The bombardment of album releases continues, and the BBC complains about the chart rules.

1 Tones & I – “Dance Monkey”

Six weeks, and despite a wobble a little while back, it’s still growing. Maybe it’ll be one of those number ones that hangs around for ages due to the next wave of big releases holding off for Christmas.

2. Dua Lipa – “Don’t Start Now”

This is the lead single from her second album. She’s had two number ones before, “New Rules” and “One Kiss”, but entering at number two is pretty impressive in this day and age – in fact, her previous first-week best was number 15. “Don’t Start Now” is the sort of disco track that feels like it might have suited Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

It’s a long, long way down to the next new entry. On our way there, we pass “South of the Border” by Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello & Cardi B (up 5-4), “Lose Control” by Meduza, Becky Hill & Goodboys (up to 14 after two weeks at 15), “Hot Girl Bummer” by Blackbear (up 25-18) and “This is Real” by Jax Jones featuring Ella Henderson (up 30-19).

23. Krept & Konan, D-Block Europe & Ling Hussle – “Tell Me”
28. Krept & Konan & Wizkid – “G Love”

Krept & Konan’s parent album “Revenge is Sweet” enters the album chart at number 5, which is their fourth consecutive top 10 album. It doesn’t quite spawn the maximum three top 40 singles, but it does well enough – though the next highest track, “First Time”, is way down at number 63. These are the two tracks that got videos in the run-up to the album release, of course.

Wizkid, technically, was on the list of pure one-hit wonders, since his only previous top 40 appearance was as a credited guest on “One Dance” by Drake, the track that spent 15 weeks at number 1 in 2016. Ling Hussle is completely new to the top 40; she’s an R&B singer from London. The Wizkid track is better.

“Nice to Meet Ya” by Niall Horan climbs 34-26…

30. M Huncho featuring Nafe Smallz – “Thumb”

Not quite their first chart appearance – they were also on “Broken Homes”, credited to The Plug Featuring Nafe Smallz x M Huncho x Gunna, which managed a week at number 38 a year ago. And Nafe Smallz is also on Skepta’s “Greaze Mode”, which got to 18. The studiously anonymous M Huncho bills himself as “trapwave”, and you have to admire his mask-and-golfing-jumper combo.

31. AJ Tracey & Skepta – “Kiss and Tell”

And more UK rap. The best of this week’s crop, too. Very much the dominant singles chart genre for this year.

35. Cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK – “Break Up Bye Bye”

Well, this is a bit different. RuPaul’s Drag Race UK is airing on BBC3 (which at this point is essentially a branding used for streaming-exclusive BBC shows), but it’s been pushed pretty hard. This single is the result of a contest to make the best versions of a song part-written for them by MNEK; unusually, this means there are two different versions of this single, featuring the two different teams, and both credited for chart purposes as “Cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK”.

40. Poundz – “Opp Thot”

He’s a drill rapper, and the video is every bit as subtle as the graphic suggests. The title is not a compliment. We are in profoundly un-woke territory here.

On the album chart… well, the highest selling album of the week is the BBC’s charity release Children in Need: Got it Covered, which features songs being covered by the improbable likes of Jim Broadbent, Helena Bonham Carter and Jodie Whitaker. The obvious problem here is that the album chart is, more precisely, the artist album chart – it doesn’t do compilations, because if it did, it would be jammed up with the things. The rules are bent for soundtrack albums because they treated “original cast” as a single artist, even if different people appear on each track. Despite this, the BBC boldly tried to get the thing listed as an artist album, and it duly appeared on the midweek chart… only to be disqualified by the end of the week.

Apparently the BBC’s argument was that, for chart purposes, it should be viewed as an album by the BBC Concert Orchestra with assorted guest vocalists. But they’re not on every track either. So awkward as the whole thing is, the chart compilers seem to be right.

1. Jeff Lynne’s ELO – “From Out of Nowhere”

The fourteenth ELO album – unusually, the “Jeff Lynne’s” prefix doesn’t imply a dispute over the name, he’s just very keen for you to know that ELO is basically Jeff Lynne. This is ELO’s third number 1 album; the others were “Discovery” (1979) and “Time” (1981). The song above is undistinguished plod-rock, I’m afraid.

2. Michael Kiwanuka – “Kiwanuka”

The previous album got to number 1 in 2016, but hey, number 2’s not bad. It’s three straight albums in the top 4. Stick with the track above, as it changes direction completely 90 seconds in.

Number 5 is the Krept & Konan album already mentioned.

6. Bob Dylan – “Travelin’ Thru – The Bootleg Series 15”

Yet another in Dylan’s “may as well release it before anyone else does” rarities series. This 3-disc set contains recordings made in the late 1960s, including an entire album of half-finished sessions with Johnny Cash like the one above. If that’s the track they chose to make a video for, this really must be ultra-completist territory.

7. Aled Jones & Russell Watson – “Back in Harmony”

This is the follow-up to last year’s album “In Harmony”, which reached number 8. I don’t know why Classic FM albums like this bother to have promotional videos – is their market really on YouTube? Mind you, the video above is, er, certainly a thing.

20. Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra – “I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This”

Six places higher than last year’s album! The track above is pure lounge, and features a video of Jeff Goldblum at his most Austin Powers. It’s adorable.

25. REM – “Monster”

This was a number 1 in 1994, so it’s time for the 25th anniversary reissue. This is actually a six-disc set, including an entire album of new alternative mixes by the original producer, which don’t actually sound all that much different unless you’re comparing them directly.

27. Simple Minds – “Forty – The Best Of Simple Minds 1979-2019”

Forty track compilation, though I see that for some reason two of them are greyed out on Spotify. Apparently Spotify is happy to play me the full version of “Honest Town” from the original album but draws the line at the radio edit included on the compilation. In fact, looking through the track listing, there’s a heck of a lot of edits used on this album, which seems odd for a Best Of.

36. OFB – “Frontstreet”

Finally, more drill. OFB stands for Original Farm Boys; they’re from Broadwater Farm.

Tragically, “My First Album” by Peppa Pig did not make the top 40 albums, landing at number 88.