It’s a busy week, so let’s dive in.

1.  George Ezra – “Shotgun”

Second week in this run, fourth week in total.  But it’s a busy week, so let’s move on…

2.  Calvin Harris & Sam Smith

The follow-up to “One Kiss” is along fairly similar lines – a while back, Calvin Harris made a fairly sharp stylistic turn away from his electropop formula and towards soul.  Now, he seems to have settled into a new formula.  Still, it’s a good formula, and this is one of his better renditions of it; and it suits Sam Smith’s voice, too.  It’s Sam Smith’s first appearance in the top 40 this year, and his first time in the top 10 since last year’s number one “Too Good at Goodbyes”.  This isn’t his primary genre, but he’s cropped up on Disclosure singles before.

8.  Ariana Grande – “Breathin”
22.  Ariana Grande – “Sweetener” (more…)

More of an albums chart week, this.  But let’s quickly knock through the singles chart first.  Believe me, this won’t take long.

1.  George Ezra – “Shotgun”

That’s a little unexpected.  “Shotgun” had two weeks at number one in July, but it’s been stuck at number two for five weeks behind first “Three Lions”, and then Drake.  Returning to number one is less rare than it used to be, though still unusual; returning to number one after five weeks is still pretty rare.

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This week: Travis Scott has an album out!  And…. um…

…yeah, that’s about it, to be honest.

1.  Drake – “In My Feelings”

Four weeks.  Its streaming points are still growing, but only very slightly; despite the release of the video during this chart week (which counts to the chart now, remember), it seems like this could be the peak.  The album is at 4; the other two singles are on their way out of the chart, currently sitting at 19 and 30.

9.  Travis Scott – “Sicko Mode”
15.  Travis Scott – “Stargazing”
29.  Travis Scott – “Carousel”

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Um… well, there’s some stuff happening lower down the album chart…

1.  Drake – “In My Feelings”

Three weeks – and look, it has a video now!  A video which is eight minutes long, more than twice the length of the song.  So you know it’s important.  The album “Scorpion” is still at 3, and the other two singles are at 13 and 28.  This heads up a static top three and a moribund top ten, except for…

4.  DJ Khaled featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo and Chance The Rapper – “No Brainer” (more…)

Look, we need dull weeks so that the slightly less dull weeks can seem interesting in comparison.

1.  Drake – “In My Feelings”

Two weeks, still no video.  The album “Scorpion” drops to 3 this week as it yields to a far, far greater force, but more of that later.  As for the other two Drake singles, “Don’t Matter To Me” drops to 7, and “Nonstop” falls to 22.  There could well be others that would qualify for the top 40 if it wasn’t for the three-song cap.

26.  Loud Luxury featuring Brando – “Body”

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You will not be surprised to hear that “Three Lions” is no longer number one.

1.  Drake – “In My Feelings”

Drake’s third number one of the year (after “Nice for What” and “God’s Plan”) and his fourth in total.  It’s broken from the album pack, presumably because it’s being used in viral dance videos – those don’t count towards the chart, even under the new rules, because only the official video counts.  Still, it’s giving the track a bit more attention.  The other two Drake tracks on this week’s chart are “Don’t Matter To Me” at 5, and “Nonstop” at 15.  “Scorpion” naturally gets a third week at number one on the album chart.

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Well, this is unfortunate timing.

1.  David Baddiel, Frank Skinner & The Lightning Seeds – “Three Lions”

England’s favourite football song soars to number one on the strength of the team’s sterling performance in the World Cup!  The semifinal, and peak of English excitement, was almost perfectly timed to coincide with the end of the chart week.  And… they lost.  So “Three Lions” arrives at number one just in time for the mood to be over.  Ah well.

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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” (more…)

They’re changing the chart rules again!  But first…

1.  George Ezra – “Shotgun”

Our third new number one in a row.  This is more like it!  “Shotgun” entered at number 35 back in April as an album track download, vanished into the lower reaches, and returned four weeks ago when it got promoted to a single.  It’s George Ezra’s first number one, coming a little under three months after “Paradise” reached number two.

But let’s talk about the rule changes.  There are two of them, and the chart company, who’ve been trialling them for a while, say that the differences shouldn’t be drastic.  Time will tell, once people start targetting them.  First, they’re going to give more weight to paid streams than free ones.  Whether this is a good idea depends very much on what you think the chart is meant to be measuring.  From the point of view of record companies, they certainly care more about the preferences of people who pay.  Whether it makes a difference to the public is another matter.

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Another new number one!  Two weeks running!

1.  Clean Bandit featuring Demi Lovato – “Solo”

Last week Jess Glynne reached number one, with the awkward footnote that it was thanks to “One Kiss” getting hit by the downweighting rule for older hits.  As it happens, even without that rule coming into play, “One Kiss” would have fallen off the top this week.  But Jess Glynne doesn’t hang on to purge that footnote from their record; instead, Clean Bandit get their fourth number one, following “Rather Be” (2014 – yes, it was that long ago), “Rockabye” (2016) and “Symphony” (2017).  There’s also now an acoustic version of the video available, if you’re looking for confirmation of what the first line of the chorus says underneath the vocal effects.

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