I mean, it’s not exactly a shock, is it?

1. Adele – “Easy on Me”
2. Adele – “Oh My God”
4. Adele – “I Drink Wine”

Adele’s fourth album, “30”, duly enters as her fourth number one, and would be dominating the singles charts if it weren’t for the three song limit. “Easy on Me” spends its sixth week at number one, while the two tracks that lead the pack are “Oh My God” and “I Drink Wine”.

“Oh My God” is a pretty obvious single. , and also has a video… well, kind of. I mean, it’s billed as an “official musiuc video”, but it’s blatantly a placeholder visualiser. There’s another companion video for another album track, “My Little Love”, made from largely the same footage. That one doesn’t chart, though, because who’s going to listen to a track called “My Little Love” when “I Drink Wine” is right there? To be honest, both of them are more album tracks than something you’d expect to find in the singles chart in 2021, but I’m all for a bit of variation at the top.

“30”‘s first week chart points are equivalent to 261,000 sales. That’s the biggest opening week of the year so far, by a margin of over 25%. It’s mostly physical sales, so I’ll be interested to see if it locks in at the top of the album chart for long.

5. D-Block Europe featuring Central Cee – “Overseas”
35. D-Block Europe – “Funny Bunny Nails”

“Overseas” is the release-week single from their album “Home Alone 2”, which enters at number 6. Not their highest position – 2020’s “The Blue Print – Us vs Them” got to number 2 – but it’s their fifth top 10 album in three years. D-Block Europe are nothing if not prolific. It’s the first time they’ve made the top 10 and it’s… well, it’s a D-Block Europe single. They’re all basically the same, and some are better versions than others. “Overseas” is one of the better ones. “Funny Bunny Nails” is… well, it’s an album track. Their other current single, “No Competition”, rebounds from 39-22 (having peaked at 18).

23. Anne-Marie & Niall Horan – “Everywhere (BBC Children in Need)”

This is a charity single for the BBC’s annual Children in Need appeal – rather underperforming, considering that it ought to have had support from Radios 1 and 2. Anne-Marie and Niall Horan had a number 13 hit earlier in the year with “Our Song”. This is a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere”, previously a number 4 hit in 1988, and their final major hit single. I’ve always liked the song, and this isn’t a particularly necessary version of it, shall we say. The only other version of the song to make the singles top 40 was a dance version by LnM Projekt, which reached number 38 in 2005.

24. Mariah Carey – “All I Want for Christmas is You”

Oh, come on! This chart covers sales and streams in the period 19-25 November! We’re on to this already?!

Alright, then. Mariah is back again, as she has been every year since 2007. Last year, this managed two weeks at number 1 in the run-up to Christmas.

28. Wham! – “Last Christmas”

This used to be one of those notorious singles that got stuck at number 2 (because of Band Aid), but it finally got a week at number 1 over the last New Year. It’s made the top 40 every year since 2011, and the top 10 every year since 2016.

That’s all we have for the Christmas records this time, though there’s a whole bunch of them waiting just outside the top 40.

39. Lost Frequencies & Calum Scott – “Where Are You Now”

You might remember Belgian DJ Lost Frequencies from his 2015 number 1 “Are You With Me”, one of those dance tracks built around a sped-up acoustic guitar song that were everywhere for a while. He’s not a one-hit wonder – the follow-up got to number 29 – but this is the first time we’ve seen him since. It’s an original song, but it’s along similar lines to the previous Lost Frequencies singles.

Calum Scott is a one-hit wonder – he’s the guy who came sixth in Britain’s Got Talent in 2015, and had a number 2 hit off the back of it with a baleful acoustic rendition of Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own”. It’s the first time we’ve seen him on the top 40 since then.

This track has been out for five weeks already, and it’s only just making the top 40. It climbs 11 places this week, though, so it has a chance – if it can withstand the flood of Christmas back catalogue material. (I don’t fancy its chances there.)

