After a lengthy summer logjam, we’re starting to see some turnover in the top half of the singles chart. But only starting.

1. LF System – “Afraid to Feel”

That’s seven weeks. It does have a serious challenge this time, with “B.O.T.A. (Baddest of them All)” by Eliza Rose & Interplanetary Criminal climbing from 10 to 2, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this turns out to be it.

15. Nicki Minaj – “Super Freaky Girl”

This is the lead single from her 15th album, and counting guest appearances, it’s her 40th top 40 hit. And yes, it’s come to this, someone else has decided that enough time has passed to get away with sampling “Super Freak” by Rick James, the track that formed the basis for “U Can’t Touch This”. It’s… Nicki Minaj doing the cartoon version of Nicki Minaj, I guess? And that’s maybe what people want from Nicki Minaj at this point in her career, since she hasn’t placed a solo single this high since “Anaconda” back in 2014.

29. Cian Ducrot – “All For You”

Irish singer-songwriter getting his debut hit – he doesn’t actually live there any more, but this was a number one in Ireland. We’re firmly in the heartfelt wailing ballad category here. Fine if you like that sort of thing. It originally came out in April, when it failed to make the top 40, but apparently TikTok has belatedly stumbled upon it. As a result it’s also being re-promoted, and there’s an alternative version out this week with a guest appearance by Ella Henderson – but the original remains the official lead version.

31. Nicky Youre & Dazy – “Sunroof”

This has been floating around the lower reaches of the chart since the start of June, though it was first released in America last December. Because that’s the time to release an obvious summer record, right? It’s been a top 10 hit in America and Canada, but its performance in Europe has been much more patchy.

That’s it for new entries, but the climbers are busier than usual:

• “B.O.T.A. (Baddest of Them All)” by Eliza Rose & Interplanetary Criminal climbs 10-2.
• “Crazy What Love Can Do” by David Guetta, Becky Hill & Ella Henderson climbs 7-5. Guetta and Hill both had a top 3 hit last year, but Henderson hasn’t been this high since 2015.
• “I Ain’t Worried” by OneRepublic climbs 9-6.
• “Ferrari” by James Hype & Miggy Dela Rosa climbs 17-9, so Hype finally gets a second top 10 hit to go with his 2017 debut hit “More Than Friends”.
• “Stay With Me” by Calvin Harris featuring Justin Timberlake & Halsey climbs 13-10. This looked at first to have stalled out of the gate, peaking at number 22 in its second week, but it’s rallied and made its way up to the top of the chart after all. It means Harris has now got two singles from his current album into the top 10 (not bad for someone whose singles chart career tracks back to 2007). Justin Timberlake and Halsey both haven’t been in the top 10 since 2018.
• “Bad Habit” by Steve Lacy climbs 15-12, continuing a slow but steady climb.
• “No Excuses” by Bru-C climbs 18-14.
• “Big City Life” by Luude & Mattafix climbs 24-16.
• “History” by Joel Corry & Becky Hill climbs 20-18 in its second week.
• “Hot in it” by Tiesto & Charli XCX climbs 29-24. This is another one which looked to have stumbled after moving 29-27-30-33, but it’s back on the climb. There’s a proper music video for it now, though I’m not convinced it’s actually an improvement on the set of TikTok clips they were using before. The song concept here is “I am dressed up for a night out and I look awesome”, and I think the crowd-sourced angle sold it better than the arch irony. Anyway, number 24 matches the peak of “Beg For You”, Charli XCX’s previous hit.
• “For My Hand” by Burna Boy featuring Ed Sheeran climbs 30-25, after spending five weeks hovering in the 30s. The dream of a single week of a top 40 without Ed Sheeran recedes once more.
• “Snap” by Rosa Linn climbs 28-26.
• “Under the Influence” by Chris Brown (a TikTok unearthing, remember) climbs 38-32.

The three records leaving the top 40 are:

• “Hold This” by HSTikkyTokky & J Fado, so while a fitness-based following on Instagram may get you into the top 40, you’ll only get a single week at number 31.
• “Seventeen Going Under” by Sam Fender finally gives up the ghost after 36 non-consecutive weeks in the top 40, peaking at number 3 back in January – it’s dropped out of the top 40 once before, though, only to fight its way back to number 15. That’ll probably be it this time, though.
• “Glimpse of Us” by Joji, which peaked at number 12 but gets hit by the accelerated chart ratio rule in its tenth week out.

On the album chart:

1. Kasabian – “The Alchemist’s Euphoria”

I was thinking this sounded quite promising until he started rapping. Anyway, this is Kasabian’s sixth number one out of seven studio albums – the odd one out is their self-titled 2004 debut, which got to number 4. It’s their first album since frontman Tom Meighan was kicked out in 2020 after pleading guilty to assaulting his fiancée; guitarist Sergio Pizzorno has taken over as singer.

4. Pale Waves – “Unwanted”

90s indie guitar pop, really. It’s their third album, landing only one place short of the second; all three made the top 10.

23. Coldplay – “Music of the Spheres”

Re-entering on the back of their UK tour, presumably. There’s no other reason for it.

26. The Dualers – “Voices From the Sun”

London ska/reggae band. They’ve been around for ages, but somewhat randomly got their 2019 album “Palm Trees and 80 Degrees” up to number 11 despite never making the album top 100 before. They did, however, have a couple of singles that just missed the top 20 in 2004/5.

28. Danger Mouse & Black Thought – “Cheat Codes”

Acclaimed collaboration with a ton of guests (including the late MF DOOM). It’s kind of great. Danger Mouse has produced plenty of hit albums, and he was a member of Gnarls Barkeley, but this is only his third top 40 album credit as a solo artist – the others were collaborations in 2010 and 2011 with Sparklehorse and Daniele Luppi. Black Thought hasn’t had a solo chart credit before, but he’s the frontman of the Roots, who have had a couple of albums in the top 40.

29. Erasure – “Day-Glo (Based on a True Story)”

That’s very low for an Erasure album, but as best as I can figure out it’s some kind of largely instrumental reworking of musical motifs from its predecessor “The Neon”, which got to number 4. So a side project, in other words.