This is one of those weeks when everyone gets out of the way of a major album release, so we get a quiet chart. But first!

1. Ed Sheeran – “Bad Habits”

I still don’t think much of this, but Britain evidently disagrees. That’s six weeks at number 1.

7. Billie Eilish – “Happier Than Ever”
28. Billie Eilish – “Getting Older”
32. Billie Eilish – “Oxytocin”

The album “Happier Than Ever” enters at number 1, giving her a second number 1 album. Predictably, it maxes out its three-song allocation. The earlier singles from this album have performed patchily – “Therefore I Am” and “Your Power” both made the top 5, but “Lost Cause” and “NDA” missed the top 10 and vanished quickly.

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This week’s designated album-releaser is Dave.

1. Ed Sheeran – “Bad Habits”

Five weeks. It’s past its peak, though.

2. Dave featuring Stormzy – “Clash”
4. Dave – “Verdansk”
6. Dave – “In The Fire”

That’s the maximum three tracks from the new Dave album “We’re All Alone in This Together”, which becomes his second number 1 album. “Clash” was the single, entering at 3 two weeks ago and rebounding now. “In the Fire” has a barrage of uncredited guest verses (which is why it runs to seven minutes), and is built around a fantastic sample from “Have You Been Tried in the Fire” by the Florida Mass Choir. “Verdansk”… leaves me entirely cold.

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It’s one of those singles charts that would be dead if it wasn’t for the spillover from album releases.

1. Ed Sheeran – “Bad Habits”

Four weeks. It’s still not growing on me.

14. Pop Smoke featuring Dua Lipa – “Demeanor”

This is the lead single from “Faith”, which enters the album chart at number 3. It’s his third album, two of which were posthumous. Posthumous albums are a dubious exercise at the best of times, at least when they go beyond completing a final product to pillaging the archives for material that the artist consciously chose not to release during life. This single is perfectly fine on its merits, but it’s hard to look past the fact that it’s essentially an unreleased Pop Smoke fragment plastered over a Dua Lipa track.

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Sometimes the lag in a weekly chart is more noticeable than normal…

1. Ed Sheeran – “Bad Habits”

Three weeks at number one. It’s still growing, too.

3. Dave featuring Stormzy – “Clash”

First-time collaboration by two of the big names of UK rap, so it was bound to do well. It’s musically compelling even if you have no idea what they’re going on about (I don’t pretend to pick up references to trainers without resorting to the annotations, and I have no idea where Jeremy Corbyn fits into anything). I’m sure he’s a big fan of Aston Martins too.

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This is what you call a dead week.

1. Ed Sheeran – “Bad Habits”

Two weeks. And for our highest new entry we find ourselves going all the way down to…

32. Brent Faiyaz featuring Drake – “Wasting Time”

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Ah, he’s back.

1. Ed Sheeran – “Bad Habits”

The lead single from Ed Sheeran’s fifth album, and… well, it’s one of his electropop efforts, and it’s fine, but nothing outstanding. It feels like it’s jumped straight to a slightly uninspired European remix from three years ago. Still, it’s his tenth number one, which is elite company – there are only six acts who have had more than ten number ones. Admittedly, one of them is Westlife.

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It’s still Olivia Rodrigo’s chart.

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Good 4 U”
9. Olivia Rodrigo – “Traitor”
17. Olivia Rodrigo – “Favorite Crime”

That’s 5 weeks at number 1 for “Good 4 U”. The chart compilers are claiming that as the longest run at the top for a – and I quote – “rock-influenced” track since “Spaceman” by Babylon Zoo in 1996. Which… okay? There does seem to be something of a resurgence in guitars right now. We’ll see if that lasts.

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It’s static at the top.

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Good 4 U”

Four weeks at number 1, and she still has three songs in the top 10 (with “Deja Vu” at 5, and “Traitor” at 8). The top 3 is static, with the Weeknd at 2 and Doja Cat at 3.

12. Mimi Webb – “Dumb Love”

This is the follow-up to her debut single “Good Without”, which has been on the chart for 12 weeks now and is currently a non-mover at its peak of number 9. I thought “Good Without” was a bit obvious; I like this more, though it’s very much a record for Heart FM. That said, we don’t get too much of this in the top 40 at the moment, which makes it a welcome part of the mix.

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We missed last week’s chart, so a bit of catching up to do here…

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Good 4 U”

Three weeks, and doing nicely – it had 11.2 million streams last week. While it was only to be expected that her album “Sour” would get the maximum three tracks into the singles chart in its first week, they’re still there – “Deja Vu” is at 4, and “Traitor” is at a peak position of 5. And that means she has three singles in the top 5 – not unheard of, but very much A-lister territory.

The number two single is former number 1 “Body”, so it’s not facing an immediate challenge either. Once again, she has three singles in the top 10 – “Deja Vu” is at 5, and “Drivers Licence” re-enters at 6. “Re-enters” because of the three-song rule; evidently it was her fourth placed song last week, and the positions are reversed this time. When we last saw it, two weeks ago, it was at number 35, so the release of the parent album has really catapulted it back up the charts – this is its highest position since March, when its nine-week run at number 1 ended. “Sour” also spends a second week at number 1 on the album chart.

7. Arrdee – “Oliver Twist”

He’s a teenage rapper from Brighton, and he featured prominently on the multi-guest remix of “Body” – but he didn’t get a chart credit for that. So this is technically his first hit. The midweeks have it sticking around in the top 10.

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Well, that didn’t take long.

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Good 4 U”
4. Olivia Rodrigo – “Deja Vu”
7. Olivia Rodrigo – “Traitor”

Yes, it’s the release of Olivia Rodrigo’s album “Sour”, which enters at number 1 on the album chart, and promptly places the maximum three tracks in the single chart. Demonstrating her ability to write about her break-up in any musical genre, “Good 4 U” is the Paramore version, and climbs to number 1 on its second week out. It’s her second number 1 single and, if you care about such things, she’s the youngest artist to have had simultaneous number 1s on the single and album chart. To be honest, having simultaneous number 1s isn’t that unusual – it happened four times in 2020 – but while the list is lengthy, it’s also mainly made up of A-listers. And Olly Murs.

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