Last time, Drake’s “One Dance” had reached its fifteenth week at number one, just one week short of matching the all-time record held by Bryan Adams.  And…

1.  Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber & MØ – “Cold Water”

…it’s a bit of an anticlimax.  Because as I also pointed out last time, Drake only made it to fifteen weeks thanks to the boost from cutting the price on iTunes.  That was always going to make sixteen weeks a struggle, and so after all that time at number one, “One Dance” drops straight to number five.

Which means the way would have been clear for pretty much anything.  In fact, we do have a relatively major release this week – which is lucky, as the chart is otherwise becalmed.  New entries in the top ten have become a rarity in the streaming era, but it can still be done – “Cold Water” tops both the sales and streaming charts with notional combined sales of 102K.  That would have been enough to dethrone Drake at any point since the start of June, and largely tends to confirm the theory that a major factor behind the length of his run was, quite simply, a dearth of competition.

“Cold Water” is the lead single from the next Major Lazer album, and it’s their first number one – though they did get to number two with “Lean On” in March 2015, which also had MØ as a guest singer.  There’s not much of her on this track, though, and most of the credit for getting it straight to number one probably goes to Justin Bieber; we established his level of support among streaming listeners at the back end of last year when “What Do You Mean”, “Sorry” and “Love Yourself” reached number one in quick succession.  That’s a level of chart success he’s only really achieved since the decision to include streams.

It can’t hurt that this is also an Ed Sheeran song, and his audience is pretty well suited to the current charts as well.  It’s not an especially good Ed Sheeran song – it’s got some of his recognisable flourishes but you can well see why he isn’t releasing it himself, and it was probably best palmed off on somebody who could bang a bit of a pop sheen on it.  The end result lands firmly in the realms of “okay”; it’s not the best record that anyone involved has made, and it’s not even the best MØ single currently in the top 40, but it’s a decent enough summer single with a couple of big names involved, which makes it number one without much challenge.

3.  Calum Scott – “Dancing On My Own”

There’s only one other new entry this week – we’ll come to it in a bit – but the chart does at least have a few climbers.  Most of them aren’t climbing by much, admittedly, but there it is.  Calum Scott edges up one more place, continuing the slow climb that started at number 40 back in April.

6.  Shawn Mendes – “Treat You Better”

Climbing another 3.

9.  Kent Jones – “Don’t Mind”

And climbing another one place, after two weeks locked at number ten.  All fairly uneventful.

15.  Bastille – “Good Grief”

This is a bit more significant – after five weeks hovering between 24 and 29, “Good Grief” suddenly jumps nine places into the top twenty.  No idea why, but it’s relatively unusual for indie acts (to the extent that Bastille qualify for that description) to slow-build like this, so it’s worth noting.

17.  MØ – “Final Song”

The other and better MØ song edges up another 2.  Not to be confused with…

25.  M.O. – “Who Do You Think Of”

…who are supposed to be M.O. as in Modus Operandi.  As I mentioned last week, this bunch have been around for years, starting in girl bands that never got off the ground.  Persistence really is paying off here, as this is the highest climber, up 10 places from last week.  The single’s not bad at all, and maybe they really can drive it further up the chart from here.

27.  Christine & The Queens – “Tilted”

Another slow burner I wouldn’t have predicted – this French synthpop track has now moved 40-42-40-29-27.

28.  Charlie Puth featuring Selena Gomez – “We Don’t Talk Anymore”

This entered two weeks ago at number 30 and now edges up a couple of places.  It still doesn’t have an official video, but they’ve stuck a live performance on YouTube.  Gomez is still competing with her own single “Kill Em With Kindness”, which bounces back to 36 this week.

32.  Anne-Marie – “Alarm”

The only other new entry this week.  It’s the debut hit for Anne-Marie Nicholson, who’s probably best known for working with Rudimental, though they used guest star singers for most of their big hits.  She did

33.  Snakehips featuring Zayn – “Cruel”

Up five places from last week, so it’s alive.  Still pretty weak for a One Direction solo single, though.

On the album chart, really not much going on at all.

• “All Over The World – The Very Best of ELO” is number 1, eleven years after it came out, because Jeff Lynne is touring right now.  That’s the 2016 albums market for you.  It re-entered the top 10 at the end of June and it’s been hanging around ever since.  Randomly selected video: “Confusion”.
• “Red Earth & Pouring Rain” by Bear’s Den at 6.  They’re from London and they’re loosely associated with Mumford & Sons.  This is their second album, but the first didn’t chart.  Single: “Auld Wives”.
• “Warm on a Cold Night” by HONNE at 37.  No, I haven’t skipped any new entries, it’s just that quiet.  Electronic soul, debut album.  Single: “Someone That Loves You”.