We’re settling back into the normal routine here.

1.  Ariana Grande – “7 Rings”

That’s two weeks, and it’s still doing over ten million streams.  I still don’t think much of it.  So let’s move on.  The rest of the top three is static – below that, “Giant” by Calvin Harris & Rag’n’Bone Man climbs 5-4, and “Don’t Call Me Up” by Mabel moves 11-7.  That overtakes “Finders Keepers” to be her biggest hit.

9.  J Cole – “Middle Child”

This is the first time J Cole has made the top 10 – his previous best was “KOD”, which reached number 17 last year.  It was also something of an old-style fanbase record, which vanished from the charts almost instantly, so we’ll see how this does.  The idea here is that he sees himself somewhere between the two major generations of rap, hence “middle child”.  The sample is from “Wake Up To Me”, an album track by the seventies girl group First Choice.  They had two hits in the UK in 1973 – “Smarty Pants” (9) and the wonderfully titled “Armed And Extremely Dangerous” (17).

“Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi climbs 13-10 to give him his first top ten hit.  “Options” by NSG featuring Tion Wayne edges up to 11, and “Going Bad” by Meek Mill featuring Drake moves 18-15, finally beating the number 17 peak of its entry week back in December.

25.  Dua Lipa – “Swan Song”

From the soundtrack of Alita: Battle Angel, hence what would otherwise be a prohibitively expensive video (complete with uncanny-valley Alita).  Judged purely as a song, I like this; it’s a bit overly serious, but clatters along nicely enough to get away with it.

“Leave Me Alone” by Flipp Dinero climbs 37-30, and “Saturday Nights” by Khalid climbs 34-31.

32.  Yungen featuring Dappy – “Comfortable”

You might remember Yungen reaching number 10 in 2017 with “Bestie”.  His only other appearance on the singles chart was on a Steel Banglez single later that year, but he was one of five credited artists on that, so who remembers?  More surprisingly, Dappy from N-Dubz extends his chart career into another year – his commercial glory days are long, long behind him by this point, but he did get a record to number 23 last year, and here he comes again.  The pairing makes sense for the song: it’s Yungen doing the usual “I came from nothing and now I am successful and everyone wants a piece” song, but with Dappy chipping in to remind him that it isn’t going to last.

34.  Little Mix featuring Ty Dolla $ign – “Think About Us”

A second single from the Little Mix album that came out back in November, with the obligatory guest rapper.  It’s a bit of a mess, to be honest.

38.  A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie featuring 6ix9ine – “Swervin”

This is his first appearance on the singles chart, but we had him on the album chart last Christmas when “Hoodie SZN” reached number 23.  I’m not sure why this track from the album is suddenly making the singles chart now – it’s the same mix as the album.  If you wanted an example of just how one-dimensional 6ix9ine is, his shouting is spectacularly out of place on this track.

40.  Kehlani featuring Ty Dolla $ign – “Nights Like This”

Ty Dolla $ign has never had a hit single in the UK under his own power, but he’s cropped up as a guest start four years running – and now twice in a single week.  Meanwhile, America’s Got Talent alumnus Kehlani Parrish (she was in a band called PopLyfe) gets her first hit single as lead artist; her only previous chart appearance was nearly two years ago, when she appeared on a Stormzy single that scraped the top 30.  The song’s okay, the sci-fi video is actually pretty good.

Over on the album chart… that bloody soundtrack album is not number one for once!

1.  Bring Me The Horizon – “AMO”

Bring Me The Horizon are an English rock band who’ve been releasing albums since 2006 but didn’t make the album top 40 until 2010.  Their last two albums made 3 and 2 respectively, so it’s been a long slow grind to get here.  The single above has been playlisted by Radio 1, but it still only got to number 42.

5.  Rudimental – “Toast To Our Differences”

Their first album not to reach number 1, but hey, it’s still top five.  The singles included last year’s number one “These Days”.

7.  The Backstreet Boys – “DNA”

It’s not just Westlife that can reform – American boy bands can do it too!  Although it turns out that technically they’ve never actually broken up since reforming after their hiatus in 2004 – they’ve just taken an inordinately long time to follow up 2013’s “In A World Like This”.  This is the Backstreet Boys’ fourth top ten album – the others are “Backstreet’s Back” and “Millennium” from their late nineties peak, and their 2001 greatest hits album.  The song above, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”, is nothing to do with the Elton John and Kiki Dee track, but it’s actually a lot better than I was expecting.  The lead credited songwriter is Stuart Crichton, who used to make dance records in the early 2000s under the anagram Narcotic Thrust (this was his big hit).

11.  Trevor Horn featuring the Sarm Orchestra – “Reimagines the Eighties”

Self-explanatory, really, though the list of guest stars is curious – Robbie Williams, Seal, All Saints, Matt Cardle…?  I can’t say the track above makes me want to hear the rest of the album.  This is the first time Trevor Horn has received an individual artist credit on the singles or albums chart, since producers didn’t get artist credits in his day.  Of course, he was also a member of the Buggles, best remembered for their 1979 number 1 “Video Killed The Radio Star” (though they had other hits too).

12.  Rival Sons – “Feral Roots”

They’re a Californian rock band and this is their highest placed album so far – marginally, since the previous two got to 14 and 13.

28.  Steve Hackett – “At The Edge Of Light”

Formerly of Genesis, Steve Hackett has a string of solo albums going back to 1975.  Prog lives.  The video above is… erm… well, it’s certainly something.  Boy, is it something…

And finally,

34.  Mabel – “Ivy to Roses”

We’ve had the single already.  What’s interesting here is that “Ivy to Roses” came out in October, missed the top 40 entirely, and now finally crawls into the lower reaches.  Albums don’t normally behave like this.