So before you ask: the chart week runs from Friday to Thursday, so that means Taylor Swift doesn’t show up until next week’s chart. In the meantime, we’ve got quite a busy week – and mostly decent new entries on the singles chart, too.

1. Hozier – “Too Sweet”

Two weeks. I don’t fancy his chances for a third, but you never know.

6. Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”

Well, that’s interesting. Sabrina Carpenter has three previous hit singles to her name – “Skin”, the questionable answer record to “Driver’s Licence”, which got to number 28 in 2021; “Nonsense”, which managed a week at number 32 in 2023; and “Feather”, which made it to number 19 at the start of the year. And, to be fair, it stuck around for a few weeks. Still, it’s not exactly a track record to suggest that the first single from her sixth album would be a top ten hit. This is a big step up in her singles chart performance.

7. Dua Lipa – “Illusion”

The third single from the upcoming album “Radical Optimism”. They’ve all made the top 10, though the places are going slightly down each time. “Houdini” was number 2, “Training Session” was number 4. Still, they’ve all stuck around for a while – “Training Season” is still at 15 – so I expect this will stick around for a while. It’s nice enough.

10. Perrie – “Forget About Us”

The debut solo single for Perrie Edwards from Little Mix. Little Mix had five number ones, but they’ve been “on hiatus” since 2021. Of her bandmates, Jesy Nelson had a single number 4 hit with “Boyz” in 2021; she didn’t release another solo single until 2023, and it didn’t chart. Leigh-Anne (or Leigh-Anne Pinnock, if you prefer) had a couple of hits last year, one of which just missed the top 10. And Jade Thirlwall has yet to release a solo record, though she’s apparently working on one.

I quite like the song, though I suspect it’s a bit meandering to get much higher than this. I’m not at all convinced about the video, which makes her look like a budget Miley Cyrus.

We now leap over twenty places to reach our next new entry…

31. Lay Bankz – “Tell Ur Girlfriend”

Singer/rapper from Philadelphia. She’s 19, but her discography on Wikipedia runs back to 2019. This seems to be the first time she’s had a hit anywhere, and it’s doing okay internationally. TikTok is of course involved, but it’s a fun track.

33. Chappell Roan – “Good Luck Babe”

Retro synthpop. Another debut hit. Don’t be put off by the appalling lyric video, which is drowning a very good pop song in heavy-handed irony. It deserves to go higher.

35. Badger & Natasha Bedingfield – “These Words”

Well, yes, that’s a certainly a dance record sampling Natasha Bedingfield’s 2004 number 1 “These Words”. It’s pretty terrible. Since “Unwritten” is still hanging around at number 18, this gives us the unlikely spectacle of Natasha Bedingfield having two simultaneous hit singles in 2024.

38. Tyla, Gunna & Skillibeng – “Jump”

Tyla gets a second hit to follow “Water”, which reached number 4. I don’t think it’s got as wide appeal, but it’s  solid enough. Gunna is also coming off a top 10 hit (“Fukumean”). It’s the first UK singles chart appearance for Skillibeng; he’s a Jamaican dancehall DJ.

This week’s climbers:

• “I Like The Way You Kiss Me” by Artemas climbs 5-3.
• “Austin” by Dasha climbs 8-7.
• “Belong Together” by Mark Ambor climbs 14-13.
• “Happier” by the Blessed Madonna featuring Clementine Douglas climbs 21-17.
• “Hell N Back” by Bakar climbs 26-21 – still one place below its peak from its first run.
• “I Don’t Wanna Wait” by David Guetta & OneRepublic climbs 37-25, you monsters.

Seven tracks leave the top this week:

• “Evergreen” by Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners wavers in and out of the top 40; it peaked at 36 and might yet go back in.
• “Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift finally throws in the towel after being around almost continually since last June – it got starred out for one week when the album came out, and got shunted out of the top 40 for three weeks over Christmas, but other than that it’s been here forever. It peaked at number 2 last September.
• “H.Y.B.” by J Cole featuring Bas & Central Cee got a single week at 29.
• “If U Think I’m Pretty” by Artemas got a single week at 39.
• “Never Lose Me” by Flo Milli got to 23 on its second run.
• “Carnival” by Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign made it to number 5 and lasted 9 weeks.
• “7 Minute Drill” by J Cole managed a single week at number 38, but it’s been deleted from streaming services, so that was inevitable.

“Greedy” by Tate McRae remains the longest running track on the top 40, at 31 uninterrupted weeks… but it falls to 40 this week, so the end is finally nigh.

It’s a busy week on the album chart too…

1. James – “Yummy”

Well, that’s not subtle. This is James’ 18th album, and only their second number one. The other one was their greatest hits album in 1998, so it’s actually the first time they’ve done it with a studio album. And they’ve been incredibly unlucky not to get there before now, with four previous number 2 albums, and their last two records getting to number 3.

3. Mark Knopfler – “One Deep River”

This matches 2015’s “Tracker” as his highest placing solo album. Oddly, the intervening album – 2018’s “Down the Road Wherever” – only got to number 17. This is return to normal for him.

4. Linkin Park – “Papercuts – Singles Collection 2000-2023”

Exactly what it sounds like. The track above is the token new song on the record, recorded as part of the sessions for their final album in 2017. It was released as a single in February but didn’t chart in the UK.

5. The Kris Barras Band – “Halo Effect”

Kris Barras is a former MMA fighter turned rock singer. This is his band’s fifth album and easily the most successful. The first three didn’t make the album top 40; the fourth got to number 27.

8. English Teacher – “This Could Be Texas”

Debut album. It’s post-punk indie.

10. Gun – “Hombres”

Ninth album by the Scottish rock band who’ve been around since the 80s. It’s their highest position since the nineties, though not a massive outlier – their last regular studio album got to 16. (Their last official studio album was an acoustic career retrospective which, um, didn’t set the world alight.)

11. Future & Metro Boomin – “We Still Don’t Trust You”

Not to be confused with its predecessor, “We Don’t Trust You”, which reached number 2 in the dim and distant past of three weeks ago. That album was an hour long, this one is over an hour. And while the first one produced a bunch of hit singles, this one didn’t. Some people need an editor.

12. Maggie Rogers – “Don’t Forget Me”

Her third album. The previous one reached number 6. It’s a busy week, though – she has seven new entries above her, and last time she was the highest new entry.

16. Nia Archives – “Silence is Loud”

Drum and bass singer/producer. It’s her debut album. Good single.

27. The Manic Street Preachers – “Lifeblood”

Twentieth anniversary reissue. It reached number 13 on release – their first album to miss the top 10 since their debut back in 1992.

37. Girl in Red – “I’m Doing It Again Baby”

Finally, this is Marie Ringheim’s second album; the first reached number 7 in 2021, so this is much, much lower even allowing for the volume of new entries.