The KPop Demon Hunters era continues…

1. HUNTR/X – “Golden” 

Six weeks at number 1. It has peaked, though, and Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” is gaining on it at number 2. The two Saja Boys tracks remain in the top 10, with “Soda Pop” at 4 and “Your Idol” at 7; and the Twice songs from the soundtrack are at 24 (“Takedown”) and 35 (“Strategy”). So KPop Demon Hunters is still accounting for more than 10% of the chart on its own.

9. Sabrina Carpenter – “When Did You Get Hot”

This is the three-song rule in action. “Tears” is a non-mover at number 3, and “Manchild” is at number 6; “When Did You Got” is a technical new entry at number 9 because it swaps places with “My Man On His Willpower” as the third most popular track on the album. That song’s streams would have placed it between numbers 10 and 11, but instead it’s disqualified.

13. Lady Gaga – “The Dead Dance” 

This is a bonus track on the special edition of her album, but it’s also a tie-in for the second series of Wednesday (because there was a meme using a scene from the first season and a Lady Gaga track, so they wanted her to be… oh, you get the idea). It’s not really the best fit for Wednesday itself, although the show kind of gets round that by giving it to the supporting characters for their dance number.

34. Calvin Harris & Jessie Reyez – “Ocean”

Jessie Reyez is a Canadian singer, though she’s had more success internationally as a songwriter. This is her second appearance on the UK singles chart – the first was as a guest on Sam Smith’s “I’m Not Here to Make Friends”, also with Calvin Harris, which reached number 23 in 2023. She’s basically a backing vocalist on that track, but she did co-write it. She also made a track with Harris called “Hard to Love” in 2017, which has a video despite the fact that it doesn’t seem to have been seriously pushed as a single anywhere.

This week’s climbers:

• “12 to 12” by Sombr climbs 12-10 to become his third top 10 hit. “Back to Friends” is still on the chart, rebounding to 23 this week.
• “Sparks” by Coldplay climbs 19-18. “Yellow” and “Viva La Vida” both fall, but they’re all still at 22 or higher.
• “WGFT” by Gunna & Burna Boy climbs 29-25.
• “Feel Good Inc” by Gorillaz climbs 30-27.
• “Breakin’ Dishes” by Rihanna climbs 31-30. Between this, Coldplay and Gorillaz, we have five back catalogue tracks on the top 40, and honestly you could make a case for counting “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone too, as it celebrates its 86th week on release at number 39.

The three tracks leaving the top 40 are:

• “My Man On His Willpower” by Sabrina Carpenter, disqualified under the three-song rule.
• “A Little More” by Ed Sheeran, which entered at 18 and lasted four weeks.
• “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis, which lasted nine weeks on its current run, peaking at 17.

On the album chart:

1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Man’s Best Friend”

Two weeks and counting. For what it’s worth, its predecessor “Short n’ Sweet” had five non-consecutive weeks at number 1 – but it was more notable for sticking in the top 5 for nearly a year without interruption. That album is at 11 this week; “Emails I Can’t Send” has just vanished, so any interest in that one was transitory.

2. Suede – “Antidepressants”

It’s their tenth album, and the reviews are good. This is basically their post-punk album. The video above for the title track is a live version but it’s not much different from the album version. Its predecessor “Autofiction” also reached number 2 (it was beaten to number 1 by Blackpink), although it disappeared after two weeks. Suede had three number 1s in their 1990s heyday: their self-titled debut, “Coming Up” and “Head Music”.

7. Red Rum Club – “Buck”

Merseyside rock band. They have a trumpet player. This is their fifth album but it took until album 4 for them to start having significant hits – that album got to number 8, this does one place better.

8. Saint Etienne – “International” 

Their 13th album, being billed as the last. It comes very close to being their highest placed album – the only one to do better was “So Tough”, which reached number 7 in 1993. (That’s the one with “You’re in a Bad Way” on it.)

12. Tom Odell – “A Wonderful Life”

His seventh album, and the first not to produce any hit singles. It’s also the first to miss the top 10, but number 12 is still respectable.

15. Faithless – “Champion Sound”

Their last album reached number 6 in 2020, but they’ve always been a bit variable in their chart positions.

21. Big Thief – “Double Infinity” 

American indie folk. It’s their sixth album, their third to chart in the UK, and it comes in slightly below the position of the previous album “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You”. The video above is the sort of thing you used to get on the ITV Chart Show indie chart.

34. David Byrne – “Who is the Sky”

His sixth solo album. The last one reached number 16, but that was seven years ago and it was a bit of an outlier.