Well, this is interesting.  This is the chart before the Christmas number one.  In recent years it’s tended to be quiet – the regular record industry shut down for Christmas, the last-minute novelty singles and charity releases waiting for their one-week surge.  But this year we have a more normal chart, notable if anything for having a couple of high profile new releases.  Has the record industry decided that maybe, with the charity releases hobbled by the addition of streaming data to the charts, this might just be the year when a regular release gets to be Christmas number one again?  If the midweek charts are to be believed – and they’ve been notably less accurate this year – then the answer is “yes”.  (This is also likely to be the point where the general public twig to just what a difference streaming has made to the chart.)

1.  Clean Bandit – “Rockabye”

But first, Clean Bandit celebrate six weeks at number one.  That means it overtakes “7 Years” and “Cold Water” to have the second longest run this year.  (Obviously, there isn’t time for it to beat Drake’s 15-week monopoly.)  It has a perfectly realistic chance of hanging on for Christmas.

2.  Louis Tomlinson & Steve Aoki – “Just Hold On”

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I’d planned to get another X-Axis review up by now, but it’s going to be another day or two.  Anyway, it’ll be the previous Old Man Logan arc (since the book’s already on to the next one, so…)

Meanwhile, the top 40.  Hope you like the Weeknd.

1.  Clean Bandit – “Rockabye” 

First, a fourth week for Clean Bandit, which matches the run of “Rather Be” two years ago.  (When, admittedly, four-week runs were rather less common.) The midweeks have it on course for a fifth week.

3.  The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk – “Starboy”
9.  The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk – “I Feel It Coming”
17.  The Weeknd – “Party Monster”
26.  The Weeknd – “Rockin'”
30.  The Weeknd featuring Kendrick Lamar – “Sidewalks”
39.  The Weeknd – “Reminder”

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It’s pretty much a dead week, to be honest.  Traditionally, we’d be approaching the winter shutdown around this time: unless you were trying to sneak a hit, you generally didn’t try to release or promote a regular single during the Christmas and New Year period.  In the streaming era, when records can take a month or so to slow-build anyway, this may not hold – people might figure it’s worth putting something out and seeing if it takes off at the start of January.  But it’s all  looking familiarly quiet right now.

1.  Clean Bandit – “Rockabye” 

Three weeks.  It still needs a fourth to match the run of “Rather Be” in February 2014.  But along the lines of what I’ve just said, it’ll soon be time for the papers to start filling space by blathering about the race for Christmas Number 1.

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Right, then… I will get back to a regular schedule later this week, with Deadpool v Gambit finally getting that review, followed by Uncanny X-Men Annual and an Old Man Logan arc a bit later, and maybe a wrestling post (depending on whether I want to write about the show in question once I’ve, you know, actually seen it).  Meantime, let’s clear this one away: a moribund top half of the chart, but a few more surprises lower down.

1.  Clean Bandit – “Rockabye”

Second week.  It’s now number one in streaming as well as sales.

4.  Rae Sremmurd featuring Gucci Mane – “Black Beatles”

Blimey.  That’s a 28-place climb, which is quite something for a track that was propelled into the charts as a meme soundtrack (especially since it isn’t a novelty record).

23.  Nevada featuring Mark Morrison & Fetty Wap – “The Mack” (more…)

Yes, I really will get to Deadpool v Gambit.  But you see, I explained last week that I was leaving it until I was in a better mood and…

So!  We’ve got a new number one!  And the next chart is out tomorrow so I’d better get this post up.

1.  Clean Bandit – “Rockabye”

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Okay, so.  I was going to try and get the long overdue Deadpool v. Gambit review done this week, but to be honest, I want to write that one when I’m in a more suitable mood for being positive about a happy little story.  And doing it this way round means the chart post won’t immediately shove the DvG review down the page.  So.

1.  Little Mix – “Shout Out To My Ex”

Third week, so it’s now their joint longest-running number 1, matching last year’s “Black Magic”.  Unusually, this is number one in sales but not in streams (on the streaming-only chart, it slips to number 2, leaving James Arthur’s “Say You Won’t Let Go” to retake the top spot).  That’s unusual, because it’s tended to be the sales that flare out first.

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See, it can still be done.

1.  Little Mix – “Shout Out To My Ex”

Well, I think you know what you’re getting with a title like that – you dumped me, you broke my heart, I have risen above you, etc etc.  It’s exactly that.  And given that Little Mix actually can sing, having them in unison on the chorus doesn’t seem the best use of them.  But whatever.  I’ve heard it done worse.

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Well, this one won’t take long.  Seriously, there’s a podcast one post down, you should listen to that first.  Proper content.  And in the next two or three days I will, honestly, try and get to Civil War II: X-Men.  But meantime…

1.  James Arthur – “Say You Won’t Let Go”

Number 1 for the third week.  It’s number one in both streams and sales, too.  But there’s not much more to be said about that.

4.  Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj – “Side to Side”

Up one more place.  In true 2016 style, this has taken a month to move four places.

9.  Bruno Mars – “24K Magic”

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Three new entries, not much else on the singles charts, deluge on the albums.  Let’s run through it…

1.  James Arthur – “Say You Won’t Let Go”

Two weeks at number one, which by the standards of this year is hardly a surprise.

2.  The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk – “Starboy”

Climbing one place, which it makes it his biggest hit.

5.  Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj – “Side to Side”

Another one place climb.

9.  Niall Horan – “This Town”

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Well, you wouldn’t have bet on this a couple of years ago.

1.  James Arthur – “Say You Won’t Let Go”

This is James Arthur’s second number one; the first was his X Factor winners single “Impossible”, and that was back in 2012.  At the time, he seemed like one of the more promising winners – “Impossible” is a characteristically wretched production, but the actual vocal is quite decent.  He did release an album in 2013, which got to number 2 on the album chart, spent a respectable three months in the top 40, and spawned a reasonably acceptable number 2 single.

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