It’s mostly a quiet week on the singles chart, but hey, we’ve got a new number one!

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”

By a razor thin margin – the equivalent of 484 sales – but it’s still number one. I’m not hugely surprised that Taylor Swift only managed a single week, since “Fortnight” isn’t the most instant thing she’s ever released. I’m more surprised that it’s Sabrina Carpenter who replaces her, rather than Hozier returning to the top. The song itself is perfectly good; it’s the sort of thing you can see Dua Lipa having a big hit with. But Sabrina Carpenter has never got above number 19 before, and while she’s not a one-hit wonder, this is miles bigger than anything else she’s released. We’ll see if she can follow it up – her persona might be the sort of thing that only makes sense once she becomes a star.

8. Taylor Swift – “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart”

Technically this week’s highest new entry, but it’s an artefact of the chart rules – only the top three songs from the album can count for the chart. So “Tortured Poets Department” drops out of that top three and gets disqualified from the chart, to be replaced by “I Can Do it With A Broken Heart”. By the standards of the album, this is an upbeat one, but it’s ironically upbeat. Still, it does have more obvious singles potential than the three that charted last week.

“Fortnight” drops to 2 in its second week, and “Down Bad” drops to 10. The album “Tortured Poets Department” gets a seocnd week at number 1.

31. Tommy Richman – “Million Dollar Baby”

The other new entry on this week’s top 40 – arguably the only proper new entry – is a debut hit for Tommy Richman. He’s been around for a few years and he’s picked up some critical attention, but this is the first time he’s released a single that made the top 100. It’s good, though, and ought to go further.

38. Mark Ronson featuring Amy Winehouse – “Valerie”
39. Amy Winehouse – “Black to Black”

Finally, two back catalogue tracks from Amy Winehouse, re-entering because of the release of the not especially well reviewed biopic. Ironically, the higher placing one isn’t even credited to her as lead artist – the credit reflects its origin as a track from Ronson’s album of cover collaborations, “Version”. “Valerie” reached number 2 on release in 2007 and was her biggest hit single. “Back to Black” only got to number 25 in 2007, but reached number 8 in 2011 in the immediate aftermath of her death.

She had one other top 10 hit – “Rehab”, which reached number 7 in 2006 – but maybe people aren’t leaving a film about Amy Winehouse wanting to think too hard about that. It’s not hovering just outside the top 40 – instead, “Tears Dry On Their Own” is down at 49.

This week’s climbers:

• “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey climbs 16-6 in its second week.
• “Belong Together” by Mark Ambor climbs 1 place for the third week running, to reach 11.
• “Tell Ur Girlfriend” by Lay Bankz climbs 18-15.
• “Good Luck Babe” by Chappell Roan climbs 21-18.
• “I Don’t Wanna Wait” by David Guetta & OneRepublic rebounds 27-20, which is a new peak. I suppose that obliges me to point out that it has a proper video now, but I assure you that you have better things to do with your time than watch it.
• “These Words” by Badger & Natasha Bedingfield climbs 35-22, for some reason – it was a non-mover last week.

The four tracks leaving the top 40 are:

• “The Tortured Poets Department” by Taylor Swift, after a single week at number 3, but with the excuse that it was disqualified on a technicality.
• “Lovers in a Past Life” by Calvin Harris & Rag’n’Bone Man, which lasted 10 weeks and peaked at 13.
• “Obsessed” by Olivia Rodrigo, which peaked at 10 and lasted five weeks – not a great performance by her standards.
• “Jump” by Tyla, Gunna & Skillibeng, after two weeks at number 38.

The longest running track in the top 40 is still “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan, as it will be for quite some time to come, because it’s back up one place to number 14 this week. It’s been with us for 30 uninterrupted weeks.

On the album chart, “The Tortured Poets Department” by Taylor Swift gets a second week at number 1.

2. Pet Shop Boys – “Nonetheless”

Still the most successful band ever to be formed by a former Marvel editor. This is their 15th studio album (officially, there’s no “the” in the name), and they still always place near the top – their last three studio albums all placed at number 3. Oddly, they haven’t made it to number 2 since 1995, with their B-sides compilation “Alternative”. In total, they’ve had five number 2 albums and five number 3s, but only a single number one – “Very”, from the tail end of their imperial phase. (It’s the one with “Go West” on it.)

5. St Vincent – “All Born Screaming”

One place below the previous album. One place above the album before.

6. Jess Glynne – “Jess”

Her third album, the first to miss number 1, and the first to produce no hit singles – a six year gap seems to have done her no favours.

7. The Zutons – “The Big Decider”

The Zutons re-formed for live shows before the pandemic, but this is their first album since 2008, when “You Can Do Anything” got to… number 6. Well, that’s picking up where you left off.

13. Laufey – “Bewitched”

Icelandic jazz singer. She had a minor hit single with “Winter Wonderland” at Christmas, but this is the first time we’ve seen her in the album chart. It’s actually the deluxe re-issue of her second album, which came out last year and got to number 89.

22. Luke Hemmings – “Boy”

Officially an EP, but it qualifies for the album chart. Luke Hemmings is the lead singer of 5 Seconds of Summer; this is the first time we’ve seen in on the singles or album chart as a solo artist. He released a solo album in 2021, but it didn’t do anything in the UK. (It reached number 1 in Australia, though.)

26. Partynextdoor – “Partynextdoor 4 (P4)”

Confusingly, this is officially his fourth studio album, and the other three are not parts 1, 2 and 3. Part 1, officially, is an EP; parts 2 and 3 are albums, but part 3 came out way back in 2016, and he released an entire album called “Partymobile” in 2020. Anyway, the last two albums reached 11 and 7 respectively and produced actual hit singles, so, uh, yeah. The cover art of this, which features a naked woman on all fours, is extremely Spinal Tap and seems to have provoked a bit of eye-rolling even among his fans.

34. Justice – “Hyperdrama”

I remember this French duo being bigger in this country than they apparently were – their only hit single was “We Are Your Friends” (which reached number 20 in 2006), and their only previous appearance in the album chart was in 2011 when “Audio Video Disco” reached number 35. So this is an all-time high for them.