40. Imagine Dragons, JID & League of Legends – “Enemy”

Behold brand synergy. This is a track from the soundtrack to the Netflix series Arcane, which in turn is set within the universe of League of Legends. In fact, the chart compilers are listing League of Legends as an artist on this, which I initially thought must be a mistake but no, that’s how it’s listed on Spotify too. Anyway, the song’s actually not bad, and JID’s verse is great.

Not many climbers this week, but at least there are some big ones.

• “Do It To It” by Acraze featuring Cherish climbs 24-13, which suggests it’ll be around for the Christmas season.
• “ABCDEFU” by Gayle climbs 40-14, which I certainly didn’t see coming.
• “Ghost” by Justin Bieber climbs 32-29.

Over on the album chart, Adele’s “30” is number 1.

4. Oasis – “Knebworth 1996”

This is tying in with the documentary that had a cinema release a few months ago, which is why the video above has so many voice overs in it. Oasis’s two nights at Knebworth in 1996 were, at the time, the biggest shows in the UK since the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970; they were overtaken by Robbie Williams in 2003. Oasis have still yet to miss the top 5 with an album. (Unless you count the “Silver” and “Gold” singles boxes released in 1996, which technically qualified for the album. But I don’t.)

5. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – “Raise the Roof”

A follow-up to their collaboration from 2007, which reached number 2. Like that album, it’s a duets covers album.

Number 6 is D-Block Europe, so we move on to…

7. Elbow – “Flying Dream 1”

Hmm. Their last three studio albums all reached number 1. Still, top 10 in a busy week isn’t bad at all, especially as Elbow aren’t the commercial of bands these days. They do maintain a run of top 10 studio albums that goes back to 2008. The single’s definitely worth a play.

9. James Blunt – “The Stars Beneath My Feet (2004-2021)”

Greatest hits album, just in time for Christmas! His biggest UK hit remains his sole number 1 hit from 2005, above.

11. Bruce Springsteen – “The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concert”

This is the audio version of a concert film; the concert in question is the Madison Square Garden MUSE benefit concerts, which were a sort of festival. Apparently this is the first time the Springsteen set has been officially released in its entirety. The video above is certainly a great live performance.

12. Andre Rieu & The Johann Strauss Orchestra – “Happy Together”

Time for his annual release for the Christmas market. (I mean, he missed 2017, but generally it’s around this time of year.) Normally he makes the top 10, but it’s a busy week. There are no videos for this – weirdly, his YouTube channel has posted two videos in the last week, but they’re both promoting completely unrelated live DVDs. The track above is indeed an instrumental orchestral cover of the Turtles song. Many classical musicians are happy to pursue a mass audience, but most draw the line at a truck driver key change. Not this guy, and there’s a part of me that kind of admires him for not holding back.

16. The Darkness – “Motorheart”

Lower than their reunion album in 2019, but not by that much. I’d say that’s a respectable position for the Darkness at this point in their careers.

17. Michael Bublé – “Christmas”

You don’t say.

This album’s been out for ten years now, and he’s finally got around to making videos for some more of the tracks. no doubt to the delight of the music TV channels that have already shifted to 24-hour Xmas programming.

21. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – “Motown – A Symphony of Soul”

What better form in which to experience the hits of Motown? Well, the original, obviously.

27. Sting – “The Bridge”

You’d think Sting would be the sort of artist who’d reliably thrive on the albums chart in 2021 – he’s been around forever – but apparently not. It’s not a fluke – 2019’s “My Songs” landed at 27 too. This is relatively audience-friendly Sting, too; it’s been a while since he’s sounded this much like the Police.

34. U2 – “Achtung Baby”

Box set reissue, apparently. You’d have thought that “Achtung Baby” would do better than this, but there you are. It reached number 2 on release in 1991 – it had the misfortune to be released in the same week as “Dangerous” by Michael Jackson.