This is the annual dead chart, the one between Christmas and New Year that makes no sense.  Last week the chart was dominated by Christmas records, which made up more than half the top 40.  This week they’re all gone.  All of them.  . But there’s nothing new out yet to replace them, which means a surge of stuff that’s been hanging around a while, plus a few things that didn’t quite make the top 40 until now.  To keep this somewhat manageable, I’ll mainly stick to pointing out the records that are actually at a new peak.

1.  Ava Max – “Sweet But Psycho”

That’s two weeks, and it managed nearly eight million streams last week.  So even though it’s been out for a couple of month, it could be a while before something musters the energy to shift it.  Ariana Grande’s “Thank U Next” rebounds to number 2, while “Sunflower” by Post Malone featuring Swae Lee climbs to number 3 after eleven weeks out (its previous peak was number 7).

5.  Post Malone – “Wow.”

This actually is a new release, which came out just before Christmas.  Despite the video above, it’s got nothing to do with Christmas, and sounds… well, instantly forgettable, to be honest.  It’s a bit more stripped down than some of his stuff, but there’s not much actually happening here.

Number 6 is “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong, because small children are off school.  It’s leaping 21 places in its 21st week out.  “Ruin My Life” by Zara Larsson enters the top 10 at number 9 – and if you want an example of how the Christmas records have shouldered everything else aside over the last few weeks then just look at its chart history of 11-11-14-17-35-9.  It’s her sixth top ten hit.  “Hold My Girl” by George Ezra reaches a new peak of 14; its previous best was 25.  “Baby” by Clean Bandit featuring Marina and Luis Fonsi, which has really struggled to make headway, finally enters the top 10 in its ninth week; its previous best was 24.

19.  Jax Jones and Years & Years – “Play”

New entry, but this has been out for five weeks, competing futilely with the Christmas songs.  Years & Years is a band, but I’m guessing this is basically their name being attached to a guest vocal by singer Olly Alexander.  As you might expect, it’s more of a full-blown song than the usual Jax Jones single.

“Advice” by Cadet & Deno Driz re-enters at 27, having peaked at 28 a month or so back.

35.  Cardi B – “Money”

This came out in November and did nothing – it entered at 49, fell from there, and dropped out of the top 100 altogether two weeks back.  Cardi B’s position on money: she’s in favour.  Wikipedia’s early entry for understatement of the year: “Lyrically, it celebrates financial stability.”

33.  Russ – “Gun Lean”

This week’s UK rap track.  The “gun lean” is a dance.  The video continues London rap’s arms race of “who can rent the most impressive car”.  One day somebody’s going to make a video where they pay the extra to actually drive the thing and minds will be blown.

This is Russ’s debut hit.  According to Genius, he’s “a member of Splash Music Group, Grove Park, who are allied with Str8grove which Reeko Squeeze is a member of”, so now you know.  He is the fifth Russ to have a top 40 hit.  The others are Russ Hamilton (1957), Russ Conway (1957-1962), Russ Abbot (1984-1985) and Russ Chimes (2013), so he’s in esteemed company.  Russell Watson, who has also had top 40 hits, is not a proper Russ.

The album chart number 1 is still The Greatest Showman soundtrack, which has been out for over a year, and is spending its 25th week in total at number one.   Nothing of any note whatsoever happens on the album chart this week.

Well, that was certainly a week.  See you next week when we hopefully get back to something approaching normalcy.