After weeks of me complaining about the singles chart being moribund, this is a bit more like it.

1. Harry Styles – “As It Was”

Not that it’s shifting Harry Styles, admittedly. But it was close. He holds on by the equivalent of 4,300 sales, and he’s lucky to do that. The CD single of “As It Was” was offered for pre-order a while back, intended for the hardcore fans. Due to production problems, it didn’t ship until this week, at which point the 9,000 odd pre-orders were added to his total. If it had shipped on time, those sales would have been credited to an earlier week, and he wouldn’t be number one.

2. Sam Ryder – “Space Man”

This is the UK entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. We have a tradition in this country of entering records we don’t like, don’t buy and don’t listen to, and then sulking when the Germans agree with us. This time we’ve entered a record we actually like, and it came second. And considering that nobody was beating Ukraine in a public phone vote in 2022, that’s pretty good.

Sam Ryder is a guy who started out doing covers on TikTok; he’s signed to a major label, but boldly chooses to launch his career by taking on a task which normally brands the hapless act as an irrelevance. It’s really quite good, and it’s nice to see that get rewarded.

6. Kendrick Lamar – “N95”
7. Kendrick Lamar featuring Blxst & Amanda Reifer – “Die Hard”
14. Kendrick Lamar – “United in Grief”

That’s a great video. I mean, it’s from the random barrage of images school of video making, but that’s how you do it.

Obviously, these are the maximum three tracks from his album “Mr Morale & The Big Steppers”, which enters the album chart at… at 2, actually, which is a surprise. His previous album “Damn.” also got to number 2, though he does have a UK number one – 2015’s “To Pimp a Butterfly”.

“N95” is the official single. It’s not quite his biggest hit in the UK – “All the Stars” reached number 5 in 2018, and he’s also guested on top 5 hits for Maroon 5, Sia and Taylor Swift. “Die Hard” is a relatively straight album track that would have been a safe choice of single. It’s the first hit for rapper Blxst, who just missed the top 40 with a single last year. Amanda Reifert gets her first solo top 40 credit, but she’s the lead singer of Cover Drive, who had three top 10 hits in 2012, including the number one “Twilight”. “United in Grief” is… an absolutely insane track to have in the singles top 40, so that’s excellent.

16. Tion Wayne & La Roux – “IFTK”

It’s a sample credit rather than a collaboration, based on La Roux’s 2009 number 2 hit “In For The Kill”. (Which is what the title of this track stands for.) They do show up for the video, though. La Roux followed up “In for the Kill” with the number one hit “Bulletproof” later that year, but the following single only got to number 27. Their 2014 sophomore album only managed to get its lead single to 63.

25. Post Malone featuring Roddy Ricch – “Cooped Up”

Yup, that’s a Post Malone single.

35. D-Block Europe – “Black Beatles”

Yup, that’s a D-Block Europe single. It has nothing to do with the Rae Sremmurd single of the same name that reached number 2 in 2016.

37. My Chemical Romance – “The Foundations of Decay”

Their first single in eight years, though you have to go back to 2010 for the last time they made the top 40 – when “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)” got to number 31. For a proper hit, you’re going back to “Teenagers” in 2007. Officially they broke up in 2013, but they’ve been doing reunion tours for a couple of years now, pandemic permitting.

38. Kalush – “Stefania”

The Eurovision winner. We don’t get much Ukrainian folk-rap in these parts, but “Stefania” did actually deserve to do well quite aside from the war. Kalush is a rap group; the artist credit used in the Eurovision Song Contest, “Kalush Orchestra”, is a side project with more folk music elements. However, the charts have Kalush as the credited artist, and that does indeed seem to be how it’s listed on streaming services, so fair enough.

The Eurovision Song Contest officially doesn’t allow political songs, but obvious metaphor is fine. Apparently this really was written as a song about his mother before the war, too. The video, filmed in devastated Ukrainian towns liberated from the Russians, was held back until after the contest.

40. Tom Grennan – “Remind Me”

This has bene climbing from the lower reaches since the end of March, so it’s been struggling to get momentum.

This week’s climbers are fewer in number, given the unaccustomed influx of new blood:

• “Green Green Grass” by George Ezra climbs 31-22.
• “Je M’Appelle” by Benzz climbs 34-26.
• And that’s it.

The ten (!) tracks leaving the top 40 this week are:

• “Balling” by Vibe Chemistry. Seven weeks in the top 40 without ever getting above 35. Quite an achievement.
• “Freaky Deaky” by Tyga & Doja Cat. Four weeks on chart, all of them between 36 and 38.
• “Down Under” by Luude featuring Colin Hay has been hit by the downweighting rule. It spent 19 weeks in the top 40, ten of them in the top 10, peaking at 5.
• “Thousand Miles” by the Kid Laroi. Entered at 21 and only lasted three weeks. A bit disappointing.
• “Anyone for You” by George Ezra, which got to 12 and spent 15 weeks in the top 40.
• “Dua Lipa” by Jack Harlow, which got a week at number 33 as an album track.
• “The Motto” by Tiesto and Ava Max, evidently hit by downweighting. It managed 18 weeks on the top 40 but could never get above 12.
• “Run” by Becky Hill & Galantis, another record triggering the downweighting rule. Eleven weeks on the top 40 without quite reaching the top 20.
• “The Heart – Part 5” by Kendrick Lamar, last week’s number 25, which will have been disqualified under the three song rule.
• “Light Switch” by Charlie Puth, which eventually managed 13 weeks on the chart, but never got past 25.

Over on the album chart…

1. Florence & The Machine – “Dance Fever”

Her fifth studio album, her fourth number one. The exception was its predecessor, 2018’s “High as Hope”, which got to number 2. There’s also an “MTV Unplugged” album that got to 27, but that doesn’t really count.

Kendrick Lamar is number 2, and…

5. The Black Keys – “Dropout Boogie”

Their eleventh studio album, their fourth consecutive top five place.

6. Bear’s Den – “Blue Hours”

Their joint highest position, alongside 2016’s “Red Earth & Pouring Rain”.

19. The Smile – “A Light for Attracting Attention”

That’s surprisingly low, considering that the Smile are a Radiohead side project – it’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, plus drummer Tom Skinner.

24. The Rolling Stones – “Live at the El Mocambo”

1977 live album recorded in a Toronto club. One of those cases of a record that’s so widely bootlegged that you might as well just release the damn thing yourself.

38. N-Dubz – “Greatest Hits”

Um… okay. This 2011 collection only managed a week at number 38 the first time round, but I guess people have been prompted to stream a few of the songs by the announcement of their reunion tour. Maybe?