The singles chart starts to settle back to the normal routine…

1.  Ed Sheeran – “Perfect”

For the sixth week.  He has to run out of steam soon, right?  Further down the top ten, we have “Barking” by Ramz climbing 8-4, “I Miss You” by Clean Bandit featuring Julia Michaels climbing 6-5, and NF’s “Let You Down” moving 10-6.  And our highest new entry is…

7.  Bruno Mars featuring Cardi B – “Finesse”

There’s a bit of a mismatch here – as you’d expect from Bruno Mars, it’s a bit of a genre re-enactment, and it sounds very eighties.  But the video is a homage to the credits sequence of In Living Color, and that was the early 90s.  We’re past due for a nineties nostalgia wave, but it’s still slightly odd to see a video dutifully re-creating the lighting of early 90s network TV.

It’s yet another single from the album “24K Magic”, but it’s the highest placing since the lead single (the title track, which got to 5).  Cardi B is an addition for the single release, and they’ve got their money’s worth by sticking her on the intro as well as the break.  It’s her second UK hit, after “Bodak Yellow” reached 24 back in the autumn.  She’s coming up again further down the chart, too…

10.  Craig David featuring Bastille – “I Know You”

Climbing 15-10 – this has been around since early December, but it’s got a video now, which I forgot to mention last week.  It sounds more like Bastille than Craig David, if you ask me.  But it gives Craig David his fifteenth top 10 hit, and it seems clear now that his 2015 comeback has stuck.  In fact, he’s been in the top ten more recently than Bastille, who were last here with “Of The Night” back in 2013.

11.  Liam Payne & Rita Ora – “For You (Fifty Shades Freed)”

Yes, the film title is part of the official song title, so as to make sure it gets printed in the listings.  That’s dedication.  As usual with Fifty Shades soundtrack songs, it’s a male/female duet which is meant to kind of gently nods to the movie’s BDSM theme, but amounts in practice to a conventional infatuation-as-obsession lyric.  It’s good enough when Rita Ora is singing, but Liam Payne is, let’s say, miscast as a man with strong passions about, well, anything.

“Tip Toe” by Jason Derulo featuring French Montana climbs 19-12, and “Breathe” by Jax Jones featuring Ina Wroldsen moves 24-14.

15.  Justin Timberlake – “Filthy”

The lead single from Justin Timberlake’s new album is not quite what the pre-release promotion might have led you to expect.  The album is called “Man of the Woods”.  There’s a YouTube trailer where he talks about being inspired by where he came from, and mountains, and snow, and stuff like that.  The track listing includes “Man of the Woods”, “Morning Light”, “Flannel”, “Montana”, “Livin’ Off The Land”, and “Breeze Off The Pond”.  And the lead single is… something closer to “Sexyback”.  It’s pretty good, though.  It’s a Timbaland production, and it’s growing on me the more I hear it.  There’s more going on in here than I first noticed.

“This is Me” by Keala Settle from the Great Showman soundtrack climbs 28-16, “My Lover” by Not3s moves 23-18, and the other Great Showman song, “The Greatest Show” by Hugh Jackman, Keala Settle, Zac Efron & Zendaya, climbs 40-23.

26.  Zac Efron & Zendaya – “Rewrite The Stars”

Hmm.  Okay, the Greatest Showman soundtrack really is doing better than your typical soundtrack album, and it’s not just the post-Christmas lull.  The album climbs to number 1 on the album chart this week – again the album chart is entirely dead otherwise, so no point recapping it separately.  Perhaps this song is more compelling in the context of the story; on its own, and without that context, it’s just very sound-tracky, and not immediately gripping.

“Bouff Daddy” by J Hus  climbs 29-27, “Never Be The Same” by Camila Cabello moves 37-29, and for some reason “Feel it Still” by Portugal. The Man, which has been floating around mostly outside the top 40 for months, somehow reaches a new peak of 32.

33.  Kendrick Lamar & SZA – “All The Stars”

This is the lead single from the Black Panther soundtrack album.  Kendrick Lamar is presumably familiar, while SZA’s previous chart appearance was as a guest on the Maroon 5 track “What Lovers Do”, which got to 12 last year.  Given that it’s Kendrick Lamar, this is kind of dull, to be honest.  It’s a B-side with a budget.

37.  Steel Banglez featuring Yungen, Mostack, Mr Eazi & Not3s – “Bad”

This week’s UK rap collaboration – and better than most, even if the 2017 steel drum preset is getting another outing, and the video is decidedly uninspired.  Steel Banglez is the producer, and this is his first artist credit on the top 40.

38.  Dua Lipa – “IDGAF”

A seventh single from her debut album?  Normally this would be scraping the barrel, but the strike rate of potential hit singles on that album was remarkably high.  This is another really strong single.

You don’t need me to tell you what IDGAF stands for, right?  Right?

40.  Cardi B featuring 21 Savage – “Bartier Cardi”

Finally, we have the less daytime-radio friendly end of Cardi B’s music.  This is from the brand namecheck school of rap, which has never done much for me, but she’s got presence, and the beat is nicely ominous.  The title really ought to be “Cartier Cardi”, but that would have raised licensing issues…