There are how many new entries…?!?

40.  Jessie J – “Thunder”

This is going to be the next single from her album, and the video came out this week. I expect it to climb further – for whatever reason, there’s a whole bunch of low new entries this week for “upcoming” singles by major artists that are all slowly gaining traction at the same time.  It’s a Stargate production positioned somewhere in Katy Perry territory, and not at all bad by those standards, but if you hadn’t seen the credits, it could be anyone.  It climbs in the midweeks, to the dizzy heights of 35.

39.  Rihanna – “What Now”

This video’s been out for a couple of weeks, and it’s only climbing to 31 in the midweeks.  But we’re way into the promotional cycle of an album that came out last year, at this point, and this is basically an exercise in reminding everyone of her back catalogue in the run-up to Christmas.  As of right now, it’s being overshadowed by her appearance on Eminem’s “The Monster”, still in the top 10.

38.  RY X – “Berlin”

RY X is the stage name of Ry Cuming, an Australian songwriter now based in LA.  This track has been out since March, but it’s belatedly selling because Sony are using it an advert.  And it’s a beautifully minimal song indeed.  Ironically, this sort of thing is actually more likely to get used in adverts than to get played on the radio.  Climbs to 27 in the midweeks, so it could be sticking around.

37.  Justin Bieber – “Roller Coaster”

This week’s “Music Mondays” release.  They left it a while to release the upbeat one, didn’t they?

35.  Katy Perry – “Unconditionally”

Yet another track being promoted to single status to remind people about the album in the run-up to Christmas.  There’s even snow in the video!  And it’s another power ballad, evidently thought appropriate for the season.  Her current single “Roar” is still at 18.  Not a vast amount of interest evident in this one so far – it actually drops to 38 in the midweeks.

31.  Lily Allen – “Hard Out Here”

I don’t normally mention fallers, but this drops from 9 in its second week out.  That’s disastrous.  That’s a bomb.  Incidentally, much the same happened to “Work Bitch” by Britney Spears a couple of weeks back, which is actually vaguely heartwarming.  Her other single “Somewhere Only We Know” drops to 4 this week; even in the absence of new entries, it would have been overtaken for number 1 by One Direction and Gary Barlow.

26.  Jason Derulo – “Trumpets”

The follow-up to the thoroughly awful number one “Talk Dirty”, which is not as bad, but still entirely irritating.  “I wrote this song just looking at you” – she got her kit off and you reached for a guitar, did you?  And I can only wonder at the mind that wrote the lyric “Is it weird that your bra reminds me of a Katy Perry song?”  Yes.  Yes, it is.

This has had a few weeks of promotion behind it – the video’s been airing for three weeks now – but it does climb to 18 in the midweeks, so evidently there’s some momentum yet.

25.  Olly Murs – “Hand on Heart”

This is the lead single for the special edition of his last album, “Right Time Right Place”.  Sounds pretty much as you’d expect for an Olly Murs track that didn’t make the main album, frankly.  They’ve been promoting this for a while, and its going to crash next week, so it’s a disappointing performance.

22.  Awolnation – “Sail”

Entering the top 30 for the first time.  This seems to be a slow-burn climber.

21.  One Direction – “Don’t Forget Where You Belong”
19.  One Direction – “You & I”

One Direction have got a new album out this week, and apparently they have an unusual number of fans who like to cherry pick tracks.  Further One Direction songs can be found at 3 (the official single “Story of my Life”), 42 (former single “Best Song Ever”), 48 (“Strong”), 49 (“Midnight Memories”), and 58 (“Diana”).  Curious behaviour.  They’ll all be gone from the top 40 next week, except for “Story”.

17.  Afrojack featuring Spree Wilson – “The Spark”

Afrojack at his most David Guetta.  He technically has a number one to his credit as a guest producer on “Give Me Everything” by Pitbull, but this is his biggest hit as lead artist, following three previous singles that all landed between 21 and 25.  It also looks to be sticking around longer than those tracks (i.e., sticking around at all).

Spree Wilson is a singer from Nashville, and this is his debut hit..

14.  Avicii – “Hey Brother”

Climbing another 13 places, and on course for the top 10 next week.

9.  Breach featuring Andreya Triana – “Everything You Never Had (We Had It All)”

The follow-up to “Jack”, which made number 9 in July.  Been a while since I’ve heard that drum pattern used in anger.

Andreya Triana is a singer-songwriter from Brighton, and I get the impression that this started life as a Breach remix of her song.  Here she is doing a live version of it back in April (the song starts two minutes in).

6.  McFly – “Love is on the Radio”

McMumford & Sons.  It was at number 2 on the midweeks, but McFly have always had an issue with heavily front loaded fan sales.

McFly are promoting a rather odd combined tour with the remnants of Busted, under the name McBusted.  The track is available as both a straight McFly track and a version with added Busted, though quite what difference that makes in practice, who knows.

Even in their prime, McFly had a nasty tendency to sell all their records in week one, and drop sharply the next week.  The midweeks show this track at thirty-six, so time has not altered this.

1.  Calvin Harris & Alesso featuring Hurts – “Under Control”

A Calvin Harris single that isn’t from “18 Months”!  Yes, we’re finally on to material from the next album.

This is Harris’ fifth number one, following “Dance Wiv Me” (with Dizzee Rascal, 2008), “I’m Not Alone” (2009), “We Found Love” (with Rihanna, 2011), and “Sweet Nothing” (with Florence Welch, 2012).  So five years out of six he’s had a number one hit.  Can’t argue with that, really, can you?

Alesso’s only previous chart credit was on “Calling (Lose My Mind)” with Sebastian Ingrosso and Ryan Tedder, which made number 19 last year.  Hurts haven’t been heard from on the singles chart in ages; they’re an English synth pop duo who were hotly tipped in 2010 but never got a single above 21.  However, they’ve had a degree of success on the continent.

It won’t make a second week at the top – this isn’t one of Harris’ more instant records, and even with no competition from new releases, it’s going to be overtaken.

On the album chart:

• “Midnight Memories” by One Direction at number 1, obviously.
• “Since I Saw You Last” by Gary Barlow at number 2, with a cover photo of him looking reflective.
• “Right Place Right Time” by Olly Murs re-enters at number 4, thanks to the release of the aforementioned special edition.
• “BZ20” by Boyzone at 6, a new studio album for the former boy band, celebrating twenty years of predominant blandness.
• “Home for Christmas” by Susan Boyle at 9, and hey, whatever the initial novelty factor, she has been at this for four years now.
• “Bad Blood” by Bastille rebounds from 39 to 12, presumably because of the special edition coming out?
• “Greatest Hits” by Dido at 27.  That’s surprisingly low, actually.
• “A Mary Christmas” by Mary J Blige at 28.  Seriously, that’s the title.  This was promoted by an appearance on X Factor, so it’s not a great position.