We’re still in the post-Christmas dead period.  Spare a thought, if you will, for Tulisa Contostavlos, formerly of N-Dubz and X Factor, who released her comeback single “Living Without You” in this deadest of weeks and sees it limp to 44, even with a complete absence of competition.  It’s looking like the end of the road there.

39.  Echosmith – “Cool Kids”

This has been climbing from the lower reaches of the top 75 for a couple of weeks now.  Echosmith are four siblings from Los Angeles, and this comes from their 2013 album “Talking Dreams”.  It was a slow burner that eventually went platinum in the US (even though it never got higher than 13 in the Billboard chart), it’s already been a top ten hit in various European countries, and typically enough, the UK is pretty much the last country in the world to get it promoted.  It’s a hackneyed theme, but there’s something pleasantly wistful about the track that works.

36.  James Bay – “Hold Back The River”

This made number 18 at the start of December before dropping out of the chart after two weeks.  It’s probably back now because the BBC put him at number 2 in their annual “Sound of Insert Year Here” list, and so it’s been getting some airplay on Radio 1.  (The number 1 slot went to synthpop group Years & Years, who were on the chart a few weeks back.)

How good is the BBC’s track record?  Well, in 2014, the top 5 included Sam Smith, Ella Eyre and George Ezra.  In 2013 they had HAIM, AlunaGeorge, Laura Mvula and Chvrches.  So not a bad track record.  But the lists are a weird mix of the conspicuously successful and the utterly unknown – they confidently tipped Sampha as a star of 2014, for example – which at least undermines the argument that BBC support becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

33.  Beyonce – “7/11”

Oh, this is back.  This peaked at 36 at the start of December and it’s been hovering just outside the top 40 ever since; presumably it’s benefitting from the lack of competition.

19.  Blonde featuring Melissa Steel – “I Loved You”

Another curious rebound – this entered at 7 in mid-December and promptly set about making its way out of the chart, only to rebound when it got to 35.  Since it’s a fairly routine dance record, I honestly don’t know what the deal is here, beyond the possibility that radio is still playing it for want of having anything else around.

7.  Tchami featuring Kaleem Taylor – “Promesses”

This week’s only significant release.  It was at 3 in the midweeks, so it’s probably not sticking around long.  Tchami is a French DJ, Kaleem Taylor is an English singer – here’s his own single “Love Me Back”, which, in the way of these things, is rather more interesting.  Not much more to say about this one, really.  It’s an above average house record.

So far as I’m aware, the video’s claim that Enid, Oklahoma has a reputation for lightning strikes is invented.  The people in the video are apparently a mixture of genuine lightning strike victims and actors – here’s the casting call, which informs us that the director’s intention was a “docu-fiction portrait film” which “captures the lives and bodies and possessions of people who have got themselves struck by lightning or are trying to, in order to get closer to God”.  Enid does have the world’s third largest grain storage facility, though.

1.  Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk”

And that’ll be four weeks total, matching the run of “All About That Bass” from October.  If it can manage five, that’ll match “Blurred Lines”.

The album market is still dead in terms of new releases; Sam Smith’s “In The Lonely Hour” is this week’s number one.