Meanwhile, back on the charts…

1.  Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber – “I Don’t Care”

Three weeks.  Let’s see, what is there still to say about this…  Well, it’s the second number one single with this title, the first being Cheryl Cole’s song from 2014.  Predictably, “I Don’t Care” is an oft-used title.  Other top 40 “I Don’t Cares” belong to Fall Out Boy (2008), Ricky Martin (2005), Shakespears Sister (1992), Los Bravos (1966) and Liberace (1956).

The entire top 4 is static, but that’s partly because Lil Nas X isn’t giving up without a fight, and he’s narrowing the gap – it’s entirely possible he could yet get back to number one for a second run.

9.  Ed Sheeran featuring Chance The Rapper & PnB Rock – “Cross Me”

The second (secondary?) single from “No 6 Collaborations Project” is a bit further from Ed Sheeran’s familiar formula, though it’s still a fairly typical piece of pop/R&B.  That vocal hook is pretty good, though.  This is Chance The Rapper’s fifth UK hit single, all of which have been as a guest rapper.  PnB Rock is a new name for the chart, though – he’s a rapper from Philadelphia who’s had a couple of hit albums in America, but hasn’t previously had any impact over here.

17.  NSG – “OT Bop”

The follow-up to the top ten hit “Options” from earlier in the year.  Not sure this is as commercial, but it’s a good record, and the video’s very slickly edited.  “OT” stands – apparently – for “Out Trapping”.

18.  Young Thug featuring J Cole and Travis Scott – “The London”

This is Young Thug’s first hit single as a lead artist, but he did feature on Camila Cabello’s number 1 “Havana” in 2017, and on Calvin Harris’s “Heatstroke”, the one that stalled at number 25 the same year.  “The London” here isn’t London, it’s the luxury hotel near Central Park.

“Carry On” by Kygo & Rita Ora climbs 28-26.  It’s taken it six weeks to get this far from a debut at number 39, but it’s still moving – very, very slowly.

29.  5 Seconds of Summer – “Easier”

The lead single from their fourth album, and 5 Seconds of Summer seem to have settled into a second career wind having respectable mid-table chart places.  This is… not bad at all, actually.  The band are completely unrecognisable as the Busted-style outfit they started out as, but I’d class this as quite acceptable radio-friendly pop.

“Late Night Feelings” by Mark Ronson featuring Lykke Li climbs 33-30.

31.  Jess Glynne & Jax Jones – “One Touch”

Jax Jones is competing with himself here, with the Europa single “All Day And Night” still up at number 11.  This one’s a bit generic, to my ear.

“3 Nights” by Dominic Fike climbs 39-33.

39.  Sigala & Becky Hill – “Wish You Well”

Becky Hill has turned up regularly as a guest singer ever since appearing on Oliver Holden’s number 1 “Gecko” back in 2014, but for some reason she’s never been able to launch a chart career in her own right; another attempt, “I Could Get Used To This”, came out a couple of weeks ago, entered at 67, and is currently at 94 and falling.  Still, the fact that she has a sustained career of any sort probably makes her the biggest success from the first season of The Voice UK (where she reached the semifinal).  Producers Sigala are, as ever, competent but uninspired.

On the album chart, Lewis Capaldi’s “Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent” gets a second week at number one.

4.  Morrissey – “California Son”

Morrissey’s politics – notably his support for the far right For Britain group – are an increasingly unavoidable source of disappointment and alarm for many people who grew up admiring the Smiths.  There have long been dubious elements to his songs, but they’ve become increasingly difficult for his fans to rationalise away.  We’re now at the point of train companies refusing to carry his adverts.  But he’s still having top five albums, and the track above is fine on its musical merits (the lyric is inoffensive, indeed largely bland).  Whether you can or should treat it purely on its merits as a song is another matter.

5.  “Rocketman – Motion Picture Cast Recording”

The soundtrack to the Elton John biopic.  Quite why the artist credit for this album is listed as “Motion Picture Cast Recording” is unclear, since – obviously enough – every song is sung by lead actor Taron Egerton, albeit with guests on a few tracks.

9.  The Amazons – “Future Dust”

Follow-up to 2017’s number 8 debut, so not much change.  It’s throwback rock, but of decent quality.  Speaking of which…

18.  Primal Scream – “Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll – The Singles”

It’s been sixteen years since the last Primal Scream greatest hits album, since when they’ve had… well, there was “Country Girl” in 2006, that got to number 5.  (Its video has not aged well, and it wasn’t very good at the time.)  Their highest-placing single, in fact – “Rocks” here only reached 7.  And the follow-up to “Country Girl” reached number 40, and that was it in terms of hit singles.  But they’ve kept making albums; the last one was in 2016.  So plenty of lesser-known Primal Scream singles on this one.

22.  The Waterboys – “Where the Action Is”

Surprisingly low, given that 2017’s “Out of All This Blue” made the top ten.  This is technically the Waterboys’ thirteenth studio album, though that depends on you not counting two solo albums by Mike Scott, even though the Waterboys are basically Mike Scott plus any backing band.  The Waterboys are often classed as folk, but the track above is more in the line of superior trad rock.  Decent micro-budget video, too, of the sort that works well on YouTube.  (I suspect it wouldn’t be so watchable on a full TV screen.)

25.  Flying Lotus – “Flamagra”

He’s a producer, and this is his third album to chart in the UK – coming nearly five years after 2014’s “You’re Dead”, which reached number 24.  The lead single above is a spoken word track featuring, of all people, David Lynch.  Though he’s (to put it midlly) better known for his films, Lynch does make music too – though his highest chart position in the UK was number 91 for 2011’s “Crazy Clown Time” album.  Calling this a lead single is pretty debatable too – it’s more of an album interlude released as a teaser – but that does the promotional job.  (If you insist on seeing a video for an actual song, here is one.)

27.  Sting – “My Songs”

One of those retrospective albums where someone covers their own songs – to rather less interest than I might have expected, given that his studio albums typically make the top 20.  The caption assures me that the performance above features the “My Songs” version of “Shape of my Heart”, but it’s not wildly different from the original, which missed the top 40 when released in 1993.