A couple of interesting tracks at the lower end of the top 40, and a busy album chart.

1. Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia”

Three weeks. It’s the same on the album chart, with “The Life of a Showgirl” celebrating its third week at number one there. The same two album tracks round out her three-song limit on the singles chart, with “Opalite” at 5 and “Elizabeth Taylor”. But the margins are getting closer, particularly on the singles chart, where she leads Olivia Dean by a relatively managable 7%.

13. HUNTR/X – “What It Sounds Like”

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Well, she’s slightly less dominant this week.

1. Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia”

Two weeks. The album “The Life of a Showgirl” also gets a second week at number 1. There’s a significant second week drop in streaming, but that still leaves her with a very comfortable lead on both charts. Obviously, the enormous physical album sales from her first week aren’t repeated, and she’s now working mainly on streaming numbers. But that’s still enough to beat the number 2, 3 and 4 albums combined.

On the singles chart, the other tracks from the album do tail off a little bit more. Last week she locked up the top three, but this time “Opalite” is at 4 and “Elizabeth Taylor” at 6. She’d still be swamping the chart if it wasn’t for the three-song rule.

12. HUNTR/X – “How It’s Done”

This had three weeks on the chart in July, and got as far as number 29 before getting overtaken by “Soda Pop” and disqualified under the three song rule. “Soda Pop” gets hit by the downweighting rule this week, and so “How It’s Done” escapes disqualification and re-enters.

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Behold domination.

1. Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia”
2. Taylor Swift – “Opalite”
3. Taylor Swift – “Elizabeth Taylor” 

In 2017, Ed Sheeran managed to get sixteen tracks into the top 20 simultaneously, because his fans were hammering the entirety of his album. The chart company responded by introducing the three-song rule, which limits each artist to three tracks (not counting features on other people’s records). Although the rule applies more broadly, its original justification was actually pretty reasonable: there’s a singles chart, and there’s an album chart, and if people are listening to the whole album then that ought to be reflected on the album chart, instead of counting as sixteen singles.

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Olivia Dean finally gets her week at number one.

1. Olivia Dean – “Man I Need”
9. Olivia Dean – “So Easy (To Fall In Love)”

This has had a long wait for “Golden” to run out of steam – it entered at number 8 in August, and then spent the next five weeks waiting at number 2 while its figures kept growing. After marginally missing out last week, it wins handily this week, with a margin of over 15%. The release of her second album “The Art of Loving” obviously helps – it enters the album chart at number 1. Its predecessor reached number 4 in 2023 but didn’t stick around for a second week. Then again, its total sales are a fraction of “Art of Loving”‘s first week numbers, so I expect this one to show more staying power.

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A week with two high new entries and… yeah, pretty much nothing else.

1. HUNTR/X – “Golden”

Eight weeks total. Last week I said that this track had peaked and Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” was in track to overtake it. Well, it’s started growing again – just enough to avoid being overtaken, with a margin of victory of fractionally over 1%. The Olivia Dean track is still growing faster, so there’s still a strong chance that this week will be it, but… who knows.

3. Lewis Capaldi – “Something in the Heavens” 

Why yes, that is an AI-generated video – perhaps the highest-profile example I’ve seen to date. To be fair, it’s one of the better examples I’ve seen, but that’s because it leans into the dreamlike vibe that leverages the uncanny valley effect. I’ve yet to see a successful AI video that wasn’t in some way trying to turn the technology’s weaknesses into advantages by building around them. You’ll notice nobody wanted to take their chances with putting the actual Lewis Capaldi into the video.

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Well, Ed Sheeran’s got an album out, and it’s a reasonably big deal, but not as big a deal as it used to be.

1. HUNTR/X – “Golden” 

“Golden” gets a seventh non-consecutive week at number one, but it is past its peak and Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” came very close this week. If “Golden” manages another week, it will be a surprise.

16. Ed Sheeran – “Camera”

This is the release week single from his album “Play”, which predictably becomes his ninth consecutive number 1 album. “Camera” is the album’s token epic ballad, and it becomes the fifth top 40 track from the album. Most people can only dream of getting that many hit singles off an album.

