I did think about doing a post for WWE Fast Lane but, well, the undercard is hardly a source of inspiration to anyone, is it?  So let’s do the charts instead.  This would have been an almost completely dead week were it not for a couple of late new entries.

37.  Florence + The Machine – “What Kind Of Man”

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Alright, then.  We’ll get back to a reviewing schedule at the weekend, when we’ll start catching up on Wolverines vol 1, the final X-Force arc, All-New‘s trip to the Ultimate Universe, and Uncanny‘s curious decision to whack the reset button only a handful of months away from the universe-wide whacking of the reset button.

But in the meantime, let’s run through this week’s chart while it’s still vaguely topical.

27.  Imagine Dragons – “I Bet My Life”

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So, yeah, still no time to write any reviews this week.  Wolverines vol 1 is next in the queue.  But let’s get the chart post done, since it’s another short one (and largely written already).  So much for last week’s burst of new releases…

39.  Kodaline – “Honest”

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We have crossed the desert of January!  Behold, new releases!

33.  The Weeknd – “Earned It”

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Our run of exceedingly dull charts finally comes to an end… next week.  This week, though, there’s virtually nothing happening at all.  Not on the singles chart, at any rate – the album release schedules are at least back in business.

2.  Meghan Trainor – “Lips Are Movin”

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Since the UK music industry believes firmly in (a) promoting everything for weeks before release, and (b) not promoting anything new in the run-up to Christmas, the dead period meanders on…

28.  Echosmith – “Cool Kids”

Climbing 11 places, in one of the few notable movements in the lower half of the charts.  Otherwise, it’s most just stuff that’s been out for ages, still swilling around waiting to be displaced.

16.  Avicii – “The Nights”

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We’re still in the post-Christmas dead period.  Spare a thought, if you will, for Tulisa Contostavlos, formerly of N-Dubz and X Factor, who released her comeback single “Living Without You” in this deadest of weeks and sees it limp to 44, even with a complete absence of competition.  It’s looking like the end of the road there.

39.  Echosmith – “Cool Kids”

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It’s week two of the dead period over Christmas and New Year, so once again there’s not much going on here.  Let’s bash through it quickly anyway.

Another batch of hits from earlier in the year enjoy rebounds on the strength of post-Christmas year-in-review playlists, re-entering at the bottom end of the charts.  (Specifically: “Prayer in C” by Lilly Wood at 39, “All of Me” by John Legend at 36, “Happy” by Pharrell Williams at 34, “Changing” by Sigma at 33, and “Rather Be” by Clean Bandit at 28.)  Otherwise…

35.  Kanye West featuring Paul McCartney – “Only One” 

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It’s the annual dead chart for Christmas week.  The British care about the Christmas Number One, but that means the record that’s number one on Christmas Day, i.e. the one that sold best in the week preceding Christmas.  Christmas week itself, nobody cares about in the slightest – and so nobody releases anything, except for oddballs hoping to sneak a number one hit in an easy week.  These days, it also tends to be a chart of rebounding long-running hits, presumably because of people spending their Christmas gift vouchers and buying music for their new gadgets.

For those who really care, the major rebounders this year are: “Waves” by Mr Probz (49-39), “Rude” by Magic! (54-36), “Sing” by Ed Sheeran (37-27), “Blame it on Me” by George Ezra (34-24), “Budapest” by ditto (28-21), “Don’t” by Ed Sheeran (27-18), “Shake it Off” by Taylor Swift (32-15), and “Bang Bang” by Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj (23-11).

That leaves us with one re-entry, one new entry, and a change of number one, so this is going to be a short one…

38.  Shakin’ Stevens – “Merry Christmas Everyone”

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It’s the Christmas chart – and once again, Britain sticks to the script.  This will be short; it’s a very quiet week for new releases, though a couple of acts have given it a punt.  The back catalogue Christmas songs already entered a few weeks ago – “Fairytale” is the highest, at 11 – and only one of this year’s online campaigns results in a top 40 entry.  (“Number of the Beast” by Iron Maiden just missed out, at 44.) So the bottom half of the top 40 is all reshuffling, and we can jump straight to…

14.  Gorgon City featuring Jennifer Hudson – “Go All Night”

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