit singles.)  Conceivably his audience may be skewed more towards free stream listeners – who knows?  It’s not easy to tell, but for what it’s worth, he’s at number one on the streaming chart (which still treats all streams equally), while he’s down at 23 on the pure sales chart.  And either way, he gets nothing for video streams because he hasn’t made any videos.  So if he ever got an advantage by steering listeners away from YouTube and towards audio streaming services, that’s gone now.

“Don’t Matter To Me” samples an unreleased Michael Jackson vocal, and while the processing makes it fit nicely into the aesthetic of a Drake song, it also seems a weird use of the big name guest.  Jackson was last at number 2 with “Man in the Mirror” in the aftermath of his death in 2009.

The album goes straight to number one.  This isn’t as sure a thing as you might think; aside from the unusual dominance of the Greatest Showman soundtrack album this year, Drake’s only previous number one was 2016’s “Views”.

24.  David Baddiel, Frank Skinner & The Lightning Seeds – “3 Lions”

It’s the World Cup, so time for another outing for “3 Lions”, originally a number one twenty-two years ago, back when Baddiel and Skinner were still doing their Fantasy Football TV show.  An updated version was number one for the World Cup in 1998, and the original returned to the chart in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 (are you seeing a pattern?).  The original song was recorded for the Euro 96 tournament, which was held in England, hence the “Football’s coming home” line which makes no real sense otherwise.  Very unusually for a football single, it actually has some appeal outside terrace chanting, since it works as a song about the experience of fans unable to quite give up hope of a return to long-past glories.  Which speaks to me, for some reason.

And that’s it for new entries this week – three Drake singles and a football track.  This week’s climbers:

• “Girls Like You” by Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B climbs 13-10.  That’s Maroon 5’s tenth top 10 hit, and Cardi B’s third.
• “Rise” by Jonas Blue featuring Jack & Jack climbs 12-11.
• “Jackie Chan” by Tiesto & Dzeko featuring Preme & Post Malone climbs 20-17.  This has a video now, and it’s terrible.
• “Oh My” by Dappy featuring Ay Em climbs 31-26.  This has been on the chart for six weeks now, and it’s showing some actual staying power.
• “Taste” by Tyga featuring Offset climbs 34-27.
• “Nevermind” by Dennis Lloyd climbs 39-32.
• “Apeshit” by the Carters climbs 36-33, and it’s really surprising how sluggish this one has been to take off.
• “Ring Ring” by Jax Jones featuring Mabel & Rich the Kid climbs 40-36.  This has a video now too and it’s, um, confused about what it’s trying to do.

On the album chart, as already noted, “Scorpion” by Drake is number 1, and the Greatest Showman isn’t even number 2!  It drops to three, thanks to…

2.  Florence + The Machine – “High as Hope”

Florence Welch’s fourth studio album is the first to miss number one, though number two is hardly bad.  (There’s also an “MTV Unplugged” album which made number 27 in 2012.)  She is, however, very clearly now an Albums Act; the previous album couldn’t get a single above number 27, and “Hunger” above is currently sitting at 41.  It’s very much a More Of The Same single, for better or worse.

5.  Gorillaz – “The Now Now”

The sixth Gorillaz studio album stretching back to 2001, and five of them have made the top five.  (The underperformer is 2011’s “The Fall”, which only made number 12.)  They’re as good as ever, though I’m not entirely convinced of the wisdom of putting Jack Black in one of their videos.

6.  Guns N’ Roses – “Appetite for Destruction”

One of those odd albums that hung around forever without actually getting as high up the chart as you might have thought – it peaked at number 5 in July 1989, nearly two years after its release.  It’s here thanks to a remastered reissue, though I assume most people went for the two-disc version and not the thousand-dollar box set which comes with “12 lithographs visualising each song on the album”.

13.  Bullet for my Valentine – “Gravity”

Their sixth album; they usually make the top five, but there have been exceptions before.

15.  John Coltrane – “Both Directions at Once – The Lost Album”

Surprisingly, this seems to be the only time John Coltrane has ever appeared on the album chart.  It’s an unreleased album recorded in 1963 which turns out to have survived as a copy given to his ex-wife (the master tapes were lost decades ago).

16.  David Bowie – “Welcome to the Blackout”

Live album from 1978, previously given a limited vinyl release for Record Store Day back in April (when it reached number 22).

27.  Graham Nash – “Over the Years”

As in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.  It’s only his second entirely solo credit on the album chart, the other one being 1971’s “Songs for Beginners”.  But in fact it’s a compilation album looking back over all of his various collaboration projects, hence including the above (number 17 in 1969, and the highest Nash ever got on the singles chart in any incarnation).

28.  Let’s Eat Grandma – “I’m All Ears”

Their second album and the first to chart.  They don’t sound anything like you’d expect a band called “Let’s Eat Grandma” to sound.

30.  Paul Rodgers – “Free Spirit”

Live album in which the former lead singer of Free sings the songs of Free, but without Free.  So it’s a mostly Free-free Free.

37.  The K-Trap – “The Re-Up”

This week’s mixtape.  Masks aplenty.

40.  The Military Wives Choirs – “Remember”

A combination of 69 military wives’ choirs, released for Armed Forces Day in the centenary year of the end of World War I.