So Robin Thicke doesn’t manage a fifth week at number one – but to be honest, he was unlucky.  He still sold over 100,000 copies, and he was only dethroned by a track that had its release date brought forward when the record company finally started panicking about cover versions.

40.  Evanescence – “My Immortal”

As covered on The Voice UK by Andrea Begley – of whom more in a bit.  This is probably the best known Evanescence song that isn’t “Bring Me To Life”, and it made number 7 in 2003 before going on to an afterlife soundtracking TV shows and being used in, well, singing contests.  The band’s biggest UK hit was, obviously, “Bring Me To Life”, which made number 1 the same year.

39.  Kanye West – “Black Skinhead”

This is going to be the first single from the new album, because Kanye West’s the sort of person who can get away with releasing something as superficially uncommercial as this and still expect it to get airplay.  It’s actually got more pop instincts to it than you’d first think, but it’s still a mile from anything else in the chart.

Daft Punk are credited as co-producers on this, not that you’d know.

37.  Leeroy (featuring Nagla) – “Can’t Get Enough”

Leeroy Reed was a cast member of The Valleys, MTV UK’s Cardiff-based Jersey Shore clones.  That’s not what you’d call a promising pedigree – but “Can’t Get Enough” is an entirely competent pop-dance record which doesn’t seem to be playing on the novelty factor at all.  It’s… actually kind of alright.

30.  Andrea Begley – “My Immortal”

Meet the winner of The Voice UK, season 2.  This was not meant to happen.  You were meant to vote for Leah McFall, the one with the vocal pyrotechnics who looked like she might be viable in the regular chart world.  Her version of “I Will Survive” is still on the chart, at number 31 in its third week out.

But the viewers went for Andrea Begley.  And while in many ways I’d rather listen to this, since at least it’s not preoccupied with being flashy, it’s not particularly distinctive.  This isn’t a winner’s single; it’s the studio recording of a track she performed on the final.  And as even the Radio 1 chart presenter felt compelled to point out, it’s not hugely different from the Evanescence original.

Begley is perhaps the quintessential Voice contestant.  She has 10% vision, and reality TV loves a story (any story).  But it also makes for a rather awkward stage presence, at least at this stage.  Her Voice performances generally involve her standing still behind a microphone, and she doesn’t give the impression of having particularly clear instincts of what she ought to be doing in terms of body language.  That’s not too bad with the ballads, but ask her to join her mentor Danny O’Donoghue in a performance of his song “Hall of Fame” and you get something awkward to the point of excruciating, as he alternately attempts to interact with her (and gets little response), or just kind of ignores her (which looks… bad).

There is, at the very least, work to be done if she’s going to be a viable act – and that’s going to be an MOR albums act.  Still, she’s made the top 40, which is more than last year’s winner did.

15.  Chase & Status (featuring Louis M^ttrs) – “Lost and Not Found”

A midweek release, though it’s still their highest chart position since “Blind Faith” made the top 10 in 2011.  They’re veering more towards Massive Attack territory here, which is a development, though their instincts clearly still incline towards the epic.  And no, that’s not a typo, the guest singer’s name is Louis M^ttrs.

4.  The Wanted – “Walks Like Rihanna”

“She can’t sing / She can’t dance / But who cares / She walks like Rihanna.”  Uh… okay then.

This was supposed to be the main release of the week, but it ends up being overshadowed by the new number one, which had its release brought forward a week after knock-off covers began to flood iTunes.  As a result, the Wanted’s odd little single finds itself a bit overlooked.  Wanted singles have an unfortunate habit of getting stuck at 2 or 3 on the charts, but they sometimes turn out to have an unexpected shelf life selling beyond their core fanbase.

This is the third single from their upcoming third album, which was originally due out in late 2012 and has now been pushed back twice – never a good sign.

3.  will.i.am – “Bang Bang”

It says a lot for the output of will.i.am that two and a half minutes of him rapping over a Charleston sample is actually one of the less annoying things he’s made.  This is from the soundtrack of The Great Gatsby, though it’s also on the Deluxe Edition of his own album.

1.  Icona Pop (featuring Charli XCX) – “I Love It”

Icona Pop are a Swedish synthpop duo, and this has been a hit for them around Europe.  But Britain’s only the second country to send it to number one (after Israel).  If you’re British, you’ll have seen it on Samsung mobile phone adverts.  You might also recognise it as the theme to Snooki & JWoww, though I wouldn’t admit to that if I were you.

The featured artist credit is a little odd.  Charlotte “Charli XCX” Aitchison is an indie synthpop artist who’s been around for a few years now without making much of an impact in the UK, and she co-wrote this record.  Whether she’s actually on it, I’m rather unclear; she’s certainly not one of the duo in the video, who are Icona Pop themselves, nor is she credited as a producer.  She’s never had a top 75 hit, but here’s her own most recent single, “What I Like”.

“I Love It” sold 125K in the first week, making this the eleventh straight week that the number one has sold over 100K.  That hasn’t happened since the first quarter of 1998.

Over on the album chart, things are essentially dead:

• “Long Way Round” by Tom Odell at number 1, following from last week’s top 10 hit “Another Love”.
  
• And “Ice on the Dune” by Empire of the Sun at number 24.  The Australian duo had their only top 40 hit back in 2009 with “We Are The People”, which made 14.  Here’s “Alive”, the lead single from this album.
• And that’s it.  Quiet week.