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The KPop Demon Hunters era continues…

1. HUNTR/X – “Golden” 

Six weeks at number 1. It has peaked, though, and Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” is gaining on it at number 2. The two Saja Boys tracks remain in the top 10, with “Soda Pop” at 4 and “Your Idol” at 7; and the Twice songs from the soundtrack are at 24 (“Takedown”) and 35 (“Strategy”). So KPop Demon Hunters is still accounting for more than 10% of the chart on its own.

9. Sabrina Carpenter – “When Did You Get Hot”

This is the three-song rule in action. “Tears” is a non-mover at number 3, and “Manchild” is at number 6; “When Did You Got” is a technical new entry at number 9 because it swaps places with “My Man On His Willpower” as the third most popular track on the album. That song’s streams would have placed it between numbers 10 and 11, but instead it’s disqualified.

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It’s Sabrina Carpenter week!

1. HUNTR/X – “Golden”

I’m going to go with the short version of the artist credit, I think. Anyway, this is its fifth week at number 1, and it’s still growing. The two Saja Boys tracks fall to 5 and 8 this week, but that’s more of a reflection of two high new entries. Their actual streaming figures went up.

3. Sabrina Carpenter – “Tears”
7. Sabrina Carpenter – “My Man on Willpower” 

Sabrina Carpenter’s album “Man’s Best Friend” enters the album chart as her second number 1, and gets the obligatory three singles. The third is former number 1 “Manchild”, which rebounds from 26 to 4. It’s her seventh studio album (ignoring the Christmas EP “Fruitcake”), but the first four were on Disney labels and don’t really count. Its predecessor “Short & Sweet” rebounds to number 8, but after 54 weeks on release, it’s never actually dropped below number 13. More surprising is that her first post-Disney album, “Emails I Can’t Send”, shows up at number 21 – it reached number 76 on release, and until now has only managed a single week at number 40.

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You know, I’m starting to wonder if the chart show needs to be moved to Radio 2.

1. HUNTR/X – “Golden” 

Not for this, obviously. “Golden” gets its fourth week at number 1, with a 50% margin over Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” at number 2. The two Saja Boys tracks are at 4 and 6 – neither is climbing on the chart, but both are up in streams. There are also three Olivia Dean tracks in the top 10, with “Nice to Each Other” at 7 and her guest appearance on Sam Fender’s “Rein Me In” at 10. It’s… not the most diverse top 10 you’ve ever heard.

13. Doja Cat – “Jealous Type”

Well, that’s the sort of video that makes Tate McRae looks subtle, isn’t it? It’s the lead single from her fifth album and it’s a rather good 80s throwback dance track. It’s been a couple of years since we had her in the top 40 as a lead artist; the lead single from her last album was “Paint the Town Red”, which was a five-week number one. But it entered lower than this, so I wouldn’t bet against her climbing further.

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In which KPop Demon Hunters continues to be the main story.

1. HUNTR/X, EJAE, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami & the KPop Demon Hunters Cast – “Golden” 

Three weeks total, and growing – it has a commanding lead over “No Broke Boys” at number 2, so it could be here for a while. Thanks to a quirk of chart rules, there are now five tracks from the soundtrack album in the top 40, with “Soda Pop” at 3, “Your Idol” at 6, and two tracks by Twice which aren’t caught by the three-song rule because they aren’t exclusive to the soundtrack. We’ll come to them. With Blackpink at number 22 and Rosé at 37, that’s seven tracks on the chart this week by South Korean artists – well, six and a half, depending on how you feel about Bruno Mars.

8. Olivia Dean – “Man I Need”
38. Olivia Dean – “Lady Lady”

Well,certainly a good week for Olivia Dean. She also has “Nice to Each Other” rebounding to a new peak of number 9, and has a featuring credit on Sam Fender’s “Rein Me In” at number 11 (which doesn’t count towards her three songs). Normally this sort of thing means that the album is out but… no, her second album isn’t out to September. It’s just that the pre-release singles have really got some momentum behind them.

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