There’s a new podcast up, and it’s one post down from here.  But this is ready too, so what the heck…

37.  Beyonce – “XO”

Every track from the current Beyonce album has a video, but not all of them were promoted on YouTube.  “Drunk in Love” was, and it’s been on the chart for a while.  (It drops to 12 this week.)  “XO” was too, but for some reason it took a little time to gather speed.

The opening sample apparently caused a degree of controversy in the US, since it’s a seemingly random lift from the Challenger disaster.  I guess I see what they’re going for – general air of mortality and all that – but it does feel rather weirdly tacked on.

27.  Tinie Tempah featuring Labrinth – “Lover Not a Fighter”

The third single from Tinie Tempah’s current album reunites him with the producer from his first hits.  The basic gist seems to be that he likes to love, not to fight, and that he is in the fortunate position of being so attractive and wealthy as to enable the swift replacement of overly fractious lady friends.  So a romantic ditty, then.

It’s been quite a while since we heard from Labrinth – his last hit was “Beneath Your Beautiful”, a number 1 in 2012.

18.  Vance Joy – “Riptide”
13.  Busta Rhymes featuring Q-Tip, Kanye West & Lil Wayne – “Thank You”

Two records that entered low last week and make big climbs now.  (Kid Ink’s “Show Me” is up nine places as well, but that’s got Chris Brown on it, so I prefer to pretend it doesn’t exist.)

11.  Shakira featuring Rihanna – “Can’t Remember to Forget You”

One of those songs that doesn’t seem to want to be a duet, but it’s been awkwardly repurposed as one because somebody figured the record could use a high profile guest star.  And admittedly, they don’t come much more high profile than Rihanna.  Which makes the number 11 slot a bit of a surprise – particularly as it seems to be gracefully departing the iTunes top 20 as I write.

All right, it was released at the start of the week without prior promotion, but it still had plenty of time on sale.  And yes, Shakira hasn’t had a hit in this country since 2010, but that’s because her Spanish language records don’t get promoted over here.  It’s not the best track either of them has made, but it’s got a pleasant enough ska thing in the verses.  It’s a bit of a disappointing performance, I suspect.  Perhaps it’ll pick up when they get the video into circulation.

5.  Elyar Fox – “Do It All Over Again”

A right-side-of-serviceable pop single for Sony’s latest launch.  Fox is a teenage YouTuber and semi-professional self-promoter who apparently built up a following by filming his own efforts to get signed.  (Those videos seem to have been taken down now.)  Hence all the mildly irritating YouTube references in the video.  His old YouTube channel still has a bunch of his bedroom cover versions, which do at least confirm that he has a pretty respectable voice.

It’s on its way out of the top 10 already, so this is very much a case of front-loaded sales to his hardcore fan base.  Number 5 is basically Union J territory – which is to say, the teen idol B-list.  But hey, Union J are apparently getting a second album, so it’s something to work with.

1.  Pharrell Williams – “Happy”

A third week at number one, admittedly more by default than anything else.  He appears to finally have a proper challenger lined up for next week.

On the album chart, things are still pretty much dead:

• “High Hopes” by Bruce Springsteen is his tenth number 1 album.  Springsteen is now 64.  The title track has a lyric video here – it’s a lot better than I was expecting, actually.
• “Post Tropical” by James Vincent McMorrow at 28.  His second album, the first to actually chart.  His cover of “Higher Love” was a minor singles hit at the tail end of 2011.  Single: “Cavalier”.